A Modern Rosaland

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14141, 26 February 1910, Page 1 (Supplement)

A Modern Rosaland

(By E. C. Palmer.)

"Well, Jim, how shall I do?" James Aihslie looked up at the boyish figure standing beforehim. "Cecil, you know I do not like it.!' His long, delicate fingers, an artist's fingers, worked nervously as bespoke; his handsome face looked more careworn than ever as he repeated almost peevishly: "You know I do not like it!" A cool hand was placed on his brow; his hair, already streaked with grey, was smoothed back by a touch that he loved.

"I know, dearest; I do not like it particularly, but what else is there to be dene ? Now just look at me and tell me if anyone could tell that I was.a woman."

The man looked at the trim, slight figure,, the short curly hair, the wellproportioned limbs, and was obliged to smile as he met the merry glance of the blue eyes. "No one is likely to discover your sex, he said, with a futile attempt at sternness. .

-"Because that I am more than common tall," she quoted, drawing her superb figure up to its full height. "You need a Ganymede, Jim, to bring you the nourishing things you require after your long illness, and you know a woman is not a proper Ganymede. There, don't try to be cross, for, you can't succeed. Remember, we have talked it all over and over again, ancT I am sick of the objections made to women clerks. As a man I shall earn twice as much. It is fortunate that my name belongs to either sex, and I have managed to obtain excellent testimonials. "Listen:—

"'Cecil Ainslie has been'in our employment over six months, and is a capable and efficient book-keeper.' That is from Messrs Triggs and their name carries weight in the City Come now, Jim, cheer up' Yoii made just as much fuss when I first went- as a woman clerk, but vou got reconciled you know!" In spite of "doublet and hose," she had seated herself on his knee, and put her arms around nis n<?ck.

Two hot tears'fell slowly from the' manr, eyes. He was still-weak fiom Jus illness, and all the manhood in him revolted from his wife's scheme. "I am a brute to have brought this on you I "_ A soft hand was laid on bis lins, in spite of which he muttered: "I ought never to have married you!"

"I hr.ve never regretted it," she saia sweetly, clasping', .his neckr still tighter.

Neither do I, of course not, my darlmg; but still, a widower with three grown-up daughteis—" "Hush!" she said, and her beautiful face hardened somewhat as she re-membe'-jd how those daughters had tued to come between hpr and the man she adored. The eldest, Ella bad been especiallv unkind, but s>''e was married now. The other two lived J™ * he mother's sister. Could it bo that they envied her the lover their father had never given them? that remembering how little lie had loved their mother, to whom his own father had married him when he was quite a boy, they were jealous for her sako s Cecil gave a weary sigh; her stepdaughters were like a nightmare to her in the midst of her happiness. For, m spite of povertv, she was intensely happy—m spite of the fact that both her fortune and Jim's had gone in trying to make the numerous inventions of his fertile brain succeed. Jim noticed the sigh, and looked at her anxiously.

'lt is nothing," she said, smiling I am a little tired with the excitement of my new get-up. Tell me how your flying machine is getting on " And the man launched into a glowing account of the invention he was 3ust then thinking about. The next morning Cecil set out in quest of employment. London looked auite a different world to her, viewed from a coat and breeches. Giggling shop girls in 'buses, whom she had never noticed when in skirts, now compelled her attention by their cunning side glances at her, and made her feel she was really a very presentable young man. Once or twice she laughed aloud dimng the lone 'b,is ride from Shepherd's Bush to the Citv, making some of her fellow-travellers look askance at her. As she dismounted at the Bank, she murmured to herselfI must learn to 'outface it with semblances ' For Cecil was nothing it not oJiakespeanan. Carrying her head higher than she had ever done when only a woman clerk Cecil entered lift after lift and mounted to" "various third and even fourth, floors. The search for employ" ment is always- a dispiriting one. wheW T* Y eß L TS Bkirb or doublet and nffi • At l . l r ftSt ,' T enterin * a shipping office in Mark Lane, Cecil met with some luck. Two girls were coining &»? ,n .*•*"» the other defiant? Forgetting her dress, Cecil, always svmnathetw approached them on the f Thetear ™ °*e smiled a ? ?™5 h j! ° f "? com ely a comforter. What is the matter?" the question 1 ban £S °- fiC6 door *V*^ ''^f* ter! " -? xcl «>»ed the defiant, one,,, our employer has turned us off at a moment's notice, swearing hard £ j'iSS. 8 ? cle ? ks a ? th * *toM»r You had be-tter go hi and try your luck!" Yes go/.' said the tearful one, .? « , meet us afterwards m. A?- 0 * sh - op B P the street." The would-be fascinating smile with which this -was said caused Cecil to remember her supposed sex, and lifting her bowler gravely, she knocked at the office door. As she waited for' a Come in I she could hear the two girls discussing her appearance as they descended the, stairs. "What! another clerk!" growled an irate voice; "glad it's not a woman this tune. Show your testimonials Urn—urn—good jiame, Trices, know them well. Not undersized lad, eitherwell up in geography, eh? Know any foreign languages? Dutch and German? Both useful here. Give vou thirty shillines to start' with' and rise £2 after first "month if you're any good. Satisfied P Then start .work to-morrow, ,- But ask for ,no days off •' that's why I sent away those'tiro girls —nlwnvs,wahtlnc dnTs off- for weddings and thinps—ugh!" The interview was over, and wH& • beating-heart Mrs.

