“Miranda Repents,”

Wairarapa Daily Times, 1 August 1936, Page 7

“Miranda Repents,”

CHAPTER I (Continued). After lunch, the two elder men manoeuvred Miranda and Janies into each other’s company with a clumsy determination which neither could avoid, and themselves carried off Bertlia. , ‘. James paced along the deck with his hands in his coat pockets, looking at once annoyed and resigned. Miranda walked by his side with her chin m the air resolved not to be the first to speak, if they maintained silence for ever. “This your first crossing?” he asked, after a long pause. “Yes,” she answered, curtly. He looked down at her, noting her uplifted chin and eyes which gazed coldly in front of her. “Good sailor?” lie queried, maliciously. . “How mean!” she ejaculated, losing her dignity with a completeness which made him laugh.

She joined m unwillingly, anu anei that their conversation progressed a little better, though not much. He seemed either not to know what to say, or not to wish to say it, and when Bertha joined them a short time after, he greeted her with obvious pleasure. The three of them stayed together for the rest of the afternoon, watched the ship draw in at Cherbourg, and separated only in time to dress for dinner, so far" as dressing was required on the first evening. The next two days passed in pretty much the same manner. James and Miranda were paired off whenever possible, but Bertha always contrived to break up their tete-a-tete. Miranda liked this. She was more self-possessed when Bertha was present. One night as she and Bertha got ready for bed, she learned that it was owing almost entirely to James’s good offices that Bertha’s mother had given a reluctant consent to her journey to Hollywood. “it was James’s idea, in fact,” said Bertha. I‘l’d been bothering Mum for ages, but it was James who seized the opportunity to rush her into consent, by saying that he and uncle Elsworthy —you know uncle Elsworthy is my forty-second cousin or something, really—would see me safely established in Hollywood.”

She cast a glance at Miranda from 'under her long black lashes, but Miranda did not notice it. She was thinking that it was good-natured of James. She was also thinking that probably his good-nature had been actuated by personal motives, it being very likely that he looked to Bertha to relieve him of the early embarrassment of meeting his future wife, just as she eased the path of their acquaintance for Miranda.

Not until the next day did she read a different motive into his desire for Bertha’s company. She and James were on the sports’ deck, diligently playing deck quoits, when Bertha came by with a young man whom her charms had already apparently conquered. In between playing gooseberry to James and Miranda, she had succeeded in attracting more than one admirer to her side.

“Come and play, Bertha,” called Janies. She shook her head. “Well, come and play tennis,” he invited. He went towards her, and she stepped back a pace to meet him, her companion sauntering slowly on. Miranda went on with her game, aiming carefully, but she could hear the quick exchange of words behind her. “Do come,” said James. “Dad and Mr Lane brought us here, started playing, and then sloped off and left us. You know their little way. You can bring your conquest, whoever he is.”

“He’s pretty dull, and I’d willingly desert him, but I’ve been warned off,” replied Bertha. “How warned off?”

“Uncle Elsworthy, finding me so dense that I will play gooseberry, in spite of their efforts to prevent me, has taken mo into the great plot. So it’s no use, James, old top. I must leave you to your fate,” said Bertha, and with a friendly wiggle of her fingers, she rejoined her new friend. James returned to Miranda, taking the rope rings which she offered him and pitching them recklessly at the wooden peg waiting, and waiting in. vain, to receive them. “Oh, this is tiresome,” he ejaculated, scooping them up from the desk and spearing them on the massive peg for tlio next who chose to try his luck. “Let’s walk.”

They descended to the lower deck, and there walked the full length of it, pausing at the end to lean over the side.

Miranda had not quite caught the significance of Bertha’s last words, but her mind was groping amongst them with increasing displeasure. Suddenly James looked down at her. She wished he had not to look down so far. It placed her at such a disadvantage. “Do you know why you and I have been dragged on this infernal trip?” he asked.

Miranda’s eyes opened wide and her mouth closed tightly. She reared herself to her full height, doubting whether she had heard aright. Was it possible that he had called it an infernal trip? “Yes,” she replied. “They hopo we’ll fall in love and get married. But a silly idea like that was no reason why I should deprive myself of a holiday.” “Oh!” he ejaculated.

If the possibility of him being unwilling to fall in with his father’s wish came as a surprise to Miranda, the possibility of her regarding the project with as great a scorn as he did. surprised James. They surveyed each other with interest; then he smiled.

