The Marriage of Celia

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 69, 22 March 1934, Page 26

The Marriage of Celia

By — MADGE BARLOW.

CHAPTER XXL—(Continued.)

Dick, returning, asked her to dance "with him. "I must talk to you in a quiet spot," she whispered. "I came just to have the talk. That evening you spoke of in the park on tlio evening of tlio bridge party—going away and—and thinking over all you said —I wish to speak of that." "We'll get an opportunity after the dance," he replied, his lips twitching, his agitation increasing. "I'll welcome the talk. I've rcadteed the limit of endurance." They danced in a preoccupied way, and afterwards found a retired, curtained nook with seats. "Let nic speak first," she said, gently. "No, dear girl; let me." "But, Dick, I've a tremendous surprise for you." "Celia, hear me first," he burst out. "I've been a crooked dealer. I'm a fraud, living on borrowed money, faced with law proceedings unless I pay up. I'm as poor as I was last summer— game post in the commercial department and same pay. I got into the clutches of a moneylender. Recently I endeavoured to wangle another loan to —to start us in Australia. And I didn't get it—got bullied and threatened instead. I've spun you yarns that are pure bunkum. Now call me a lying cad —call ine worse if you feel like it." He leant his forehead on his hands. Had ho glanced up lie would liavo seen her eyes of pity. "And to-niglit,": ho resumed, "about tlio unexpected appointment which detained me —-how am I to tell you about that, Celia? I've been with Uncle Josh; he sent for me." "Tell me," she said, quietly. "It's this way, dear. Uncle Josh fancies I'm a pet of his rivals, earning big money, and worth it to them. The rivals are encroaching on his markets, and ho suspects me of putting them up to a few cute wrinkles, so lie's asked me to come into tlio old firm under Eric. Cyril is on the eve of marriage, and will devote himself to aviation and experimental inventions ill that line. To be under Eric means a junior partnership and quick clearance of debt. I didn't undeceive Uncle Josh. I let him keep his opinion of my character and ability, for I have the ability if I'd a chance to develop it, and" the character can be corrected. Celia, there's no earthly prospect of you and me realising our dream,, and —it'll sound caddish in your ears— I accepted the offer." To his amazement she gave a little gurgling laugh. "Dick, I'm glad. Oh, so glad and relieved! You'll-go straight, and marry some good girl, and forget me." His face went-white as her frock.

"I want you to go straight and merit your uncle's present opinion of you," she went oil, her hand ceol and soft on his. "I do want it, because, you see, I couldn't have done what you asked me, even if I loved you; and, Dick, I don't. That's .why I wished to speak first and get the hurting of you over. I've learnt tlio truth about much that puzzled me here and in Scotland. You "helped me to know the truth, speaking as you did, urging me to think. I've pictured myself with you, far away, always with you, never to meet Robert again—and the heart in me fainted. I couldn't do it. I'd die of grief. Thank you for helping me to know myself. I'm thanking you a thousand times." The cool, soft hand trembled on his.

"Dick," she said, brokenly, "I've discovered that nothing under heaven will satisfy me but my man. I'm hungry for a sight of my man, and I'm going home in the morning, not waiting to be asked. I'll beg him to allow me to stay with him, be to him anything he chooses, all or nothing—anything he chooses, if only he'll let mo stay near him." She raised a scrap of a cobwebby handkerchief to her eyes and dried a gush of tears. "You'd humble yourself to beg!" Dick exclaimed.

"That's love. Love is very humble,- not puffed up, a grand giver. And Robert loved me once, and I may win him back. I feel I can. At least.-. I'll try with my might, and perhaps we'll be happy yet, he and I, in spite of past days." Dick groaned, but Celia had a look of exaltation.

"So everything has happened for the best," she smiled. "We have each to learn our lesson, haven't we? It's our own fault if we have to be taught it with tears and stripes. Now I'll be bidding you a long good-bye, and wishing you well; and you'll do the same for me; Mrs. Anstruther and I agreed to remain for an hour, and I'd like to spend the rest of the hour alone in this retreat. Shake hands, Dick, and we'll part."

"I can't bear it, Celia." "You can. Time heals the sorest wound."

Too deeply moved to say more, or to remember Major Joicey's menace and warn her, Dick squeezed her hands_ in Lis, pressed his lips to the tips of her lingers, and went in haste.

Mrs. Anstruther received the news of the imminent loss of her paying guest with inward consternation, but she embraced Celia and told her she was doing right, an indulgent husband shouldn't be neglected, and as Christmas was the festival of the home it was Mrs. Lennox's duty to prepare for it at Red Craigs. "Though I'm not sure whether they favour its observance in your wild adopted country," she said, with a slight shrug of disdain. Orion glittered brightly in a frosty sky that night./ "I'll call you my star of hope," breathed Celia, gazing at the majestic constellation. And to the shadow of a tiny woman on the blind across the street she said, "You were my angelic guide and example. You've done me whole heaps of good. I'm blowing you a farewell kiss, dear brave soul."

