TRISTRAM OF BLENT.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4435, 15 August 1901, Page 2

TRISTRAM OF BLENT.

AN EPISODE IN THE STORY OF AN ANCIENT HOUSE. (13y Anthony Hope.) [ALL RIGHTS STKiCiEY RESERVED] (Copyright, ICCI, m the U.G.A. by Anthony Hopo.) CHATTER XNX. TILL THE NEST GENERATION. Mn-jor Duplay had taken a flat iu town, and .vuua. had come up lo aid him in the task of furnishing it. The major was busy and prosperous iu these uavs. iilinkiuiuipton was turning up trumps lor all concerned, fur Ivor, for Harry, for Southend, and for - him; the sc homo even promised to bo remunerative to iho investing public. So he had told Mina that ho must bo on the spot, and that henceforward the country and riie Continent would know him only _in occasional days of recreation. _ Ha also murmured something about having myt a very attractive woman, a widow of thirtyfive. The general result seemed to be that he had forgotten his was well content, and a good dual more independent of his niece's society and countenance than be had been be,ore. All this Alina told to Lady Evenswcod when she went to lunch in urcen street. “Yes, I think I’ve launched uncle, said she complacently, “and now I shall devote myself to the Tristrams.” “You’ve been doing that for a long time, my dear.” . “Yes. 1 suppose i have really,’ she laughed. “I’ve been a s<jrt of Miss Swinkcrlon—l wish you ‘knew her! Only I devoted myself to one family, and she does it all for the neighbourhood.” _ Lady Evr.nswood looked at her vith a i’-dly smile. . ' “You wore rather in love with Harry, you know,” she said. “Which was very absurd, but—yos, T was. Only then' Cecily came, and—well, it was altogether too artistic for me even to want to interfere. If I had wanted to it would have made no difference. of course. ThV/’vo been pressing mo t.o go on living at Merrion, and I shall.”

"Oh. if you could set nothing but a p.'2st.v° on tha estate you would fake it. Though I don’t know what you’ll find to do.” “To do? Oh. plenty. Why. they’re onlv just begin niii'T, and ” The wave of her hands exnresscd the endless possibilities of a Tristram household. ‘■And Gradually you’ll glide into being an old woman like me—looking at the new generation.” , “Her children and his! There ought to be something to look at,” said Mina, wistfully. “But we’ve not done with Harry himself yet.” “Robert says he’s too fond of making money or he might do something in politics.” , “It isn’t money exactly. It s a good deal Blent. Ho wants to make that splendid. Perhaps he’ll come to the politics in time.” “Re’s made you believe in him. anyhow.” “Yes, and I know I don’t count. \’l the sam” I’ve seen a good deal of him, Mr Keeld and I have been mit from tha beginning.” “And in the end it was all a mare’s nest. Fancy if Addie Tristram had known that.” “I think she liked it just as well as she thought it was. And lin sure Harry did.” “Oh, if he’s like that lie’ll never do for the British public, my dear. He may get their money, but he won’t get their votes. After all, would ton have the country governed by Addie Tristram’s son ?” “I suppose it would be rather risky, said the Imp reluctantly. But she cheered up directly on th R strength of an obvious thought. “There are much more interesting things than politics,” she “And how is Cecily?” asked Lady Evenswood. “Oh, she's just adorable, and Mrs Iver’s got her a very good housekeeper.” The old lady laughed as she turned to welcome Lord Southend. “I’ve just met Disnev,” he remarked. “He doesn’t seem to mind being out.”

“Oh, 'lie’ll come back before long and without ills encumbrances. And ilora’s delighted to get a winter abroad. It ceuiciu't have happened more conveniently, she says-” "Ho told me bo tell you that he thought your young friend—he meant flurry Tristram —was lost lor ever now.” "What a shame!” cried Mina, indignantly. "Just like Robert! He never could understand that a man has a history, just as a country has. He is and ought u) ha part of his family.” •'No sense or historical continuity,” nodded Southend. “I agree, and that’s just why, though I admire Disney enormously. I ” I . ‘‘Generally vote against him on critical occasions ? Yes, ifoheri makes so many admirers like that.” “Is his work at Blinkhampton nothing?” demanded Mina. *- ? i got in for that while he was dispossessed,” smiled Southend. “I say, thank heaven ho wouldn’t have the viscounty.” ‘•That would have hoeii deployable,” agreed Lady Evcnswood. "It’s all a very curious little episode.” “Yes, No more than that.” “Yes, it is more,” cried Mina. “Without it he’d never have married Cecily.” ‘‘Romance. Madame Zabriska, romance'” Southend snook his head at her severely. Mina flinched a little under tho opprobrium of the word. Yet wlry?_ in these days we have tome bo recognise—ndaod, there has been email choice in ho matter unless a man would throw away books and wear cotton-wool in his oars—that the romance of one generation maker, the realities of the next, and that a love affair twenty years old becomes a problem in heredity, demanding the attention of th o learned, and receiving that of the general public also. So that though the affair and the man bo to all seeming insignificant, consolation may ho found in the of a posthumous importance, and h e wlm would do nothing very visible in his lifetime may, when his son’s biography comes to be written, he held grandfather _to an epic poem or a murder on the high seas—and it seems to ho considered that it is touch and go which wav the thing turns out. Are there, then, any episodes left ? Does not everything become an enterprise of great pith and moment, with results that will probably, some d*.y or other, ho found to admit of’malliomatical demonstration ? Happily, the •human race, in practice if not in theory, declines the conclusion. Wo know that wo are free, and there’s an end of it. said Dr .To!) prop. Well, at least we can still think that wo are doing what we like—-and that’s the beginning of most things. That temporary inferiority of Bob Broadiey’s, on which Cecily had touched so fopUugly. was soon redressed, and after the wedding Harry had a. talk with the bride. It was not unnatural that she .should blush a littlo when he spoke to her—a passing tribute to the thought of what might have been- Harry greeted it with a. laugh. , “I suppose we’d bettor he straightforward about this,” lie said. “MiugImm’s so near Blent, you sec. We’re both very glad, aren’t wo, Mrs Broadley?”

