MISS PHIPPS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18761, 15 July 1924, Page 3

MISS PHIPPS.

BY KATHERTNE TYNAN* (Coprricht.) CHAPTER YTL—(Continued.) Esther turned and looked at her. " So you ought to, my pretty!" she said with sudden tenderness. "So you ought to. I'm sure the master's eyes arc sick and sore with iookin' at her in her ngly blacks or else her starched whites. He might, begin to pick up with such a pretty thing as you about the house. The last time Dr. Dykes came down tfom London the master's case puzzled him. She went out to the car with him. She's the sort that always whispers to the doctor in the patient's hearin'. ' I can't see no reason,' says the doctor—l was at the linen cupboard in the little room above the hall door, and ho was a loud-voiced gentleman, and I couldn't help but hear— ' I don't see no reason,' says he, ' why Mr. Talbot shouldn't be able to live like other men. I'm disappointed,' says he, ' to find him so nervous and cast-down about himself and no improvement to speak of. Yon must keep him cheerful, that's half of the battle.' She didn't have , Dr. Dykes down since." Esther brought out the last words with a dramatic emphasis. Sho had lifted her voice a little. As, she concluded there was a sound somewhere as though someone coughed behind a hand, a faint, genteel cough. Esther turned very red, went to the door leading to the corridor, and looked out. "No one there," she said, coming back. " There never is anyone there when you look. This house might be haunted with coughs and soft creepy treads. I don't care if she did hear. Listeners hear no good of themselves, as the savin' is!" Delia began to be rather frightened of the unknown Miss Phipps.

Esther spoke again lowering her voice. " She hasn't got me out, nor yet Turner, though shelve tried hard. Don't yon be drove out. There's one check on her, she knows the master will doubt her, maybe, if she goes too far. She will have to go creepy an' careful with him. If she was got rid of, and Miss Mary Pierpont to come back, which is to say, the cloud lifted, I'd say yes to Turner an' me and him could have the front Lodge; bnt leave the master with that crocodile, I won't. I thanked the Lord when I heard you was comin' dearie. There'll be yon and your ..youth and beauty against her, and the Lord stren'then you in your fight."

She put up her hand for silence when Delia would have spoken.

" I heard the rustle of her print plain," she whispered, glancing towards tho door. ** Now, cot another word! You'll have your bath, and when you're ready I'll come and dress yon and do your hair. I'm a lovely dressmaker, Miss Delia. If yon was to get mo the silks and laoes from London I'd run you up your dresses in no time. You'd pay for dressin', dearie, and you'll cheer up the heart in the poor master wonderful, and the prettier you are the better. He doesn't lead a life fit for a man, so he doesn't the poor gentleman!" Then, having given jpeha plenty of food for thought she became suddenly brisk. "I'll put on your bath for you," she eaid; "and when you're ready for me you've only got to touch the bell and I'll be here in a tick." Once more she went to the door, looked out and came back again. Still watching the door she spoke in a whisper. "I often thought," she said, "that it would come to the time when maybe the poor master would let her have her way and get rid of us all. I thought it before I heard you was comin'. When I heard that my heart was lifted up. I knew the Lord hadn't forgotten us. He wouldn't leave the poor master to that villain." " You -think she would . . ." Delia began in a startled voice. L. "If you mean she would murder him, I don't think she'd do him wrong intentional. But she might do it without intending to. I think there's no worse in her mind than to make her own of Mm. The poor master! Many a lady wanted to do the same but in another way from hers. Maybe she doesn't know what she wants. They say he wouldn't be alive to-day only for her. I heard Dr. Dykes say it myself ■with my own ears. I heard him say that he'd never had a nurse with her nerve and her devotion to her work, only she took gloomy views, that's what he said when he met another doctor here one time. The master had a bad turn then. What's the matter with her, Miss Delia dear, is it that she wants no one els© near him. Did you ever hear of such a thing as killin' with kindness? It might happen, dear. That's why we can't let her have all her own way. with him."

CHAPTER VIIIc: (l DOraSE TIMB. " '.'. Delia went into the drawing-room just before a quarter to eight, with a lively and yet shrinking curiosity as to what sort of person Miss Phipps might prove to be. Mr. Talbot was there already, standing before the chimney-piece, a lowering figure despite the habitual droop. At the other side of the fireplace sat a woman, busily- knitting. At the sight of the knitting, Delia's mind went to the Fates. What web of human fate was the woman knitting into the fh.'ng she was making? Something of apprehension came into the girl's mind as she approached the small insignificant .ugure, withdrawn, with a humble air, into <ho shadow of a screen, and away from the firelight. The woman looked up as the vision of youth and beauty which was Delia came op the long drawing-room. Delia's simple dress was of white satin j it was the oest the Reverend Mother could do for her and it was pre-war satin, thick and gleaming, though it was school-girlish in make. She had worn it once at a' school concert and the Reverend Mother had bidden her keep it safe for her wedding dress or her reception. There were only two possible careers open to women within the Reverend Mother's consideration.

