Lady Marjorie's Love

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 10 February 1913, Page 2

Lady Marjorie's Love

(OUR SERIAL

By Carl Swerdna Author of "To the Uttermost Farth-in R ," "A Merc Ceremony," "A .Fight A ' for Hoao U r," Etc.

• LMAVTEIt V. (Continued.) ! At another thliTshe »uight lmvo , iecll oven more angry than she as ilt his enforced companionship, '"V ,i,J bvMiuide another eilort to get Yd .:f him, '-t "Ircudy Her thougats „ C 1 .rone hack to her lather and u *'hat was , that ho wanted to tell her wh.cl Uied that he did not want to t Eenella, and which Mr l°*™«\ ' said she ought to know? She v.o eo to l.i». directly and Ine a V-dvn to present hnnseli to tlie ,dthe hail by the way she >ad It ; t , ;m(1 HS s , lt . mossed its threshold stopped short, in an ,nsta»t_the . - ~ant of her meting the awed, se.md i'. r .os that were turned toward hoi, although they were only servants laces-an icv hand seemed to clutch. „t li. T throat, the whole current ol he- life U> pause. She tried to a.sk a question, hut it died away inarticulate upon her dry, stiffened lips. She had no need to ask it, no need to ,is- , ten to the faltered words that answer- ■ cd her; in a Hash slie had realised tho jtniLh, the terrihle someting wlueh sue luul known would happen one day. She Clasped her hands with one wading ! cry of desolation, and kuew horse'l an prphan and fatherless. CHAPTER VI. The blinds were still down at Castle Marliii"- The funeral was over; the 1 last Earl of Marlingford lay in the 1 great family vault in the green depths of tho park, which had last been openUd fifteen years ago to receive the body of his young wife, but, although I the"night had passed and tho morning 1 come, no one had attempted to let : light into the somber, stately old ' rooms. Her ladyship had given no 1 orders, as there, would be time enough for that by and by, the servants in authority said. Tho reaction, the , hysterical return to cheerfullness I which so generally marks tho day foli lowing a. funeral had not taken place iat the castle. Men and women clus- . tered in corners, whispered to each. ' other mysteriously, with wondering and uneasy faces. .Something unknown, threatening, was in the very air, vaguely eloquent of disaster. More than one had made excuses to ; cross the hall, that they might glanco ' cautiously and curiously at the eur- ' fain-shrouded door of the library, rendering what it was that her ladyship and Mr Petherick could be discussing there alone.

any more, I think. Did you -ay the countess was in the library?" "Yes, inv ladv. With Mr Petherick." . '•Mr Petherick.?" Some faint surprise appeared in her face as. she echoed the lawyer's name. "Why should he como here to-day, I wonder:- 1 lie j was hero yesterday. .1 suppose it is because I did not see him then. It 1 is business, of course, but .1 wish he j had let it wait a little longer.'' All this she had wearily murmured half 1 aloud t:> herself, but now at the door she turned and addressed the maid. ".I'm so wretchedly confused, Alice, my head aches so that I don't know what has really happened and what has not. Mr Hligh has left, I think?" "Oh. yes, my lady! The dogcart took him to the station in time for the twelve-o'clock train.'' "That is what he said when [ saw him lust night. I remember now." Marjorie murmured wearily, leaving the.room. Worn out and stupilied by her sorrow, she had. in truth, not felt sure but that her last night's short interview with her lover'had not been part of some distempered dream. She went downstairs with Jack at her side, slowly and heavily, feeling that her black dress hung about her like a weight to drag her down. Only once before since tlie death bad she left her rooms, and that was when she had crept noiselessly down the stairs at midnight, clinging cold and Iremb.ling to the hand of the pitying housekeeper,'to enter a solemn room shrouded awfully in black to take a last look at the rigid, placid face of her dead father. A vivid memory of that sharpened wax-white face smiling in snch a cruel serenity came upon her as she passed the door of the room that had been bis sanctum, and made her shudder. Sho hurried on, reached the library, and went in.

Light had been admitted bore, and the afternoon sunshine streamed in at the great square western window brilliantly. Putting her hand to her dazzled eyes again, Marjorie saw the two figures whose faces turned toward her as she went in—Mr Petherick standing, the countess seated, a stately handsome figure in the he-ivy mourning weeds, in an instant there flashed across '-he girl, with a'little tip-ill of amusement and anger -the knowledge th.ti Fonolla. would like herself in black. That hei stepmother „w.-;.i looking,-.i; well as so handsome, jaie, disturbed, angry, sh? hrd not . time to see. The lawyer came forward, took her hand, kindly patted it in his own, and led her to a chair. I . "You must forgive me for having troubled you to come down, my dear. I am sorry to see that you are sea reply fit for it. But the fact is Lady Marlingford and T have been having a conversation, and we agree that it will be better for vou to hear what it has been, about."

j Marjorie was not there; she lay en a sofa in her darkened room, motionless and mute. Since the shock of her father's death tho girl had been like ■one stupih'ed ; beyond the one crushing, dreadful fact, she 1 id seemed to ; realise noHiing and care for nothing. She had scarcely ask n d a question-, even when told of the circumstances of her father's death, but bad listened with a dull apathy that seemed emotionless. Not that there was much

to tell. The earl, in the midst of a conversation with his wife, had dropped back gasping on his nillows, and .was dead before the startled servants could respond to their mitres' summons on the bell. Terribly sudden, appalling even, as the death was, it ; was the death which had long ago boon prophesied bv his doctors as the probable end of Lord' Marlingford. Since | his yoirb 'be heart h°.d been all'eeti-e —affected in a wav that science could not help and which time could only render worse. As he had died now he had. been liable to die at any day in tho last twenty years. If there was anything to marvel at it was that, with such a. .sword over his head and ever ready to fall, he had yet lived to complete his fifty-second year. The door of Marjorie's room opened softly and some one came gently on tiptoe to tho sido of her sofa-. Jacksat up with a slight remonstracory growl, but his mistress, although she slightly moved her bead upon the pillow, did not open her eyes. Tlie movement had been enough to show thft she was not sleeping, and the intruder —her own maid —spoke:

| "I beg your pardon, my lady, but her ladyship sent me to say would you come down to the library, please?" J "What do you say, Alice?" Marjorie sat up, putting her hand to her eyes, for the brilliant shaft of sunlight | which pierced through tho slats of the closed blind dazzled her. "The countess wants me?" she asked vaguely. I "Yes, if you please, my lady. Jf you were not asleej) would you go down at once ; I was to say," returned 1 tho girl. "Yes, very well." Marjorie rose slowly, with a. shiver as though she were cold, and stood apathetically still (■while Alice's deft fingers straightened I tho tumbled folds of her black dress. I The paleness of her small face made her brown eyes look pathetically big, I dark, and .wistful;" her rosy coloring, her brightness, and dimples wore gone. a She shook her head when the maid i would have arranged.her,tumbled air, : and pulled herself away. ) "Ob, never mind, Alice! What does it matter?" she said wearily. "1 don't care how I look. I never shall care