SHORT STORY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 86, 4 January 1908, Page 14

SHORT STORY.

0-—— THE CREST OF THE -HILL By JOHN THORN. "■ i ' (For The Dominion.) We had walked far, the Bachelor Girl and I. ■ First, 1 wo Bad visited a. bookshop in order that I might purchase a,copy of Omar Khayyam, having lent mine to "an acquaintance, who, though ah honest man according to his lights, has no conscience in tks matter of hooks. "Omar Khayyam ?", said tho young woman behind tho counter, giving hor audaciously dressed: head a toss. "Never heard of it. Who's it by?" But, though I did not succeed in enlightening her, we spent a very pleasant half-hour in that bookshop, and .left it light of heart and pocket, exulting in tho acquisition of certain desirable volumes which wo could quite well havo done without. And as in Wellington one might as well bo out of the world as out of the tearooms, we went to Kelburno for tea at the kiosk, and incidentally looked on at the quality assembled there to eat,-drink and be merry, as is the way of tho quality all tho worra over. Afterwards wo went further afield, and found ourselves loitering on tho banks of : a lazy-dron-ing ■ stream, whbro tho willows dreamed of the Jong summer days that aro coming, when their , tender yellow-green leaves will have grown dess tentative, lustier, a haven and shelter for tho sweet fluttering wings that fly to them for a hiding-place. .'Four weeks have I sojourned in this Wellington—grey, hustling, self-centred',, littlo city as it is, yet, when all is said, of an inesplicablo until to-day I .had not known that it was beautiful. Across tho burnished water of the harbour flit occasional browny-white sails, and near by smiles ; a rustic 'unpremeditated garden,, whero the heavy-headed daffodils sway, amorously together, and over tho plot of violets at tho dilapidated gate a great white butterfly ■ hovers and floats 'uncertainly until slowly,-slowly, it flutters into tho blue like the vanishing wraith,of a"lost ideal. , The door of the tiny cottage is' open, and ; in the doorway stands • a Titian-haired woman or tho people. , Her bluo blouso makes a delicious note of colour against the greenygrey of tho creepers, and as she stoops to lift a baby scrambling at her feet, sturdy and brown and incorrigible, the sweetness of her face-is holy and appealing as a wistful-eyed Madonna of Botticelli. ' Tho Bachelor Girl stands up and sweeps the golden distances with thoso grey eyes of hers, which under their black lashes see so much and so truly. A good, comrade is she, this sweet friend of mine, a staunch partisan, with tho broad outlook and! toleranco that are usually regarded as exclusively masculine qualities (and in heaven's name let us take credit for them while wo may); but to theso aro added an intuition, a completeness of sympathy, so that a man in all humility may thank' "whatever gods there bo" for tho gift of her friendship. . "The world—'the overydayness or this workday world'—weighs heavily on me," she said suddenly. '-'Let's get away from it as, far :as possible. What would' you suggest?" ■ And, boint' a man of resource, I suggest that we shall climb a long sloping EDI of Difficulty near by. So together wo go 011 this sweet September afternoon through tho Brasses : and daisies, , and.. few. stiirdy wild owers that-are rejoicing bravely in the dear resurrection of-tho earth; past tho hedges of golden gorse_ with its homeliness of old association, carrying'us back _to. school days, truant wanderings, long i*loriou3 days ' rounded off with still languorous evenings when-our straying steps went limping home through tho 'warm air that • is heavy and sweet with "the scent of gorso.' For the Bachelor Girl and I are old friends. In tho same stuffy littlo schoolroom in tho backblocks did wo make our first futilo essays in tho painful acquisition l of knowledge; sho told mo my faults, Ij»,(counted her freckles.'' And after, a fow yeajs;'! had gone into .far. countries to slake tli6''.wandor-thir3t, and sometimes we had . written and sometimes, we had forgotten; and;a month ago unexpectedly, joyfully, wo..;met in Cubs Street,, and hero we are climbing tho hill together; Before us, steep and sunny and toilsome,, stretches the long road to tho summit. . "Does tho road wind up-hill all the way?Yes, to tho very end.-, . Will tho day's journey take the long day? From morn to night, my friend." I murmur pessimistically, for, though I am really enjoying myself immensely, 1 Jiko to get in my littlo grumble when 1 can. But my companion only laughs that infectious low. laugh of hers, and begins to tell me tho happenings of the past week, as is her friendly way. - - ■ "Ono night," she says, "I was at a real big swagger party, tho first I havo been to for weeks and weeks and weeks." "And what happened?" I queried anxiously, for there are possibilities about this Bachelor Girl. "Nothing, nothing at all," she said ruefully. "I donned my one smart evening frock—sea green, frilly, with the lace scarf ' you sent mo from Colombo twisted artfully •iound what Jano calls 'the body.' 'You do fill it out, miss,' sho said admiringly as sho hooked mo into it. 'I never could stand .thoso scrags of women, being always plump myself, thank Gawd.' "Never mind, Jane," I interrupted, "Go on about tho party." . ' : "There was a man there," sho continued. "He wa3 prosperous, he was rotund, he had an eyeglass .through which ho gazed at mo, like this," infusing _ an-expression of utter vacuity into her piquant face. "Apparently, to again quote my handmaid, I "caught his eye." , Ho is- rich, ho is lucky, he lias boen to Europo so often that he is too tired to go again; ho has an "oppressively magnificent motor-car, and went to tho opera eleven times; ho told me so himself, re-all-y, eh what?" "And whas happend?" I asked again, interestedly. - "Alas, when after a searching cross-ex-amination iho discovered that 'certain peoplo of importance' wero unknown to me; .that. I did not play hockey or golf; abovo all,' that I had never penetrated tho sacred precincts of Government House; bo gave mo ono tragic look of bewildered reproach and fled. Obviously ho was dumbfoundcrod that a wealthy, an. exclusive, an all-important young patrician lilco himself should bo expected to converse with a rank outsider, a young woman whom he acutely suspected of working for: her living! . ". . But tho sky it is bluo above us all, tho good God make-s tho sttn to shino 011 the just and the unjust, oven on theoand mo," and sho stopped to sinilo into my eyos. we havo reached the top of tho hill, and stand there in tho waning beauty of tho spring day, with tho glad winds blowing bravely around us bringing high hopo, onduranoo, courage; sweeping away the littlo tin gods that wo follow,, wo men,, ono after the other liko silly, sheep. : "Tho little fat man," says tho Bachelor Girl, as though in answer to my unspoken thought, "with his trumpery ideals, his consequential standards of the values of mon and things, scorns moro pathctic than ridiculous now. And in truth, my friend, t'no aims and ambitions of most of us look paltry, futile, banal enough from the top of tho hill, don't they?" Sho takes off her rose-wreathed hat, and tho last long rays of the sun strike broadly on the roso-whito of her faoe, tho long dark waves of hair, as sho murmurs, a shadow clouding the gaiety of her eyes:— "Tho path looks winding and pleasant and fair —tho path that leads to tho valley whero Ik's the day's work. And sometimes orvo is glad, so glad, to bo alive; but now and again, just now and again, 0110 puzzles ovor things and gets tho heartache/' There comes a somewhat dispirited noto into tho low voice as sho finishes — "It is but to keep the nerves at strain, To dry one's eyes and laugh at a fall, And, baffled, got up and begin again. So tho chace takes up one's life, that's all." Back of tho hills flares the sunset in insolent oxuboraneo of crimson and roso, scarlet and gold. A few moments of breathless beauty, and gradually, inexor- ' ably it fades into a tenderness that is not

