SUBTERFUGE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3958, 21 January 1930, Page 77

SUBTERFUGE.

By

Edward Woodward.

.Angela Frasier ami James Aldine married on a capital of £2OO and a bushel of hope. Angela’s parents washed their hands of the headstrong young couple. “ As vou make your lied so you must lie on it.” declared Mr Frasier. “ It w ill be useless your looking for help from us,” seconded Angela's mother , ami Angela vowed she never would. James was a writer, and Angela a fashion designer. They took a furnished cottage at Seelby, a village on the South Coast, where they settled down to make their fortunes. A month later, with the cash capital badly dwindling, and the Hope reserve challenged, they were looking at one another and saying what fun life was. At the end of the second month, when by the morning's post all Jim's most hopeful MSS. had come home, and a.brief note from Angela’s stand-by customers had notified her that they would not be needing any further designs from her for some time to come, Angela remembered her mother's final caution, ami. sitting down, wrote a glowing letter home telling of their happiness and suc- “ This cottage.” she wrote. “ is old world.” (It was, in fact, so “ old world ” that during a shower the previous night Jim had been obliged to spread his burberry over the bed.) “It is right on the cliff-edge. . . ” (The risk of total submersion owing to the coast erosion had made the rent suitably cheap) . . . “ and the air is wonderful.” (Jim had done his best to keep the draught out, but the lamp always snored and flared on a windy night.) “Jim is working 12 hours a day. He just cannot give the editors all they* want” (Jim wished to the Lord he knew what they wanted) ; ■ • • • and I have given up my dressdesigning for a while, as there is no sense in going on when there is no need. If only you weren't so far away, you could come and have a look at us.”' (Thanks be, they couldn't!) “But perhaps some day you’ll be able to slip down from Bristol and occupy our spare room.” (It was so spare that any visitor would have to bring their own furniture.) “ It's a noble effort, old thing,” said James, grimly, on reading the letter. " But that last bit is risky. Suppose they come ? ” “They won't." declared Angela, equally grimly. “ For one thing, father

won’t leave his garden ,t this time of the year; and for another, if be is tempted away, it will be to visit Cecil, or Arnold, or Grace. Staying at their posh homes makes them feel how well they’ have done for their children.” Jim wrinkled his harassed brow.

“ It’s the unexpected which always happens,” he said. “ Who, for instance, would have expected a prize mutt like Cecil to make a near-fortune as a stockbroker, or. that Arnold would have hit the public taste with his pickles? It's the law’ of the unexpected.” Angela chuckled bitterly. “ Mother doesn't think so." she said. Io her it is the fruit of steady work and a safe occupation.” “Stock jobbing isn’t a safe occupation,” derided Jim. “They’ may be plutocrats one day and paupers the next. They never know where they are.” “ Whereas,’ sighed Angela, “we always know exactly how near the workhouse we are.”

Buck up, Angela,” said Jim. “ Let your letter go. I expect you're right.” But Angela was not right. For a week there was no answer to that letter, and then, like a shell bursting on the breakfast table, came a leter in the retired civil servant’s neat caligraphy: — My Dear Angela.—As you will see, I am writing this from your brother Cecil s beautiful Sussex home. Mother was delighted to have your letter forwarded to her here from Bristol, and to learn that the * Gifts of Fortune ’ are yours in your new’ abode. It must indeed be charming; and as we chance to be passing through Chichester tomorrow, en route for home, we are availing ourselves of your invitation, and purpose to spend one night with you in your * Cranny by the Sea.’ Expect us at noon.—Father.”

“Oh, my’ gawd!” moaned Jim. “The infernal luck!” cried Angela. “AVhat are we to do? They must not come here and see this!” “Who mustn't see what?”

