Eltham House

Sun (Christchurch), Volume II, Issue 520, 9 October 1915, Page 3

Eltham House

HSS By Mrs. HUMPHRY WARD iSiB

[Copyright.]

CHAPTER Vl.—(Continued.) The little person herself did not seem to expect any attention. She sat quietly beside him, answering when he spoke to her, without awkwardnes or hesitation, though always, as ho could not help noticing, with a slight rush of colour to the pale clieeks. Six weeks, was it, since she had lost her father? His easy good nature made him sorry for •her, and he could not help speculating wardly with some boyish amusement as to what the young woman, fresh fromi her country iparsonage, must be think-; ing of Eltham House. Sometimes,: whenever the conversation flagged at j all, he caught the girl's brown eyes] travelling round the room, taking in apparently the great Vandyck, the series of family portraits, the tapestries, and the superb silver —Renaissance flagons, bowls, and —ranged on the carved buffet which faced the Vandyck They were intelligent eyes he thought; certainly not the eyes of a fool. But the conversation did liot often flag. Llewellyn led it, and in a small gathering where he folt himself at eaoe,-'there' was no better talker. Jim Dttrrjint had dropped in, and besides the Treasury "man, one Axeham, "whose brain was the unfailing resource of each successive Chancellor of the Exchequer, there was a young Lord Melton whom Alec had himself invited the day before, and then -forgotten. He was the heir of a great Midland magnate; a little foppish perhaps, in a g>rave way, with his drooping moustache, and pointed black beard, trimmed 1%0 a Valois portrait, but able and sympathetic, especially to women. That he was simply dazzled by Carrie was clear; and Alec's vanity as a lover laughed inwardly, well pleased. For lie remembered that Melton, who had been his latest fag at Eton, had hesitated—visibly—before accepting his invitation. The talk fell oh Germany, and that possible Armageddon of the future, of which the world in general thought then so little, and the men closely in touch with ■ European affairs so much. Llewellyn", who spent part of every year in Germany "and spoke as a German-lover, gave a graphie account of anti-English feeling in the northern towns. "We stub their toes wherever th'ey turn. The feeling is-absurd—mad—but horribly "dangerous. " , Axeham cheerily pooh-poohed 'him. 11 Germany at war would be bankrupt in a year—and the Kaiser knows jt." - Durrant, for his part,, only hoped he might live to see the struggle that every English, soldier was thirsty for. '' But you Liberal fellows, if you come in, will never fight! Your tail-won't let you — arid England will take a back-seat for *good. Ah well, if you funk it, some of us can always shoot you! " y' Pour encourager les autres! " laughed-Llewellyn. But in the eye that met Durrant's there was a gentle mockery," as of one .who kept his own counsel.

That little girl must be sent, to bed! Caroline must really see to it that she did not become a nuisance. And as to that fellow, Melton, would he never go! A philandering chatterbox! He would give Carrie a hint not to encourage him. He was fairly on edge by the time Llewellyn and the rest rose, to take their departure; so muc'li so that Durrant remarked upon it to Llewellyn, as they walked away together. ''What •was wrong with Alec? He seemed to have something on his mind?" /'lt's true, I understand, about that dinner and H.M.," said Llewellyn cautiously.

Durrant shrugged his shoulders. "But of course it's true! What else ! did Alec expect? Why can't lie make up his mind to (alee his snubs like a man! He's got Carrie, and Eltham House, and pots of money. Did he think everybody was going to shake hands and make it up, besides?" Meanwhile Alec, on turning back again from the outer hall where lie had taken leave of his guests, to rejoin Carfie upstairs, perceived a letter lying on the hall table. It was addressed to him, and he opened it eagerly. The hot colour rushed to his temples; he crushed it violently in his hand, and mounted the stairs in moody thought. At the top of the stairs a little figure in bla(;k crossed his path. ."Good ni ff ht Mr Wing,'' said a shy voice. • ' "Oh, good night," he said, with a sudden effort at courtesy, holding out a perfunctory hand. The figure disalong the eastern corridor, ihat s a blessing! " he thought. "I 1 cai * stauJ her always about?" J

He found Carrie in her sitting room opening the letters of the evening. She Dad excliauged her evening dress for something soft and flowing, and her radiant looks showed not a trace of fatigue.

AIoJTm , ® l )leasant evening, it ' t said, joyously as he entered, holding out her hands to him. Then arrested by his expression, she changed her tone— 6

"Darling! is there anything Wrong?" i &

/'My cousin lias just come back from Germany," said Caroline, bending kindly towards the girl. "Haven't you, Joyce?" •' i ii Miss Allen coloured again, evidently fr'om shyness. But she answered readily. She had been teaching, she said, in the family of a German officer of high rank. She mentioned the name, and Llewellyn bent across the table with an exclamation. ' ' One of the very best of their military historians," he said, ' '-and one of the most fiercely anti-Eng-lish."

He threw himself into a chair beside her, made a movement, to give her the letter in his hand, thought better of it put it in his pocket. ' •"Tliey won't have me at Hull," lie said, trying to laugh off the blow. "Never, mind. We'll be even with them yet—hypocrites! " "Won't have you at Hull?" she repeated. "You don't mean "

"I do mean it, I mean just that. I don't suit their Puritanical taste."

