SHORT STORY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13746, 11 May 1908, Page 3

SHORT STORY.

A LEAP IN THE DARK. "If only you were nearer her age," Mrs. Palairet said, and a little more" In • spito of the intimate nature of their discussion, she not unnaturally hesitated. ■ ■ Lord Crayne came to the rescue. " ' Dashing';' " he suggested. "I cordially agree, and then the fellow is so confoundedly picturesque, too , 'i "'Yes, iii the style of a third-rate actor J" , "You're too severe. Now, I can he im- [ partial, because I'm alive to my limitations. If I were built like an athlete, had fair hair, blue eyes, and all the vest of it, I might 1 stand a chance, but as it. is, I feel I haven't a look in. Look at me!" Lord Crayne coneluded,: somewhat tautologic-ully. - , MrS. Palairet looked, and saw a man the [ wrong side of forty, lean, with kindly eyes , and a humorous mouth, but withal an undeniably plain man, whose head pleaded • guilty to incipient baldness. She shook her head dubiously. Don't ' depreciate ' yourselfthat is the most fatal mistake," she urged. "And if you, could manage to insinuate a. sort of devil-may- , careness in your manner,-iimight.work wonders. What " trouble - me most are your J money and title." i> "They are not usually Considered obstacles," Lord Crayne observed - ruefully. Jc J "No: but you don't understand wliat'a romantic little fool Marjorie is! Love in a , cottage with Jimmy Fairless "is her ideal at , present; I can see it as clearly as if she had told me. Oh, my dear friend, if I had been consulted in the organising of things I should have vetoed the adolescent period! > Of all mistakes, it's the greatest. A girl ' falls in love with the most undesirable man | she can find, and a boy insists upon marry- : ing some disreputable actress. In some ways I think it's one of the worst-managed worlds one could be condemned to live in!" , Lord Crayne nodded with entire acquies- , cence. "Have you said anything to her: ; about Fairless?" "Certainly not. The slightest opposition . would send her into his arms at once. To ' get. a girl suitably engaged is like driving a pig to market—you must pretend you have no wishes of your own. No, I try to smile when she mentions him; it's taking years : off my life, but I manage to do it. I think ! you may safely trust my diplomacy, and, above all tilings, don't let yourself get discouraged." Lord Crayne, anxiously hanging upon the words^of. his would-be mother-in-law, felt himself fired to emulation of her dauntless | spirit. "Discouraged? Not I?" he ejaculated scornfully, although as he left the room his countenance was not exactly eloquent of confidence. 'Undoubtedly it was hard lines that he, who had never been a marrying man, should fall in love for the first time at forty-three but, having committed this indiscretion, it was intolerable to find such formidable obstacles placed in the way. Unfortunately, his lordship was too old-fashioned to act upon the principle of all being fair in love —otherwise lie might conveniently have revived certain episodes in the past career of his rival which even a romantic temperament would hardly find admirable. It was natural enough that the Leslies should have included Jimmy Fairies* among their guests, for they were getting up an ambitious performance of "As You Like It," and Jimmy was that strange hybrid, the professional amateur. Nevertheless, the aggrieved lover felt it was a piece of. confounded ill-luck which had brought Marjorie Palairet and Fairless under the same roof. , At present the majority of the house-party ■ were absorbed in rehearsals, Lord Crayne being one of the lookers-on— proverbial looker-on, who, notes so much more than the absorbed players imagine. Marjorie Palairot had been cast for Pliffibe, and he hated to sec; her being coached in the stale, theatrical business, and being taught to make, eyes at Ganymede. Ganymede herself required no coaching in such matters, being impersonated by Miss Gladys Kester, a young lady of uncertain ago, who had been acting in quasi-privatu theatricals for the past ten years. Miss Kester was fully acquainted with the ropes of most things which are popularly considered means to an end—the end in question being the annexing of a husband. Perhaps her lack of success hitherto was owing 10 her poverty, for Cupid nowadays displays mercenary tendencies disconcerting to the sentimentally inclined; or perhaps she showed her hand too plainly, which is an error common to the twentieth century woman. Lord Crayne did - not trouble his head about Miss Kester's affairs, but he was conscious of an acute desire to keep her and Marjorie apart. In the present state of his affections. Marjorie Palairet, among the rest of the party, appeared to" him like a lily growing between the weeds on a dust-heap. On her side. Miss Palairet was experiencing the unenviable feeling of a fish out of water, for her daisy-like freshness was found boring by the initiated. Only Fairless seemed to think it piquant, and went out of his way to pay her attention. Since the rehearsals had begun Mar jorie had seen very little of her older friend, and naturally enough Fairless had become a sort of hero. He had whispered, to her yesterday that she was the dearest little girl in the world, and his eyes had said far more. Marjorie's heart beat furiously at the recollection. iwbile she mentally compared him with all her favourite characters in fiction, to the great disadvantage; of the latter. Oil this particular evening Miss Palairet went to the library after tea, partly to study a certain work on Shakesperian characters, but chiefly with the desire of being alone, for the library was but slightly patronisedby the Leslies' guests. She* settled herself in a corner and began to read, but Fairless' eyes and voice kept coining between her and the attention site should have given to the printed page, and, moreover, the reading-lamp showed unmis- * takable signs of going out. Finally Marjorie closed her eyes and gave herself" up to dreams. > "You.know I love you, Gladys, but you must- s«<e how impossible it is for me to ask you to marry me yet. I've had the devil's own luck lately." ■ ' " Miss Palairet woke with a start. The , room was only dimly lighted by the large j

