"Pretty Penelope,"

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 24 June 1913, Page 2

"Pretty Penelope,"

(OUR SfcRiAL

By iffie Adelaide Rowlands, Author of "A Girl's Kingdom," "A Splendid Man," "The Interloper," "A Kinsman's Sin," ''Bravo Barbara, etc.

CHAPTER 111. The causo, the promoter of all this excitement was Denis Latimar, Penelope almost stamped her foot with irritation when she heard his name. Sho had become so tired of hearing him, and of having sententious speeches and remarks of his (which were as falsely attributed as they were disagreeable) repeated to her that she could almost have persuaded herself sho intensely disliked this young 'nan whom she had not vet seen in years.

To her mother's delighted recital of all that had happened—-how Don is had come down only three days before, and coolly and calmly {inn on need ho had taken a suite of rooms in a hotel at Waves ton, a tiny little sea village on the south coast, and how he had firmly but tenderly insisted on conveying the invalid and her belongings thither without delay—Penelope h"4 nothing but smile s and kisses of appreciation.

The girl worshipped her suffering mother; often she would pray that some of lier own young vitality and health might be passed iiso the feeble, delicate body to help it to bear the burden of pain which never left it. So all that gave pleasure to her mother . was- pleasant .Jo ~ To her sister Lucie, she showed a different -asp'ect: ' "I hate all this, Lucie," s ht> said passionately and bitterly. "Of course, the sea air will do mother good; but we could have nnnaged it by ourselves, I am s uro. We are not paupers, surely 1" "Why, Pen," her sister had exclaimed, "what a little fury 1 Whrt on earth is the matter? Why should you object to Denis Latimar showing some littlo attention to his mother's oldest -and dearest friend?" > Penelope frowned. i

"Let him show .her all the attention ho likes; hat it is of no lise, Lv.cie; I hate letting him spend his money on all of Us in this way, just—just as if," with a burst of petulance, "we were factory girls being given a bean-feast or a lunch by our employer." Lucie liad to laugh at this.

"You are a comical little thing," she said, and then she kissed the beautiful flushed face. "Darling," she said wistfully, "don't let pride blind your eyes; we are poor, Pen. horribly 'poor. Without this kindness on Denis Latimar's part it would bo impossible to give mother the change she needs so badly. Doctor Wesiall s ays it will invigorate her for n . ..ths. We -might, of course, have gow her a week or two somewhere, but stop and think what rfc would have been like. Sjie would 1 have had to go to cheap lodgings, with ono of us only, and no comforts, and she would have fretted over the, expeiise.. As it is—"

"As it is!" Penelope had broken in. I "I see you are right, Lucie, and I am a selfish beast. Only," here 'the girl flashed round, "if I am expected to .grovel- before Denis Lacimai®, and thank hi-u for all this—well, I tell you flatly, lAioie, I would sooner dio! ' • V "Wear Pen,", Lucie had 'lias'tenc:, to say, a little bewildered by her sister's passionate-spirit, "jou s-rai. do nothing of the sort, and Denis L.-iu mar Vvould be the last to expect it. Wait till you see him. He is absolutely charming. It is impossible to dislike him as you seem to have made up your "mind to do, for some reason or other, I wish you had met him when you were in London."

"I heard quite enough of him, thank, you," l-eneiopo had said ; and then sho had sat in deep thought for a long time, aul the outcome of that the-ught n a,i a. sudden cieanW-e < f the cloud fro-n her face, and a jovbus 'light in her eves.

"Lucie," she s a;d, "[ havo thought m something. If Mr Latimar likes to pay some attention to our mother, as you put it, well and good; but I think both you and I ought to he independent of 'him, and wo can bo. You know that on my eighteenth birthday I am to have fifty pounds fro'n Grandmamma Desboi ougli. Well, that fifty pounds .shall go to pay our expenses, your H and mine, while we aro at Waves'ton. Walter will advance you the money, and you shall tell Mr Latimar that we it ill giadly accept his kindness for mamma, but not for ourselves." Lucie was rather aghast. "But, Pen," she remonstrated, "that noney would—" Penelope had settled the matter by jumping off the corner of the table where she had- been sitting "Plea se say no more; Lucie. We will do that, or I at least shall not go to Waveston at all."

Lucie, had succumbed, of course; but as Penelope was hurrying out <J the room, siio called her back.

"J will tell Denis; and Pen, dear you will be nice to him. not rud or—

"J shall be just exactly as I .always am to everybody'. I don't know whether I am J'ude, but I fancy sometimes' T urn a little . If J a"i>, Mr L-.ithnar must accept it as a. regrettable • fact which cannot, be altered. Lucie sitrlied and looked after the gr.iceful ligure in a slightly dubious way. There was something she did not quite understand about the girl, but her mind was soon set at rest on the score of vague possibilities.

Penelope was charming to Denis Latimar. When he came with the big Liti-nar carriage to convey Mrs Drsborough to a station nearer on the road than" Stevenstone, he found the girl fluttering around her mother like a veritable «unheani.

"Here is my 'baby!' Xowour party is quite complete," Mrs J)osboro:igii

;To Hp Ontin-ied.)

, had said to him, and Penctope had put her little hand into his, and smiled at him in that frankly bewitching way of hers. "How d'ye?—at last!" she said. "I thought I was never going to see you. I hope you don't mind me calling you Denis. We were !> tbies together, you know !" "Mind !'fc Denis lud said. "Why. wo are going to be the best friends in the world, you and I, Penelope. ! I don't remember alxKit our being ; babies together. I rather fancy I I havn had the start of you by a gocd ] seven or eight years; but our . acquaintance is a pretty old one. all the ■sacne. I was only looking at your little rod-wheeled cart yesterday. It is in the room that used to be my . nursery." ; With such a beginning, it. was only | mtural that these two young people ' should drift into a very familiar friendship. Penelope's audaciousness and sauciness, her bright, young spirit, her laughter, her sunshiny chatter, her \vh6lo beautiful individuality, were at onpjo new, s t.triling at first, to Denis Latimar, but growing dangerouslv sweet every noincnfc he passed in the i girl's presence. ' Hlo conveyed Mrs -Dcsborough to Wavestoii, and stayed the night, de- | parting the nexi.morhing; a« they ail thought, to, join his yitcht, but turning up in the cotir.se of the next few hourladen with books, .with fruit, with flowers, and with some very foe hi excuse about an accident to the ma-' elrnery aboard the yacht. "I can't use ir for a week. \\ ;i you let me remain here /with 1 you lie asked Mrs DcsboroughV To such a question there ivs l.u' 0110 answer. Indeed, Mr s Dcsborough'u heart was overflowing with love and gratitude to her dead friend's son. "A week I" Penelope had said to herself, when she wa.v alone, and she hid become very pale. The woman within her had been suddenly aroused. She wa s not deceived by the excuse about the yacht. She felt a strange thrill and wild beating at her heart when her eyes looked into those cleir, steel-gray ones of Denis Lati nar She knew, as she looked, that he was not the- man Marcia Rochdale had represented him to be, that Jr.' was something higher ,p.nd better than Marcia Rochdale could ever appreciate; but the poiscu of her o/rasin's sneers lived in her veins, stirring her proud blood to fever heat and rehel'lion. "When you meet him, if ever you do," Marcia had said, "I would idvise you not to set your cap at Denis ll.atiinar. Ho knows just what to expect from a poor ; irl," etc., etc. And this was what on in Penelope's brain and embittered her thoughts.