Show T iff i THOU S J 1 XI ay ernect s wow abhor A or of 0 f gah eja MEUR etc illustrations hy iv 0 rr 5 COPYRIGHT ap can M DODOS tt cc compardy CHAPTER IV I 1 down the river at waterloo the two men parted with a fair exchange ot of fitting speeches none ot of which rang really false and yet et cazalet found himself emphatically unable to make any plans at all tor for the next few days also he seemed teemed in two minds now about a hermn street hotel previously men honed as bis his immediate destination and his step was indubitably lighter as be went off first of all to the loop loo line to make sure of some train or other that he might have to take before the day was out in the event he did not take that train or any other tor for the new miracle of the new traffic the new smell of the horseless streets and mhd cabs bewer ewer joys of the newest of new taxi scabs all worked together gither to and so swift ily IY upon cazalet a organism that he iliad had a little colloquy with his smart young y driver instead of paying him in la J jermyn street he nearly did pay him off and with something more than his usual impetuosity as either a liar or a fool v ith no sense of time or space but that a as quick aa the train my may good fellow blustered cazalet quicker said the smart young fel alow allow without dipping hia his 41 cigarette garette it if bou ou were going by the old southwest era ern the very man and especially the manners that made or marred him iwas was entirely new to cazalet as a product of the old country but he had come from the bush and he felt as though he might have been back there but for the smell of petrol and the cry of the motor born horn from end to end of those teeming gullies of bricks and mortar he ile had accompanied hia his baggage just as far as the bureau of the jermyn street hotel any room they liked and be he would be back some time before midnight that was hia his card they could enter his name tor for themselves he ile departed pipe in mouth open knife in one hand plug tobacco in the other and remarks were passed in jermyn street as the taxi bounced out west in ballast but indeed it was too fine a me morn ing to waste another minute indoors even to change ones one s clothes if caza let had possessed any better than the ones he wore and did not rather glory in his rude attire he was simply and comfortably drunk with the delight ol 01 being back he had never dreamed of its getting into his bead like this at the time he did not realize that it had that was the beauty of his bout he knew well enough what he was doing and seeing but inwardly he was lit brally hind mind yesterday was left be hind and forgotten fora otten like the albert Merr Meir orial and tomorrow was still as davant da tant as the sea it if there were such things as to morrow and the sea ea meanwhile what vivid miles of daz aling life what a subtle autumn flavor in the air how cool in the shadows how warm in the sun what a spark ling old river it was tobe to be sure and yet if those t the first of the autumn tints on the trees in castle nau ball there went a funeral on ite its way to mortlake morblake Mort lake the taxi overhauled it at a callous speed cazalet just bad had time to tear off his great soft hat it was actually the first funeral he had seen bince since his own fathers no wonder his radiance suffered a brief eclipse but in another moment he was out on barnes common I 1 it had been the bicycle age when he went away now it was the motor age and the novelty and contrast con were endless to a simple mind under the influence influence of forgotten yet increasingly familiar scenes but nothing was lost on cazalet that great morning even a milk float entranced him itself en I 1 chanted with its tall can turned to gold and silver in the sun but now he was on all but holy ground it was not so holy with these internal infernal elec itric trie trams still he knew every inch I 1 4 r A young woman had appeared in one of the wooden porticoes lof of it and now thank goodness he was ea the use ask V a a mt ass iii ii slower he shouted to his smart young man mail he could not say that no notice was taken ot of the command but a wrought iron gate on the left with a covered m way ay leading up to the house was vas past and gone in a veritable tt twinkling inkling five or six minutes later the smart young man was as driving really slowly adlung a narrow road between patent wealth and blatant semi gentility on the left god gi od grounds shaded by cedar and chestnut and on the right a row of hideous little houses as pretentious as any that ever let for forty pounds within forty fort minutes of waterloo this cant be it shouted cazalet it cant can the he here stop stop I 1 tell you A 4 young woman bad had appeared in one of the overpowering wooden coes two or three swinging strides vere a ere bringing her down the silly little path to the wicket gate with the idiotic name there was no time to open it before cazalet blundered up and shot his hand across to get a grasp as firm and friendly as he gave Blanch le sweep they were their two nursery names hers no improvement on the proper monosyllable and his a rather dubious aken of pristine proclivities but out both came as if they were nere children still and children who had been just long enough apart to start