PROOF OF THE PUDDING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21844, 5 July 1934, Page 19

PROOF OF THE PUDDING

IJV LUCIE WINN

James Fortesque, thin and precise,

but with a dreamer's eye, stared gloomily round his vast, breakfast room. Opposite him, very distant over a bowl of autumn marigolds, Bella, his wife, ventured to taste a baked apple (without sugar or cream). To his right, Rilla, his daughter, slender and lovely, played with a grape fruit and nibbled a piece of dry toast. On his left, Gordon, twenty and well-groomed; tackled with enthusiasm, a mixed grill o.f steak, sausage and bacon. " What's everyone's programme this morning," demanded Gordon cheer- - fully.

" I'll be at gym," said Bella, and added in a despairing voice, " I've put on two pounds in a week. Look at me." James looked and secretly approved. He liked Bella's soft roundness. After all, at forty-two—- " flair and manicure, for me," announced Rilla. I'm a positive.fright." " Michael Daventry showing signs of transferring his affections? " inquired Gordon, flippantly. Rilla cast him a withering glance and remained silent.

"Nobody coming round wi.th me?" continued Gordon. "Dad, what about you? "

" This is Wednesday," said James in » cold voice. "It is usual to attend to business on week days. If you took a little more interest in things instead of loafing—" Gordon interrupted with a laugh. "Plenty of better brains than mine to run the business, dad." Mr. Fortesque glanced round the breakfast room, gathering courage from its warm cheerfulness. . " Jf," he continued smoothly, ignoring tho interruption, " as I say, you had taken a little more interest this disaster might 'hot have overtaken us." "Disaster!" echoed three amazed voices.

"We arc ruined. I have crashed—financially. There nothing left," said James in a dry voice. .'Nothing!" echoed three amazed voices.

' It was very sudden —quite unforeseen," sighed James. "I managed to save the house from the wreck. iVothing And I have exchanged it lock &tock and barrel for a fnrm." . A farm!" echoed three amazed voices.

i,4 Ver .v nice farm. Warm, sheltered, e ":grassed, -with a comfortable old Large 'kitchen with sides of °aeon hanging from tho ceiling, French uoora on to a sunny verandah, ereei>ers Rn 'j trees and All that." <'ur ll^er °d <1 little moan. We leave the day after to-morrow," continued James. ah nies ' " moaned Bella. " Don't be days''' can IVC ready in two

" \n" asi 'y>" answered James serenely, cl tl " V 0" ' iavß to do is to pack your ho r' iave exchanged everything re for everything 011 the farm. You see I had no cash." * . ® opened and closed her mouth J era ' times before she found her voice.

Wa l 1 7T "t Michael Daventry," she cq.'ij ; " You must be mad. Surely we v. ■ , v ° managed a little longer. You __ G r, j l, ned Killa's happiness. He can't V larr y a farmer's daughter, an,r , anc^s all muddy from cows Itilla's head wont up proudly. sale] 1 * on wan't to marry him," M -^ c tly s " agreed James. "If anrl a ° v- as & ttracted by Killa's money Dudr^ oßl^101 ? eu —*> e —proof of the S is in the eating, 3-011 know."

A NEW ZEALAND STORY.