She left London on an arctic morning, leaden-skied. CHAPTER XXII. The journey was tolerable until England lay behind her, but over the border weather conditions were worse, and the farther north she travelled the more deplorable they became. Snow ploughs had been used to clear the line in some parts. In low-lying tracts of country sheep and cattle, taken unawares, had perished in the drifts. The express seemed to crawl at times, and Celia shivered in her furs and would have been profoundly miserable had. not her musing visions sustained her. She gulped the steaming hot tea and coffee supplied en route and felt a transitory glow ripple through her chilled veins, but could not touch a mor- •\ eel of solid food*

Author or — "Joan Fairllo's Cross-roads," a "Tlio Black Bretrayal," O "Love's Tangle," etc. V

Near Perth they were held up by a busy emergency gang,' and many passengers clambered out and exercised stiff limbs. Celia stayed in her compartment, curled into a furry bundle on the seat. A patriarchal agriculturist and his com-fortablc-looking wife gave her a nip of brandy and assured her matters were "not so bad." the patriarch enlarging 011 winters of his boyhood which rendered the roads impassable for weeks at a stretch and reduced isolated families to starvation before succour could reach them. Sighing for those strenuous years, he shook his head and said folks were tougher then, grew sturdy bone, not soft gristle.

Under the soporific influence of his droning voice she dozed, her semiconscious brain registering impressions of a rumble of tongues, rough jolting, icy blasts sweeping her when windows were banged down and bawling interrogations regarding the reason of fresh stoppages were flung into the darkness. Fortunately she was able to doze amid distractions, and troubled slumber was better than none, making her oblivious of a cramped bodv, a mind gathering nervous apprehensions with the lessening of the distance between her and Robert. States of exaltation are necessarily fleeting, being born of moods which come and _ go according as the flame of the spirit is quickened or burns low. Celia's was burning low. "Supposing you can't wean him from Eflie if you try ever so?" dpubt insinuated, creeping into her musings. "Supposing lie r'ei iscs you a chance to try?"

Once she . awakened and drowsily glimpsed a blur of featureless faces swimming in the dim glow of the car? riago lamp. Somebody had put licr rug over licr.. knees to keep her warm.

