"Pretty Penelope,"

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 28 July 1913, Page 2

"Pretty Penelope,"

(OUR SERIAL

By f.ffie Adelaide Rowlands, Author oi "A Girl's Kingdom," -A Splendid Man," "The. Intef. loper," "A Kinsman's Sin," "Brave Barbara," etc.

CHAPTER XlV.—Continued. This was what Penelope most desired. Life for her now was exceedingly pleasant. Cheered iby the friendship of a, woman whom she had grown to love as well as admire, with the knowledge of her old friends still devoted and stanch, a beautiful home, served by dependents who adored her, there waa nothing but the remembrance of Denis and the knowledge of her sister's absence to cloud the brightness of her lot. The memory of her beloved.mother had become less of a grief now, although Penelope never ceased to regret that her present good fortune could not have been shared by that sweet mother. She had settled down in a wonderfully vshorfc space into her new position, and ibefore she had been mistress of .Tlficket Croft no -noire than six weeks, it seemed to her as though she couUd read her future life absolutely. It would be the same story month after month—a quiet, uneventful, contented existence, which would last on till the blue of her eyes was dimmed and her hair sprinkled with silver. And even while Penelope thought this in a dreamy, not dissatisfied way, events were drawing (themselves together in her path, and danger was looming ominously l in the distance.

"I have some news for you, my dear," Lady Susan said, one day, as Penelope entered her cosy boudoir and bent to kiss her. The young mistress of Thicket. Oroft had (ridden over to (luncheon a jaunt she performed on an average three or four tames a week. "I do not think you will guess it, so I will put you to the test." \ - "I know what it is," Penelope laughed, as she warmed her hands by the fire. "Nuttio's new coat has arrived from town." Lady ,Susr.n .shook her head with a laugh. Nuttie was an old pug, of large, not to say fat, proportions, who slumbered audibly in a luxurious basket. «'Then you have, decided to sell Polly at last!" was Penelope's next guess. Polly was a gray parrot, who said very rude things sometimes, but who was much beloved) by her mistress, and therefore the question of her rudeness was often overlooked. Lady Susan shook her head a second time. "Polly will pay you out for that remark," she said! quietly. "Try .another guoss." -.'--. - Penelope unpinned her veil from her lovely glowing face and took off her hat. "My imagination absolutely fails me," she laughed. "The wind is so cold to-day; I am frozen entirely. I feel a.very stupid person, Lady Sue." Lady Susan smiled. "Ah! I knew you would never guess this news. , I accept your very feeble excuse, but I am not convinced that it is altogether the fault of the eold wind; -.but when one really is stupid, 1 well/oue excuse is as;good as another." And then Lady Susan ' produced a_Jetter and handed it to the girl. " "My dear," she said, "there is my wonderful news;it certainly gave me a surprise, although there is nothing .very startling in it, after all—it is .a very;ordinary matter."

Penelopet ook the letter, and then j turned a little aside as she began to read it. It was from Marcia, and was not very long. "Dear Lady Susan," Peitelope read, "1 am wondering if you will have thought me very rude for not acknowledging before this the most' kind letter you wrote me at the time of my illness. I was .much touched by your kindness, and have often wished I might have had the opportunity of thanking you in person for your thought of me. I have, as I dare say you have 'heard, been more or Jess of an invalid these past Heeks; but I am now almost quite recovered, and I hope to be perfectly well before long. T am about to make a suggestion to you that I-trust 'will not be disagreeable '£o you. Next week Denis and I have promised to be present the Westshirt hunt ball, which is to be held, at Mr Grantham's house, <& near neighbour of yours, I am told. .Will you think us too tiresome if I ask you to take ua in for thig occasion? Please do nothesitate to be frank with me, and to refuse it if our visit should be in the least inconvenient. We can, of course, go to In inn ; there is sure to be something of the sort near; but I (have no doubt you will not allow this, for I remember your most kind invitation when I last saw you, and it is the remembrance of thig which hag prompted me to suggest inflicting ourselves upon you now. Denis is out hunting, or would, I know, send yjau his love, and with kindest regards, and a sincere desire that I may not be making myself ,a nuisance, I am, dear Lady Su9an, yours sincerely, "Marcia B. Latimar." - "There is but one answer to the letter," said Lady Susan, a,s Penelope read on to the end. "I have written already to Mrs Latimar, and I have given Shorten all directions to prepare for the arrival of my guests on Monday. They will stay ia week, I expect, and I shall look to you, Penelope, to come oyer and help me amuse them.'" Penelope did not answer atjfbnce. This was something puite unexpected, and, moreover, there .was ah element in it that 'hurt her and gave a sense ~-f annoyance., "J wonder Marcia did not offer to come to. me," she said, thinking her

thoughts aloud. "It is funny she should not have done so, for my house is afr least half-way nearer to the Granthams than yours; but I suppose—" and then Pen stopped abruptly. "But what, my dear?" asked Lady Susan, gently. "1 suppose I must really recognise the "fact that my Cousin does not i want me. It is, after all not very surprising," Penelope saifequicldy; "for we know so little of one another, I we have never been together as other ' cousins are, and our lives do not run I in the same groove, but still —" I iStill Penelope could not help being hurt and disquieted by Marcia's manner toward herself. She realised many little things in this moment of thought that had escaped her before. She remembered now that Marcia had never written to her since her (marriage, had never once invited her to Latimar Court, had never once sought to show that there was the smallest interest between herself and Penelope Desborough. Since Marcia ignored her so openly, she in her turn was*not called upon to make any public recognition of her cousin, and so she would be spared some hours—days of bitter pain—pain that would and must be inevitable in the evont of a meeting between Denis arid herself. Lady Susan, looking at the girl before her, thought to herself she had very little difficulty in understanding Mrs Latimar's treatment of her cousin. Lady Susan had taken a very speedy and shrewd measure of Marcia's nature and character, and she knew a little more of the world than Penelope. (To be Continued.)