(COP7IUGHTJ

He broke off abruptly when ho saw Rilia's chin quivering, and hurried from the room, leaving helpless, hopeless I silence behind him. ' James gazed at his wife over a vase | of dilapidated geraniums set in the 1 centre of the breakfast table, just as a month ago he had gazed over a bowl of marigolds. Bella heaped sugar liberally on her plate of porridge and with a hopeful expression reached for the cream jug. " Sugar and cream are wonderfully fattening, aren't they," she remarked. Her face was thin and there were faint traces of tears on her cheeks. " Something go wrong this morning? " inquired James. " It's the fire," Bella answered. " Every time I turn my back the con—confounded thing goes out." " That's because you put on only one piece of wood each time," explained Rilla, patiently. " You want to fill the fireplace right up." " And the kitchen," continued Bella, a catch in her voice. " It's a hateful room. You walk miles." "Of course, sixty years ago they didn't know so much about architecture," soothed Rilla. "But it only needs a little altering. And it really is a delightful room. Full of—full of the love and laughter of all those years." She looked about with glowing eyes. She was dressed in a boy's blue shirt and denim overalls. Her'curls, usually so precisely arranged, were ruffled, and on her cheeks,, too, were traces of tears. She turned her attention to her plate, and suddenly pushed it from her with a little movement of distaste. " Lost your appetite," remarked Gordon. " Still worrying about Brownie." " Brownie swished a muddy tail across Ililla's face'," explained Gordon with ill-concealed mirth. " So Rilla hooked it, the tail you know, on a nail in the wall. And when she let Brownie go she forgot about tho tail, and Brownie walked out and left half of it behind." " The whole beautiful switch," mourned Rilla. " Daddy tied her tail up, and I don't think it hurts much. But all tho other cows are laughing at her, and she'll never he able to hold 1 her head up again. And then there'll be tho flios in the summer." " Never mirid," said her mother, ; comfortingly. " When wo go to town —if wo ever do —we'll buy one of those 1 pretty little feather dusters and tic it 1 on." '

Gordon broke into delighted laughter and Itilla pushed back her chair and fieri from the room.

After a long minute James broke the dismayed silence. " 1 think wo had bettor plough tho back field to-day," he remarked to Gordon.

"At least," ho corrected himself hastily, remembering that neither of them had ever handled a plough, " we had better trv."

" Well," said Bella firmly, " you can use Satan and Judy. I want' Punch. I want to go into tho village and I am not driving Satan." " Punch," interrupted Gordon, " can't go faster than a snail crawls. And he is so fat I doubt whether he'll go between the shafts." " I'll squeeze him in," said Bella, with determination. " I want to get the mail."

" Still looking for a letter from that Michael Daventry?" said James. " I was right about him—l thought as much. Money, money, money! Well it's lucky things collapsed when they did. It has saved Rilla from a loveJess marriage."

With a sigh James followed Gordon out into tho bright autumn sunshine, and Bella turned her attention to tho dishes. Au hour later a mud-spattered car slid to a stop in front of the Fortesque farm gate, and a young man surveyed the scone before him with lifted eyebrows.

Between the house and the gate was an emerald field edged by a filagree "hawthorn hedge. In the field were a brown and rotund horse and a woman in a flowered smock, and it was the little comedy that these two were enacting that had caught tho young man's amused attention. The horse was walking round with the woman exactly six feet behind him. When she hurried he did likewise; if she stopped ho put his heajil down and browsed, but never did the distance vary. On the horse's roman-nosed face was an expression of mild amusement. The woman wore a look of concentrated fury. Tho young man sprang from tho car, revealing plus fours and golf stockings of a startling hue. " Mrs. Fortesque," he cried, hastening up the field. " Can I catch him for you?" Bella turned, startled, and held out a rather grubby hand. " Mr. Daventry!" she exclaimed, her faco glowing. " I'm so glad to see you. I thought— I—I—"

" You've been thinking what a brute I 1: ire been —not looking you up, you ki:But I've had the 'flu pretty badly, and I heard only yesterday about —about things." " Rilla will be pleased." said Bella softly.

"I hopo so," answered Michael. " Give me the rope and I will catch that brute."

He walked bodly up to Punch. Punch, recognising tho strut of the conqueror, meekly lowered his head and allowed tho rope to be fastened round his neck. Michael clambered on to his broad back and Punch strolled up the paddock. "All you need—" ho began, but his sentence was never finished. At that moment Punch, idly glancing back, caught sight of a gaily coloured leg, so unlike tho sober grey or blue ones that ho was used to, and panic seized him. He put down his head and bolted.

Mrs. Fortesgue -wrung her hands. Michael rolled perilously. Punch raced to the gate determined to jump it, saw the car, shied round, saw tho duck pond and stopped dead. Michael went on. Rilla appeared on the scene. She was still in her boy's shirt and overalls and gum boots, and tho traces of tears 011 her cheeks wore more apparent. Michael stood up in the pond with a stray feather caught rakishly over 0110 ear.

