A Complete Story

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 41, 18 October 1923, Page 9

A Complete Story

The Squire and the Damsel

(By Victor O'D. Power, in the Dublin Weekly Freeman.)

John o'Grady struck the table with his clenched right hand, as he thundered an ultimatum to his offending son Walter.

"It comes to this, sir! — comes to this: If you persist, after to-day, in carrying on with that confounded actressgirl, you may consider yourself thrown henceforward "on your own resourcesto sink or swim in your own unaided course! I'll wash my hands of you for everand your family home here shall never again be yours!"

And the infuriated Squire of Rathderry meant every word that he said.

Squire O'Grady was a fine-looking, middle-aged man, and his only son Walter was very like his father: a tall, graceful, well-built youth of four-and-twenty, 'with a handsome face, bronzed from out-door life and exercise, bright fearless hazel eyes and a smile of sunshine.

That fearless light in Walter's eyes often reminded the Squire of his girl-wife, who had died at the time of Walter's birth, after one year of happiness at Rathderry.

"I'm sure I don't know how this story has reached your ears, sir," Walter said, after a little pause, during which he managed to control his anger with a strong effort of his will. "But now that you have heard about the matter, sir, allow me to inform you, first of all, that Miss Eva Staunton is a lady by birth, and was compelled, owing to family reverses, to join O'Connor's Touring Repertoire Company two years ago. Also, pray, permit me to say, father, that Eva Staunton has promised to be my wife. The moment I first met her, at the Fermoy Hall last winter, I fell in love with her —and before the end of the week she and I became secretly engaged to each other. There's the full truth for you at last!"

Squire O'Grady was beside himself with fury, as his son placed this unblushing statement of facts before him. He raved thundered again and again struck the table with his fist, as he ordered Walter to quit the house that very day, and never again to show his face at Rathderry. * V • y •

Before this tirade was quite finished, a timid knock sounded on the study door, and a fragile, white-haired, sweet-faced old lady entered the room, ..leaning heavily on an ebony stick.

This old lady was the Squire's mother. She had heard the angry voice of her son just now, from her own room, and she looked pale and distressed.

"John, John, dear, what are you saying to the boy?" she gasped. She was passionately devoted to her grandson. "Shame! Shame! Why, what will the servants think? What will Miss Bateman think?" - .

"Let them think what they like, mother!" the square angrily broke in on the old lady's trembling words. "I'm sure I wish Miss Bateman had kept you out of this room just at present!"

Miss Bateman was old Mrs. O'Grady's nurse and companion. Her duties were to look after her chargeto amuse her, to read aloud for her, and to minister to her daily comforts as far as lay in her power.

The squire's mother, however, was getting very tired *>f Miss Bateman, who had recently shown herself to be harsh, unsympathetic and selfish in her attitude towards the invalid. ?• \ x

"Do tell me what it is all about, John!" old Mrs. O'Grady persisted. * .

So. then and there, the squire informed his mother as to Walter's "insane infatuation for a d——d playactress," giving his son's own account of the matter, with a sarcastic sneer on his lips..

"Of course, this wonderful Miss Eva Staunton is a lady of the bluest blood, and so forth!" the squire went on, in fiercely ironical tones. "She is eminently qualified, by birth, breeding, and her present experiences, to be an ideal wife for Walter!" j

"Whatever she may be, I mean to marry her as soon as I possibly manage to do so!" Walter indignantly cried. "If you send, me adrift, : father, I have still a head

on my shoulders and two strong arms;attached to my body; thank God! I can earn enough money, I hope, to keep myself and my wife out of the workhouse!" . . \ : "Oh;-Walter, Walter, darling!" old Mrs. o'Grady was just beginning, her voice broken with agitation, when a hard-featured, keen-eyed spinster, of forty winters, suddenly appeared at the door.

~ : ;.;.. The squire turned strenly to the newcomer. "Will you be good enough, Miss Bateman, to lead my mother back to her own room at once!" ./ "I went downstairs for a minute to get a newspaper to read aloud to Mrs. o'Grady, sir," Miss Bateman shilly explained, as she grasped her charge by the arm. "And when I returned to Mrs. O'Grady's room she was not there." ' "I'm going now, Miss Bateman," the old lady meekly said.

Then she glanced appealingly at her son. "John dear, be merciful! The boy is sensitive—he can be led with a silken thread, but not driven with a horsewhip, remember!" Then the old lady made her exit, in the charge of her most unlovable "companion." "There's no fear, I'm going to adopt the silken thread' method!" Squire O'Grady fiercely said to his erring son. "I feel far more inclined this instant, you headstrong young fool, to apply the argument of the ' horsewhip!' "

"I'll spare you that trouble, sir 1" Walter at once said. He spoke respectfully, but proudly and with complete determination. "I shall leave Rathderry within an hour. Nothing can alter my decision!" 11. .Walter O'Grady left his old home that fateful afternoon, and some months went by before the Squire heard any tidings of his son.

