Literature.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 212, 12 September 1904, Page 4

Literature.

HAVERIIAH'S ENGAGEMENT. Continued. " What nonsense ' " flasiuod Cyn thia. Site nevertheless, us Alias Trent observed, avoided meeting that astute young woman's eyes. " Snubbling „ man, when one is pretty and important, really answers uncommonly well," continued Lucy, sagely. " Hel-e have 1 been making a regular doormat of myself, and all the time he has been dead nuts on u girl who generally seems hardly aware that he exists." An aloofness wjtich lias more probably induced hin to put me dow n on his mental tablets as a stuck-up, conceited minx. Young men 01 llr. Havenham's calibre do not like being ignored, I assure you. You can't accept handing me a cup <>: coffee ■and talking for ten minutes about the EUushaiu's new motor as a sign of desperate admiration." When a man looks at one as Mr. Haverham does at you "Miss Trent paused, expressively. "No one has ever looked at me like that" slio added plaintively. "My dear Lucy, your deductions and hints hardly enhance my opinion of Mr. Haverham. Dut they are too absurd, of course," she concluded, decisively. And Miss Trent, silenced, but not convinced, wisely th ;nged the conversation.' Three days later, as Miss Arkell, after an afternoon's shopping in London, stepped, on to the Little Wickleham platform, she saw Haverham greeting two black-clad ladies who had evidentaUy arrived by the same train. Cynthia anathematises her awkwardness as, in her anxioty to pass the trio unobserved, ono of hei parcels fell with an ominous crash on the ground. " What a lovely girl ! Such a poise of the head ! I can imagine Diana of the Ephesians held herself liko that," gushed Mrs. Todhunter, as Cynthia vanished through the station door, " She is considered rather nice looking, I believe," murmured Haverham, aware that Miss Todhunter's suspicious black eyes were scrutinising him intently. ''' You believe I My dear boy, anyone cam see the girl is a perfect beauty. If she is a specimen of Little Wickleham femininity, I shall have the field of ugliness all to myself. Nice-looking indeed,! " Her laugh was not cheerful, Haverham winced.' The adjective oertainly did not adequately describe Cynthia's radiant • loveliness, which had never seemed so alluring as in contrast to his fiancee's wian, scarred face. But Helen's jealousy, Which was not unnatural, he told himself pityingly, under the circumstances, had taught him to dilute his encomiums of her fellow-women. " I suppose Miss—Miss Arkell will be one of the herd who will rusih and state atjusasifwa were .wild animals from the ,Zoo. I have prepared myself foe a martyrdom in the way of afternoon calls. It was a pity you let out our engagement, Cecil. No one would have cared twopence about me iierely as your cousin. How draughty it is here ! " The girl shivered. ■'■' After London, it seems positively frigid." Little Wickleham soon made up its mind that it did not like Miss Todbuster, whose caustic, critical tongue and acerbity of temper evoked general commiseration for her sweetheart's future. ,J No wonder he wanted a little fun (before tying himself up for. life to that twentieth-century Zantippe ! " remarked Miss Trent, one day, to Cynthia. "It can't 'be very pleasant, either, to see people avoiding one's best girl as though she were labelled ' Dangerous.' You might look her up- now, Cythia. It would !be a Quixotic move, quite in your line." " I will call to-morrow," resolved Mi® Arkell, amiably. " I daresay my temper wouldn't be good for much if I had been thrown out of a motor and damaged like that. She must have been pretty once." Miss Todhunter received Cynthia's overtures of friendship with unwonted cordiality, and eventually proceeded to deluge her .with confidences Which the latter tried in vain to avert, '■' Do you know, I believe I was a perfect idiot when I promised to marry Cecil," Miss Todhunter startled Cynthia by declaring the evening ibefore she and her mother were to leave Little Wickleham. •" I was so awfully miserable that night he proposed to me. It was only a week after that fearful accident, and when he saw me crying on the sofa—l aljrajrs could sob artistically—he said all sorts of ridiculous things, and the end of it was we were engaged. But I iam beginning to think I am not quite the conventional type of decorous country parson's wife. Sha'a't I puzzle the natives, and : .won't they bore me ! "But when one is very(ond of anyone Cynthia blushed, charm- 1 wgly—" one wouJtl majjg up , i mind-- i To positiely enjoy being uncomfortable 1 You might. I couldn't." Hden almost flung the words at her. _• m afraid I'm not romantic. Besides, I'm not sure that I am, as pou put it„ fond enough of Cecil. I am a thoroughly selfish person. Miss Arkell,' 4 she added, abruptly, ''Still X daresay jie shall rub along as well ob moat .-couples.'-' ''■ I am sure you will be very hapPy, J was Cynthia's unveracious contiwutioo to the duologue,, Ate you 1 Helen shrugged her thm shoulders. " It's kind of you to ' encourage me, but I don't foresee myself in an earthly Paradise. And moreover, I should not be fit such a mse-en-scene either, not being built exactly on anigelic lines mentally, morally, or physically." " I^,^ uppoae . amuses you to talk Mke this," Miss Arkell rejoined, with spirit, " But it isn't very entertainWgr l "°* very good form, eh ? Bah ! One can't always pretend. One must let oneself go sometimes,; How stifling iti is 1 " She walked across the trim art drugget, and threw open

the window, feverishly. " 1 detes small rooms ! A pity, as I shal have to spend my life in them. Yui know the Gdeal creeper-covered cramped, country parsonage." Cynthia picked up her gloves— i hint ot' impending departure whicl was nut lost on Miss Todhunter She put her hand impulsively on th< younger girl's sleeve. v Miss Arkell—Cynthia, you don'l know how miserable 1 ain ! Yoi are a sensible, level-headed girl you are not a fool, like most of oui sex in their sulad days. Help me tc choose between Scylla and Charybcfi.9. Shall I marry Cecil because nc one else will ever ask me?— Heaven knows why any man should ! " she cried passionately—' or shall I make the best of a solitary, unencumbered existence, and continue to vent my rage on my mother, who, mercifully, is as imperturaible as that bust of Gordon over there on the mantelpiece." " You are joking, surely," said Cynthia, earnestly. " You could not really, seriously ask a third person to decide such a momentous question. lam sorry, more than sorry " The harshness faded suddenly from Miss Todhunter's face. She looked at Cynthia with a sudden air of alertness and eagerness. Her quick ears heard the soft click of the garden gate. "Here is Cecil. You will wait and f see him, won't you ? Yes, of course, I was only joking, Miss Arkell," said MJss Todhunter, slowly. " My dear Helen, Cecil is actually engaged to that Miss Arkell we met at Little Wickleham last year." Mrs Todhunter announced, excitedly, to her daughter one morning at breakfast. " Well, well, I am glad the hoy has found someone to console - him. He took your jilting very much to heart, Helen ; and to tell you tibe truth, I can never think what induced you to throw him ov~ er." " No, you probably can't," agreed her daughter. " You are not a profound student of human nature, suspicious of people's motives. lsut I was afraid that perhaps Cynthia, 1 in spite of that last scene I arranged so dramatically for her, would fiftd me out." " What are you driving at, Helen ?" ! Her mother had propped Haverham's letter against the toast-rack j and was intermittently re-perusing ■ Well, you see, I had to make Cynthia believe that I didn't care about Cecil, or I knew she would never have married him." rnD° you mean to say "Mrs. | Todhunter paused, incredulously. He* daughter was eating her break- 1 fast methodically, but her face was: drawn and sad. ' You really are a most extraordinary girl, Helen ! " i And Mrs. Todhunter sighed. !