HORT STORY

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 411, 31 March 1904, Page 7

HORT STORY

'Thanks, yes, with pleasure. It's awfully good of you, Mm 8.-rty. She's charming] quite the prettiest girl in the room, I should say.' •Miaa Malbrook, permit me to present to you Mr Widdle. Mr Widdle has been everywhere, my dear, even in Japan. No doubt he can give you, out of his Japanese experiences, a great many valuable hints in regard to your china painting.' 'Oh, how very interesting. I always have wanted to travel in the far East. Wan it very queer, Mr Widdle V 'Ah, exceedingly, I assure yon. Mrs Berty tells me that jour china painting is charming. Indeed, she has shown me that lovely vase—with the violets on the crimson ground, you know. It is posit ively delightful. Isn't it a dreadfully difficult aortof thing bo dot* ' No, not difficult, at least not very; but dreadfully bothersome. The paints dry so, you know—that is, when yon don't want thm to dry; when you're done, and want to fire, then they jott never dry at all i And then, one has so many interruptions in one's work. Beally, I assure you, several of my very nicest things have been spoiled in just that way.' 'Tea. Ifb beastly to be interrupted. Puts one out so, you know. I remember once being interrupted in a murder Mayn't I take you out to the tea-room ?" ' Thaus. Ido want a cup of tea. Mrs. Berty always has such good tea, you know. I beg your pardon In a murder, did you say, Mr Widdle ?' •Yea j it wag awfully annoying, I assure you/ 'Year

' Ten. You see the circumstances were a little trying, any way. It was my grandfather, you know These are shockingly awkward stairß, aren't they ?' 'Dreadfully. I.wonder why Mrs Berty will keep on living in this old-fashioned house. Your grandfather V ' Quite an old gentleman, you know. In his youth he had been strikingly handsome, and as an old man there was an imposing grandeur in his presence that I never shall forget.* "I can very well believe you, Mr Widdle.' ' Ah, you axe quite too good. Mrs Berty has told me how very good you are. Thank you very mock indeed. Yes, he was a grand old man. For all his seventyone years he was erect and vigorous. Bus snow-white hair and beard flowed in great masses about his head, giving him a positively leonine appearance. His dark eyes shone brilliantly beneath his shaggy gray brown. His voice was rich and full. I was very fond of my grandfather, I assure you, Miss Malbrook, and that I had to murder him really tried me a good deal'

* It must have, I'm ante.' ' Thank y oil Yon axe very good to be ■o sympathetic. Yea, it really did. Bat I had ao choice in the matter, yon know. I was determined, though, that I would make the murder as pleasant for him as possible. Do you fake sugar and cream P' 'Yes, thanks. Only one lamp, please.' ' I thought over the matter a good deal, and I finally comoladei that probably the most agreeable way to him would be to kill him in hia sleep. Is it quite right P May I not giro you a little more cream V 'No more, thanks. It is delightful.' * The way in which we lived at the time made this, also, the most practicable method. My grandfather occupied the suite of rooms in the west wing, and my own apartments were over his on the floor above. In my great-grandfather's time these upper rooms had been used as a laboratory,—my great-grandfather was an amateur chemist of considerable celebrity for the period,—and a stairway had been coaatruoted that led directly from my grandfather's room to my own. Thia etairway now was disused, and the lower door was locked. I took occasion, while my grandfather was taking Mb daily drive, to remove all but one of the screws which held the lock vs place. This one I took out. oiled, and then returned. The door still was firmly closed, b"t in five minutes I could draw the screw noiselessly. My grandfather, who was in excellent health, was a heavy sleeper ; a fact that I had counted upon, both for his convenience and my own, in laying my plans. 'Everything being thus satisfactorily prepared, I waited the approach of night with a considerable degree of impatience. My grandfather and I, as was our usual custom,, dined together very pleasantly. He was a most agreeable old gentleman, with a quite surprising fond of general information and a very happy faculty for telling a good story in a pleasant way. I remember that night he gave me a very interesting account of one of his adventures in Paiia with Washington Irving. They both were yeung men at the time, of course,—it was when Irving first went abroad, you know, in thirty something,— and—

'You would rather hear about the murder P It's very good of you to say so, I'm sure. Beally, the story scarcely is worth telling. Bat if yon like it—of course. We had a very pleasant dinner, as I was saying, and I tried to do what I could to be agreeable to my grandfather. Since it was to be his last dinner, I really wished him to enjoy it; and I think he did, The old gentleman and I always got along very nicely together, for he was sincerely attached to me—as 1 certainly was to him. I assure you, I never have met a mere delightful old man than my grandfather was. There was a courtly grace and ease in his manner that always reminded me of that of a French nobleman of the last century. Yet with all his courtliness he was genial' to a degree. There was a benevolence in his disposition, a tenderness in his nature, that endeared him to every one with whom he came in contact. Of course, knowing him as intimately as I did, I positively idolized him 1 'How I must have grieved for him after he passed away ? Indeed I did, I assure you. Often and often, even now, do T think of that dear old man and long to hear his kindly voice again. 'When we had finished our wine—my grandfather never drank heavily, bat his wines were of the best—we separated for the night My grandfather always went early to his apartment, but usually sat late over his books. I also retired to my quarters, and made the trifling preparations yet to be attended ta I wished my work to be done noiselessly, as no doubt you will readily understand.' «Certainly.'

