The Mystery Queen | Page 5

would not have another opportunity for uninterrupted love-making, and being entirely in favour of the match, attended to the stage and left them to whisper unreproved. She could not see why Dan, whom Lillian had loved since the pair had played together as children, should be set aside in favour of a dry-as-dust barrister, even though he had lately come into a fortune and a title. "But of course," said Mrs. Bolstreath between the acts, "if you could only invent a perfect flying-machine, they would make you a duke or something and give you a large income. Then you could marry."
"What are you talking about, Bolly darling?" asked Lillian, much puzzled, as she could not be supposed to know what was going on inside her friend's head.
"About you and Dan, dear. He has no money and--"
"I shall make heaps and heaps of money," said Dan, sturdily; "aviation is full of paying possibilities, and the nation that first obtains command of the air will rule the world. I'm no fool!"
"You're a commoner," snapped Mrs. Bolstreath quickly, "and unless, as I said, you are made a duke for inventing a perfect aeroplane, Lord Curberry is certainly a better match for Lillian."
"He's as dull as tombs," said Miss Moon with her pretty nose in the air.
"You can't expect to have everything, my dear child."
"I can expect to have Dan," retorted Lillian decidedly, whereat Dan whispered sweet words and squeezed his darling's gloved hand.
"Well," said Mrs. Bolstreath, as the curtain rose on the second act, "I'll do my best to help you since I believe in young love and true love. Hush, children, people are looking! Attend to the stage."
Dan and Lillian did their best to follow her advice and sat demurely in the box side by side, watching the heroine flirt in a duet with the hero, both giving vent to their feelings in a lively musical number. But they really took little interest in "The Happy Bachelor!" as the piece was called, in spite of the pretty girls and the picturesque scenery. They were together and that was all they cared about, and although a dark cloud of parental opposition hovered over them, they were not yet enveloped in its gloom. And after all, since Mrs. Bolstreath was strongly prejudiced in their favour, Lillian hoped that she might induce Sir Charles to change his mind concerning Lord Curberry. He loved his daughter dearly and would not like to see her unhappy, as she certainly would be if compelled to marry any one but The One. Lillian said this to Mrs. Bolstreath and to Dan several times on the way home, and they entirely agreed with her.
"Although I haven't much influence with Sir Charles," Mrs. Bolstreath warned them, "and he is fond of having his own way."
"He always does what I ask," said Lillian confidently. "Why, although he was so busy this evening, he saw Mrs. Brown when I pleaded for her."
"He couldn't resist you," whispered Dan fondly; "no one could."
Mrs. Bolstreath argued this point, saying that Lillian was Sir Charles's daughter, and fathers could not be expected to feel like lovers. She also mentioned that she was jeopardising her situation by advocating the match, which was certainly a bad one from a financial point of view, and would probably be turned out of doors as an old romantic fool. The lovers assured her she was the most sensible of women and that if she was turned out of doors they would take her into the cottage where they proposed to reside like two turtle doves. Then came laughter and kisses and the feeling that the world was not such a bad place after all. It was a very merry trio that alighted at the door of Moon's great Hampstead mansion.
Then came a shock, the worse for being wholly unexpected. At the door the three were met by Marcus Penn, who was Moon's secretary. He looked leaner and more haggard than ever, and his general attitude was that of the bearer of evil news. Dan and Lillian and Mrs. Bolstreath stared at him in amazement. "You may as well know the worst at once, Miss Moon," said Penn, his lips quivering with nervousness, "your father is dead. He has been murdered."
Chapter II.
A COMPLETE MYSTERY
It was Mrs. Bolstreath who carried Lillian upstairs in her stout arms, for when Penn made his brusque announcement the girl fainted straight away, which was very natural considering the horror of the information. Dan remained behind to tell the secretary that he was several kinds of fool, since no one but a superfine ass would blurt out so terrible a story to a delicate girl. Not that Penn had told much, for Lillian had become unconscious the moment her bewildered brain grasped that the father she had left a