CHINA MAIL
FRIDAY SUPPLEMENT, JULY 21,
660 it's come again, Misu Vall-CAPTAINS
ing."
"He never fails.”
"It looks thicker than ever." "Aren't you going to read it?” "She always gloats over it first.” "If it was mine, I couldn't wait.” The slender little woman with the fine hazel eyes and gleaming copper hair gazed at the envelope that bore her name.
What a bold hand it was
a very devil of a hand, as Mrs, Shand had called it. "Miss Ada Valling, Laurel Club for Ladies, Highclere, Road, South Kensington, London, Eng.” Six thousand miles that envelope had come!
4
"A man abroad is better than none at all,” opined Mrs. Shand, a dark and decisive widow with handsome features, "but give me one on the spot, every time!"
"Then you wouldn't get long let- ters from him," answered one of the dozen women gathered in the lounge. "I simply live for let- ters."
"Like me."
"And me.”
"And of course, me," said Miss Valling with a smile that called back youth to her delicate oval face.
But she took little count of the small talk that followed, catching only an occasional phrase. The magazine in her shapely hand was a mere pretext. It was the past
Short Story
year that, with the notorious speed of thought, was racing through her mind. Her thirty- sixth year on this queer Earth. The year in which Captain Phil had grown into her life joined the band of absent men, and dead men, who lived by repute in the Laurel Club for Ladies,
and
"Anyone for bridge, to-night?” Not a woman there who did not know of him. Not one who did not know what he looked like-tall and supple, with a strong face, a picture of a man on a great black horse. You could see his photo for the asking, on the bureau în her room. A dare-devil of a man, he looked.
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"You're getting on fast with that jumper.”
never
If they knew the truth, whisper- ed Miss Valling's conscience, she would die of shame. If they knew that she and Phil would marry, that she could give him years and years, that she had never seen him, and was never likely to! A young man in the South African Mounted Police who wanted to correspond with a cultured person în England, either sex, as his advertisement in the "Empire Courier" had put it. fine boy he looked in his photo, and his letters proved him well- read and intelligent but there
was never a single word of love in them.
"I simply must see the Prince's wedding."
For one thing, she had told him her age right away. But when she went to live at the Laurel Club, they took it for granted that the man who wrote so faithfully was in love. Letters were one of the
leading topics there. Letters from the Colonies, the Argentine, or heaven knew where, or from old flames like that one of Mrs. Shand's in India-"A brigadier- general now, my, dear !" Not worth going out of one's way to prove the platonic character of that weekly epistle from the Cape.
"Royalty always marry royalty." Then came that wild, delightful, discreditable notion. If they want to think he was her lover, well, let them! It would be fun! She would tell them straight out that he was going to marry her! She would build for herself a splendid vision!
And she did! Her.
first excursion into sin prospered amazingly. She lost all scruples so, far as the new Phil was con- cerned, except that she changed Phil Fanningham's surname“, to Fotheringhame-no one noticed that--and so escaped from foist- ing herself on an actual living
man.
"What year was the Queen mar- ried?"
Deeper and deeper she sank into iniquity and enjoyed it more and more! It was mon- strous! From the bottom of a trunk she raked out the photo that now stood. so bravely on her
By Frank Weston
bureau-a picture of a man she met many years ago and long lost sight of. Not in uniform-Phil ̧ liked to get out of it whenever he could but a fine equestrian figure. So Phil Fanningham's photo, when it came, went into the trunk where the other had been. It wouldn't have suited the purpose, anyway, for he was too obviously young, and only a sergeant.
"They say skirts will be longer than ever."
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"
*
He didn't know that, at the Laurel Club, he'd been promoted to the rank of captain for his success in dealing with that native trouble with only three troopers to help him
· Captain Phillip Fother- inghame of the South African Mounted Police glorious times she'd had with him when he was last in England
V the marriage would be on his next home leave, probably next year. How beauti- fully they all took it in-except possibly Mrs. Shand, who some times smiled at her rather oddly, Still, even if she was suspicious, what could she prove?
“Harridge's sale starts to * Morrow.”
The non-existent Phil Fother- inghame flourished like seed in reality. It was mad, wicked, mar- loamy soil, and now was very near
vallous. It was wrong.
