Lady Marjorie's Love

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 18 February 1913, Page 2

Lady Marjorie's Love

(OUR SERIAL

By Carl Swerdna Author of "To the Uttermost Farthing," "A Mere Ceremony," "A Fight for Honour," Etc.

parlor and the room above prepared lor him. Did you ring for your hat, Aiarjoric? Alice is very dilatory — you will not bo cut of doors to-day." Marjorif had not rung; she did *o now mechanically; what with wrath and bewilderment •she was half stupiiied. ''When —when does he —Mr 13 arrington—■comer'" ,she asked. ''Air ( hadburn mentioned the early part of the week. Very likely to-day or to-morrow." The countess, turning to move again, glanced back. "Pray take my advice and stay out as long as you can, my dear; your complexion looks positively muddy. You have certainly gone frightfully off in your looks with all this moping. I don't know what Air Blight will«ay to you—when he comes."

CHAPTKK VIII. (Continued.) j "It appears to me, my dear, that h e neglects you." Marjorie Hushed criin.son resentfully Hints and innuendoes in plenty hiiif'dropped I'luiii her stepmother during Uie last month, hut not words as baTd and plain as these. What though Lottos' letters were short, empty, unsatisfactory —as, poor child, I she was beginning to feel that they wore —it was no business of Feneila's. As for his coming, who would expect him to come to a place so heartbreak- , inglv miserable, so cruelly dreary as ; her'lo.it home was now? His coming • could not give her back Castle Mart- J iog— coulcMiot make things one whit the better. She was not sure that she wanted him to come. But Fenclla need not comment upon his stopping away. She would have answered, but the 'countess checked her tongue as resolutely as she had just checked her retreat.. "i don't want to vex you, child," she said coldly, "and 1 certainly have no desire whatever to interfere between you and Mr Bligh. But there is your future to consider—neither you nor ! can trespass upon Mr Chadburn's hospitality forever —and it appears that he shows no signs of considering it. He lias not even been here since the day of your father's funeral, and you say he says, nothing of coming. Beally, your own common sense must tell you that this is not as it should be!" the countess ended with a touch of'impatience. "He will come directly"—Marjorie' ! raised her head proudly—"hp will come the very next day if I write and sav that ! want him to come!' '"Will he?" Only the faintest shrug of her ladyship's fine shoulders, only the slightest raising of 'her eyebrows accompanied the words. "Then, my dear. I should advise you to do so without deify. We cannot, as T said, expect to remain Mr Chadburn'.s guests forever." "Forever?" echoed the girl. The passionate heave- of her breast brought a sob with it in spite of her efforts to choice it down. 'T did not want to stay at all. Fenella—you know 1 did not. T said so." "You said a good many very foolish things. T remember," the countess rejoined, with her faint, cool smile. "And T said as T say now, my dear, where else will you go? Pray do not be so foolish, Marjorie! We have both reason to feel grateful to Mr Cliadburn, and you should be sensible enough to acknowledge it as T do." "I hate Mr Cliadburn!" said Marjorie doggedly. Lady Marliugford shrugged her shoulders again. I "Just as you please, my dear! You are childishly absurd, that is all. Your feeling is scarcely likelv to affect Mr Cliadburn. But when h* comes down * here T must really heg that you will hehave with common politeness to him." "Down here?" Marjorie turned white with consternation. "Oh, Fenella. he isn't coming down here, is he?' Not yet?" "Shortly. I believe," said the countess tranquilly. "I received a letter from him a few days ago. T would haye told yon of it but for the foolish objection which you seem to have even to hearing his name mentioned. Other affairs 'will detain him in town for some time yet, it seems, hut he intends sending- some one down to renresenfc him with the tenants, and so> forth. 'Mr Petherick has apparently I let him know of the confusion in which j Brent ha.s contrived to get his accounts. I always considered that man most incompetent." "Brent OH, an agent, then?" j Marjorie looked relieved. The agent would he objectionable—anything and any one belonging to Mr Cbndburn must of necessity be objection able—but still he would' probably be less so than Lis master. "I should fancy from Mr Chad-, burn's letter that he Lad some idea of ultimately putting this gentleman a Mr Harrington—in Brent's place," \ the countess resumed. "Evidently he \ has a high opinion of him, judging '. from the terms in which he speaks. , He says he shall regard it as a favor to himself if I will 'have him made comfortable—as, of course, I shall do."' "Comfortable?" Marjorie was haughtily crimson again. "Here?" "Certainly here!" The countess faintly laughed. "My good child, pray do not be absurd! Do you suppose the man is a footman, or even a person of the same standing as Brent? Mr Cliadburn speaks of ilxim as a I friend and as a gentleman, and no j > doubt he is so. I shall make a point j of seeing that he is received and treat- I j ed witli all possible consideration." J "Is he to dine with us?" Poor lit- 1 tie Marjorie tried to sneer, but the idea and the words, the situation altogether, reduced her to a gasp. Fenella'is ideas had always been dreadful, but —this! She looked helplessly round her, as though she almost exI pected to see some of the ancestral ] Wynnes come tumbling down from I their frames at the mere suggestion I of such an outrage. Mr Cliadburn would have been bad enough, but Mr Cliadburn's servant! It was time indeed that she—the last of the Wynnes —and Castle Marling said "Good-by" to each other. "Dine with us?" Lady Marlingford repeated calmly. "That must be as he prefers —sometim.es, probably. T have given orders to have the oak

Marjorie did not notice the pause mid ..stress upon the last words, palpable as both wore : .she was not thinking of Loftus Bligh. She took the hat which Alice brought her, and went out, fooling confounded. Not all her .suffering through wakeful nights and dreary days, not at all her lonely brooding had made the fact of the loss as the threatened coming of this man, this Barrington. For where the man came the ma>ster would follow—the master of Castle Marling. The girl caught her breath with a convulsive gulp at the thought. Oh, perhaps it would he well for Loftus to come and take her away! It could not matter where.

"I'IJ write to him to-night," she said, half aloud, walking on with the .sunlight sifting through the thickleaves and making dancing patterns all over her black frock and her pale, little face. "Perhaps Fenella is right and he ought to be here, but I don't like to ask liim to come where I know he finds the place so dull." She sighed, and her face changed and hardened with the sudden hot color that rose in it. "I—l don't think ho ought to want asking—ho ought to come without. He ought " She stopped with a sudden spring forward in the path. "Why, he's here! He's coming!" Some one certainly was coming—some one who had swung swiftly and easily into view in the winding path before her —some one that Jack was making vicious dives at to the accompaniment of furious barking. Was it Loftus? No. Tall like him, well dressed, a gentleman like him, but not Loftus for al thatl. Loftus did not liko dogs, was indeed the least in tiie world afraid of them, and certainly would never have caught Jack by the collar so deftly and silenced his uproar by swinging him under his arm, and decidedly Loftus, in raising his hat to her , as this man did instantly as he caught site of her, could never ' show fair hair that was several shades brighter and lighter than her own. j Lady Marjorie, with a sudden pre- [ .sentiment, stood stiffly still. | "I beg a thousand pardons. When 11 caught up this little shaver I didn't ' observe that there was anybody with '■ him. He understands his responsibilities evidently—ho was ready to attack me in defense of you. Pray oxI cuse me! Like most of the little ones | —plenty of cheek, eh?" This last sentence was to Jack, to whom he gave a gentle admonitory shake as he set him on his feet. Standing upright again, he once more bared his head with a smile. "Pray pardon the liberty of the question. Am I right in concluding that I have the honor of addressing Lady Marjorie Wynne?"