The House that Jill Built.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17223, 14 December 1923, Page 13 (Supplement)

The House that Jill Built.

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANCEMENT 1

Bv HOUGH WOOD s t ' Author of “ The Music Man,” * “ Comrades Three,” * &c,, &-C. c c t [COPYRIGHT ] 1 There were, in point of fact, two l houses But this is rather to hurry 1 things to a conclusion. ; It. icas characteristic of Jill that on g learning of the sudden death of her mother she packed her things, abruptly , closed her career at Girton, and made c her plans for the future before ever c she had reached the railway station f Back in smoky industrial Lancashire and the sad business at the home over, she dried her eyes and announced her decision. , ] " I'm not going back. Dad! I’m 1 etaying at home and keeping house for you. ” i Through his pain John Hill smiled j at her He found himself admiring ] this little slip of a thing that he could have caught up with one hand. ( this dark and not at all unhandsome c girl, with a quaint touch of imperiousness about her He shook his head. " Better go back. lass, and finish your course there.” he suggested. " And leave you alone.” indignantly. ' "X think not,' Dad. I’m going to keep house.” ‘ " And what about Mrs Winter?” j “Oh,” the girl tossed her head. “ She’s old-faslnoned.'’ ' Veil, so am I. So was your mother, and we all fitted in- Your • mother did very little, latterly. and Mrs Winter was. and is. excellent. She suited us; phe'll suit me; T am getting on and set in my ways and I don’t 1 want disturbing. Nor does sbe. It would be cruel.” The girl’s quick mind saw the question from this other angle, and she nodded. “ You're right, Dad, as always. , Mrs Winter is an old dear, and I . wouldn't upset her. All the same T ( must do something. I’m not going to leave you.” He smiled, and waited- Jill stood j at the table carelessly letting the leaves 1 of a magazine slip through her fingers, looking at them and a-t seeing nothing or little. Suddenly she stiffened • she 1 had come to one of her SAvift decisions. “ I knoAv. I’ll go into business with you. Dad.” John Hill laughed, the most care-free laugh he had had for months. “ Excellent.” teasiugly. “ and what do you know about cotton ?” “Well, you’ve been in it all your life, your father, and his father AA-ere , in it all their lives, and I’m an only ( child. Don’t they say that there’s heredity in the cotton industry? Veil. I guess I must have something of it in me. Besides,” she flashed, “ it isn’t what T know about cotton, it’s what cotton is going to knoAv about me” John Hill knew his daughter; sometimes he AAas in awe almost at the rapi dAvorkings of her mind. She had a neAA' idea? “Go on.” ho said. “ Look here.” She spun the pages of the magazine over, a lady’s magazine. " See, the doAvdiest of stuff. You make it, the material for these costumes and the like. Make it better, finer, daintier. I’ll do sketches for your designers to work to. Dainty garments, underwear, overwear, garments for every age from babyhood up to grandmothers. Garments for men. too. AdA’ertise them in every publication that counts. The products of the House of John Hill. That will fetch the public, and the London buyers will simply have to come to us. The House of John Hil. No. J. Hill. No.” she nearly shrieked in her excitement- “ The House of Jill. That’s got it, and it Avill fit both of ns. Oh. Dad.” She did a little dance of triumph. but at the sight of her whirling skirt, a black skirt, she sobered suddenly, vememberiug. But her father avbs too absorbed to notice the little outbreak. “ Bv Jove,” he said. bloavlv, “ T believe you’re right. What. a brain you’ve got. lass. But I don’t knoA\how the staff will take it ; they re getting pretty independent ” “Oh,” brightly, “I’ll manage them.'