“MAN FROM THE AIRPORT”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 January 1940, Page 10

“MAN FROM THE AIRPORT”

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT. COPYRIGHT.

By

LESLIE BERESFORD.

Author of “Mr Appleton Awakes,” “The Other Mr North,” etc.

CHARTEP XVI. Continuec. ‘‘Of course, my dear,’ it’s perfectly easy to see what is going to happen, she remarked. ‘‘You'll give up the money, and you'll marry that nice Terry Carlton, as you should have done before this.”

As a mater of fact, not half-an-hour after Aunt Louie ventured on this prophecy, Terry Carlton himself appeared at “Sunnyside.” He had been discussing the position with Aunt Louie over the telephone, as he explained right away. “Listen, Paula,” he said. “You and I simply have to get together for good and all. Your aunt Louie has been telling me ” “And what has Connie Willard to say about it, Terry?” She stayed the emotional flow of his words in her cool, aloof voice, then laughed. “It won’t do, Terry, my dear,” she said. 'My aunt Louie is quite a sweet thing, but she can’t marry me off to you as easily, as all that. For one thing, Terry, I don't love you quite enough. For another, I’m quite sure that it isn't from sheer, desperate love of me that you’re offering to make me your wife. It's just—isn’t it?—that your sorry because I’m not going to be a poor little rich girl any longer, and next week or so, I’ve to set about earning some sort of living——.” “Nothing of the sort, Paula. Ido love you,’ Terry became more emotional than before, but she laughed again. “No, Terry,” she said. “I've told you before that you belong to Constance. I ought never to have come between you and her. It seems that I’m fated to do harm to people. Even the very money I’ve been spending belonged to someone else —” At this moment there appeared on the terrace the portly figure of Mr Wallingford, coming towards them. At sight of him. Terry Carlton made quick excuses, returning to his car and disappearing. Paula, who by now had been joined by the solicitor, watched Terry disappear in the distance. “There goes my last chance of happiness!” she said, more to herself than to Wallingford, who, however, challenged her. “Are you so sure, my dear.” He drew her towards the house. "Come,” he said. “I want to talk to you.’! “I've just come from John Peters,” he continued as they passed indoors. “I knew there was something about you that I didn’t quite like, Mr Wallingford,” she laughed. “That utterly detestable man ” “Come, come, my dear!” The other interrupted her, with a sudden sharp severity. “You’ve not right to talk about Peters in that way. Actually, he’s behaving in an incredibly generous fashion towards you. And—of course —your brother. He insisted that it was on your brother’s account that he had come to the decision concerning which I came here to tell you.” ■‘You’re not going to suggest to me. surely, that this John Peters wants to make me a nice, comfortable allowance?” Paula asked. “Peters has declined absolutely to take even a solitary penny from the Accrington estate, my dear,’ the other answered. “He has today signed a formal document to that effect. He isinsisted on doing so—” “Well, that doesn’t surprise me,” she shrugged. “Geoffrey told me that this John Peters didn’t want the money. He said it was best left with me, because I was the kind' of woman who ought to be given enough rope to hang herself —" “But"—she turned to her solicitor, her eyes blazing, red mouth tremulous with anger —“you can go to him from me, Mr Wallingford. You can tell him that, whether he wants it or not, the Accrington money is definitely going to belong to him. I can sign formal documents just as easily as he can. And my instructions to you are that Geoffrey and I wish one drawn up renouncing all claim to what we thought to be ours. And, Mr Wallingford, I want that done at once!” “My dear——” Wallingford found himself left with Aunt Louie, who had meanwhile been a silent observer in the background. “If you want to know what I think, Mr Wallingford,” Aunt Louie intervened at this juncture, "I am of the opinion that Paula is coming to her senses at last. You know what will happen, don’t you? She'll marry this Mr Peters, and they’ll both share the money." “I should like to be sure that would happen,” the solicitor murmured. “It would certainly be the most convenient way out of a desperately difficult situation. Still, as she’s given me those very definite instructions, I’ve no alternative but to carry them out.” At which moment, with some idea of going to town, getting away from solitude and the passionate agony of her own thoughts, plunging herself into the human whirlpool of her social set for one last, desperate fling, Paula had stepped into her car. She drove it down towards the aerodrome, to reach the main road for London.