‘‘l imagine so,” snicl Janio. “You show' no signs of pining anyhow.” “And as to onr behaviour—there’s not a father in th 0 kingdom who wouldn’t think us right.” "I was the worst—because I think I was in love with Bob ail the tune.” “I was just as bad—because I thought you were, too,” said Harry. “How could wo do it, then?” she asked. “That’s the odd thing. It didn’t seem at all out of tho way at tho time,” he pondered. “You’d do it again now, if the case arose, but I shouldn’t. That’s the ,differ, once,” said ghe, Harry considered this remark for a moment with an impartial air. “Well, perhaps I should,” he admitted at last, “but you needn’t tell that to Cecily. Content yourself with discussing it with Mina or Mr Neeld.” “I’m tired of both of them,” she cried. “They do nothing but talk about, you.” . That night as ho sot in the garden at Blent with hie wife, Harry returned the compliment by talking of the Imp. He looked up towards Merrian and saw the light in the windows. “I think Mina is with us for life, Cecily,” said he. “I like her to he,” she answered with a laugh. “First, because I like being loved, and she loves me. And then I like you to bo loved, and she loves you. Besides, she’s been .so closely mixed up with it all, hasn’t she? She knew about you before I did; she knew’ Blent be - fore I did. And it’s not only with you and me. Sh e knew your mother, Addle Tristram, too.” .“Yes, Mina goes right back to the beginning of the thing.” “And the thing, as you call it. is whet brought us here together. So Mina seems to have had something to do with that, too. It all comes back to me when I look at her, and I like to have her here.” “Well, she’s part of the family story now. And she’ll probably ke 3 P a journal and make entries about us, like the late Mr Cholderion, and some day be edited by a future Mr Neeld. Mina must stop, that’s clear.” “It’s clear, anyhow—because nothing would make her go,” said Cecily. “Let’s go up the hill and sea her now ?” he suggested. ■* Together they climbed tho hill and readied the terrace. There were people in tho drawing-room, and Harry signed to Cecil’’ to keep out of sight. They approached stealthily. “Who’s with her? I didn’t know anyone was staying here,” whispered Cecily. Harry turned his fac„ towards her, smiling. “Hush! it’s old Neeld.” They peeped in. Neeld was sitting in an armchair, with some sheets of paper in his hand. He had his spectacles on, and apparently had been reading something aloud to Mina ; indeed, they hoard his voice die away just as they came up. Mina stood in front of him, her manner full of her old excitement. “Yes. that’s it, that’s just right!” they heard her exclaim. “She stood in the middle of the room and”—Harrj[ pressed his wife’s hand and laughed silently—“she cried out just what you’ve read. I remember exactly Low she looked and the very words that Mr Cbolderton uses. ‘Think of the difference it makes, the enormous difference!’ she cried. Oh. it might, have been yesterday, Mr Neeld!” Harry leapt over the window-sill and burst into the room with a laugh.

"Oh, you dear silly people, you’re at t again! ’• said ho. "The story (iocs not lose its interest for me,” remarked old Mr Neeld primly, and ho added, as h 0 greeted Cecily. "It won’t so long as I can look at yonv face, my dear. You keep Addie Tristram still alive for me.” "She’s Lady Tristram—apd I’m tho enormous dilfcreuce, I suppose,” said Harry. Mina, and Noeld did not quite understand why Ceoily turned so suddenly and put her hand in Harry’s, saying, ‘‘No, Harry, there’s no difference .now." Meanwhile, down in Blentmouth Miss Swinkerton Jooked up from tho local paper and remarked across tho table to Mrs Trumbler: “Here's an announcement that Lady Tristram will give a ball at Blent in January. You’ll remember that I told you that two months ago, Mrs Trumbler.” “Yes, Miss Swinkerton, hut that was before all the " “Really, I’m not often wrong, my dear,” interrupted Miss S. decisively, ‘Well, I hope there won't be any moro changes,” sighed Mrs Trumbler. “They’re so very startling.” She might "rest in peace awhile. Addle Tristram was dead, and the title to Blent was safe till the next generation. Beyond that it would not, perhaps, bo safe to speak, in view of the Tristram blood and the Tristram ways. (Tho End.)