“UNDYING MUSIC.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17031, 3 May 1923, Page 10

“UNDYING MUSIC.”

L. G. MOBERLY.)

(By

NEW SERIAL.

CHAPTER. XLV. (Continued). “ The Close, Manchester. “ September 10th. Dear Miss Burnaby, You will perhaps think me very impertinent lor writing to you without ceremony, but my small grandchild Dorothy has talked about you so much | that 1 hardly tool you are a stranger. I Nevertheless I am afraid you will think 1 ain making 3011 an extraordinary proposition when 1 ask whether you will come and pay me a long visit and help me with 1113- granddaughter. You have probably heard that her mother is marrying again, and 1 gather that a little girl will not be a very acceptable inmate in the household of the newly-married couple. I am therefore keeping Dorothy with me for some time, and she has begged me so very hard to ask you to come, and. as she puts it. ; take care of her.’ that 1 am actually making tin* audacious suggestion. It. must of course be a business arrangement between us. but I should like to __plead that an old lady and a little girl would bo really grateful if you could come. —Yours truly. “ Elizabeth Chalmers.” Gladys exclaimed: “ "Who was it that said ' When God shuts a door, He opens a window* ?” “ M3' dear, I’m sure I don’t know.” Miss .leplison was always a little flustered by Glady’s sudden questions. ■ it sounds vei\y nice, and .1 daresay quite true.” “ Oh, yes—it’s true.” Gladys smiled down the table towards her companion. “And, Jcph dear, should 1 give you a most horrible shock if 1 told you 1 was going away for a bit?” “Going away? But of course, my dear, if you like, why not? And you are looking rather tired and white; i am sure a change will do you good.” “ It’s rather a big change,” Gladys said slowly. “ I’ve been invited to go and stay at Manchester for a long visit. L think it may- mean several mouths, and ” “Several months?” Miss -Jephson. interrupted with a little scream. “ But then ” “ A plan has jumped into my head all in a moment.” Gladys in her turn interrupted. “A plan that will be .just right for you. Jephie dear, 1 do believe. I think —perhaps ” she hesitated “ A change will do me a lot of good. 1 feel stale and .stupid, ] and I want you to take cave of the he use whilst I am away, and have your married niece and her little girl here to keep you company.” “Oil, my dear.” vas all that Miss leplison could say. and she spoke as f chough her breath were taken away , which indeed it was for the moment. *• My poor niece will be thankful more than thunklul,” she went on after that breathless pause. ‘ She lives iu such 1 pokey little place, anci she has such a struggle to make ends meet. Oh, Gladys, .1. can’t tell you what I feel.” And Miss Jcph.soil’s voice shook, her eyes filled with tears. “ Then that’s settled,” Gladys answered comfortably, with another of those smiles which transfigured her irregular features., “ And you are not to cry over it. Jophie dear, - because, - after ail, it is a very small tiling 5 am doing. i just want your niece and hoi little girl to be with you whilst 1 am away—that’s all— and they are to be at home here, quite at home,” she added emphatically. You are to make them as comfortable and happy as you can. and let mo have the account of the weekly hooks regularly.'’ "Ol:. my dear!” Miss Jephson this time broke into a little sob. “ How could I let you do anything so kind? You are suggesting too much, far too much.” No, 1 am not, and you mustn’t diop tears into your cup, for the tea "ill taste so horribly' salt. You see, • t pli dear. Francis left me his money, and I want to make other people happy with it. and if you won’t do as 1 ask you I shall simply be miserable. So now let’s finish our breakfast and discuss details afterwards.” As Miss Jephson had often and very truly said, Gladys had a way of making decisions with lightning rapidity - and the present decision was made almost on the spur of the moment, but the letter from Manchester had given the girl a sudden longing to escape from her present surroundings, to find herself iu a new environment, and she had made up her mind at* once that she would accept Mrs Chalmers’s invitation without delay. “ 1 believe 1 can start fresh better in a new place.” she .said to herself a. she was driving to "Waterloo only a fortnight later. “ Start fresh and keep on smiling.” But at Waterloo station itself her hardly won courage was severely put to the fo*- as she walked up to the bookstall, to choose a magazine, a man came quickly round the corner, and she found herself face to face with Philip Dickson. It was she who first recovered from the little shock of dismay. and she held out her hand with a smile, her head held high, her eyes rather bright. A dusky flush had mounted to Philip’s forehead, and there was a shamed look in his eyes, a look that made the girl’s heart soften towards him. “J am looking for a thrilling magazine.” she said lightly, and if her voice trembled. Philip was too absorbed in his own feelings to notice it. “ You needn’t tell me not to waste my time upon tosh, as you have often described magazines. Mv brain only feels capable of tosh to-day.” “You’re going out of town?” Philip’s eyes glanced at her face for a moment .then glanced quickly away. “ Yes. I’m going to Manchester. I am quite excited about it.. I’ve never stayed in a cathedral town before.” " Oh, well. Manchester is very beautiful. I 1 hope you will enjoy it. ’ For the life of him nothing blit banalities would come to his mind or tongue, and again it was Gladys who took the j initiative. “ T must fly.” she said. “'My train will go off and leave me stranded. Good-bye and good luck!” And with a pleasant nod slio turned away towards her platform, leaving Philip with a strange sensation that this was not the old Gladys he knew, but a far stronger, more balanced personality, no longer rather a crude, if delightful girl, but a self-possessed woman. A great deal of that self-possession left her when she was alone in the railway carriage speeding westwards. The thrilling magazine lay on her lap, unopened. She sat with her hands locked together staring out of the window, her face very white, her eyes strained and tearless, seeing nothing of the country through which they passed: seeing only a man’s embarrassed lace and shamed eyes; healing only a man’s voice talking banalities. whilst h r own heart beat in great, heavy throbs that nearly suffocated her. I: was beating heavily still, and the sunshiny September land scape only mocked at her aching sense of loss. (To be continued).