THE PRISONER'S SISTER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 August 1938, Page 10

THE PRISONER'S SISTER

PUBLISHED BY ARRANGEMENT COPYRIGHT

BY

PEARL BELLAIRS

(Author of “Velvet and Steel”)

CHAPTER XXI. .—Continued. “All I want is to see Stuart get what he wants,” smiled Lise. “There’s not an atom of kindness in it —don’t you believe it! Just think about what I have said, and realise that it won’t be so difficult to do after all. I think you’re delightful, and I shall write and tell Ferris so. I shan’t tell Stuart though, because it will only make him more miserable than ever!” And so she went, leaving behind her the impress of her strong, calm personality on Julie’s mind, and the rich, warm tones of her voice to echo in Julie’s ears.

Julie was so overwhelmed by her kindness that for a while even the matter of her six hundred pounds and her tea-shop was driven from her mind. She went about her work in a dis-, trait sort of fashion, thinking, considering. Was Stuart very unhappy? How did she feel towards him? She hardly knew. She decided at last that she would go ahead with her plans for independance, start her tea-shop, and leave time to tell her whether she really wanted to marry. This mood persisted for a day or two. She heard nothing from him. Then one lovely warm spring evening when the chestnut trees were green, and May was coming into bloom, Julie had promised to go over to the home farm to inspect the dairy arrangements, which were said to be inadequate. She walked across the home meadow through the long green grass, aware of the lovely burgeoning of the earth about her. She knew that she should have been happy. Her aunt’s six hundred pounds had surely removed every worry she had had. She was free. She was loved—Stuart loved her. She was full of gratitude for his love, she thought that she had feelings towards him that might become more than just gratitude. But as she walked over the fields she felt tired, not wanting to go ahead with all her energetic plans. The sound of church bells soft and distant over the countryside filled her with a restless unassuaged longing. She looked up at. the rooks flying homeward, and she longed to fly with them—no matter where. Somewhere distant, to the ends of the earth, France, Africa, Sweden —

The though of Sweden pulled Julie up short in her reverie. Why should she think of Sweden? The last place she would want to go for peace and quiet, or happiness, was where Rand was. “Of course, he would intrude himself!” she thought, crossly. • She spent some time in the white sweet-smelling dairy talking to Mr Hawker, the manager of the home farm; the farm had only just been started, and she made a note of all the things that Hawker wanted doing, so that she could send the list to Mr Turrell. There was a bonny baby boy who clung to Hawker’s coat tail and peeped at her with shining black eyes from behind his father’s knee. Julie walked back to Lime Grove with the same confused and aching dreaminess in her heart. An evening mist was just beginning to fall on the fields; in the meadow just beyond the Lime Grove kitchen garden she saw someone coming to meet her on the foot-path. It was not one of the servants, he walked with a limp —it was Stuart Rand. Julie’s, heart gave a little leap of pleasure; she quickened her step, and held out both hands to him impulsively as they met. “Oh, Stuart, how nice to see you!” burst from the loneliness of her heart. He shook her hands.

“They told me you had gone over to the farm,” he said, “so I came to find you!” She could see in his eyes the effect her enthusiastic greeting had had on him. Before she had time to regret it he drew .her a little towards him and kissed her upturned face. “Oh, Stuart!” He slipped his arm round her and they turned to walk back to the house, which was hidden from them still by the ancient brick wall of the kitchen garden. “Why ‘Oh, Stuart’?” he said. “Mayn’t I kiss you?” “Yes, but —” “But what?” He stopped and drew her into his arms again. Something in Julie held back, the rest of her yielded. There was comfort in Stuart’s arms, there was kindness. She let him kiss her, and he kissed her so tenderly and gently. “Say you’ll marry me, Julie!” “Oh, I don’t know—l don’t know! I would like to—but —!” “But what? Don’t you care for me” “Perhaps I don’t love you—in quite the right way.” “That'll come, Julie!” , “It might—” “Then say yes.” Julie drew back a little, still leaning on his encircling arm. The last rooks were flying home overhead in the rosy sky. The ache of Julie’s loneliness was more than she could bear . . . “I will, Stuart—l will, if you want me to!” She could feel the strength of his happiness straining in his arms as he hugged her joyfully. Then he put her from him as though some thought had suddenly spoiled his joy. His face was troubled in the twilight. “You don’t mind about —this?” he asked reluctantly, and Julie looked down and saw that he meant his foot with its heavy surgical boot. Every atom of her being rose in a revolt of passionate sympathy, putting all other considerations, misgivings, shadowy regrets from her mind, “Mind? How can you? Do you think I’m an idiot, Stuart?” He made no reply, but put his arms round her again, and they walked on towards the house. Julie told him about her legacy. "So I’m not the pauper I was when you first asked me, Stuart!” “I'm glad,” said Stuart. “It will make pocket money for you—l’m sure

women must loathe being dependent on their husbands for every penny. We’ll get Ferris to invest it for you.” “What? No, we won’t—that is, I mean I think I can look after it myself,” said Julie. She wanted to tell him that there was one thing she was not going to endure, and that was any .interference from Rand in their affairs, but it seemed the wrong moment to mention it, and somehow she couldn’t bring herself to talk about him just then.