Then the news reached Squire O'Grady— a letter to his mother, from an old crony of hers—that Walter had gone out to Australia to a cousin, one George O'Grady, who was running a big sheep ranch within twenty miles of Melbourne.

"Poor Walter came to see me the very day before he left Ireland," this letter went on. "He declared his intention of settling down in Australia if he liked the country and got on well at his work. Of course, I had heard about his engagement to that actress girl, so I asked him about her; and he told me that he hoped to be in a position to send for her within a year at furthest." ... ■■■*.■

Old Mrs. O'Grady read this portion of the "letter with tears in her eyes, and even the Squire was compelled to turn away his face from his mother's earnest gaze, as he perused the paragraph in question. ..

"Well, 'twas no fault of "ours, mother," he said at last." _, Walter made his own bed for himself, with his own hands and now he evidently doesn't mean to ask our assistance to help him to lie on it!"

Old Mrs. O'Grady burst into uncontrollable tears.

"My poor dear boy! I always loved him, since he was an infant," she sobbed brokenly, "I cannot face the thought-that I'm never to see him again!" The Squire—who like most men, hated "a scene"— hurriedly left the room; but a gentle hand was placed on old Mrs. O'Grady's bowed shoulder, and a soft, sympathetic girl's voice murmured words of consolation.

"Now, now, now, dear Mrs. O'Grady! Pray don't give way like this. Your grandson will surely write to you, when he has good news to tell you—and, please goodness, you and he will meet again sooner than you think!" The speaker was Mrs., O'Grady's new companionGrace Ronayne—who had replaced the terrible-Miss Bateman in the previous month. - '

Since Miss Ronayne's arrival at Rathderry Squire O'Grady's mother seemed to have acquired a new lease of life. The days had passed away peacefully and happily. Never until to-day had Grace Ronayne seen her gentle charge give way to her hidden sorrow like this. J : The Squire himself also had surrendered to Miss Ronayne's personal magnetism, and he sometimes sat with his mother listening ; to .;■ her new companion as she read aloud, of . a night T over the cosy fire in old Mrs. O'Grady's little sitting room adjoining her bedroom. ..■;■'' -Grace Ronayne was a ; r very -; lovely girl—of ; medium

height, with -a:; strikingly graceful figure and a winsome, sympathetic face. She: had large blue-grey eyes, full of sweetness and expression, small, • delicately formed features, and beautiful, burnished v brown hair rippling in sunny wavers about her shapely little head. ■"_' - : .;' ■Bay by day, week by week, the Squire found himself drawn more and more hopelessly within this girl's web of fascination; until at last the day came—ten months after Miss Ronayne's arrial at Rathderry—when the extraordinary truth burst like a bombshell on Squire O'Grady. He had lost his heart to Grace Ronayne—he, a man of five-arid-fifty,;a settled-down, elderly widower, had actually and literally become the slave of this beautiful girl some thirty years younger than himself!-. " ' Watching, day by day, Grace Ronayne's unfailing kmdnes to his mother, the Squire's affectionate interest in the-girl had at first been enlisted; then, little by little, his own heart had been drawn to her, irrespective of her goodness to his mother—drawn to her because of her own personal attraction. And thenceforward the Squire surrendered to a wild almost incredibly blissful dream. Could could he ever hope to win this girl for his very own— be the companion and the joy of the years that were still before him? -

And-under the influence of this wild dream and radiant hope the Squire's heart softened towards his exiled son, and, through the wondrous force of sympathy and fellow-feeling, he now at last fully understood Walter's emotions, and, swayed by his own all-engrossing happiness of heart, he cabled an urgent message .to his son: "You are fully, forgiven. Come home to Rathderry at once." . ---

But for five weeks after this message was. despatched to the other end of the world, the Squire did not succeed m summoning up his moral courage to put his fate to the touch at last. Then came a mellow afternoon of September,. when Squire O'Grady, still immersed in his love-dream, entered .the old orchard of Rathderry and beheld beautiful Grace Ronayne seated on a rustic bench beneath an apple-tree, an open book in her hand. "Now, or never," the Squire said to himself as lie quickly advanced to his charmer. CHAPTER 111. Grace Ronayne glanced up from her book, as John O'Grady approached her; then she was about to rise quickly from the rustic bench, but the Squire's hand fell lightly on her shoulder and prevented her impulsive movement. "Mrs. O'Grady was writing a letter, sir— I told her I would, run out here '.the orchard for half an hour," the girl hurriedly explained. > • "You spend far too much of your time with my mother, Grace," the Squire" said. During the previous months he had dropped the formal "Miss Ronayne." .."And you really must give up calling me 'sir!' The fact of. it is, Grace, my dear"—and now the Squire had somewhat excitedly seated himself beside her, and the hot color had swept over his face—"the fact of-it is, I've decided to break the whole truth to you at last—at last! -, . , You've won me, in spite of me, my dear. I love you with all my heart, Grace Ronayne, and the one. dream of my life now is that you may consent to become my wife and the young mistress of Rathderry I" Then followed a passionate outburst .from the lips of John-O'Grady—almost a frantic appeal to,this startled, trembling girl to overlook all the disparities between them and to consent to think .. "things over" his' proposal—least. : : : ».- "■ ■ : : >,.'■■ .^^■.^i

