The Courting of Nina Brown

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17410, 12 December 1924, Page 3 (Supplement)

The Courting of Nina Brown

FIRST PRIZE STORY

Written for the Christmas Star ”by

H. Tillman.

Love is inexhaustible, hut men’s hearts are small, but the larger the heart the greater the love. Nature i> nothing if not fair. As you give, so you receive, .just so much and no more. No man ever won a heart-worth-while unless his own was big, and no maid ever reached her heart’s desire, unless she. too. had faith and constancy. Nina had once read a. poem. She did not quite understand it. but these lines of Emerson’s fascinated her: When the half gods go. the gods arrive.” And lovers came, and she let them go. She would not strive to hold them. Nina Brown worked at Baggenis, Ltd. She worked hard—all Baggem’s girls do. for Dives Baggem had a wife who was determined her daughters should marry well. Nina had several lovers in her four years there, but she wanted a true knight, and all fell short of her standard. Still she did not worry. “A\ hen the half gods go, the gods will arrive.” she said. Of course, true knights do not slay dragons these times. Those days are Past. They are now difficult to detect. The shining armour is now but their outlook ; their lances and shield and mace hut high endeavour. They work in factories now. and offices, or follow a plough, but always 3011 will know them. The true knight wins a true mate. Clarence Cuthbert Cassev walked along the street one evening. His socks were a beautiful cream with a rich honey shade in it. Thev were the latest out. As he walked he was conscious that he was importing a distinct air to the street, and as he glowed, he heard a crash alongside, and found a

young lady on the road while a *mall dog, with a big .vein, disentangled itself from the wreck and hastened down the street protesting. The young man assisted Nina to her feet. Her ankle was twisted, but Clar_ once wheeled her bicycle, and by resting her hand on his shoulder Nina was able to reach her home, which was not far distant. She thanked him shyly, and the young man quickly left, for the house was old-fashioned, and greatly in need of a coat of paint, and he did not like, to be seen coming out of it. But as Clarence walked home he found a. strange thing had happened to him. and all that evening, and all the next day it continued: he could feel the girl's fingers on his shoulder, and see the wonderful dark eyes as she thanked him. Clarence Cassoy, or C.C.C. as he was familiarly called by his friends in the furnishing department of Fyre and Sale’s, was. in spite of his sox and tics, a serious voting man, and was determined to get on. So serious was he about it that he had definitely foresworn girls after one or two minor affairs; for, lie said to himself: "When a man marries he is done for. First I will win my way up. and then marry someone in the high social position which T will have won for myself. Nothing is so had as a wife with poor relations. To further his prospects he was studying show card writing and advertising with a correspondence school. It was part of his principles to dress well, ami as lie walked the streets, lie liked to notice in the girls’ eyes the admiration he felt they must feel for him. “Some day.” he said to himself, “I will tarry with you, but for the present, no ! ” So you will see that to a young man of Clarence’s ambition, the love for a girl like Nina was not to be thought of. and it was with extreme annoyance that he found himself, every evening after continually walking past her house. He could get no glimpse of her hut one evening he found a man, evidently her father, at the gate in his shirt sleeves : another night he found two young hoys chasing a pig tailed girl round the apology for a lawn. The three had dirty faces. A week of walking past failed to wipe out the memories of that short walk home. His annoyance grew. He called at the house and a motherly' ladv in a stained apron came to the door. “ 1 had—er—the good fortune, good lady, of assisting your—er—daughter the other evening after an—er—accident. I trust she has quite recovered,” Clarence said in his best manner. The lady was puzzled. “ I merely thought I’d enquire,” the young man added quickly. “It wasn’t your dog, I suppose?” said Nina’s mother cautiously 7, “ be-

cause I reckon the owner ought to pay for her being in bed a week.” “Oh, no! I merely helped her in.” “You don't want paying lor it, 1 hope?” the lady asked. Clarence frowned. I was hut- passing, and inquired. That is all. Good evening.” Out in the street, the young man mepped h.s forehead. “Impossible people— impossible,’’ ho muttered. It was a much better street where Clarence lived with his mother. The house was a bungalow, and had a sun porch. Standard roses, too, wore scattered about almost lavishly; six between the gate and the corner of vhe lawn. There was a real rustic fence on one side, and a trellis fence along the back, and on the corner of the house was a name in beaten copper, ‘Oakley.” As there was no oak tree visible it probably referred to the furniture. In spite of a resolution not to, Clarence patrolled the street again the next evening, and was rewarded by seeing Nina leave the home. He hurried after, and learned that the ankle had quite recovered, and was once more thanked. Very shyly the girl examined this very polite young man who talked ,so confidently by her side. She was quite impressed. Never before had she met anyone with siu h a superior, yet withal friendly maimer. She was quite sorry, when she reached the place where she was hound. “It will be the tram for me to-mor-row.” she said on parting.” “Mum won t allow me to bike again.” “The eight-thirty?” Clarence asked. “TJ • e se ve n -thirty.”

