A SHORT STORY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13664, 1 April 1908, Page 18

A SHORT STORY.

BEHIND THE HEDGE.

(By Mrs Olivia King). . "I see the littler cottage at tjie turn of the road yonder is to have a tenant, uncle. Loads of furniture were beins carried in this morning, and from tho general scrubbing and renovating going on I should say there was to be somebody within hailing distance." Anil Colonel George B. ( Livingston, late of the Fourteenth Rogimer.t, stroked bis auhurn moustache coii>place'iily, and gaaed out "of the windown as abstractedly as though he did ntft' know he had launched a shell directly into the enemy's camp. "The cottage going to have a tenant, George? Why, tpo garden adjoins ours, nnd there is nothing but' a little hedjie between them/

And Mr George Livingston, Sr., rose hastily from his chair .and, gathering an awful frown upon his usually placid brow, looked at his nephew as though he was unanswerable for all the trouble that was about to faliupon the bachelor

household. ' c '» "Well," resumed the j'oung man, in his half-abstracted 'manner, "suppose there is nothing but a hedge between us^ — and supposing there wasn't even that — thete* is nothing to pilfer but fruit, and the cottkger> are so well supplied that they will hardly want to trouble us."

''But," and the old gentleman's face flushed a shade redder — "but there might be women there; and you know what I told you, George. Not a cent of my money shall eve* go toward rigging out women. However else it's squandered, none of it is going to buy finery for dressing up fashion-blocks. I'm willing that you should have it, George, after Ikn^done with it; but you know the conttitions. IVe lived a bachelor for fifty odd years, and expect to die one, and if ' you can't follow a good example, there are plenty who, can." And the old gentleman wiped the perspiration ftoan his brow, and gave i evidence of "considerable excitement, while at the same tiirie he adjusted his glasses aud endeavoured to get a glimpse of the neighbours wlio were innocently locating in such uncomfort>able proximity. "Well, what has all that to do with the cottage? Possibly there may be women there — there are in almost every WiCll-regulated fam. I mean there ate more or less of them in nearly every house ; and these people will not be likely to trouble us. Besides, it's so* oiablo to know there is somo living creature within a .mile. I donft think it worth while to be frightened before. me see any 'hostile demonstration. As ifor tho women-— why, uncle, they are injoe to look .at." "Yes; and so are hyenas and. tigers, and -lots of other dangerous animals. I tell you, George, there shall be no intimacy between the -two houses. ~1 bought this place, and came out here, because. I was iired of having a housekeeper's ribbons fluttered in my face, aud a landlady's senseless inquiries about my health reiterated forty timqa a day. They.were always so solicitous and Heaven knows thefre isn't s* more 1 robust man in the State. So; no gptting acquainted ttrth these cottagers, voting man." -' ,>.' ' „, "We will rest easy, uncle, until we discover who and what our new'iieigJi; bours are. Possibly s<inie qther. Bachelor may have made hii escape from petticoat thraldom, anct come out .here to I establish a litfle heaven On. hjff l own account, af \ at* Your T hibst e^c'ccllen^ exaVnple, my ivorthy Wcle'.'* ; \ "And a very sensible man he is it tie has done' so. v Order jMes to brinfr ( up a bottle of that Aft»aeira, a ( nd"Vre ,vvi'll drink his health, George; but mindj no ai quaintance with these f new peopif Until we know there are no gigghng misses or starched up, supercilious ,o}d. maids among them." . . , "You wouldn't mind a widow or twor" ./'Confound, widows!. You know they are my abhorrence. They would outfit Satan. They don't wait for you to them an opportunity— they make their own. All women are bad enough, but widows — ugh!** A week went by, and Mr Xivingston, Sr., had recovered his usual equanimi-' ty. Nothing had been seen or heard from the 'inmates »of the cottage, and tbo old gentleman was congratulating I hjms'lf that they would not prove &o i great an annoyance as he had antici- j pated, when, walking about the garden j that street June morning, inspecting tbo fruit-trees and giving general Orders a'>out the trimmins of the borders and ths cutting of the grass, he was suddenly struck dumb with astonishment and terror, for just the other side of the hedge, and no* six feet distant, he- distinctly heard a female voice, and not a harsh voice, either; on the contrary, it was a joyous, musical voice, the words dying away in a melodious ripple, almost a murmur, or something, anyhow, that seemed to take the old gentleman's thoughts atvay back to days c .o long ago that they seemed almost like pages! in somebody else's life. I For a moment he listened intently. Tho voice again broke the stillness. It was certainly fragmentary, any conversalion that was being carried on, and a!l about tying vp rose-bushes, and wee4m^ strawborry-beds, and the like, but tho voice was so familiar, so like some voice he -had heard, before^ thouo;n whea or where he could not think y and auaiji. involuntarily, his thoughts rufched brxk to his boyhood and youth, and again ho scorned to stand in the shadow of a hajf-remembered vision — a vision of g*old<u earls and bright eyes, and he' glanced downward, half-expecting to see a plump white hand resting upon his nrm.

He was disaopointod, of course, but the action recalled him to himself, and, with a "pshaw!" ho was turning away, when a^ain the rippling voice. "I will see what they j^ok like," ho soliloquized ; and, benaing down, no found an opening in the hedge sufficiently lanje to enable him to look through and «see« distinctly tho objects upou the other side. For, a crusty old bachelor and c confirmed woman-hater, there certainly wad not much to see — only a cherrylipyed, blue-eyed young gjrl, the owner of t!ie musical voice, and a* middleaged lady, evidently her mother, or kouio near relative.