went;home to tell her husband of her; success. '- : Vv- v - '^■■:~C^/ : \

I' As time went. on' Cecil -''gav'©,"' more and more satisfaction'"to"her'employer, who increased her pay to week; : As>she was an excellent manager;r.' she and her husband were able to. "live | comfortably on this, and;'she would have been perfectly happy had Jim recovered his strength more' quickly. ■■•• ;I f -he'could have got change of ally perhaps;!, but he would not -go..away without her. James himself knew that lie was kicking against ,-the pricks,' or,-shall we say, the burrs of ' life; It ,was ; hateful to him to rest at home, his_ brain .teeming with inventions, winch physical weakness, and want 'of money nipped in the bud, while: his young wife, in a garb she never ought to have worn, earned bread for botli. .Partly on account of his physical delicacy he was ant. to brood over trifles, but, after all, our' life trials are not made up of great things. So it came to pass that when his second daughter wrote inviting him I .'to her wedding he was inclined to overlook the slight put on Cecil by the omission of an invitation for her, and seemed to wish to go. Cecil herself / B aw no slight, or, with the magnanimity of a generous nature, refused to see one. Consequently she insisted on Jim's accepting the invitation.

. »It will do you a world of good, dearest. .You. will again see 'the ed woods of Sussex which you were so fond of long ago." ■..■■' ■Would she have insisted on his going_ if she could have foreseen the .suffering it would have entailed to both?. Ah! that is a question we must ieave, like all similar questions, on the lap of the gods. .It was a bit dreary for Cecil after Jim had gone. The morning ride in the omnibus, the avoidance of girls always willing to make any advance which would lead to the slightest chance m--their monotonous lives, the grinding work in the office, relieved only by tough bits of Dutch translation, and interviews with cantankerous sea-captains, and the ride home. Still, hard work is easy if done for one you love, and. if it is done for the only person you love in the whole Y or] <!> 1* is child's play. -, So, cheere-d by Jim s letters, the brave little woman toiled on. She encouraeed hinV to go to the .sea, with his eldest daughter, ■and said nothing of her own loneliness without, him. But when his letters suddenly 4 ceased, she grew anxious . ;■ At first they had written to' each other every day, and after a week's silence Cecil, fearing she knew not what, wrote to her sten-daudhteiv The reply was somewhat of a shock . "Dear Mrs. Ainslie Cit began),— "Father is not well enough to write to you, so nleaso do not exnect him to do so. We think he has bnen brooding over your unwomanly behaviour, which he has told us about. It is not my place to make any comment, but of course you must see that a woman who assumes the gnrb of a man has put herself beyond the oale* and cannot be received in any respectable house. Should father's illnass take a serious turn I will let you know, but unless this is the case I see ho need of any further correspondence. Yours truly,. „. "Ella, Barton." This letter awaited Mrs. Ainslie when she came home, tired after her day's .work. In spite of doublet and hose, and the "swashing and martial, out-, side, the woman's heart conquered, and she flung herself on her bed toindulge in a storm of tears. There are women who cry seldom, but on' those rare occasions when the ' emotions are aroused to boiling point, they shed as many tears as suffice the woman who can cry easily for six months' or more; but how they reproach themselves for it!

"What a fool I, nm! But I should not care if Jim harl betrayed me! • I knew he was weak, hut I did not think oh, I did not think—"then a look at her nether garments' restored iier. She burst into a peal of laughter, quite startling: the landlady, who was • knecking gently:at the door. ..inquirim' it she/ would not -come' to' her,'teat JTor the landlady was in ■ the secret, and her ■ native Devonian honesty not haying been spoiled by a long residence in our modern Babylon, she admired more thnnßhe disapproved. Now, if you have lived with anyone, year in, year out, it stands to reason you cannot misjudge them long. All the' little kindnesses that have occurred in your dual existence, all the silent understandings, all the little inflefmables, which appear to men so rii' y6t niean so much in reality—all these call out against a quarrel 'between two friends. '-,,'■ ■ ; ' C A ™ within a week of tha rpceipt of. Ella Barton's cruel letter, Cecil felt like this m her innermost heart. She would see Jim herself, she would hear 'bis disapproval from his own mouth before she believed it. And if he-were y. i? r ■xi 0 " ld i, nerer foi- give; herselfv full of this thought she arrived one morning in Mark Lane, looking pale and weary and totally unfit for work, blie .told her employe* that a near relation was seriously ill, and somehow the old entteman took it into his head it was Cecil's mother: He had been an excellent son himself in days of poverty, rising early and making his mother a cup of tea before going to business, and he felt for his yoiing clerk.

