RENTS ARE LOW IN EDEN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 227, 8 July 1941, Page 7

RENTS ARE LOW IN EDEN

i By PETER BENEDICT.

A Story of Lawsuit and Romance.

CHAPTER XIII. “Thank yon,’’ said Catherine, with eyes averted, more to avoid Percy s glance than because of any confusion she might have felt. For Perry had said not a word since .the hoop of diamonds had dazzled his eyes, but had simply gathered himself up slowly at her feet, and sat looking at Lyddon’s ring numbly, as if it fascinated and repelled him, as if something about it troubled his mind with a. violent distaste. His mother saw that look, but it told her nothing, and in her slightly bored and slightly , resigned way she forebore to ask it anything. She merely said placidly, returning to the issue which they had all, for* the moment, forgotten : “You were asking about Geoffrey’s letters, weren’t you, dear? I’d better go and find them, and then you can look through them yourself, and see if there’s anything of value to you.” She rose, and went from the room, closing the door upon a deep and strange silence. Perry sat staring into the fire for a full moment without a word or a movement; then suddenly he scrambled to his knees before Catherin’fl chair, and took her hands, and held them. They looked at each other at last. His lips moved helplessly, and he said, in a stumbling gust of words: “Catherine, yon can’t do it. It isn’t worth it.” “What on earth do you mean?” cried Catherine, but so feverishly, with so much uneasiness in her voice, that she could not even persuade herself that her astonishment was genuine, much less the desperately serious boy who clung to her, hands. He drew himself nearer, so that his weight lmng upon her, warm and vital. He went on passionately : “You know what I mean. You can!± marry a fellow who means no more to you than—than I do—just hecauso he has the,money to fight a law action for you. You can’t do it;, it. just isn’t you.” “Perry!” she cried, with a flash of anger, and drew her hands from his hold. “You’re talking about my friend!” “Yes, and that’s all he is, and you know it. You don’t caro a buttom for him in any other way. You can’t sell yourself, Catherine, not even for Court Brandon. Anything else, darling, but not-that. Nothing on earth’s worth that,”

“You’re being very foolish,” said Catherine, trembling with an anger she had never in her life felt against 'Perry before. “I’m going to marry Lydiion because I wish to. You seem to assume that lie stood by with a few thousand pounds in one hand, and the ring in the other, and said: ‘Both or neither!’ Do you really think so poorly of Lvddon, as well as of me?”

VISIT FROM THE ENEMY. Perry withdrew himself slowly, like a dog growing suspicious of a hand once implicitly trusted, and sat back with grave eyes fixed upon her face, eyes uncompromisingly steady in their accusation. She was- in danger of losing her staunchest ally, and in her heart she did not blame him; that Avas the worst part of,it. “I think you’re a fanatic,” ho said slowly. “Goodness knows I’d do almost anything to get you what you want; but I’d rather let Court. Brandon go to the devil than have you marry Lyddon Strang to keep it sacrosanct. And you would, too, if your sense of values hadn’t turned completely upside-down. And as for Strang, I think he’s probably jumping for joy now because you’ve been fool enough to present him with the very advantage he needed. Do you think he doesn’t know that you pay all your debts? And do you think lie didn’t know that he could ask what price ho liked, and get no quibble from you? If he’d been anything of a man he’d have left mari-iago out of it.” “Perry!” she cried, half-silenced before she could defend hersolf by the sick knowledge that he had spoken no more than the truth. “You don’t understand, you’ve no right to judge She broke off there, springing round in her chair nervously; for the door had opened, and Mrs Vaughan was standing just inside the room. They had neither of them heard her knock. “There’s a gentleman below,” she said placidly, “asking to seo Mrs Court. Name of Proberfc” There was a silence, as brief as it was deep. Then Perry said, frowning and flush- 1 ing: “How dare the fellow come hero? I’ll go and talk to him.” Ho was on his feet, and making for the door, and ready to vent the helpless and miserable anger within him upon his enemy, as Catherine could see by his face. She ran after him, .and caught him by the arm.

“Please, Perry! He asked for me. After all, I have sued him, you see; I think ho should he allowed to have a word to say in the matter. I’ll go down and see him; and you won’t interrupt. He hesitated, and gave in, as was his habit when she commanded. It was a custom of‘too long standing, after all, to 1m broken in a moment.

Catherine went slowly down the stairs; slowly, because her mind was in a turmoil. Always—and though she had seen him only two or three times, that word seemed appropriate enough—always, when she was about to see hint face to face, a strange distress shook her; as if he, and he alone of all the men that ever she had met, was so alien to her nature as to be totally incalculable, and affected her like a magmctic storm. .Even her hand trembled, as she laid it upon the broad black bannisters.

