PAID IN FULL

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21232, 1 October 1940, Page 8

PAID IN FULL

NEW SERIAL STORY

by H. S. Sarbert

CHAPTER IX.—(Continued.; A Proposal “Married!! On two pounds a week! Are you mad, Harry?” “I know it must sound foolish,” Harry answered, and the colour came into his cheeks, “but I’ve heard that two people can live as inexpensively as one.” “That doesn’t sound very feasible to me,” Carrie said. “It—it would make me work all the harder,” Harry went on. “Your father did trick me. Carrie. and somehow I can’t forget that, though Ido try. But if we were married, that would prove to my Dad that you really cared, especially if you were able to face poverty with me. And I should work like a Trojan. I should never be satisfied until I had really made headway. Apparently there will be good opportunity in this new firm ” She would not let him go any farther. It was a wild suggestion, but he did look very handsome and very boyish as he stood there. He must be very much in love with her, she thought, and obeying a sudden impulse, she put her arms round his neck and kissed him.

“You’re just splendid, Harry dear, and I appreciate your offer very much indeed,” she told him. “But you must give me a chance of thinking things over. You know, I’ve been brought up in the lap of luxury. Dad nas never stinted me of money, and to be a poor man's wife—wall, yes, it would be something I had never taken into consideration.”

She did not seem to consider the questionable means by which her father had come by the money he had spent upon her. That was not part of the argument. So Harry had to leave it at that.

The very same evening Wilmer Lucas returned to town unexpectedly and furtively. He did not want anyone to know that he had come, and he was not stopping. He was leaving again for the Continent almost immediately. He had just come to get some ready cash. He was shutting up the London place, he told his daughter. He had a fine scheme afoot which would be worked from abroad —probably Paris and they would soon be on their feet again. He shrugged his shoulders at mention of the other affair. They had just been unfortunate, that was all. Fortune could not smile all the time.

Carrie told him about Harry and what had been done. She mentioned that Harry had proposed she should marry him, and that they should try to live on two pounds a week. This seemed a very good joke indeed to Lucas, for he laughed loudly. “Harry didn’t laugh, father,” Carrie said. “Far from it! He was in deadly earnest.” “And what did you say?” “I told him I’d think about it.” “And you have?” “Well ”

“Now, now, Carrie—don’t be so silly! I never did really look on that young man as a suitable match for you. He wasn’t your type. Oh, yes, quite a nice boy in his way, nice looking, and all that kind of thing. He looked well in evening-dress, didn’t he? But as a husband —no! You’re beautiful, Carrie —you’ve had • a good education. You must agree that I’ve never spared money. I’ve been generous where you’ve been concerned, haven’t I?” “Why, yes, but ” Lucas tapped his daughter’s arm. “Now is your chance to pay back,” he told her. “I look on you as an asset, my beautiful daughter! Someone who will help me to get op my feet again. You must make a fine marriage, Carrie, a successful marriage financially, I mean. You must get a husband who will be worthy of your youth and beauty, and all the education you have received—for your own good as well as for mine. Harry Preston is finished, so far as you are concerned. You must return with me tomorrow.” “But Harry ” “Harry will forget you!” Carrie shook her head. The memory of the words used came back to her. “Harry will not forget,” she cried. “This will be just like the proverbial last straw that breaks the camel’s back. He will never forget—he told me so. If I let him down— tha'i will be the end of everything for him. He won’t be able to go on with life. He —he believes in me, father. You let him down badly. You tricked him. If Ido the same ’ “You’ve got to think of yourself, Lucas put in sharply. "Your own future. You never were cut out to be a poor man’s wife. In less than a month you would hate him hate every thing connected with the Prestons. It would mean that you would have to do your own scrubbing and washing—you, Carrie Lucas! Why, it’s out of the question. Come, now, Carrie —you must do as I tell you!” And so it happened that when Harry Preston called for Carrie the following evening, she was not at home. She had left a note for him. He read it through quickly at first, and then sat down and read it again. He felt stunned.

•‘Dear Harry, •Tm sorry, but this is good-bye. I have gone away. It was the only thing to do. lam sure your father will agree with me when i say that I should never be successful as the wife of a poor man. I should just hate it, and simply be a drag on you. So this is the best way out. “But I shall often think about you—and always wish you well. “Goodbye, Carrie.” That was all. No note could have been colder or more cruel than that, Harry thought. She was not going to face poverty with him. She had let him down. Tricked by the father—now tricked cy the daughter! Was there anything left to live for now? (To be continued)