San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-10-18
CONTINUED from Page 10)

wished them "a very good time
with plenty of happiness and love"
He produced the very best wine in
his cellar and took his glass before
leaving the room.
Then for a week and longer the
quartette INDUCED a mania for
rambling over the countryside.
Strange that Tina and Charlton
should be cut off so frequently
from the Others; Lady Pinter
blamed Sarling; he was so forget
full of the outside world when his
elastic mind was wrestling with a
scene for his next play; he would
wander on for miles without speak
ing a word!
"But then, my dear" said Lady
Pinter to Tina, 81 always know
that Charlton will look after you
if we are not back to dinner"
Tina and Charlton returned
from long ramble just as the sun
was beginning to give way to wi
light. Carlos met them at the
door of the inn and with a prodi-
gality of gesture informed the
sonora and senior that Lady Pin
ter and Sarling had been recalled
to Lisbon by telegram! There had
been no time to write note; in
deed they had left most of their
belongings for the others to pack
and bring along with them on the
morrow.
Charlton appeared to be thrown
into a sad state of perturbation by
the news. He feared, he said, that
Marie, the irreconcilable, had
something to do with it, and he
called Heaven to witness that
never again would he jeopardise
the peace of mind of Tina by ask
ing her to tolerate him on a
holiday.
Tina listened in silence to the
story told by Carlos, her little red
head held slightly to one side, her
big eyes blinking wonderingly.
Then, with determination she said
to Charlton.
"We won't wait for dinner.
Pack and let's get away by the
next train"
impossible" said the listening
Carlos.
There wasn't another train leav-
ing for Lisbon until ten o'clock the
next morning!
And a heavy rain was coming up
against the wind. No cars, no
conveyances of any kind. There
was nothing to do save stay in the
inn and make the best of it. Alone
in the inn with Charlton!
They dined together-why not?
Carlos brought them a very, very
special bottle of wine, wine that
would carry the sonora on wings
to the heavens. His fat, oily face
beamed as he gazed down on the
pair and remembered how Lady
Pinter had smiled when she told
him to look after them during her
absence.
After dinner they sat outside in
the moonlight, the rainstorm not
matcrialising and Charlton rhap-
sodised until she threatened to seek
the sanctuary of Carlos's kitchen.
Little by little, he worked the con-
versation around to the night when
he had dared to kiss her throat as
she lay back in the carriage and
slept.
Dared to, kiss her! He won
dered why he had restrained him.
self so long. Tina was made to be
kissed; the gods had so fashioned
her. He wished that with one
sweep of the arm he could throw
back the years and meet her UNI
trammeled by his matrimonial
bonds. Oh, for the woman who
understood men! The woman who
sympathized with the varying
moods of the temperamental
martyr. Such a woman should
lift him from the abyss to the
slopes of Parnassus, inspiring him
with the fragrance of her hair, the
mellifluous flow of her musical
voice.
And the rest of the stereotyped
tommy rot that comes of idle
dreaming, Unborn laziness and
cocktails and brainless women of
the Lancaster Gate flat type.
Tina smok a cigarette and
smiled at the moon-at the man in
the moon, for his face was un-
commonly like John Humphreys.
She allowed Charlton to meander
on; her ears were closed to his in
antics.
She was thinking of Humphrey,
now, and the laundering Of herd
of buffaloes in panic would not
have broken the golden thread of
those thoughts. She was begin
ming to see the beauty of rough
hewn Humphrey; the shallowness
of Charlton and Sarling and Lady
Pinter and her set was showing
her the depth Of character of the
man whom she had allowed them
to designate the chick" Furtively,
her thoughts stole to Miranda Bolt
ingbroke whom she had left in
charge of Wingrove.
Heavens, it was a relief to be-