At Mrs. Berty's 'Tea/

' With this end in view I had already provided myself with a stiletto; bnt as I' deemed it more prudent to stun him • before delivering the fatal blow— Do let me get you another rasped roll' 'Thanks. No, not a sandwioh, thankß.' *—— to stun him before delivoring the fatal blow, I looked about me for something that would answer the purpose of a heavy club. In a closet I was eo formnate as to find an old air-pump, a part of my great-grand father's philosophic apparatus, and the long heavy handle of this was just what I required. I detached it carefully, so that it might be returned without injury to the air-pump, and laid it upon the table beside the knife. Then all was ready; I had only to wait until my grandfather slept. 'As you may suppose, I found waiting dreadfully tedious, fortunately, though, I had that clever story of Crawford's, 'Mr Isaccs/ you know. Don't you like it very much, Mis 3 Milbrcok P What a fine scene tbat is where they play polo! I'm really quite devoted to polo I remember a mttch that I was in last summer that was the most tremendously exciting thing that I ever had anything to do with. My side ] ' Oh, beg your pardon, the murder P j Yea, I had to «ait for several honrs, you i know. It was a regular bore. At last,}

however, I heard some slight sounds in my grandfather's rooms—of step?, of a c'uair being moved, once of his voice a little raised as he petulantly rebuked his man for some piece of stupidity—and then I heard his door close as his man retired, and presently all was still. To make quite rare that he slept, I waited while I smoked a regalia. 'D) jou know, I have rather a fancy for measuring the flight of time in odd ways P One of thepoet fellows, yon know, says something about how ' the dancing hours' are 'measured by the opening and the closing of the flowers.' Pretty idea, isn't it P I'd like to do it that way too; bat a man cannot carry a whole conservatory around with him, you know. So I do it with cigars—Conchas for the quarters, Londres for the halfs, and regalias for the whole hours, You have no idea how precisely it works when once yon get into the way of it. ' When my cigar was finished I knew that the hour must be up, and as all re- ■ mained still below, I proceeded to my work without further delay. Fatting on the list slippers with which I had provided myself If yon are troubled with oold feet, Mies Malbrook, you will' fitd list slippers really delightful. I mention them because, unless you should chance to require them as I did, you might never think of them; and they are the greatest comfort, I assure you. Putting on my slippers, and taking the stiletto in my hand and the handle of the air-pump under, my arm, I went down the narrow stairs noiselessly. I had a screwdriver in readiness in my pocket, and, having struck a match, I had no difficulty in removing the well-oiled screw, I laid the heavy look softly on the stairß behind me, softly pushed open the door, and so stood in my grandfather's bedchamber. The curtains were pushed back from the high windows and a flood of moonlight poured into the room—a brilliant ray striking full upon my grandfather's face and snowy beard and hair as he lay wrapped in peaceful sleep. Never had he appeared to me so strikingly, so majestically handsome as he was then; never had the gracious benevolence of his gentle nature shone out more clearly than it shone out then from his placidly beautiful face revealed to me there in the soft moonlight ' Ah, have you ever heard, Miss Malbrook, that it isn't wholesome to have moonlight shine on you when you're asleep P Some people say it isn't, you know. But I don't see what harm there can be in it, do youP I'm sure it must be a "mistake, for my grandfather slept that way for years, and It certainly didn't do him the least bit of harm. As I have told yon, for his age he was a most extraordinarily vigorous man. I couldn't help thinking at the time that his case quite upset the theory j and as I knew his taste for scientific research of all sorts, i'waa sorry that I tad Bet t-keught sooaer to obtain from him his opinion in the matter. However, it was now too late.

