Show v S Y BLACK V ku S SHEERS E E PS 4 4 GOLD j i 04 by A 0 4 beatrice grimshaw 4 N illustrations by irwin A Myer M 17 14 Y y y 4 copyright by hughes hugh massie co P service f a CHAPTER 11 II 2 k 1 awoke next nest morning with a name j apon my lips fi a name I 1 had bad heard the 11 1 before I ila la laurier it seemed rne me as it does still the sweetest girl girls ia name in the world 1 I mew all about it too how bow miss pla it ven y 0 audler laubler laur ler 0 of the blue eyes and the alack lack shingle had bad an italian 43 and mother how the grandmother 14 11 lad iad bequeathed her a profile and a pretty aretty jr etty fortune and a prettier name came ow in consequence miss ria pia was of nore ore importance in her family one the new south tales squatter than elder brothers and ats tera era how much her parents thought i her and how very very carefully oey hey had brought her up she was one felt it in ones bones fa f 4 16 a very reincarnation of that gracious elous titled dame from historic verona who had bad set her mark upon the fifty years ago pla like her would be a house mistress she would be a mother she would be above and beyond all the supreme rare lover pure as springwater and passionate as a red verona rose from the balcony of veronas deathless girl i it come as a shock quite the contrary because I 1 am twentieth century almost all to remember that this modern juliet could round up cattle cathe with the best of her glicr brothers and ad owned a diamond bracelet won on the public race course of brandwick randwick Itan Ran dwick it made me all the more in love with her because of course that minute i when ewhen I 1 met her eyes as I 1 came up the gangway and knew that my foolish teat feat had won me ilias heart 1 I suppose one ode Is a little mad when jone one Is asleep to judge by the general craziness of dreams I 1 suppose there fore that one Is half a little mad when half awake it was the arrival I 1 of early morning coffee that spoiled half waking dreams for me once I 1 had bad drunk it the clear cold light of reason seemed to min mingle gle in that cabin with the red of growing day to tell me that I 1 had better get up and bathe and dress dras and remember of all things that I 1 was leaving the ship tomorrow when you are about it added that Y chill monitor you might as well recollect that you two hundred pounds in the world no people now who matter no position and no prospects put that in your pipe and smoke it I 1 had managed an introduction no easy ship made friendships tor for the daughter of the and on enjoyed just about five glorious minutes of ilias ilas company before the doctor curs him came along and grin grinning nin and reminding ilia ila that it was concert night and that she was down tor for number two so we had to break oft off and hurry into the starring ing glittering music saloon in corn com 04 pany with everybody else there had been no more talk with wid pla pia laurier that night for the concert lasted the usual long time and when it was over nall relations somehow seemed to be everywhere polLIng ing her bei maa casbe be by accident maybe not and I 1 should have gone very hungry to bed had it riot not been for the crust I 1 took with me that crust was plas ilas song she sans sang part ot of liza exquisite birdsong birdlong cycle sending me to my cabin with the sound in my ears cars of in my Y ladys lovely little f soprano telling the tale of the th wood dove and his mate who had nothing at all on which tor start a home but joyously they put pu a few sticks together and sang iiii I 1 do do 1 I 1 suppose I 1 was vain I 1 suppose all men of a certain youth and vitality are re at any rate rale I 1 thong thought that pla pis meant the so song dg for we me so next morning I 1 was vas agog to ac gel hold of mrs kipple good natured newsmonger and learn from her anything that might help me in wiling nil king way with pla for I 1 recognized now that the stars la in their courses were against me I 1 bad only one day it A night and half a day left if I 1 was va in that brief time to forge a thain that should in some measure link our lives I 1 needed every possible advantage I 1 could make or steal by wednesday noon the play would be over ofer the male cinderella would have lost his coach and gone home to sit in the ashes again and there would be no fairy godmother to find cud him a second chance mrs nipple could talk she did not con confine flite herself to burler ler biography phe he stooped to a lower range and gave tor soi luo also bloz raphy gingered gln gin gerea ered up till one might almost call it biology of f the actress troupe that had fairly dynamited the peace of the ship my dear boy she said knitting till you could hardly see needles or lingers fingers everybody thinks you yon did the bravest no I 1 wont if you dont want me to but it WAS we all have the highest opinion but you see miss gin sling 1 I think her proper name if theres anything proper in the question which Is doubtful I 1 mean tier her name on the bills Is benevieve well gln sling or jinny or genevieve Genev leve and her two friends have simply captured all the eligible men and want bat I 1 ask you what does a respectable parent bring her claugh daughters away from the sidney winter and up to clilia tor for unless you know do you remember er that too charming joke in an old punch about the child looking at a picture of the arena in rome and telling its mother that there was one poor lion that got a christian cydear my dear boy there are quite a lot of those poor lions or lionesses on the ship ever since brisbane when these ladies so go on om they had bad a lookin look in with them the ships officers who are simply meant to flirt with and the rich planters who ought to marry and the smart civil service folk not r 1 I 1 gln gin sling Hc however wever had no mind to be neglected a chancel chance I 1 jinny and her girls have the lot how can any of the laurier crowd compete against seahorse sea horse races and they dont stop at seahorse sea horse racing I 1 could tell you a tale she proceeded to tell it I 1 can only say that the biology came la in at that point and made me feel rather fidgety cut but genevieve Genev leve or gln gin sling whatever one chose to call her was riot not business I 1 wanted to hear bear about some one