AUNT MABEL'S STORY

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5, 4 February 1909, Page 163

AUNT MABEL'S STORY

I am so glad you were able to come, Aunt Mab ! Christmas—and my birthday— would not have seemed the same at all without you to any of us;' The speaker was a young girl, brown haired and .blue eyed, with a fair, sweet face and a lissom slender figure that looked the perfection of neatness and grace in its well-cut navy-blue house-gown, .with an appropriate touch of color in the scarlet neck ribbon and in the bright bunch of holly berries that shone amongst their leaves in her belt. 'Thank you, dear,' Aunt Mabel said affectionately as her favorite niece deftly helped to remove the heavy furlined cloak which the new-comer had been weafing: on her long, cold journey. 'But despite a severe twinge of rheumatism I was fully determined to come, dear child I have never missed spending a Christmas at the Bath since* you were a baby, Kitty, and I don't intend to stay away as long as I can help it. I'm glad your mother is keeping so well; and father? I suppose he looks as happy and jovial as ever.' ' J i Aoll'A 011 ' y? s ' P a P a kee P s splendidly, Aurit Mabel. Now, do let me do that for you,' and suiting the action to the word, Kitty was down at once on her knees unbuttoning the elder woman's boots. 'Thank you, child,' Miss Brereton said again. 'I'm afraid Im getting old at last, Kitty, or else it is the rheumatism winch makes my poor old joints so stiff And how about yourself, Kitty?' she went on, as seated in a comfortable armchair before the blazing log fire she partook gratefully of the hot cup of tea and the thin buttered toast which her niece had thoughtfully ordered up to the visitor s room, it being still an hour or two before dinner 1 thought you looked not quite the thing— just a little thin and pale — when I tame in.' * ' Oh, I'm all right, Auntie,' Kitty said, with a brightness that was perhaps a little forced,, and a suddenlyflushed face which did not seem altogether due to her exertions. ' And Charlie?' her Aunt went on interrogatively while a shadow not altogether unobserved of her keen dark eves passed swiftly over Kitty's face. Yes, the child did look distinctly pale and trouble. 'Oh, Mr. Nugent is very well, I think,' Kitty began. You think,' and ' Mr. Nugent,' her aunt repeated in surprise. 'Why, when did you see him, Kitty?' ' Not for three or four weeks now,' the girl admitted shyly and with a slightly tremulous lip. 'Three or four weeks! That is quite a long time— for him. Why Kitty, I thought— l hoped— it was all practically settled between you and my godson. Is it your fault or his? I must talk to him, really I must, the mome'it he comes.' ' 1~1 am not sure that he will come at all ' Kitty faltered. In fact, I'm pretty certain that he won't ' Not come— even to your birthday party !' Miss Brereton exclaimed m surprise. 'Why, Kitty, what has come between you, tell me.' rr-J Notb j n S> -funt Mab— or at least, the merest trifle' am! real] ! — ' '^'^ aU OWIU foolish Jealousy, ' Tell . me all al)out i*» dear,' Miss Brereton said gently as the girl stopped, suddenly overcome. • <W , e JJ,' y £ u see ' auntie >' Kitty began, in a choking voice, 'Charlie asked jme to" marry him this time last year— and— l promised that I would think of it. I'm very" attached to him, really, auntie— l never .knew how attached until this last few., weeks. But somehow— you know how fond of fun and enjoyment, auntie -' Miss Brereton nodded. 'Yes, I often told you, Kitty, that you were a little too much of a flirt,' she said bluntly and inexorably. . , ' fWell, somehow, I didn't * feel,' Kitty went on, apparently too miserable — or too guilty — to attempt to answer the charge, ' that I wanted to settle down that way just- yet a while; and when I told Charlie so he seemed quite hurt. Still we kept very good friends till a few, months ago, when Captain Reggie Ponsonby came here for the shooting. He paid me great attention and— l'm afraid I did flirt very outrageously, with him. Then at Blakeley s dance at the end of November I danced all night— at least, I'm afraid I danced a great deal too often with him. Charlie was there, and he looked— looked rather furious j and once when he came into the conservatory I fancy he was looking for ine — and saw me sitting under the palms with Captain Ponsonby, he grew quite white with anger, and tben passed by as though, he did not knoweither of us.'