They went back to the hotel; and then she thought of Dolly and Will, and what was to happen to them? She talked to Stuart about it when he followed her into the office and sat himself on the edge of her desk. -“You can do anything you like with them,” said Stuart. “Send them to a boarding school, or we’ll make a home for them with us. Anything you like. I’ll settle a lump sum on them to be used for the education, if you like.” “But, Stuart, I couldn’t let you!” “Why? We ought both of us to be jolly glad that there’s enough money available to allow us to be happy without quarrelling as to whether it’s mine or yours!” There was no answer to that. Julie, knowing how hard the struggle for existence was, knew that anything else was mere obstinate pride and stupidity. Unless one had to be miserable about money it was sheer ingratitude to make onself so. “Don’t you know, Julie, how happy it’s going to make me to know that I can do something for you, in return for what you’ve done for me?” “I’ve done nothing for you!” Julie protested faintly, shrinking a little, overpowered by dread that he might overestimate the value of her feelings for him. “You’ve saved me from myself, from my own selfish bitterness and disappointment with life. I feel reborn!”

Julie told herself that she was glad. She wanted to make him happy, and she believed that she could. But after he had gone, a chill of uneasiness settled on her. She had wanted to be free, she had wanted to be independent; and yet she was going to be married because in a moment of loneliness she had said that she would. A sort of dread descended on her—a deathly fear lest she might have made a false step. She wanted to make Stuart happy. But could she? Could she live up to his expectations? She wanted so passionately to do so. But it was fixed, it was settled, it would be too cruel to him to back out now. “I’ll cable to Ferris and let him know in the morning,” had been' his last words as he left. CHAPTER XXII. Thereafter everytnmg happened so quickly that Julie had very little time for doubt or regret. When she told the children she was going to be married they looked as full of wonder and surprise as children do on such occasions. Dolly even looked a trifle dismayed. She seemed to think that they were very comfortable where they were. “Shal we be able to live with you still, Julie?” “Yes, of course, Dolly!” “Or do you think you’d better send us away to a boarding school?” “Why, would you like to go to a boarding school?” “No, I wouldn’t. I’d hate it,” said Dolly. “I think it ’ud be fun,” said Will. “But it will be just the same as at home; and you like Stuart. It will be fun to live with him, wont it?” “I think it would be fun to live with Mr Rand,” announced Will, astonishingly. Julie could only wonder at his perversity in preferring someone who had once spanked him so heavily. She didn’t tell anyone else about her engagement, but the children told Mrs Bolton. Mrs Bolton congratulated her wheezily, with a look of doubt and surprise in her face as well as pleasure.

“Well, now, fancy! I didn’t think—!” She broke off without telling Julie what it was that she had not thought. “Oh, Miss Julie! Mr Stuart Rand! It’s just lovely!” Julie was trembling with nervousness the first time that Stuart came for her in the car to take her over to see Lise. When they arrived at the house she could not help remembering the first, miserable occasion on which she had been to it —to see Rand, to plead with him on Tom’s -behalf. It looked very different now. The willows weeping over the smooth lawns by the Thames were green, and big clumps of hydrangeas were massed in azure bloom against the white ferroconcrete of ‘the low-walled, modern house

In spite of what Lise had said she felt an unwanted intruder; the only thing there was to be thankful for was that Rand himself was away. And she wondered, as she had wondered a hundred times before, what he had though when he found that she was to be his sister-in-law. “And now,” Lise said, “there is this question of your meeting the ogres—l mean the other relatives!” “Oh bother about that!” said Stuart. “Why does she have to meet them, anyhow? She can- meet them after we’re married.” “Don’t listen to him,” said Lise. “We’re going to do this thing properly. You’re going to meet them, my dear, and they’re going to think that you’re very sweet, and he’s very lucky to have you.” “So they ought!” interjected Stuart. “So they will, if Julie will let me arrange it for her.” “I’ll do anything you like,” was all Julie could say. Lise explained how many members of the family there were to whom Julie must be introduced, and announced that she intended to give a small family dinner party for Julie. She smiled at Stuart’s protests, and taking Julie’s hand said, with a nod towards him: “It’s for his sake! Are you going to put yourself in my hands, Julie, or are you going to be proud, and refuse to be helped?” “Of course I’m not going to be proud,” Julie said, all her protests stifled within her. “How could I be, when you’re so kind?” (To be Continued).