else are the Laur fers going far I 1 asked china and japan getting away from the sydney cold weather they go somewhere every winter and always take a daughter with them its vias plas turn this time they married off a daughter last year and I 1 daresay get rid of ria pla this time get rid of rial pla I 1 Is she engaged I 1 asked looking the kindly gossip fair in the face pla I 1 suppose more or less a girl of her sort has always some ae one on a strings string there was some talk of sir richard ranshaw fanshaw the flying man but I 1 imagine the mother was against it IL not enough title lies hes fairly rich promoted a few successful com coia panics in new guinea and so on but lie he Is only a war knight glit without much family behind him pla pia ought to be at least a countess you know a girl like that simply must marry into the very best set she would be a fish out of water anywhere else theres the second bell said mrs kipple and go got t up if you dont hurry she added warningly you dont get the best of the fruit nut but I 1 did not hurry I 1 care it if I 1 never saw fruit again pla laurier and her mother were coming up the promenade deck I 1 thought the elder lady looked at me coldly she was not a scrap like ria pla ae sae s e in those small resemblances of carriage shape of head and poise of limbs that run through famille families jinny trencher had called me the braedt man in the world but under that look of mrs airs Laur lers I 1 felt my courage crumble crum bli and my heart turn to wasef the woman of hard won position may be a snob but never dever can be weak she has sold her soul and collected the price and the price Is 3 what the devil has offered from time immemorial power she uses it she sends it like a matthews deith deit de ith hray ray straight at the outsider whom she wishes to destroy and no DO armor ot of self respect of conscious value in the things that are not mean avails against it it it pl pierces erces sirs mrs laurier pierced roe me but a man may fight when wounded I 1 answered her look by getting up from my cay seat boat and making a step forward what I 1 meant was to join tho morning walk of herself and her daughter I 1 knew phi iia now I 1 had a right to speak and gods of youth and beauty but she was ensnaring that pale blue morning on the elie teal beat she was dragging her step holding a little back I 1 would have been beside her in another moment good morning mr amoral Is 13 it possible you dont know me after saving me from a watery and fishy death no more than yesterday afternoon I 1 j I 1 it was gin sling she had bad ne be to her cabin exhausted atter we reached the ship and no one add ha d seen her again that evening now she appeared bright as a penny at a show with her wonderful red hair teased out into a kind of halo tier her thin body cased in some painted vivid rag eyes and teeth sparkling glass bracelets clinking an anklet and a bell on it jingling feet dancers feet they were small but too muscular and spread pointing and springing as if they moved to invisible music I 1 think so go did jinny trencher through her life she danced marched moved to music of her own ruled her days so far as s they were ruled by laws not made of of man I 1 have hare my reasons tor handling her tenderly I 1 know what w you do not yet of jinny naturally I 1 had bad to answer her and naturally too the mother and daughter moved on and I 1 was left alone with jinny trencher she did not sit down she put both feet together and jumped high into the air two or three times with incredible vivacity how I 1 feel she said 1 I always feel like that when the sun shines cant live in the dark I 1 was born bom in sydney where its daylight when it Is daylight and ive got the sun in me bones Singa pores where we rebound were bound tor for I 1 and my friends the chinese butterfly company number three one of their girls has married and one died and another wants to leave so little me and mine come in because the managing director of chri th companas comp anys a friend of ours I 1 was not interested I 1 was raging over the loss of my chance of speaking with pla but you never knew gin sling if you think one coull could stand beside her see her look into your eyes and remain indifferent she went to the head of any man as swiftly as the drink after which she had most appropriately been named sha went to mine but I 1 care I 1 knew I 1 should be sober again there was that in the blue eyes of pla to sober me after a dozen of jennya jinnys cocktails and it came into my mind there and then I 1 who had never wanted to marry before that this was what true marriage might mean something that could hold a man in spite of himself in spite of a world of jinny Tr eachers certainly rest gln gin sling however had no mind to be neglected take me for a walk she said halt half shutting her eyes and shooting fire at me from under heavily blacked lashes she had beautiful sensuous eyel eyelids ee ids lids round and deep as aa white shells they flickered constantly as she looked at you she was one flicker from head bead to foot a human flame I 1 marched with her round the decks and it if anything an thing could have made me forget pla pia and her mother down below that progress would have done it it wis was like walking with royalty to walk with genevieve Gene uee men lien shot looks of black envy women glanced jealously aside and I 1 realized what perhaps I 1 had bad not understood before that yesterdays incident had made me something of a celebrity something worth the throw of a handkerchief we strolled and talked I 1 dont know what about I 1 realize how ion long we had bad been walking till I 1 saw mrs laurier come up from breakfast again a if she had looked at me chillingly before her eyes were freezing now she sha swept jinny trencher with a glance that should have hae turned the girl giri to a pillar of lee ice I 1 think jinny felt it but in sheer bravado she turned her head stopped almost in mrs lau he alers rs path and remarked defiantly well here I 1 aru am what do you think of mel me the main c companion i doorma wai just beside me like a coward I 1 slipped through it ft and fled I 1 dont know to this thin day what happened I 1 only know that as I 1 hurried down the tha staircase I 1 saw mrs airs laurier passing on undisturbed TO BE BB CONTINUED |