The SQUARE PEG

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 244, 12 October 1907, Page 11

The SQUARE PEG

By W. E. NORRIS.

(_irt_ or of " _ord Leonard the X,ueiless,'' etc.y

evvo-515 OF PSEVIOUS CHAPTERS em*- w 'rr' 1 J; Had his own wishes alone li" •• „tr—" Cyril would probably have feffl <S s S sfhe hS no desire to be ricn. fecßMftL r Efej—noreton Court, he is wann3B _2£_to _r__t_ though Lady Coc»'sjf_ l __teßtabi r hostile. Adela _££, of Sir Martins dead _T_*_bj stavins at Kingsmoreton. *Sj_~a conversation next day with *_T_e tells him that Sir Martin is *_dr loo—n- forward to his marriage Penrose, the only cm"ld of Mr y?J,r_ Mannin-on. Mr Pickering. ITiigh dutch rector, takes a de-.-ided iTae roans man. and suggests that Sf s__i help his factotum to keep _»ra. Ie rabbits on bis small propZtT Cyril, after his nrst attempt, deS£ to grre no the idea of becoming "a „t" | r_APTER V. —(Continued.) j '•T =ay, when are you going to try that tnare of"mine V Bob began, striding- across TO the object of his affections, the niom eat tiat he had shaken hands with his Tiost snd hostess, and driving her before fe into a comer of the room. Xais -tras his enstomary method of securmz ier undivided attention, and it vas one wMch, as she often complamed, I tiere was no 'way of defeating, unless •ma -srere prepared to drop suddenly on ill fours and let him tumble over you. Tt •—s at ah events, employed on this such success that Mrs. lECC—be was able to embark at once man _> tale of her apprehensions re - wect—r the turf without risk of being ore—ear— _ isn't tne —ing itseli. she plainixrdv —ged, in reply to Mr. Penrose's Dole""asseveration that racing is the noHECOI ail sports; ~ifs what it may lead a. Y/ou can't, lm sure, find anything ft, say in favour oi betting, and is it not IHCC that owners of racer-horses always O tet!" 1 "Sab hy any means always, answered Jfc Penrose, 'mentio_ng several well !_ra instances to the contrary. "It's a sarpta—in. in you like, but bless me', yon don't suppose you e_ nkeep a young fellow oi three and twenty exempt from, _mt—ions co you?" j _3 Lnscombe was diffidently oi miaion that one ought at least to try; !_ aU tie comfort she obtained was an : ___ca that she might try until she j j_ black in the face without getting j any nearer to her end- — r Penrose too's vie oppont—ity of adding that if he j tad a SOU ol his own and if money were , no obiaet, he would a good deal rather j Ke him go in tor fiat-racing than ride _ local steeple—ases against a lot of cr_rbr— competitors, mounted on _i—ii— horses and doing their level best at every meeting to steal a march j upon the stewards. j He was still expatiating upon this tieme, which was a rather sore one with hhn when. Cyril Had!ow's arrival brought I about i Te_:tTibution in the grouping of tie party. lie two young men were . introehic— to one another, and Bob Lus- I combe, after surveying the newcomer j very mnci as he had been wont oi yore j to take stock of a new boy at school, ranaiked: *_.wyon out with the hounds tie other day." Tie eloquent pause with which he followed up this statement seemed to say as-plainly as any words exsuid have done. —id a pretty spectacle you were! *" Peraaps, however, he did not meari to be d__ve——deed, it is a question whether be ever meant to be so. al though j _ generally was—for he went on: TtrnVlkaew a brother oi yours at Camb_lge. —rst-rate chap: great pal of _— J—£ not quite good enough to get lis blue tor anytMng, but a nailing good aH-romd __, nevertheless. He "told Cc about yon." .."Then. I am sure," observed Cyril, "aagbrng, _i must have told you what _ all-round duffer I am. Hubert sor-, .gave mc up as hopeless lons ago.' 3 yh, I dorrt know,"' returned the other, S3i a Sue air of tolerance, "he didn.'t ay much about that. Youre an. artist fly bade,, airrt you?" ,'*»_, I was ," answered Cyril, '-"I have *"—. appointed to another" trade now, «iLias Miss Penrose knows, I haven't «Wn myself a very promising pupil so j She young man -tvith the red hair «W pu_ied. -mat's that?" he ?™oL "Pupil of yours. Miss Penrose? mat are you teaching him _ F* He did i_t wait for a reply, but Ppaasl once more upon Violet" whom as mother was tentatively catechising gt Wo bad just informed that aston- - q"; "ady that she really did not know .jMfter she was in favour of the Church -_* a *atwns enterprises or aeainst them, S^ttJ baying heard of that body before. right, Miss Ord," he" declared; g*« yon be drawn into taki n<r sides. to these people because the ™"r wants mc to, and I subscribe to S_^ f^ P ? s*-rt_t do they call "_T»+v , it 2 because oW PickX on £ hl: ' old Pickering jKgjß la had chap for a parson: hut ' ~fSt!f maldnS a Tia S and letting ■jgJQ*. L tt out to a finish between them•nf- * 3?' a. ripp_s tie you've uT ,?"