The Christmas Luck of Leon Sargint.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 150, 21 December 1907, Page 16

The Christmas Luck of Leon Sargint.

By Mart E. Goodyeab, Author of " Madcap Junnita," otd (All Eights Eesorved.)

"Penelope, my. dear, these empty rooms strike a chill to my heart. To be in them seems like being shut up in a deserted graveyard. Sleeping or waking, they oppress me horribly. Last night, I dreamt that a rough, unshaven bailiff's man Avas carving tho Christmas j goose at my table, and coolly placing on his OAvn plate the tenderest slice of all. From dreamland to reality is but a span. The landlord must hay« his rent, and if lodgers won't come the furniture must go. That is a certainty." Penelope's broAvn eyes softened sympathetically. She herself felt the de- [ pression Avhich brooded over the house, S and she had Avatched with strained inj terest the cabs roll up from the raihvay station, hoping against hope that one of them Avould stop at the door. But they all rattled past to more favoured apartments, and moment by moment it became surer that the "Christmas crush," which the "Saxsea Visitor" "enthused" about, Avould not cause any inconvenience at the Inglcnook boarding-" house. Of ail the fine houses on the broad esplanade, it Avas perforce the emptiest and most dismal. "Oh, auntie, Avhat can I do to help you?" the girl cried. "I'm ashamed to be such a drag on your wheel. Give me some of your cards, and I'll stand outside the raihvay station and wave a red flag, Avith 'Follow me to the best lodgings in Saxsea' emblazoned on it. Believe me. there is nothing I would hesitate to do to pack your cheerless rooms with bright-faced paying guests this Yuletide." "My dear ,you are very good," her aunt said, in a voice from Avhich the last fluttering remnant of hope had fled ; "but I fear you can render me no practical aid. The only thing I can suggest is that you should stand in the drawingroom AvindoAV Avith a sprig of mistletoe in your hair, and look sweetly pensive. That Avill set the mouths of the young men watering, and perhaps induce somo of them to take rooms in tho vain expectation of pulling Christmas crackers and sitting out dances Avith you." It was a haphazard proposition, not meant to be taken seriously, and the eagerness Avith Avhich Penelopo jumped atit almost struck the breath from her aunt's plump body. "I'll do it, auntie," the girl cried; and ten seconds later sue was at the •window, sending the dazzling sunshine i of her smile out into the busy, street. } The effect Avas instantaneous. A mo-tor-car stopped at the gates, and a sty-lishly-dressed lady, all furs and frills, ran up the steps to ring the bell. But before sho could do so the girl Avas at | the door to meet her. ! "Do you need rooms, madam?" she asked eagerly. "I do, my dear, but only on certain conditions," the lady said. "My son, Avho is cooling his heels at tho raihvay station, has had a disappointment, and is fathoms deep in the dmnps about it. I Avant somebody with a pretty facesuch as yours is — to cheer him up this Christmas. Pon't be scared, my dear. I anvnot asking you to flirt Avith him, or to do anything 'in the least unmaidenly. Just stand about where ho can see you, and answer him civilly when he says 'It's a fine day,' or wishes you tho compliments of tho season. Surely that's quite harmless! If, you'll do it, neither you nor your mistress shall havo cause to complain that we came." Penelope's period of perceptible hesitation Avas curtailed by the sound of her aunt's restless footsteps