"Love That Endures"

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 59, Issue 48, 28 March 1930, Page 11

"Love That Endures"

By Mrs. VICTOR RICKARD

I AN INTRIGUING R0MANCE 0F THE M0DERM VANITY FAIR |

i Tbo i | f Strange | I I Adventures j I i of a Lovely i 1 Manneqain ,1

K Aathor of "The Light Above the Crossroads," "The House of Courage,' Q H "Cathy Eossiter," etc., etc. m

SYNOPSIS. NANOE OSBOURNE, a lovely young London mannequin, who has been staying in the oountry, quarrels witli the young man she is going to raarry, LEO HENDRED, the son of a country 'solicitor, because oue evening she is late in meeting him. She was "late because she had witnessed a motor "crash" in which SIR NICHOLAS RAWNSLEY, a wealtlly baronet, and a mysterious lad.y in a sable coat had been involved. The iady, unknown to Nance, "had thrust a costly pendaht into her pocliet, and this LEO found on the grass after' the .quarrel. Next day Nance returned to her work in London. CHAPTER IV. IHOPE YOU'RE BETTER," Nance sat down. After all, she considered, he would probably xnistake her for a regular visitor at the hospital, who came on calling days to see the sick. 1 "I'm almost well," he smiled at her. He wasn't good-looking, just as the chauffeur had said. Nance mentally compared the lean brown face with the crooked mouth, a nose the contourS of which had been damaged a little in a smash or a erash, or some other violent encouhter, with the regular featured good-looks of Leo Hendred. The thought made her silent and she had looked into the steel grey eyes tof Sir NicholaS Rawnsly. "What's wrong?" he asked. Not then, nor afterwards could Nance have said what possessed her to speak as she did. Perhaps it was all part of the same thing — the impulse that had sent her to the hospital to enquire to him. "I was frightened about you," she said. "I thought you were dead." A. Jook- of- surprise' showed in his eyes. "Why?" he asked quickly. * * * QHE STUMBLEH and ste&died herself again. "It was said that someone had been killed in . a smash at the- top of Paradyne Hill," she .said lamely. "No one knew for certain that was what I was told that night." He did not speak at opce, but sat tliere leaning against h'is pillows, watching her. Sne seemed to interest him very much though his silence was extremely disconcerting to her. "" "Please; say somethingl" she said. "I'm beginning to feel sorry I came.'' ■ . "Don't then," he smiled re-assuring-ly at her. "Wpn't you tell me your uameP". ,, . , "ILI did it wouldn't mean anythmg at all to you," Nance got up nervously. "I'm not the sort of person you would* ever know or meet — Really I am not." "No" he held out his hand. "That's 'Pot-ifair to a sick man. Yon come here. '.;as a kind visitor, and yet you jntefld to go away and leave me withppt the least idea who you are. Axe you coming back'to see me again ?" "I am going away ior good tomorrow." ' "Then tell me. one thing before you leave," he took her hand as he spoke and looked up at her questioningly. '"Who told you 1 was dead?" « * * "VTANCE HAD CAUSE to feel thank•1^ ful that at that moment the nurse had come and interrupted them. •The steel-grey eyes held hers _ with something- stronger than a question in them- — it was a fierce demand for a reply ; fierce though the smile had been easy and even amused and the voice in which he spoke, perfectly controlled and quiet, But the relief of leaving the room, of being away from that look I Of course she had been mad to venture there at all, and now, as long as she lived, Nance would never be ahle to forget the man with his rough shooting coat pulled on over a blue pyjama suit, and the strong. brave face which was neither ugly nor beautifuliy. That was the most .vivid memory she had hrought back with her to London, at the end .of her holiday. She had written to Leo and broken off her engagement, and now he had ceased to matter. That was all. He had once rceant colour and movement and all of a sudden he had ceased to mean it. She felt a kind of vague wonder as to whether she should ever. feel sorry. actutely, vividly sorry that he had gone, and if she would. regret him. Not that it mattered .very much. T EO HAD REPLIED ""that he coulflii't let it end like that. He had written a curiously distracted letter, bnt had not suggested seeing her. There had been one strange phra.se which puzzled her. "fr know more than you imagine, Nance, and I've been thinking a lot since the night I saw you last. Wliy don't you trust 'me? I'Jl always play fair with you and make no fuss, so long as I know that it's me you care for most." She had not understgod it and had not answered his letter, neither

had he made any attempt to come and see her at White Farm, though he knew that she was staying there for a fortnight before she went back to London. The memory of Sir Nicholas Rawnsley was vividly clear in her mind. but there was also anotber picture which was unforgetable. . When she had left the hospital and was still caught into a kind of bemused abstraetion which made- the whole world seem a new and rather confused place to her, Nance wandered down the picturesque'old High street, with its great feudal castle at one end and the shine of a river far below. "O ALF-WAY DOWN THE HILL there was a large and very smart garage where big expensive ears were on sale, and just outside, she saw a very smart-looking pearl grey car of the latest and most expensive type standing with one of the doors open. It was just about to start, and Nance came level with it as it glided away. / The woman, sitting heside the driver, was elderly. A large, heavily built matron in & dust coat, with nothing of the exotic finish that might have been expected from the appearance of the car itself; Nance recognised her at once, even before she saw the driver, lt was Mrs Hendred, and the young man in the driver's seat was Leo! They were gone in a flash. It was extraordinarily unexpected' to have seen Leo driving his mother in the big, expensive car, and Nance felt a queer, lonely sense of haviug been forsaken, and then she began to think more definitely. She walked into the garage apd spoke to the young man who had jusb completed the sale and whom she knew of old. He greeted her cordially, for he had just sold a very expensive car and was in a thoroughly good humour with life, and he told her that young Mr Hendred had bought his most expensive two- seater. £ LL THE JOURNEY BACK to Harpleston in the 'bus. Nan poundered the qugstion. Leo had paid eight hundred pounds for a car, Leo whose salary was three pounds a week and from time to time his mother lent him money or gave hira presents, That represented his financial condition. Ho was always in debt, and Nance herself had come to his assistance more than once. There was no one she knew of who could have given him anything like enough money to warrent the extravagance* of a very expensive car, yet there was no subterfuge about it, such as was usual with Leo's plans. His mother had- gone out with him in his new car, therefore she 'was aware of the source of his sudden affluence, for once he was hiding nothing. Nance wondered whether he had known of a, large windfall and had wisbed to . break things off ' between them- before she came to hear of it; hut she conld not answer her owh question. Best to turn back qtl him definitely for good and try to find something else in her life. This was all she brought back to London with her from lier holiday. Only two memories ; the memory of the man with the steel-grey eyes was by far the strongest. Nance believed that she was done with Leo— either rich or poor— and she did not see the shadow of coming events approaching her as she stared into the past. 4 (To be Qontinued,)