A lid the young man left her very orrowful. for the “seven-thirty” was listinctly a workers’ tram. Such, however, is the power of love hat Clarence also caught the sevenhirty, and on each of the following mornings lie did the same, and many were the envious eyes cast at Nina •n account of the splendour of her scort. Each night, this earnest young man would decide to catch the later tram next day. “My career must not < o ruined by women,” he would) assure himself. Of all the words in the dictionary, the one he liked best was “It is really fortunate for me that it, is a girl like that.” lie decided. “I would never get married to a person with a family whose father stands at the gate in his shirt sleeves and smokes a pipe, and whose brothers are dso impossible.” Unfortunately the next evening Clarence met her on the homeward journey, and pausing at the gate, Nina asked him to meet “mum and dad.“ Vmbition wrestled with a pair of wistful eves and lost. The father involved him in a long discussion on the benefits of a Liberal Government. This to Clarence sounded pure Bolshevism ; lie ever voted .Reform. The mother ho found “possible,” but Jimmy and Willie and Katie ho viewed with ill concealed disgust. Although it may seem strange, they appeared to disapprove of Clarence. They were loyal enough to think a sister like Nina deserved something better. At the end of half an hour the young man knew for sure he was not wanted. Nina’s were the only friendly eyes. Still Clarence had a quiet vein of obstinacy, and the next evening he called after tea. The family viewed him with pained intolerance. Nina was out. and Mrs Brown with reluctance left the washing-up of the tea dishes and gave a fuller description of the draper’s wife's home. “There are two gates. she said proudly, “and on one of them is written ‘Tradesmen." Jimmy and Willie regarded him from behind the laurel hedge vindictively. "I’d push him in the sea and let bin? poison the fish,” Jimmy passed sentence. “Somebody would be bound to come along and pull him out," said the pessimistic Bill. Nina did not- share the disapproval, ami soon it became an accepted thing for Clarence, and her to sit out on a garden seat beneath a willow, and for the girl to listen to a description of the future career of Clarence Cuthbert Cassey. One night he found her

particularly entrancing. Almost he felt he would like her to share his success. Prudence restrained him. He looked at his watch and discovered it was ten o clock, so tried to rise. To ms horror he found himself stuck fast to the seat.

Clarence said nothing to Nina about it. but cautiously tried to free himself. It was in vain. The young man had no difficulty in deciding what had hajppeiiecl. That Jimmy amd Willie had glued the seat lie did not doubt. The thing that chiefly interested him for the next quarter of an hour was Avhetlier the glue was tougher than the material of liis trousers. It was. Nina noticed the silence. “Perhaps,” she said to herself, “lie is going to tell me he loves me,” and smiled happily. Clarence’s thoughts were on sterner matters. As lie could not take the seat home with him, or leave his trousers behind, he knew the position was difficult He thought about asking Nina to get her father to lend him a pair to go home in but his pride stopped him. His thoughts were hitter. He hated the whole Brown family with the exception of the girl at his side. Thx brothers lie could have murdered. He tried and tried to dislike Nina for having such brothers, but in this he.did not succeed. Nina tried to pierce the darkness to read his face. She wondered if lie truly loved her - if he v tre a ' true knight; a lover'with a big soul. She loved him. “He is wonderful.” she said to herself. “Think of him studying so hard to get o.i ” “Do you ‘mind if I st iv on here,” Clarence asked, breaking a long silence. - “You v. ill have to go in— t it is half past, ten—but 1 •>ant to stay here . and think—about my studies and other things. It is such a nice night, you know, and we have no gardea seat at my mothers’—there is a particularly stiff lesson I want to go over in my .mind.” The girl was surprised, hut Nina was romantic. “He wants to stay here just to be near me,” she thought, and. quite happy now. she went indoors. Now jt is in time of groat trouble that the true knight reveals his greatness. On ordinary days he will be just an ordinary person, but in times of stress he stands revealed. Clarence was at heart a true knight. As he sat there it came to him what a cad he had been. He could sec that this girl’s brothers had been right in distrusting him. in trying to humiliate him. To love her, lie now knew must make him love all connected with her. An anxious voice interrupted his meditations. “Bill and I will saw ion out if you like,” same from two small figures in the darkness. Clarence gave a sigh of relief. “Saw away,” ho said cheerfully, “hut don’t make too much noise, and bring your father out.’ “Ain’t you going to toil on us?” “Consider yourselves forgiven.” Stored away in Clarence’s tin trunk is a pair of quite good trousers, with a piece of board firmly attached. He intends someday to show them to bis wife, but not to his father-in-law. The way Mi - . Brown went on about the person unknown who invaded his domain. 1 and maliciously sawed a piece out of liis garden scat, forbids it.