"Michael! Michael!" gasped Itilla. "I thought of going to the .Arts Ball as Aphrodite," ho explained with dignity. " I am just rehearsing." Ho clambered from the pond and caught Itilla in his arms.

My darling, sweet, little clodhopper," he whispered. Tho tears ran down Killa's cheeks, " Oh! Michael, I thought you didn't care."

I had the 'flu, and thoy mislaid your little note. Darling, please don't cry. You're making 1110 -frightfully wet."

[ James sat in front of tho lire, a lump of wood in his hands, and stared into the glowing fire. Over by tho table, -Bella, with the lamp drawn close, gazed in dismay at a gaping hole in a sock. Gordon sprawled on tho sofa, pulling at his pipo. Rilla and Michael had gone out to see if thero was a moon. Gordon stretched and groaned. " Stiff," he complained. " Tied in knots. Who said ploughing was simple. Say, dad, an office sounds good to me. Alas for wasted opportunities."

"You'd like to go back to town?" asked James, curiously. " Don't torment me. If I ever get tho chance I'll jump at it. No more wasting time. Good old stool, good old figures, good old pen! You can have your country. " " But you like it, don't you," James asked Bella. " Not now I've seen myself." James looked at her and smiled wistfully. In a month shß had lost her pretty fortyish curves and become almost angular. " No," said James. " The rounder you are, Bella, the prettier you are." " Don't say round," pleaded Bella. "It makes mo think—think of Punch." James twinkled and then became suddenly sober.

" Well, I made one mistake. I thought money was attracting Michael. But he's a good lad. Ho made a better job of the ploughing than any of us. And he's got a knack in handling horses."

"So I have noticed," said Bella dryly. James thrust the wood into tho fire with sudden decision.

""Ahl well. I might as well confess. I bought this farm on the spur of the moment from a poor beggar • who had had bad luck—family all smashed up in an accident. I intended to put a manager in, and then I 3 changed my mind suddenly one mornJ ing at breakfast." , " You moan," said Gordon, sitting ' up. " You haven't crashed." " Not lost a cent for years," de--1 clared James. " Matter of fact been making money. If you had taken more ' interest in things you would have known that." " But why—why—" cried Bella. | " I was worried," confessed James. 1 " About Michael and Rilla. About you Bella. We've been drifting apart. All you've thought of this last year or so has been your weight. And about you Gordon—growing into a lazy, loafing young idiot." " Thank you," said Gordon, with dignity. James ignored him. " But wo can go homo to-morrow if you like—will go homo if you each make a promise. Gordon,' you will promiso to take a diligent, practical interest in tho firm." " I will," vowed Gordon. " Eight hours a day." " And Bella, you will promise never, never to weigh yourself again." For answer Bella threw her arms round his neck and kissed him as she had not kissed him since she was eighteen and he was twenty-one. And James seemed supremely satisfied. Rilla and Michael came in, hand in hand, their faces shining. " Bless you, my children," >said Gordon solemnly. " We have decided to buy a farm," cried Rilla. " Michael says he has always had a secret ambition to be a farmer. Isn't it wonderful?" " You mean live in the country." " Of course." " But tho mud," moaned Bella. " And tho cooking, and the awful quiet nights." " And think of tho log fires in the winter, and the sound of the wind in the trees, and tho scent of clover and gorso on hot spring days, and tho tang of wood smoke in the autumn, and tho little new calves, and—and—" Rilla turned to Michael for help. " And the duck ponds to swim in," ho finished resolutely. " I'll sell you the farm," Baid James. " You can have it for half of what I gave for it."

" Oh I daddy," cried Jlilla in ecstacy. " This lovely, lovely old placo." " Cheap because you two seem to appreciate it."

Michael let out a wlioop of joy. " Come on darling," he cried, catching TJilla's hand. " Let's go out and see if there's another moon."