THE STORYTELLER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 252, 17 October 1908, Page 4

THE STORYTELLER.

AM ENGAGEMENT IS ANNOUNCED

(By .Nannie Harris Walker.' ■ The usual Hyde Park crowd v. aa] thinned almost to extinction. Tired; beauties had taken their dimmed "yc-,j palli'l cheeks, and languid limit, to pur-; er air and to less exacting surrouiid ! ings. In'their wake, naturally. k;;,|; followed the ever-watchful mammas,' the deque-producing papas, and ai. .',t: other human appurtenances who ::■' according to fashion's rule. lu a word, Society's calendar puint- II to t!„- last week in July, Stiii, liui- ', withstanding that Hyde Park was " deserted," quite a sutlieient number ot people were about to make it a pleasurable sensation to the Honourable ills, •lames to drive round and round the appointed circle and pull up innumcr- 1 able-times as this or that friend camel along.

The lady's beaming giuiousuns to all who approai lied hii ii-mgi \ 3 badly supported by her daughter Ali.i who sat by her side. Though the girl was included in all the civilities extended to her mother, the expression on her race remained one of bored acquiescence Vnged with half-amused scorn. So jionounced, indeed, was her indifference ij l»idy Allingtou'a gushing exelamatious that ill's. James could not refrain from a word of protest as soon as that important person had disappeared. " I wish, Alice," she said, " you would exert yourself just a little. You might at least s mile. You know what a bitter tongue Lady Allington has. •! believe she is already talking about you; she has just met that old scandal-monger, lieorge Morris; look how he is laughing. Aud he is coming towards us. Do try to look cheerful."

-I'm.so tired of it all, mother," replied Alice; "and, as you enjoy receiving the congratulations so much, I think 1 shall go for a walk, and leave you all the pleasure. My legs are really qnitt cramped from sitting so long in this little tub of a carriage." Alice, with quiet determination, told the coachman to stop. Her indignant mother realised she could not countermand the order without creating a scene, and she quickly made up her mind that anything was preferable to that. Thus it happened that at the very moment Mrs. James needed all her blandest smiles for her old crony, tieorge Morris, Alice had stepped out of the carriage and was taking long strides across the soft, close-mown grass. The defiant young face still kept its amusedly scornful expression. She was picturing to herself the sugary excuses th&t practised Society matron, her mother, was giving for her "dear girl's" sudden departure. She walked on rapidly until she came to a clump of trees which shaded the turn of a path that led towards the (Serpentine. Coming slowly in the same direction was a young man; his head was bent, and he was so profoundly buried in thought that he would not have seen Miss James had she not come quickly from behind the trees, and stood directly before him. At sight of her he stopped and looked at her in bewildered amusement. "I am taking a little constitutional," she said; "if you like you c.a join me.' At the intimation the young mm raised his hat and joined her in the walk. His movements were as mechanical as an automaton. . "This is a surprise," he stammered. "Not to mo," Miss James replied: '■ I saw vou from the carriage, and 1 thought 1 should like to have a little chat with you." "That was very kind" (.with icy coldness). '" Yes—to myself. You are an infinitely more agreeable companion than old George Morris whom 1 left speaking to mother. .He has to grind his teith whenever he attempts to smile, and the noise always makes me want to griad mine, too. Let us walk briskly; it's delightful to have so much of the park to ourselves." The.y walked on in silence, which was broken with quite evident embarrassment by the man. "I feel 1 have been very rude," he said, "" not to have joined my congratulations to those wliich have kept you bowing and smiling for the last hour. Let me offer them now." "Thank vou, my friends have been quite effusively kind." "I suppose so. A prospective income of twenty thousand a year has a very vivifying effect on the wells of human kindness." "J hear Miss .Tenkius has a somewhat similar income.'' "lint without the advantage of being a sexagenarian." "Sir Thomas is not sixty" (indignantly). "Even when ill, and in the early morning, he does not look fifty." "I'm sorry to have misjudged him. I have not had an opportunity for such intimate insjTcotioii. I merely dated hiin from clubroom stories." " Wliich are always spiteful. I assure you, you would be quite surprised to see how bright and fresh he is ii the early morning. And mother say* that only a man who is an angel of sweetness can refrain from swearing before breakfast. I am quite sure about it, because I went with her to pay a duty call every morning when Sir Thomas was laid up at our Hat. Yon remeiiHier the time he slipped in the hall and broke his leg?" "D " (low and intense). '• 1 beg your pardon'. 1 thought you had said something! Yes; 1 used -t> wear a white muslin frock trimmed with blue ribbons, my hair en belie, and I carried a little basket of roses for Sir Thomas's vases." "Quite Sdyliic." "Yes, quite! I think it was then he began to fall in love with mo." " 1 really must be going, Miss James; . good-bye." "Why,you have not said a single nice thing to me yet!" "' Yon know well that I cannot siy nice things to you about your engagement to this old man. Oh, Alice, Iww. did she ever get you to do it!" "If you really want to know, \ will tell you. Mother said that my future had to get out of the land of mights and woulds. She said that I have be n through four s easons, and that I'm getting to look quite pasisee. Then, it seems that George's last little flutter j has meant the mortgaging of her income for s ix months,, otherwise his ea-| gngenient to Miss Croesus will bebrokej, j off. Added to all that we | 1:lu . the: twins; they will have to be put in a! home for the feeble-minded if they .re not taken out of short frocks next yeai.; po you want more reasons? Well, t'-wi allowance that I have from grandmotaiT! does not quarter-cover niy l«iwii-, ; my? dressmaker's bills alone, which l.tv.e u'l 1 poured in, meant immediate baufcnipfcy.; so mother B ays. Y'oll did not think, >K \ Clifford, that filmy masses «i ii,c,. fv'i.'sl and chiffon drapery cotdd mm irci*, dark and destructive storm-clouds,'!" "How can you je.sf: How cm you be so unconccrnijoa?" / "That's what mother kepi savin;,'. With her «-eak heart and straiieal nerve,, Sir Joseph Cureall predicts the! yxvest con-cc|Uencos frov,i a severe! shock-say the service of A writ. She cried bitterly beeaiwe I w a , s( , ulieilyj heartless, aud declared I ua- killing her." "But yon. yourself. C\lice? Wii.it about your feelings, rollr ]][,.■; y Ol . have no love for th' JS * o | ( i man!" "Xot a bit'. I told mother so last night, but she ] ove j s j nst :l lna tt--r of heated imagination, cultivated ly novel-reading, an ,i that every woman i gets to love, ii.er husband if lie'gives her] ft life free, irom money worries." j " Wltf.'t a shameless assertion! You j must realise what a base lie it L-, if yoa 1 consider for, a moment what companion-1 ship for fife with a person you cannot] tolerate, means." " Don't vou think that is going .1 little too'far, Mr. CliHord? I more! than tolerate Sir Thomas. I really like J hiin very much. Besides, mother sa.\ s j that all men are the same alter a fevj months of married life: they just I<i"k upon their wives as rather worrying bilil of impedimenta." "Vor goodness' sake" (losing pati-i once) "don't quote your mother agai:i! It's perfectly exasperating! You have) never talked like a parrot before. You j are so bravo, so independent, you surely! have a mind of your own. a heart of I lour own, anil they must tell you lint,' life, joined with a man vou do not love, is hell!" ' j " But Sir Thomas has promised mother } hat I'm to have a yacht and motor ear / if mv own. and that I could live hoc--1 ml where I liked, and that he would j iliow me four thousand a year." | "J beg your pardon" i-av a-iieaily!. |' •J see it all quite plainiv now. I ,im ■ orry I spoke so hastily. Ail f.-eliviji s impotent against such argument •. p , our mother knows you best." j ! "So she said yesterday evening when ' J he told me Sir Thomas was to comcp (Hind thi- morning, and that the :m-J< Munecmcnt of my engagement simp";,-is