'Grasping the stiletto firmly in my left hand, and holding the handie of the air-pump, ready for vigorous use, above head in my right, I stole cautiously across the moonlit floor until I stood close beside the bed. My grandfather's sleep was deep and tranquil as a child's. Indeed, he could Hot have slept in a more entirely satisfactory way. I could not repress an exclamation of thanfulnesß, for his sake, that he slept so well. Planting my feet firmly, I tightened my grip upon the handle of the, air-pamp, and then brought it down—— Let me give you an ice now. This frozen coffee is delicious. Clever idea to freeze coffee, wasn't it P Oh, I beg your pardon. It didn't spill, I hope. No P How glad I am. 'The effect of the blow was admirable. My grandfather was thoroughly stunned in the nicest possible sort of way. Of course, I had had very little practice at this sort of thing then, and I was a good deal pleased to see how nicely my work was done. I hope that you won't think me very vain, Miss Malbrook, but I really can't help being a little proud of the way that I easily do things at sight which most people find quite hard to do even after a good deal of study and practice. I don't mean in juat this one instance of murdering my grandfather, you know, but in a whole lot of things. It was juat the same way, for example, when I began to play jack-straws. I played a good game from the very start, I assure you. And jack-straws is a very difficult game to play well, you know. To be quite fair, though, I.must admit that in this murder matter my lawn-tennis practice was of. great service ta me—made me strike straight and hard, you Xnow. * Don't you like lawn-tennis, Miss Malbrook P I am ever so fond of it. It's such capital exercise, you know—a great deal better than croquet ever was. Isn't it queer how completely croquet has gone out? Nobody plays it, and you never even hear of it now, I remember when I was quite devoted to it. It was my grandfather, by the way, who gave me the first set of croquet that I ever owned. He and I used to play together on the lawn for hours at a time. I was quite a little fellow then, you know, and f remember my mother ÜBedto say that it was erer so pretty a sight to see us two—' Youth and Age/ as she used to call us—playing that way together. My goandfather always

! was very kind to me. 1 was bis first grandohild, you know, aad ha took a great pride in me and was ever so fond of me from the very day that I waß born. 'Oh, about my killing himP As I was saying, the blow stunned him beautifully The handle of the air-pump wai a desperately heavy affair, you see. After this there remained only to finish my work with the stiletto. I raised my arm to Btrike again—and just then there was a knock at the door! Jt was this, you remember, that made me think of the whole matter when you spoke of how annoying you found interruptions in ycur china painting. I know just how it must make you feel. It was very absurd, of course, but the interruption really made me quite angry. Could I, at the moment, conveniently have spoken to the person who wes knocking, I am afraid that I should have said something quite unkind, really quite harsh, you know. Bat I could not very well open the door just then, nor did I altogether like to continue the matter in hand until the perßon who had knocked had gone away. I remained quite still, therefore, in the hop 9 that the knocker would conclude that my grandfather waß asleep and would be too polite to make further effort to wake him. But this hope was unfounded. There was another, louder knock; and presently one louder stilL It waß very displeasing, I assure you. Obviously, I had to act in some way that would bring this annoying interruption to an end. Simulating my grandfather's voice, therefore, I cried out in a sleepy tone: ' What's the matter P'

'lf you please, sir,' —I recognized the voice of my grandfather's valet,—'the house is on fire.'

' Clear out!' I replied testily—and made a motion with the pillows like that of a man settling himself to sleep again My grandfather, I should observe, while most gracious in his manner at all times when thoroughly awake, waa apt to be a trifle short in his temper when aroused suddenly from sleep. ' Very good, sir,' the man answered, and I heard his steps retreating down the passage. My grandfather mada it a rule

to require from his servants implicit obedience.

' Unfortunately, in shaking the pillows about I had dropped the stiletto, and I had ever so much trouble in finding it again. Somehow it had managed to work down under my grandfather in the bed, and the contact of the cold steel with his person aroused him a little. He moved slightly, and for a moment I feared that I should be compelled to use the handle of the air-pump again, Fortunately, though, before this became necessary I found the stiletto, and once more held it aloft to strike. T&e slight movement that he had made had placed him in a most favorable position, and I struck with all my force ' Oh, I beg your pardon. I did not see that your plate was empty. How careless I am! Pray let me get you something more. No P Then permit me to take you back to the drawing-room. The crowd is dreadful here, and people push so. Don't you think that people are dreadfully rude about their eating at teasP Positively, they fight over their food quite like wild animals. Oh, I beg your pardon. I hope that I haven't torn it. No P I am ever bo glad. lam an awfully clumsy brute, and it is ever so nice of yon to be so nice about it. At Mrs Welterton's, yesterday, I positively assure you that Miss Buddie —the pretty Mies Buddie, you know, not the freckled one—had her skirt almost torn to pieces by that horrible Beggy Smith: i'm not quite as bad as that, any way.

'About my grandfather? Oh, really, there is nothing more to tell j indeed, I'm quite ashamed of myself for having bored you with euch a long story about such a trifle. It was cnly that you happened to speak about being interrupted, you know. Of course, after the man went away I had no further trouble. I killed my grandfather very comfortably and satisfactorily; and as the house was quite burned down within two hours,—l think I forgot to tell you that 1 set fire to it before I went at the other work,—the whols affair was glossed over very nicely. ' Yon must go now P I'm really very sorry. Thank you so much for the very pleasant half hour that I have had. And I do hope that I shall have the pleasure of seeing some more of your lovely china painting soon. Miss Malbrook. Beally, I quite adore it, you know.'—Thomas A. Janvieb,