The Storyteller

New Zealand Tablet, 28 December 1916, Page 3

The Storyteller

By Anna T". Sadlier.

PHILEAS FOX, ATTORNEY

[By Arrangement with the t Ave Maria.] (Continued.) 7 . -' - XI, _. ~v v v ~ : : After Susan O'Rourke had left him, Phileas was so elated that he closed his office half an hour earlier than usual, and allowed himself a brief holiday. If it had not been too late in the afternoon, he would have started at once to follow up that clue which was now the most absorbing subject of his thoughts. As it was, he strolled down toward the Battery, resolved to enjoy a trip to Staten Island. He sauntered through the Bowling Green, once a fashionable residential quarter, upon which the old Fort of Manhattan had looked out, and through which a stream of historical personages had passed in the long ago. It was now a spot frequented by emigrants, where many a forlorn waif, cast adrift upon these alien shores, tasted for the first lime the bitterness of exile.

The bay, a splendid sheet of water, lay clear in the descending sunlight. Pale gold, wavering and tremulous, that sunset deepened, as he watched, into warm rose. It touched the distant statue of Liberty, ironic gift of a nation whence true liberty has been temporarily banished. It hovered over the unsightly pile of buildings on Governor’s Island and the greenwooded point of Brooklyn. The sea-breeze came up and fanned his cheeks. It was an invitation and a summons—the summons of the sea that had always appealed to him. He remembered, as he hastened down the plank walk into the ferry-house, with the noise of the elevated railroad overhead, and of the surface cars all about him, how he Used to play here occasionally as a boy, and how he had wished to be a sailor, and had been turned from that vocation to this other by the influence of relatives. All, well, he reflected, it was no doubt for the best.

But the phantom of that old longing haunted him irresistibly at times.

He stepped on board the boat, _which was not yet too crowded for comfort, as it would, be at a later hour; at.d, swinging himself up the brass-bound stairs, he passed, to the forward deck. He stopped in the shade of the cabin door to light a cigarette, for the wind was blowing sharply outside; and, with a hand to his straw hat to insure its safety, he made his way to a vacant seat near the rail. As he drew near that point of vantage, he perceived the figure of a girl which seemed to him somehow familiar. She wore a close-fitting suit of gray, whose admirable tailoring displayed to advantage the grace and symmetry pf her figure, and that indefinable quality of smartness which the plainest costume frequently accentuates. A sailor hat was kept in place by ft veil of gauzy texture, matching the costume in tint. he girl was leaning lightly upon the rail looking seaward and there was in her attitude a suggestion of youth and buoyancy as well as of keen enjoyment. One light spray of hair had become detached from the austere restraint of the veil, and nestled curling upon her neck ; a clear pink was in the cheeks. A particulaily severe blast from the water caused her to turn aside, -

Phileas met the laughing eyes, brightened with enjoyment, of Isabel Yentnor. He caught the look of instant recognition, and the smile that rose to. her lips as he hastened to her side with an exclamation of pleasure. He had been seeing the young girl rather frequently of late in his visits to Mrs. Wilson, and there had sprung up between the two a friendliness touched with warmer interest, from the peculiar cir-

cumstances. of their acquaintance. Phileas felt now as if : He had - encountered an old friend in a foreign land. „ * >—_

"■" ‘ This is good fortune!’ he cried boyishly for the community of interests— at least Isabel’s connection with the one topic which the lawyer found at the time engrossing her a charm in his eyes quite apart irom that which lay in her mobile face and frank, sympathetic manner. ‘ Yes,’ - she assented to his last remark, * it is pleasant to see a familiar face in all these crowds. And isn’t it delightful here? I just love the salt water.’ .- So do I,’ agreed Phileas, heartily. ‘ I was recalling a moment ago that I narrowly missed becoming a sailor.’

‘ And you are a lawyer instead,’ the girl commented, with something that sounded like sympathy in her tone.

