THE BROKEN FENCE.

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17837, 9 October 1929, Page 12

THE BROKEN FENCE.

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Synopsis, SIB JOHN TREGENNA began the trouble wnen he started to enclose Carloggas Downs, which had been common land from time immemorial. The villagers, ar e angry and seek the advice of PAUL PENDEAN, the son__of a local farmer, who has tutored Sir John’s son, and who is in love with CATHAY TREGENNA, the squire’s daughter. Paul promises to get in touch with the common land preservation society. Meantime, Sir John puts up fences around the Downs. They are promptly torn down by the villagers. Cathay is told by her father (hat Paul is the ring-leader of the opposition to his plans, and she decides to put an end to their friendship. Next day she meets Paul on a path which her father has ordered to be enclosed. They quarrel. Cathay then returns home, where she learns from her mother that both the family solicitor and an eminent counsel consulted by her father have advised him not to enclose the Downs. Later, Paul saves Cathay from an attack by an evillooking gipsy. CHAPTER XI.

Paul heard the news of Cathay's engagement in silence. It was not a subject he could talk about with anyone How deeply he was hurt no one knew. And yet he was not altogether unprepared. Ever since the election the gossips had talked freely, and not without some excuse. Beale had spent a good deal of time at Crows Hill and had been seen with Cathay again and again. Beale was a bacheloi and Cathay had reached a marriageable age. What more likely than that they should fall in love with each other. Paul 1 ad felt the force of this argument from the first. From his point of view he did nut see how Beale could help falling in love. Cathay was so pretty, so vivid, so alluring, so desirable in every way Unit Beale would need to be a confirmed woman hater not to yield to her spell. Whether Cathay would grow to care for him or not was another matter. There was certainly no particular reason why she should not. He belonged to her own class or to a class above her own. was intelligent, had pleasant manners and was not bad to look at. _ Yet notwithstanding all this, and in spite of the fact that she had told him plainly enough what she bought * him Paul had refused to relinquish evcrv glimmer of hope. It is not m the nature of youth to despair. Hence when the news came to him u Cathay was actually engaged it seemed for the moment as if the light had gone out. Fear had resolved itself So certainty. There was no longer nnv more room l'or hope. He had t face at last the cold and stubborn fact that Cathay was lost to him. Fortunately he had his .vvork, which was a perennial source of inteiest. When he got back from St Clements he could always retire to his labmatorv and find forgetfulness for th time being in his experiments. Quite recently he hea discovered a new metal. It was as light as alu minium, as tough as steel and as malleable and ductile as gold It was also rustproof and piactical y breakable. It could be pt°J e J paying quantities in almost any min pr-il-bearing district and could be used with marked advantage in e manufacture of thousands ol articles. This new metal he calied Ca hayMe aftpr Cathay, of course. At the- time he had not “heard of her engagement Later he considered whether or not he would change the name, but finally “'SwX I 'ot his “cover, naturally created considerable Interest anions The Times devoted a special orho‘o £ “ o „t dlS ° Paul “as Sailed as a "ins and a great future was pieSe“dtr ualhavflitei on account oMts M S b t“Tor,n„.f““‘'a considerable sum and then went quietly to work on , 'TJSu't 1 «' lortnisht alter her | nni iin I Cathay came acioss in TOC Times Supplement S'mTcnd ot the erUolo that. the if ihp new metal was Cathay SS? her fare darkened and M,»» bead puckered into an an„r, • He had named. in a “ e c r e But after a What an. 1111 mhe? thoughts possessed few minutes other ertinence, K he "afsic-c % IS. !Se had hoped and be /* Gl ? ar i es Beale she became Misused to of Paul Pendean would nav r . th ‘" k s ecref dismay that again. But forked. The face of charm had J obtruding itself nmn she had promised to marry. , two days SC n aV ipnarenT Reluctance. Nothing SulmCst urgent call would induce mm y s l a maUer'ol taVhe « ” rru e atmosphere of C.ro get a\\a v . adulation of Hill oppressed him. i e T he Lady Tregenna got conslanl Sey wSe hiss Intimate than before ~n Wmrasrement. Each was selfconscious and each more or less uncertain of the other. Beale had prepared lo Play me Pert ol the devout lover He presumed that some amount of billing and cooing would be expected of him. And yet the moment he tried to be sen .menta l a chill fell on him. Cathay was so calm and quiet and matter-of-fact that the words died on his 1 ps. was painfully conscious that as an actor he was a dead failure. To sim late what he did not feel was foreign to his nature. Consequently there were no thrills, no ecstasies, no tender passages, no love making in the generally accepted sense of the term. To all outward appearance they might be just ordinary friends. After two days the strain began to tell on Beale, and he found -a plausible excuse for hurrying back, to town But his troubles were by no means at an end. . , ~ He had been in his fiat less than an hour wen the telephone rang. 1 Lifting the receiver he placed it to i his ear.