-- ■ sr<ra ' d fre mc. 11l 7e ail awMl y JoUj one in wnrtship w_ 0 f that direct, un-r-ture. AU the world ' was gg to know that he admired Miss -d that his intentions ie tw? , Were seri °us- Very likely moment she] ffirthVT Tf as such, little *>bj; I° Uld remaia t( * achieved, for fully aware of his pcSfeW _T he wa£ ' He sat be- ! *»_rJ«. a e ° D and Prosecuted the j Sae\Tsr and tn ™P«. not a te_Z Whfitller °c ww too stupid I or onJ 7 self-complacent. ««s _:,h d ? sre S a -!"d the occasional vieiearned for himself. I m tt% i h leisu « to the «i-S for the former was to S? m rZ 3Ubdlled COn vw... se emed to be in -****Xit CTlsto:si that this dis " 3 aiJßoaaL _ thlther the old P eo Ple I 'nocheon-' Tri, matter ot course, after I ''lailengek Tt-! 51^ 011 B °l* immediately | ° rd to a gume of biiI i " Ut 1 Mabel sunirested; j ._ jl -«—a. urat _.c iorbore to press if | » . § ■^^&St tx^ins to C7Til ' I v ;Hl * s^2?2 for. tig bfl-

liard-room, "you would like to come [ round to the stables with mc. There is , nothing very magnificent lor you to see, ' there; but "' "But as I should be none the wiser, if there were."' remarked Cyril, sr___-, "that's unimportant, and the horsT.-s, at all events, won'x think mc i_ _v_cve I daresay."' She laughed aud snrugged >/er shoulders. "Oh, it isn't the fear -of sDoiling sport that would keep mc from intruding." she candidly avowee}.; "only sometimes it is better to leave ill alone, don't you think so?" He felt it to be something of a compliment that she should thus take his comprehension of the whole situation for I granted. The main outlines of it could not. of course, have escaped anybody; j but he had not been quite certain that j it was so completely distasteful to Miss j Penrose as she gave him to understand that it was. doubt." he answered, "it is sometimes a good plan to give people plenty of rope.*' " ] "That's what I mean. A man like Bob ' Li—combe can't fail to disgust Violet in the long run. if he isn't interfered with. I Because he is disgusting, you know."' On the way to the stables, and after ! a perfunctory inspection of the animals whose points he did. not venture to criti- i cise. Cyril learned a good deal more I about Miss Violet and hex suitor- The ■ girl, he was told, was really <r o od at I heart; "out she had no parents."no money. ! an atrocious sister and an. alarming ap- i petite for amusement. Was it to be expected that she should turn her back upon twenty thousand a. year. even when coupled with a Tony Lumpkin? j ""Tony -Lumpkin, ca n't be depended upon to supply the sort of amusements that j she will want," Cyril shrewdly observed. | ' -"Exactly-; but she may make that dis-1 covery too late. However, as I say. he is so objectionable that I trust a little to his mr_ing himself impossible. Cn- j fortunately, my father, who doesn't dislike him at all—poor father couldn't dis- i like suci a fine horseman if he tried— j would think it an excellent match for her." j "Couldn't you manage to lay your ■ hand upon a rival?" asked Cyril. " | i "I am afraid not,"' Miss Penrose ansI wered; "rich bachelors don't grow in j any profusion hereabouts. I "suppose j you don't see your way to come fori ward'!" | "I would a little rather not. thanks ; It seems to mc that for a good many months to come I shall have quite enou_h. problems on my hands without adding a . love affair to them. Moreover. I am so I obsolete that I couldn't possibly marry a woman wit— whom I was not" in love, and I can't fall in love with Miss Ord or anybody else because I am told." ) Miss Penrc.se laughed somewhat more heartily than so simple and creditable a statement seemed to warrant. Did she, | perhaps, accept it as an intimation that j he was unable to fall in with Mrs. Spenj ccx Hadlow's project ? Ii so. she did not take umbras'e. "Ah, x kaew you would prove a broken reed," 1 she remarked. "Well. I am glad you d —rt attempt to stand up for Bob Lusccmbe, anyhow. He isn't unpopular; many people get on with him well enough. But he is really odious, and I covld see that you thought him so."