SHORT STORY

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 358, 19 March 1903, Page 7

SHORT STORY

Shi was 'gweet and twenty-two/ and as the tripped down the steps of a B joomsbury bearding-house, John Howard, millionaire, forgot for once his great financial schemes in the pleasure her dainty personality sfforded him. Her hair was ot fine gold—ale were deep black, and in her hand were some letters. •By Jova!' muttered Howard involuntarily. Toe lo.k of undisguised admiration in his rather gcod eyes forced the colour into her cheeks, and she hurried forward in some confusion, dropping in haste one of the letters. 'I beg yiur pardon,' said Howard, quickly overtaking hr, «you have dropped something.' llShe stopped and looked at him for a moment wondtringly, then her quick eyes detected the letter in bis hand. ■'Oh!' she cried, hastily glancing through the remaining correspondence, • it is my letter to Mr Howard 1' ' Howard 1' repeated the millionaire, momentarily startled by the sudden pronouncement of his name Then be glanced at the envelope :—John Howard. Esq., 18, Breams Buildings, Adelphi Street, W.C. His own name and official address. ' How extraordinary!' be said, more to himself than to the girl. He glanced at her keenly as he sprte, seeking for some clue to his unknown* correspondent's identity—some remembrance of the fair surprised face that confronted him—but no, so recollection existed.

' I beg your pardon,' he said, noticing her look of uneasy astonishment, «but—l saw the address on your letter—and as I —er know Mr Howard personally—the coincidence for a moment b tar tied me.' 'You know Mr Howard—Mr Howard, the millionaire,' she repeated, sudden interest in kez eyes, 'I do,' replied Howard, quizzically, 'very well indeed. In fact'—a sudden idea striking him—' I—er—work for him.' ' You are one of his employees V •YesP ' People say he is very good to those who want help/ she went on. ' Oh! wßll—er—»began Howard smiling, ' people are inclined to exaggerate. But I suppose he does his best* 'Do you think he would help me ? I am in very great disfcress—my—my 5 and her eyu suddenly filled with tears, my father has just died—and as there was no money I must find work,' she ended rather incoherently. 'I am very sorry,'said Howard gently, 'and I think—nay, I am sure he will assist you in any way possible.' 'I only want work,' she said, flushing deeply. 'Not—not anything else. My father once did Mr Howard some trifling service, for which he was very grateful, and when my father was—was dying '— she went on unsteadily—«he said, ' write to John Howard, and ask him for work. He will have changed very much from the young man whom I knew years ago,' if he refuses to help the daughter of James Williams.'

' James Williams,' cried Howard,'starting 2 'notthe James Williams who was manager of the Diamond Bank in Capetown?*

* Yes,* aha said,' he was my father.' ' And yon are the daughter whom he used to speak about?' aaid Howard, wonderingly. ' Yes, I was in England then—at school —but——* she broke off suddenly," you speak as if you knew him.' 1 I—1,» stammered Howard. * Well—er Howard has often spoken to me about your father—and— r?* ' Oh, then my letter may be of some use, after all?* she cried, hope leading an additional beauty to what Howard had already begun to term 'her wonderful eyes.' 'Your letter? 1 repeated Howard, wonderingly. 'Oh, I see—the letter which you dropped ?' 'lt was to ask Mr Howard for work in one of his offices, 1 she explained ingenuously. 'I cpu typewrite and do shorthand, and that sort of thing. I would do my best,' she added bravely. •I am sure he will give yon work,' cried the millionaire enthusiastically; ' and this letter—do you think you could entrust it to me ? lamon my way to the office now,' he explained,' and, you see, I might be able to explain matters a little as well as deliver your letter.' 'H' w kind of you,' she cried, her eyes suddenly filling with tears. 'Oh, lam bo grateful to you, Mr.——' 'Brown,' supplemented Howard, without ablush; 'and now. Miss Williams,' he went on hurriedly, to avoid any further thank?,' I will not detain you any longer. Don't worry about the future,' he added, retaining her hand just a moment longer thanwae necessary, 'John Howard will not prove unmindful of a service rendered.'

The millionaire rug his bell. * Htnitherg,* he said, as his chief clerk appeared, ' I hare engaged a young lady to look after the immediate affairs of my own office—do the miscellaneous typing, and that sort of thing 1' •Yes, sir !* ' She will start work on Monday, and as I want to see exactly what she is capable of doing, I intend to sink my identity fer a tame—under the name of Brown. Mr. Howard is going away for some weeks—abroad, anywhere—and in thi meantime Mr Brown, his secretary, wfs occupy these rooms and see exactly what the new typist is capable of doing. Too understand, Smithers V 'Quite, sir; but the other clerks? They may divulge the secret.' ' I have thought of that,' said Howard, 'and accordingly Miss Williams—her name, by the way, is Williams—will have no communication with anyone in the office except you and myself. I rely upon you, Smithers, to see that none of the others upset my experiment,' he added a "~ "<sH' peremoterily. •Very sir!' and the chief clerk withdrew, wondering not a little at the nature of his chiefs experiment. Behind in the well-appointed office John Howard sat in his chair also thinxing of hit experiment. Now that it was all settled he could look back. calmly and etas that his scheme was more the outcome cf an unexplainable impulse than any

The love Story of a Millionaire.

