TWO GENTLEMEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 4031, 16 June 1931, Page 73

TWO GENTLEMEN.

By

G. B. Burgin.

(Copyright.—For the Otago Witness.) I.

“ Owing to my infernal nerves, I call you an ass, Trenny,” said his Grace, the Duke of Frome to his brother by adoption, Hugh Trenner, now his valet, although Trenner, at the risk of his own life, had pulled him out of the Ynill pond at Frome when the duke became entangled in the weeds. They were at college together until Trenner’s father smashed up and left him penniless; whereupon Trenner ruefully explained to his Grace that they must go different wrnys unless, until he could pull himself together, he valeted him.

The duke reluctantly agreed to this extraordinary proposal, and his servants received instructions to treat Trenner as an honoured guest at Frome. At last, the duke could stand the situation no longer. “ Why can’t you let me set you going again, Trenny ? ” ■ “Trenny” seated hiself comfortably and held out a shabby cigarette case. “ They’re only gaspers.” • “Thanks. Now say how much you want and I’ll w’rite you a cheque. Have •a flutter with it, and if the flutter doesn’t come off there’s no harm done.” ! “ Oh, I don’t expect to make a mess of it,” Trenner said thoughtfully. “ I’m a financial genius without capital. What is to become of you without me?” “ I’d forgotten that.” “You’re sick of your present life,” Trenner resumed. “Why not drop your identity, fall in love with some nice girl who does not know who you are, and see what will come of it?” “That’s a dashed good idea, Trenny. I wouldn’t let on to anyone, but you know how sick I am of the whole ducal business. If we meet while we’re conducting this experiment, we’re not to give each other away. How much do you want to begin with ? ” “Oh, ten thousand will do to begin and end with.” The handsome young duke sat down, wrote out a cheque, and tossed it over to Trenner. “ How are we going to begin, Trenny ? ” Trenner took up the Times. “Here’s the very thing: ‘The Rev. Herbert Tressyllian, vicar of Frelton, for a pecuniary consideration, is open to receive a young* gentleman of breeding, also a young lady of breeding, for six months from May 1. Billiards table, golf course, good car, and all other accessories necessary to the enjoyment of a refined English home.’ That suit you ? ' "If it isn’t too refined.” “ Life’s nothing without taking risks. You want to get away from yourself; so do I.” “Agreed. Shake hands on it, Trenny. I’ll fix up things through my law’yers with that parson at once. What had I better be ? ” “ Oh, a young gentleman of breeding who is loafing round for six months before hitting on something to do.” The Duke’s blue eyes sparkled. “ We’ll both go in search of something real, Trenny, and, whatever it is, I hope we’ll find it.” “ I hope so, too. I wonder whether the Tressyllian man will get hold of a girl of breeding to keep you company, Mr Archibald Bagster. There’s a name for you.” “ Though I don’t want to meet any girls, I’m pretty safe with a name like that. They generally throw themselves at my feet because I’m a duke.” “ In twm or three days you’ll cease to be a duke. There may be some nice girl who won’t make eyes at you even though she finds out that you are a duke.” “ I wonder what Trenny means by that,” mused Mr Archibald Bagster.

The affair arranged itself as soon as the Vicar of Frelton was assured by the Duke’s lawyers that Mr Archibald Bagstcr was of good breeding and irreproachable character. As a convincing proof of this statement they forwarded a cheque in advance for the six months, and one afternoon on the last day of April, “Mr Bagster ” found himself at King’s Cross with Trenner. “ I wish you were coming, too, Trenny,” the Duke said a little forlornly. “Nonsense, Bagster! If things turn out uncomfortable, send me a wire and I’ll come down to you. There’s a girl I met, when I wasn’t a valet, and I’d like to see her again. By the way, here’s a cheque for the money you lent me.” “ You can’t have -made a fortune in five minutes.”

“ I cleared thirty thousand over that coup I had in mind when I consented to take your money. Forget you’re a duke and don’t throw too much money about, or the vicar will smell a rat.” “ I don’t care what he smells.” “ Here’s your third-class ticket.” Trenner put it into his hand. “Remember not to tell the ticket collector your man has it.”