< A sad expression darkened the young face. "Yes, they hate us," she said simply, adding immediately—" but they were very kind to me." Durralit, who . was sitting next her, looked at her with sympathy. "Well, no wonder!" he thought —"with such a nice little creature!" , And he began to draw licr out. Her account of her German experiences amused and pleased everybody. Caroline made a little signal" to Alec, as much as to say—"isn't she rather a dear?" —and Wing signalled graciously in return. But as soon as her short innings was over she relapsed into a bright-eyed silence, following all the talk with evident though suppressed ©agorness. Durrant lilted her increasingly as time went on, little as she allowed him to get out of her. But he gathered presently that she was a cousin of Mrs Wing's, and this, w.as the first time~~she had been inside Eltham House. He could not .help wondering what she. knew about lifer cousin s story. ... Meanwhile, for other persons at the table, the dinner, when over, reihained in memory as simply Caroline Wing's opportunity. Alec Wing, indeed, had observed and listened to his wife .with some secrot amazement. How awfully clever Carrie was getting! She was quite able to hold her own with Llewellyn, who was clearly becoming devoted to her; and as f-or Melton, she had just knocked him over. In their long lovemaking in that upland of Vignalo, she had been the most delightful of companions, ready to listen to talk, to read or be read to, to draw—embroider—idle —just as he, Alec, pleased. But intel: lectually he had been the guide, and she the happy follower. Her life with Marsworth had been an isolated and cloistered thing. Living all the year round in a remote Yorkshire dale, with a man of austere religious belief, a stifled intellect and a morbid conscience, she had seen little or nothing of the world and its affairs. Wing had taught her a good dea'l, had delighted in teaching her, and in watching the quick response that roused at once his pride and his passion. But now —Carrio had really "come on" astonishingly! And he recalled a dinner of the week before —Washington 's persistent vigil at Carrie's side, at dinner and afterwards; the great man's evident absorption in his hostess, and submission to the spell by which she made a reticent man talk, and talk liis best —to his own pleasure, and that of a delighted circle. Washington, 110 doubt, would soon be one of Carrie's habitues. And yet —what good was it going to do him—after all? The young man's self-conceit was taking alarm. He could not help seeing that Llewellyn, whose approval and friendship he himself ardently desired, was much more ready to listen to her than to himself; that Axeham was genially communicative to Carrie, while inclined to hold his host at bay, and that Melton, too, showed

The.colour died out of Caroline's cheeks, and then returned upon them with a rush.

' 1 What have they to do with our private affairs!" she said passionately. "Botliwell writes a very decent letter," said Wing, after a pause. "He says the newspapers 011 the other side have got hold of the divorce .reports—and are threatening to republish them —with the Judge's remarks, etc.—if they bring me down; so he just begs me not to come—very sorry—and that's all!" '

Caroline was silent a moment —then broke out bitterly—"lt's perfectly intolerable there should be this persecution! Why can't they let us alone!"

Wing sprang up, and began to pace the room with his hands in his pockets. "Well, we've got to make up our minds, Carrie, what we're going to do! Am I to knuckle under—give up all thought of politics—take to fanning—or aeroplaning-—anything you like—or are we going to stick to it, through thick and thin? If there is a general election this autumn—and they're all talking of it at the clubs—am I to stand or not! Will the Whigs give me a chance, or won't they'? Is there any way of inducing them to give me a chance?" . Then his tone changed—"Look here!—l've got something .very interesting to tell you." She looked up. He described the scene at the "Forwards" Club and the despairing cry for funds. "Then I went on to see pater at Claridge's—just caught him. Well, of course he's all for delay—l'm not, I don't believe timo will make any difference whatever, unless we choose to wait till you and I, darling, are both old dodderers! And he doesn't believe in an election; and on the whole I do—some time in the autumn. But he's a brick all the same. Practically, I may have whatever money I please, to use as I please —a cool if necessary. He knows everything about the straits the party are in; and he's ready to back me to the last. But, of course, he won't pay till he knows whether the goods will be delivered!" "Which means "—Carrie had dropped her voice, and was looking at him with wide anxious eyes—"till you know whether they 'll give you a seat or not. You are to buy your seat?" "Well, darling—and doesn't a man buy his baronetcy or his peerage? What's the difference? All I buy is the chance of getting a few thousand duffers to elect ine." "Oh, Alec, it's dangerous! " she said, after a moment, in a tone that trembled. (To be continued.) The war has made positions in some firms difficult to fill, but business men need have no i'ear about their Customs work being neglected. Simply turn it over to The N.Z. 'Express Co., Ltd., and the work will be done expeditiously, accurately, reliably. •8

I the same kind of discrimination. Of course men, first-rate men, were always : deferential to women, and women were taken in by it. A certain discomfort of the male, obscurely threatened iu his natural role of superiority, swept across him occasionally as he watched his wife. But it was very vague and fugitive; quite effaced in the end by a reflux of pride in her charm and her good looks. After the general conversation of the dinner-table, the evening passed in a series of duologues—Caroline and Lord Melton in one corner of the yellow drawing-room, Durrant, with the little cousin iu tow, walking about among the pictures, Alec, Llewellyn, and Axeham; discussing the Parliamentary situation. Alec, however, grew very soon impatient to see the last of his guests, and he was presently reduced to strolling morosely through the pictures by himself, occasionally appealed to by Durrant and Miss Allen, as he happened to ; come across them.