THE CHINA MAIL SPECIAL CHRISTMAS SUPPLEMENT, DECEMBER 19, 1940.
The Escritoire
(Continued from Page 9)
tell the truth?"
"Yes. They get kissed some- times. By the way you're standing right under that misletoe."
Stella considered the matter for a moment and the frown relaxed. "Quick, then, before somebody comes out," she whispered.
There was time for only 14 be- fore the handle of the drawing
room door rattled. A moment later Stella was demurely helping him Off with his coat.
"IT'S in the kitchen.“ Stella re- marked m
a blandly matter-of- fact tone.
"What is? Oh, that?" "We haven't had time to curry it upstairs yet. and it's rather heavy."
"F11 take one end. Get Tommy Cowper to take the other He'll love helping me carry upstairs a
prosent I got for you.
Torrny Cowper, who faftied himself a rival of Norman's, hated him accordingly.
"All right," said Stella with a little laugh. "My roun's on the left at the end. You can go right in. Everything's tidy. Shove it just inside the door where I can fall over it when I walk in."
"Right, And how are you going to manage then?"
"There's linoleum on the floor." "How awful for the poor little
toes!"
"But there are mats, stupid, and once it's inside I can take the mats up and shove it where I want it. It'll slide about on linoleum."
"Right-o. Produce the bears. Oh rather, the bear. Young Tommy."
They went into the small and over-crowded drawing-room, On the whole Norman's reception was about as chilly as an arctic explor- er might expect from an ussem- ly of polar bears. He was not popular with the young women. not only because he was plain, but also because he was regarded as Stella's private property. The young men who were interested in Stella had reasons of their own for regarding him with disfavour. Stella's parents have already been mentioned. They were extremely polite. You know what that means.
Tommy was pressed into ser- Vict He went with a great show of grace and alacrity until he was outside the door, when his man- ner became more than u little Ilgict.
They get the heavy piece of furniture through the hall passage without difficulty, and, coming to the stairs. Norman had the hind and heavier end. But from this point of apparent disadvantage he was ble, by a suddon heave, to push his rival over,
What Mr. Cowper had to say about this be was compelled to say in a whisper. It elicited the polite rejoinder: "I beg your par- den. I didn't quite hear."
They got the clumsy lump of furniture into Stella's room. On the month floorcloth it glided quite easily.
"A bit heavy," was Mr. Cow- per's gasping comment.
"A bit top-heavy, too. A child could shove it over. Still it'll be standing somewhere against the wall.
He woke late on the morning of Boxing Day. He had had a beauti- tul dream that he was chasing young Cowper round and round the Albert Mernorial with a pick- axe. The trouble
he was that couldn't catch him. But so many dreams are disappointing.
It was his landindy who roused him. Having bumped on the door and received no response except heavy breathing from within she opened it and called out:
"A young lady's called to see you.'
"Right-oh," said the partially awakened sleeper. "I'll have bacon as usual,"
"A young lady's called to sec you. A young lady with a black eye."
Norman sat up and stared.
"I don't know any young lady with a black eye," he said.
"Well, she says you do!". The Jandlady grinned, “It's your murky pust," she said. "Oh, and she said as her name was Miss Linklater." Norman's eyes became slightly dilated.
"Miss Linklater?"
"Yes, and she wants to see you
at once." R
"But Miss Linklater hasn't got u
black eye. .
"She may not have had
dne
when you saw her last. But she's
got one now. A beauty!"
The worried young man wafted
ed a commanding Voice,
"But I can't dear, I haven't washed, shaved or dressed."
"I don't care. Come down your dressing-gown,"
in
"But, look here--" "Come down! Or must 1 come
The thud of his feet on the floor Was
The answer. The overcoat
went on. A towel passed across his eyes. Slippers somehow found their way to his feet. He flip-flop- ped downstairs. Stella waited around the corner at the end. Then
he recoiled.
People who write stories often find themselves in difficulties when it comes to recorcling a plain fact. One would sometimes like to gloss things over, to handle a fact with delicacy, to leave something to the imagination. But the kind of fact which is called hard fact must be stated bluntly
As
A
Stella had a black eye! It was not just a slight dis- coloration which could be hidden to and hushed up
bit -- so
and
pow- speak by cream der. It was a beauty. It was such
the
who pugilistic coster, has tried to knock 'em in the Old Kent Road, so often takes home with what is left of his money -on a Saturday night. It was an eye which had to be seen to be believed. The adoring swain utter- sound like the ed a little soft moaning of a dying pigeon.
"You needn't have minded about what you looked like," said Stella. "But darling. How did-who did
---?"
"You did." "Me!"
"With that blessed bureau thing. Shoving it just inside my room where I was bound to fall over it when I came in in the dark.
I slipped on the floor-cloth and I was parchment as a fact. She knocked it over."
handed it to him, and he read He groaned.
very beautiful handwriting which "Yes, I did, I knocked it over began with the words,, "This is with my eye and part of my fore this Inst Will and Testament of head. And I'm glad it was šo top-..me Oswald Brending (Knight). I heavy. Else I shouldn't have had formally disinherit my son An- any head left."
thony Brending, who has all that "But. darling. we-1-never, he needs and requires no more to thought I'm so terribly sorry--a' waste. I leave all in wilch I stand bit of raw steak————”
possessed to my nephew Arthur Then her demeanour suddenly Brending, and charge him to see changed. She burst out laughing. that the grave of my dog Rufus She tung her arms around him is decked with a bunch of fresh and kissed him. He patted her flowers once a week." shoulders.
unmixed
Norman read it and gasped. He "Never mind, darling. It won't wanted to exclaim something that be black very long. It will turn you or I might give voice to in jade-green, and then quite a pretty blur, and then pink, and after said that he was "blessed which company. But he only week or two it will be all right indeed he was. again, I know. I've had them at school."