* And she did- This little slip of a thing of twenty flashed through the mills, winning the hearty goodAvill of tfie weavers, stimulating the designers, afflicting the clerical staff with shyness and confusion that had with it a ruddiness of coutj tenanee whenever she spoke to tiiem, making the staid old place hum with interest before six months had passed. And the House of Jil! became familiar the country over m as short a space of time. There were pictures of dainty garments Avorn by people equally dainty. None °f your clothes prop figures with Avooden expressionless faces for Jill ; .jolly fat babies rolled about in productions of the House of Jill, happy mothers were seen clad in~garments of the House of Till and all readers fell in love with them : never were such placid grandmas as, those old-fashioned ladies who wore old-fashioned dresses made from the material that- came from the looms of the House of Jill. The London houses ! clamoured for the productions ; the I stuh!.orne*fc of buyers yielded when Jill ended a long fight by interviewing the man herself. He melted before her until, as she put it. and she was developing a turn for apt and even pungent phrase. ‘ he ran about the floor in little pools.” Of course it was all a fight, a big fight and a long one. this setting up 1 of the House of -Till, but it. was vastly stimulating. There Avere interruptions and attempts to side-track Jill. as when her cousin. a well-set-up but ( rather graceless lad. wanted her to marry him- To be. husband of Jill offered a fine, that is an easy career. , lie thought. Jill looked at him and laughed. "Is this a 'funny story?” i>he said, and he went off in a huff. Aunt Lucy dragged the story out of the sulk A' :ad and waylaid her brother ; John aticl relieved her mind. “ .She might have done worse. ’ ! fumed the mother of the disappointed youth. " And after all the girl ought to marry. What’s she Avant nosing about the mill for. making herself a nuisanre. I don’t suppose she eA-er can fall in love, she’s too hard and too full of to is silly business But when fhe does slie’ll get it had. And mark trv words. John, you’ll have vour hands full with her then.” Jill laughed when she heard of this conversation, or discreet portions of it. enough to allow her to guess the rest 1 Poor Aunt Lucy.” she said. > " She’s an ambitious Avornan and she r married a plat id parson. And judging from what. Arthur i£. it s a had cross, j " My dear girl.” expostulated John, l “ this is improper.” , “No. Dad.” was the laughing replv. “ me: el a eugenics.” And so the House of Jill went on r from strength to strength, and .Jill hert self grew from strength to strength, a k little more sober now. but still bright ' and vivacious, riner. sparkling with fc ideas, and as terribly decisive as ever, with more judgment. John leaned on her more and more, so that when the i and those horrible, black first few weeks 5 set in. he turned to her " And what now. lass?" s ” Shirts. ' was the prompt response. ‘ T was talking to Colonel Gowen the i- other day. met him at the Struthers, and he said the war would last longer

than most of us thought. There 11 be v millions of men in it. he said They'll t Avant shirts and more shirts, millions of them. Dad be readA- You i and I will go up to London to-morroAv e and see what can be done, at the War c Office." And so the House of Jill turned l shirt-makers, turned out shirts hy the thousand, the hundred thousand, the ♦ million, and with it. as Jill said mourn- £ fully, they made more monev than 1 they knew what to do Avith “ And Ave ' can't help it." she added, having a 1 queer sort of feeling that they Avere benefiting from others’ misfortunes. f The truth was that she was restless and i unsettled because all outlet for her tremendous energies seemed to have i been closed She fretted and fumed, became a trifle sharp of manner and of < speech the good feeling between the < girl and the workers suffered some | 1 eclipse. In the neAv independence of speech and attitude that those years i of war bred there was criticism where once was little short of adoration. Jill i felt it and fretted the more, and finally i told her father in her frank way. i ‘‘l’m off to do some war work. Dad. i nursing This business is getting too ! like a sort of perpetual motion for me. ' We get the stuff and make the goods • and get more stuff and make more goods, all to stiff, standardised pattern. I I can’t stand it any longer." And John agreed, though not with- j out some tribulation of mind- The daA*s of hasty marriages had set in. he remembered his sister’s Avords. and he knew, none better, that this lass of his, with her beauty and her -wealth, was a catch. Yet he had faith in her. in