AND HOW IT ENDED.

By Edgar Jepson.

Illustrated by H. R. Millar.

THE atmosphere of the room was charged almost with storm; there was a thrill upon its air, the thrill of pent emotion. Jack stood gazing out of the window; Kitty sat by the fire looking at his broad back almost hungrily, a craving for the clasp of his arms rending her, her hands clenched to the whitening of her finger-nails in the effort to keep control of her feelings.

"What's the use of having fifty thousand a year, if I can't marry the man I want!" she cried, fiercely.

At her words a sudden spasm of pain caught his breath, and twisted his averted face; but he made shift to say in his usual drawl—

"It does seem rather hard lines, little girl. Who is it?"

"Don't call me little girl! I believe you think I'm still a child!" said Kitty.

"Very well, very well—madam. Who is the man? Young Malmesford?"

"As if I should tell you!" cried Kitty.

"Well, you sent for me. I thought you wanted my advice or help, or something, don't you know!" said Jack.

"I want help badly enough," said Kitty; and he turned sharply at her tone to see that her face was very pale in the frame of her black hair. "But how could you help me in this? How could anyone help me? I oughtn't even to talk about it to you!"

"Oh, yes; you ought!" he said, quickly. "You've always talked about everything to me!" He paused awhile, then added, and he could not keep the sadness out of his voice, "So you want someone else to talk to about everything? Who is it? I'll deal with him all right." The last words came savagely.

"Oh!" cried Kitty, "I believe you'd order him to marry me, and thrash him if he refused!"

"I'd see that he did it!" said Jack, with the same savage earnestness.

A silence fell upon them; Kitty's thoughts seemed to grow more distressful, for now and again she sighed; Jack stared out of the window, and watched the deepening twilight blacken the park; it seemed to him that this confession of Kitty's was so blackening his life; the night was settling down upon it.

"Jack—do you—do you remember—about two years ago—you stopped kissing me. Why—why did you do it?" said Kitty, softly; she seemed to have wandered from the point. He turned to her; the glow of the fire alone lit the room now; and she was sitting full in it. Her face was still pale.

"Oh," he said, in discomfort, "you weren't a child any more. And you were a great heiress—and I was your friend and guardian—and all that sort of thing, don't you know!"

"Poor Jack! You're very poor, aren't you, Jack?"

"No, I'm not! I'm rolling in riches! I've four hundred a year!" said Jack, bitterly. "Besides, there's the Colonial Land Agency; I made twenty pounds out of that last year."

"What's four hundred a year with your tastes?" queried Kitty.

"Look here! don't let's talk about me. What about this fellow?" said Jack, clenching his fist and banging it on the table.

"You should never have left Westralia. You kept your horses, you got your sport; you were on the way to becoming the big man of the district," said Kitty, not to be diverted from her theme. "Do you remember what a swell you were when you first found me, six—no, seven—I'm always forgetting that I'm nineteen—years ago, and how poor father and I were? Do you know I should never have been anything but a wild bush-girl if you hadn't taken me in hand and looked after me? Really you taught me everything! I believe that but for that I might have worn the wrong clothes!"

"Oh, nonsense! You were born all right," said Jack.

"Oh, yes, you did," said Kitty. "And when three years ago the gold was found, and father made his million, and died, appointing you my guardian, and you thought I ought to come to England and have some schooling, I believe you left Westralia just for my sake, to look after me."

"One always comes back to England," said Jack, quickly.

"You wouldn't have come but for that," said Kitty.

"Oh, yes, I should. Of course I should."

"I always thought it strange that father didn't leave you a few thousands a year for your trouble in looking after me and my fortune," said Kitty.

"He knew jolly well I shouldn't have taken it," said Jack, hotly.

There was a pause; and then she said thoughtfully—

"Do you know I believe father thought you would fall in love with me and marry me? Wasn't it a funny idea?" said Kitty.

"Oh, v—v—very funny! Very funny!" said Jack, grinding his teeth softly.

"Yes; just think of your age. Why, you'll be twenty-eight on the tenth of March," said Kitty.

"Oh! So it's that young fool Malmesford, is it?" said Jack, viciously.

"What's that young fool Malmesford?" asked the innocent Kitty.

"Look here," said Jack, in a quiet, strained voice, "we're getting away from the point. You want to marry a man; and I'm to make him marry you. Who is he?"

"Ah," said Kitty, plaintively, with a long-drawn breath, "now I see why you're so keen about it. You want to get rid of me. You are tired of the trouble of looking after my stupid investments. Well, I'm sure I don't wonder at it. You want to marry me off, and have done with it. I wouldn't have sent for you if I'd known; I've only added to your trouble."

"Well," said the goaded Jack, "thank goodness you'll be of age in two years; and then I sha'n't be plagued like this."

"Plagued," said Kitty, "how plagued? I'm so sorry. How was I to know you wanted to be rid of the trouble of me and my fortune? You never grumbled before."

"Oh, your fortune! I tell you I've wished a thousand times that every investment of yours went to smash, and you lost every penny of it! So there! I'll just leave you for awhile to make up your mind whether you're going to tell me who the man is, or not!" He flung out of the room in a heat, and banged the door.

Kitty laughed a little low laugh of extreme relief; but her eyes were all shining; and she said with a little shiver, "He loves me—he does—he does—he does!!!"

