Evening star., 1923-11-11

not summer afternoon, dt
Sir John Ratciiffe's house
Of Mepworth, perhaps one
of the coolest places TO be
found was under the shade of wide.
stone -pillared veranda, which ex-
tended along the back of the house
and turned the corner for FEW
yards, ending at a door which gave
admittance to the west wing. The
schoolroom devoted to the studies OF
Miss Norah Radcliffe was in this
wing. and. as her governess had gone
up to London for the day, Norah
gathered together her books and rang
for a footman to transport table
and chair to this corner. Moran
opened an arithmetic book and i'm
mcssed herself in figures.
by and by the butler came out onto
the main part of the terrace, fol-
lowed by young man.
81 thought her ladyship was here,
SIR he said "If you will take seat
a minute I'll go and tell her lady
ship"
VERY good. sir" said the butler.
"Or Miss Radcliffe, you know. Shed
do" said the young man diftidently.
The young man. whose name was
Charles Daubeny. began to pace the
veranda, but he turned back again
before he had reached the corner.
Norah got up and took peep at
him.
"Oh. it's you. Dubbins. is it?' she
said to herself. as she returned TO
her seat. Yes. / dare say Miss Rat
cliffc would do. and ] know Cropper
will have the sense TO fetch her in
stead of mother
The butler returned in a few min
utes, followed by another young man.
''Tll tell her ladyship you are here.
my lord, if you'll kindly take seat"
said the butler.
"Hulloa, Philbeach" said the first
young man. 81 thought you were in
London"
$50 ! am" said the other. Just
come down for the day. Where have
YOU sprung from?''
i've got place near here-I drove
over"
Il thought your place was in Nor
folk"
I've got two. Only just come in
for this one
You're lucky beggar then. It's
as much as can do to keep one
place going.
What's that you've got there?"
asked Daubeny.
This oh. chocolates" answered
the other. producing a large card
board box tied with broad pink rib
bon.
chocolates. Who for?"
X x = y
pHILBEAcH looked at him from
= under dropped eyelids.
Look here. Charles. my boy" he
said, slowly at believe We have both
come here on the same errand."
ct don't know what errand you have
come on. but If you think you are go
ing to do yourself any good by CIV
ing her chocolates. you must be
bigger fool than you look, IL that's
possible"
IT pass over the rudeness of your
language. Charles. 1 may remark that
these chocolates are not for-for her
We will put them aside for the mo-
ment. I will state the situation in
plain language. We have both come
here to propose to Evelyn Radcliffe.
Il never thought I had much of
chance" Daubeny said mournfully.
"Now you have come pirouetting
along, of course I'm a goner.'
We'll / don't think You have got
much chance. But will be perfectly
fair to you, my dear Charles. We will
toss up to decide who is to have first
chance 1t is now half-past 8. First
chance lasts till teatime. If the win
ner-er-er-wins, there's an end of
the matter. If he doesn't, the other
has his chance after tea. Do you
agree to that?"
Daubeny won the toss. He put his
head in his hands and groaned.
I'm in for it now" he said. And
she don't care for me bit"
How do you know" asked Phil
beach.
well. she seemed to like me we'll
enough at first. But after a bit some
thing went wrong. You put in your
oar. I suppose, confound you"
Then l suppose you went moping
about in corners and staring at her.
eh? l know you did, because l saw
YOU. And after you had made her
conspicuous for a fortnight or SO. you
went and asked her what you had
done to offend her"
well, did say something, but"
"Of course you did. My dear
Charles, you don't know how to treat
woman. If you had played the
game properly / shouldn't have had
look-in. AS it is, / tell you quite
frankly think 1 have cut you out"
what ought to have done, thenT'
You may divide women into three
classes, according to age. each of
which must be treated differently
Up to sixteen-chocolate creams"
Don't they take them after that?"
"They don't take them seriously"
"Then what's that great box for?"
These are for Sylvia-I think her
name is Sylvia
who's she?"
Il believe you have sometimes called
in Lowndes Square on Sunday after
noon. You may have observed there.
or more probably you have not, q
leggy being in an improperly short
frock, who took no part in the con-
yersation and devoured large slices
of seed cake. That was Sylvia
"Oh, you mean Norah. I know
Norah, all right. / took her to the
Zoo once"
Did you. Well, that wasn't bad
move"
.It wasn't a move at all. 1 took
her because L like the kid"