Lady Marjorie's Love

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 7 February 1913, Page 2

Lady Marjorie's Love

(OUR SERIAL

By Car! Swerdna Author of "To tho Uttermost Fartb, ing," "A Mere Ceremony," "A Fight for Honour," Etc.

(HAPTF.R V. (Continued.) "Arc you going out, Marjorie?" The high, clear voice made, the girl turn with a shirt. Lady'Marlingford. sweeping through the hall on her way to pay lu>r daily visit to the '.housekeeper's room, has pasel close beside •her. . "1 c!-;n't know, Fenella." Sho glanced out at tilt' brilliant sunshine doubtfully. "It looks lovely, but my head, aches a little, and ['in afraid I shallfind it rather hot too, perhaps." She reflected that it sometimes pleased her stepmother to make her useful in the morning over the eook's bill or the housekeeper's accounts, in cheeking and inspecting which her ladyship was a dragon. "Perhaps you want me," she hazarded. "l)r> you-'"

She stopped herself in the middle of !a laughing account of Jack's latest j cat chase-—a topic which always amused the curl—and glanced with, a guilty start toward tho door. I "Oh, dear, 1 quite forgot!" she said remorsefully. "Fenella told me we , were to be sure not to talk, father, 'and her I am, like a careless little : wretch, chattering away as if you were quite well. I'm so sorry, <lear!" | "Tho countess told you we were not to talk? Did she? bid slier" The 'earl sank back upon the cushions; a 'faint red flush appeared in his hollow cheeks. "Why did she say that. Marjorio? What, made her say it? What —what did she suppose we were going to talk about?" 1 Me said it with an eager clutch on her hand, and with a sudden, fierce ' excitement and agitation in his rnari- ' nor and look which to the girl wvvo so inexplicable as to be alarming. Remembering the countess' warning, and recalling many of tho similar import which she had heard old Doctor Barlow utter, she was almost terrified, feeling more guilty than ever, and hastily tried to sooth him.

"Want you:' Oh, dear, no, child!" The countess' cold blue eyes rseanned the pale little face disapprovingly. "How abominably washed out you look!" she said. "Really 1 never saw a .girl so entirely dependent upon color as you are. So you have a headache Y You certainly look like it. You are waiting for Air Bligh, perhaps?" "For Loftus?" Marjorio looked at tho countess wonderingly. not at 11 understanding why so unnecessary a question should have been put to her. "Of course not, Fenella!" she said simply. "He is going back to town by the first through train this morning—must have started long ago. He bade me gor.d-by last night. I told you so." j "Oh!" The countess ismiled and I paused. "Since you have not goho out," she said, "you had better go to your father. He was asking for you just now." "The earl was?" Marjorio dropped her hat, (lushing quickly. "Oh, Fenella, and you told me at breakfast that .1 was not to go to his room!" "Yes, but now he wishes to see you. It would be far better for him to lie quiet, ill my opinion, so pray try to chatter less than usual, my dear. You must not stay with him long, i am coming back to sit with him a.gain as soon as I have finished with Mrs Tring." "Oh!" The girl's, face paled and lengthened again. For Lady Marlingford to spend much of her time with her invalid husband wa,s a. new thing, and surely could not bear but one in- ] terpretation. "Oil, you think ho is ill—worse, Fenella?" she cried, frightt ened in an instant. "Yes, T don't think ho is so well as yesterday," the countess returned calmly. "So long an interview with Mr Petheriek was too much for him, just as I feared. Well, you will be careful not to excite him, Marjorio — mind that!"

"Why, nothing, father! We never do talk about anything in particular, do we? She only meant that J was not to gabble away and excite you, dear," she said coaxingly. "Oh, 1 can feel your heart beat! She will scold mo awfully if she thinks it is my fault. There, there, doar! Hush." Kneeling beside him, she tenderly encircled his head with her arms, resting her own-mass of brown waves upon his gray hair. It was a favourite attitude of hers when the countess was not by. Kissing his forehead, she found that a hot moisture had sprung out upon it, and took her handkerchief to wipe it away. As she did so her father caught her hand in hi.s and held it tight.

1 "Marjorio, did you—did you s-.u.y thati the countess was coming?" "Presently, clear." She looked at him, puzzled by the'pressure on her hand, by his hoarse, jerky whisper. "She has gone to Mrs Tring now; i,he would come afterward, she said. Do you want her, then? Shall 1 fetch her?" "Xo, no, no!" Ho clasped her hand tighter, "f —I want to speak to you. Marjorio. 1 want to speak to you, little girl. I have .something to Tell you. Petherick says you must lciow. But not now! By and by whon you come back from your walk. Kiss me, my dear, and run away now. Hush!" He feebly pushed her away, uttering tho last' word with such a. piteous look of entreaty and terror as the door opened, and the countess came in that Marjorie was petrified. Fenella. bad always had her own way; it had been a. sly, little secret joke between Marjorio and her father that she always must have it, but the girl had never seen him look as he looked t rv —as though he were frightened. I'er face of utter consternation must. h:.ve betrayed her inevitably had Lady Marlingford's eyes been turned in l.ur dire-ction. Rut, as luck would have it, the countess was consulting her watch, and saw nothing else. Mariorio escaood from the room, not waiting f'>r her word or two of cool dismissal. •

I Marjorie hardy heard her; she was I hurrying away to her father's room I with -a seared face. Outside tllio door i she was obliged to pause, breathing I fast and pressing her hand upon her [ throat. Rut for thus trying to steadyherself, .she felt that her first words would have .been choked, with a scb, which would have frightened her father and disgraced hor with hor stepmother hopelessly. Lady Marlingford had a contempt for tears, for emotional outbreaks and displays of all kinds. The girl resolutely conquered the paroxysm,, softly tapped., opened the door, and went in

j The beautiful, somber, old room j wa % s in its usual perfect order, and the large chair filled with cushions which Lord Marlingford-had used of late stood in its accustomed spot, but ho was not in it. He was lying upon a. sofa, where the heavy curtain of a ; window shielded him from the light, j Either the shadow of tho curtain vis very heavy, or tho sharp, refined fei- ! tures of his handsome faoe looked . sharper and paler even than they I had looked last night. | '"Who is it?" asked the earl, in a thin, faint tone. He turned hi.s gray ' head a little —he was very gray—-hut [ did not open his eyes. .•' ''Only Marjorie, father!" His worn, ' white face had almost choked her - again, but she managed to answer i clearly in her soft little voice : "Yon wanted me, Fenella .said." J.'Wanted you? So I did. How ;,ro you, my dear - ?" Ho put up his hand. Marjorie took it, kissed him, and then knelt down at his side, caressingly holding the long, pale fingers to her warm cheek. "Oh, I am all right! I always am, you know," she said cheerfully, al- ' though instead of making such a valiant efFont she would, a thousand times rather have burst out crying. "It's I who ought to ask that," she said. \ looking at him with anxious eyes. ' "Y'ou—you look so pale, dear!" Did he? Oh, that was her fancyit must be her fancy, her father answered, smiling at her; and then he 1 raised himself on his cushions and asked hor what she had done with herself yesterday, and what news Loftus had brought her from town, and called and patted Jack —a model of canine meekness and discretion in his presence—-and was altogether so cheerful and talkative that his daughter, accustomed of late to see him sileiit and depressed, almost forgot her panic and Ids wan, exhausted nir.