Lady Marjorie's Love

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 31 January 1913, Page 2

Lady Marjorie's Love

(OUR SERIAL

By Carl Swerdna Author of -To the Uttermost Fartli- i»,," "A v Uere Ceremony," "A Fight for Honoar," Etc.

\ CHAPTKK 11 . ; (Contnvied.)"'' | ( ! ••What a great, gloomy, echoing \ •'place, Robert!" she had exc I luwruc € "And so dark and dusty! Den t >o» v think soy .Makes ono think ot he. t time when they P«t J "^ hes 011 L . 1 iloor and ate with thou- lingers But y that is the fault T always hnd with tho.se old houses that it is the tashion , to rave over; they really all want I pulling down and building m a respect- s able, niodern way. Very Rocking ot v me, I dare say, hut then I haw posit- t ivelv no end lor what is called the | picturesque in architecture, and no taste for it. I like a clean new .house j very much better than a musty, lusty 1; old*'one. And those are rvnlly ancev- t tral portraits. I supposed W Imt n frights!" . 1' j | ({ ,rd Marlingford. at that tinu verv much in love with his handsome, j, bright young wife, and always most v polite and subservient to her, luwi s isomi'how swallowed down Ins feelings r and discreetly held his tongue; bu v Marjorie in her short white dress, with i her brown hair tumbling down to .lier ; waist ■clinging fondly, and little jealously to hor father's other n, ) n ' j had rasped with resentment and indignation. She had said nothing, lor . ucthing could possibly have expressed , her feelings, but she had pulled. hei hand away and stood still, darting f wrathful, annihilating glances after g the countess' handsome figure, and , feeling that the ever-swelling lump in { her throat must choice her. The eail did not at all understand it, and, 1 beiii'v a timid man and a lover ct ■) quietude, rather feared for the future, when presently, missing his daughter 3 and coming to look for her, lie -found c her crouched in a comer of one cf the huge large couches, sobbing and ciy- ] inc passionate]v and lorlornly. iMaijjorie had never explained the reason ] of her outburst— perhaps because her i father had been afraid to ask for it , but she had never forgiven her step- ( mother. G+ill + hev bad got on together very , well, almost harmoniously, although ] two creatures with less in common it 1 would have been difficult to find. The i Honorable Fenella Brave: in bestow- j ing her handsome self and her. hand- ) so,rne fortune upon Robert. Earl Mar- ■ lingford. had been actuated by no sen- , tiinental motive. Indeed she had' ( .never had a sentimental motive m her , life ,Sh.e had not married, before she' was thirty-one—because she enjoyed her liberty; she married now bei cause she was tired of single blessedliesS, and was willing to try a change. As for her husband, she liked him—especially liked iliim indeed as almost , the handsomest and best-bred man of her acquaintance —but still she had hesitated with a good deal of doubt between him and another 'suitor who was quite as handsome, a.nd quite as well-bred, whom she perhaps liked rather better, but who was not so rich, and who would have presented her' with the ehcumberence of four stepchildren instead of one. So the i scale had weighed down ill favor of bis lords:hio, and she became Lady Ma-r----lingford. As for feho title which her marriage gave her, she did hot value it. Miss. Braye had early absorbed some ideas generally -regarded a-s extreme,-. and a. strong contempt for her own rank., and class—at times •somewhat ostentatiously insisted upon and declaredhad been foremast and strongest among them. As for reconciliing the consequent manifold incongruities of her existence, it is possible that the countess had never troubled herself to £j.y—woman, inconsistency did riot trouble her. As for her other qualit- ( ies, she was always admirably kind . to the poor, who thanked her for and i .rather resented her kindness; ail excellent mistress to her servants, who found nothing to say against..,, ,]nit. ! nearly disliked her. A handsome, cold, fair woman, qlways marvellously ' even -tempered and by no means un- . kindly, filling -so . meritoriously all tliose-varie#t'M!iitioits_ of life, it was ; surely rather odd-that no one did love I the countess but the countess iherself. As .for ford, a very terrific, and venomous-. 1 tougued old lady, resident for the greater part of the year in Ireland, ' she materially hated her daugjiter-in- ' law. There had .merer been even a , pretense of cordiality upon her part ' since it had l>een accepted that the •carl's'■'•second marriage would be childless—a disappointment almost as bitter to hor as to (her even occurred to Marjorie liow ly «-yid intensely her grandmother find father had longed for the birth of -an« Heir to Oastle Marling. Certainly , - -Such an ovent would have stricken tn® m girl dumb. The estate was not entailp ed; as soon as she had been old enough to understand anything-she had underb, stood that at some far-off distant day, relegated vaguely into the dim future, the must be its mistress. The faintest idea that anything could possibly ; fiappen to.pj'event it had never assailed her. Marjorie stalled-- across to tha foot : of .tfc shallow oaken staire' tJial

:d to tiio shadowy gallery above, and tinsed there doubtiully. She >\a-> ired, and when she reached the top t' the staircase it was quite a. little ,-alk to her room. Should she ta;;e ho trouble to tidy herself, or present ■crself i" the dining room just as she ,-iis, leavin gher hair tidy or tho reorse just as it happened? It could ,<:t matter; there would he no mu> hut diella, for since her lather had been » delicate he seldom left In.- nK,ir..? ntil dinner time, and not always hen Fenella. would object to rough air and object to a generally tumbld appearance, but then Fenella yb-:-cted to many things. Marjorie sent or hat living onto a table with a dexerous spin, and turned toward tho no of three draped archways which <d to tho dining room—an archway t the top of a few wide steps who-se eavily carved and curved balustrades ,-ere nearly broad enough for ordinary tail-cases themselves. But she had ot advanced a pace when the curtain •as pulled aside by a white hand and ho countess herself appeared, looktig down at her. "Did you not hear the bell, Marorie? "VVhcre have you been?" Her clear voice was not at all angry —it never was, but it was a little cold, , littlo imperious, and decidedly tho oice of one who expteced that her [uestion should at once receive an anwer With the easy docility of habit ,nd the brevity of carelessness the ;irl gave it. . "I'vo been out with .Tack in t.ie rood," she said. "And I didn t hear lie hell. Am I late?'' "So late that luncheon is finished, t was earlier than usual, that I might >ffer some to Mr Chadburn, the gentemail who has been with youi atlier." "Oh!" The girl's sauey red upper ip gave its favourite little disdainful ■ lW itch—t twitch in this case at once nightily expressive and perfectly unlerstood. Marjorie haci no patience vith Fenella's ideas and fads, and she lever pretended to. have any. She lad long ago made up her mind that ,hey were appropriate ideas —ideas to jo expected from a woman who in cold )lood had actually 'suggested such a lorror as the pulling down of Castle Marling. At present her little grimice meant that Mr Chadburn miglit ?.ither have gone without lunch altoTether or have procured it for himself ivhen he got back to Upton Wafers. "Oh!" she said. "Xo, I didn't hear \ tho hell, Fenella, and I didn't know that it was late. It- doesn't matter. [ can have some lunch by myself it they have taken it away, 'and if they have Alice might bring me some. Do you know how the earl i.s now? He seemed so odd this morning. I told you, you know. Ido hope that horrid man hasn't tired you!" This was a return slap for the lunch which Mr Chadburn had luid and which he should not have had. The countess coming slowly down the steps in her usual gracefully, deliberate fa-shtj'ii, holding the train of her .handsome ami rustling dross in her ■white hand—her robes always were handsome and rustling and rich—did not at all change the placid expression of tho fair, calm face.