The Marriage of Celia

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20282, 17 April 1934, Page 14

The Marriage of Celia

•'joan Falrlle’s Cross-roads,** jk • The Black Breirayal.” “Love's Tangle,” etc. V

By

MADGE BARLOW.

CHAPTER XII. Celia’s crimson distress kindled a battlelight in Miss Rani age's bright eyes. “I expressed myself badly if I left you under the impression Qiat Mr. ].eniiox was quite a free agent in the matter,” she said, her tone rebuking. “He is ill. T repeat, and stated his wishes to Mr. McHaffie, who communicated them to me by letter. Mrs. Lennox is at liberty to act as she sees fit.” “And Mrs. Lennox is for Scotland,” Celia chimed in, fighting the strangling lump. “Robert will write you, Sauna, the minute he is able, and intends no discourtesy. I’ve ’phoned a taxi for the morning, and ’phoned Madame to send on my purchases. Miss Ha mage is to meet me at the station. She is staying the night with her sister and brother-in-law. Why should I put Robert to the inconvenience of travelling to London to fetch me?” “The arrangement is unusual, and to me unsatisfactory. You are in my charge. Still, you are your own mistress, and since you are eager to go I can’t interfere.” said Sauna, bit in a her lip, sure that McHaffie had inspired this move, careless of its origin, only deploring it because it would prevent her from meeting Robert before lie went North. The stabbling pang of disappointment taught her the strength of the unrequited love burning and rankling in the locked chamber of her heart. Not to see him once again ere the long winter came was cruelly hard. “I suppose it’s natural you should bow to the wish of your lord and master,” she added with a metallic laugh, stripping off her outdoor wrap, and offering Nurse Effie refreshment, which was declined. Miss Ramage said she had stayed rather late, and having spoken with Miss Percivalc, and received Mrs. Lennox’s decision, would return to her sister’s house. She bade them good night a little later, and when the door closed behind her, Sauna inquired how long she had been in the flat. “Almost four hours,” replied Celia. “She was very chatty, and I gave her coffee and sandwiches. Her sister is married to a stockbroker.” Sanaa lapsed into bleak silence. “You aren’t offended?” queried % Celia. “Good gracious, no! What for?” “Was the party a success, Sanna ?” “As far as any such gathering can be “Was Cyril Hazlitt nice to you?” “You ask stuffy questions. He had no reason to be nasty.” Celia gave up the attempt to converse. Hitching one shoulder out of a flimsy covering of apple-green chiffon, Miss Percivale averted her face and presented a naked shoulder-blade to the view of a pair of wistful blue eyes; and Celia studied that angular portion of Miss Perci'vaie’s anatomy till it was time to retire to bed. They both overslept, and were glad they did. Morning speech was necessarily curtailed, and there was none of the awkward dalliance Sanna’s peeved aloofness would have rendered unbearable. She went to the station. Nurse Effie was already waiting at the booking-office, her place of appointment, with the tickets. Robert, she whispered, had sent her a cheque to defray expenses. The farewells were brief, coated with a conventional veneer of regret, and Sanna watched the express steam out, envy and brooding resentment in her Celia snuggled into her corner of a first-class compartment, the mercury in her Irish blood rising. After all, it was exciting to go to Red Craigs, and ague wasn’t frightening, just a shaking, and a chattering of one’s teeth. Hadn’t Paddy Fee said of one of his apprentices: “I shuk the brat till I gev him the ague?” Robert would soon recover, and Mac knew liow to doctor him. A sense of adventure thrilled her. She had not ceased to mourn her mother, but the resilience of young years made her quick to respond to new impressions. Rejoicing to leave Lisle Mansions, she looked forward happily to her life in Scotland. Sauna’s hints of a sentimental affair between Robert and Miss Ramage were, she assured herself, rank nonsense. Effie told her the Lennoxes and Rainages had been neighbours and friends long ere the fortunes of the Ramages touched ebbtide, and necessity sent her and her sister into the nursing profession. They and Robert had been .intimate as children, and called one another by their Christian names still, and while in London he had dined with the married sister and her husband, to whose small bay lie was godfather. This chatter in Sanna’s flat had cleansed Celia's mind of a nasty little doubt beginning to sprout under Miss Percivale’s assiduous tending and watering. The chatter had included talk of Colin McHaffie. whom Effie declared she hated, gritting her teeth, and enlarging on the extreme virulence of her hatred to astonished Mrs. Lennox. Now, when a woman asserts her passion, even to the gritting of teeth, that she hates a man, and can produce no adequate reason for her hatred, wiseacres may safely conjecture that her feelings towards him are the exact opposite of her avowals. A wise Celia would have reached the same conclusion instead of solemnly believing Miss Effie, and laying up trouble for herself. They broke the journey at Edinburgh, spending a night there, and proceeding north the following day. Effie proved a mirthful and loquacious companion, after Celia’s own heart, and if she did dwell a bit tediously betimes on the theme of Robert's perfections, one could understand an old friend’s warm interest in him. How was her innocent listener to guess that Effie lauded Robert, hoping that his wife would put in a kind word for Colin McHaffie, the despised and condemned. They reached their destination in the balmy hours of evening preceding sunset. The Lennox ear met them. They drove through a scattered grey hamlet, and into open country with miles of moorland on either side, dotted with a few farms and cottars’ holdings. The hospital struck a modern note, built in bunga’ow style, red-roofed, a verandah in front sprinkled with convalescent patients taking an airing in lounge chairs. A couple of uniformed nurses waved handkerchiefs, and Effie waved hers. Round a curve of the road they swept, and entered a wide gateway flanked by lichened stone piLars, receiving smiling greetings from a female lodge-keeper and a cluster of shy children clinging to her skirts. The avenue had no trees, only squat rhododendron bushes bordering untriuimed turf. -- .