“Oli, well,” lie- said, “if we are liotli of tlie same mind, wo needn’t bother about it. I thought you -were a good little girl who was willing to fol-

BY V. RUTTLAND.

low father’s advice in such a serious matter as marriage, and —” “And I thought you were a good little boy willing to allow father to find a suitable wife for you,” remarked Miranda. “I’ve been grateful to Bertha.”

“Yes, that’s, why I rushed her mother into letting her come,” lie admitted. “I thought she’d help us through the journey out, anyhow.”

“And what, did you propose to do on the journey back?” asked Miranda.’ “Perhaps I thought that by that time we’d really have been willing to fall in with the matrimonial scheme,” he rejoined, and laughed. “How perfectly absurd to suggest that I should marry a child like you!” he added. His look and tone now were kind, but with a kindness Miranda could not appreciate. Never had she been so insulted.

“It’s certainly absurd,” she agreed, “but I never knew that anyone had suggested you marrying a child.” “Why, what are you?” he smiled. “Ask father,” sue replied, triumphantly.

“Oh, yes, I know you rule him with with a rod of iron, you toy tyrant!” “I dare say you’re quite, a promising schoolboy, looked at through your own eyes,” she retorted. “Why, you queer little mortal, you don’t think you’re grown up, do you?” he teased.

“That’s a question really too silly to answer,” announced Miranda, marching away from him with a stately step, the effect of- which was considerably spoiled by a rough sea. A lurch of the ship, threw her against the rail, and by the time she recovered her balance the deck rose where she was and would have sent hexreeling through the doorway opposite had not James caught her in his arms and saved her.

“Now what’s the mighty atom got to say?” he queried, holding her fast as ho smiled down at her.

Miranda looked up at him, decided that he was better than no company at all, and that it was not unpleasant to have something so solid to uphold her. “Nothing,” she answered, meekly. The sudden change amused and interested him. He bent his head until his face was close enough to hers, to make her apprehensive. “What a subdued little tyrant!” he exclaimed.

She made a movement to free herself and he let her go.

“We’ll walk,” he said, holding her above the elbow as they resumed their interrupted promenade. *

“There’s no necessity for you to walk with me,” she remarked. “Now that we understand each other, we caix dodge each other to our hearts’ content, and father and Mr Elsworthy need not know wo haven’t been together.” “Oh, but I like you, child, now I know I haven’t-got to marry you!” he announced.

“Schoolboys have notoriously good manners and great tactfulness, and always say the right right in- the right way and the right place,” Miranda informed tlie ocean at large. She was conscious of a sense of humiliation. It was one thing for her to brush aside the idea of marriage with him, and quite another for him to do it, especially after ho had met her. “He’s terribly conceited,” she mused. “It’s a great pity he can’t be taught a lesson.”

She looked at him speculatively. And when she dressed for dinner that evening she reached down her smartest frock, and proceeded to make herself as attractive as possible.

“I don’t know who it is you’re out to captivate, but whoever he is he’ll have to take you from me,” said James, putting his arm about Miranda and leading her in among the dancers in the covered space on the deck. It was after dinner, and Miranda’s, frock was a distinct success so far as James was concerned.

“But you’re too young to captivate any one, aren’t you?” he went on. “You’re just a little girl glorying in her party frock.”

“That’s all,” she agreed. “All? All you have to say?” “Yes. Aren’t you disappointed?” she mocked.

“Of course I am. I love to see you get angry when you’re called a child,” ho admitted.

“That’s why I’ve no intention of getting angry. Why should I?” “My opinion being of no value?” he queried. “Oh, I’m sure your friends respect it!” she replied, politely. He laughed and caiiglit her closer to him. The sea was still running strongly, and the breeze was fresh, but the roll of the deck and the wind which blow the ends of her shawl about them as they danced, the flickering light ot the lanterns hung underneath the canvas cover, all added to her normal pleasure in dancing.

“Well, tell me for whom you are: wearing this-party frock,” he said, when he had steered her by two or three couples crowded together. “How can I know? Having been consigned to you ever since we came on board, I haven’t been able to find out how many interesting encounters are within reach,” she explained. “I’ve had to leave that to Bertha.” “But Bertha’s grown up. You don’t mean to tell mo that you’d dare to flirt?” Miranda looked up at him and smiled a little, then dropped her eyes and went on dancing without vouchsafing any reply. “You precocious child!” lie ejaculated, stopping as they neared the edge of the dancing space. (To be Continued').