Fotheringay's Son.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10713, 28 November 1912, Page 2

Fotheringay's Son.

(Uie sfcßlAi.)

OH AFTER I. The band was playing spiritedly the waltz of tho season —nothing to ho. heard but. th«> sound of tripping foot ' over tho polished floor, the plashing j of the fountain. in tho centre of t!i« j grout hall among its hanks of roses, j and now and again morry laughter. j There were roson everywhere, a riot i of roses —groat pink blooms throwing out tlioiv sweetness and dying of ex- , Initiation in tho heat and glitter of a ! London ball-room. In ono of the recesses of the hall, hidden from view of passers-by, there sat. a couple who needed a gr«at deal J of hiding, for they wore both of tho I kind that attracts attention. 1 j Virginia. Baybum was tho only dan- j ghtor of u penniless Irish peor. She i had come to London for her first sea-- j I son, and had carried all before hcr ' l>v tho .sheer foroo of her beauty. An Irish trirl of the best- type, with expressive eves that could never be forgotten. with dark hair that grew in waves from her white forehead, with ;i shape ns lissom and ft skin .as white ns any godess, with wonderful spirits and a nimble tongue—all those gifts wore hers. There "was about her a cliarni that eon Id not "bo withstood—the nameless charm that is the dower of tho daughters of the Emerald Isle. Tho man beside her equaled her. When ono said that ono said everything. Anthony Fotheringay—Tony, ■ ns ho was known by his friends was a, man whom every ono loved and nobody respected. He was not to bo . depended ■upon, his best friends said. . Ho had a way of evading responsibilities. of getting out of scrapes that , would have been unpardonable in any , other man. Why Tony was always i forgiven no one -seemed .'to knbw': • Likewise, .why .he was everywhere re - , eeived in tho host society when every ono know that he was head- over eats in debt, and how it was that he kept . his place in the regiment, were mar- , vols to all who did not know him intimately.

But when they knew him intimately it was different. The charm of th<r man's personality worked, wonders. Ho was as handsome a man as ever , won the heart of a woman. Tall, slight, but not too slim, with a head round which his brown hair curled crisply with blue eyes that always looked one straight in the facfl whatever he was about to do, with hands ti.4 finely formed as a woman's, and wrists of steel, ho was an ideal athlete He was unquestionably the best polo player of his regiment; sat his horse like a centaur, and dani? j <hl as if dancing were the natural ex-1 press-ion of gayety to him. He was > in all respects a dandy of the dandies —a. man who bv his force of personality was able to do what other men could not do.

Yet, with it all, he was not a professional heart-breaker. Toijy bad :i

certain tenderness of heart that made him hate to givo and made him tender toward those women who had showed their preference for him. Ho conld not bear to bo any tiling but courteous to them. Indeed, although he had ample opportunities of knowing that this very courtesy was tho beginning of a love that ended in heart-break, yet he had not the courage or tho strength of mind to let the women know that they were nothing to hipi.

"T hope I am not coxcomb enough to fancy that every womah who looks at me is in love with me," 'he would say to his friends, knowing quite well that every woman to whom lie chose to make himself agreeable had a feeling for him which was likely to touch her heart.

Arthur Damian had been at. Hailoybury with him, and after that had migrated into what Toney called; a i ''money-making shop." Ho meant nothing disrespectful by that, for he was .fond of Arthur, and had in truth found the money-making shop, which was tho extravagantly furnished offices of a great Indian company of which Damian's father was a director. useful in the extreme. Damian I was one of those men who are .born to look up to men of Tony's character. He had all tho good qualities that his friend lacked —tho good, solid qualities of steadfastness and uprightness that are so little thought of in comparison with the brilliant qualities of reckless courage and dash.' '

Damian. with his rather short figure, his mouse-colored hair, his homely features, looked up to Fotheringay as a being from another world. In birth they wore nearly equal. Fotheringay was the only son of a peer's younger son. who had left him nothing but a few hundreds a year and

his beauty. Da.main'a father was also grandwen to a peer, who had realised

BY ALAii ADAIR Author of "An Island Princess," "A Marriage of Feiis ity." Etc.

that the fortunes of lando.. -j :.uwever largo, must be Bupp!<>-n< ut- A by I "business" in these so-ei» • vgonrato days. [ Therefore, it happened . . Kilo j Tony was floundering in .• •.. <it>bt, I which did not trouble hint '• . ..-ast j Damkn possessed a very oi»;.iiurtai)lo ! competence. The only tin'';; Itroj üblod him was that ho must in a few I months change the gayeti • and work jat Bombay. He did not vac I: to leave England and his friend,., ;,ul, with j admirable <«mmon sense ho .' atv that „it was the only way for him to rise to : any eminence in the company in ! which his lot was cast. At:d ho wantjed to succeed. Behind his quiet, un- ; attractive exterior thoro was a strong|th of mind and purpose that :iono ' would have credited him with. Bo- | sides the natural rogrets that, he folt |in leaving his family, to whom lie ! was old-fashioned enough to bo dc--1 votedly attached, there was tho pain of leaving Tony—tho brilliant, attractive Tony, to whom ho had given tho love which the ordinary man gives to his sweetheart—Tony, who fascinated him, and for whose ultimate welfare he felt much concern. But just now Arthur Damian's ■mind was ieasieV about hi s( friend, who, for the first time in his life, had fallen in love. He had never even fanci'ed himself in love before. He had been wont to dance through the i night with one girl whom he delighted to honor. He would slip his arm through Damian's as they returned home and say: "But you know, old man, I care for none of these things. The only things J care for are you j and the regiment. No girl has evor made my;pulse, beat, quicker. . I don't beliove I can love 'anybody but myself.'' "That is nonsense!" Damian would answer,, but he had liked it all • tlie time ; and them never was a day in his life when he would not cheerfully have made himself tho doormat for Tony's feet.

That Arthur was alxnit the only man of 'Pony's acquaintance who would lend him money made no difference at all in his feelings for him. It was no affectation in Anthony Fotheringay to despise wealth ; even when his creditors were importunate he never woried himself about money.

It was Virginia Rayburn wlio altered the whole aspect of the world for him. Virginia was a distant cousin who had always lived in Ireland, ;\ country which, in his estimtion, except for the portions of it which afforded good hunting, was beyond the pale of civilization. But her parents knew that Virginia's beauty was a valuable asset. Tehy were pleasure loving people themselves, and a season in toivrt was * ;1 , great attraction to them. Hence it was that as soon as Virginia was twenty they came q London to ascertain tho marketable value of her beauty.

Among hose who called was Anthony Fotheringay. and all three—father, mother, and daughter—simultaneously fell in love with him. They welcomed him with open arms daily —was ho not a. cousin, and were they not. Irish and hospitable P That was six weeks ago, but this intense admiration had como .suddenly to Tony. From tho first glimpse he had of Virginia in her linen dross ho had felt as if something unforseen, something real, had come into his life. Sho had como forward with her hands out'stretehed, her people being out, and had looked into his eyes and said: "Captain Fotheringay. T know mother remembers vour father; she was speaking of him only tho other day."

Virginia did not add that her mother had said that ho was very handsome—the handsomest man she had ever seen—but her e,vo.« said- so to Tony, and they added ns well: "And you are handsome, too." '