The Lost Gospel and Its Contents / Or, The Author of Supernatural Religion" Refuted by Himself"

emotional excitement of the previous evening. Granted the discovery of the Garden of Eden, and add to this the almost immediate intrusion of outsiders therei

keyed up by finding the preceding few days pun

emed as though that grey curtain of fog had been a symbol of the shadow which was beginning

ollowed Davilof's headlong wooing and his refusal, when thwarted, to play for her again. He, too, had n

ittle court of admirers which surrounded her, had seen fit to complicate matters by vanishing without explanation; while his mother, in an absurd materna

lian's rather apprehensive little comments on the absence of f

. "The boy's all right. I expect he's been havi

ponded Gillian gravely. "They're afraid he may-may have committed suicide"-she

a fl

s-this nonsense? You said n

go-before you were down-to ask if by any chance w

aving her breakfast unfinished, mov

morning's paper, is there?" she as

grew suddenly

ned, laying her hand quickly over th

natched it from her. Gillia

ead it, Magda!" she

arched the columns of the paper until she found a paragr

which had been predicted for him, and, in mentioning that he was one of the set of brilliant young folks of whom Magda Wielitzska, the well-known dancer, was the acknowl

e that a young life so full of exceptional promise has fou

o Kit Raynham-if it were ultimately found that he had taken his own life-society a

e perfection of Wielitzska's dancing as a whole, and dwelling

durable. That this supreme success should be marred and overshado

ld's going mad!" she exc

d infringe upon her success contending with the genuine regret she would feel if some untoward accident had really befallen Kit Raynham. And behind both these that strange, aloof detachment which seemed pa

and she had therefore no idea that the intrusion of Kit Raynham's affairs at this particular junctur

e she could give them utterance Melrose opened the door and announced tha

ers had had it. Moreover, it always seems as though there exists a species of wireless telepathy by which the domestic staff of any household, gr

lrose's announcement; then Magda walked

rey hair and an entirely undistinguished face, but as she stood there, motionless, waiting for Magda to come up to her, she was qu

long hours of strain. Her eyes were red-rimmed with sleeples

you done

nswering question came i

don't

n as she nerved herself to stand and confront the woman at whose door she laid the ruin of her son. But n

said tonelessly. "I don't even k

per held it out. Magda took it from her mechanically, recognising, with a queer tigh

to read thi

he other harshly. "It is written t

face and clung there unwaveri

oman. A pathetic enough document in its confused medley of passionate demand and boyish humbleness. The tragic si

me think you did. I know now that you don't-that you never really cared a brass farthing, an

age and met the gaze of the sad, me

e men enough to pay you compliments and run your errands. I'd only Kit. Couldn't you have

ly. "You're wrong. I was very fond

To her, it seemed that Lady Raynham was

d to get on. And he was so gifted it looked as if there were nothing in his profession that he might not do. . . . Then you came! You turned his head, filled his thoughts to the exclusion of all else-work, duty, every

sorry

composure was giving way under the strain of the i

desperately. "He was far too

you turne

he door as though she had said all she

nfair! Can I help it if your son chose to fall in love with me? You-you mi

r way to the door as though arre

women like you who are responsib

a reply, nor had Lady Raynham waited for one. If her boy were indeed dead-dead by his own hand-she had at least c

ss defending its young. And now that the strain was over and she found herself once more in her brougham, driving homeward with the familiar clip-clop of the fat old carriage-horse's hoof

ing at her with its stern denunciation, brought back vividly to Magda Mi

s stir about Kit Raynham-the impending gossip and censure which seemed likely to

f her memory-and out of the memory of the man whose contempt had hurt her more than anything in her whole life befo

e affair might appear in Michael's eyes, she was characte

ntly, "that I'm to blame because the bo

the point of view of Kit's mother only too well, and sympathise with it. Yet, understanding Magda bette

is should be the case. The influences by which Magda had been surrounded during the first ten plastic years of childhood had all tended to imbue her with the idea that men were only to be regarded as playthings, and that from the simpl

ated without a soul," s

miled a

aid. "The idea's not a bit original. Michael Quarrington told

radicted her warmly. "I only said it bec

ust now." Magda spoke somewhat forlornly. "And

usual' that's so disastrous. You go sailing through life li

on't blame me because I don't 'fall in love'? . . . I don

ared enough about anybody to do something really outrageous-run off with anot

a la

o morals. And you here in the cap

now-I'm sure this business about Kit Raynham is going to

red at he

ffect me-why shou

can't smash up people's only sons-not lovable, popular boys like Kit-wit

om, banging the door behin

been a general favourite in society, and his disappearance, taken in conjuncti

betaken himself and his disappointment, people seemed at first disinclined to overlook Magda's share in the matter. For a time even her im

f young Raynham's supposed suicide was lifted from the affair-there was a definite

g and enthusiastic as ever. Perhaps even more enthusiastic, since the existence of a

iticised. What did affect her, however, absorbing her thoughts to the exclusion of all other matters, was that

credited him with having yielded to a sudden impulse, kissing her as some men wi

or her against his will, against his better judgment, Magda could not but realise. But he had cared! S

r a vague tumult of emotion at once sweet and frightening; and in that brief moment in the "Garden of Eden," when

concerned, Michael seemed to have walked straight out of her life, and she was too proud-and too much hurt-to inquire

he had betaken himself off to Australia. But when the whole of the facts were evident, she allowed nothing-neither th

im shoulders irritab

s to consider my side of the question! I was merely nice to him in an ordinary sort of way, and there wasn't the least

made a gestu

sneaking sympathy with poor Hugh for shelving the responsibility of having brought you i

prot

Kit is four-and-twenty if he's

ely. "Kit is a babe in arms, while you-you're as old as Eve." She paused.

ther the pieces and offer the re

have place for it. Egoist she might be, with the unthinking egotism of youth, irresponsible in her gay acceptance of the love and admiration showered on her, but there was n

en someone else out of England

do you

ur crept up under her white skin, and

artist-man-Mich

hen with an effort she went on: "You're surely not going to pu

which I happen to kn

i-about Mr. Quarrington. It's

life are mere guesswork," replied Lady

In thi

use. Then Lady Arab

speaking from firs

gure tautened. She

ton told you he was leaving En

ually deprecating. "But I did in this instance. Because-oh, my dear, he's the only

n scarlet flush that flew up into her face

oves a woman, my dear. Most of them whip up a hotch-potch of quite commonplace feelings with a dash of passion and cal

rmur could be regarded as such, and after a fe

you have lef

aised h

that to do

ton came to see me before he went away-and I know precisely why

" The words were

she quoted quickly: "'There is

and barring of a door. So Quarrington, like everyone else, had he

his trust. She had meant never to fall short of all that Michael demanded in the woman he loved. And now, before she had had a chance to justify his hardly-w

she learned what it meant to long for the beloved one's presence-the sound and touch of voice or han

ed her keenly. Ignorant of the incidents that had occurred on the night of Lady Arabella's party, she was disposed to assign the soreness of spirit she discerned in her friend to the general happenings which had followed from the Raynham episode. And amongst these she g

ubject, but Magda had clearly indicated t

nveil the wound to her pride. No one, no one in the whole world, should know that she had been rea

eart to any man. If you do he will only break it for you-break it into

told herself bitterly.