Both Angela and Jim whipped round, to the window from whence the deepvoiced question had come, and where the brown-bearded face of Captain Crawly, R.N.R.. was framed by the lattice of the dead rose. “Hallo, Crawly!” exclaimed Jim, jumping up. “ You off ?” “ Yes. Come to bring you the key. ’ He glanced at Angela with a smile. “ You'll look after Bill, the dog, won’t you, Mrs Aldine?” “Of course, ’’ smiled Angela, pushing bronze curls back from her flushed face "Thanks,'’ said Crawly slowly and thoughtfully. “ You two birds look a bit excited. Anything out of the ordinary happened?” Crawly was Aldine's only friend in Seelby, as the Aldines were his only friends. He was a man to lie trusted with a secret, and impetuously Angela blurted out her trouble. Crawly nodded. “1 understand,” he said, smiling. " Now what about carting your bits and duds over to my place and caretake for me whilst I'm away? They needn’t know it's not yours, and ” “Oh, you brick!” exclaimed Angela, seeing the saving of her pride, so far as her parents and family’ were concerned. “ Do you really mean it ?” “ Y’ou'll be doing me a favour.” said Crawly. “ I’ll be away a week or a month or a year. . . . Depends how I feel ; and if you’ll use the place as your own until I send you word, it will keep it aired. Here's the key.” “ You're a wonderful sportsman!” said Jim. “ If we ever have the chance we'll do the same for you.” declared Angela. “ Cheerio,” laughed Crawly. and mooched off towards the village and station. Mr and Mrs Frasier arrived at Seelby at 12.2 o’clock. The greeting between parents and daughter was warm. They then turned to Jim with an air of surprised indulgence, “You're looking well, my’ boy,” said Frasier pere, who had decided to he tactful but non-committal with the “ ink-slinging” fellow. Mrs Frasier turned to the malefactor of the family with arched brows. “ Well, James.” she said, “it is a relief to me to hear that you are doing well, after all.” " Thanks,” murmured Jim, submitting to a pontifical kiss. The driver of the Seelby taxi, who had been attending to the luggage, broke in for instructions. “ All the party going to Captain Crawly’s cottage?” he asked. “ Er—yes,” said Jim. and caught sight of Angela's panic-stricken expression at the man’s betraying speech. “Captain Crawly’s cottage?” questioned Frasier, suspiciously’. “Who is this Captain Crawly?” “ Oh, the ow ner, you know,” explained Jim. “ We've only got the place furnished, and as none of the houses have names round here, they are known by that of their owners.” “Oh, to be sure.” said Frasier, satisfied. “ And where is Captain Crawly?” “ In London.” “Living there?” “ Staying there indefinitely,” said Jim. There followed an awkward silence between the two men, but Mrs Frasier was busy chattering. “ . . . and,” she was saying, “ Cecil has a new car, a Flepton saloon, the finest car on the market you know. Enid drives it. . . .” “ How nice,” murmured Angela politely-

“ And looks remarkably smart, too.” interpolated Mr Frasier. “My word, Cecil has a beautiful home.”

“ Good,” said Jim stoutly, and prayed for strength. ‘■‘And all I ask,” breathed Mrs Frasier as the tax drew up at Crawly’s eottage, “ is that you shall be as prosperous and happy.” “ I’m very happy, thanks,” said Angela, and smiled across at Jim. “ Don't you keep a maid, Angela,” exclaimed Mrs Frasier as Jim, hopping out of the cab, made frantic efforts to open the front door with the back-door key.

“ We much prefer being on our own,” fenced Angela, making signs to her husband. “Jim, you ass!” she called, seeing that her dumb show was wasted effort. “ That’s the key of the back door!”

“Oh, of course,” laughed Jim, and thanked the Lord that Angela had been round before coming to the station, to see to the beds and get the run of the place. It was a difficult evening of thrust and parry. Every question the old people asked held a hidden trap, and every answer by Angela and Jim had a stretched meaning. But at length, after a supper which had bitten a further nasty little hole in the Aldine resources, it came to a welcome end.

“ Thank the Lord the danger is pretty well over now,” sighed Jim as his parents-in-law trod about in their room overhead.

But he was leaving the law of the unexpected out of his reckoning. Brewer, the postman, gave the game away when he brought the usual supply of big envelopes the next morning. Always an early riser, Mr Frasier was taking the air at the front door, and Brewer greeted him affably. “ I’ve brought Mr Aldine’s letters here, sir,” he said, “because Captain Crawly left word at the office yesterday as he was taking care of the place for him while he was away.” Mr Frasier’s brows went up. “Taking care of the place?” he murmured. “Do I understand that this cottage is not the one usually occupied by Mr Aldine?”

“Of course it ain’t, sir,” grinned Brewer. “That little shack over yonder with the broken roof is the one as Mr and Mrs Aldine rents. Terrible little place it is. Don’t know how a gent like Mr Aldine puts up with it; but, of course, it’s cheap, and when you ain’t so well off, you has to put up with things. Good morning, sir.” “ Good morning, my man,” said Mr Frasier in the full voice of the man whose convictions have been proved correct. He turned as Jim and Angela, who has heard Brewer’s spate, came hurrying from the kitchen, and Mrs Frasier, who dressed leisurely, descended to the little lounge.

“Er—er ” commenced Mr Frasier, looking very severe. “ What does this mean, Angela? Is it true that this is not the cottage you usually reside in?” Jim met his father-in-law’s eyes squarely. “ Yes,” he said. “ You sec ”

“ And that you are acting as a common caretaker for this Captain Crawly?” interrupted Mr Frasier. “ Captain Crawly is ” commenced Jim. But Mrs Frasier, her eyes frozen dots of outraged dignity, cut him short. Her voice was terrible. “Is this true, Angela?”