' I don't wonder, I'm sure, poor boy,' Charlie's godmother said with a little snort of resentment, ' considering the whole world, myself included, looked on the two of you as being practically engaged. Now, Kitty, tell me truly, do you really care the least little bit in your heart for this Captain Reggie vhatever-his-name is?' Kitty flushed again, and was silent a moment. ' I like him, auntie, very much, she said then. 'He is very charming ,very fascinating — and perhaps I felt more flattered than I ought to have been by his attentions, for I discovered since that lie makes love to every woman he sees, every pretty woman., at any rate,' she added, with a deprecating smile. < But then,' shyly, < I never felt the same, not a bit the same about him as I did about Charlie. I know — now — it's really Charlie I cared for all the time.' ' Well, then, hadn't you better make it up with the boy at once?' Miss Brereton began impatiently. ' But — but that is the -worst of it, Aunt Mab,' Kitty answered, half-sobbing. 'I did try to make it up with him and — and he would not have it. I met him only once ' since that night of the Blakeley's dance, and then — he was frightfully cold and distant, auntie. I was beginning to feel really wretched; so when I got a chance of speaking to him I tried to bo as nice as ever I could, and said something about my birthday party — meaning — if he would only have understood — that I'd make up to him then for all my sins at the Blakeley's. But he only looked at me coldly and asked, " Is Captain Ponsonby to be a guest at your birthday party, too?" And when I said he was — for the Captain had practically invited himself, and I didn't see how I was to get out of it — Charlie said, " I'm afraid in that case, K"tty, I have another engagement." I really think it was very horrid of him, Auntie, don't you ? After my stopping and making myself so very small ? So then, of course, I flirted more than ever ' ' You little minx,' Aunt Mabel said, with a mingled severity and tenderness, 'you got only half of what you really deserved. Many a woman has missed her whole life's happiness by just such foolish tactics as you have been pursuing, and you may thank your stars, my dear little girl, that in your case it is not yet too late to make amends. Now, let me tell you a story, Kitty. Once or tu-ioe, you remember, you asked me how it was that I had never married, with all my wealth and good looks I was just as pretty or prettier even than you, child,' she added with a frank and engaging complacency. ' Well, I promised I would tell you some time, Kitty, and though it is a matter I have never cared to talk about, or have talked about by others, the story, I think, may as well bo told now — perhaps better — than at any other time. ' You know, Kitty, I was like yourself — an only daughter, your father's only sister; and like most other only daughters of well-to-do parents, I was, I'm afraid, just a little spoiled and over-indulged. I had, too, plenty of lovers and would-be suitors, some of them just as charming and fascinating as your Captain Ponsonby, I daresay. But of them all I really only cared for the one — I know it now, and felt it even then, for all my folly and hardheartedness. Well, Archie Bentham was only a struggling young doctor, and as I had every comfort and everything I could possibly wish for at home, I did not see the use of settling down too soon as a poor man's wife, and kept putting him off time after time. At last, a rather good appointment turned up for him, but it was in Australia, and Archie never gave me a moment's peace till I had promised him that as soon as he had made ready a comfortable home and secured a sufficient practice out there, I would go out to him and become his wife. For all that, I made sure to enjoy myself in his absence, and thought altogether too little, I fear, of the poor faithful lover working so hard and so patiently for my worthless and selfish self at the other end of the world. The time came at last, however, when he would be put off no longer, and I had to promise liim that I would get ready my trousseau and all necessary goods and chattels and start by a certain boat, which he would meet at the other end of the journey — the boats, I may add, did not go nearly as frequently in those days as now. Just at the end, all my friends were giving me farewell parties, and between tlie dissipation of these and the arrival of wedding gifts, and the selecting of dresses, etc., for my trousseau, I was — well, fairly off my head with excitement. And then, at the last moment, a friend of mine, Walt Harrington, a good-looking young squire with whom I had been flirting rather unpardonably, begged of me to wait yet another few days in order to attend a picnic .which he wished to give in my honor. Well, weakly, I' succumbed, and let the boat go, even though I knew my poor, patient Archie would be waiting to meet me on its arrival at Sydney. And even though Walt Harrington made me a proposal of marriage that day — as I had guessed he would — urging me to throw over my old lover