On the way, she drove past Lea House. In the grounds of this she noticed Pamela Baring lingering with a man. For one brief, startling moment Paula believed the man to be John Peters. And because the man was kissing Pamela Baring, Paula felt lhe salt sting of tears in her eyes. Then, as she was driving on. she suddenly realised her mistake. The man was the French-Canadian, who was Peterg's friend. Paula called herself all the fools in the world, because immediately she felt a sense of intense relief. What, after all. did it matter to her whether Peters was kissing another woman or not"

She was asking herself that when her car reached the entrance to the aerodrome. She slowed down, swung the car in at the gates. Now that she had renounced, or was renouncing the Accrington estate, she could no longer afford an aeroplane.

■ That hurt. But she imagined mat she would have to suffer more hurt still in these days of poverty ahead. She had to face that knowledge. So, before going on to town’ for her last mad fling, she decided to take the first step to renounce her prosperous past. She drove to the airdrome offices, left her car, went inside. A few minutes later, she had informed the official there that she was selling her plane, and that if anyone came to examine it they were to be given every access and facility to do so. She had returned to her car, and was about to step into this, when a voice called her by name from behind, and she flung round in some surprise.

“Why, Geoff ?” she exclaimed. “What are you doing here? I quite thought you’d gone to town." “That’s what I’d intended to do,” her brother answered. “Only—l met Peters, and I’ve been having a talk with him.”

Not until then was she aware that John Peters was present. He was standing in the background, in that annoyingly unobtrusive way of his, which yet made him important. She refused, however, to look at him. “I should have imagined you could fill in your time more profitably, Geofl'," she said curtly. "Anyhow, I’m off to town myself. If you want a lift. I'll take you with me.” ‘Half-a-minute. You really mustn’t take that sort of attitude about Peters," her brother said. “He’s made a perfectly good offer to me. Everything’s fixed for me to join him in the company that's going to run his invention.” “Really?” Paula studiously avoided looking in the direction where Peters stood. All the same, in a maddening way, she saw him. Indeed, she left his presence so vitally that she wanted to cry out with the very pain it seemed to be inflicting on her. “Why, yes,” Geoffrey went on. “And another thing. We’ve got to do something about Peters. You know, I suppose, that he's absolutely refusing to touch the Accrington money ” “If he doesn’t, it will lie idle. You and I are having no more to do with it. I’ve instructed Mr Wallingford to that effect. Come, Geof. Get into my car, and we'll talk things over on our way to town ” “Not while your sister’s in that mood, Geoffrey,” intervened here the voice of John Peters. “She’ll land you in a smash, and the Peters Penetrator syndicate will lose one of its most promising directors ” "How dare you talk like that?” Paula flung round on him, her blue eyes ablaze. “You think that, because my brother is going to be poor, you can persuade him to accept charity from you ’’

"Oh, no —no —no,” Peters silenced her sharply. So sharply, in fact, that she was stunned into silence. “Your brother is not going to be poor, nor are you, unless you’re too foolish for words,” he went on. “Your brother’s a sensible fellow, and joining my syndicate on strictly business terms. He isn’t going to town with you in that car of yours. I wouldn't allow him to risk his neck ” "Oh, you detestable man!” Paula was almost voiceless in anger. All the same, she was very near to tears. It seemed that even Geoffrey had deserted her. She had not until now realised that he had been in touch with John Peters, let alone to the extent of accepting a berth, at his hands. She was almost too staggered even now to appreciate the meaning of it. She was not letting him realise that, however, and turned to her car with a cold little gesture, dismissing both Geoffrey and him.