“ You see,” broke in Jim, desperately, “ we had no room for you in that little place. It’s not exactly what we could wish, if you understand me, and wo thought, not knowing facts, that you wouldn’t believe how—how ”

“ How happy we really are,” cut in Angela.

“ Disgraceful deception!” fulminated Mrs Frasier. “Arrant subterfuge!” snorted Mr Frasier.

There was a second’s pregnant silence It was the soothing smell of coffee in the jug Angela was clutching that broke the tension. “Shall we have breakfast?” asked Angela meekly, and Mr Frasier, who, being a retired civil servant, believed in reasonable behaviour, moved towards the room.

“ I've a good mind,” retorted Mrs Frasier, “to go to that inn by th station for breakfast.” “No need to advertise our disgrace, Emma,” said Mr Frasier, noting that it was kidneys and bacon for breakfast. It was "a chill meal, virtually silent owing to the strong hold the Frasiers kept on their tongues. Angela and Jim felt amazingly naughty children, and helped each other with furtive glances. When at length it came to a blessed termination, Mr and Mrs Frasier rose with what composure they could command, and left the room and cottage. They were not seen again until the taxi arrived to take them to the station. Then, the luggage being safely aboard, both parents embraced their daughter, whilst Jim stood at a respectful distance.

“ It's time,” growled Mr Frasier, glaring at Jim. “that you settled down to a job of hard and remunerative work, young man. The idea of my daughter being a caretaker is most repugnant to me, and should be to you.” Jim returned his glare, but kept his tongue in check. Even when at the last minute Mrs Frasier lent forward to Angela with the information that she had left a parcel of provisions on the hall table to make up for what they had consumed,, he kept silent. “ Oh, you shouldn’t have done that,” exclaimed Angela, and watched the car

drive away with eyes which were far from dry, in spite of her firm-set lips.

And then the law of the unexpected turned up again. Exactly a month after the calamitous visit of Mr and Mrs Frasier to Seelby, Jim Aldine’s first book was published under the name of “ John Hope,” and three weeks after its bright jacket appeared on the bookstalls it was being talked about in every home m England. Six weeks later some of its phrases were being used as catchwords in the streets of New York, and the cinema people of four countries were bidding fancy prices for the film-rights. “Angela,” said Jim gravely, “ We are rich, old girl. Angela was far nearer to tears at that moment of success that she’d ever been in the days of poverty. “ I’ve suspicioned it, Jim,” she said a little shakily, “ but I just haven’t dared believe it.” “It is a bit unbelievable,’’ chuckled Jim jerkily. “ But it’s a hard business fact, and has got to be faced. We’ve got to pull out of Seelby, and take the house of our dreams. What about Heronhurst? It’s just come into the market? ” “Heronhurst!” gasped Angela. “Not our Heronhurst? The gorgeous old place five miles from home?” “The identical,” said Jim. “ Mellish, the artist, is going to live in the South of France.’’ “ But can we afford that ? ” “‘John Hope’ can afford that and more than that,” smiled Jim. “You’ve only to say the word.” “ It's said,” declared Angela, and that night lay awake thinking of the old Tudor house with its mellow red brick, its terraced lawns and lily ponds. • A couple of thousand bought the place, and as Jim and Angela had no furniture, they purchased the contents as well for another thousand.

“We’ll keep all this dead quiet,” grinned Jim. “We won’t say a word to your people until we are safely in.” “ What fun!” laughed Angela. “ We’ll just ask mother and father, casually, to coine and see us there.”

A month later they moved in, but it was not until a fortnight later, when everything was in running order, that Angela wrote asking her p re. , t <> come over and see her.

“ Fancy us being here at Heronhurst!’ she wrote. “Isn’t it wonderful! Do come as soon as you can. I’m dying to show you round the dear old* place. \ou ve always wanted to see inside it, and now is your chance.”

Mrs Frasier arrived unannounced the following afternoon, when Jim had gone up to London in connection with the adaptation of his novel for the stage. Angela, in the rose garden, saw her walking sedately up the drive, and ran across the lawn to greet her. “Hullo, mums!” she cried, throwing her arms round her mother. “Isn’t it just wonderful us being here?” Mrs Frasier looked harassed, and the lack of enthusiasm in her expression damped Angela's spirits. 1 do wish it wasn't necessary for you to take these—er—places, Angela,” she said coldly.

Angela gasped. For a second she was unable to grasp her mother's meaning. 1 hen it dawned on her. Her mother thought Jim and she were “ caretaking ” again.

“Oh, but this is really ours!” she laughed. "Jim has done wonderfully. He ”

“ Don't try to deceive me again, Angela, ’ said Airs Frasier. “Jim will never do anything wonderful; but if he would only provide you with a nice little labour-saving home I would be satisfied.”

Angela was on the point of blurting out facts, but the sneer at Jim angered her, and she bit back all boasting. Her mother should go on thinking what she liked until time convinced her.