mid 10 L-e a:.■ •, ..-. .„ M-.'ii.i nuke all: the i.e..j,;e cho ale ,\ , -Hoi:, ~,:■ fur. 'uon.-y as quiet .1- lamb-." "Please do ind trouble with further' excuses, .Mi„ .1..,.],.-. Vuu niil Im.el your y;..-!:;, .„,,i in-nor-car. and vour IIJIU' IhoU-.iu : ;. \, .T." "It —nil.'.. ;:v ::dl ,- llicr. docs-ft i. '" ' "Wliat :; .ab'.lh'ine. ocarih- ,-,.,-| man you are! and. 1 •.. i- i. ' : ■ jl ciio,i--',i j an imp:;:-.!, a' ,'.'. . ■ : ...... i , even folded' la; '. , .'.[ ;', 1 aiiiiol shake liTm.i-."' •Mack! Come back! 1 have sumclaing more to led you. It is only tin: l mother yestciday evening' insisted on sending the notice oi my engagement to the papers. Nothing' that 1 could do, or say, or threaten, would prevent her. She said she had to make my marriage irrevocable, or she could not be sure of my acceptance of Sir Thomas this morning.'' "What is the use of prolonging the explanations. They ;1 11 lead to the one fact—l have lost you and you are engaged to marry another."

"But I am not! That's the point I was coming to." "Y—o—u'," (gaspingly). " 1 am NOT engaged, Air. Clifford." "B—u—tr '• I know. Tlie ' engagement has been announced,' &c. Hut as I have already told you, mother insisted o n sending t'u wretched thing to the papers ycstcrttiv evening, but .1 refused Sir Thomas this morning. He, was an old dear about it. Promised not to tell the truth until i have left town." '• Darling." "You silly old Jack!" "What agonies 1 wont through. How, my dearest, could you have kept up that excruciating make-believe; you were cruel." " Because mother said that you drove Miss Jenkins down to Windsor 011 Tuesday, and that, in spite of her red hair and nasal accent, you seemed quite epris. and 1 was alone all that afternoon." " But vou said you were going to your aunt's." "1 did not go because I thought. 1 'might have a ,-hanee of seeing vou." " If I had only known." " She ka s ten thousand a year. .lack. I suppose we are awful fools." But they looked into one another's eyes, aud clasped each other's hand, and Alice murmured: •' Even a fool's paradise is better then none." "An angel's paradise!" exclaimed Jack, who in a moment bad reached love's deepest depths of fatuity. "Poor mother!" said Alice. "J feci sorry for her." '•i don't. I should like to be there when she gets, the news of our marriage." "Our marriage, .lack?" "To-morrow; it's the only way to face the music.'' "By turning our back 011 it," laughed Alice. But she agreed.