While these words were still rushing from- his lips Grace Ronayne had risen in considerable agitation from the bench. ' "■''..,.. . s. '-..■--■ -.-- •.-.:.' .; ,'kv :=. : ;^V

"Oh, sir!—oh, Mr. O'Grady," she literally gasped, and her face scarlet with shocked amazement at first, now grew paler and paler; ':■ "You cannot mean what you are saying! Oh,. I hope—l hope you do . not ".really- mean' it! j . ~:C : " y-. r . I —l've been \l so happy / here—l am 'so attached "•■ to your mother—and "I- always -looked upon you "as a loved, true friend. Oh, tell me that you don't actually mean it, Mr. O'Grady!" she went on wildly, as she placed her hand appealingly on his arm." "Because, if you really are in

earnest in whatyou say, I shall be compelled to leave Rathderry this very evening—and it will almost break my heart to do sol"

. And at these words—which conveyed so clearly, so unmistakably the girl's attitude towards himself and" his proposal—the scales dropped from John O'Grady's eyes and he realised the folly, the madness to which he had allowed himself to surrender during the previous months. ; A little silence followed during which the Squire's pride and common sense came to his assistance and helped him to pull himself together, ere he suddenly grasped Miss Ronayne's hand and held it with a reassuring pressure. « "I offer you'my sincere apologies, Grace, and I most humbly ask you to forgive me. I must have completely lost my'head, my dear—l suppose we are all subject to these temporary madnesses occasionally! .* . . Do forget all about it, Grace, my dear. 'Let everything glide along in the old peaceful way. My mother would never forgive me, if any act of mine drove you away from Rathderry— and, for my own part, I really don't think I could live in the old place any longer if you were gone!" And as the words fell from the squire's lips— Grace Ronayne turned away for a moment in the effort to control her emotion— rapid footstep approached over the orchard grass, and a tall, bronzed, handsome young man suddenly sprang forward.

"I'm-back again, sir, you see! The moment your message reached me I got ready for the journey home!" The speaker, was Walter O'Grady himself; and at the same instant a cry of amazement and delight broke from the lips of Grace Ronayne.

As yet Walter had not glanced at Grace, his whole attention seemed to be taken up with his father. "Walter, Walter, is it you, my lad! ... A hundred thousand welcomes!" John O'Grady was now holding his son's two hands in his. There was no mistaking the genuine sincerity of his welcome. '.'Thank you, father! I was overjoyed to receive your cable."

Then, suddenly, Walter O'Grady glanced at Miss Ronayne. He uttered an exclamation of amazement: "Eva Can it possibly be you, yourself?" Grace Ronayne dropped on the rustic bench and burst into uncontrollable tears. J. \ "God bless my soul!" gasped Squire O'Grady, glancing from Miss Ronayne to Walter. "What on earth is the meaning of this?" "It means that this girl is Eva Staunton, sir—fiance!" was Walter's extraordinary reply, as he now rushed forward and took Grace's trembling form" in his arms. "Though what she can be doing here at Rathderry I cannot possibly imagine!"

Grace, however, had by this time succeeded in controlling her sudden emotion, and, withdrawing herself from Walter's arms, she rose quickly and stood between father and son.

"It was all a little stratagem of my own devising," she said quickly, "in order to make a desperate attempt to win you around, Mr. O'Grady, to consent to my marriage to Walter. . I answered your mother's advertisement for a companion and came' on here to Rathderry—using my own true name, Grace Ronayne. Walter knew nothing of my scheme. His letters to me and mine to him, were forwarded safely by my sister, Alice, who lives in my old home, near Tralee."

"Well, well, well!" John O'Grady said, having fully digested this story. "It would certainly take a play-act-ress to carry it all out with such cleverness and success! You deserve to be rewarded for your enterprise, Grace, my dear, and rewarded you shall be forthwith. It certainly won't be any fault of mine, or my mother's, if yourself and Walter don't be happily married at the soonest possible moment!" . :. . s''

And the Squire loyally fulfilled his promise.