Trenner walked hastily away. He would miss the duke, and, in spite of his coup and the girl of his dreams, almost wished himself a valet again. The duke was so accustomed to be ushered to his train that he did not notice it was beginning to move, and had to sprint for it. The guard unceremoniously bundled him into a thirdclass carriage, and he fell over the dainty feet of a very beautiful, dark-eyed girl into the arms of a moleskin clad navvy. He recovered his balance and apologised to the girl. “It isn’t necessary to apologise,” rather crossly said the beautiful girl. She opened one of the papers beside her, then suddenly looked up. “ I beg your pardon for my rudeness, but your feet are so much larger than mine.” “ It’s all right, matey,” said the navvy. “ Tuck your beetle crushers under the bloomin’ seat. Got any baccy about you ? ” “ If this lady doesn’t object to smoke.” Bagster held out his cigar case to the navvy, who took a cigar, sliced it up with a murderous looking clasp knife, and crammed it into his short clay pipe. The beautiful girl smiled. “I’ve never before seen a cigar smoked that way.” She put down her paper. “ I’d better move on to another carriage,” suggested the navvy. “ I ain’t used to toffs; they make me want my Sunday clothes on.” The beautiful girl’s eyes danced. “ I beg you will do me the favour to remain, Mr ? ” “ Bill Smith, miss.”

“ And I must apologise to you both for my bad temper. It’s because I haven’t anyone to look after me and didn’t think of having, my luggage sent on. It’s so tiresome without a ” She checked herself hastily. Three-quarters of an hour later the navvy got up as the train stopped at a little station. “ You two ain’t what I calls soshiable,” he said, as he left the train. “ Maybe now I’m going you’ll wake up a bit.” “Good day! I think you make an admirable chaperon, Mr Smith,” laughed the girl. ' . The train gathered speed. Bagster looked at the girl; the girl looked at Bagster. “ I shall miss Mr Smith,” she said mischievously. “I wanted to be unpleasant until your sacrificing that very good cigar made me ashafned of myself, Mr ? ” “ Bagster—Archibald Bagster.” She looked disappointed. “ Your name doesn’t fit in with your personality. I had anticipated something more heroic.” “ So had I, but Trenny ” He stopped. “ Parents are so thoughtless, Mr Bagster. Children ought to be numbered until old enough to choose their own names.” The train stopped at a little wayside station. Bagster ordered tea from a small boy shrilly shouting up and down the platform. “ Would you mind ordering some for me?” she asked pleasantly. “ It is for you.” “ Why not for yourself ? ” “ Because I don’t want Mr Smith coming back to ‘ bash me ’ for intruding myself on you,” Bagster said, a little stiffly. “ Please order some for yourself.” Bagster ordered some more tea, which they amicably shared until they reached Frelton. The girl gathered up her papers and looked helplessly round. “ What am I to do about my luggage ? ” “ Of course, I’ll look after it.” A footman came up to the carriage and superciliously touched his hat w’hen he saw is w T as a third class one. “ Mr Bagster ? ” “Yes.” “The car is w’aiting for you, sir, and for a young lady who is going to the vicarage. I expect she’s travelling first class.” ' The beautiful girl haughtily called him back. “ I’m not travelling first class and I am going to the vicarage. See after my things at once.” “Thank you. I was going to give him beans,” said Bagster, as the cowed footman went away to the luggage van. “ Are you ‘ the young lady of breeding ’ who has answered the vicar’s advertisement?” “I am,” she merrily agreed “and my breeding, good or bad, doesn’t allow me to tolerate insolence from servants.” “ Thank you for protecting me. I couldn’t have squelched him half as w T ell. We’ve six months before us in which to

