Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

40 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

To-day's Short Story. I

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

To-day's Short Story. I HIS HAPPY MISTAKE. I It "was very hot in the carriages of the Pullman train. The windows of the drawing- room coaches seemed to be hermetic ally- sealed in their frames. Denslow threw aside his afternoon paper and "wheeled about in his chair, seeking an avenue of eE.ca.pe from the sense of suff ocation that was oppressing him. He rose, and began walking through the carriages. It had occurred to him that pos- sibly the swift movement of the train would suck some of the air back on the last plait- form—enough, at any rate, to cool him cif for a moartezix or two. It was early in July. De-nsiow had just returned from a two years' stay in Paris. starting there a branch, business for his father. Your ainat is at the seaside," the latter had told him, when he met Mm at the station. She is not well, and has gone down there with her maiid. She is very anxious to see you, and I promised that I would suggest to you to run down and stay a. few days before you. settled down, here." Mrs. Roslya had taken. the mother's place to Hugh Denslow when he was six. The young rtfen felt that he owed her both affec- tion and respect, and so he had set off by the 1.50 train the next a&ternoon. The Biytheways can hold over for a few days," he told himself. The winter before he had gone abroad he had met Agnes Blytheway at a, dance. She had invited him to call, and he had enjoyed the visits at her house exceedingly. The interruption of his friendship, caused: by his departure for Paris, was a source of deeper regret to him than he cared to admit even to himself. If he had known Agnes longer he mi-girt have asked permission to corre- spond; as it was, he felt that their intimacy Was only just beginning when his absence came to break it off. She may be out of town next week," he was teiling himself now; and a.t that very instant he caught sight of her in the rear coach, which he had just entered. She was facing him, but did not see him. Her eyes were fixed on the face of a man who sa.t in the adjoining chair, and who was talking with her. Denslow was compelled to step aside at this point for an instant. A small child was walking down the carriage towards him, its nurse close behind it. As Denslow waited for the two to pass he over- heard a woman's voice just in front of him remark to a companion. Of course, they're bride and groom, Sadie." The speaker wa." looking straight at Agnes Denslow caught at the chair-back to steady himself. He wondered whether he would not have been obliged tct do this if the curve had not been there. there was certainly strange feelings at his heart. He had not realised till that moment how much he ca.red for Agnes Blytheway. And here she was married, and he was in the same train in which sue was taking her bridal trip. But when the nurse and child had passed him he kept straight ou. He had started to reach the end of the train. He was not going to turn back simply becaus.e he found a girl whom he had known two years before was on her honeymoon. If she looked up he would stop and speak to her. She could not imagine that she had occupied a very deep place in his heart. She did not look up, however. Her companion had just called her attention to something out of the window. Denslow passed on and reached the little g.ate at the extreme end of the train. He stood there, leaning against the door- way, watching the pebbles among the track Dal last ily up and scurry along after the speeding train for a tow feet, then fall down into a. fresh resting place. Th-ere was a, slight breeze here. Denslow took off his travelling cap and let it lift the hair from his damp forehead, while he tried to dissociate the mad rush of the train from the swiftness with which his own thoughts seemed inclined to launch themselves into the future—a future, too, in which now there seemed to be no destination. Of course, they're bride and groom." He I found himself almost unconsciously echoing the words he had overheard that woman sa-y? What bU8ins was it of hers whether those two were newly wed or not? Denslow felt that he was growing unreasonably angry with her who had opened his eyes to a fact he should have been glad to learn. It might have been awkward if he had gvne to c,&Il at. the Biytheways, just as of old. Very likely Agnes had forgotten him. q im-9 ha-d moved swiftly for her, with all the distractions of society, while for him, in a new atmosphere and with new friends to make, he had had vast opportunities to think over the past and to look