CHANCE.

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 15230, 5 May 1923, Page 13 (Supplement)

CHANCE.

(By Alice A. Kenny,)

For the Becond time that day Granger stopped by the gunsmith's, window, and stared fascinated at ttra blue and steely shine of thse shot gu As and revolvers displayed th»ere. He knew he was drifting into dangerous waters, but lacked will to 'dght the 1 awful depression that held hin». Anyone looking at him, with his strong features and good eys -would haw. thought Granger the last person in the world to wander into those hauuted byways of the mind that leafi to self-destruction, but on this grey evening he was far along them. He was in no special trouble. HAs war wound had left a legacy ot nerve weakness, and ho had come ncrrlh. with the idea of settling in a warmer climate. He had been looking round for a farmland had been feeding hopeful and well, when an attack of influenza, struggled through alono, in a boarding-house, had brought back his former trouble.

He was not without means., and his strength was returning, but a morbid gloom he could not shake off had seized him, and life was without savour or hope. He shrank from people even while he longed for

sympathy, and each meaningless day, full of faces, voices, and senseless activities, was more insupportable than the last. He suffered from a feeling of utter uselessness; and a conviction that no one could possibly take the slightest interest in him added a wretched loneliness to his melancholy. He was just at a point when a friend was needed to save him from himself, and he had no friend within reach. He dragged himself away from that shining lethal window,, and moved up the street. A light drizzle was falling and gave a wet radiance to pavements, tram lines, and passing people. He turned drearily into a restaurant he knew. A group- of people laughing and talking went in just in front of him. "They're happy," he thought, and his heart sank like lead. "Oh, God! I wish I,we re dead." They took a table near his. They were noisy, and it was impossible not to notice them. Two girls, one pretty, one only plump and pleasant, a young man near his own age, and a lovelv serious schoolgirl ol about fifteen, with long legs and short hair, composed the party. They all behaved rather as though they wished tp be noticed, or else they were excited. He saw them glance at him, as he sat alone waiting to be served, but it did not stir Ills miserable indifference. He could not even hide his sickheartedncss', but sat pale and quiet,, looking at nothing. ■A hand touched his shoulder, and the young man of the party stood beside him. Granger looked up in surprise. "Will you be kind enough to join us as our guest?" asked the voung man. "I was sent to ask you. We would consider it a, great kindness." He smiled charmingly, and looked almost shy. * "It's those confounded girls," he said plaintively. "Do come, they'll explain. My name is "Plainfield." Granger rose, and followed the other to the table. "My sister, Miss Plainfield," said the youth, "tile unknown friend (you don't mind being called the unknown friend, do you?) My cousin, Miss Liddell, the centre, cause, and pro r vidcr of the parly." He indicated the plump laughing girl. "My other rcousin. Miss Valentine Llddcll." The serious schoolgirl gave him a beautiful smile. "Will you sit here between lite Liddell girls? sounds as if 1 was a norman trying to say "little girls." They all laughed again as Granger bowed and sal down. "Excuse us," said the pretty one. "We'd laugh at any tains to-night.

a celebration." 'lt's Janet's great dvy. She has just passed her exam., a/.id won a prize for* a frightfully stufly /'essay, and it's her birthday, so wo ' made her shout to-night, and " "That waitress is a long time coming our way," interrupted the youth.

"So she can do whatever she likes, and she said she'd have you- "

"Goodness Gracious!" exclaimed Janet, "but explain": "Here's the girl," said young Plainfield. "Please/we wapt five large plates of fruit sala'd, with plenty of cream, and five large—bo, two large' plates of sandwiches and cakes, and tea, the very best cakes t you've'got please; this is a wedding breakfast, at least we're going to be i#.irried," and as I the girl went off with rather a doubting smile, he added, "So we are sometime, not necessarily to each other, of oourse, and not just now, but we are. I'd hate to palter with the truth."

"Do let me explain to the Unknown Friend," said Miss LicKTell. "You see to-day has been a good day for me, and oddly enough it has simply rained fives. It's the fifth of the month, I was fifth in the pass list, it's my birthday, and I'm twenty-five, and I got five presents, and I won a fifteen pound prize"-——".... .'".';.,..

