GOLDEN FLOWER

Otago Witness, Issue 3888, 18 September 1928, Page 8

GOLDEN FLOWER

A NEW ZEALAND STORY.

By

DULCE CARMAN.

(Copyright.—For the Otago Witness.)

CHAPTER XX.—A BUSH .BRIDAL. Because I love you, I’ve unselfish grown, And if your happiness required of me That I should give you up and. make no moan, I still would pray ' May God watch over i thee’. —Anon. , “Well, it is the loveliest morning for a -wedding!” Flower said, peeping out of the window at the faint pink streaks 1 in the dawn sky. You do seem to be one of fortune’s favourites, and no mistake, Ailsa. So long as you are really sure that Auntie and Uncle won’t feel annoyed and hurt at you being married like this before they can get here, you should be perfectly happy.” “Well—l am absolutely certain!” declared Ailsa, with comfortable conviction. She sat up in bed, and clasped her hands loosely round her knees. “ They will see that it could not possibly be helped; Really, Chrysanthe, they are the most delightfully sensible parents that ever a girl was blessed with.” “ Then you are very much to ne envied,” Flower said a little sadly. *“ I told you long ago, you know, that Jim was very much like his father, and I also told you that his father was the most perfectly vyonderful husband I had ever seen. If you are not one of the happiest girls in the world, Ailsa, it will be only your own fault.” “ I mean to be happy!” Ailsa said, gazing dreamily out of the window, her fair hair framing her flower-like face with its fluffy waves and bewitching little Curls. “It will not be my fault if we are not very happy indeed. You see, Flower, Jim and I were always meant for each other—l never really cared for Maurice; we only played at love because we had been sweethearts as tiniest children. I suppose when you have been emptied out of hammocks with a boy and tipped out of wheelbarrows, and nearly drowned together you natur ally feel as though you sort of belong to each other. And then he was very brave and famous, and very good-looking, and lie thought I was pretty—and he was dark and I was fair. I think that was how it really came about. And even

then, as I told you, I thought I liked Brian best—and he was the one whe had done all the emptying,, and tipping, and drowning—so I never really cared at all. There has never been anyone else in my life, though I have known hundreds of nice boys, and Jim says there has never been any girl at all in his life but me—except you, of course, dear.” “ Well—you need not count me at all!” Flower said with a laugh. “Jim never even fancied himself in love with me for a single instant, or I with him. We have always been the best of friends—brother and sister, in fact, but anything else there has never been. Until Jim met you, that day long ago in England I am sure that he had cared for no girl. He never mentioned you to me, which goes to show, I think, that he thought a good deal of you from the start. But then, you wore another man’s engagement ring, you see.” “I think it is simply wonderful how everything should have worked round as it has!” Ailsa declared. “You see, Flower, we must have been meant for each other. Do you remember the old Japanese legend of the perfect being who was cut into two halves and had to wander to and fro in the world until the two halves came together again? Well, 1 hat is just us, Jim and me! I wish you could find your other half, Chrysanthe.” “Probably there isn’t one for me!” Flower said bravely. “Just recollect how maiiy more women than men there are in the world. We haven’t all got wandering halves to find. It is more than likely that I am one of the overplus.”

Ailsa shook her head doubtfully. “ If you are, then there is something dreadfully wrong somewhere,” she declared positively. “ I simply won’t allow you to hint at it.” “ After all, it isn’t of any real important,” laughed Chrysanthe. “ But I think you really should dress, dear. We have such a lot of things to do, and 10 o’clock comes so dreadfully quickly.”

“ It is a perfectly impossible hour for a wedding,” Ailsa declared. “If there was another train to-day, I would never have consented to it. And only to think of the perfectly gorgeous wedding dress that is hurrying over the sea as fast as it ’can in one of mother’s trunks. Never to be used ” —she paused a moment, and gazed consideringly at her cousin, with her head to one side—“never’ to be used by me, I mean,” she amended. “Of course, if your other half should wander up this way quite un expectedly, we should insist upon you taking pity upon that poor dress. I am sure it will be very lovely—mother’s designs always are. It’s heart will be broken.” " Better hurt the wedding dress than hurt Jim,” said Flower. “He would have nd pleasure on his wedding day if you were decked out in all the splendour that I am sure Auntie Millie is bringing out for you. It would so emphasise .the difference between what you have always had and what is the utmost he can possibly give you.” “I suppose it would. I never thought of that, truly. Ohl It is best as it is.