Stella stood and laughter.
"You great idiot! I mind?"
"Don't you understand, dar- rocked with ling?" It was Stella, of course, who
spoke. "There's a reward
of Do you think £1,000 for anybody who can find that will. I read it in the Tempus agony column months ago. You see, dear, the nephew knew the property was his, but couldn't get it because the will couldn't be found and proved."
People just roused from bed are often a little dazed. Norman blink- ed at her. He had heard of ladies in the-East End who enjoyed hav- ing their eyes blacked by their young men or their husbands, and regarded it as a mark of affection and esteem.
"Let's sit down a moment," she said. "I've got to tell you. Then you can dress and I'll put some more cream and powder on my eye, and we can have a happy day together.
He looked
at her with eyes which widened and shone.
"Then you're. on 8 thousand pounds!"
"No, darling. You are, or rather, we are. If I had a thousand pounds my stern parents would be even more ambitious for me. But if you When I knocked had a thousand pounds all objec- that bureau over with my eye I tions to your happy union would seemed to have upset, its internal be removed. And although I hap- arrangements. I don't know whe- pened to find it-I, said the fly, ther it was my eye that did the with my little eye-you bought trick, or the shock of the thing the jolly old bureau, and gave it striking the floor. At any rate a me. And now, darling, here's the spring got touched. You've heard will, and you will kindly ring up of secret drawers in the old furni- Arthur. Brending-barrister-at- ture. Well, this was a tiny one, law-telephone—” hidden between two ordinary ones. There was just enough room in it for a paper folded up and pressed down. Well, that was just what was inside it. Here it is.",
"Good heavens! number!"
You know his
"Just looked it up. Address Middle Temple."
"But he won't be there to-day."
The European Y. M. C. A. Amateur Dramatic Club
pronelly preants
William Shakespeare's Comedy
44
• Twelfth Night "'.
"What you will"
south
Winnie Cox as OLIVIA;
Nora Witchell as VIOLA;
L
25.
**Well, try him. Anyhow, 'HD'S sure to be there sooner or later He caught her to him and h ged her.
"Darling!' This is wonderful."
Yes, Let's keep it wonderful always. I don't suppose I shall always have a black eye-untoss you're cruel to me--but I shall
Ret old and ugly, you know--unless I die first."
What he said to her after that is of no particular importancó 40 the tale. Anyhow, put yourself in his place. Then she went.
haif
.:
Muffled in an overcoat, washed and only partially dressed Norman rushed out to the nearest telephone.
By no particular coincidence Arthus Brending was.in his chana- bers. He had to live in them be- cause he was poor. Also he was kept at work over the holidays through a law caso in which he was interested. The six-minutes talk ended in a cordial invitation to "come up at once."
Norman went up. He found"; a handsome youngish man smoking
hands.
a plpe in a stully room which might have had wallpaper sorte- where concealed behind the books. Arthur Brending shook Then they talked. In fact three- quarters of an hour's conversation of any elapsed before anything real importance emerged.
"Well, of course, I'm pretty hard up." said Arthur Brending. ""I don't mind 'robbing' my cousin.- if you call it that-because he's well off already. There won't be any law case-there can't be but these things take time. Well, just for the present I will give you a formal acknowledgment, and I can manage a hundred pounds down-without hurting myself-if that's any good."
Was it any good? Ask them! Why,
two believe me, within days Stella wbs spending half :her spare time looking in the windows of furniture shops!
Nan Moodie as MARIA; Ralph Dormer as MALVOLIO,
Charles Thom as SIR TOBY BELCH; Wim Kirby as SIR ANDREW AGUECHEEK;
Rupert Baldwin as FESTE - the Jester;
David Ingleby as The DUKE;
supported by a complete cast of experienced and talented players.
Performances will be given on
Twelfth Night
Monday, 6th Junecary, 1941. at 9.15 p.m; Wednesday 8th January at 5.30 p.m.
Thursday,
Freday.
9th January at 5.30 p.m.
10th January at 9.15 p.m.
Saturday, 11th January at 9.15 p.m.
.*
2 in the West Lounge Theatre, Y. M. C. A. Korvloon,
Bookings
can be made at
THE ANDERSON MUSIC COMPANY, ICE HOUSE STREET, HONG KONG,
Evenings,
$3.00
$2.00
$1.00
Y. M. C. A. KOWLOON.
TICKETS.
ALL
SEATS
BOOKABLE
Alatinus.
$2.00
$100
$0.50
IN AID OF Y. M. C. A. CHARITIES AT HOME AND ABROAD.
his landlady away.
"All right. I'll call down. the
stairs to her."
The landlady departed.
Nor-
mari left his bed with a plomp and called. •
Hullo, Stella, what's the mat
ter ?!!
Cancel" respon