Presently she rose, with a very resolute face, took a hat and coat from a peg in the hall, went out of the back-door, and down to the stables. She went into a coach-house, switched on the electric light above her motor-car, and considered it thoughtfully. It was a big car, with something of the air of a trap, built to hold two. Then she went to the box of tools used for its machinery, and selecting a fine file stepped into the car, and set deliberately to work to file through the handle of the lever which started and stopped it. Her Australian life had made her a capital work-woman, and she did it neatly; but it was a long piece of work, and now and again she stopped to test it. She wished to file through it, so that she could break it with a jerk. All the while she worked she whistled softly. Something about her task seemed to amuse her.

At last she completed it to her liking, and then sat back in the car, weighing, with a face that grew very serious, the risks of the dangerous game she had resolved to play. After a long while she rose and said between her teeth, "I don't care if we are smashed, Jack and I, together."

She came back to the house, went to him in the billiard-room, and said, "We're going to dine at the Hall to-night. Aunt will go in the brougham, and you and I in the motor-car."

"I hate the beastly thing. I know there will be a smash some day," he said. His temper was still ruffled.

She handled the lever very gingerly, and brought them to the Hall safely. Jack did not enjoy the dinner. Kitty and the Marquis of Malmesford were plainly great friends: she had never, indeed, been so nice to him before. Jack tried to regard their friendship with the eye of an indulgent guardian, hardened, as he believed himself, to the thought of her marrying; he made a very poor hand at it. He had accustomed himself, indeed, to looking at her across the great gulf of her wealth; but the sight of another man making fortunate love to her awoke in him a desperate jealousy.

They were late leaving the Hall; and it was a bitter black frost. Aunt Anne started first in her brougham, and then Kitty, in a long sealskin jacket and sealskin cape, walked down between Jack and Malmesford to the stables, where the motor-car awaited them. Jack wrapped the rugs round her very carefully, and took his seat at her side; she cried a careless "Good-night!" to Malmesford, and started the car gently. As they turned into the road at the end of the drive, she moved the lever nearly to full speed, and with a sharp jerk of her strong little wrist snapped off the handle.

For a long while neither said a word. The car sped along with a querulous, eerie whirr that rose to a clattering snarl as it hurtled down hill. The cold air stung their faces; the hedges were level, black walls on either side; now and again they flew through a sleeping village; and the dogs who ran out to bark, turned and fled yelping from this sinister, rushing monster. Kitty's firm hand steered them steadily, save when the car jerked snarling down hill, out of control; now and again she set the whistle hooting. Jack sat with his mind in a whirl of fears of what might befall her. Little by little the oppression of a nightmare began to weigh upon them as a binding spell.

Jack broke it by withdrawing his arm from around her, and lighting a cigar; he did not slip his arm back.

Presently she said softly, "Hold me again, Jack, I feel safer"—his arm slipped round her—"I feel—I feel—as if some dreadful beast were carrying us away."

She looked infinitely childlike; and he gripped her closer.

"Poor aunt Anne, she'll think we've had a smash, as indeed we may," she said presently.

"By Jove, yes; they'll be hunting the neighbourhood for us!" said Jack.

"As for Lord Malmesford, he'll think you've run away with me," said Kitty.

"Oh, nonsense!" said Jack, uneasily.

"He will though. Juliette Halliwell will tell him so. I saw her get very angry at the affectionate way you were looking at me at dinner," said Kitty.

"I wasn't!" said Jack.

"Oh, yes, you were; ever so affectionately. What kind of affection was it, Jack—paternal?"

"Talk of something else!" said Jack, in a thick voice; and nestling against him, she felt him quiver and his heart shake him at each thumping beat.

Some miles further on the lights of a town rose suddenly a little way ahead. Kitty set the whistle hooting, and slowed the car as much as she could, but even then they dashed down the long silent street at a very dangerous pace. It was fortunate that it was empty. They were a mile beyond it before they breathed easily again, and Kitty said, "What town was that?"

"I don't know," said Jack. "We're five-and-twenty miles from home."

The whistle hooted and hooted; she gave the car the brake; and at each leap it jarred every bone in her body. They rushed towards the waggon; if the waggon was not on its right side of the road, they were smashed: they were upon it; Kitty screamed out; there was a snapping crash; then they were rushing along the empty road with the left splash-board torn off. Kitty lay back in a dead faint. Jack caught the steering-gear in his right hand, raised Kitty with his left arm, and twisted into her place, holding her on his knees. The car began to slacken and go smoother up the opposite hill; in three minutes it was steady again. Kitty lay heavy and still in his arms, her face very white in the moonlight; her faint breathing scarce parted her lips.

Uphill and downhill, through villages, through another town the car fled on. Now and again Kitty murmured a word, now she seemed to sleep. The night was wearing on. At last it seemed to him that the beast was tiring; and he scarce dared believe it. But breasting the next long hill it slowed and slowed; its moan hushed; it came to a crawl. Thirty yards from the top it stopped a moment, moved on again, then stopped for good. For all its danger he sighed that their ride was at an end. Kitty never stirred; he gave her a little shake; and she sighed too, and raised herself. They looked down on a great stretch of country; here and there the dim twinkling showed the lights of a town.