* Somehow, it did not strike Cyril as I strange that he should be admitted into Miss Penrose's confidence in this rapid fashion. There are sympathies as well as loves which declare themselves at first sight, and these, naturally, have freer play when the question of love is so palpably excluded from them. The two friends—tor a friend each already felt the other to be—had a long talk before they parted about many subjects besides that of Miss Ord's future, which was f soon dropped, and if one of them did not know much about art nor the other much about country life, both were eager for extended information. There sprang up between them a tacit alliance which Mabel almost converted into an avowed one by saying: "With your tastes and after the life yon have led. Kingsmoreton rmist seem very tame and depressing. Mannington can't pretend to be much better: still, it will make a change for you to come over here, so I hope you will look us ■ up as often as you feel indined."' "Take care," returned the young man; "that might mean every day.'' "Well, we shall be delighted to see you ou ev=ery non-hunting day," she declared, without hesitation, "and hunting is nearly over for this season." He reflected, on the homeward path, that she certainly would not have given such an invitation if she had not felt as serenely proof against any personal attractions he might possess as he did against those of Miss Violet Ord. But that, of course, was quite as it should be. The very last thing he wished for' was that relations so pleasantly initiated should be marked by a suspicion ot E en time— tality. CHAPTER VI. , THE MATCHMAS E R_ The sitting-room assigned to Cyril j at Kingsmoreton Court was no' only luxuriously furnished —which made no special appeal to him—but was lighted by a jutting bay-wind-ow where (in obe-! dlence to Sir Martin's thoughtful orders) had been placed a broad, solid table, admirably adapted to meet an etcher's requirements. Upon this the young j man had heaped the paraphernalia boi longing to his art. and at it he seated ' himself on his return from Mannmegton. I having still several hours of daylight | before him. and, feeling that instinctive ! desire to utilise them which remained j with him as a legacy from years hiessei by the insistence of compulsory work. Blessed, anxious years, the memory ' of which could not but promnt a very ; natural sigh! The sale of his produe- ■' Hens, it is'true, had never been as iarg-e l or as lucrative as he could have wish- ' : ed; sail he had been forced to work i by sheer necessity of earning some equi- | valent. Now that necessity, accompanied by the limitations , which had I formerly harassed him, was removed. I and with its removal come distressing j dcubts as to whether it was wor.th while ' to go on working at all. Many a toil- ' injz artist, cramped by contemporary ! j taste, or the absence of it, has longed for freedom, to please himself, only to find, -when emancipated, that that is ' precisely what freedom cannot enable him to do. If genius really meant the capacity for taking infinite pains, Cyril i HadloWj as deft, conscientious, and serai pulous. a craftsman as ever lived, might have turned his new leisure to glorious , accomrit; but it is not so. Originality • aad.creative, power are gifts which can

—sver he acquired by technical skill and as for original workers in black! and white, they have always been in a- very small minority. It "was above all as a copyist that Cyril excelled, md imitation, while it may satisfy the heart and mind, by reason of the mechanical dexterity involved, so long as in that -way and in no other apparent way are meat and drink procurable, is apt tQ seem a sorry affair from the r_o__t that it ceases to be obligatory. Bet—r. perhaps, drop the whole" thing, try tc be a squire, a magistrate, a breeder of cattle, and acquiesce in the humbling fact that art is for one's" superiors. Cyril, with his prepared piate in front of him and the tracing of a! sketch, representing Kingsmoreton | Court from the south, ready to be trans- | ferred to it. had almost arrived at the j above reluctant conclusion when a sharp I tap at the door was followed, before he had time to respond to it, by the entrance of Mrs Spencer Hadlow, who : wore a neat grey travelling costume' and whose head was enveloped in a white sauze veil. | "Don't you call this friendship ?" she . asked. "Just delivered at the door by motor, after a twenty mile burst, and j I fly to hold out both hands to you,' without even stopping to wash the dust j off!" She extended two small hands, which S were not dusty, and he could do no less than clasp them, saying: "Weil. I needn't