Adam Probcrt was in the parlour. She saw him the instant she entered the room, with that instinctive and pas-

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sionate sight which she had noticed in herself before, whero he was concerned. From this background of low rafters and panelled walls, as from every other in which she had yet seen him, ho stood out in bold relief. But there was something more to be observed; ho was standing beforo one of Perry’s pictures, a copy of a Corot, nothing more than a few green trees and a slope of sward; standing before it with his disconcerting eyes grown distant in contemplation, as if those few willowy branches molten into the silvery, atmospheric greys of the sky beyond, had power to reach his mind more keenly than any plea of hers; as if, too, he was old in this accomplishment, and had nothing to learn from her. She said: “Good evening-” and he turned to meet her. She felt more sure of herself now than she had over done in his presence; but the ease with which be came; to meet her, smiling without pretence or flattery, was out of her scope. “Good evening, Mrs Court. It’s good of you to consent to see me.” “Why not?” said Catherine, indifferently. “Won’t you sit down?” “Thank you; but I won’t take up many moments of your time. As a matter of fact,” he said deliberately, “I’ve come to do you a favour.” Her face stiffened; lie saw the instinctive revolt of that pride which caused him once to remark to Mickey Dennis that she hailed from the Middle Ages. He smiled, the deep corners of his mouth falling into square shadows. “You don’t wish to accept any favour from me, as I very well know; but this one may sound to you ratln?r like asking one for myself. I want to urge you to withdraw the suit you’re bringing* against me.” He waited, but Catherine said no word, simply stood watching him gravely, as if the study of his face would show her how best to - defeat his interests. She was puzzled, and waiting for a clue, to guide her; hut his clairvoyance had not developed sufficiently for him to guess so much. “'Don’t imagine, Mrs Court, that any inconvenience you can cause mo .will prevent me from doing in the end anything I wish to do with Court Brandon. Perhaps I should have made it plain at our first interview. At least, I’ve been thinking since that I may have given you a Wrong impression of my intentons, and—shall we say, led you into an unwiso optimism? So 1 think I should toll you, here and now, that nothing is going to stop me, nothing and no one—not even you. You can probably make yourself very inconvenient and cost me a lot of money. Don’t imagine that you’ll stop me, though. What I planned to do, I will do. I thought it only fair to make that clear to you.” “Thank you,” said Catherine, her eyes still intense upon bis face. “I understand.” “I wonder if you do? It seems to me we were horn to misunderstand each other ” He pondered a moment, watching the level breath ebb and flow very deeply in her breast.

“I was very angry, Mrs Court, when I got the notice of your action. But now I’m simply asking you, for you’re own sake, to withdraw. Not because I want my own way made plain; but because I don’t want such gallantry as yours to waste itself where it cannot possibly be. of any effect. It can’t, you. know. Won’t you reconsider your decision ? I’ll treat your claim to the land as proved, and pay yon for it at your own price, if you’ll drop this action. In the end, believe me, the the result will be the same.”

He met her eyes, nndl each saw the other smile, not iu friendliness, perhaps, but at least in respect. “Yes,” he said slowly, and with some wonder, “I think* you pay me the compliment of believing that. Well, what do you say?” Catherine drew a long breath, and said steadily: “I refuse. But you must believe, in return, that I appreciate this warning——” “This appeal.”

“If you' like, this appeal—very much; but lam no more to be stopped, Mr Probcrt, than you are. I still say that either you will drive me out of Court Brandon, or else 1 will do as much for you. I think you will understand that attitude, "without any apology from me.” “Yes,” said Adam gently, “I understand it very veil. I’m sorry you won’t —and I don’t pretend that I ever had much hope you would—well, I shall treat yon, Mrs Court, as I should like to be treated in your place. That is, as an opponent worthy of anyone’s steel. I shall use every ounce of influence I possess to move the case: forward into the Michaelmas term; and if I can: do it, I shall smash your case to pieces under you. There’ll bo no half measures on either side. We understand each other now.”

The amazing man—he would always, she thought, be that to her—held out his hand, and she took it as frankly as it was offered. The bewildering woman—and lie. was sure she would al ways find some new way of baffling him said warmly:

“Thank you, Mr Probcrt, for the finest compliment anyone has ever paid me I can’t think of any other man who could offer me such a bouquet.” She could not, of course, know thnt she was Catorina Sforza, the virago, the equal, of a man! But when he was gone from the room and from the house, she still pondered in a sort of grateful uneasiness the sudden approach they had made to each, other.. Not even 'Perry, coming anxiously to find and question her, could quite erase the memory of Adam Probcrt-’,s smiling face from Catherine’s eyes. (To Be Continued)