And daddy will find some way of helping 1 him, too, lam sure. Daddy is the loveliest man in the world for helping people so tactfully that they hardly know ’ he is doing it. But I always thought ■ my wedding would be quite different from this. Crowds of people, bridesmaids— Rosemary was to be my chief bridesmaid ” —she paused a moment and j glanced across the room at her cousin, , but Flower was gazing out of the window—“and now—none of them! Why' I'have not even got a new dress to be married in.” She made a little grimace at the sofa where the silver tissue frock which once ' had been adorned with Shirley’s pink rose lay carefully outspread. “ But a very lovely one,” Flower laughed. “ You are a fraud, Ailsa. What is the use of saying pitifully that your frock is not a new one, when you know perfectly well that the only reason you are wearing it is because it is so much more perfect than anything you could possibly get here.” Ailsa laughed. “ I feel in a mad mood,” she confessed, “ and truly I love my wedding dress. That anyone could do so much with a few yards of lace and silver ribbon as you have done there, Chrvsanthe, is more than I would ever have believed to be possible before I came to ,New Zealand. I hope I shall be able to repay you before long by giving you the other wedding gown, it would not need much alteration; we are not much different in size. I shall keep my eve open for that wandering half. He ought to be one of the Ethel Dell men—strong, silent, bad-tempered.” . Ailsa, spare me. I’ve no desire to do any wild beast taming. Get up and slip on some things, and then Tf you come into the kitchen I will give vou some breakfast. You are not to go into the living room at all. Bride is looking after the children, and Mr Damarel and Rosemary are decorating the room with all the roses left in Rosemary’s garden.”

“Rosemary!” echoed Ailsa unbelievingly. “Do you want to tell me that Rosemary is out of bed already?” “ Nearly an hour ago, dear.” “ And they are decorating together! Oh, how dreadful! ” Why, dear? Mr Damarel does not seem to mind at all, and Rosemary is quite busy and happy. We must just treat them as a perfectly ordinary couple, Ailsa. You notice that Bride calls Rosemary 'Mrs Damarel,’ and she wears a wedding ring. Oh, I know he declared that they were never married, but, as Jim says, I think there is something that we do not know—something that they do not care to tell us.” “ I hate mysteries,” Ailsa declared vigorously, “ and this one has almost turned my hair grey. Never mind, Flower. I will get up straight away.” Flower nodded and slipped back to* her kitchen, and Ailsa got slowly and lingeringly out of bed. One by one the precious minutes slipped by—shining beads on the long golden string which connects the past with the present. It did not seem long before Ailsa was standing before the mirror, dressed and ready to the last detail. Gleaming silk stockings, and little silver shoes that had come from Paris, the silver tissue frock that Chrysanthe’s clever fingers had changed , from a'dancing dress to the most charming of wedding gowns by the addition of a little exquisite lace, and some silver ribbon. Orange blossoms worthy to be brought into contact with the cobwebby veil that Brian had sent specially to Auckland for were not to be obtained in the little township, and had been , overlooked until it was too late to send ’ away for them. So the veil, artistically . arranged upon the sunny head by Rose-

mary's slim fingers, was fastened with a spray of silver leaves and flowers which gave the finishing touch of daintiness to the whole costume. Ailsa, ready dressed for her bridal, looked ver} much like some princess who had wandered straight out of fairyland, and Chrysanthe smothered a quick sigh as she quietly surveyed her cousin from head to foot. “You look adorable. Jim will hardly recognise you as the Ailsa of the blue washing frocks,” she said lightly. “ I feel quite proud of the way we have turned things about. Nobody would ever have guessed that your dress was meant to be anything but just what it is now: the loveliest wedding gown imaginable.” “ Never mind the lace dress from Paris, or the bridesmaids with their georgette and ostrich feathers, dear,” said Rosemary gently. “You’ve got something better than all these—perfect health—better than you have ever had in your life.” Ailsa stared dumbly at the speaker for a moment, then seized her by both arms.. ■ .. “ Rosemary, Rosemary,” she said, with a:thriH'. of. wild excitement in her sweet ’ voice. “ Do you remember—you must remember ” “ Everything, dear. I am sorry that I cannot be your bridesmaid, as I promised all those long years ago, but my

■mart is not Jit enough nowadays to rejoice in weddings, so that even to be your matron of honour would be impossible for me. But I am here at your wedding, just as we always planned.”