. "I understand, my boy. You can ;go;.I daresay Morrison can do your work until you return, and the Dutch business must wait."-

■, .So Cecil went, home and\ resumed her sex s grab. She would see her husband at any cost. There are some women ,in, whom the maternal instinct predominates over all others: if ■,they have ho children to exercise it on, they love their husbands with a protecting tenderness. Cecil was one of these women. All the way to Folkestone she felt an aching longing to nurse her husband, for she was sure, he was ill. She wanted; to smooth his pillows, to place her cool hands on his forehead.. He had always said that gave him relief; it should give him relief now. Then a sudden doubt arose. If Mrs. Barton disapproved so much* qf networking for her living as a man, would she receive her in her house?. And Jim was there!

When you are longing to reach a place with an intense longing, a place which perhaps contains all that makes lite worth living, you often lose yourself in thought, so that the actual approach to it comes on you as a kind of shock. Thus it was with Cecil and when she alighted from the train she was only arousand from her reverie by a kindly voice exclaiming: "Why, Mrs. Ainsliet You are the very person I am wanting most!" She looked up An old, rugged-faced man stood beside her.

"How is that, doctor?" she manreC °^ * Wend

"Surely you must know? Hare Ton not como to nurse Jim?" "If he will have me " Poor Cecil! There was little of the 'Washing and the martial outside" left now, only the hidden fears of the tender-hearted Woman ™ f .!*- wil J have you! He is al " ways asking for you. I told Mrs. Barton she ought to write for you I supposed she had done so!" • The doctor said' no more; he felt she had suffered as much as she could, bear. He called a cab, saw her placed In It, and took a seat by her side: A' drive of a few minute* brought tkem to the Barton's lodgings. The -doctor nunc: the cab door open rushed to tho bell and rang it imperatively. There were three factors ,in his impetuosity. He was of Hibernian descent: he knew Ella. Barton well and disliked her; he believed 'James Ainslie to be the cleverest man of his "Acquaintance, and such a man required soothInc;, and not Irritating,, women round him.

To,say that Mrs. -Barton was ; sii]S ,pmed when the,, doctor and her stepJr* the J, * ere ushered in, is to : say little; ishe was. a woman . accustomed to rule, and she was amazed.' The docibr xlid_not give her much' time to think.- • . ™

f^,' 1 -:.* y«u I would bring a nurso 'l rtrom.town. Here Bhe is." ^ r ' y° u can : hardly ':. kn <^ th e f »cts about tllis person——". '' .'' 1 he. facts, madam I"—the Hiberri- ' was uppermost, about tho "■■ JWiglisb...veneering of years—"This lady is your father's wife, and he wanti nerj that's, enough;" ( U ' ? X ou . c ?n; v ;hardly know/' came in the coldest of tones, " r that she has disgraced her. sex by masquerading in man's attire in the-City;" , j, " I ,^ no J all about that. Come, mv dear." Tho old man '.drew the arm ot the modern Rosalind through his own, and led her gently to the room ' where her husband was. "Cecil! I wondered when you were coming Why ehould money be to you than I am?" J - . .' ./'lt never was, Jim." Arid in 'the'' i, silence which ensued the doctor crept away to give Mrs. Barton what luh cou ntryraen called „ a njece <j£ . iaita ™..-/,. Any portion of a mincf of such intellectual vigor would have been useful; at any rate, it had its effect on the 11/J f aS ,P r ? Eented to- As soon as . the.doctor had gone she begged her step-mother _ to stay as a welcome / guest, _and implored her not to .. tell either Mr. Ainslie or Mr. Barton of the letter she had written. ' "Father was unconscious, and T read theaters you sent him. That is how I had dressed as a man; but I would not like him nor my Bert to know- " Tho sentence was concluded with a sob, and Mrs. Ainslie, always sympathetic, gave her promise to keep the matter a secret. And what is a great deal more to the E'rv, ? i S A e?re ,- w ? s ke Pt- Here once .':• more Cecil Ainshe showed that she was - different to the ordinary woman: for ' itJS V°, T y task , t0 kee P of;' such a nature as that. ' , Soon after Jim received the groatest' impetus to recovery he could have. An' invention he had patented proved sue- ' f^w L + , HIS Wifo him ' to " ..' invest the money he had made- in a , poultry farm which she was able to , manage, and there amid; his loved'. Susses woods, he still plans new inventions, , and his wife leads the active ■ .'• Hie which befits a modern Rosalind..