consecutive train of thought. But he felt no regret because of that—nay, he nxperienced a wild sense of elation in allowing the hard business brain that had accumutZ. mUIioHS to ravel for once in an absurdly boyish realm of romance. He even found himself humming a little love song—he a sedate man of thirty-six—it seemed incongruous, yet he kept on humming. And so for a long time the millionaire sat m his chair gazing idly into the fire, thinking of many things—among them a kindly old man who had once befriended nun in a foreign country, and t he daughter whom Fate had so romantically thrown in his way. Many women had smiled upon him—many had angled for his millions—but he had hitherto gone his way unimpressed. And now far the first time in his life a woman's face came between him and his morning's work. Work! It had been the keynote of his existence. -This morning as he looked back upon his life it seemed to hold little that was soft and lovable, nothing but years of struggle and hardship, with a success at the end that still left him unsatisfied. Through every phase of fortune, good and bad, he had always been conscious of a vague want—something near and yet so far off that not all his millions could appease or even define this vague longing Bet now he knew it had com«s to him at last—come in the guise of a letter and a pair of Boft grey eyes. • His face grew wondorfully toft and tender as be thought of the gratitude that shone in those eyes, and in his heart John Howard knew that the one woman of all .others for him had come into his life, at last.

• Ana why not ?* he muttered «After all, I am but thirty-six, and if my plan works and she learns to love me, it will not be as John Howard the millionaire, but as John Brown the secretary/

•Will you come to the' Queen's Hall this eyeninar, Miss Williams P I have some tickets for a concert.'

* How kind of you. And I—l—' She paused and looked up at John Howard, alias Brown, with a look that spoke volumes for the success of a certain experiment.

• I will come.' she added shyly, dropping her eyes before Howard's ardent gaze. Some three months had elapsed since the pseudo-secretary picked up that fateful letter in a Bloomsbury Square. Many things hsd happened since thenthings that now made the great coups and business deals which had once constituted the millionaire's essence of existence seem very small and paltry indeed. Miss Williams had been duly installed aa typist at a Balary, which, had she been at all conversant with the labour market, would have struck her as being very remarkable indeed.

True—many things had of late begun to pnzzle her, ameng them the millionaire's prolonged absence abroad, and his secretary's strange reticence regarding hiß employer. To all her questions about Howard the letter's answers proved evasive and unsatisfactory.

Just at first this did not strike her as strange, but as their intercourse and intimacy day by day increased, his evasiveness began to hurt the girl. It reached a climax one day, when she ■poke of her gratitude to the millionaire and her longing for his return in order that she might express her gratitude in words. Brown laughed outright. 'My dear Miss Williams,' be said chaffingly, 'you have placed Howard on too high a pedestal altogether. I assure you he is really one of the moat selfish of men.'

'He has been very good to me,' she retorted a little -Sharply, 'and I never forget a—a kindness,' she added, suddenly penitent again, as she remembered ail the little kindnesses of the man before her.

Brown smiled and said no more. Jf* WBB fin * and Im ' approach to a tiff, and in the evening, when Howard suggested a long 'bus ride, she strove to show by her ready acceptance how much ™ e ?? etted t,ieir Previous disagreement. The humble 'bus had of late become a frequent item in their programme, for John Howard* was bent on carrying out thoroughly his role of an ordinary employe of the great millionaire. But those 'bus rides! Ah, how sweet they were—tinged by the magic wand of romance how beautiful even a commonplace 'red Hammersmith' can become Thisimoraing, John Howard leaned back in his tffice chair and lived those rides all over again, his thoughts punctuated by the prosaic click, click of the typewriter under the skilful fingers of the girl he loved.

•To-night,' he muttered at length, as if -planning an enterprise, 'to-night ' and he smiled softly to himself as if the issue were no matter of doubt. Hie manner was very gentle and tender as he left the office that evening, and walked with Miss Williams to the end of of the street.

' Good-bye for a little while/ he said, ae they parted * I will call at seven. You are Bure you care to come ?' * Sure.'

She looked up into his eyes half-Bhyly, and half—well—something else that sent John Brown homeward with his nerves tingling and his whole being full of an altogether unreasonable measure of happiness—happiness that had Buffered no diminution when, two hours later, they entered the Queen's Hall together. And the concert ? Well, it was one of those evenings to be marked in a man's calendar with a«white stone,' and Howard and his companion were both very quiet and silent as the concert came to a close. Only just for a moment, as he held her cloak, she turned those dear, grey eyes of hers on Howard, and he knew then that for good or ill, through joy and sorrow, this woman's soul was his possession for 6ver and ever.

* We'll drive home,' he whispered, as they reached the street

Neither epoke again till the cab had begun to wina its devious way through some of the darker streets, then Howard put his arm round her, and drew her to him.

'lt seems almost too good to be true, little woman,* he whispered unsteadily. • Aim. 6t—John.'

She lay in his arms quite quietly, abandoning herself to all his endearments, finding an exquisite relief in outward expression of all the pent-up love of months.

Their drive came to aa end all too soon, but Howard had little difficulty in persuading her to walk round the Bloomsbury Square in which they had first met. In that moonlight walk he confessed the whole plot, and sued for absolution.

Which must have been done with good effect—since the roll of Bachelors no longer contains the name of John Howard, millionaire.—By Nolan of Castlekhock.