CHAPTER II.

      A SHOT IN THE DARKNESS.

      After many and fervent farewells, the lovers embraced and went home. It was understood that Harold should go to London that evening by the five o'clock local from Chippingholt, which connected with the express at Langton Junction, some twenty miles away. After seeing his lawyer, he was to write her a full account of the interview, and arrange definitely the details for their marriage. Meanwhile, to set his mind at rest, Brenda promised to see as little of Van Zwieten as possible.

      As her father was ill, she was compelled to play the part of hostess--an ungrateful one enough toward a guest she so disliked--but as the Dutchman had arranged to leave next morning, she hoped for so short a time to obey the laws of hospitality, and at the same time keep him at his distance. But even so the situation was a trying one, and Brenda relished it little.

      The cottage was an unpretentious little place on the borders of Chippingholt, where the orchards began to stretch toward the woods. Scarse was not well off, and had been fortunate enough to obtain it at quite a nominal rental. He kept a cook and one housemaid, both of whom Brenda looked after; and despite his slender means, his style of living was in every way refined. The largest room in the house had been turned into a study, and here Brenda now found her father buried in blue-books, pamphlets and newspapers.

      Scarse was a lean, tall anæmic-looking creature. His hair was quite white, his pallid and wrinkled face clean-shaven, and his whole aspect was one of peevishness and querulousness. In spite of the warmth he had ordered a fire to be lighted, and, wrapped in a llama wool dressing-gown, he crouched over it with the Daily Mail spread out upon his knees. He looked ill and cross, and seemed terribly feeble. Brenda was more than ever certain, now that she saw him, that Harold had been mistaken in thinking it was he whom he had met. He looked, she thought, more fit for bed than for walking.

      "Come in, come in," he said in his thin, cantankerous voice. "Shut the door, Brenda; there is quite a draught."

      "Are you no better, father?" she asked, coming toward him and taking his hand. Scarse snatched it away.

      "Not a bit, my dear. This thing has a hold of me--I am aching all over. Of course it comes just to prevent my speaking at the Trafalgar Square meeting next week!"

      "You can send an excuse."

      "I can't and I won't," snapped her father. "This paper shows me how necessary it is for all men to protest against this unjust war, which has been forced upon the Boers. I must speak in favor of that honest, God-fearing band of farmers, who are in danger of being crushed by a capitalist war. I want to see Van Zwieten about this article. It is perfectly scandalous. Where is he?"

      "I don't know. I've not seen him all the afternoon."

      "Is that the way you attend to your guests?"

      "He is no guest of mine," cried Brenda, indignantly. "I can't bear the man. His mere presence is most objectionable to me."

      "You are a foolish, strong-headed girl, Brenda. Van Zwieten wants to marry you, as I have told you, and he is----

      "I won't marry him. I detest the man."

      "And you fancy you are in love with that scamp of a Burton?" said Scarse, frowning.

      "Harold is not a scamp, father. He is noble and honest, and everything that is good. I will marry no one but him."

      "I shall never give my consent--never!"

      "Then I must do without it," replied Brenda, determinedly. "I do not want to behave otherwise than as a daughter should, father, but I love Harold, and I hate Van Zwieten."

      "Don't be silly," said the M.P., querulously. "Van Zwieten is well off. He is a good match for you. He can give you a good position."

      "In the Transvaal, I suppose," scoffed Brenda.

      "Yes. And where could you live better than in a new land, where the vices of civilization have not penetrated! I don't speak of Johannesburg, that sink of iniquity, but of Pretoria, and of those towns where the Boer element exists pure and simple, With your husband in the Government you can help him to build up an ideal state."

      "I don't want to build up anything. Harold and I can be happy by ourselves."

      "You shall never marry the scamp, I tell you," cried Scarse, angrily. "Let alone his character, which is bad, he is the cousin of that scoundrel Malet, who is a bigoted Imperialist--one who is doing his best to ruin this country by advocating annexation of all and everything. He is one of those who are urging on this war. I hate the man."

      "Only because you differ from him in politics."

      "No, on other grounds which do not concern you. I know Malet--none better--and I would gladly see him dead."

      "Father!" Brenda was amazed at the savage energy of the old man. "What has Mr. Malet done to you that you should hate him so?"

      "Never mind! I hate him and I hate that young Burton."

      "Well, father," said Brenda, quietly, "you need not have shown it quite so plainly to-day. Harold said you met him this afternoon and cut him." This was a tentative remark, as Brenda was certain her father could not have been out.

      "Met Burton!" said he, raising himself angrily. "What do you mean, child?"

      "Were you not out to-day?"

      "No, I have not left this room."

      "But Harold said he saw you with a snuff-colored coat and a crape scarf round your throat. Father!" Brenda shrieked, "what is it?"

      She might well ask. Scarse was always pale, but now he was deathly white. He reared himself out of his chair with a look of terror in his eyes. It was in broken sentences he spoke. "Did … Harold Burton … see me … with a crape scarf … to-day?"

      "Yes, yes; but was it you, father? Why did you wear----"

      "Hush! Say no more, Brenda. Go away."

      A faint color was coming back to his face, and he began to look more like himself, less like a corpse. Brenda was about to demur at leaving him, but he stopped her with a peremptory gesture. "Go away, Brenda, I say."

      "But won't you explain----"

      "There is nothing to explain; go away."

      She was obliged to obey, and reluctantly she left the room. She could not understand her father's emotion, nor could she understand the presence in Chippingholt of this man with the crape scarf, who so nearly resembled him as to be mistaken for him by Harold. So far as she knew her father had no relatives. But he had always been very reticent about his family affairs. She knew nothing of his