EXILE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20537, 11 April 1930, Page 18

EXILE.

BY WARWICK DEEPING.

CHAPTER XII. Hilly was in the, South, hut not of it. She was both pitiable and horrible, a grotesque mask, a modern northern fury adrift in a .sea of old-world southern symbolism. Hilly felt the touch of Sladc's hand on her arm. Ho drew licr and she followed. " Some people can't fool decently. They get raw." His dominance was gentle. It was a gesture which slu understood, and as he wished her to understand it, tljough his gi.isp was gloved. They were down in the crowd, and moving along the wall of the church, and away from Mrs. Shano and Her appendages. Slade pushed through toward the edge of the crowd, ft ill holding her arm and understanding. She consented; she felt most strange with him in that southern crowd, with its swarthy and friendly faces. When they reached the. opening of the C'orso he released her. " That's not for you. I think it's about time ' ITe glanced down at her with an air of protection. " Raw spirits. That, sort ot rawness is the devil. It spoils things. I'm sorry." He stood close, and she did not appear to question his closeness. " Oh, that's all right. 1 agree. It's father horrible and pathetic." " I'll see you home."

The Corso received them. It had a soft and silent appeasement, a shadowy intimacy; it. suggested a path through woods, with the stars shining, and all human interference blotted out. They passed up it together with a senso of mutual nearness, though their conception of this nearness differed. To Billy it was sublimated into a more spiritual ossetice. She felt Slade as man and comrade, as someone who understood life as she herself understood it, but also she felt him as the lover.

She had begun to trust. And suddenly she fiad a feeling that she wanted to talk to him about all sorts of things, herself, himself, Tindaro, Mrs. Shnne, books, and how die came to write them, and what ho did when he had finished writing tt.em. She was aware of him as man, and almost and romantically as her man, perplexing, disturbing, colourful, touched her to a sudden young tenderness. She said: " tt has been a wonderful night."

The quality of her voice betrayed her to him. Ho should have uncovered his head to her, to the " Dear Billy " of her mother's thoughts, to a creature of brave frankness and fastidious faith. She j>tood with Slade on the edge of romance. She was ready to be touched, breathed upon, inspired, to put her hand in his, tu see in him man, the boy and the beloved.

He knew. He had moments of exultation. He was accepting this new experience, this most virginal of altairs, as he accepted all that life gave him. Nothing lasted with him long. Things that lasted too ;long made for mediocrity, suburbsriisni. Love was just a form of behaviour. " Beautiful." His voice had a hushed seriousness. They came to the door of the English Library, and with her back to it she stood looking up. " I don't think I quite understood you till to-night." " Thank ' you, Billy. That s worth everything. Tired?" •' Not a bit." fie held out a hand aud hers met it firmly and consentingly. . " See you to-morrow, perhaps."

" Perhaps." " I want you to conic and lc<t>k at my garden sometime. It's rather a perfect spot." " I'd love to." " Splendid. And it has a history. I shall have to write a talr: about some dny. Well, spring has come." His moment of playfulness was nicely tinted. The easy, gentle, aimost casual touch was England to her English. " Gooii-night. Billy." " Good-night." She turned I'iorri him quickly and entered the house.

'L'om Frevick puisued other thoughts. He had walked on the heels of them np the country lane toward Slade's villa, and had come to a pause outside the gates of the Villa of the Flute. lhev weie very beautiful gates, of old Italian ironwork, and often trevick had been moved to a kind of anger against Slade for being the possessor of such gates. On this night sacred to St. Sofario, they were closed, and trevick, perplexed by the intricacies of his purpose, ran his fingars over thcr scroll-work like a man trying to trace out a pattern. Frevick looked down at Tindaro and at its diminishing lights. Liie was like that. The house of humanity had its lights; they •were Jit in childhood, and the quenching or the dimming of one of those lights was sacrilege. Surely? Suddenly his head went up; lie stood listening; he heard foosteps coming down the path between the cypresses. It was very dark under the trees, but he was aware of a presence, of.someone standing inside the iron gates. He could make out a greyness t lint. v. as a face. t " Ts that, vou, I/Hta " "

