Literature.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 210, 8 September 1904, Page 4

Literature.

o HAVERHAM'S ENGAGEMENT,

" Quite the most egrcgiously-con-eeited young man I have ever had the 111-luck to encounter ! " said Cynthia Arkell, summing up the new curate of Little Wickleham. She poured out a second cup of tea for Mrs Trent with the air of one who had decisively settled an unimportant (question. "He is so frightfully good-look-ing, and such a dab at • i' o oter ' and cricket. And Dick says his sermons are heaps better than the rector's," pleaded Mimi Potter, plaintively. " They are shorter," interpolated Cynthia, sucdinctly. '■ It is a different thing when a man like Tommy Ellis, with a pickled beetroot complexion and no muscle worth mentioning, gives himself airs." "J. don't agree with you. The plain, stupid man must show plenty of self-esteem if he doesn't wish to be ignored but anyone as attractive as Mr. Haverham—oh, 1 admit he has his points—is bound uljjmatel} to come out on top."

" The darling ! " murmured Lucy Trent, who taught in the Sundayschool, and had been the heroine of at least eight incipient love affairs since her debut, two years before at a Yeomanry ball. ''' The fact is, you completely spoil him, my dears ! "' uynthia's glance travelled mcukuagly round the group of smartly-olad damsels who had •been playiinig] crocjuet on Mr. Arveli's smooth lawn. "No wonder he is a lump of vaiiity, considering the way you all adore- him." ■'■' You don't adore him ! You arc too Superior," asserted Elsie Hill, who had not forgotten that Miss Arkell had once described her to a mutual friend as "uncultured." " You ought to be a Bishop's wife." Cynthia laughed and touched the coils of bright hair beneath her pale-green muslin hat. "- A Bishop's wife with red hair ! Too incongruous, Elsie ! " ■" Everyone sayß Mr. Haverham will be a Bishop someday," remarked Miss Trent, with apparent irrelevance. '■' He works so hard and is so amibti'tious, and one of his aunts married the second cousin of a Cabinet Minister/-'

■'•' Emlbryo Bishops don't squeeze ♦heir district visitors' hands," demurred Cynthia, with whom young Haverham had wisely not tried this method of ingratiating himself twice. '<' He does not mean anything by It—it is a mere habit," regretted Hiss Trent, whose lovers had invariably displayed a depressing, disinclination to come up to the scratch. Mrs Trent at this juncture woke up suddenly from a doze induced by a meal in the open a'ir and a luxurious arm-chair. " What is a mere habit, Lucy ? " she asked, with simulated briskness.

x •'' We were talking about Mr. Haverham and philandering," explained her l»s»fess' politely. ""Aih,'tt&t' reminds me, girls, I have & bit of news for you. Mr. Haverham is engaged ! " *'' Yon don't mean to tell me, mamma/1" gasped 'Lucy, incredulously. And she bad worn her Sunday hat three tames to week-day evensong ! "Of course, that sort of man always ds," said Cytittria; scornfully. " A fiancee well in the Background is so convenient. And I wonder how many times he has -dined a t the Baines-Smyths on the strength 0 f his supposed eligibility. Mean little beast !"

'I confess I was surprised." Garrulous Mrs. Trent was enjoying the novelty oi an attractive audience. '■' An I rather fancy it leaked out accidentally. Mrs. Lawson and I dropped in yesterday to see him about a parish matter, and in course of converstaion he casually mentioned that he was expecting Iris aunt and •' Helen ' to stay with him. He corrected himself directly, and said ' Miss Todhunter,' but he was obviously embarrassed.''

•'•' Mrs. Todhunter is the aunt he has lived with since he was ten years old, so the girl must be her daughter Both his parents were killed in a railway accident. Too dreadfully sad, Poor fellow f " murmured Lucy, who was supposed to possess a sympathic forehead.

Mrs. Trent waved her daughter's interpolation aside.

" I said at once, ' And when is the wedding to be Mr. Haverham ?' You should have seen how crestfallen he looked ! He murmured something a bout ' At Christmas, perhaps' and positively glared at Mrs. Lawson when she asked him to show her a photograph of his fiancee."

- "Is she pretty ? " asked Mimi, eagerly.

■;■' It scarcely seems possible, my new ; ibut he said he hadn't one, and I verily "believe he Bpoke the truth. It seems to me an odd affair altogether," summed up the matron. ■'■' It was so clever of you, anyhow, Mrs Trent to bring him to book," purred Mimi Potter.

The many spinsters and dowagers 01 little Wickleham found Mr. Hav-er-ham's engagement an enthralling theme for discussion during the next forty-eight hours. The majority of the former wisely decided to forgive the curate his duplicity, and the latter, with one consent, immediately devised innumerable afternoon teas end crojqjuet parties, ostensibly with the laudable aim of entertaining the expected visitors.

." You Must bring your guests to dinner one night," said Mrs. Trent, amiably, buttonholing the curate at the rectory garden party. Mr. Trent's ample income allowed ?iis> ipou'se to indulge in grander functions than were permissible to most of her neighbours. "You are very good, Mrs. Trent, but I am afraid Mrs. Todhunter and her daughter are not much of partygoers. Still, I shall hope to bring my fiancee to see you a t the earliest opportunity. I (enow she will be anajous to meet the'many friends who have been so kind to me. '' Cyntibia Arkell, who chanced to be hunting for a lost ball on the edge of the tennis ground, overheard this colloquy, and was puzzled by the «utate's set, grave face. She had been inclined to regard him as a fri-

volous, almost flippant youth, whose buoyant spirits v..re hardly in keeping with the seriousness ,i his profession. This staid mood suggested that there was a side of his character with which she had not yet cre-j (lited him.

" Well, be does not look the rapturously happy lover by any means," she said to herself. " Mrs. Trent was right ; there is a screw loos* somewhere aibout his engagement. Ah, thank you, Mr. Haverham ; it went in by that laurel tree. One of Mr, Potter's terrific 'drives,' don't you know."

Encouraged by Cynthia's unusual civility, Haverham contrived that his arrival in the tett-r o om should coincide with hers, and his normal cheerfulness seemed to have reasserted itself before Miss Arkell had finished her strawberries.

'■' Though your idol has undeniably feet of clay, he can 'be interesting and sensible enough i'i he chooses," admitted Cynthia to Lucy Trent as the girls sauntered home together. "It is a pity if he is going to marry a girl he doesn't care ajuoat." " It is—particularly when he is ;n love wiuh you," rejoined Lucy, drily. (To be continued.)