“ Flower,” said Sunshine’s voice .at i the door, apologetically. “ Your mother ; said I was to tell you that the minister , is here, and the Hawk is coming for Ailsa in a minute. Oh, Ailsa! You I are the loveliest thing I ever saw.” The girl stooped, regardless of her wedding attire, and threw an arm round the thin rose-clad little figure. “ I am glad you think so, dear,” she whispered, “ because I am going to be your sister very soon now, and then in three -days’ time we are all going to live together, and be very, very happy. I A slight smile curved Rosemary’s mouth as she caught the whisper. In three days’ time! Jim was giving himself three days’ honeymoon. For just that length of time he was resolutely turning his back on the little farm in the bush country, the farm that had been such a worry to him, but was now his own—free of debt. For three short days he was going to forget the exis- I tence of his small sister and brother, and devote himself entirely to his bride —the lovely’ English girl whom he was taking down to the sea. A three days’ honeymoon for Ailsa! Rosemary remembered that Ailsa had always planned that her wedding should be a winter one, and her honeymoon include a trip to Switzerland to revel in the winter sports. “ After all, ‘ Man proposes and God disposes,’ ” Rosemary I thought with a sigh. She realised once anew how changed I everything was when presently she stood in the dining room that was a sweetscented bower of lovely flowers with tree ferns and toi-tois in the corners, and streamers -of the brilliant green mountain flax upon the walls. The doors and windows were wide open, a soft river-born breeze lazily stirred the fern fronds, and a blundering bee, which had been attracted by the scent of the roses, buzzed helplessly about the room. She rejoiced in the look of utter devotion that Jim bestowed upon his bride as she took her place at his side, but as the solemn and beautiful words of the familiar service fell upon her ears, her thoughts drifted irresistibly away into the past. She remembered another wedding—a winter one —with whirling flakes, and bitter cold wind. A bride, younger than Ailsa, also dressed in white, with cloth in place of silver tissue, ermine instead of lace and ribbon, and a dear little pull-on hat of white velvet, with silver wings, in place of silver flowers and floating veil. There had been the same perfect happiness in the eyes, of that other bride, the same look of adoration in the black eyes of the man who stood at her side. In nothing else could these two | marriages be compared, save that the same man had stood beside both girlbrides as the solemn words were spoken. They found Rosemary very quiet for the rest of the day, but Ailsa was naturally the centre of attraction, and when by and by the train pulled out of the little station, and all that was left of Jim and Ailsa was the trampled confetti and rose leaves upon the platform, it was" Flower who noticed first how dark and shadowy Rosemary's eyes were —how colourless her cheeks. “ It has been too much for you! ” she said remorsefully. “ How horrid of me not to have thought of you more. Y’ou must come straight to the house, lie down, and I will bring you a cup of tea. Or would you rather have some soup? Perhaps that would be better. I can warn) some in a minute. We should not have let you do so much. You were up so very early this morning, too. Bride will never forgive me.” “ I believe that I am rather tired,” admitted Rosemary with a wan smile. “ I haven’t had time to think of it before. Everything went off most successfully, didn’t it? I have been to dozens of weddings, of course, but I do not think that I was ever at a happier one than this has been.” 1 “ They are both such dears! ” Flower said warmly. ■“ I am awfully fond of both of them. And don’t you think they are perfectly suited to each other? ” ’ “Yes!” answered Rosemary slowly. “ Better than most couples. Ailsa is

giving up a great deal for him—more than perhaps you realise, but I think he is fully worth it. So few men are! ” “ Oh! Jim is a darling! ” Flower said with supreme confidence. “ Very few men are so fine as Jim is. But come—we shall have you ill again. Y’ou must come and rest.”' “ I wish you would promise me one thing,” Rosemary said suddenly, turning a white and weary face to the radiant one beside her. “ If I do as you tell me, and go and rest now, will you come and have a talk with me later on, when all the work is done and nobody wants you?” | “ Yes,” promised Flower readily, though her heart gave a wild leap. What on earth could Rosemary possibly have to say to her, whom she had met by chance. Could she be going to raise the veil of mystery that separated her from the everyday world? “ Yes,” she repeated, “ of course I shall be very glad to come. When I have milked and got mother comfortably settled for the evening, I will ask Bride to see after the children. Will it do then? ” “ There is no hurry at all. Only there is something that I want to say to you, and there is no chance here.” “ Well, we will settle it so then. And now you must go to rest, and I will get you some soup.” Rosemary nodded absently, and \vent into her room, and Flower departed to

the kitchen to prepare the soup and help Bride with the clearing up. “ I think the ‘ afterwards ’ of-anything almost spoils the pleasure of it, don’t you?” she said to Bride, when the last of the best cups had been safely washed and locked up in the sidebqard cupboard again. “ I have looked forward so immensely to this wedding, and everything went off perfectly. There was nothing I wanted more than for Ailsa to marry Jim, and she has only gone away for three days, and yet I feel almost like crying now.”