scatter that footman’s remains all over the vicarage.” They got into a very good car, and its more discerning chauffeur touched his cap in a manner which left nothing to be desired. “ We’ve embarked on a great adventure,” Bagster declared, as they rolled swiftly along. “ I hope so. Life is monotonous without adventures.” “ Oh, we shall meet them,” Bagster said, with a confidence W’hich surprised himself. Even as they entered the elm-bordered drive, the branches of which were filled with clamorous rooks, there was an air of opulent comfort about the distant, rose-covered vicarage which augured well for the visitors’ enjoyment of it. The vicar and his wife met them at the porch, he, a ruddy, kindly-faced, stout man of about 50, she, a little younger, with a freshly-coloured pleasant face. “Welcome to Frelton,” said the vicar, as they ascended the stone steps. “ Jane, take Miss Jones to her rooms.” Bagster started at the imploring look in Miss Jones’s fine eyes. “ I can’t help it,” she whispered. “It w v as just as great a shock when I heard your name. Some day I shall hope to change mine for a better.” “Why the deuce did Trenny pick me out such a beastly name ? ” thought Bagster, as he followed his host up the old oak staircase. 111. Three months later, Bagster wrote to Trenner, “ Come down here at once to the happiest and most miserable man alive. I’m in love, Trenny, in love with the eighth wonder of the w’orld.” Trenner immediately came down. “ What the dickens can I do to help you?” he asked miserably. “I’ve failed to find the girl I love (she suddenly disappeared) though I’ve made another coup.” “We both seem infernally miserable, Trenny. There’s a look in her eyes (you never saw such eyes) as if she were always dreaming of someone else.” “ Well, I’m always dreaming of someone, but I’ll do what I can for you. What’s her name? ”

“ Jones. Wait till you see her at dinner to-night. Though the vicar does us very well, I can’t eat.” When Miss Jones came down to dinner, she saw Trenner chatting w’ith Bagster, and coloured vividly. “ You seem to know each other.” Bagster noticed that Trenner turned pale. “ Yes, we’ve met before. You’d better take her in to dinner.” Mrs Tressyllian decreed otherwise, and Trenner took Miss Jones in to dinner. After dinner, when Bagster desperately suggested to Miss Jones that she should adjourn with him to the conservatory, she turned to Trenner. “With pleasure, if you will come, too, Mr Trenner.” “ I’ll join you directly,” said Trenner. “ I’ve forgotten my cigarette case.’’ Bagster took Miss Jones to the conservatory. “ Splendid fellow, Trenner,” he said enthusiastically. “I’ve told him what I want to say to you, and he’s given me the opportunity.” « “What opportunity? You have had plenty of opportunities to talk to me during the last three months.”

“ Well, I’m not going to repress what I want to say this time. I love you very dearly, and want you to be my wife.” Her reply to this sudden proposal astonished him. “ I greatly prefer that Mr Trenner should be present. You see, you are a little abrupt.” They waited silently until Trenner joined them. “ Though I don’t understand why,” Bagster said stiffly, “ Miss Jones wishes you to know that I have asked her to do me the honour to become my wife.” “ Yes,” woodenly said Trenner, “ and? ” “ There isn’t any ‘ and,’ ” Miss Jones affirmed “ I want to know who you two really are.” Trenner temporised. “ Oh, we’re just two very ordinary human beings.” Bagster looked at Trenner. “ I think you told me you’d met before? ”

“ Yes,” said Trenner. “We have met before. If I’d known whom I was to meet this evening, I wouldn’t have come.” “ Why not ? ” Bagster began to grow angry. “ I love this lady, and have just asked her to be my wife. I love her.” Miss Jones interrupted him. “ Why won’t you tell me who you really are, Mr Bagster? ” “ Miss Jones,” Trenner said abruptly, “ the best thing I can do is to take myself off by the next train, and leave you to discover your respective identities. I wish you every success, old fellow.” He bowed to Miss Jones, and turned to Bagster. “Please don’t ask me to the wedding. That’s all. Good-bye.” Miss Jones stayed Trenner. “ You will stop where you are until we have settled this little matter. Now, Mr Bagster, why won’t Mr Trenner tell me who you really are ? ”