Delia wore her pearls about her neck, but otherwise she was quite unadorned. No one present was likely to discover that the dross was old-fashioned. Its simplicity—it was made almost as high as the pearls and down to the white satin shoes—became her youth well, and Esther had done wonders with the golden hair. "Let me introduce Miss Phipps, Delia. : ' Delia noticed that the introduction had been made to her and hoped sensitively that Miss Phipps would not mind or had not noticed.

Miss Phipps stood up as though for a superior, and her knitting fell to the ground. Christopher Talbot moved to pick it up, but Delia was before him. She forestalled Miss Phipps, restoring the knitting to her hand.* "You should not do that for me," Mis 3 Phipps said, in a humble voice. Delia looked at" her in surprise. Was this the woman about whom a sinister legend seemed to have grown up'/ Miss Phipps looked like an upper servant. She had a youngish face, highly coloured, thin colourless fair hair gathered to A little knob at the back of her head; a narrow frame in which the shape of the shoulders showed through thG black she Was rearing. An insignificant figure and a deprecating manner. Once Miss Phipps must have been pretty, in a neglible fashion. Her complexion, -which had now run a little, must have been clear pink and white. Her eyes seemed permanently to shun the light. Her hands, which again moved over the knitting in her lap, were small. Delia was rather touched by the hands. They had been ruined by the strong acids-.of the disinfectants they had handled. They must have, been once pretty hands.

A perfectly straight, iKtgnifor figrms ;j Miss rhippsi revealed as ehe stood up at }• the dinner bell. Sho moved with an air -• :'] of youth, wriggling a goad deal in her walk, Delia judged that ah© might be in tba Lata thirties as to age. "Cores, Doha!" Christopher Talbot ■! .mid. "Miss Phipps will eixxiso va if we ; I go first." p' Miss Phipps made a meek, uncom- U plaining sound as she followed the ;.i others.

"You are to take the foot of the table, Delia, and I the bead," Christopher Talbot said. "I shall have the pleasure of looking at yon .across thai bowl ol flowers. Miss Phipps and I have had very doll meals. If it had not been for her firmness we should have come to dining at a little table in the library. She has bre.n letting me off dressing for dinner, a bad habit; all that is going to be changed now you have come: but Miss Phipps has kep't me to the diningroom and the- ordinary meals. Part of the treatment, I suppose.'" He turned a rallying look on Miss Phipps, sitting half way down the tabic, between him and Delia.

"Perhaps I might dine in my room with Tim to keep me company,"* said Miss Phipps, in her depressed voicc ''Yoa won't want me at meals now you have Mies SarsSeJd."

"Staff! We shall always want you,"' Mr. Talbot said good-naturedly. "W» don't shunt our friends !iko that, do we, Delia'/"

The dinner was a long and sorrwrwhat. elaborate one. Delia found Miss Phipps something of a wet blanket. She felt she could have chattered to Cousin Christopher gaily if Miss Phipps had not been there. She felt Certain that f Miss Phipps looking down at her platenoted everything that was said. The sherry came round. The manservant passed Miss Phipps, offered it to Delia who refused, aud filled Christopher Talbot's glass. "You don't take sherry, Delia?" he asked, noticing. "You .are reserving yourself for the champagne, ehf "I have never drunk champagne/' said Delia. "It is safer not to begin," said : Miss Phipps with a frown. Her entry into the conversation was so unexpected that Delia was startled. "Don't mind Miss Phipps. She's a v Rechnbite. We can't all be Rechabites, can we, Delia ?** Delia thought there was the slightest j. sharpness in the speech, and was sorry for Miss Phipps. "You must drink a glass of champagn» • to keep me company to-night, and to wish me good health now you are come, Dela," Christopher Talbot went ou; "unless you are a conscientious objector, in which case, of coarse, I shan't urgti you. After to-night you must tell me i what yon would like to drink and I shall see if I cannot provide it." "Water is the best of all drinks," said Miss Phipps. "The only thing I really like is beer," said Delia, unexpectedly. , Miss Phipps dropped her knife and fork with a clatter.

"Munchener beer," Delia went on, unconscious of scandal. "Dunkel. "We always had it at the Convent." "You'vo shocked Miss Phipps, Delia," Christopher Talbot said, with evident amusement.

"Not at all," said Miss Phipps. "Only I thought beer was for working persons. It vr.is allowed in the hospitals, of course. I never approved of it." "I'll do my best to meet your requirements, Delia," said Christopher Talbot. "It will only be a base substitute, I'm afraid." "Oh, don't bother, Cousin Kit. I really don't want anything, onlyy of course, I grew up to beer." "At your Convent school V* asked Miss Phipps, in. a hollow voice. "We all had our little mugs," Delia replied, still unconscious.. "If we w;!inied it we could always have a second, or even a third." *

"You. are confirming Miss Phipps i?fc her worst opinion of nuns and their ways,*?' Christopher Talbot put in again, with ( more intense enjoyment.

(To be continued daily.)