THE BROKEN FENCE.

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17841, 14 October 1929, Page 4

THE BROKEN FENCE.

Synopsis. Sin JOHN TREGENNA began the (rouble wnen he started to enclose Carloggas Downs, which had been common land from time immemorial. The villagers, are 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 that 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 Hie Downs. Later, Paul saves Cathay from an attack by an evillooking gipsy. CHAPTER XVIII. Preparations. Jasper recovered rapidly, and withh a week was taken hack to Crows Hill On making enquiries Sir John discovered that the accident was caused through Jasper colliding with a lorry laden with timber. Also he made flic further discovery that the timber was what he had purchased months before for the purpose of enclosing Carloggas Downs.

If the downs itself was an eyesore to Sir John the broken and uprooted fence, scattered in all directions made it doubtly so. He never passed that way without feeling angry and humiliated. The broken and blackened battens and poles bore silent and constant witness to his discomfiture and defeat. He might have given the wood to the villagers, It would have served them in many ways, hut his magnanimity would not bear so great a strain. It was bad enough to have been beaten by them, but to give them the timber would he like rewarding iniquity or putting a premium on violence.

The villagers had not removed a stick or stave. They might have done so, Init they were afraid. For all they knew the squire might have had people on the watch, arid they were not so impressed by his magnanimity as to take any risks.

So Sir John sold the lot for a few shillings to a jobbing builder at St. Cle-mcnls, who, a few days later, come with a two-horse lorry and carted it away. It had been an unfortunate, almost a tragic enterprise. Sir John almost writhed when he thought of it. Not only had it led to the bitterest ■humiliation he had ever known, but it had come within an ace of robbing him of his son. And added thereto was the other humiliating fact that Jasper would have died but for the timelv aid given by Paul Pendc.m. Devoutly thankful as he was that Jasper had been restored to him, he nevertheless bitterly resented being laid under an obligation to Paul. Ho would rather it had been anyone else —a thousand times rather. Paul had irot the Society for the Preservation of Open Spaces to back hirn up. Paul had opposed him at the election, and had nearly cheated him out of a son-in-law and Cathay out of a husband. Indeed lie had come to regard Paul as a kind of malignant fate that was ever working against him. One of the hardest things Sir John ever had to do was to write Paul a letter of thanks. He had to do it, of course, Good manners if nothing else demanded it. Everybody knew that Paul had saved Jasper's life, and if he failed to acknowledge 'the service the young man had rendered, he would become the talk of the county. _ To write the letter, however, was more painful than having a tooth drawn. He was not skilled with the pen at the best of times. Words wore alwfkvs troublesome things to manipulate. He wanted to say enough, but not a word too much. The young man must not he left with the idea that lie (Sir John) was reconciled or had forgiven him. The Tregennia were not in the habit of forgi\ing their enemies. The letter reached Lnnjeth two clays aHer Paul bad departed on his holiday, and so he did not see it until his return nearly six weeks later. Paid was anxious 'to get away from the neighbourhood of Carloggas, and to slay away until after Cathay’s wedding. Hence when an old college friend suggested a tour through Normandv, he hailed it with enthusiasm, lie needed a rest both mentally and physically. For months past he had been working almost night and day. Emotionally also he had been on the rack. Cathay’s face still haunted him. He was well aware that according to all the rules of the game he ought to forget her. She was engaged to he married. The wedding day had been fixed. She belonged Irrevocably to another man. Where the heart and affections are engaged, however, rules and regulations count for nothing. He loved Cathay with all the strength of jus lieing, and he made no attempt to hide the fact from himself. He knew lie could not have her himself, but he bated the thought of anyone else possessing her. He would rather see her buried than see her married. Hence he was thankful that when the wedding took place he would he hundreds of miles away. By the time he got back she would have removed to London, and the chances were that lie would never see her again. Meanwhile at Grows Hill preparations for the wedding were being poshed forward with all despatch. For a few days after Jasper’s accident there was some talk of postponing it until later in the year. But os. the lad recovered rapidly it was decided that there was no reason for postponement, particularly as Mr Reiilc was anxious that the marriage should take place at the earliest possible date. He would have had it several weeks earlier oou'ld he have bad his own way. He had pressed for a date early in August, directly in fact Parliament rose. He would be ■free from his Parliamentary duties, lie would have nothing to do and he and Cathay might spend happy weeks on the Continent before the summer ended.