There was silence. I ben one of the. gates trembled, and gave out a little, metallic sound. Ftevick tclt two eyes upon hi in. Yes." " The siguorc bus not teliirried? " No." She was a monosyllabic creature, but from that inarticulate, dim presence, something emanated. She was woman, darkly and mutely woman. She, too, had .come, to those gates to watch, and in the darkness Frevick fell her as the shadow of Ins own thoughts, a human shade that stood to haunt Ibe dcaler-oul. Cf v:oun Is. .Not at the festa. Lolta " •' No." He could h'"ai tn-i in rat hue:. She teemed to exhale an elemental emotion. " Vou wait for the siguoie? " Yes. Lolta.' The gates shook lich'h. Hei two bands were resting on tlieni "He is a bad man. He takes things for himself. lie does not pity." Frevick stood mute. How could you answer such a voice that spoke to you out of the womb of elemental tilings? He hunched himself against the wall. Real ity ? He felt an anger (hat grew, a sense of bafflement. Why not go away, Lolta '! " She, brooded " I say yes and I say no. si-.nore. Is roi life like that ? Have \ou not found il ' " lie said : "God forgive me. but I have." ile had a feeling thai she nodded hei h»-.id al him. She math; him think of some, grace, dark-eyed animal caged in, unv>ise as to her ovwi strength, lie'trl in hondace by the fate of her own flesh. Poor Loll a. i She was one of those who •had given, as the earth gives even though rent by the, plough.

Ho was struggling 1o linrl .something to say to her. Tim night seemed .so iink'-d; ;jt offered you no uiy of illusion, nothing v r illl which to rover up nian's phvMi-al realities He prcs;-od liis ellu'ws iigain-t the wjill: his mirifl felt likn an emptv Rack, i" Lot la."

F'Ut she hrirl gone, 'the greynesx of her face hud disappeared. Ife h«arrl the sound of her foci&teps ascending between jibe cypresses.

(COPYRIGHT.)

Author of thai much-loved book, " Sorrell and Son."

Freviek waited. It was so very still up here among the olivr groves and the vineyards lli.it tlio night was like a liol low shell held t(. liis ear. He could hear Tindaro as well as see it, and from the murmur that was Tindaro some other sound might detach itself and grow into the .sound of a voice.

And then Slade came. Freviek heard his foostepa in tho lane. They had a leisureliness Slade was Blone. Ho carried his hat in his hand, and looked up at the stats as a man may look at them on a clear and fortunate night when the pattern of life is pleasant. " That you, Slade ? " Slado's feet, came together. He stood in the middle of the lane. He could distinguish the darkness of the gateway between the grey flanking walls, but he could not see Freviek. " What the devil'( " " I thought I'd wait here. Shouldn't miss you here." "You, Thomas, is it? Funny old devil. What's the matter? Come in and have a. drink." Freviek pressed his elbows against the wall. A drink! Yes, that was the obvious association of ideas. Freviek —drink." Oh, damn Slade! Putting thein through their tricks like a troupe of performing dogs. He said : " No thanks. I've come up about something else. You've go"! a pretty rotten reputation with women, Slade." That was a shot point blank fired as from an ambuscade, and Slade s figure seemed to stiffen. "What! You're drunk you old sot!" "No, not tonight." " Sober. Well, let's assume the so? briety. What the devil are you doing up here playing at Balaam's " 1 have a message for you. home of us think you had better let that, girl alone."

So that was it. SI ado walked forward toward the gates, paused, and put on his hat.

" Since when, Thomas, have you been a professor of moral philosophy ? " Frevick remained by the wall, .pressing himself against it as though its solidity helped him to be solid. " Leave me out of it. I've no morals. That's why I can give it you straight from the shoulder. You have made a mess of one or two lives." " Specify." "No need to. Von know it better than I do. Vou've never had any decent feeling about women. Arid this girl is different. You'll let her alone. Slade's head v. as up. "Oh, noble Thomas! Why, you old idiot, am I such a fool as not to know the difference And supposing I feci decentlv in this cas;e ?

