SHORT STORY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13702, 19 March 1908, Page 3

SHORT STORY.

MRS. HAZLEWOOD'S ROSES. "Thet'kk the most beautiful I ever saw!" said Mrs. Hazlewood suddenly. "Which?" Lord Alingford gazed round the very pretty boudoir with the green moire panels and the cupids. " Everything in this room's the most beautiful of its kind in the world." Lord Alingford, quite inadvertently, fixed his gaze on the two tine, arched lines that surmounted Mrs. Hazlewood's violet eyes. <- "I. meant the roses," said Mrs. Hazlewood. A huge gilt basket of Caroline Testout roses stood on her writing-table, tied with a largo pink silk bow with a card attached. "Awfully glad," Lord Alingford murmured. "Thought you liked flowers." '"Wo love them," said' Mrs. Hazlewood. "Marcia and I love flowers." "Marcia?" said Lord Alingford. "My niece, .Marcia Hazlewood." Mrs. Hazlewood spoke severely. "I had forgotten her," said Lord Alingford. Mrs. Hazelwood raised her arched eyebrows. "Arc no men .... constant?" she asked, gazing into (lie glowing coals on the tiled hearth. .jjorcl Alingford coughed. , "One's got to have somethingor someone—to be constant to, you know," he murmured. "Didn't you .... all last season?" " Certainly not." said Lord Alingford. "Not at, the Hill-Beavors'?" " Not for a moment." "Nor at Lady Tollebattle's?" " The ordinary courtesies of existence," said Lord Alingford indignantly. " Rather marked ones," Mrs. Hazlewood murmured. " Not," she added hastily, " that Marcia has complained. My niece is the most .... retiring, and .... in fine, she noticed nothing." "Then why"—the young man leant forward triumphantly—"why am 1 being asked my intentions?" "Intentions! People in our world don't have intentions." "How immoral!" "Lord Alingford!" Mrs. Hazlewood sat up with an air'of charmingly youthful dignity—for an aunt. " What do they have, then— our world?" ; "They- have"Mrs." Hazlewood gazed round vaguely at, the cupids-"oh, motordrives, and supper-dances, and"—her violet eyes lit on tho great pink roses gleaming palely in the half-light coming on—" oh, baskets of roses, arid ' a marriage is arranged and will take place' " "And they live happy ever after?" "That depends/' .Mrs. Hazlewood bent down and stirred the coals. " So you think marriage is a failure—in our world?" . "I didn't say so—with a really nice girl." " —Lord Alingford took up the poker and .examined it—"supposing it's not a girl?" "A nice man, then, you mean," said Mrs. Hazlewood hurriedly. "I meant .... with the right woman." Lord Alingford put down the poker. Ho moved his chair, imperceptibly once more, to the next lovers' knot on the green | pile earpot. "I do wonder where Mareia is," Mrs. Hazlewood said. " Would you mind ringing?" Lord Alington laid his hand perfidiously on the electric bell. But he did not ring it. "We were , talking, I think," he said, " of—" ■-.',•• " Servants said Mrs. Hazlewood. " Of matrimony, I think," Lord Alingford interrupted gently but decidedly. "I was'about to say that servants are most troublesome." Mrs. Hazlewood frowned. "Would you mind ringing again?"' Lord Alingford laid his hand on the bell. "I don't think you want anyone—really," he said, and took it oft' again. " L do." Mrs. Hazlewood got up, but she went over to the basket of roses on her writing-table. " It's getting so dark," she said. "That's as it should be." Lord Alingford followed her charming figure with his eyes. "One should sit in the firelight on a winter's evening, and talk to one's—friends." "Do you think so?" Mrs. Hazlewood took a rose from the basket, and pinned it in her waistband. Lord Alingford stood up and intercepted her return to the sofa. "Look here," he said; "may I or may I not" Mrs. Hazlewod drew back a step. Certainly not," she said. "I don't know what you mean," she added in the same breath, and rather irrelevantly. Lord Alingford buttoned tho single button of his morning-coat, and held out his hand. "Oh 1" he said gravely. " Well, good-bye, Mrs. Hazlewood." " -good-bye." Mrs. Hazlewood, who had apparently attained her object, hesitated. She did not seem altogether satisfied. "Good-t'-e. Lord Alingford. I— suppose I——shall see you before long?" "Oh, no!" The young man bent clown and picked up a rose leaf that had dropped from Mrs. Hazlowood's waist. Ho placed it politely on the mantelpiece. "Oh, no!" he said calmly. "I shall take La Belle Estelle' to the Mediterranean." "La Belle Who?" Mrs. Hazlewood sat down almost suddenly on the low chesterfield. "The yacht, you know. Good-bye again." Lord Alingford turned towards the door. Mrs. Hazlewood leant back among the pink cushions. "We .... we shall miss you." Lord Alingford paused, then opened tho door. Mrs. Hazlewood, looking rather white, moved towards the bell. "Is—isn't; that a hansom? You may want it." Mrs. Hazlewood and Lord Alingford with one accord crossed the room and looked into the darkening street. It—it's Marcia, I think." " And— friend," said Lord Alingford drily. " A marriage has been arranged," ho murmured. And a gentle smile overspread his features. "J — didn't know, ' Mrs. Hazlewood whispered, and turned away her head. "Does it make any difference?" " It—it might,"she murmured. "It's all your fault," she added, after a moment's p ilUj!f .—or more. "You were certainly very attentive to my niece ' "To her aunt, you mean," Lord Alingford interposed. But at that moment the door burst open, and Marcia, a young man, and servants appeared. Mrs. Hazlewood was most, charmingly flushed when the butler turned on the lights. She welcomed the new-comers effusively. "Do sit down, Mr. Sfopford!" she cried' with tho utmost cordiality. " Oh, what lovely flowers!" A footman was bringing in a basket of roses almost identical with that which stood on .Mrs. Hazlewood's table. ' "I— [ brought Miss Hazlewood a. few flowers, Marcia's friend murmured. Lord Alingford looked at, Mrs. Hazlewood, and Airs. Hazlewood cast a rapid glance in the direction of Lord Alingford's chair. "How nice!" she said. " Because now both Mareia and I hava each our— Well, our roses."-