in the empty room behind her. With all the dignity, sho could muster she said. : ] "Madam, if the sight of my face will help to drive .away your son's depression, he is Avelcome to a free inspection of it. Pray bring him along." "Good gracious, Avhat a speech for a lady-help to utter!" "Madam" reflected, as she sped back to the station in her car. "She must havo Lindley Murray at her finger-ends. If she talks to Leon in that strain, the poor boy Avill close up like an oyster." When ,however, the "poor boy" came on the scene ; accompanied by tAVO fussy female cousins and a silently sympathetic male friend, Penelope did not speak to him at all. Overcome by shyness, she gave one swift glance at him, shirked his mother's attempt at introduction, [ and fled. / But Mrs. Sargint's heart leapt high Avith hope as she Avatched her son's pale face redden to its normal colour, and saAv his Avhite teeth gleam pleasantly between his parted lips, which had not betrayed the. faintest adumbration of a ! smile since the haughty Lady Caroline i had superciliously brushed aside his j timid proposal of marriage. The pace at which things moved after that was almost too rapid even for Mrs. Sargint's desires. . When Christmas Eve came, it daAvned upon her that her son's profound melancholy in London Avas probably preferable to his effervescent gaiety at Saxsea. No longer did he sit I brooding over the fire, apparently absorbed in tracing Lady Caroline's patrician features in the embers. His clearer and brighter eyes fed themselves iioav upon a lh'ing face, the sweet beauty of Avhich made Lady Caroline's statuesque loveliness seem, by comparison, cold, depressing, and repellent. Holly and mistletoe had to be hung, of course, and this Avas clearly Penelone's duty. She tactfully declined the aid of Leon Sargint's cousins, but she was not so successful in staving off the attentions of Leon himself. "I*ll make you a very decent festoon across the chandelier if you like," he said politely. "I'm also rather 'cute at decorating mirrors with soap. Shall I draw Santa Claus in a motor-car on tho dining-room mirror ? Give me a tablet of common soap — the prizes-for-Avrap- I pers variety— and I'll do the dark deed at once." "Ho, thank you," the girl laughingly said. "That' Avould give poor auntie every kind of fit. Just hold the ladder for me and hand up the mistletoe and I'll ask no moro of you." Hie handed up the mistletoe obedient- 1 ly, and her velvety fingers and his hand once came info contact. It Avas ever so slight a touch, but it sent something warm and intoxicating thrilling through his veins, and sloAvly, almost imperceptibly, he came up tAVO steps of the ladder. Noav this was an indiscretion, for the ladder Avas a very frail ono, and his six foot of brawn put much too great a tax upon it. It Avobbled dangerously, and the girl screamed and lost her balance, catching, to save herself, at the lapels of his coat. • Then tAvo brown eyes, sparkling like jeAvels in the gloom, came into line Avith his, and tAvo soft lips, like a scarletpetalled flo Aver opening in tho morning sunshine, breathed upon his face. Useless now to think of self-denial ! Ere ever he Avas aAA'are of it, his arm had raised the mistletoe above her head, and lie had kissed her twice on' tho pink and Avhite apple-blossom that made her cheek. It Avas rather unfortunate that Mrs. Sargint should haA'e been passing the door at this psychological moment. Her feet made no noise as sho glided past, but she was all sound and fury a mojaeai luAm* .wbej, she $m. /dyjs* hex?