“ It is just the reaction, dearie,” said Bride wisely. “ You have been having very long days lately, and a great deal of extra work and worry. Now that it is over, you are letting go t bit.” “But I mustn’t do that! ” Flower demurred. “ There is far too much for me to see after for anything like that to happen. Now, I wonder if you would mind keeping an eye on the small ones for a little while? Mother is talking to Mr Damarel, and Mrs Damarel asked me to go to her when I had time.”

“You run along, dearie. A quiet little time together will ao vou both a deal of good. Faith, the children will be safe enough with my eye on them—not that they are the kind to get into much mischief in any case.” “ I am sure they will be perfectly safe,” Flower said warmly, smiling back at the old woman as she left th? room and went to where Rosemary lay looking over the shadowed garden to the beauti-

ful reach of the Kiwi flowing silently down between fern-clad banks. Here I am at last,” she announced brightly. “Have you got tired of waiting for me? Or have you had a nice little sleep?” Rosemary turned slowly towards her. “ No, I have not slept—but I have not got tired of waiting, either. I knew that you could not be here earlier—and there was no hurry. I have just been thinking. I have done a lot of think-

ing since my memory came back.” “ Perhaps it is bad for you to do too much of it,” suggested Flower nervouslv. “ You must take the greatest care of yourself now, you know. Y’ou owe it to little Dawn and—to Mr Damarel, too.” Rosemary looked at her with a strange little smile on her lips. “ Yes, I owe it to Brian,” she assented quietly. “That is why I am being so abominably lazy, and letting everybody run round waiting upon me. Flower, I am going to tell you just how much I owe it to Brian to get well and strong as soon as possible.” Flower strank a little. “ You are sure that you really want to tell me?” she suggested gently. “It isn’t just because there has been a wedding and we are all a little bit excited and over-tired? Don’t tell me anything you will be sorry for afterwards. Be quite sure first.” Rosemary drew herself up very proudly. “ I have nothing to tell that I should be sorry for your knowing,” she said evenly. “ Anything that has been unfair in my life has been caused by the affliction that God saw fit to visit upon me.” Flower coloured distressfully, and wondered what best to say in answer, but Rosemary went on speaking dreamily. “ Ever so long ago there were two boys and two girls, and they were.always together. They used to play in a beautiful big garden that belonged to the boys. Buch a garden, Flower! ConI servatories by the dozen—marble statues j amongst the trees—oh! ” —with a reminiscent little smile—“how those statues used to frighten the younger girl if she came on them unexpectedly about duskThe boys were the elder—tall and strong and dark. One of the girls was fair and very lovely—the other was dark. The elder boy used to be the slave of the fair little girl, and so did the younger girl The younger boy, who was the tallest of I them all, used to be the restless imp who dragged them into and out of all sorts of scrapes. If the elder boy took the girls for a Vide in one of the gardeners’ wheelbarrows the younger one tipped them out. In everything it was the same. The elder boy played with the girls, and the younger one plagued them Well, they grew up—it always happens, doesn’t it ? ” “ Usually, I think,” Flower laughed ‘Of course, we know that the good die young, but none of your quartet souna exactly saintly enough for that. I should think that the boy who teased probably grew into a very fine man.” “ Y’ou will see. When they grew up, the elder boy and the younger girl were still the fair girl’s slaves). Then the war came. They took the elder boy, but the I younger they rejected because of an old injury to one of his feet that had been broken when he fell out of an old crab apple tree as quite a tiny child. Not a deformity, you understand—but they said that it might interfere with his marching. It almost broke his heart.” “ Poor boy,” interjected Flower pitiful Iv.

“ His brother went into the Air Force,” continued - Rosemary. “He became a quite famous aviator—but that was afterwards. All this was in the days quite late in the war, when everyone was still mad over khaki, but expecting the war to be over any time. Before he went to the war the young aviator and the fair girl became engaged. Everyone was delighted; it was a very suitable match in every wyay—money and birth and good looks on both, sides—besides it was a match that everybody had expected all their lives. Life slid along like a stream in the sunlight. Only tlie younger boy was dissatisfied.”

