THE NOSE OF A NYMPH

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 196, 19 August 1936, Page 21

THE NOSE OF A NYMPH

ANGELINA was a charming girl, but she had the Nestlingham nose.

Patrician, Roman, liigh-cut, it dominated her features in exactly the same way as the carved noses of her ancestors, whose statues stood in Little Nestlingham Church, jutted out from their stony faces.

It was, in fact, an unescapable heirloom. Even when Angelina was born, the fifth of her family, her nose had nothing of the chubby, buttoi ed-on appearance peculiar to infant children.

It was painfully prominent, and grandmother noticed it. She remarked shortly that when the child became of marriageable age she would never •be able to hook anyone except a lord, since they were the only people with sense enough to recognise the brains and breeding behind a Roman nose.

As Angelina grew up she heard frequent and stinging references to her nose. Her family tried to be funny over it.

"Angelina's nose will be put out of joint," said somebody when a new baby arrived.

"Impossible," retorted father quickly, and they all laughed. Angelina, who had just received a birthday present of handkerchiefs, neatly packed in a tiny imitation nosebag, laughed, too, dutifully, with murder in her heart.

"Nestlingham nose or not, she'll have to spike a husband with it, or be a governess all her life," said grandmother, decisively. "It's as plain as the nose on her face —or nearly. At the disgraceful rate at which your boys are spending, Egbert, there will be no money left at all for the girl."

There wasn't. While Tier parents and grandparents scanned the ladies' journals for a genteel job for their daughter, Angelina slipped out and found work with an archaeologist who wanted a young assistant.

There were fifty applicants for the post, which was advertised in a local newspaper, and out of them all the archaeologist jjicked Angelina. He said, "I like your face. Your nose gives it character. Napoleon always picked a man with a curved nose when he wanted to get things done. Can you start on Monday ?" Angelina could and did. Father said •it was undignified work for any young lady, let alone a Nestlingham. Grandmother agreed. Mother, surprisingly, said the girl was lucky to get work at all with no training behind her."

Later, Angelina began to save. For years she had cherished a single ambition. Plastic surgeons —brought forth in their numbers by the Great War — were flourishing. Snipping off a bit :here, a fraction there, they gave people 'different faces. By taking a tiny scrap of ridged bone from the top of Angelina's nose they could turn her into a normally attractive girl. She pinched and scraped desperately. At twenty-three she was an efficient member of the staff of Great Nestlingham Museum. > After paying for her keep and her clothes, and contributing towards the family exchequer, she had saved forty pounds. When she had fifty she. would go to London and get a new

nose. Then the archaeologist s son came home from Brazil. The Nestlingliams disapproved of him partly because his name was Mike, and wholly because-he was a sandy-haired, snub-nosed, cheerful young person with (they alleged) no respect for liis betters.

Angelina fell head over lieels in love with ° him. They went for walks ton-ether. One evening, sitting side by side on a stile, he put his arm arounu her.. Startled, she pushed him away. Then, flurried, hardly knowing what to say, she stammered, "Oh, don't. You re rroint* to poke fun at me, like all the rest. You cali't really want to be me- —I'm so i awfully plain-headed . . . On the tail of an instant's silence came Mike's cheery voice: "Plainheadedj" it said. "Plainheaded. does the girl mean? Look here he tilted her face and looked at it solemnly—"she has pretty brown hair, a skin like a peach, and a lovely little chin. Why, Angelina, you re nearly a pretty girl—and far more sensible. He was almost going to say And 1 love you very much indeed, but he didn't, for he was only plain Mike anottery, while she was Miss Nestlingham, and" her ■facmrl'V had notions about her marrying a lord-who would turn up some few days later. Angelina went to town and stayed there for a week. When-Bhe came back she was minus her life sayings and a little bit of bone, and she was crammed with warnings to be careful of her new nose. If. it ~ become damaged it would crtst much monev to set it right again. And that," thought Angelina. "I should uev'fir be, able-to,, afford in this .life, Mike, ■wl o was at the. station, did not her. This well-clad, exquisitely groomei young woman with the straight, lovely profile, was a charming Ttranger.

(SHORT STORY.)

(By M. P. BURROW.)

Angelina went home quickly, for she knew there would be a scene. Ihere was. "How do you like my new beak?" said Angelina, defiantly, and grandmother dropped in a dead faint. "Oh, you wicked, stupid, ridiculous child, what on earth have you done!" wailed mother. "You have killed your grandmother." "How much money have you left?" asked father. "Fifteen bob," Angelina replied, flippantly. Great heavens! A most wicked waste of money. A fine return when she knew, knew how the family had scrimped and screwed . . . and a deliberate tampering with the Lord's own handiwork. . . . » » » « From the walls the grim, parrot-faced Nestlingham ancestors looked disapprovingly down on the scene. Angelina stood with her back against the wall, directly under the painted stare of old Sir Gavin de Nestlynghame himself, who had the biggest nose and the most frightening frown of the whole disdainful crew. Grandmother, who had recovered, was in the midst of saying something nasty about "paying through the nose" when there was a sudden shout. . . . "Look out, look out . . . the picture . . They were too late to catch Sir Gavin as he fell, the cord of his picture rotten with age. The heavy frame caught Angelina on the top of her head, grazed her forehead, her nose. Unconscious, she lay on a sofa until the doctor came.

"There are no serious injuries," said the doctor. "But," ho added with concern, "I am afraid that Miss Nestlingham lias broken her nose."