‘ Yes, I am a lawyer, as you have discovered. But do let me get you a chair.’ Having procured two instead of one, Phileas took his place beside her, resuming the conversation at the point where it had been broken off. ‘ Your tone,’ he said laughing, ‘ does not somehow convey a high idea of the legal profession.’ ‘ Oh, it’s a good enough profession, and, as we were saying before, interesting in some respects!’ said Isabel. ‘ But it doesn’t seem to suit you.’ ‘ What a set down for me,’ cried Phileas, —‘ for me who have just become the family solicitor !’ I hadn’t the choosing, you know,’ retorted Isabel : ‘ for if I had, I should certainly have chosen the conventional gray hairs.’ ‘ Are you so very conventional V ‘ I scarcely know, but I think so.’ ‘Well, in any case,’ continued Phileas, reflectively, * Mrs. Wilson chose me for a precisely opposite reason : because I had not gray hairs.’ ‘ There is no accounting for tastes!’ exclaimed the girl. *lf I had legal business to transact, my preference would be all for age and experience.’ ‘I am sorry that I cannot leap the years,’ responded Phileas, cheerfully. After that they were silent a few moments, looking out over the bay and enjoying the salt breath that blew up-from old Neptune. The boat, with a whistle discordant enough to scare the sea-birds that were flying here and there in the clear air, and with a mighty jostling and straining, broke loose from its moorings, and forged onward into the stream, churning the water into white foam.

‘ As you are in the family secrets far more than I,’ said Isabel, once the commotion had subsided and the vessel was proceeding tranquilly upon its way, ‘I may say that I have often wondered what they are all about.’ ‘ And that. Mrs. Wilson will never tell you,’ laughed Phileas, ‘ until you are an old gray-haired matron. Very likely she agrees with you that, in some instances, gray hairs are a pledge of discretion.’ Don’t be afraid,’ Isabel said. ‘I am not going to ask any awkward questions. I am far too well trained for that. I should never think of asking Mrs. Wilson anything that she did not volunteer to tell me, nor poor old Cadwallader neither. The parrot would willingly tell me if he could, but ’ ‘ So would some of the rest of us if we could,’ echoed Phileas ; ‘ but in some way or other there are limitations.’

‘ The way in which the parrot harps upon that one name,’ said Isabel, puckering her brows at the reminiscence, ‘is the most maddening thing. But, in fact, the house itself is fairly haunted by John Vorst. I wonder if he is dead? Surely his ghost must walk there by night.’ ■She gave a slight shiver as she spoke, which might have been caused by the keen salt air, or the superstitious fancies that she had conjured up. » ‘You see,’ she went on, ‘besides the servants, who are away in another wing, there are only Mrs. Wilson, myself, and Cadwallader in the main part of the houseexcept, of course, the parrot, who sometimes

wakes me in the dead of night with that weird cry of "John Vorst.” r Wouldn’t you hate it, Mr. Fox?’ mi -ill 1The girl had an appealing little way of taking the young man into her confidence, which quite enchanted him. - ■ ■■■■' ■■ -

‘Yes,’ lie answered, I think' I should; , though, after all, what’s in a name?’

‘ There is a great deal in that name,’ persisted Isabel, half jest, whole earnest; ‘ and I feel sure that John Vorst, whoever he is, has a good deal to do with the house and all of us.’ .. Phileas met ' the laughing eyes unwinkingly. He could not betray by the smallest sign the truth or falsity of her surmise. Under the lawghter of the eyes, lie saw a shadow that somehow touched him. It spoke of a lonely girlhood shut up in that ancient mansion with old people and their memories. It was wistful, dreamy, pathetic, all in one. ‘ Oh, I dare say John Vorst is a harmless enough ir dividual,’ he remarked lightly, ‘ and his name chanced to catch the parrot’s fancy!’ ‘ But the bird looks so malignant when he says these two words, hopping from one foot to the as if he had a horrible recollection of the man.’ ‘ You are getting morbid!’ cried the lawyer, cheerfully.

‘ And, then, that name is on all the documents,’ Isabel added, as if she felt that to be a horrible confirmation of her fears.

