Lady Marjorie's Love

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 5 March 1913, Page 7

Lady Marjorie's Love

(01 R 8;:R AL

By Car! Swerdna Author of "To the Uttermost Farth-ing," "A Mere Ceremony," "A Fight for Honour," Etc.

CHAPTER XII. (Continued.) "My good cliild, do pray he loss absurd!" I tic countess made a .sound and movement of impatience. "Circumstances alter cases," she said coldly. "In your position you certainly cannot afford; to iiuhilgo in any punctilios of that kind; personally, I think them absurd in most cases. I. don't wish to bo unkind, but it is necessary to stato tho wise plainly. You have no home, your future husband's business to take tho duty upon himself, and Mr .Bligh ■should not want reminding of it. To leave matters in their present impossible condition a day longer than is necessary merely because your father has not been dead three months is simply childish. If you have made those silly objections "to Mr Bligh, I can only say that you aro more foolish than I thought. It ' is a thousand pities that he did not stay to see me, as I desired. I could have sot things right at once then. As it is, I suppose I must write to him." > "Oh. no, 'Fenella! You must not do that!" the girl cried distressfully. "Please don't! It isn't that I —l mean, you don't understand at all:" "1 don't understand?" the countess said slowly. She had been so sure that the coming of Loftus Bligh would mean the breaking off of the engagement that the glitter of its badge upon the girl's hand had struck her with a genuine surprise. She was sorry for her stepdaughter in the midst of a tolerant contempt for her as a simple little creature, and she had really tried to shape her questions so as to ' make the confession' which she expected easy. A,, d m;u '; ijf the the ring was to be there was nO confession to make. Vv i,;t did itmean P What did Loftus Bligh A marriage made for love was intelligible to Lady Marlingfcrd; a marriage made for money was natural and proper; a marriage made for both together was a fortunate combination oF circumstances; but a marriage mad© where there was not a sixpence of the one and had nev-ei' boon more thail a pretense of the other was too ridiculous. And surely he was of all itieii the last to make it. The counttffwj being not a little bewildered, a sensation not .common with her astute ladyship, naturally lost her temper, as far tis she suffered herself to lose it. "■May I ask you to explain wliflt you mean, my dear?" she said sharply and coldly, "Mr Bligh, it seems, did not suggest a period for your marriage. What he did not say is not particularly interesting. Since lie cams here especially to see you, I conclude that he came for something. Perhaps' .you will toll me what he did say?" The plain question, the severely resolute look, the inquisitorial tone, the determination to he answered which expressed itself in the whole of , her ladyship's handsome and imposing' personality were not things to be easily resisted by any one, unlessperhaps by a second woman of her' own call I >er. Marjorie was cast in quite a different mold and would have yielded, even though she had not feverishly longed to get the interview over. The countess herself could not have given a terser and blunter summary of what Loftus Bligh had found so difficult to say—doubly difficult be'cause lie had wanted to say so much more. And Lady Marlingfcrd, listening, but making no comment, smiled with a ••satiric curve on her lip. But she said nothing until the rapid little recital was over. Marjorie's cheeks were flaming then, her head up, her eyes large, her whole aspect defiant. The Wynnes had been hot fighting men in the early days of Castle Marling; something of their fiery, contentious blood flushed the veins of their youngest descendant just then. Marjorie would have wrathfully defended her lover at th.it moment, not that he deserved the defense, or even that she thought so, but because ,she was all aglow to do battle. Tire countess saw the signs and was discreet. She did not want a scene, she told herself, and what good would it do' when the girl was such a little fool? "Wait a year or so," she said slowly, in a tone of thoughtful consideration. "But that, I gather, is only if his brother succeeds in getting some post for him. That is what you said, is it not ?" "Yes."

i be saddled with either the companionship or the support of her husband's daughter onco she quitted Castle Marling, and she was not weak enough to falter in her resolution now merely because the girl had' big eyes and a pale little face- and looked scared. She rallied and settled herself in lu>r chair. Marjorie stood and looked at her as still as a stone. Tho prospect of poverty did not terrify her; its results had not so far been forced upon her; penniless, all the attributes of wealth had surrounded her; it had been vague, intangible. But no'w it seemed that the whole world gaped a horrible void; houseless, homeless, shuddering >and aghast. She had said to Loftus that she supposed she could have a homo with Fenella, but it wa.s not to bo. What should she do? Where was she to go? Her brain whirled. "I have not said anything to you about my plans," the countess proceeded, a little hurriedly for her. "partly because you did net seem interested, and partly because it did not seem necessary while your own were so unsettled. If I do as I think of doing now I shall probably leave Castle Marling in about six weeks or so, I really cannot reconcile myself to intrude 'U]x>n Mr Onulburn any longer. Of course, had your marriage been arranged as I anticipated there would havo been no difficulty, you could Lave stayed with me in town until it took place. But in the present indefinite state of affairs T really don't know what to say. It is most i awkward, most unfortunate, most an= | noying!" She looked up, caught the [dumb misery and wonder in the girl's ; ( an:! softened ii T HI relented m 1 spite of herself. ''But wo need not I talk pf the future just yet." she said, ill a difteiC.'rt and not unkind tone. "I may find obliged to remain here longer than *1 nTi^; : ' iato " m ; v .plans are by no means , S <;l Llcj and if in the meantime nothing' t;C .I curs to alter your prospects—well, I' suppose you must stay with me. But | for this tiresome engagement with Mr Bligh—l never liked it- " "You never liked Loftus, Fenella?'' "My dear child, I don't dislike Loftus; it is biie engagement that I never pretended to approve. J tokl your father so when it was first broached. As I was Silying, but for that, and providing that you would only act like a sensible pi;!- thereneed bo no difficulty at all." (To be Conti uiied.)

"And if lie does not succeed the delay will be longer, I conclude, will it !10t " "1 suppose so, Fenella. I suppose it must he. You know as much as I do. I have told vou all he said/'

She said it weariiy, spiritlessly; the flame died out of her cheeks. She had expected a sneer, and had been strung up, combative, ready to fire, but the countess' tone was quite free from anything of the kind. "Wu Avill put it at 'the best and say a year," she proceeded calmly. "It is rather a long time, considering the length of your engagement already, but if you are willing to wait—and Mr Bligh says that to do so is unavoidable —it closes that aspect of the matter. But, as I consider myself in some sense responsible for you, I should like to know what you intend to do in the interval."

'To clop" echoed the girl. She was standing and had lifted Jack, but now she lot him slip through her arms to the ground and turned her startled eves toward her stepmother. "To do.. Fen el la ?" "My dear, surely it is a natural q'utstion to 'ask!" The countess, having some feeling, was not comfortaMi' ;:s sin' nut the bewildered wonder n|' her stemlaughler's eyes. Unb she had never for a moment intended to