Evening star., 1939-01-20
BY II. G.. WELLS,
CHAPTER XII.
Entertainment.

q little distrustfully among the
"easy, delightful, everyday human
beings she had assembled for his
entertainment. He frightened for a
moment when she took his hand and
smiled at him. and then darkened
when he saw her exchange a glance
with her husband. He was def
nitely clumsy with the other women.
They were q little at a loss for
something to say to him, and he
gave them no help.
He became less and less responsive
as the evening wore on. His mute
demand, why the devil had they got
him there? became insistent. He
made premature retreat and left
the little gathering in a state of
nnwonted dismay at its own unat-
tractiveness. 1t occurred to Chiffan
then that never in his life had he
ever known Rud to indulge in gen.
eral conversation. Even at the Steen-
hold fiat he had either sulked in his
corner under his caricature or broken
out into monologue. But there had
been no Turing him into monologue
that evening. In the old days his
one topic had been the coming rev.
olution, and now the revolution had
come he was tongue-tied.
Indisputably Not Interested.
One young woman tried to in
teresthim in her bracelets and neck
laces Of fire-opal set in silver. They
seemed to be old, but she could not
ind out where they had been made
Opals we're supposed to be unlucky.
Rud looked at them with an effect
of not looking at the neck and arms
that wore them. "Thirp," was his
sole comment, could tell you all
sbout them. He's interested in that
sort OF thing"
Rud indisputably was not.
He went early and yet 1t seemed
to Phoebe that he went reluctantly.
She felt, as she told Chiffan after
wards, that If things had been diff
ferent and there had been different
people and he had been different, he
would have liked to stay for quite
a long time.
"He went away slowly" said
Phoebe, with an air OF going off
TO something worse"
Thirp took q different line with
him altogether. He set about en-
pertaining the World Trustee with
interiors and performers. He did
not invite him formally, but one
evening when they had some minor
matter to discuss, he asked Rud to
come to him because, he said, he
was treating himself to a show
Rud was difficult to entertain be-
cause of his habitual abstemious-
ness, but Thirp induced him to eat
q cheese dish he had had prepared
for him especially and drink some
fine Burgundy, and then he pro-
duced his show. He had discovered
little round faced, round-eyed,
yellow and black, exceedingly i'm
pudent, Siamese girl-conjuror. She
had q great sense of humor and
some excellent tricks and very soon
she had Rud at his ease and laugh
ang. Then came dance Of masked
6iamese girls to lifting WESTERN
tied tune, which also took Rud' s
fancy, so that presently he was
beating time.
Not Unwilling to Return.
"He likes them funny and he likes
Them little and he likes them
young" Thirp noted. THE smaller
and the younger and the more
weakly impudent they are, the less
he is afraid"
That was enough for the present,
thought Thirp, but at the end of
the evening he told Rud he often
had little shows of this sort. He
felt it we'll to keep in touch with
the amusements of the people. If
Rud would care to come again?
Rud was unwilling to come again.
Relaxation said Thirp.
Il liked that little conjuring
thing said Rud. "She made me
laugh-and somehow I seem to
have got out Of the habit of laugh
ting"
Thirp repeated this entertain
ment, but without undue alacrity.
This time two wriggling Japanese
maidens served the dishes for Rud' Is
austerely excellent meal.
-Four or five times was Rud Thirp's
appreciative guest, and then 1t
seemed time for Thirp TOTO use
his own phrase-"arrange a little
tete-a-tete?" That demanded
thought and preparation. He talked
to Rud of health and fatigue,
amusement and rest, and of the
extraordinary sleep-provoking power
of massage. At first Rud seemed
as likely to expose his bare skin
to the mauling and pinching of
massage, as to dance naked in a
market place. His accumulated
modesty barred the way. Then by a
well-arranged accident he was
given a glimpse of the infantile but
appetizing charm of Miss Chubby
Fielder, and a little later, when he
was in a phase of neurasthenic
discomfort, Thirp persuaded him
to give her an opportunity.
No one knows what use she made
Of that opportunity, even Thirp
never knew.
Quite possibly little or nothing
happened between them Honi soft
qui NAL y pense. And Chiffan to the
end of his life never knew that
there was such person as Chubby,
much less how much more pleasant
the company of being like Chubby
could be to the unlimited, fear
haunted egotism of Rud than that
of any fully-grown, level-spirited
woman.
Intimations Of Nothing.
So much of Rud's intimate life
has to be told and discussed to
make the picture of him complete,