“Did he worship the fair girl too?” Flower asked interestedly as Rosemary paused. “ No, he never had much time for girls except, perhaps, his two playmates, but he worshipped his only •brother, and he never agreed that his hero cared sufficiently for the fair girl, or she for him. Well, he went, and when he was gone, though it did not seem to affect his fiancee very dreadfully, strangely enough the other girl found that all the best in life had gone with him.” Flower leaned forward a little eagerly, Was this the solution of the mystery? Oh, why had none of them ever guessed it when the answer was so simple? “ She was so young, Flower,” Rosemary continued. “Such a child —only 17—and she had never known either her mother or her father. There had been nobody to love in all her life except the fair girl, and the two boys, the old family lawyer who saw to all her money affairs, and the old ,iurse who had brought her up from babyhood. And the boy found too that it was not the girl he .as engaged to whom he really loved, but the one who had always been her shadow. Neither of them said anything. I don’t think either of them ever dreamed of doing anything to upset the existing state of affairs. He was engaged—they considered that final. But they were so young, Flower; that is the only excuse 1 have for them. She was 17 and he was only 22. When he came home on leave it was almost Christmas time. He had only a fortnight, and the girl he was engaged to was swallowed up in a whirl of parties and pleasures. She was pleased to take him about with her, to be seen with him everywhere, but she would not . give up one single pleasure for his sake. In three davs he had married the other girl, Flower.”

“ Good heavens,” murmured Flower. “What a whirlwind! ” “Think of it, Flower! Fourteen little days-—and after that, perhaps, never any more. The two boys managed it all between them. The girl cared nothing at all what happened to her so long as he belonged to her before he went away again, perhaps for ever. The younger boy approved of this match as much as he had objected to the other. The fair girl was not told. Of course she ought to have been —but she didn’t really care—and there was so little time. “"So one morning, just a week before Christmas, the two boys, a kindly old lawyer, the younger girl and her nurse went out to a little church in an out-of-the-way corner of London, and there they were married. The other boy had been a wonder. He had even got a sweet little cottage far away from town for the nine precious days that were all that were left. They stayed there together —the girl and her nurse, and the two boys. Oh, Flower! What is the use of keeping up pretences? Y’ou know who it is I am speaking of. It is so clear in my sight to-night. Nine little days—all I have ever had of perfect happiness.” “ But some do not even have that, dear!” Flower reminded gently. “No; that is true. And they were such days. The others managed everything for us —we had nothing to do but to live for each other. I can remember every’ smallest detail of that wedding morning, Flower. They say a girl never docs, but I think I knew that I should have so little happiness that everything was photographed upon my memory to last my lifetime. God took my memory away—afterwards—to save my reason.” “None of us ever guessed!” said Flower. “Not even Ailsa!” “It was such a bitter morning!” Rosemary went on unheedingly. “ Snowing, too, I remember. I wore a white cloth costume trimmed with ermine, and the sweetest little white velvet hat with, silver wings. He said I looked like the Spirit of Christmas. And the Christmas morning, too. We were so gay—because he had to leave us before dinner time—the nine perfect days ended then. We motored down to the station with him,® and quite at the end he made his brother promise that he would always stay with and watch over me until he came home again. And Brian also promised to keep our marriage a secret until Maurice himself was able to break the news to Ailsa. You see—” with a sad little smile —“ none of us ever dreamed of Dawn-—and we absolutely refused to believe that there was any possibility of Maurice not coming back. I can’t say much about the rest, Flower. 1 * “ He didn’t come back—they martyred him. And the shock of his death sent my memory to sleep. Bride and Brian talked things over. Bride was anxious to proclaim our marriage and face the storm. Brian said no. His oath still held. I, worse luck, knew nothing, except that in a hazy way Brian and Maurice seemed to be mixed up in my shadowed mind. I did not think that Brian was his brother, but I did not clearly think of him as Brian either. He took us away, Flower. We travelled everywhere, from doctor to doctor. He gave up his whole life to me. If he had not promised to keep our marriage a secret nothing would have mattered; but think what he did for me, shielding and sheltering all these years when I

could not free him from the burden. Oh, Flower, Maurice was the love—tha only love —of my life. I do not know even now how I shall go on living to be an old woman without him, but he was never so fine as his brother. You think a lot of the boy Ailsa has married todav, but he cannot be a whit finer than Pri"”. It has been to-day’s wedding which has lifted the seal of silence from