forward into the future. Till this minute Denslow had not realised what a, very important factor in his future Agnes Blytheway had been. What if this were his own wedding journey? What if he had only stepped to the rear end of the carnage to see if it was not cooler, and were cow going to return to get the porter to bring camp-chairs, so that he and she might -Bit there together. But he found he dared not think on in this Bi-i«am. It would be better. even, he decided, that he should not remain in the same car- riage. To be sure, none of the passengers -could see him; there was only the pantry connected with the buffet behind him. Nevertheless, he felt like an imterioper, and, .re-placing his cap. he turned into the side passage and began to re-trace his steps. He could see plainly the face of Agnes' com- panion now. He appeared to be a man of about .35. and Denslow did not remember ever to have met him. He hurried on into his own seat and tried to pass the rest of "the trip in sleep—an attempt at which he made a. conspicuous failure. He was among the very first to leave the itradn when it ran into the station. He felt now that he wanted, above all things, to navoid meeting face to face her who had been -Miss B iytheway. His aunt was rapturously glad to see him ■when he reached the hotel. I am afraid you will find it very stupid Ihere, though, Hugh," she added, after her gTeOLlin,g. Tbere6 nobody about but "invalided old iadies a.nd mutually-absorbed brides and grooms." Denslow's response was a 4deolaration that he bad come down expressly to sae his aunt, UM that no other were necessary. Th,O old lady smiled and looked up at the tall, handsome fellow with pride in her eyes. .He had always been gallant, even as a little ha.p. She hoped he would find a. wife worthy -of him some day. The next afternoon Mrs. Bcslyn declared -.he felt weil enough to go out in her bath vhair for an airing on the front walk. Dens- low offered to pach it for her, bu.t she said "that iihe had a regular attendant, hired by the week, and Hugh mi-girt. walk along by her side. "We'll go down to the old schooner," she said, when they had started. "It is as good aa a pla.y to hear the tone in which the atttendajn expiains tungs. 800, there are 'the masts yonder." The h-ly-burly of the summer æason at the famous oOO6t resort had not yet com- menced. T*here were quite a number of peopLe ou.t, but they ware not of the excursion cl. The stj"aiuuei ship was reached in due course. Mrs. Rcslyn left her chair and gave! her arm, to her nephew. The youth who delivered the lecture was even droller than Demsiow had esp«3Cted to find him. "()OW. Hugh," said has aumt, after they had been through the after-cabin, "I'll sit .,ere, and I wotlt you to go down into the •Soreoa&tAe where t-he sailors sleep. They tell ¡ « £ &e> it io worse than a prison. Da 11, po-asemt state of mind Denslow did i foaal aw. iartewst in anything, but, after, Iftigemng to be presented to a friend who "had just come aboard and who volunteered to 4stay with JLre. Roalyai, he went forward and •ctemhed down into the steerage, where two or "three eigiiitsesrs were already assembled with th& g-uflwia. It was a dismal hole, and Denslow felt gmmly that it was an appropriate spot in -jrhich he met Agnes, unier the oiroum- titaaioes. But here she was standing beside the man who had been with her in the train, kistweing with an only half-supiweseed smile to the drooling tones of the "lecturer." "'Why. MtT. Danelow," she exclaimed, put- tisMS out her hand, "I thought I saw you in the train yesterday, but I was not sure. I itaarfsmed you were still in Paris. I am ever eo glad to see you. Dick," she adkbed, tam- ing to her coanpanaon, "permit me to present MJ", Demslow—Mr. Chester. When dad you 'get back?" She was overwhelmingly charming, oordSad, pretty, everything that goes to make a woman attractive. The two years that had imterv&ned since Denslow had seen her last had served to crown waith completeness the budding graces that bad then only began to captivate him. He now felt himself to be her slave. A reck- lessness quite foreign to his nature took possession of him. She seesmed heartily glad 4o see him, even if she had mairriecf some- ijody else. He would show that he was just 86 glad. He smiled down into her eyes as he answered her question "I got back two days ago. I wish now tbat I had never gone." He wondered if she urcwterstood what H 4mut. He thought she must, for even by e faint light that stole down the hatchway 4eoouki see the our deepeon slightly in her oebeedr.s. He looked round to see what im- •ffPeB&kott Tfl" dadmc kad nwilo on Mr. Cheater. But the latter had stepped over to the side of the lecturer, who