The express completed its nightmare journey several hours late owing to delays and a derangement of signals, landing its weary human load at tlio terminus 'twixt twelve and one o'clock. 'Celia almost tumbled on to the platform, needles and pins in every limb, and inquired of a porter where elie was to get a train on the narrow gauge line to convey her to within a mile of the grey hamlet on the hither side of Red Craigs. "Ye canna get yin till the morn," he replied. "I must reach Red Craigs to-night," she insisted. "Are ye a frien' o' Mrs. Lachlan?" ho asked, and Celia said slio was. The porter scratched his chin. "Douglas Muir is ayont the station wi' a twa-horse sleigh, a dacint farmer visitin' a sick relative in toun, and goin' your way withoot a lord. Rin, • and we may catch him." Tho farmer and his sleigh were 011 the point of starting* and the porter shouted, "Dougal, ye'll bo passin' Red Craigs. Wull ye gi'e a puir famished lassie a lift that far?" "Aye," was the laconic reply. "Wull, ye mak' tho road, d'ye think, Dougal ?" "The Lord kens, no' me." "Ye'll be a' riclit wi' Dougal," tho porter assured her, assisting her in beside the farmer. "A Christian man he is, and if callin' on the Lord wull win yo to Red Craigs ye're maist as guid as there." Celia pressed a couple of half-crowns upon him, and was astonished by a genial, "JSTa, na! haud tight to your siller, lassie, and dinna vex Dougal wi 1 tho offer, or ye'll tempt him to blaspheme, and 'twould bo a waefu' fall from grace." That ride lived in her memory: the ccriness of the white country, tho taciturnity of her companion, who for five miles muttered in his beard when he was not addressing ejaculatory encouragement to his horses, and who took no notice of her except to give her a plaid and advise her to wrap her head in it. Tho depth of tho snow alarmed her, but tho first five miles were a picnic compared with the prevailing conditions after they skirted the hamlet, and in front of them stretched wild moorland and hedgeless roads full of treacherous ruts and hollows. The air cut like a knife. The sleigh bumped painfully.. Celia shut her eyes, awaiting the spill -which seemed inevitable, but Dougal's management "was skilled, and the horses responded gallantly. Frequently Dougal alighted to scrape the steel runners' and aid his beasts, the mutterings in his rimy beard waxing fierce. Sho remarked "his kindly treatment of his steaming team, the petting hand feeding them tit-bits out of his ulster pocket, and she wondered if he were typical of his race—if Mac and Mrs. Lachlan and other crusty ones hid tender hearts beneath gruff exteriors. "They take some knowing" she sighed. "Robert is different —a citizen of the world, with the racial .angles rubbed smooth, but still reserved. I'll break through the reserve. There'll be none henceforth between him and me." Nearing the end of her. feat of endurance, apathy crept over her. The snow and the 'cold dazed her brain, her head reeled giddily, she lost sense of time. In the pale glimmer of new-risen stars familiar landscape loomed up unrecognised. Sho did not seo the hospital or realise that she was home until Dougal drew rein at tho bend of the road and shed his taciturnity to tell her he couldn't carry her to Red Craigs gate 3 because of the difficulty of turning the sleigh. "Ye'll do tho wee bit fine, ho said, giving her her bag. . ''It's no abune twathrce perches of straight walkin' to the Craigs. Safe goin' to ye, and pleased I am to be of service." Celia thanked him and stumbled round the bend, a singing in her ears. The wee bit would have held no terrors but for her, giddy head and the funny wobbling of her legs, which behaved like the legs of a drunken person, leading her into slushy ditches and crumpling under her so often that her clothes got soaked to the knees. Their clammy flapping hampered ■ progress, but the gates were gained, and she clung to the iron bars, sobbing for sheer gratitude that the long fatigue was past and she would soon feel the heat of fires, soon see Robert; and he would be very gentle with her, she was so tired and bedraggled. A foot track had been cleared in the middle of the avenue, and Celia trailed onward, drawing the back of her hand childishly across licr' wet eyes. "Perhaps they would all be in bed," she reflected. Of course they would, in the small hours of morning. It wasn't night now; it was another day. She would have to knock and rouse them. Her eyes strained towards the house, and a flutter of joy set her pulses bounding. The gable windows showed light. A stream of light from the hall doorway illumined the figure of a man standing on tho steps. It must be Robert —he was not asleep—and they

would meet and speak before the servants knew of her coining. Nothing more fortunate coukl have happened. One might well think lie had had a presentiment of her coming and was keeping watch from the steps. A etrav dog wandering in this weather would excite his compassion. A wife in similar plight would melt him if he were as hard as granite. Celia saw him turn his head, saw him watching her, and forgot' the stiffness of her limbs, laughed a little, and wept a litle with mingled trouble and joy. She hurried to him, wondering what ho would say, what sort of a look would be in his grave, kind eyes when they rested on her, all bedraggled. "Robert!" she cried, waving her hand las she drew near. Then, close to him, her face sank in. Colin McHafli© stared at her glassily. "You, ilrs. Lennox! What brings you here?" "I —I have come home," she stammered, her voice fainting. - "And what have you done with Avery ?" The question smote her like a blow. "Avery ?" she gasped. "Yes, Dick Avery, your lover. Three weeks ago Major Joicey wrote a graphic account of vour doings—wrote to Robert. It was grand reading for a man who idolised you, and was less to you than the soiled snow on your boots. Joicey didn't spare you and Avery, and if half his charges arc true you deserved 110 sparing." If Celia's face could have grown a shade ghastlier it would have been the face of a woman drained dry of blood. "Robert idolised me? Oh, no! I wish he had." "I repeat ho idolised you, and your coldness and disloyalty broke his heart. I am surprised you dare conic home." "Colin MeHailie, I'm feeling very stupid, and you talk in riddles. I don't know why you talk that way. I'll ask Robert. Robert knows the major— knows lie isn't to' be depended on to tell tlio exhet truth. I've done nothing which should make me ashamed to meet my husband." "We think differently, and you arc not wanted here." Sho pulled herself erect, panting for breath, defying him.

"Not wanted? That's for mv husband to decide. I am answerable to him only. I'll see him. I'll explain and he'll explain. Stand out of my path, you who were 110 friend of mine—you'd help Joicey to slander me. Oh, the pair of you! Two men against one girl. Is Robert in the house? Where shall I find Robert?" "You'll find him in the ground floor room which used to be the armoury." She flashed past him, seemed to leap past, and fly on winged heels of terror to the armoury. There are some sights that wither the soul. Such was the sight which met Celia's dilated eyes, halting her on the threshold of the room. Behind her rose Mac's voice, gruff, cruel:

"Arc you satisfied with your work? Yesterday Robert died by his own premeditated act, to leave you free to marry Avery." (To be continued daily.)