SHORT STORIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3339, 13 March 1918, Page 58

SHORT STORIES.

By Thomas Cobb.

- THE WEDDING DAY.

(Copyright.) “ Is Lady Warbury at home?” ' “No, sir. Her ladyship has gone to 'Elstree. ” j “ Of course,” exclaimed Oliver with an expression of annoyance at his own forgetfulness. “ To Miss Qhurchill’s wed’dingi” He* was on the point of turning away from the house, when the butler, who knew him well, sympathetically added: “ I think Miss Warbury is at home, sir.” “Then she hasn’t gone with Lady bury 1” said Oliver, wondering why in the world Eunice - had stayed away from the wedding of her dearest friend. “ I don’t know whether Miss Warbury would see you, sir,” suggested the butler. “I will wait here while you ask,”, returned Oliver, on the door mat as the man made his way to the drawing room. Eunme Warbury was leaping back in one corner of a large sofa looking extremely miserable, but when the butler explained that Mr Tracy was downstairs, she rose with considerable alacrity and crossed the room to a mirror which hung on the wall between the two large windows- Standing before it, she made a careful inspection of a face which everybody admitted 1 was attractive. Eunice did not think that Oliver would discern any traces of the unwonted tears which had recently been shed. “ You can bring Mr Tracy here, please,” she said, and began to rearrange one or two tresses of her brown hair, turning with a smile and an outstretched hand when Oliver, a few moments later, entered the drawing room. How is it,” he asked, “ that you have not gone to the wedding?” “ How is it,” she cried, “that you have come since you knew we were going?” ‘ Oh, well, it can’t very well 'be a lapse of memory on your part as on mine,” said Oliver. ■/.“ My mother,” returned Eunice, “declared she should tell Mrs Churchill I am not well.” s Upon my word I have never seen- you looking better,” he insisted, as she returned to her seat in the corner of the sofa. - “Oh!” she exclaimed, flinging out her hands with a despondent gesture, “ I feel so'utterly sick of it all.” “.Will you let me prescribe for you?” urged Oliver, taking a chair close to her side. “Unfortunately, it’s too latel” said Eunice with a sigh. “ Well, now, suppose you tell me all about it.” “ There has been such a dreadful scene,” she explained. “ You must know I am a rebel. I - have been putting my foot down.” Oliver glanced at the small member peeping out beneath her skirt. “ I simply refused 1 to go to Elstree,” .she added. “ I am immensely glad—but why?” he asked. “ You know Mr Alexander, the most odious of men; I hate to look at him with his huge pale face, his bald head, his little pig’s eyes,/and his spiky moustache —if only it hid his mouth.” “Still,” suggested Oliver, “the fact that Miss Churchill is marrying a man '■who is not an Adonis seems insufficient reason for your declining to go to her wedding at the latest moment.” “ Of coui'se,” said Eunice, “ you don’t know Dolly Suart!” “Never even heard of him.” “Dolly is a gunner,” she explained. “ When he was home two years ago he and Laura Churchill—oh, you understand.” "A bit of flirtation.” “Oh, dear, no; that does not in the least describe it. It may seem 1 ridiculous to you, but thev fell very seriously in love .with each other. Dolly had to go back‘to India for two years, and in any case the Churchills would never have consented to an'engagement.” “ Out of sight, out of mind,” remarked 01 h er, “ I don’t suppose,” Eunice insisted, “•that Laura has passed a single day without thinking of him, nor tnat he has passed one without thinking of her. But Laima is the loveliest girl in the world.” “ Upon my word I can’t let that pass without a protest,” he said with a laugh. “And her people are what they call ambitious.” “After all,” Oliver expostulated, “Miss Churchill is not a child. You may lead a horse to the water, you know, but vou can’t make him drink. 5 ’ “ Oh, I admit that Laura is weak,” said Eunice. “ If I had been in her place nothing in the world would have induced me to promise to marry a man I deftest ed.” “ I am hoping you’re going to marry one you are immensely fond of,” he returned. rising from his chair and standing with one hand* on the head of the sofa. “I shall—if I marry at all!” “ The chances are that you will,” he insisted. “ My mother,” cried Eunice with a smile, “ declares that . it’s doubtful now I have passed my twenty-third birthday.” “Ah, well,” said Oliver, “I trust Lady Warbury may be convinced before many montho have gone over her head.” “ But although Laura,” Eunice continued, “ought to have stood out, you can’t imagine what she had to put up with at home, I suppose the separation from Dolly and the hopelessness of the prospect took the courage out of her. She

