Literature.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 256, 2 November 1904, Page 4

Literature.

A FUTILE STRATAGEM. (Continmed.) "My ! That's the first compliment I've evtv wrung out of you, Colontl," said the widow, triumphantly. She brtd fine eyes, a trim, svelte figure, and bore herself with an air of persistent complacency. •Please sit down—l can't bear to see a man fidget—<and tell me if you are going to play in the croquet tournament to-morrow." ' 'Did you imagine 1 became a member of this house-party under false l pretences ?" he submitted, reproachfully. Their hostess, to Tyrrell's amusement, bad moved off, ostentatiously to interview one of thje gar-dfne.-s, and had vanished with him in the direction of the croiqpet lawns. "Aren't we assembled here solely to edify the countryside to-morrow with our exploits ? 1 pity my partner but " "Rubbish ! Some of that Genoa cake, please. That's the worst of you Englishmen; you are always pretending you can't do things, and all the time you can do them heaps better than other people. It's just too annoying." Tyrrell laughed. "At any rate, I played atrociously yesterday afternoon!" "So should I if I had known the girl 1 cared about was being proposed to for the third or fourth time in the lime walk by the most atrocious little sneak who ever ambled through the world on two legs.' ''Really, Mrs Van Drennan! " The widow put down her teacup and surveyed him lazily through halft "Yes.the comedy has been amusing —but J.reckon it has gone far enough. And if it is any help to you flirting with me-rwell, Sadie Van Drennan has had her beaux in her time." "You recommend, in fact " "That you should go in and win. My ! What a mess some men make of their lives for the want of a little audiaclty ! " Tyrrell •said to himself that this was certainly not the virtue which Mrs Van Drennan lacked, but that her counsel was distinctly more pleasing than that of Lady Elizabeth.

"It is very .good' of you to take an interest.in my affairs,';' he was however, (moved to,say stiffly. "Which, translated, means that you think mo an interfering minx," she returned, blithely. "Then thank your, lucky stars .that lUtese midges are driving me indoors ; so au revoir for the present. By the bye, donlt forget we draw for our partners to-morrow in the library just before dinner." Rosalie was putting some letters into 'the postman's bag when Mrs Van Drennan tripped into the lofty, oakpanelled hall The widow observed that the girl's pretty oval face wore a listless, sombre expression. "Colonel Tyrrell is on the lawn. 1 le was saying he wanted to see you about, some of, the arrangements for to-morrow," fibbed Sadie, glibly. She stood for a moment thoughtfully contemplating the statue of "Saul" at the foot of the grand staircase after Rosalie had alertly vanished through the portico. Then, with a smile which might have struck Lady Elizabeth as dangerous, Mrs Van Drennan strolled down the red-' carpeted corridor which led to the' library. The room was, as she anti-l cipated, deserted. And on the writ-l ing-tablo in the large window was] the list of the ladies playing in the' croquet tournament, duly numbered and neatly written out by Rosalie.! Beside it was the blue vase in which had been placed the names of the men competing. Partners were to be! drawn by each lady as her name was ( read out, taking, one piece of paper I from the vase. j Mrs 1 Van Drennan cautiously compared the list of ladies with thel names of the men, and was not sulr-

prised to discover that matters had been so ingeniously manoeuvred that young Briggs and Colonel Tyrrell would inevitably fall to Rosalie and hersel'f as partners. "Very clever of you, Lady Elizabeth," Mrs Van Drennan murmured to herself, "but you should not have insisted so strenuously that the library was locked, nor should you leave those very peculiar Kairpln|s of yours lying about on the blottiiigcase. Well, lam going to upset your plans for once, you money-grubbing old harridan !" Whatever Lady Elizabeth may have felt when the news reached her in her dressing-room where she bad been delayed by an incompetent now maid, that Rosalie was 'destined to spend the greater p,ort of the next day in the society of Colonel Tyrrell, while Mr Briggs was being generally congratulated on having won such a clever partner as Mrs Vain Drennan, she showed no symptoms of either surprise or vexation. Lady Elizabeth never acknowledged herself beaten, and she promptly found consolation «n the conviction that, owing to Tyrrell's lack of skill, the couple would soon be "knocked out" and thai Rosalie would probably be feminine enough to resent young. Briggs' defection, which was certain to ensue after a lengthly and inevitably intimate association with the piquant American widow. Mrs Van Drennan, who had come down to dinner in a dazzling confection of pink crepfc-de-chino and solver, managed to inveigle Briggs on to the terrace nfter the coffee had been handed round, on the pretext of "coabliing" him for the tournament Sadie even accepted a cigarttte, and manipulated it so cleverly that the young man immediately modified his detestation of the ways of the "new" woman, and was driven to admit to himself that the .Mrs Van Drennan type was, after all, infinitely more amusing than that of the unsophisticated debutante. Onlookers, who had heard rumours of Sadie's marvellous successes on the croquet lawn, were disapppintad to find that live widow's pl&y dur-! ing the tournament a* Aklham Court was more than mediocre. She missed shots that oven Tyrrell would have pulled off eatily, and after the second round pktaded a headache and Vsaratched."

Biggs, unmoved by these defeats, followed her to a beech tree, where Sadie enticed him to a low chair beside hera, and fliriid with him steadily for three hour*. Tyrrell and Roaalie, meanwhile were enloying one of those halcyon days which one likes to believe glorify occasionally every human existence.

Their partnership was an excuse for ignoring the rest of the world,, and saying things to each other which .hart never occurred to them before as even speakable. "You are really playing splendidly, Rosalie said presently, when, after the fourth round, luck had still declared itself on their side. "Now Mrs Van Drennan has so amiably thrown up the ball we have quite a good chance for the first prize," "And if we win may I regard it as a good omen?" asked Tyrrell quietly, as they walked in to tea Croquet was not the only game that he was playing- that -afternoon for ail he was worth. He had resolved that, if Rosalie really cared for Win none of Lady Elizabeth's specious arguments should be allowed to influenee him.

"You can ask me that again—after we have won," murmured Mies Ivett, demurely. Loud Ivett and Lady Elizabeth were popularly regarded as a model couple, and their, views on most suUjects were understood to coincide more frequently titan is often the case with the average up-to-date husband and wife. But when Rosalie, late that evening, invaded her father's sanctum and told her parents that sihe was wigaged to Colonel Tyrrell, Lady Ehzalwth angrily interrupted her husband b cordial expressions of satisfaction by proclainung him and Rosalie -'a couple of fools." ■?, l l '!- lay not te a Croesus," admitted Lord Ivett, referring to his daughter's fiancee, ~b ut £ soldier with whose career any ZT&Z?*!" proua to belinkedand Rosalie has not had so much aWe t"T y , that BhC ™ a year!" " ** on a Lady Elizabeth sniffed and gatheredher s.lk skirts in hMK f aUWr ' l alwa y s «"sP«ctßd that! Tyirell was a blithering, S now .( Bn ow that is »; alot ' EUEabeth ™* o«t Ofj