blue uor groy nor lavender, lint a blending of all three. Tho glory,. the l.hrill, tho spnrklo have gone, ana suddenly I feel woary, out of heart with tho world, no-liow-ish, as dear Charles Lamb , would say. Majestic, romoto, rises the great golden September moon: and of a. sudden drifting, drifting, out of space comes a long whito pall of cloud. Nearer and nearer it travels. Iho air grows chilly. Never tho chirrup of a bird, the scud of a rabbit, breaks the stillness. Tho great happy winds havo gono 011 their wanderings; -,'but stealthily, unaccountably, through tho sparse treos sighs a sudden small breeze that slowly dies away, like tho soul of a child that, lived but a fow hours before travelling t lonely and sorrowrul into tho darkness beyond./ Closer comes tho white cloud, brushing faco and hair as though with slight cold clinging fingers. And for tho spaco of a. few heart-beats tho world stops, turns back, and. across tlio years I sec another hilltop under radiant sapphire skies; and in tlio fair morning- 1 time, with hunying feet through tho long grass starred with flowers,, cmncs ono _in whoso laugh of music thero rings all joy and triumph and sweet wild, promise of lifo. ' Impatiently I shako myself freo' from this • obsession, this intrusivo, • persistent, sorrowful old story that has brought momentary forgetfulness of my sweet friend. With a droop to tho slim shoulders, her round chin in her hands, sho sits and gazes across tho hillside with eyes that and dream. Down tho track can bo discerned a solitary wayfaror whom ono's fancy, fiickxl oy glamorous moonlight, transforms into Don Juan upon amorous adventure, Quixote on some heroic - quest, Itcmco . hastening impetuously to hold tryst. 'His voico nsos to us, lusty, deep and rich, in timbre. Ho is singing tho Toreador chorus from "Carmen, and the spell is broken. Tho Bachelor Girl gets up, shrugs her shoulders, smiles . a -small sphinxliko smile, , and turns to me.. ■ j "... Thero always remains tho valley, sho said gently. ■ "After climbing the hill, following tlio' will-o'the-wisp, dreaming unprofitable dreams, it may bo that ono finds • happiness thero." _ • ■ ■ And tho stars sinilo on.us as ■ together wo. "go' down to. tho, busy world of. men, leaving , our dreams and .visions on the hilltop.