Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1896-02-21
CHAPTER XVI.


er such company as he liked, by Les
ley's i'll treatment of his friends, SO
that Yelverton came as real boon to
him and was speedily made very much
at home in the place. And Lord Malin-
court. with bis CHEEKY ways and robust
personality, was like refreshing tonic
just then to Yelverton, whose kind, ug-
II face had grown sharp with anxiety
during the past few weeks.
''Lassie," said her father one day,
shaking his head at her, I'm afraid
here is another of them" To which Les
ley responded:
dad, he was the only one of them
all who didn't make love to me. That's
why I'm so fond of him."
Lord Malincourt sighed ruefully.
1T seems to me-" he said, THAT
whether they make love to you or
whether they don't your tender mercies
are pretty much the same"
Lesley had set her teeth hard and
pulled herself together SO erandly that
no one save Lady Cranstoun guessed the
supreme effort it cost her. She was
little more particular over her hair and
toilet. little sharper with her tongue,
she went more than ever among her
poor, visited and received visits from
the county and left no moment of the
day idle if she could help it. 1t was on
~ when at night she stretched cut her
limbs to rest that Ronny's face stole on
her out Of the darkness, not dead, not
dead, thank God, but pallid with it's
love, blurred by agony, and then a
woman's warm face filled the space be-
side his, drawing him with every hour
farther away from chilly darkness into
her own orbit of love and tender cher
ishing, and then the truth of Cynthia's
cry that it We're better to be Ronny's
dog than another mans idol rang in
Lesley's ears, and the fires of jealousy
blazed wildly up in her heart and for
awhile made madness in her brain.
He had given up expecting word or
kind message from her now, and SO far
as he knew she cared less than nothing
for the state to which she had brought
him. 1t would be to vitiate the whole
spirit of her agreement with Cynthia
to communicate in any way with him,
argued Lesley, whose loyalty burned
shrivel up all her own most passionate
desires.
Yet through all her anguish ran like
silver thread the Thought that he
lived that all was we'll, since the worst
had not happened, and some day, some
day, though perchance from afar off,
she might look upon his dear face again.
Lord Malincourt had answered Jane
Appuldurcombe' cruel letter in a man
ly, dignified way that had slammed her,
though it could not lessen the abhor-
renee with which she regarded Lesley,
and when Ronny, too, fiercely silenced
her when she spoke of the girl, the
mother fell back for comfort on Gym
tlia, who had perhaps the best reason
to love Lesley of them all
1t was more on her own account than
Cynthia's that Lady Appuldurcombe
had sent for the girl, and to Ronny it
mattered nothing, and less than moth
ing, as he lay all day in his darkened
chamber taking no interest in anything
but the post.
"Do you think she is i'll, Yelverton?'
he used 70 say to his faithful friend,
who in those early August days seldom
left him for long together. "She is very
highly strung, and perhaps the news
gave her shock. And some brute or
other Che little knew who the brute
was) may have been making out it was
her fault, when it was nothing of the
sort"
YelvertoE invented every possible ex-
cuse for Lesley's silence, which never
theless he could not i'll the least under
stand
If Ronny loved her and she him,
what, then, was the hitch between
them? Lesley had seemed to be the sort
OF girl to scorn appearances and fly
straight to the Ean she loved in his
hour OF need, but was she, after all, the
fiinty hearted young woman her Somer-
setshlre lovers one and all declared her
to be?
Perhaps it's Bob,'' said Ronny at
last, when he had exhausted every con-
| lecture as to her silence, but it SO hap
pened that one day Roger saw Sir Rob-
ert Heatherley's name among the ar
rivals at Homburg, so that anxiety at
least was removed from Ronny's mind.
"Yelverton," said Ronny one day,
II want to get home-so does the poor
mother. If I've got to lie ON my back
for the rest of my life, can do it as
well at home as in this grilling Sahara.
Can't they move me somehow
Eyes, said Yelverton, "but not i'm
mediately; sit will be another fortnight
or SO. These French doctors don't agree
about your case, and want you to have
English care. I shouldn't wonder, old
chap, if you get up one of these DAYS as
we'll as ever you were-or at least
''Oh, I KNOW" said Ronny signifi-
cantly. well, you're getting to look
like ghost, old man, and want you
to go home and execute commission
for me. Take Miss Coquette down to
Malincourt and find out for mel
"What strange thingr' exclaimed
Roger. II got a letter this morning
from Lady Cranstoun, who lives almost
next door to Malincourt, begging me to
60 there for as long as can. She says
She sees Lesley every day."