with a good honest mutual stare you arent aren t a bit altered declared the man of thirty three with a note not entirely tactful in his admiring voice but his old chum only laughed fiddle she cried but you re not altered enough sweep I 1 in disappoint ed in you where a s your bearda I 1 had it off the other day I 1 always meant to he explained before the end of the voyage I 1 wasn gasn t going to land like a wild man of the woods you know t youl you I 1 call it mean her scrutiny became severe but softened again at the sight of his clutched wideawake wide awake and curiously characterless shapeless suit you may well look he cried de 11 lighted g lit ted that she should they re awful old duds I 1 know but you would think them a wonder if it you saw where they came from im sorry to interrupt said blanche laughing but there theres a your taxi ticking up every ter of an art hour and I 1 can t let it go on without warning you where have you come froma he ile told her with a grin was round ly reprimanded tor for his extravagance but brazened it out by giving the smart young man a sovereign before her eyes after that ehe she said he ile had better come in before the neighbors came out and mobbed him for a mil tall lion leonaire llo alre and be he followed her indoors and upstairs up stairs into a little new den crowded with some or of the big old things he could remember in a very different setting but it if the room was small it had a balcony that was hard ly any smaller on top of that unduly imposing porch and out there over looking the fine flue grounds opposite were basket chairs and a table hot with the indian summer sun I 1 hope you are not shocked at my abode said blanche I 1 in m afraid I 1 cant help it it if you are its just big enough tor for martha and me you re member old martha don t you youa you 11 have to come and see her but shell be horribly disappointed about your beard coming through the room stopping to greet a picture and a bookcase fill ing a wall each as old frien friends as caza let bad had descried a photograph of him self with that appendage he had threatened to take the beastly thing away and blanche had told him he had better not but it did not occur to cazalet that it was the photograph to which hilton toye had referred or that toye must have been in this very room to see it in these few hours he had forgotten the mans existence at least in so tar far as it associated itself with blanche macnair the others all wanted me to live near them she continued but as no two of them are in the same county it would have meant a caravan be sides I 1 wasat going to be transplant ed at my age here one has every body one ever knew except those who escape by emigrating simply at one ones a mercy on a bicycle there a more golf and tennis than I 1 can find time to play and I 1 still keep the old boat in the old boat house at littleford Litt letord be cause it chasn t let or sold yet I 1 m sorry to say so I 1 saw as I 1 passed said caza let that hit me hardi the place being empty hits me harder rejoined the last ot of the mac mae bairs it a going down in value every day like all the other property about here re except this sort mind where you throw that match sweep I 1 don dont t want you to set fire to my pampas grass it its a the only tree 1 I ve got cazalet laughed ehe she was making him laugh quite often but the pam pas grass like the rest of the ridic rid ic ulous little garden in front was obscured it if not overhung by the balcony on which they sat and the subject seemed ane one lo 10 to change charia jl i i 1111 M at wad ami 5 y glorious coming down he said I 1 wouldn t swap that three quarters of an hour for a bale of wool you can t think how every mor tal thing on the way appealed to me the only blot was a funeral at barnes it seemed such a sin to be buried on a day like this and a fellow like me coming home to enjoy himself he ile had turned grave but not graver than at the actual moment coming down indeed he was visa simply down dorn again for her benefit and his own without an ulterior trouble until anti blanche took him up with a long face of her own we weve ve had a funeral here I 1 sup pose you know 9 yes I 1 know her chair creaked as she leaned for ward with an enthusiastic solemnity that would have made her shriek it if she bad had seen herself but it had LO such effect on cazalet I 1 v wonder onder v who ho can have done it so do the police and they don t look much III e finding out it must have been for his watch and money don t you think and yet they say he had so many enemies cazalet kept silence but she thought he winced of course it must have been the man who ran out of the drive she concluded hastily where were you when it happened sweep somewhat hoarsely he was recall ing the mediterranean movements of the kaiser fritz when at the first mention of the vessel vessels s name he was firmly heckled sweep you don dont t mean mesa to say you came by a german steamers 9 I 1 do it was the first going and why should I 1 waste a week besides you can generally get a cabin to your self on the german line so that a why you re here before the end of the month said blanche well I 1 call it most unpatriotic but the cabin to yourself was certainly some excuse that reminds met me he exclaimed ei el I 1 hadn haan t it to myself