“I’d tell you myself,” Bagster explained, “ if I were snob enough to think that it would influence you in any way.” “ That’s for me to judge.” “ Well,” returned Bagster, “ I don’t mind admitting that Bagster isn’t niy real name. It’s different with Trenner. His name is Trenner.”. Miss Jones turned to Trenner. “Now, Mr Trenner, be so good as to tell me at once who is this gentleman.” “ I can’t, for I am under a promise not to reveal his identity without his consent.” “He has revealed yours,” she said, triumphantly. “ You really are called Trenner.” She turned again to Bagster. “Mr Bagster, let Mr Trenner tell me who you really are.” Bagster nodded. “ Certainly. Tell Miss Jones who I am, Trenny.” Trenner turned to his tormentress. “ Very well. I will tell you who Mr Bagster is if you will tell him who you really are.” “Oh-h! ” “What is sauce for the gander, is sauce for the goose,” imperturbably said Trenner. “ Perhaps I am a goose, but if so, I am a goose of an inquiring turn of mind.” Miss Jones’s manner changed, and she smiled sweetly. “ I am Lady Eva Courtraye, Mr Bagster; and I was so bored at being Lady Eva that I seized this opportunity to masquerade as Miss Jones. You also are masquerading for the same reason as myself. Isn’t that so ? ” “ Yes,” said Bagster. “If you will please tell me your real reason for masquerading as Miss Jones, I’ll tell you who I am and all about Trenner. He’s my brother by adoption. It seems to me that you are more interested in hearing about Trenner than myself.” “You are quite right. I was disappointed in my heart’s desire, and saw that advertisement. The man I loved did not love me ” “ That is untrue.” Trenner’s lips twitched a little. “It was the desire of his life to win your heart. He thought of all sorts of fantastic ways of winning it and making money for your sake. The very way he took to win your heart turned against him. There is a barrier between you and the man you love which can never be overcome because the man who is his adopted brother also loves you. That’s w-hy the man you love is going away from you by the next infernal train.” A world of radiant tenderness flooded her exquisite eyes. “ I have made you speak at last, after all our sorrowful longing and waiting for each other. You cannot, you dare not, leave me now.” Trenner turned from her slowly, sadly, as one who has seen heaven’s gates open and then for ever close to him. “ I can, and I must. I want to introduce to you his Grace the Duke of Frome, known to me as Bagster.” He wrung the duke's hand and turned away. His Grace of Frome, Bagster no longer, flung one arm round Trenner’s shoulders. “ She loves you and she doesn’t love me. I’ll catch that train instead of your doing it. You shouldn’t have dragged me out of the mill pond, Trenny.” Lady Eva came to him very sweetly very tenderly. “I am sorry, very, very sorry to have hurt you so much. Forgive me before you go back to realities.”

The Duke of Frome bent down and kissed her hand. “‘Some day, I shall hope to welcome you and Trenny at Frome. I—l’m rather overcome by realities.” He went out. Lady Eva looked Trenner straight in the face. “I’ve unsexed myself by telling another man I love you. Hadn’t I better catch the next train ?” “ Not unless I catch it, too.” “Why did you run away from me?” “Why?” He flung out his hands despairingly. “It w’as our chance meeting at the Dalrymples’ dance. You were feted, admired, had half-a-dozen wealthy men eager to win your love ” “Or my money.” “ I hadn’t any money. My father had smashed up. It w’as my last appearance of the kind.” “ Then how dared you look at me with youi - heart in your eyes? I watched you the whole evening. It made me open my eyes. I wanted to come to you.” “ W-why?” , “ Everyone else w’as so unreal; you were the only real man I had ever met; and when I asked who you were, the old wretch who wanted to marry me said carelessly, “ Oh, a poor, penniless devil who is on the rocks.” “ Yes, I was on the rocks.” “.I wanted to drag you off the rocks,” she cried passionately. “ You must have seen I wanted to.” “ I saw. You had suddenly become everything to me. There was no girl who cared a hang about me. Frome offered to go halves with me in everything, and I refused to take money from him unless I earned it, so we hit upon the valet plan until I could turn round and earn money. He lent me the money to make money. I have made it, and broken his heart.” ' a “ You gave him life at the risk of your own. When he once told me the story, he did not say who it was saved him; he said that if the time ever came when he could repay you, he would do it at any cost to himself.” “ It has cost him dearly.”

“ It has given him much, made a man of him, a man who will rise on the stepping stones of his dead self. . That is what he meant when he invited iis to Frome. My dear, don’t you see that suffering teaches us how to live, how to love, how to make the best of ourselves in this wonderful world. We have been

dead and are alive again. Let us be worthy of him. You will help and guida me.” “I ? ” Yes you. The love of a man for a maid is a very sacred thing. I will make the love of a maid for a man more sacred still. And I am tired, so verv tired—Trenny.” Trenner drew her to him as the duke’s car sped away to the station.