lamp in the centre, but from her own shadowy corner she could see the two figures standing by the fireplace clearly. "'lt's not the waiting I mind," Miss Kester said quickly, " but to see you flirting with a chit like that!" "Oh, hang it all, the girl's only a baby!. She doesn't dream of anything of that sort." " Doesn't she?" replied Miss Kester, significantly. "Don't be a fool, Jim; she may 1 bo a baby, but she also happens to be a ' woman, and elm was looking at you yesterday with worship in her eyes. I could have , died of laughter, but I'm nothing if not discreet." Fairless shrugged his shoulders impatiently. " Oh, well, if it will satisfy you. I won't say another word to her except on ■ business." 1 Miss Kester took a step nearer to him; the firelight struck sparks from her nimbus of copper-coloured hair, her blue eyes were ; dilated. She bent forward a little, looking into his face. " But you needn't think I worship you, : . because 1 don't," she said. Fairless took her in his arms, and kissed her in a way which caused the eyes of the paralysed looker-on to open to their widest ' extent. • - "You're a little fool yourself, Gladys," he asserted, lightly. " You know quite well that church mice, can't marry—it's deuced ; hard lines, but it won't make things better your turning jealous. Suppose wo go back • to the hallthin room is so beastly gloomy They had gone, but Miss Palairet did not stir, and her eyes looked straight before her with an expressionless stare. He was in love with Gladys Kester! There was no room in her dazed brain for another thought. She sat on motionless, until tho sound of the opening door made her start from her chair. "Hullo! who's there in the dark?" demanded Lord Crayne. , _ Marjorie came forward into the circle of light where those others had recently stood. " Miss Palairot! I didn't know you were a frequenter of, the library," Craync said in '. surprise. . "ll've been here since tea; I came/to look at a book," Marjorie faltered, and held : out tho volume as though in vindication of ■ her presence. v "1 thought Miss Kester and Fairless were here. I had a message for her." % Miss Palairet . turned crimson. "They were" she began. Crayne saw tho brash, and waited in silence. " They came in while I was asleep," Marjorie went on desperately, " and when I woke up and overheard what they said I couldn't tell them I was there simply couldn't. I know they say girls have no sense of honour, but I would have gone if I could." It. was the first time for many a day that she had confided in him, and Lord Crayne's middle-aged heart, beat in absurdly youthful fashion. "Of course you would; I know you well enough to be sure of that," lie replied, with conviction. "'I don't suppose they were discussing matters of international importance, but, anyhow, don't make a tragedy of it, for Heaven's sake." Unwittingly his voice had taken on a tender inflection, which went straight to Marjorie's injured heart. She tried to laugh, but the sob in her throat won .the day, and an alarming sound was the result. Crayne took the Shakespere out of her hands and flung it on one side with a woeful disregard for his host's property. "Sit down," ho said abruptly, pulling forward one of tho softly-cushioned chairs. "Now, look here, there's nothing for you to fret about. Things will happen contrarywise in this exasperating world, but it does no manner of good to (ear one's hair over the fact. Whatever they said you won't repeat, and they will never know that you were there." Miss Palairet nodded her acquiescence, and murmured something to the effect that lie was very good. What; prompted Crayne then he never knew, but lie floundered on: "I wish you would give me the right to help you always when tilings go wrong. Do you think you could ever come to care for —like that?" "Like what?" she asked, reasonably enough, for his question was certainly involved. " I mean," said Lord Crayne, taking the final plunge, "that I've loved you ever since I met you." "Oh!" said Miss Palairet, which was not encouraging. " Do you think you would come to like me in time?" lie persisted grimly. ' ' Marjorie looked at him as her mother . had looked that morning, but where Mrs. Palairet had observed all the obvious drawbacks, her daughter chanced to see nothing but a pair of kindly brown eyes fixed upon her in that process commonly known as ."looking you through and through." "I don't know, but I think I might," she hesitated. " You—you would never say a thing when you didn't mean it—, I'm sure you wouldn't." "Well, no. I hope not," Lord Crayne replied, somewhat bewildered. He knelt down in old-fashioned style by the side of the slight figure in the big ; chair, and took her hands. "If you'll trust yourself to me, .you shall be the happiest girl in the world, if it's in my power to make you so," he said, with due solemnity. Miss Palairet consented to trust herself to him, but the world shook its wise head over the engagement. "No fool like an old fool it said. " Wait, until she has found her feet as Lady Crayne,i and you'll see. Funny thing that people must buy their experience first hand! ' " Ronald, did you know that I was not 'the least little bit in love with you when we married?" It was after dinner on the first anniversary of their wedding day, and Lady Crayne put the question deliberately, looking round the epergne and across the dessert dishes at her husband. •. " Yes, I knew it." "There was someone, else." Lady Crayne went on. "Had you guessed?" "Yes, but I didn't think he was worthy of you, and, as you owned to liking me, I made tip my mind to speculate in the inatri-. monial stakes. I had plenty of warnings, though; everyone fold me I was making the biggest mistake of my life." " How dared they say so?" demanded Lady Crayne, with a deeper rose colour in her cheeks. Her husband held his wineglass between his eye and the light and answered carelessly: "Oh, well, you might very easily have repented of your bargain, that was what, they meant. You know—so far as you Were concerned it was certainly a leap in the dark." > Lady Crayne rose and walked round the table until she stood behind his chair. "Ronald," she said, slowly, " I wanted to tell you to-night that if I could have the time over again—" Lord Crayne's hand shook slight lv as lie put. the wineglass down. "Yes"'' he said, with admirable indifference. Lady Crayne put her arms round his shoulders and bent her pretty head, with its crown of curls 10 his ear. . " I should take the leap in the light, she whispered. . Which shows that even the world may be mistaken sometimes.Tollman Couper, in M.A.P. ___ .