for good-and-all, I may*tell you I didn't enjoy that picnic or the days that ensued the least. — A revulsion of feeling, a kind of ' remorseful longing had set in; and I now felt as anxious to be off and rejoin my patient and long suffering sweetheart as I had hitherto been slow and reluctant to do so. I wrote him a long, penitent letter, telling him not to be disappointed, that I would surely come by the very next boat. And when the day for my departure came, I said good-bye to all my friends and the easy, luxurious old life with the lightest and most joyous of hearts, feeling almost "fey," as the Scotch say, at the mere prospect of meeting and greeting my true love once more.' Miss Brereton sighell heavily and the jewelled hands that had been lying idly in her lap gripped each other nervously. ' Well, Kitty, the boat reached Sydney, but there was no Archie there to meet it. I could not tell you the feeling of disappointment, of utter loneliness and desolation, which came over me as I scanned all the waiting faces on the pier, and saw that his was not amongst them. Then a momentary fit of anger came over me; he had y done this by way of retaliation, to pay me off for my own cool and heartless disappointment of him a few weeks before ! But even as the thought passed through my mind, a gentleman whom I had before noticed on the pierhead came up and spoke to me. He was- my Archie's brother, the same who had obtained for him the appointment which had brought the two of us one after another to the far-off country. He was a little like Archie, but a good deal older, and with a quiet sadness of bearing altogether unlike my old love as I remembered him — young, gay, and bebonnair. ' "My brother — he was not able to come down to the boat, so I came to meet you instead," he said, after we had made sure of each other's identity. With hardly another word, he took charge of my luggage, and gavo directions concerning it; then led me to the vehicle that was to carry us both to our destination. 'A feeling of wretchedness that was not altogether disappointment, a feeling of sadness and foreboding, had by this time taken possession of me, but as we journeyed along, through the busy crowded streets I took courage at last, to say, "Archie — he is quite well, I trust?" It was so unlike him not to have come ! ' My companion looked at me kindly, almost pityingly. '"He is — not very well, I'm afraid," he said, guardedly; and something in the words, in the way they were spoken, set all my smouldering fears aflame. ' " There is something wrong, I feel it, I know it," I said. "Tell me," laying my hand on his arm, "tell mo the worst! Is he — is Archie dead?" ' " No, Archie is not dead," the brother said, but there was no corresponding brightness in his face. "He is ill, upset; he worked too hard these few years back, took too little rest or relaxation, living with only one fixed object, one single idea in his mind, and then — he had a sudden shock, the effects of which still remain — may perhaps remain as long as he lives." ' With a blanched face, and a ' heavy, remorseful conscience (for who knew better than I the " one fixed object," the "one single idea" which possessed my lover's mind and heart?) — I gathered from the man" sitting beside me, little by little, the history of what had really "happened. Archie for the past- four years had been working with a feverish energy, with a restless, untiring unselfishness, the sole object of which was to secure for me" as a wife the same comfortable means and surroundings that I had been used to in my girlhood's home. Then 7 when this end was gained and he felt assured that at last I was really coming to him, his joy and excitement knew no bounds; and on the morning on which he had come to meet me at the boat, that morning which was to end in such bitter disappointment for him, his brother and all his friends were chaffing him on his radiantly happy looks.' Miss Brereton sighed heavily, and was silent a few moments, as tlymgh wrapped up in regretful memories of the dead, irrevocable past. ' Well,' she went on, *he did not find his bride awaiting him, and after a vain and fruitless search the poor fellow returned to his home, a -sadly altered man. ,Ono ineradicable idea seemed to have taken possession of his mind and soul ; his sweetheart must be ill,, perhaps dead — else why did she not come to him as she had promised. II; never entered his head, you see, that she could have wilfully and wantonly broken that promise for the sake of a frivolous day's amusement and- the satisfaction of her own foolish vanity. Archie's brother tried all he could to console and reassure him, but the poor fellow would not be reassured; one thought had taken possession of him, had completely obsessed him — that I was dead, perhaps drowned on' the journey out. The end of it was that the shock of his disappointment, acting on. an overstrained mind and body, had made a mental arid physical wreck of my poor devoted lover. Ho lived for just a year afterwards, and

all that time he mourned disconsolately for his "poor lost darling," as he always called me. They brought me to him, hoping that the sight of me would restore the balance of his mind, but it was useless— too late. He knew me porfectly, but yet to his troubled and shattered mind I was still only "his poor lost darling, his dead, drowned Mabel'; and it made my meetings with him sadder — sadder than death itself, Kitty. I hoped against hope that he would get better, but within less than a year of my journey out, poor Archie was dead, at rest at last. -Then it was found that in a will -which he had made before his — his illness he had appointed me sole hoir to all his savings, which were sufficient to leave me wealthy and independent for the rest of my days. But I was left something else also, Kitty — a sore-, aching' untiringly remorseful heart. I had no thought any longer for the petty follies, the selfish frivolities of my former life. My life's happiness was gone, gone for ever, and I would have gladly given every day of my existence, every single earthly, possession of mine, if I could enly have seen my lover restored to health and sanity once more. NoAt, Kitty, you see — you know how it is that 1 never married, dear child.' 'Poor Auntie Mab,' Kitty whispered softly, laying a wet cheek caressingly against the hand that gripped her own so closely. ' I know — I can guess just exactly how you must have felt,' she said, and then fell into a deep sympathetic silence that said more than any words. But. afterwards, when she had a few moments to herself, she sent off such a sweet, penitemt, tender little note to Mr: Charles Nugent as would have given Aunt Mabel, did she only see it, almost as much unmixed pleasure and gratification as it certainly didHo that young gentleman himself. - On the following afternoon, as Kitty was twining the last wre th of mingled holly and mistletoe around the central chandelier of the Rath drawing-room — denuded now of half its furniture to make room for the coming dancing and festivities — the door opened very softly, and Charlie' Nugent came in. Kitty tamed round, a look of wondering welcome in her big blue eyes. 'Is it really you ?' she cried, in artless, unfeigned pleasure. 'So you've come, Charlie ! You are coming to my birthday party, after all.' 'Kitty, I've just been -talking to my godmother in the hall — what a brick she is!— and sho just got time to whisper me something — something about you, Kitty dear.' ' About me ' — Kitty repeated, coloring up delightfully —'Aunt Mabel— she's a dear, but she had no business to abuse my confidence '

When Miss Brereton opened the door noiselessly a few moments later, all her doubts and fears for the combined future happiness of her pet niece and her godson were speedily and silently and for ever set at rest.— Weekly Freeman.