Behind tlie weather-beaten mansion of Red Craigs towered mountains, darkly brown and purple, and before it beetling cliffs rimmed the coastline. Celia noted the scarcity of timber, wasn’t certain she should like those mountains so close to her, or the nearness of the sea thundering against the cliffs in rough wintry weather. Effie pointed to a distant group of spurs. “You’ll have heard of golden eagles, Mrs. Lennox? They are extremely rare. A splendid specimen lias its eyrie yonder, and the people call it Lennox Luck. It came when Robert came, and ho and Colin would slaughter in cold blood any fool who ventured to cock a gun at it. Our eagle doesn’t molest the farmers. Red Craigs is its larder, and it seems to know its protector. It’ll let Robert approach the eyrie, and never flutter a wing to fly from him. I’ve seen it soaring in the sun, a magnificent sight.” Celia looked rather scared, and Effie laughed. “It won't harm you, my dear; hut remember that’s sanctuary where the four spurs of rock are. The workers don’t intrude on his majesty’s sacred privacy.” A red setter bounded to them, giving tongue and wriggling his silky body in an ecstasy. Effie hauled the dog into the slowing motor and fondled him extravagantly. “Is the setter Robert’s?” asked Celia, and Eflie rolled a wary eye sidewise. “Colin McHaflie’s, but an odious man may have a perfectly lovable dog, mayn’t he?” “He may, to be sure.” “Roy has more sagacity and humanity than his owner.” “Perhaps. I shouldn’t allow him to lick my face, though.” “He’s kissing me,” said Effie. The car stopped, and she jumped out. “Welcome home,” she said beamingly, and led Celia to the housekeeper standing on the steps, attired in her “Sabbath braws,” and primed with a speech of awe-inspiring length. Celia shook hands, uncomfortably aware that Mrs. Lachlan’s penetrating gaze was searching her as thoroughly as if she were being X-rayed. In the background appeared other servants, stolid country wenches, disapproving of strangers on principle, reluctant to unbend their brows to an alien mistress a few days wed, and home without her husband. Celia felt a vague chill blight her high spirits. “Do they dislike me?” she inquired anxiously, parting from Effie after they had dined. “They couldn’t dislike you,” was the warm reply. “They seem to be thinking tilings.” “Thinking . Robert should have been here, doubtless.” “Or I should be with Robert?” “Er —yes. But servants’ opinions arc of no consequence. I must go now, and if you are lonely you’ll come to me, won’t, you?” Celia said she would, and went indoors. Mrs. Laelilan insisted on conducting her over the house, and her guide’s taciturnity tired and depressed the bride. One lofty and sunny upper room was her bedroom and the master’s, she was informed, Mrs. Lachlan’s X-ray gaze again upon her reducing her to stammering imbecility. “When do you expect him, mem?” the woman asked. “I—l haven’t the least idea.” In the ensuing silence the atmosphere congealed. “I’ve seen enough for this evening/ Celia plucked up courage to say. “I’ll uiiuaek. and hang mv clothes in the waruroue. 1 suppose there's hot water in the bathroom?” “Hot and cold, mem,” said Mrs. Lachlan; and, having said it', folded severe lips and rustled her silk gown downstairs. “I’d have screamed in a minute or thrown something at you,” muttered Celia, unlocking her trunk on her knees on the thick carpet, pleasantly conscious of the depth of its velvet pile. “Does nobody laugh here but Effie? That creature and Mac are icicles. Robert isn’t of their pattern, thank goodness. He can be jolly. I’ll take out liis nice big gloves and his blotter. H’ni! Russian leather binding and gilt monogram. Quite a dandy blotter. If it’s got stationery and stamps inside I’ll need some to write to Sanna. Let’s peep.” She sat back on her heels and slipped off the elastic band. An inscription caught her eye: To Robert from Effie on his thirtieth birthday.” “Sensible sort of birthday present,” she commented, and idlv turned the leaves until she eamc to the middle of the book. (To be continued daily.)