iny lips. Now that Ailsa is married— i happily married—to someone else it will not matter if the world knows that Maurice was mine. Only—Brian holds that his oath still stands. I wanted him to let us go away—Bride and Dawn and I right away somewhere where he need not be bothered with us unless he wanted to, and he said that I could never go away from him because his oath ptill stands. He promised never to leave me until Maurice came home—and Maurice will never come! She gazed at Flower despairingly. “He is fond of you,” Flower ' suggested gently. “Look! I can tell you pomething. I dressed Dawn’s doll 'for him. I don’t think lie knew I did it myself, but I promised to see about it for him. I asked him who it was for, and he tokl me a very little about Dawn. I said I supposed he must be very fond of her, and he answered, ‘ Save one person only, the dearest on earth to me to-day.’ He must have been thinking of you then. Perhaps he has grown to love you very dearly because you have been jso helpless and in his care, and you are so lovely too. The finest men are made like that,” Flower ended helpfully. Rosemary shook her head with a little gmile. “ You do not know him as well as I do. If I were the most beautiful woman in all the world to-day he would never love me in that way,” she said" positively. “ Brian is the soul of honour and loyalty, and I—belong to Maurice.” “ Yes, I remember,” Flower said quickly as into her brain there flashed the remembrance of some words spoken by Brian to Ailsa on the occasion of — their first meeting. “ You were Maurice’s property always, Ailsa,” he had said then. “ And, with all my faults, I never poach.” “He was not speaking of me when he said that to you,” Rosemary said meaningly; “but I am sure that I know just whom he meant. Did you really never guess ? ” “I thought he meant you!” Flower raised honest eyes to her companion’s face. “ I knew of nobody else." “ No, dear. He did not mean me. He was thinking of somebody else —the one woman God made for him in the beginning of the world’. And yet, if 1 had always remained a helpless burden on his hands, he would never have told her —never have shown her what a wonderful thing it can be to loved by a man of his stamp. He would have stayed by me and cared for me, because tl-.e men of his house count their word sacred, and even if his heart broke—and hers broke—he would still have kept silence, and allowed the world to think that I was his wife. God spared him that—spared them both a wasted life when He gave my memory back to me! But He left me still a burden. Flower, do you think that it would spoil Brian’s wife’s happiness if she had to have Dawn and Bride and me always somewhere close at hand ? ” “It couldn’t possibly spoil anything for anyone! ” declared Flower warmly. “ I should thing she would lovq it. I can quite understand why Ailsa used to love you so. But I hoped you would always be somewhere near here. I can’t imagine you anywhere but in the bungalow in Arcadia. If Mr Damarel is going to be married" (it sounds so odd, because we- all thought he was married to you) he may want to go away from here. We shall miss you all dreadfully, if you do go away!” “We shall have to go, I am afraid,” Rosemary’ answered, with a little smile. “ How Brian' has left home so long 1 really do not know. You see, after Maurice was killed, the garden with the statues and all those things, were Brian’s, and all these years he has left them to the care of other people. Oi course, he will want to take his wife home to the home of his fathers.” “Oh, of course!” Flower spoke a little absently. She was trying to fit the Hawk—-just as she had been used to see him in the bush, t flnd by the Kiwi-side, into his age-old ~y4fc ar den that both Ailsa and Rosemary loved so much. Rosemary eyed her a trifle wistfully. “ I should love to have you for a sister, Golden Flower!” she said caressingly. “Oh! I would love to have you, too!” the girl answered enthusiastically. “[ always wanted a sister so much, and Fate never gave me one. Don’t you think we ought to lie allowed to fix these things up for ourselves? Suppose you and I adopt each other ? Only Dawn. will have to call me auntie. It has always been a grief to me. that I can never have any nieces or nephews of my very own.” .’‘Dawn will love to call you auntie!” declared Rosemary meaningly. “ That will be perfect. And I think it was very sweet of you to tell me what you have done, and I only wish I could tell you how fine I think Mr Damarel has been. Words aren’t much use, are they? They always seem "to fail just when you need them most. I must go now—mother will be wanting me. Will you come out for a little ■while? Or would you rather I sent Mr Damarel in to you ? ” “ I don’t think I will come out again to-day,” Rosemary said with a little sigh. “ I am very tired. Yes, I would like to see Brian before he leaves.” Flower smiled and nodded as she left the room, but Rosemary sighed as she turned again to the rapidlv darkening garden. “It is almost as bad as trying to shoiw a eat a mouse!” she told herself a little whimsically. “ Unless Brian takes hold for himself, I am afraid we

will just have to wait and pray for a miracle to happen.” (To be continued.)