her ; sound commonsense and her knowledge i of the world; none the less he tempered it with a caution. “ Perhaps as well, lass,” he said. He 1 Avas old-fashioned of speech, and the 1 "lass” had a touch of endearment about it that she liked. “Perhaps as well, 1 but take care of yourself." “ Aunt Lucy?” she smiled questioningly at him more like her real self. lie nodded. “ After all, Jill, she’s a wise woman.” And perhaps because she was always so sure of herself Jill very soon justified her aunt’s prediction. That was after she had passed through a rough and trying probationary period and had come to take her turn in the wards. It was a bare place, a reorganised workhouse, for this was a hospital for the ordinary Tommies, and the bareness and the baldness at times revolted her. There were others there who Avere misfits. as quickly she came to see. She thought of them as others, refusing to face the fact that Avhjle there might be more, she Avas most sure of. and most interested in. one. She had noted his hands: they Avere rough with his new toil, but shapely. She had noted his voice and the books he chose; they were not the books of the uninformed reader. She had noted, too, that the other men looked on him as their leader in all the little matters that went to making hospital life brighter. There Avere other things she noted, and in private they brought the colour to her cheeks so that she evaded any analysis of her feelings until one day, in great mood, she cornered them and had it out with them. And it was a proud but modest Jill that emerged from that silent interview. Modesty clothed her Avith a garment that for daintiness was not to be matched even by the House of Jill. And eyes that had long been watching her "became even more outspoken in their dumb admiration and appealThe crisis came when she learned what. neAertheless. she- and everyone were expecting—that Murgatroyd was to be discharged and was to take the usual leave before rejoining his regiment. In those last brief days they came no nearer, and one night in dumb agony and protest against it all she slipped out. It was such a night as once before she had experienced, a night of acute pain, the Christmas eve folloAving her mother’s death. Her intention was to go to church. It was a black night, for no lights .were allowed. There were no peals from the bells; long ago they had been officially closed down. It was a night that reflected her mood. She leaned over the church-yard gate, her whole soul crying out for the mother who would have consoled and guided her, when there were quick steps and a crackling of the frozen snow underfoot. A voice greeted her, ’ a voice that made her pulses tingle. “Miss Hill? I was looking for you.” “Oh, does the matron want me?” ; “ No. I want you.” She swung round quickly and faced s him. The snow gave just enough light I to enable her to see his face. hat ■ she saw brought the hot flame to her f cheeks and hurriedly she hoped that darkness would cover her. J “ No," he repeated. “ T want you. 1 There isn't much time for ceremony. ‘ I’m going on short leave, then back ! over there, and all sorts of things p might happen. I want you. Will you a marry me?" p “ Yes." very quietly. x For a while they stood handfasted, 5 the compact sealed, now and again 3 speaking in low. hushed tones- It ? iseemed a moment too great for speech, f Then, 5 "I must write to my father." said - Jill. “How- shall I describe you?” 5 He laughed, catching her mood." Oh. ' Bill Murgatroyd, private. And what ? shall I say of you, for I must tell the 5 old Dad " J “Oh." she gurgled, a mischievous thought, seized her. “ Jill Hill, shirtr maker." ‘ “Shirt maker, eh? Good, you Avill be able to make mine, what?” « And again she gurgled, for she had 5 a quick and humorous vision of waret houses piled up with - the unceasing "> products of the House, of Jill, and but 1 one man to wear them. . Tavo days later, when they struck a 1 moment to themselves, Jill shyly produced a telegram. “ Good luck. Dad. • it read. More reluctantly the young f man in turn handed one over. “ Bring r her over here. Dad,” -was its someAvhat , aggressiA'e message. , Jill was quick to interpret it. “ He ! wants to awe me.’’ she thought, “ and T see if he can’t buy the poor shirtj maker off ” For hesitatingly and blunr dering someAvhat on delicate ground, •) Bill had hinted to her that his father i AAas something of a big pot, dropping < into loose term to express himself ; s that she. they, would be all right so far as money was concerned, and that 9 after their marriage she need not stay f in the hospital. Indeed, he Avonld prep fer that she didn't. And .Till, having feiund that her little jest developed e into a complex situation, wisely decided * to let it work itself out. “ You won't be frightened, little woman." said Bill gently, as later in r tho AA-eek they AA-ere driving to his father’s house. “The old man rather n puts on style and has big ideas, hut •- remember, whatever lie says, the wed a ding’s the day after to-morroAv.” t "No.” said Jill. " You need not be i afraid 1 never was frightened of any n She rather admired Air Murgatroyd. ? senior, when she came to be introduced to him. He greeted her with a cours tesy through which struggled a brusqueness, and she knew that whilst she AA'ould have to fight, the man Avouid ?. fight fair Therefore. Avhen he de e manded a private interview with hei and Bill hotly opposed it, she threw r ui her weight with the older man. It

was an amazed and sore Bill who re 1 " Well. Miss Hill.” began the oldei man. “ Let’s come to business. 1 suppose you think you’ve got a good catch ?” Jill smiled. " Oh. yes; I’m very pleased with Bill ” He frowned “ Naturally, but let me tell you that he’s dependent on me. and therefore I’m to be satisfied And I’m not sure that a shirt-maker —that’s what you are. he told me—Come, girl, let’s face this matter sensibly.” “You’re suggesting a. bribe now,' she said, quietly “ I can’t think of it.” “ Remember what. I said about his means.” he said grimly “ That doesn’t trouble me. T can earn and always have been able to earn pretty well .and I guess I can keep him—at all events for a time." “ Shillings a w'eek !” lie said eneeringly. “Much good that’ll do you.” There were times when Jill herself could be brusque, and this was one of them. “ Aren’t you labouring under a big mistake?” she asked. “ From my point of view' you are playing the fool Oh!” as he started up, furious, “ I think in a. moment you will agree. Did you catch my name properly. I’m Jill Hill, daughter of John Hill, and I mean to marry your son." He heard only a portion of what she Raid. “ John Hill, Jill Hill. The House of Jill,” in a w'hisper, dazed. “ Yes,” crisply. “The House of Jill That’s father and myself.” His apology was broken and confused, but sincere. “My dear, can you forgive me ? Can I forgive myself ? I was proud—too proud. This week-end T am to he made a—well, I am interested in the New' Year honours. and it was all for the lad. My dear!—my dear!” Jill’s heart surged with pity for him. Springing to her feet, she put her hands on his shoulders and kissed him. “Dear old dad-in-law.” she laughed, but the laughter was choked. “we shall get on very well together.” With an effort he recovered himself. “ Well. well. I’m better served than 1 deservo. And so you’re to be married to-morrow. I’m coming. But,” with an effort of -snrightliness, “ what of the House of Jill?” There was a soft colour on her cheeks and her eyes were bright. “ Perhaps." in a low voice. “I. we, Bill and I; will build another house.” He seized her hands and wrung them. His voice choked. “ You—you —you're a woman to be proud of. Here!” He dropped her hands, rushed to the door and flung it open. “Bill!” his boomed through the house; “ Bill!—you slacker, corhe and do your own courting.” This new house of Jill’s. The physical structure, a long. low', delightful Elizabethan residence, overlooks long gardens, and in the distance is the sea. On sunny days a sturdy youngster romps about the grass .the pride of two AA'bite-haired men. There is also to be seen a nursemaid and a dainty carriage Avith the white coverings usually all of a tumble, and issuing from it many gurgles and little pink toes. And Jill, more radiant than ever, walks the gardens with a man on her arm—a man who has to use a stick and hobbles stiffly, but less stiffly as time goes on. And in his eyes she reads a deqp .serene happiness, and sees there also the strong and sure foundation on which the new bouse is built. (The End.)