"Sterling, not, ayoidupois," said the youth solemnly—"for my essay, and it was just five when we came in here, and then I said we must make a party of five, and Allan" "No, but you said we'd ask the first nice looking person we saw, and you said, Oh, there's just the one I want

"No, I didn't. I said " , "And Allan said suppose he's helf stunned have I got to ask him all the same?" - '- -■

"Oh, what a row! S'sh! everybody's looking at us!" ■ "Please, Mr Unknown Friend," said Miss Plainlield, "we're not always as rowdy as this', but we're dreadfully nanny. Can you stand us?"

The' salad and cakes had arrived, and tire table, normally for four, was crowded. Allan Plainfield was bantering the waitress, and shifting things about as though playing a game. "My move," he said idiotically, "let's have the Evans Gambit, makos a nice open game. Look, here, please, don't make any mistake about the slip, most important—put it in front of the stout old lady opposite me—she pays foi' everything."

There was magic in the atmosphere that had suddenly enveloped Granger, the murmur of voices, laughter, the scent of flowers and fruit, the lights shining on the china, and the circle of gay faces. i "How good of you," he said, in a low voice to Janet Liddell, "to share your happiness with a solitary stranger." "It's only our 1 nonsense," she answered, colouring, "but you looked lonely, and you looked the kind of person we wanted, and so—we just did. It was nice of yo-u to come. It gives you pleasure, this?" "More, far more than I can say."

The meal was conducted in a riot of happy fun.

"Let's tell fortunes," said Valentine, the most, sedate of the group, and instructed Granger in the art of tea cup divination. ' "Never mind if you swallow a leaf or two," said Allan. "Now, all together—take it in your left hand, concentrate. It's a ritual. One, two, three!"

People at the other tables suspended conversation as live fea cups were solemnly twirled in the air and turned upside dowh in their saucers. The ritualists then turned them right side up again, and read their futures.

The Unknown Friend's cup was declared the most interesting. Valentine, the chief prophetess, found crowns, birds, and bunches of flowers, and many other agreeable symbols among the leaves. "It's a lovely cup," she said seriously, "you have been ill, but your bad time is now over. It's your lucky day." "Indeed I think it is," said Granger, with a glow of heart.

There ensued a passionalc argument >about which picture theatre the party was to adjourn to, and the discovery of a play called "The'Fatal Fifth" naturally decided the matter. Granger was thenceforth addressed as The Fatal Fifth, and when he would have volunteered his name besought not to dispel the mystery yet.

He was made completely one of them, sat out a ridiculous melodrama with inextinguishable laughter, ran through the rain with them to catch their car, and found himself sit last buttering toast for himself, and drinking hot coffee in the Liddell's home, where the two Plainfields also lived. He was bidden farewell at parting by four different names, only one of which was his own, and adjured not to forget tennis and tea on Saturday. And not one of the merry tea party realised that they had reached out hands of salvation to a man on the sheer edge of the abyss.

WOMEN COUNCILLORS.

Mr Mark Cohen, M.L|C, who has always ben an advocate of women's rights, has been urging that Dunedin should follow the example of other centres by electing women to their City Council. Writing in the Otago Daily Times in advocacy .of the candidature of Mrs Leech, MBr Cohen says:— <

"It could not be said that by endorsing tyer candidature they were taking a leap' in the dark, for the presence of women on the City Councils of other centres has been welcomed, and in all cases they have "made good." If Mayor Gunson, o.f Auckland, had-been sounded he would have doubtless replied that in Councillor Melville (a member of the legal profession) he' has an energetic and capable lieutenant, whose knowledge of political economy and of finance is equal to that of any of. hc r male colleagues, while in Mrs McGuirc, who concerns herself, largely with social questions, he has a conscientious humanitarian. If you go tn Wellington, the testimony of Sir John Luke and Mr R. A. Wright (the present Mayor), would unquestionably be that Mrs McVicar was an invaluable helper in bringing to fruition the scheme for giving Wellington its pure milk supply, which has been such a conspicuous success. And, lastly, at the Christchurch City Council table there sits Mrs McComhs. wife of the Labour member for Lyttelton, and herself a distinguished graduate of the New Zealand University—a lady with pronounced political proclivities, whicn are distasteful to some folk, but who can hold hcr own with her male colleagues in any phase of civic administration, and is not even unacquainted wilh the mysteries of "high finance." That she has a considerable following h? the Cathedral City is a recognised fact, and there are among her admirers those who declare that if she is.ambitious she may yet become Chief Magistrate of that city, and sit in the House of Representatives when it shall please Parliament to adopt proportional representation as the only equitable and scientific method of obtaining a true reflex of the people's will in respect of representation."