all the way there was another fellow in with me from genoa and the last night on board it came out that he knew you who can it have been 9 toye his name was hilton toye an american man oh but I 1 know him very well said blanche in tone both strained and cordial he 8 great tun fun mr toye with his delight ful americanisms and the perfectly delightful way he says them puckered like the primitive man he was when taken a all by sur prise and that anybody much less blanche should think tobe to e of all people either delightful or great tun fun I 1 was certainly a surprise to him it if it was nothing else of course it was nothing else to his immediate knowl edge still he was rather ready to think that blanche was blushing but forgot if indeed he had been in a fit state to see it at the time that she had paid himself the same high corn com aliment across the gate on the whole it may be said that cazalet was ruf fled without feeling seriously disturbed 7 14 1 ito 0 b v A 47 I 1 where did you meet the fellow follow he inquired I 1 as to the essential issue which alone leaped to his mind I 1 where did you meet the fellow he inquired with the suitable admix ture of confidence and amusement in the first instance at engelberg Engel engelberg bergt where wheres s that only one ot of those places in swit aerland where everybody goes now for what they call winter sports she was not even smiling at hig his ar ignorance she was merely ex pla ining one geographical point and another of general information A close observer might have thought tier her almost anxious not to identify her self too closely with a popular craze I 1 dare say you ou mentioned it said cazalet but rather as though he waa was wondering why she had not I 1 dare say I 1 dian didn t I 1 everything won t go into an annual letter it wag the winter beffie last I 1 went ou with betty and her husband and after that he took a place down herec yes then I 1 met him on the river the following summer and found he d got rooms in one of the nell gwynne cottages it if you call that a place I 1 see but there was no more to see there never had been much but now blanche was standing up and gazing out of the balcony into the belt of 0 singing sunshine between the opposite side of the road and the invisible river acres away why t we e go down to lit cleford and get out the boat it if you re really going to make an afternoon ol 01 it she said but you simply must see e a martha first and while she s mak lug br herself elt ct to ie s seen ee h you must must take something for the good of the house I 1 il bring it to you on a lordly tray she brought him siphon bottle a silver biscuit box of ancient memories and left him alone with mith them some little time for the young mistress like her old retainer in an other minute was simply dying to make herself more presentable yet when she had done so and came back like arow in a shirt and skirt just home from the laundry she saw that he did not see the difference his devouring eyes shone neither more nor less but he had also devoured every biscuit in the box though he had begun by br vowing that he had lunched in town and stuck to the table fable still old kartha It lartha had known him all his life but best at the period when he used to come to nursery tea at littleford she declared she would have known him anywhere as he was wa but she simply haan hadn t recognized him in that photograph with his beard I 1 can call see where it Us a been said martha looking him in the lower tean zone but I 1 m so glad you v had it off mr cazalet there you are blaechle lef le crowed cazalet yuu said she d be disappoint ed but martha a got better taste it isn t that sir air said martha ear nestly neatly its because the dreadful man who was seen running out of t the drive at your old home he had a beard it its a in all the notices about him and that a what a put me against thein them and makes me glad you youve ve bad had yours off blanche turned to him with too ready a smile but then she was really not budh a great age as she pretended and she had never been in better spirits in her life youlear You hear sweep I 1 call it rather lucky tor for you that you were but just then she saw his face and Be ve the things that had been eaid said about henry craven by the caza lets friends even ten years ago when she really had been a girl CHAPTER V t an untimely visitor she really was one still tor for in these days lays it is an elastic term and in blanche a case there was no apparent I 1 reason why it should ever cease to apply or to be applied by every decent tongue except her own much the best tennis tenni player among the ladles ladies of the neighborhood sh she drove an almost unbecomingly long ball at golf and never looked better than when paddling her old canoe or punting in the old punt and yet this wonderful september afternoon she did somehow look even better than at either or aej an of those congenial pur suits and that long before they reached the river in the empty house which had known her as baby child and grown up girl to the companion of some part of all three stages she looked a more lustrous and a lovelier blanche than he remembered even of old but she was not really lovely in the least that also must be put beyond the pale of misconception her hall hati was beautiful |