'self the pleasure of telling Tony Ttaymond, her son's chum, precisely what she thought about him — which wasn't very much, apparently. "You're the very smallest and greenest kind of gooseberry — so small, in fact, that you're out of sight most of the time," she stormed. "You promisad to keep a watchful eye on Leon, and no that ho didn't make more than two kinds of a fool of himself at once. Witaoas the result of your labour ! He and the lady-help are hanging up holly and mistletoe in the drawing-room, and she is busy falling off the ladder into his aims — to be promptly kissed, of course." "I don't care," said Tony, recklessly, "I washed my hands of the whole affair this morning,; when he threatened to fasten my ears in the door if I didn't stop spying on him." , "But don't you see Avliat it means? He's falling in love Avith her !" "Well, why shouldn't ho?" Mrs. Sargint turned up her eyes and tragically apostrophised the ceiling. "Men, men," she wailed. ''Ileavbn forbid that they should be as much a trial to other women as they are to me. Once for all, Tony, Avill you do your duty by. cutting in and spoiling this bold hussy's man-trapping schemes?" "Xo, I won't !" Tony flatly declined. "He'll give me ono in tho eye if I do, and I don't Avanb to hail tlin smiling morn Avith a discoloured optic." Thus basely deserted by her sworn ally, Mrs. Sargint took matters into her own strong hands. She tore heT chauffeur from the Paradise of th© maidservant's presence, and ordered him to bo ready to return home in half-an-hour. Vainly he protested that snow Avas falling heavily, and that the roads, vile enough before, would be unspeakably bad noAV., "We aro going back to London," said Mrs. Sargint, and hex Avordi was the chauffeur's law. But she had a harder task to drive Leon before her. "Preposterous, mother!" ho cried, when ehe mooted her project. "Why do you wish to leave this delightful spot? Was it not decided that we should toast chestnuts by the log-fire until tho joybells of Christmas rang out across the Avavos? Those AA-ere your oAvn poetical words. Don't disown them !" "I do not Avish to disown them, 1 ' his mother said, frostily, "jtfor tlo I Avish to disown my son, although his latest affaire de coeur promises to plunge hia family into deeper gloom than ho himself felt Avhen Lady Caroline rejected him. Leon's eyes flashed ominously. There are somo things 'Avhich even a mans mother may not say unrebuke.d. ' "You know why I let Lady Caroline wip» her disdainful feet on me, mother," he said. "It Ayas to please you and dad. You thought that an alliance Avith her very high mightinass's august family avouW give you a lift socially, and I rashly Avenfc to the stake for you. But only my pride Avas burnt, not my heart. The latter article is now in the tender keeping of Penelope Boyd, to Avhom I proposed marriage half-an-honv ago." Mrs. Sargint turned Avhite. "You have proposed marriage to a lady-help— a menial, Avhom you have knoAvn exactly forty-eight hours ! You're the heTo of a. btory-book in your own estimation noAV, of courso !" "You misjudge both her and me, mother," Leon t>aid quietly. "Ours is not a fleeting, Saturday-to-Monday courtship. I met her in tho hospital two years agc>, when th& doctors Avero piecing me together alter my nasty spill at polo. Sho nureed me through that like an angel, and I did Avhat any other man Avho Avasn't blind Avould have done in the circumstances. I proposed to her. She wouldn't have me then, but I've been luckier this time. 1 simply wouldn't tako 'no' 'for ail ansArer." Mrs. Sargint lealised that her son's inflexible Avill wae a Avail against Avhioh she might dash, her&elf in vain. So eho Avisoly hauled doAvn her colours. "Very well, Leon," she said, in a, voice sugg€6tivo of sepulchres and catacombs. "If you're determined to marry co many milas beneath you, I'll try to m.ike the beet of it. A nurse- Avill be a useful addition to the family Avhen .your poor | father goes mad, as he is sure to do the moment ho hears the neAvs." "1/ think not, mother. He will probably survive .tho shock when he learns that Penelope is the daughter of Major Boyd 1 , Avho earned the Victoria Cross (though he didn't actually get it) by pulling dad out of a precious tight comer in Afghanistan. Conflicting emotions chased each other' over Mrs. Sargint's astonished face. "But — but you said she Avas a nurse !" sho gaeped. "So ehe Avas; and Avhy not? The Boyds Averen't flush of money at the timo, and she chose that method ol bringing grist to the family mill. Noav their fortunes have mended, but she still hke3 to play at Avorking. Hence her presence in this whit© elophant of a boarddnghouse. Sorry to deprive you of a grievance, mother, but the last touch of story-book nonsense vanishes noAV doesn't it?" His mother placed her hands on his broad shoulders and Laughingly shook "You rascal!" sho said. "How daro you tease mo so? Don't budge an inch from this room, sir, until I have blown up your .little sAveetheaTt sky-high !" The precise nature of her loctme to Penelope did not transpire, but it could not have been a severe one, for very soon the girl stole into tho room, with eyes softly suffused and shining, and took the man in tba chair unawares.Her soft little arms tightened about his neck, andi he felt the flutter of her petal hpa against his face. Then he drew Her head down towards him, and the forgotten chestnuts by the log-lire-grew blacker than coal as she and he, blissfully alone, hoard the big bells in the near-by church send a silver-tongued Christmas messago floating across the, sea.

A membra of tho school board of Cleveland, Ohio, was once addressing a class m the poorer quarter of the city when lie touched upon tho beauties of friendship. "Friendship, hoys and girls, said he, "is a thing to bo cultivated and practised by all of us. Read and ponder the stones of the great friendships of sacred and profane history. Take them for your imod]pls— David and Jonathan, Damon and Pythias, and Scylla and Charybdis." Somo one had given little Willie a pocket compass. His teacher was carefully explaining the different points. "See," said she, "you have tho north in front of you, the east to your right and the west to youi- left. Now, what havo you behind?" Willie pondered a moment. "There," said he, "1 know some one would see that patch, but mother saj'G I must Avear these trousers for a month yet." \ % 'When I hear you tawk about bavin' a. even tempah," said the Kentucky colonel, "I eau'i lie'p thinkin' of Jack China and Avhut 010 man Uutchins urnl to bay of him back Iheuh in Harrodsburg. Ole man Hutcliins used to s;i y : 'Jack Cliinn, he's jes' about tho mo.s' even tempahed man evnh -nus io the Avubld. h. is. Mad AU ttig time.' l'