Phileas leaned over the side of the vessel, as if intent on something in the water. 1 Oh, you need not have any fear!’ cried Isabel. 1 I am not trying to find out anything : lam only following out my own train of thought.’ ‘ Better try to take a more cheerful view of things in general, including the parrot,’ laughed Phileas. Isabel stopped him with a little frown of vexation. ‘ You are so cut-and-dried !’ she said. ‘lf you had been a sailor instead of a lawyer, we could have spent Hi is lovely hour trying to puzzle out between us this mastery of John Vorst.’ Phileas laughed long and loud at this suggestion. ‘ If I had been a sailor,’ he replied, ‘ I should not have been able to exchange a word with you for fear of sending my good ship onto rocks or shoals.’ ‘That is a word from the wise!’ the girl retorted. ‘ J fear I am very far from wise,’ said Phileas, and there was something of significance in his tone. ‘ There are cases where I might be extremely foolish. But I think just now we had better leave carking care behind us and talk about ’

‘I am only waiting for Mr. Wiseacre’s suggestion.’ ‘Oh, about anything at all!’ ‘ Which means nothing at all.’ What do you like best to talk about?’ inquired Phileas; and that question led the pair into that personal vein of likes and dislikes, and the probabilities concerning one and the other, which forms the staple conversation of most young people. In this way they made quite a substantial advance in the knowledge of each other, and found the topic so interesting that they were disagreeably surprised when the Island was reached.

‘ Are you getting off Phileas asked, fearing that her reply might be in the affirmative, as indeed it was. ‘Alas, yes!’ answered Isabel. ‘I have a message from Mrs. Wilson to a friend of hers who lives down here. Are you staying on the boat?’

‘ I had meant to. Butwill you be very long in delivering your message?’ ‘ 1 shall not be going back,’ said the girl. *I am invited for an old-fashioned high tea, and to spend the night.’ . ‘ Then. I shall have a solitary sail back,’ Phileas said regretfully. ‘ But perhaps you will let me walk with you to your destination first?’ ‘ If you are not afraid of losing the boat,’ Isabel assented. ‘ 1 shall take all chances,’ the lawyer replied Heartily. Isabel made no objection; for, though the attorney was a comparatively recent acquaintance, he stood in

(he position of family lawyer, honored by Mrs, • Wilsou’s confidence, introduced by Father Van Buren ; and, moreover, circumstances had tended to make her better acquainted with him than if they had both pursued, for years the beaten path of ordinary intercourse. So the two walked together through that gardenlike country, past handsome villas with green hedges and verdant, velvety lawns; in the light of the setting sun, in the fresh, cool air, remote from the metropolitan . dust and noise and heat. Though they exchanged but few words, and only occasionally a smile or p. glance of pure enjoyment, the sail down the bay, and the walk together through that sunlit land, with che water stretched out before them in its glittering beauty, established a perfect friendliness between the (wo, with the hint of a warmer sentiment that arose from the fresh and unspoiled nature of each. The afternoon .remained in their’recollection for long after, as a thing apart. Phileas, hearing the first whistle of the boat just as Isabel’s stopping-place was reached, took a hasty have of his companion, saying; 'This trip altogether was more than I could have hoped for. It has repaid me for the grind of the week.’ And I think it has laid the ghost of John Vorst,’ said Isabel. ‘ The air here, and everything, in fact, is so delicious!’

Good-bye he cried, lingering despite the imperative call of the ferryboat. ‘Good-bye, Mr. Fox!’ answered the girl, quite overlooking his name’s lack, of euphony, and the red hair that all too vividly gleamed in the sunlight. For, after all, what do such things matter when two are young, and nature is beautiful, and minds arc in sympathy ? Reluctantly Phileas turned away, taking a quick run from the slope of the road to the boat landing, and catching the ferry by a hair’s breadth. The solitary sail cityward was filled with the thoughts of his late companion. Once more he smiled reminiscently at her witticisms, and was conscious of an acute sympathy for her loneliness.

(To bo continued.)