SHORT STORY

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 386, 1 October 1903, Page 7

SHORT STORY

i Miss Lavinia was a parish councillor. Miaa Louisa wasn't But, apart from that slight difference in dignity conferred or withheld by the suffrages of their fellow citizens, there wasn't eo very much to chcoao between them. Both were placidly pretty middle-aged ladies, with calm brown eyes, sympathetic profiles, smooth grey hair, none the worse for being silvery, and a dainty touch of that motherly beauty which, in women of their type, often tells of a noble vocation ruthleesly closed against them. Nevertheless, there lives were far from idle. They were able, active, clear-headed workers. MissLavinia was an expert in Venetian lace and the rearing of poultry; Miss Louisa taught artistic brasa-byating (for love) to the boys of the parish. And of such is the kingdom of heaven. They sat at tea on the lawn in front of the cottage. To whom, tbus engaged, while the maid from the orphanage handed round the buttered tea-cake, enter a tramp, unexpectly. He was a dniater-looking old man, with a cut across the cheek, say seventy or thereabouts ; his clothes somewhat imperfectly concealed his limbs, and he introduced himself at once, with no false modesty. 'l'm Mr. Tanks/ he said cheerfully. * Mr. Arrowßmita, he sent me to yon with bis love. I've a letter for you,' and he produced it frcm the depthß of his trcu3era pocket. To judge from appearances, it had once been cleaner. ' Mr. Arrowsmith ?' Miss Lavinia repeated, with an inquiring air. 'Oh yes, Louisa; you remember. He was ——* She hesitated, nat liking to say 'that tiamp/ which, in point of fact, was the actual occupation of both gentlemen in question. ' I remember,' Miss Louisa replied, with a humorous little twinkle, for Mr. Arrow. smith was an older and atill more villainous rogue than even the specimen that stood before them. 'Well, he give me thiß letter,' Mr. Tunka repeated, handing the envelope across to them. It bore evident traces of recent close proximity to a foul clay pipe, and also the following remarkable inscription— To the two maiden ladies, On the high beech road, Nut far from lord Berryhursfs park gates, Near Haalemere, Surrey. One of 'em wears specktaclea.

- The interior of the letter consisted entirely ol a EiogLe sentence —

Tbe bearer of this, a gentleman named Tanks, his a friend of mine, an'he will tell yon hall ahcut it your obedgent servant, Bichabd Abeowsmith.

" A cross after the name led to a well* founded suspicion that Mr. Arrowsmith was indebted for the handicraft of this epistle to the services of an amanuensis. Miss Lavinia looked up. 'Well?' she said, interrogatively. Mr. Tanks pulled himself together for an arduous task o! articulate speech. He fancied himsalf an orator. 'Well/ he said solemnly, beginning his tale,' Arrowsmith, he was enamoured of a woman.' He said this as though he supposed Miss Lavimia would be astonished. But Miss Lavinia, being a parish councillor, was far too wise to be astonished at anything, including even Mr. Tunk's command of language. 'lndeed?' she said politely. ' It waa like this/ Mr. TunVs went on, with visible marks of an effort to be explicit. 'Him an' me was in the infirmary,' 'Workhouse?' Miss Lavinia inquired laconically, for she knew the dialect. Mr. Tunis nodded. ' Horsham,' he added slowly. 'We was both of us down with this 'ere blessed infinenzer.' (I generalise s his epithet) 'An' Arrowsmith, he was enamoured of a woman.' (When a man of Mr. Tunk's class feels he has got hold of a highly appropriate and delicate word, he doesn't let it go again till he has had a [good day's woik out of it.) *, An' the woman was in the workhouse, too—female side—infirmary. An' the doctor, he ordered Arrowsmith porter. He didn't order none for the rest of us, not bein as bad as him; but just a pint a-day for Arrowsmith. Hswsomdover, Arrowsmith, he didn't drink hisn, through being that enamoured of the woman I spoke of, but sent it round to her by an inmate as helped the nurses.' "That was touching,' Miss Lavinia replied. For, indeed, she had a groat heart, had Miss Lavinia, and could sympathise even with, ragged old Arrowsmith and his workhouse inamorata. 'And he wanted me to write to her,

clandestine,' Mr. Tanks went on, adven-

taring yet another of his company words with obvious gusto. 'He wanted me to write to her, sow knowin' how hisself, and bavin' got a inmate to write this letter to yon. Bat, o' course, I couldn't be » party to nothin' clandestine.' And Mr. Tunks's bosom swelled with conscious virtue. 'That was a pity,' Hiss Lavinia remarked once more, speaking as a woman, not as a parish councillor. Mr. Tunka looked surprised. He had not expected this from a maiden lady. ' And in time,' he went on. ' the master found out he wasn't drinkin* his porter accordin' to orders, but sendin' it clandestine to this woman he was enamoured of. So the master up an' give him a jacketing.' 'A what?' Miss Lavinia inquired, at f iult for a moment. 'A jacketing,' Mr. Tunks responded, ' Had words with him, mum, in the manner of speaking. And Arrowsmitb, he never was one to sit down quiet to a jacketing, tain' that high-spirited. W« calls him the Village 'Anipden en the road* So he upß and aists the master for his clothes, he did.' 'For his clothes?' Miss Louisa interposed, not following the narrative. « Yes, mum—for his clothes. You see,

in a workhouse, things is always done 0 regular and respectable. When as inmate wants to leave, the reg'lar course is, he

arats for his clothes; an' it takes twenty- - four hours for the I jrmalities to be com.

love's Old Dream.

pleted. An' Arrowsmith arstin' for his clothes, the woman he was enamaured of arsts for her clotheß too; an' out they goes together, permificuous like, as it would seem, but really through his writin' to her clandestine to wain her. And Arrowsmith, he'd never cashed them orders you sent him, though bain' so much enamoured, an' keepin' it all for her.' 'You recollect, Lavinia,' Mies Louisa interposed, 'we sent him two postal orders last winter, for a couple of shillings each, to bay himself tobacco when be was in Maidstone Union.' Mr. Tanka nodded. 'That's it,' be answered sagaciously. 'An' now comes the trouble. He never cashed 'em, through being enamoured of the woman. So out he and she went, an' gcea, o' course, together to the public-'ouae. An' there, drinkin' away the money you was kind enough to eend him, Arrowamith and the woman gets to words at la at; an' speaks high to one another; an* has it out an'fights in the end, through bein' in liquor. An' the woman hits Arrowsmith in the 'ead with a pewter, an' then runs away, an' Arrowsmith after her. An' a p'liceman in plain clothes, he sees 'em an' follows 'em. An' tbey runs right on as far as Southwater Church, an' straight into the churchyard, Aa' there Arrowsmith catches her, an' hits her a blow; an' the woman, she falls down, cross-ways, upon a tombstone, an' lurts her Bpine. An' back she goes to the hospital. And the p'liceman cops him. Aa' Arrowsmith, he's now in Lowes Gaol, awaitiu' bib trial. An' he't sent me to arst if you'll allow him a trifle.' Thus ended love's old dream. It was but a sordid comedy. Yet Miss Lavinia, village councillor though sbo might be, was poorer that night by five (shillings Obant Allen,