It was Iovaly. It was naughty but nice - good heavens, that was one of Mrs. Shand's say- at was the worst of it. start [with any kind of rice, you never knew where you a stop
awful.
year the crush WRS
But ahe'd go on with it now, would never give up Phil. Absurd
TWO"
as it might seem, she could not go on without him.
He was her escape from mono- tony. Her ideal of manhood, more perfect than any breathing man could be. Trusty friend of lonely hours. It might be weak to let this phantasy get such a hold, but there it was, life wouldn't be the same without him ... Life! Somehow she'd never got the same grip of it again since that day seventeen years ago, when the news came that Ralph was dead in Flanders.
“A good story, Miss Valling?" She looked up, smiled, answered "Yes thrilling," "and was back to her musing. No-never got
the same grip. Not unhappy, not fully happy. No real place in the world's scheme. A little work for charities
selling flags, writing envelopes. Filling in time with reading, lectures, tennis, cards dallying with the flying years. Nothing deep, nothing urgent. Better, maybe, if she'd been forced to work, instead of having & small income. Yet doubtful, as things were, whe ther she ought to seek a job of which others had desperate need.
"Aren't the days drawing in?" What was to happen when Phil was due to come home and marry her, she did not know. She might stop the letters and say he'd died. But no, that would be like losing him. Rather than that, she would move to another house and take him with her. He was her man, the only one she had loved since Ralph. One or two others. had wanted her, but none whom she could love. Yet she wanted a man in her life. Ralph would not blame her for that, if he knew-he was too generous.
"It will soon be cold enough for fires"
She liked men. She wasn't ashamed of that. It was right for women to like men, and for men to like women. An odd world if they didn't! But she could never go after men as some women did, she could not. Hadn
Hadn't the nerve, and besides, it wasn't a thing to do.
After all, there was some good blood in her velns-a grand- father out of the top drawer, as Mrs. Shand would say. It might be snobbish, but she couldn't for- get that.
"They always make a profit on the slot-meters."
You couldn't help admiring Mrs.. wanted, and nearly always got it. Shand, who went out for what she
Look at her with Captain Blaze. Why, It was a miracle they hadn't mentioned him this afternoon.- Thinking so much about Phil, she'd half forgotten him – herself. but not for long! Indeed, not for long enough, everything con- sidered.
Anyone seen the Captain,
day 7"
That woman must have read her thoughts. Captain Blaze. A won- der it did not turn his head, the fuss they made of him. But his head wasn't easy to turn. There was a man, and no mistake, ship's-captain of flesh and blood- not a' ghost like poor Phil. Not that Phil could help that... Phil, born of her dreams, her - ghost-- lover, ghost husband-t
1939
wasn't fair to compare them. "A wife in every port."
Oh lordy, they'd said that again. It wasn't true. Captain Blaze hadn't a wife in every port. Не would never divide himself up so much as that. It would be petty, and he wasn't petty. It might be, yes, it might be that he'd had affairs. He hadn't roved the world for so longhe a bachelor of fifty and such a figure of a man, so gay and frank, so virile, so good to talk to, so courteous in his own without bluff way he hadn't done that
"I expect he'll be leaving us Boon.
came
Yes, his break ashore, as he called it, could hardly last much longer. He'd soon be going, and be away for years on that run bè. tween Australia and China. What a loss he would be. He electrified that house every time he there. He galvanised the place. How lucky that, being a favourite brother of the owner, he'd stayed there a fortnight, and still came in. quite often. What would Mrs. Shand do when he'd gone? There was nothing sure yet, but she was undoubtedly fascinating to men. Knew how to deal with them, having had two husbands already,
"Has anyone seen my paper?"
Mrs. Shand would marry him, likely enough. But they wouldn't have any children. Which was a pity, because he liked them, but
she'd more than once said that she would never have another. It must be wonderful to have a child. She herself would like one tremendously. If only Phil had been a living man!
Why, she was half forgetting Phil, think- ing so much about Captain Blaze
who had always been so charm- ing to her, who was so interested in Phil, and always asked about him.
"The police qught to stop these trunk murders.”
In fact, lately he'd asked lots of extremely awkward questions.. How did Bhil manage to get so much long leave? What part of England did his family live in? Did he know Africaans? Other things, too, that meant more and more lies. It was all the more dangerous because he'd often been (Continued on Page 7)*
MENNEN BORATED POWDER
Soothes d' Protects MENNEN Intiseptic
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