Lady Marjorie's Love

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

Lady Marjorie's Love

(OUR SERIAL

By Carl Swerdna Author of "To the Uttermott Fw-th-ing/' "A Mere Ceremony," "A Fight for Honour," Eto.

CHAPTER XXll.—Continued. Hit hands were on his breast as she pleaded, Ikm- uplifted eyes filled with heavy tears. He recalled that if she chose she had that fatal right to s et him at naught, pitied her passionate distress, even while she angered him, and did the only thing he could do —lie yielded. "If 1 "must 1 must, Xorah. I give you my word, since you will have it, 'hut it is horribly against the grain." "Yes, Yes; 1 know, 1 know! I thank von a thousand times!" She . kissed iiini. "When—when I see you again, -Gerard," she said, glancing away, and with a break in her voice as her hand trembled timidly on his neck—"when—when I explain you may blame me less than you do now, perhaps. You may even think lesis harshly of—of him." His gesture of repressed wrath, his darkened brow, and bitten lip, expressed denial . strongly and plainly enough, but he would not distress her with words of repudiation. A wistful, melancholy smile that was not without a touch of sad humour and raillery flashed into Xorah's beautiful 'face. She put her other hand on bis shoulder. "Ah. Gerard," s he said gently, "you are such a good fellow! But when you are married, my dear, when you are as -happy with your wife as I hope with all my heart you may be, do you think she will love you just because you are a good fellow, kind, and truthful and honest, and a man all through? No, no —oh, no! She will love yon because she loves you, just because she could not do other if .she would, just as jshe would love you if she knew that her love wa s to be her misery! Ah, dear, I am a woman; don't be too hard on me! I know." She dropped her hands, moving a pace away toward the window. Ba - rington did not answer; her words, her face, the pathetic ring in her voice had affected him profoundly, had even brought tears to his eyes, and, man-like, lie did not care to let her see. He moved to her side in a moment,- putting his arm affectionate-* iy round her shoulders, she putting her hand up to clasp his. "She is very pretty, .Gerard," she said quietly—"very, very pretty, and a dear, good, loving little creature, I am sure! I saw her in the park to-day." "Xorah!" His quick start, his hot flush showed at once his intense surprise a ad his complete comprehension. | Norah faintly smiled again. I "Of course I understand, dear! When I first knew you were down here I thought of Lady Marjorie. Why you had come I knew, but I scarcely thought you would care to , stay so long without a reason. I ! knew how pretty she was. I —l had I chanced to see her once, and so 1 thought I understood. Did I?" '"Perfectly!' His arm tightened on her shoulder. Each was speaking in a lighter tone than either had used yet. "So you saw her to-day?" he said curiously. "You did not speak P" "Oh, yes! I don't suppose I should have done so if I had had time to think, hut I did so impulsively, on the spur of the moment. It did not matter, because she instantly supposed that h was here on busines." She paused. "She told me, that if were the case, that I had better inquire at the house for Mr Gerard Barrington, Mr Chadbum's agent." "Ah, just so!" His eyes looked down, hers up, and both smiled. "You would have done so, of course?" ho questioned coolly. "Had I enquired for anyone, certainly. • Lady Marjorie's directions : were very explicit, and there was no possibility of mi-stake —I quite understood. I think I told her that I had . heard the name before." • > "And, I presume, nothing else?" "There was no need. I thanked , her, and we bade each other good- ■ bye. I kissed her, too, which I sup- I pose I ought not to have done, but j she looks such a sweet little thing!" "Sweet? She's a little spitfire! • He laughed. ( "Is she?" She laughed in sym- | pathy a soft note or two; her face was almost bright. "Have you of- i fended her, Gerard?" ' c "Why do you ask?" "Because she spoke of you most scathingly as 'a person.' She put the j most comically lofty scorn into the j expression. If she had not blushed most absurdly—which she did— I should have thought that she really , disliked you. Have vou offended r her?" "We are at daggers drawn. She has refused me." "Gerard!" \ Her tone was alarmed, astonished ; , she started and wa s pale. He smiled reassuringly. ' "A fact, I asure you. She was , naturally indignant at a person of imposition presuming so far, and expressed herself to that effect with ' considerable freedom> and vigour. A , little spitfire, I tell you—bless her ■ heart!" j "Oh, I see!" Although she smiled Xorah hesitated as though she scarcely knew how to -take this. '"But — but it is all right, Gerard?" she questioned anxiously. "Yes, it is all right, or it shall lie directly. It would have been now if I hadn't been a fool. There is no need to look uneasy, Xorah." He met her eyes with amusement in his own, and with plenty of cool confidence, too. "Don't think me a conceited idiot, you know, my dear!" "Xo —no, of course not! That blush was very eloquent—l understand!" She started with a sudden remembrance and moved from his side, taking up a light mantle which she hac

thrown off. "I must go, Gerard!" she said, at once steadily and hurriedly. "I walked here from Upton Wafers, and I shall barely have time to catch the last London train." "You are not going back to London to-night " His tone was one of surprised remonstrance." "Yos, I must. The run is but little over two hours; I shall reach Waterloo by midnight. From there I can take a cab. I shall be quite safe; I am used to travelling alone." If he recalled the time when she had not been used to travelling alone, when her every movement had been affectionately, solicitously attended and protected, he said nothing of it. Nor did he remonstrate against her decision; her mien and tone reminded him of the reluctant promise which she had wrung from him. He made no endeavour either to detain her or to shake her resolutions, knowing how futile such an effort would be. The protest he entered was of another sort. "You can't walk to the station, Xorah;. it is a good distance, and you must be tired already. Wait here a few minutes and I'll get the dogcart. No one need see you, and I can make some excuse;. I'm '''always pottering into Upton Wafers after something or other." I "Xo —no!" she dissented quickly. "I would rather walk, Gerard, and I am not at all tired. There is ample time if I start at once. But walk with me' if you will, dear; now that it is dark I do not feel sure of the road." He assented readily, unlocking the inner door and leaving the room to get his hat. Norah stepped through the long open window and stood on the grass outside to wait for him. From within the room the glow o*f the lighted lamp threw up the graceful lines of her dark figure and the ruddy lustre of her chestnut-gold hair with a photographic distinctness. With her hands clasped behind her as she waited, her large eyes looking before her .sadly and steadily, with mournful thought absorbing her already, it wa-s only natural that she saw nothing and heard nothing of a figure that came slowly and pensively over the soft grass, a little, slim figure with a white shawl covering the brown head. As she approached the pathway of yellow light that streamed from the open window and, saw and recognised instantly the woman standing in the glow, Lady Marjorie shrank swiftly and involuntarily back into the shadow, only just keeping back a cry. (To be Continued.)