had suddenly frmnd himself with an audience quite inattemire to his remarks. "Didn't you have a pleasant time?" Agnes looked down and began to draw in- visible figures on the plan-king with the tip of her pa-masol as she put the question. "No; I oan/t honestly say that I did. I was thinking too much of other times." Denalow scarcely felt tha.t it was himself who was speaking. He was not the sort of j man who flirts, but here he was, hinting as broadly as he oouJd to a woman on her bridal tour that he was inconsolable because be had lost her. If they had been very old friends it would have been different. She would have la?i?hed a.t his frankness, and perhaps h?v@ told him that he was,7<; q il. k enough. As it was, she changed the subject now and asked: Are you going to remain here long," II "Where, in this black hold of a place?" he replied wilfully misunderstanding her. "yæ,: as long as itg ugliness is redmed by the j sunshine of a certain presence. This was positively going too far he told himself. He wondered why Chester did not come over and pitch him into the hold just I behind them. He did come back now to say, "Agnes, it is damp down here. You had better go down, I think." He led the way out, and the others fol. lowed. "At which hotel are you staying?" Denslow was about to add "Mrs. Chester," but his lips refused to frame the words. He ended abruptly, but Agnes turned and told him with a mnil,- "The Windsor, and-" "Be careful, Agnes. There's a step there." Chester interrupted her with this remark, and her sentence remained unfinished. They had reached the main cabin by this time, and Denslow's aunt beckoned him to her side. With a lifting of his hat and a "Good after. noon," he parted from the woman who had stirred his pulses as he thought they never would be stirred. Carried away by an impulse he could neither explain nor con- done, he had allowed his admiration for her to make itself too manifest to be mistaken. And she? Well, she certainly had not shown that she disliked it. Denslow's brain was in a whirl when they reached the hotel, and he had gone to his ro,)iu to make himself ready for tea. That he, sober-3ided Hugh, as his friends had often I called him, should be carrying on a flirtation with a married woman, and a bride at that, seemed to him an astounding fact. He must I cut himself loose in some way. He would return to town the next morning, although he had promised to stay a day or two longer. He could plead a business contingency. Clearly, this was a very unsafe place for him at the present time. He broke the news to Mrs. Roslyn at the tea table. "I was afraid you would find it stupid here, Hugh," was her comment. Stupid If she only knew the real reason for his going, was Denslow's reflection. The nftt day was even more beautiful than its predecessor. Denslow decided to walk to the station in order to breathe in as much of the ozone as possible before getting back to town. As he neared the stat;o-.i he saw Agnes strolling trp and down the platform with Chester. She was not in travelling dress. She had evidently come down to see him off. It was strange he should leave her if they were on their honeymoon, Denslow thought. Perhaps, though, it occurred to him, they bad been married for some time. She smiled sweetly when she saw him com- ing, but he imagined a cloud came over her face when her eyes fell on his valise, which he stepped forward to take from the omnibus driver. Are you going to lea-ve so soon?" she said. "Yes. I must get back to town at once," he replied. He knew that the answer was terribly com- monplace. but, with those fascinating eyes looking straight up into his, all his ideas seemed frozen, leaving only one sensation behind, that of bitter, burning love. "I'm so sorry," she said. Dick has to go back to that horrid business, too. I was hoping that we might have a cavalier who could drop in and tee us now and then, if we couldn't afford one in the house." We? Denslow looked his perplexity. Yes. Lena and 1. She's my sister. I think you never met her. Why, didn't you know that I was staying with her and her husband here? She waa not well, so she told Dick to bring me back with But thero is your train just starting.' She began waving her hand to Chester. Denslow did not move. He saw the train rolling out from the station, saw Agnes's look of amazement as she turned to find him still beside her. Then: It's too bad. I've made you miss your train, rattling on this way," she said. It's no matter," he answered, calling to the 'bus driver to take his valise. I've decided I won t go back to town to-day." And they walked away from the station together.

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