Lady Marjories Love

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 12 February 1913, Page 3

Lady Marjories Love

i (oi r ser:al

By Carl S w erdna Author of "To the Uttermost Farthing," "A Mere Ceremony," "A Figlit for Honour," Etc.

j CHAPTER. VI. (Cjrii.i.nupcl.) 1 "My dear chid, I am sorry to csay ' iti s what j really mean," Mr IMberiek answered sadly. ; "Ignite poi;:'!" she repeated slowly, 'in. 1 "Quito poor!" With a .change of expression she glanced aside at the countess. "Not- 1* enolla .'" she said 1 questioningly. "It makes no ddlerenco to her. does it ? She is not poor, too!-" The counters' ha.ndsome face set into harder lines; she deliberately .looked away from the girl, biting her lips. The dead man's daughter hadfound no. word or thought of reproach for him, hut his wife's resentment and anger was hitter and deep. She had not been .sparing in her expression of them to the lawyer, and he saw that she would, not .speak. He did so 'himself. ! "Jt makes a difference to Ladv Marlingford: certainly," lie said —"a great difference, but fortunately it does not make hep poor. She has her ;.\vn tortime and her marriage settlement. Neither could be touched lor your ; father's liabilities, and both are her own still." '•L'm glad tf that." Speaking mechanically and yet with an involuntary breath of relief. Marjoiie looked at the lawyer again. once more with that pitiful, 'bewildered smile. "So I'm poor," she said slowly —"quite poor! I 'have lost everything but Castle ■Marling—everything but my home?" ) Mr Petherick did not answer; he looked back at her dumbly. With a sudden wild Hash of terror in her eyes the girl sprang up, stretching out her bands in distracted, desperate en'treatv.

and sinco the unhappy death of your father ho had behaved with the greatest delicacy, kindness and consideration. Keally very much so indeed! T am sure," the e!d lawyer went on, with, a somewhat nervous glance toward the lady it-o wham he appealed, "that her ladyship does me tho honor ! to agree with me?'* "Certainly, Mr Petherick!" the j counters answered coldly. She wa-s j impatient of bis prolixity, and looked .it. "Shall I mention the name," she said, "or do you wish to do :-,o?" "With your ladyship's permission 1 will do so" at once." He looked back again at the girl. "T think T am rig-lit in saying that on one occasion you saw the gentleman. Ladv Marjorie, T 'believe you mentioned the subject to me. The gentleman's name 1 in Chadburn." "Chadburn ?" The name recalled nothing to Ma.rjorie's "half-stupified faculties. She liad for the present no memory whatever of the stout old man witai the handsome face and the white hair who had accosted her in the park on the day before ber father's death. Site repeated the -name mechanically for tho see.o#d time. "Chadburn ? Who is lie? What is he?" "Who is he?" The lawyer gl;n ced at the countess for heln. saw no promise of any, and looked back again. "Mr Ohad.bur.n is a very wealthy man, my dear child. I- —T sunposeT should not be far wrona in calling; him one of our merchant princes. He is a manufacturer and mill owner, has large transactions abroad and largo transactions at home, and is well known 11 over Englnd. A very wealthy man, indeed, and. I understand, a most excellent man, too!" The lawyer paused. Still looking at him, Marjorie made a disdainful little gesture with her hands. "You are. telling me what lie is," •she. said, "I did not ask yon that. He must be rich, or he would not have bought my home, but that docs not matter, j asked vou who he is?"

i "No. no." she cried aloud shrilly. "not that! Don't say that! Don't j tell me that T have lost Castle Marlinir, too! Don't sav it! Don't say it!" j "My dear child, to say that T am j grieved for you .only half expresses ! what T feel. Hut it would be only a ! cruelty to conceal tho truth. Castle I Marling is -sold !" j Her lips .shaped the last word with ' a. breathless gasp, but she said not a syllable aloud. Her hands gripped the ; anus of Iter olmi-r a.s slip sank back into it, but had she been stricken prralvzed and dumb she could not have heen more utterly mute and still, i The old lawyer rose with a look of alarm, frightened by her ghastly face, j Ho would have spoken, but the countess, with a slight softening of her icy expression, checked him with her hand , upon his arm. | "Don't speak to her for a moment," she said. "Tt is a great blow to flier; she has such an exaggerated fondness for this old place. I am really very sorry for her. Tt will be kinder to . leave her to herself for ~ i : ttle while Ito let her realise it. D.rit until she can spen.k to you." | Partly because o.f his uneasiness 'and alarm, partly because the advice j was a woman's advice, Mr Petherick complied. Nothing was audible for a | minute or' two but the thrill of a bird's song oiutside the window and the crisp j rustle of the countess.' skirts as, she moved iback to her former position. | The lawyer, dreading 'his disclosure, j had feared, that some wi outcry, j .Some hysterical paroxysm would surely j follow, and had shrunk from the prosJ pect nervously. Now lie thought- that .'lie would a thousand times rather have |encountered 'both than witness this I frozen immobility. The kindhearted old mail really could not bear it; it made his throat husky and 'his eyes dim to look at the striken girl—sudh a bright little creature as she always was, ho thought pityingly. He took ■herliand, and, in defiance of the countess, tried to in use her. Her fingerslay like heavy ice in his; her krgo eyes looked at him blank and straight; ' she seemed neither to see nor to hear liim. Ho stopped in the midst of his kindly, blundering condolence, _ and looked at hor -helplessly. The cessation of /Iris voice seemed to do what Ilia speech had not done —rouse her stunned attention. Her ha.nd trembled in his ; a change like a wrenching .spasm passed over her face ; she shuddered violently all over and in a hoarse whispering tone asked the first question that she had asked yet:

Thoroughly comprehending tho full meaning o-f tho question, Mr Petherick well knew that if he answered her with an evasion once she would not allow him to do so a second time, so he wisely answered plainly in the first place. "In the sense that you mean, my dear, I suppose I must reply that Mr Ghadburn is, strictly .speaking, nobady. He began life, T believe, , as quite a poor man, and had worked his way upward to his present position ov Uiis own efforts." Tho girl gave no answer in words, only a sound like a laugh and a long deep breath as she dropped back into her ciliair again. This sting to her pride was the laist possible pang -which could have been added to her misery, and the lawyer, wincing, knew as much. Tt would torture the poor child as nothing else could, tliis knowledge that a parvenu, a plebeian, a nobody, was master of the home which she loved with'suc-h a- proud and passionate a fleet ion. (To Bo Continued.)

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"Who has bought it?" The lawyer hesitated. Tn an instant a passionate rush of scarlet flow over her white face; with a fierce gesture of Jier hands She sprang erect to faco him. " "Who lias bought it?" she reiterated. "I.f Castle Marling ig sold, Castle ; Marling is bought! Wlio is its new owner? Who 'is the master of my home?" Her voice was hysterically high; the scarlet uus J h was mounting to her forehead. Mr Petherick resignedly answered her, prefacing bis reply' With a soothing word or two of preparation: "My dear Lady Marjorie, do suffer unfortunate fact that Castle Marling is sold, it can 1 easily make-no: difference to you wlio lias become it's owner, none whatever, my dear child. As for the gentleman wlio lias purchased it, It is only due to him to say—and I am sure Ladv Marlingford will corrobori ate mo—that both after the purchaso