tell you how glad I ; am to see you back. Have you been j haiing a good time?" j "Middling." she answered. sitting down and removing her hat. "Yes, , j upon the whole, not too bad; though I j dropped my money, as usual." "That's u-nfortunate. What have yoti ■ been doing?" "Oh. playing bridge. If you come to ! think of it. that's all one ever does '; worth mentioning when one stays with people in these times. And you?'' ! "I have been doing nothing even so ! worthy of mention as playing bridge. When you came in I was just saying to myself that I should never do anything worthy of mention for the rest of my j i days. One gets rather a blight sometimes." | ! Her heavy-lidded eyes contemplated him for an instant, while the faintly i ironical smile which was seldom wholly I absent from her lips grew more pro- I nounced. "Poor thing." she murmured. ; with a commiserating intonation which j provoked him a little. j "I am not such a poor thing as you : ■ | suppose,"' he declared; "I intend to stick 1 to my task and worry through with it, i well or badly. I wasn't thinking of ! • that.'* i I "Of this, then?" she asked, pointing to . ! the etching materials on the table. '"Well, what is wrong:? Won't the in- : spiration come!" , . I "This," answered Cyril, "is a picture , ] of a house. The house is a beautiful one: so that the picture, helped out by j • traeerv ot trees against the sky and a dight of rooks about them, can't well j avoid being beautiful also, after a ! , fashion. But in the case of such pro- ; - ductions the question ot inspiration i doesn't arise." t ; She nodded. '"And you pine for more j ambitious productions, I suppose. May . 11 smoke?" | She drew from her pocket a gold case, ' embellished by a monogram in brilliants, j . i took out a cigarette ami proceeded to .! light it deliberately. ""You are an art- . ist," she went en; "you aren't as yet ■ anything else and you don't a bit want _ to be anything else: still you are so philosophical or unselfish or whatever it , may be that you would accept a rather tiresome transformation if you didn't [. feel that affluence was going to be fatal ! - to you from an artistic point of view. , There doesn't seem to be any convincing . | reason why it should: only you know it , ! will, and you are down on your luck, ! in consequence."' _ I "That's just it."' Cyril confessed, sur- . prised—not for the first time—by the . ! ease and accuracy with which this lav- i . I quid little lady could read his thoughts. I "At least, that's why I am clown on my j . j luck as you say. But there is a reason j . i —quite a good one—for affluence being . ] fatal to art in the ingrained laziness of j , ; human nature, which won't allow us to I i make painful efforts unless they are in- . | dispensable. Xot that I am. or ever . i should have been, an artist." r ' "Oh, rubbish!"' ' ' | "Etchers are net artists," the young , man gloomily affirmed. they " ; are not creative artists. I suppose . | they might be; but they never are. For j ' j want of a pallet, perhaps." . '■ "Then why not buy a pallet and a [Supply of paint? The cost wouldn't! j ! be prohibitive, would it?" 'A In a few rapid sentences he related j ' ] the story of his great disappointment. j The subject was one to which he seldom j alluded, but the suggested sympathy of j , j his present companion gave him encour- j , I agement. despite the amused smile with i which she surveyed him through a drift- ! I! ing veil of cigarette-smoke, and despite ! | the prejudice that he entertained against j 1 feminine use of tobacco. She was ! .. friendly, he thought, and she understood. I ! j She understood so well that her reI ' joinder, when she made it, was both sen- ; sible and apposite. ! j "It was awfully rough upon you to -! discover that you were colour-blind; • i that was a real misfortune, and there ! ! wasn't any remedy for it. But what I has happened to you since has been j sheer and clear good luck; though noj body knows better than I do that it , spells boredom and depression just now." "You are perfectly right."' Cyril ad- \! mitted, "and I am a thankless dog. The i j truth, no doubt, is that 1 hadn't a \ future, and —" ! " Well. I don't know about that." she I interrupted: "but you have got one i now, so cheer up. I have had my little I . j disappointments, too. I can tell you; but i . I don't allow my mind to dwell upon I ' I them, because I want to stave off physi- j ■ i cal decay as long as possible. I haven't I a solitary grey hair yet. and I'll tell ; ! you my age if you like. I struck thirty- , [five two months ago. Do I look more?"') .' She did not look nearly as mue_, he j [! was honestly able to assure her, and 1 she made him laugh by the further ad- -! mission that her frankness was chiefly - j due to a conviction that somebody would . j soon inform him. if indued somebody had ; not already informed him. that she was - j forty. : j '" You see,"' she explained, " I am not -1 quite as universally beloved in these - J parts as I deserve to be. and when people 1; want to say something nasty about a . j woman they naturally traduce her on ' i the score of age. I don't mean Coustan- : i ; tia, who, cordially as she detests mc, al-1 - ways speaks the truth; but there are .- plenty of others who aren't troubled . I with her scruples." ) Then, paying back confidence with cons' Sdence, she confirmed some of the suri ! raises that he had formed respecting her c from the outset. Her childishness, it II seemed, had been her main offence, an - offence which Sir Martin had outwardly t —though never inwardly—pardoned, s I while Lady Constant— had done neither y I the one nor the other. a] "But apart from that/ she owned,

X I have erred and strayed in ways | which they couldn't he expected to over- I look. | They were not devoted to my husband; he was hardly the sort of person to inspire devotion" Still, he wasn't dimcult to get on with, and they naturally thought that I might have got on with him." She paused for a moment, as if to invite a question; but silence seemed so much more appropriate that Cyril said nothing, and she resumed, in her leisurely way: " No; Spencer and I didn't hit it off. The one thing in the world that he really cared abdut was polities, -which don't appeal to mc the least little bit, and he j only cared for them in a Parliamentary j sense—as leading up to the Treasury | bench, I mean. By the way, I trust you i are not a politician."' i "I hold some rather strong political j views," Cyril confessed. " Radical, not |to say Socialistic ones 3 to tell the | truth." "Ah. that's different; that might be amusing, or even interest—g. Provided ! that one's views aren't practical, one doesn't run the same risk of being deadly wearisome. Well, Spencer and I never quarrelled, but—in short, we went | our respective ways. Then he caught a had cold, poor man, and before one i realised that it threatened to be seri- | ous. all was over. Circumstances being 1 what they were, his death was a blow to : the old people; but I don't suppose anybody shed tears over him in his personal capacity —least of all your humble servant. I hope I don't shock you?'" I '" I don't think honesty is ever shocking," Cvrd said. ! "That's so nice of you! The doci trine might lead you rather far, though." She lighted another cigarette, yawned, stretched herself out, and then —'*w hat; made mc beo-in all about this?" she asked. "Oh, "vos; I wanted to bring the conviction heme to you that I'm not such a bad sort, aft»r all. It's rather ' good of mc?, for instance, to stay here and be bored to drath; it's rather good of mp, don't you think so? —to like you. Because you are a little bit of an interloper, you know." i •- Very much of one, and I'm as grateI ful to "you as I ousht to he for liking I mc. At the same time, I can't exactly j ibe said to have cut you out, can I?'' j "Nd; only you're the outward and j visible skrn "of' the iact that I am cut ; out. That's what ma'.;es it so creditable to mc to have taken a fancy to you.' I j Some sudden notion appeared to tickle I htv.; for slie broke iuco a gurgle of low | laugh— r which lasted so long that he had" to inquire what the joke was. I ' 1 was only thinking." she replied, j '■' that if I had been ten years younger, 1 and if some other little matters of detail could be arranged you might repa_ the ■ injustice of fortune by marrying mc. , But I dare say you won"t suspect mc or i wanting you to do that.' i "I am sure you don't," Cyril declared. "Why so positive? You are a distinct ! prize, remember, and I am shockingly hard up. and 35 is no age, and, if you'll j i believe mc, I am still considered quite 'attractive. However, my mentions are I strictly honourable. Oh, that reminds mc of" Mabel Penrose. Have you seen her? and fallen in love with her?" "I saw her only an hour or two ago I at Mann—gton, where 1 was invited to lunch." Cyril answered. "Xo; I haven't , • fallen in love with her." I "That's a pity. What did you think of j her?" (To be continued nest Saturday.)