(By Silas K. Hocking.)

“Hello?" he called. ‘iph, you are at home at last-’’

came Lady Ann's voice over the wire “This is the third time I’ve rung up I want to see you at once.”

“At once?” “Yes, at once. How soon can you be here?” Ann’s voice was sharp and peremptory.

“I have only just got back, and I was going down to the House right away."

“The House can wait,” was the sharp retort. “I must see you at once. Do you understand?” “Very good. I will be with you in half an hour.”

Beale hung up the receiver and frowned. He knew that he was in for a bad time of it. He had not meant to see Ann for a few days. He wanted to give her time to get reconciled to the idea, but clearly she was determined to have it out with him at the earliest opportunity. He was in a state of horrible funk by the time he reached the house. Ann met him in the hall and led the way 'to her own room. Her eyes were hard and her lips set. But her dress was exquisite. Pointing to a chair she stood with her back to the door.

“Now Charles,” she demanded, “is this announcement of your engagement true?” For a moment he shifted uneasily in his chair and stared at the carpet. Then he raised his eyes timidly. “Look here, Ann,” he said weakly. “Don't be hard on a fellow. Don’t you see it’s just as bad for me as for you?”

“Then it’s true?” she snapped. “What else could I do?” he pleaded. “You know the hole I’m in. It’s the only way out.”

“You could have waited.” “That’s what I couldn’t do, Ann. I’d have been in the bankruptcy court in another week.” "Well?”

“Do you realise what that would mean? I'd have to give up my seat, resign my clubs, and be just ruined for all time.” “And what now?"

“On the strength of the girl’s fortune my creditors will wait. They’ve told me so.” “So I’m to be sacrificed on the altar of the golden calf?" “We’ve both to be sacrificed, Ann. Don’t think I’ve ceased to love you. I haven’t. And I shall love you to the end of the chapter. But the fates are too strong for us.” “A real man should never talk in that way,” she scoffed. “The fates, indeed! If I were a man I should defy Fate and prove myself stronger. I feel inclined to put a stop to this silly ■engagement.” “You couldn’t do that,” he said in alarm.

“Yes, I could. I could tell her the truth, tell her people the truth. Y’ou need to be saved from yourself, Charles, you need—”

“I need money,” he interrupted, “and I must have it or I am lost. If you want to ruin me, put. an end to my career, send me adrift on the world a beggar—”

“You talk about being lost," she flung at him a little scornfully. “Why don’t you really try to save yourself? Don’t you think it is mean to ask a woman you don’t care two straws for to save you? Isn’t a man who’s content to live on his wife’s money lost already? Where is your manhood, your independence, your pride? What sort of a career is there for such a man? You’re a beggar already.” “Oh come, Ann," he pleaded, wriggling uncomfortably in his chair. "You seem to forget that I am suffereng quite as much as you. I was the happiest man on earth when I won you."

“And what have you done to keep me?” she flung at him. “What did you do at the Bar? And what do you do in the House of Commons except vote? Never once in debate have you opened your lips. I’m afraid you’ll always he content to live on other people. Why don't you square your shoulders and make a career for yourself?” “There isn’t a chance, Ann—not the ghost of a chance," he moaned. “Neither your people nor mine have any influence in real politics “There you go again,” she interrupted fiercely. “A real man does not depend on influence, but on merit. Think of the people -who have risen from nothing, who have fought their way unaided, who have carved out a

career for themselves by sheer grit and energy. While you, well educated and with every advantage, have just stuck in the mud, and seem content to remain there.” Charles rose suddenly to his feet and his pale eyes flashed. "Look here, Ann,” he said, “you are going just a bit too far. I didn’t make myself, and of I’m not a genius that is not my fault. If making a career is so easy try it on yourself, and when you have succeeded you may have the right to lecture me.”

She turned on him with one of her ■bewitching smiles. “-My dear Charles,” she said, “if I lecture you it is for your good, I hope. Think over what I have said, and in the meanwhile I will seriously consider whether or not I will break off this silly engagement.” He remained a considerable time longer, but she refused to promise to stay her hand. (To be continued.