Daily Kennebec journal., 1924-03-15

name was) who was so rich. and a
connection of marriage with the firm,
and who had sent for their best
young man" to teach him. in his
old age, how to drive a motorcar.
Everything about him sounded as
II he had some sort of a bee in his
bonnet, Archie thought. He won
dered what the old boy would be
like. -
Z On the arrival Of the Navarro at
the Common. a child brought him a
note down from Rios. 1t regretted
that Mr.. Rice Mathews was to be
kept in bed by doctors orders for
. couple Of days. and added that he
would let Mr.. Layerock know as
ready for his lesson. The note was
I'm a feminine hand "a nurses
probably signed per pro E. Rice
Mathews. II. r n"
Rather casual. thought Mr.. Lave
rock.
Anyhow. It was raining too hard
to give anybody a driving lesson.
1t went on raining.
Archie Laverock made up the fire
in the little circus range. got up
what he called quite a cheerful
fug' inside his abode, lighted his
pipe and took up q book.
Within forty eight hours. during
which It rained without ceasing, he
had read right through the only
three novels with which the cara
van bookshelf had been provided by
Its owner (another partner in
Archies FIRM. There "Aylwin"
Chat book all about how lovely
Wales was in the summer, good
LordD Pointed Roofs" (what this
was about he never fathomed). and
one of those volumes about Sylvia
Scarlet"
The Rover wished that the fellow
who wrote these would realize how.
after n certain time. one got sick of
the name of a young woman, al
ways the same young woman.
1t rained on. ga
He came to an end Of all the pipe
tobacco and all the cigarettes he
had brought with him; he put on
his old trench-coa splashed forth
to the village, and renewed his
stock. The old lady who kept the
cornN' shop knew no English beyond
the words: IT'S raining. It's very
raining." Archie thought she had
learned up the greeting most fire.
Quently apt. - For still it rained
He took tramp in the opposite
direction, along four miles of ILL
kept. uphill road. bordered by stone
hedges and sloping mountain field
that faded off into the inevitable
slate-gray mist; he passed one white
cottage, met two children with sacks
over their heads. and several
drenched hens. What a neighbor-
hood.
Always 1t rained and = rained:
steadily, serenely. Not a cloudburst
but a calm and masterful down
ward drench that Qike some engine
snoring at its happiesD seemed as
If it could never leave off.
Through this deluge he returned
to that ark. The Navarro. No use
pushing on anywhere. as at any
moment this Mr.. Rice Mathews
might summon him up to Rios.
Absolutely nothing to look at, out
OF the caravNn windows. He looked
round inside. but he knew every
neat detail of that interior by heart
Perhaps it was then, in intervals of
Aylwin, Pointed Roofs, and. making
up the fire. that he began looking. in
a kind Of odd wondering. detached
way. at himself. Yes, at himself, al
most as If this Archie Laverock
were another fellow altogether.
Lucky? Not!
Why was he never satisfied? With
his luck?
He was lucky: yes, he always had
been Lucky. Lucky at school all
ways got on well there. Lucky in
his guardian. his dead mothers
brother, who had during his life
time. allowed him plenty of pocket
money. and had given him more or
less the run of the place in the
holidays. Lucky during the war
by Jove. yes. Lucky to come
through as he had. looking at some
of the places he'd Sheen in. Lucky
in his job with that firm; a job in a
million. really, and one that suited
him down to the ground. Lucky
IN being chosen to bring The
Navarro down here (if only it
would stop raining). Lucky, that
was. in his friends: the son of the
1irm. the campites. all of them.
LUCKY in everything really =
except. of course. cards-Ah. there
lIaverock's extraordinary runs of
bad luck We're positive byword.
Everybody Clipped him about the
Kind of hands he got: said 1t must
mean that he was jolly lucky in love.
But was he?
1t seemed to young Laverock at
that moment that young Laverock
had always been, If anything, indif-
ferent to women.
Yes. He could swear that he had
never chased them. At times they
turned up in his life. Could he
somehow. don't you know? Compli-
cations of one sort and another
had ensued. Not his doing, not any-
body's doing. 1t seemed to him now
tas 1t had seemed before now) as
II the last of these complications
was over. and as if there would
never be any more. A good thing.
None of them had been worth it.
Nothing, what he expected.
What he did expect he didn't
Only at the bottom Of his heart
this Arrant Rover had sometimes
the queerest feeling, one that per-
sisted. The feeling that somewhere
in the world there was a woman
waiting. Not a woman he knew at
all. Some girl. different-ah,. how
different from any he had ever met.
was somewhere fond of him, dream
ing OF him constantly, of him.
Archie Laverock: surrounding him
with thoughts of tenderness that
took the form of great soft dove
colored wings folded all about him.
The widest fancy, Of course;
quite absurd.
What he really wanted was some
body to talk to in this dashed cara
van.
He wished to goodness he could
have brought old Smith along with
him on this trip, but old Smith
had business connected with sitting
for hours in the immense anterooms
of the India Office -
He wished he'd got n dog -