No ! nothing very wonderful, surel.v ; yot at sight of that golden-haired jj;irl the 'old' gentleman again lost him&olf, and Colonel George B. Livingston, corning up lialf an hour later, was astonished to find his unekv-etjll upon his knees, peering through tbo hpiU?e oh intontl.v as though ho \\vro a sharpshooter waiting to nick off ono of tho enemy. It was not flatfcnriny; <o his devotion feu tlie principles he had avowed to be surprised in an occupation of tlmt kind, howover, and, mino;, he cxplamfed to his nophew the imperfections of tlie hod^o, and with a very emphatic declaration that it must and nhould be repaired, ho walked off into the hourv, looking not a little warm and flurried — though that was, doubtless, owing to the li^.it of the weather.

5-' • » : . » i !i')\v tin* voting mun bcr'inii' ,sn<ld'i'.lv intonated in th«« h'-clf/". too. Waiting only until his uncle had dis-

appeared, he took a hurried survey of affairs on the opposite side, and,., discovering that the. elderly lady had, like his uncle, sought a more shaded rt>treat, he quickly leaped over the frail barrier, and in a moment 'more Lhc blue-eyed girl was in ht^s arms, and he was kissing the sweet lips as rapturously as though he had not leceivod positive orders from his superior officer to do nothing of the. sort. Of course it isn't right to be looking on, when matters of this, kind aro in progress; so, while Alice Meredith is blushing very much and telling her darling George that he mustn't, and at the same time holding up her pretty mouth for more, and declaring that mama wil lbe, out in a minute, as s'-e has only gone in to look after tho Sickles, and she wouldn't have her see ira kissing her for all the world — and George, between times, is telling ncr as hurriedly as possible about his undo, and how bitter against women he is, and how earnest in his determination that his heir shall never mar:uy, and that he doesn't suspect that he is engage'idto the sweetest little darling in the universe, and that he never would forgive him if he £hew the part he had taken in getting the cottage tenanted —though it didu't matter; he ,wou!d see the old man and all his money m-*-niost any place before he would give up his love, etc., etc., etc. While all this extravagant nonsense is going on we will get out of the way, by following the old gentleman into the house, where, looking very thoughtful, he sits wiping his brow and sipping a claret punch, at tha same time turning over in hi& mind a memory of the long

ago. ' Allie! He had heard that name in the garden. He had had an Allie once: an Allie not unlike the golden-haired girl of the cottage, an Allie with just such eyes and the same sweet, tunetui voice. He had loved her; and she had been false to him. The old gentleman pondered as this last thought game up. Yes, there was no doubt about it. He had gone away, carrying her dear image -in his heart, and returned » year later to learn that she was the wife of another. And then he had blotted her memory from his heart. He had Tbeen cold and indifferent to all; but this girl! how like she was to the Allie of his youth. The next morning found the old gentlemau again in the garden, inspecting the weak places in the hedge. Something had* evidently passed through, for there was an ap/errtue sufficiently large to enable otoejto pass with; ejsse. He was half-inclined to test it when he re-collected-the vision of yesterday. He thought he heard a sound of footsteps, and that detained him. Just then, too, he took, one of those uncomfortable backward glances, not along' the highway of his long Iffe, but just at one particular "mile-stone, and again he seemed to hive that same little hand resting on 'iis arm, and tliose soft eyes looking -intcV his. " A sudden scream from the opposite I side of .the hedgo ! What could it mean? The poor old bachelor, humanized fey the sweet visioD of Bis thoughts, did not Wait to. questibip, bufe before h,y wasiaware «f the enormity of his act he had .sprung through tho hedge, arid was standing eoradfetely astounded at ' hi* own foolhafdift'ess in the presence of tlw two ladies. It , Was nothing! only the cat "had caught -the- canary, was the stammered apology^ of the young girl, who looked \ asr tfeoiigK sonfe dreadful retribution was ajb'out to ff 11 upon her unsheltered head. v As>fQr the two olct people, they looked at eaphJiather for a few moments in puzzled; speechlessness, until at length,, li&p, a true cavaH«ir,i the bachelor adtfance^,; land inquired, .»ot 'without a slight tremour da /his tone, if he had not the honour -of addressing an .did friend, one whom. Jbe -had fc-raterly known as, Mis^ Alice < Haoghton? Whereupon the widow in considerable agitation replied affirmatively, and in the same breath ejaculated ■ "Why, it's George Liv,ingstonl* 1 . •• . - ' • ' ' At this juncture; young George Livingston, thinking he was caHbd. sprang out of his ,hiding-place just in time to see 'his bachelor uncle supporting the mother of his darling to a seat, and looking at her with such ineffable toaiderness in his eyes as io belie the popular assertion that "old folks are incapable of love." Of course there was an explanation, and things of the past were not so gloomy as they had appeared. And then it came out that neither had over ; forgotten or ceased to love the other; 3nd young George 8., seeing the happy frame of mind the old folks were in, took courage, and led up his Aliie, and acknowledged his love like a man, which was approved j and if there is any use wasting more paper, we confess we *'don't see It."