Reaching the house, Mrs Frasier glanced round the wide lounge admiringly.

“It’s a beautiful place,” she said. “ Which portions are you allowed to use? ”

“We usually sit in here for tea,” said Angela, and led the way into the sun-parlour, gay with flowers and mellow with the early autumn air coming through the French windows. Mrs Frasier left her rush bag in the hall and followed her daughter. “ Not as large as the other rooms, I suppose? ” said Mrs Frasier. “ No,” answered Angela. “ I’ll ring for tea. and then I’ll show you round.” "Do they let you have servants to wait on you? ” queried Mrs Frasier in

snip rise. “Oh, yes!” answered Angela. “I spend all my time in the garden. It’s a lovely garden. You and dad must come and stay here.”

“ I’m afraid,” said her mother

could not persuade your father to do so after the Seelby affair. He is far from well. In fact, he and I are going to stay, at Seelby. When we were there he found the air bracing.” “Good old Seelby! ” laughed Angela. “ We were sorrv to leave.”

“ I suppose Captain Crawly re turned? ”

‘“Yes,” said Angela, as tea was brought in by a prim parlourmaid. Whilst the servant was in the room Mrs Frasier maintained a stiff silence. It was evident to Angela that her mother felt her position as “caretaker’s parent” keenly.

“ And where,” asked Mrs Frasier when they vere alone once more, “ is James? ” “ In London.” Handing her mother her tea. Angela noticed that her fingers were not as well kept as they used to be.

“ Why didn’t he take you? ” The tone, as usual when referring to Jim, was severe.

“ He’s gone on business.” “Oh! ” said Mrs Frasier drily; “I didn’t know he had any.”

“ There are lots of things you don’t know, mother,” sighed Angela. After tea they went over the wonderful old house, and eventually Mrs Frasier departed to catch the six train home to her neat house on the outskirts of Bristol.

Angela walked to the station with her, and after seeing her off waited for Jim on the down train from London due five minutes later. He would be amused at her mother’s incredulity.

But when Jim did arrive, the expression on his face perturbed Angela. “ Hallo, old thing,” he said cheerily enough; but it is usually by the eyes that a wife judges her husband’s frame of mind. Jim's had a strained, anxious look. “ Hallo, Jim,” she said. “ Mother came over this afternoon ” “Did she?” Jim's tone was eager. “ What did she say? ” “ She was very subdued. Just wouldn't believe that we weren’t just caretakers at Heronhurst.” “ Oh,” grunted Jim. “ Did your father, come too? ” “ No. Mother says he is not at all well. And what do you think, they are going to stay at Seelby for a change of air.” “ I know,” said Jim. “You know?” exclaimed Angela. “ How ? ” Jim was silent for a second as they walked on. Then: “ Look here, Angela,” he said. “ I’ve a bit of bad news for you.” “Oh, what is it, Jim?” Angela’s face had gone firm. Ever since they’d been at Heronhurst she’d had the feeling that one morning she would wake up and find that all her joy was but a dream. “ Trot it out.” “ I met Angus Crawly to-day,” said Jim. “ He’s going abroad. Wanting a caretaker, he advertised in a newspaper under a number. He has engaged an old couple named Frasier, of ‘ The Limes,’ Bark drive, Bristol! ” Angela halted. “Mother and father! ” she gasped. “ But there must be some mistake! What does it mean?” “I went to Cecil’s office to find out,” said Jim. “ And, to cut a long story short. Cecil has gone bust, and just before the blow fell he'd got your father to commute his pension and invest it with him. Neither he nor the old folk have a bean left.”

“ Oh, heavens,” gasped Angela and felt physically sick. "We and Arnold and Grace will have to look after mother and father.”

“We must.” said Jim quietly, “but Arnold and Grace's husband are in the stew too. We were the only members of the family who were not invited to get rich quick. You’d better write to your mother and tell them you knowfacts, and ask her to come over and stay here with your father, instead of going to Seelby.” Walking up the drive of Heronhurst. Angela shook her head.

“ They won't do that,” she said. “ They won't admit poverty to us, any more than we would admit poverty to them.”

Entering the house she saw that her mother had left her rush basket behind.

“ Oh.” she said, “ the poor dear has gone off without her basket."

She peeped in, arid drew out an untied parcel, across which. in Mrs Frasier's handwriting, was written “Angela.”

“A present, eh?” muttered Jim. and watched Angela remove the wrappings. The prim parlourmaid came and announced dinner.

“ Very well, Mary,” said Angela, and as the servant departed, displayed to Jim half a-pound of butter and a quarter of a pound of tea. together with a little note, “ Don't be too proud to accept these from mother’s larder.” For a second there was silence, and then Jim cleared his throat. “The Stoics!” he said, and avoided meeting Angela’s eyes.—Weekly Scotsman.