Cathay, however, stuck to her resolve not to get married until Iho first v/mk in September, and in this she was backed up by troth her father and mother. Such an important event as Um mneriage of the squire's only daughter could not- be rushed. As it was. there was 'barely sufficient time for the necessary preparations. Sir John was determined that as far as he was concerned tlie tiling should be donn handsomely.

.Cathay wns kept too 'busy to have much Hum for rcfhjclion or introspection. On {he \\iholo sin: was curiously sjnthclie. NYliat had In he wujlcl he. rim was in the e-rip nf .1 fyeM*,-'stronger tFinn herself. She war. b.e.'.ny :.seriiii ou and cm to her predestined talc. Now and then she felt

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(By Silas K. Hocking,)

that she would like to stop “Time's | cvi.T-muving finger.” Stic want oil a j breathing space, wanted to think, to ; reflect., to consider. The pace was j too rapid. Everyone seemed ;n too ■ great ,a a hurry. She could not quite ! understand file general excitement. j As the day drew nearer, however, j snnctliing o'f the excitement coinmuni- ; wiled itself to her. The wedding pro- ; S'-tiLs that kept arriving by every post, J ■the new liais and dresses sue had to j try on, the people who kept 'calling on i n't? pretext or another, the number of j ] ;i tr.l l s!io had to write, kept her on j t.ho qui vivc. If she was not happy. | stio was at least interested, and some j n[ I;h n wedding presents gave hci un- | expected tiirills. j hi Cirloggns the excitement was ; av.n-.isl as great as at Crowes Hill. ■ There had not been what might be ; tiriviicd on important wedding in the j paris/i church for more than a gene- j ration. The shopkeepers did a roar- j ing trade. Everyone who could af- j i'ord the time intended to be present i •it the ceremony. Hence the demand I .'or ribbons and gloves and shoes and j duckings was almost unprecedented, i Servants who came into the village i rom Crows Hill were waylaid at once, i

specially those who were natives of : arloggas. Not only mothers and 1 sters, but fathers and ‘brothers, were • erious to know what was transpiring , t ihc big house. Everyone was avid ; ar news. ' The girls were by no means loath ; to talk and answer questions, and : when facts failed them they drew on ' iheir imaginations. They spoke of wonderful presents that had not yet arrived, and described dresses they had never seen. On one point, however, they were quite unanimous and apparently trustworthy. No one at Crows Hill seemed altogether happy. Lady Tregenna was sometimes tearful, ’ Sir John was “glum,’ while Miss : Cathay moved about the house like an ■ uneasy ghost. i Thoy supposed that she fretted oc- i casionally at having to leave such a beautiful home. What girl would not? Getting married had its draw- ■ backs as well as its advantages. She was wonderfully sweet and even kind- ; er than usual, but she rarely laughed, ; and seemed to grow more and more I apathetic as the wedding day drew j

near. t j Three days before the event Beale i

arrived at Carloggas and engaged j roms at “The King’s Head.” Ami two | days later joined by Billy Tempest, j liis best man. Billy arrived about four j o'clock by the Riviera Express, and i after changing into dinner clothes, he ! and Beale walked to Crows Hill, where j there was to be a kind of valedictory ( dinner party. Various uncles and cousins had arrived in their motor cars during the afternoon, so as to be in readiness for the great event on the following morning. Of the dinner nothing need be said except that the men drank more wine than they were accustomed to, and so became slightly hilarious and exceedingly talkative, and even confiden- j tial. Cathay, however, refused to touch wine, and sat for the most part silent and thoughtful throughout the meal. (To be continued.!