“Anyhow,” she said, “I am going to town myself, so —if Geoffrey prefers your company to mine—he can please himself. But I’m definitely off—” “Quite. And—if you've no serious objection—l’m coming with you,” John Peters said in his quiet way, opening the driver’s door of the car and settling his leggy length at the wheel.

"If I don’t feel like risking your brother's neck," he added with a grin, “I consider you’re far too pretty to be risked also. Are you still standing on your dignity?” For a moment, Paula hesitated. The hot blood had rushed to her cheeks, and then drained from them again. She wanted to refuse, but the words simply would not come to her lips. Almost before she knew what was happening. Geoffrey had pushed her into the seat beside Peters, saying to her: "John wants to reason with you, sis. Better get it all over quickly. Only —let me have a wire, won't you. if things are fixed up, nice and 0.K.?" The car, with Paula seated mutely beside John Peters, began to eat up the miles to London in a steady, noiseless way. "Nice little car,” John Peters remarked .after so long an interval of silence that Paula had begun to wonder how it was going to be broken, and by whom. “That’s more than I can say for you." she retorted tersely. He laughed. “I wouldn't worry. You'll come to a very different opinion of me in tire end, you know.” “It would be quite interesting to discover what you don't appear to know." she shrugged. "Quite. So long as I have your.interest at last, that's something gained. One thing, at any rate, I know, and it's time you knew it, too. I'm perfectly dreadfully in love with you How are

things on your part?" For a moment, she stared at him in a stupified silence. She had really only one answer to his question, but out of sheer perversity she refused to give it. She felt a strange, maddening thrill run through her, and the reason for it made her go hot with shame. A thrill of joy that ho loved her. Loved her.

She averted her eyes,, swayed by fear that he should read the surrender in her own. She stared at the road ahead, along which the car moved at no outstanding speed. In fact, a glance at lhe speedometer showed her that they were really almost crawling. It made her laugh. Il gave her an excuse to evade his question.

"You certainly are not risking your neck or mine,” she said, and then suddenly realised something which, till then, she had not noticed. “Why, what’s happening?” she asked. “Your sense of direction isn’t very good. This isn’t the road to London, you know ” “Wrong again, Paula,” he laughed. “I do know it. We’re not going to London. We’re taking a nice circuitous way back to Beaconsfield and—if you don’t mind —to Lea House, where I propose to introduce you to Sir Oscar and Pamela, and possibly Mr Wallingford as well as my two friends O’Corrigan and de Brissac, as my future wife.”

“Really?” Paula, at this moment, did not know whether she wanted to laugh or to cry. A film covered her eyes, so the last was unquestionably right. "You're taking a great deal for granted, aren’t you?” she asked under her breath.

"The question is—what am I being granted, Paula? I want so very, very much from you " She sat very still. The car had come to a standstill also, she noticed, as much as the welling tears in her eyes allowed her to notice anything. They had stopped in the midde of a leafy lane, which wound through a copse, and this was carpeted with flowers. The air was laden with perfume. Excepting for the twitter of an occasional bird, a tense silence hung over them.

Paula broke it. almost in a whisper. “You’re quite sure ‘it's really me that you want?” she asked. “It isn’t just—oh, I mean this, John —we are definitely not going to keep the Accrington money-—” “Give it to charity, if you like. It doesn’t matter to me. I want you, and only you. I suppose I wanted you the very first minute you and I began that breeze-up on the Beaconsfield aerodrome ” “Oh, thank heaven, we had that breeze!” she muttered, yielding to his arms, which were not longer to be resisted. “I think that must have begun it for me too. John.” Her lips were given to his for so long a time that a rabbit, which had begun to scuttle across the road, stopped in sheer amazement at this strange sight of a motionless car, and two perfectly oblivious humans, discovering real happiness for the first time in their lives. THE END.