refused Mr Alexander time after time, but the horrid man persevered, her mother put pressure on hc-r, and for some reason or other at last she yielded." Anyhow," returned Oliver, " the die is cast bv this time." "Oh, yes," said Eunice. "I really might just as well have gone," she added. " I havo sat here picturing everything as distinctly as though I had been in the church. I could imagine Laura entering on her father's "arm, followed by the six bridesmaids—the eldest was not seven years of age!' Mrs Churchill proud and smiling and half afraid Laura would break down. You know how Mrs Churchill would look! And can't you see Mr Alexander by the -altar, twisting his black moustache; and Laura's uncle, the .Bishop. Of course, they all knew what she was undergoing, and how she hated it, and had- been bullied into it, yet not one of them dreamed of interfering. Poor Dolly! You can't imagine his sensations at a quarter to three this afternoon." "Well now, I fancy I can," answered Oliver. " I question it," she cried, shaking her head. "Why are you sceptical?" he demanded. " Oh', you always seem so wonderfully self-possessed; you always say precisely the right thing at the proper time, but as to natural human sympathy " <sj You don't consider I'm capable of anything of the kind." " We have had ever so many talks together " " It!s to be hoped we shall have many more 1" said Oliver. "Why, yes, because you are generally amusing and clever and cynical." '" Did vou expect me to wear my heart on my sleeve?" "I sometimes wonder," she returned, " whether you possess one." "I used to, but the fact is," he exclaimed, bending over the sofa, "I've given it away." " I was going to tell you about Dolly Suart," said Eunice rather hastily. "In all my life I have never seen a man look half so miserable." "So he is back in England!" asked Oliver. " Jxe arrived four days ago, and-came to "ee me a few hours after he reached London. You understand, he couldn't present himself at the Cnurchill's,. and naturally he felt impatient for news of Laura. He hadn't the slightest shadow of a suspicion about her engagement to Mr Alexander, and I actually had to tell him she' was going to be married in a few days." " How did he take it?" asked Oliver. "At first," Eunice explained, " he seemed to collapse altogether. I thought he was losing his senses. He dropped into a chair, and gazed at me so blankly with his mouth open, and hadn't a word to say. Then," she continued, " he started up a~ fury, and flounced * about the room like a lunatic. He would insist on seeing Laura; he would—oh! he threatened the most absurd and impossible things—poor Dolly. He is really one of the nicest men I know." " I suppose he thought of emulating Young Lochinvar," suggested Oliver. " He vowed that whatever happened Laura should never marry Mr Alexander. He didn't care whether she had promised or not; there was plenty of time. Of course," said Eunice, " the poor fellow didn't know what he said." "Sound and fury, signifying nothing," returned Oliver. "And," murmured Eunice with a sigh, " by this time Laura is that odious person's wife!" Seeing tears in her eyes, Oliver could restrain himself no longer. " Eunice," he said, taking her hand as it rested on the head of the sofa, "I want to know whether you will be mine " As he was speaking the sound of a hooter fell upon his ears, and Eunice started excitedly to her feet. „ " Surely mother can't be back already," she exclaimed, hastening to the window. "For goodness' sake don't keep v me in suspense," urged Oliver, following her on the instant.* " Laura Avas not to leave home until a quarter past four," faltered Eunice, with her hands pressed against her breast. "Darling " he began, when the door was flung wide open, and Lady Warbury entered like a hurricane. Slightly shorter than her daughter, she was very smartly dressed for the occasion, and she looked surprised to see the visitor. Not by any means displeased, however, because the chief purpose of her life was to provide a husband for Eunice, who was certainly hard to please. " Oh, Mr Tracy, how do you do!" she cried, bat' without offering her hand. Lady Warbury sank into a chair. " Eunice!" she continued, "the most dreadful thing has happened." " Yes, I know," said Eunice in a significant tone. "Please don't try to be sarcastic," answered her mother, "because 3-ou do not know anything about it. Poor dear Mrs Churchill!" " Wasn't she well enough to go to the wedding?" asked Eunice. " My- dear ! You will scarcely believe it, but there hasn't been a wedding." " Not—been—a—wedding!" "At least not at Elstree," said Lady Warbury. "It's to be hoped there will be one somewhere else." "Mother," urged Eunice, in the greatest excitement, "please tell me all about it." Oliver placed a chair behind her, and she'sat down, while he remained standing with his hands on its back. " I have never heard anything like it in mv life," Lady Warbury explained. "So cool, fo barefaced, so audacious! It that Laura left the house while everybody thought she was dressing to go to the church. No letter! Not a word!" "Did she go alone?" asked Eunice. " No one knows anything for certain," was the answer, " but Mr Churchill questioned the servants, and it seems that she was seen talking to a tall young man in

' the lane after dinner last night. She had told her poor mother there were some books and photographs she wished to pack. She was seen in the lane/' Lady War bury continued, " and again this morning about . three-quarters of an hour before she ought to have set out to church a powerful motor car tore along the main road, and Laura may have been inside it. There was no time to let the guests know, and there they were driving up to the church one after the other. As to Mr Alexander, I never saw a man look so disappointed. The best match of the season!" Lady Warbury had nothing more to tell, and Oliver was wondering how he should manage to obtain an answer from Eunice, when the butler entered with a telegram. " Perhaps this is some fresh news from Elstree," exclaimed Lady Warbury; holding forth her hand. 'For Mis« Warbury, my lady," said the butler, stopping before" Eunice. * "Then it may be from Laura herself," suggested her mother, as Eunice broke the' seal with trembling hands. i " No," she cried, adding when the butler had left the- room, " it's from Dolly Suart. Such splendid news," said Eunice, turning to look up into Oliver's face. "He and Laura were married by special license at Edgware, and they're on the way to Paris." "Shameful!" said Lady Warbury, rising from her chaiij. "Mr Suart is little better than a. pauper. Really this kind of thing shakes one's confidence in human nature." \ Oliver, forced to the conclusion that he ought not to stay any longer, yet reluctant to go away still in suspense, held out his hand. "Good-bye, Mr Tracy," said Lady Warbury, frowning because of her dissatisfaction with things in general; but Eunice sndHenlv broke into a lau^h. "Mother," she faltered, "Oliver has asked me to —to marry him." The frown at once disappeared from Lady Warbury's face. ...•"': " Well, my dear, what was your answer?" she demanded, with a radiant smile, and Eunice advanced to Oliver, with both hands outstretched. Lady Warbury was unfeignedly pleased, and indeed the sequel went far towards restoring that faith in human nature which the untoward circumstance at Elstree threatened to destroy. But still, she considered that Mr Tracy ought to have controlled his feelings until he and Eunice were alone.