He mo\ed up to the gates, and sli.od close to Frevick, seeing him as a daik mass attached to the stone, wall.

" Who sent you on this stunt ? The good Julia ? Frevick's figure moved. " Something that's left in me, Made, something you never seem to tia\e Ithd. Call it pity if you like, or decent feeling. This isn't a Sadie Shane affair. ou can't do it." . : Slade laid a hand on one of the iron gates. " Idiot! Well, what next ? " Someone will tell her just what has happened in Tindaro." 1 " Vou are nice people. And supposing your dear creatures are wrong for once, fouling linen that happens to be clean ? Supposing I am going to ask the girl to marry rue?" " I don't believe you." " Oh, doubting Thomas! Vet you stump up here to preach morality at twelve o clock at night. Well, you can take it from me that I am going to ask her to marry me. Sounds rather crude to you, perhaps." "No, not crude, but impossible." " Why impossible ?" " You can t take a girl into that house, with Lotta."

Slade had opened one of the iron gates. He passed through and closed the gate with a clang of metal. "Lotta! What do you mean?" " Just what I said." " Oh, you nice people! A committee of the dirty-minded. You can go to hades, the whole lot of you. I am going to ask Billy to marry me. Ergo, I have some decent feeling.' And supposing she wauts me ?"

" That's a beastly thing to say." " Oh, rot. She's a woman. Well, and what are all you nice people going to do about it. Send a deputation to mv fiancee and tell her that the man she is going to marry is a blackguard ? Sounds rather crude, doesn't it?"

" We might." " And supposing she didn't beliove you ? Or supposing I could convince her that I'm not (juite that sort of sexual beast? Oh, drop it, you old idiot. I his sort of thing makes my flesh creep. It's like Sadie Shane when she's on—"

But Frevick's figuie detached itself suddenly from the wall. " Slacle—if it's beastly—is that my fault? Vou don't understand. Or perhaps you do. I'm not biulling. I may be a rotten devil, but I'm not so rotten as to think it possible that you—" Slade took him up sharply. His voice was growing thin. " Understand that I am going to ask Miss Brown to marry rue. Go and tell the whole of Tindaro, all the old women and all the old men. And if all you moral people think it- your duty to poison thf) girl s mind—well, be damned to you. Good-night." Frevick could not think sanely about Slade. The thing enraged him. Slade, standing there by those beautiful gates, and talking the sheerest clap-trap. Slade of all men! But what was claptrap? Or had ho—Frevick—mislead clap-trap for emotion? For the distinction is subtle and in the mind of the listener. He was prejudiced against Slade. What an occasion! What splurges! " Understand that I am going to injury Miss Brown." It was like the village green and the village maiden and the villain and the squire Oh, God in heaven, what tosh men talked when they bad lost their temper ! But was Sladf serious? If so. lie was rim>t daninablv serious And that was thai. I bad lipl! rI tell .I»11 i. (To ht* r»:itinn<-<t cjnily )

KTTCm' IN l-N(ilo\Xi)

NEW ZEALANDERS IN ACTION. [fjrom or;r: own cornestonprnt.] LONDON. March 4. Guy's duly qualified fot the final of Hospitals' Cup liy defeating King's Co] lege Hospital at Richmond on February 27 l iv four goals (one penalty) and. a try i?l points} to a goal and two fries (II points). J. E Giesen (Wellington) was with the winuinv' side ;it tln oe-qunr-ters. King's put up a good fiyht. starting off at a great pare and being first to score. Oxford University heal, the Royal Air Force *at- Walton on February 26 by two goals (10 points) to a fry (.5 points). Notable absentees from the Royal Air Force team were Constantino, Franks.and Maxwell, the last-named being on leave prior to proceeding overseas, while Oxford took the field without I', f), Howard, who was resting a slight injury received at Twickenham on Saturday. W. E. Henlev (New Zealand Rhodes Scholar) was one of the University forwards.

i lie Morning Post representative says the Air Force- pack did nobly up to a point, hut, considering the number of times the ball came along their baeks, three points did not represent a satisfactory result.