SHORT STORY
EVE AND THE SERPENT
"
THE CHINA MAIL, JUNE 7,
1940.
By C. Lestock Reid
"Which I've seen anyhow." Eve Aunersley put in: for all her innocence she had in a marked degree the fem- inine propensity for playing with fire. "Exactly." The hungry tiger ex- pression became a little more marked. "So you certainly don't want to see it again. It's pretty shoddy at the best. And as for this rotten little one-horse place where you're going to break the journey-what's its name?"
Raffles Hotel, Singapore, is one of unsophisticated, yet, equally obviously drag you about all over the Peninsula, the best known hotels in the world, bearing that indefinäble, unmistakable Look here, Eve, he's only going to be A fortnight at the Sooner or later every wanderer in the `hall-mark, "Married Woman," rather away ten days. East passes through its slightly garish flattered, rather frightened; he lithe most. There's no carthly reason why portals. Sooner or later even the stay- and good-looking in that queer fashion you shouldn't stay in comfort here in at-home hears its name as he hears which all women like and all men de-. Singapore instead of trailing to Bang- the name of the Waldorf-Astoria or test, very sure of himself, very ardent, kok.. the Mount Nelson or the Taj Mahal, very experienced, faintly reminiscent brooding over the shining waters of of a beast of prey. The unbiassed ob Bombay harbour, or half a dozen other server might have remarked, "Profes hostelries whose doors he is never sional Amorist," and he would not but even the likely to darken-hears and perhaps have been far wrong; sighs a little, thinking that, somehow, unbiassed observer for all his cynical he has missed romance. As in a sense experience might have been surprised he has; to the imaginative merely to to learn that they had only known sit in the lounge of Raffles hotel in- each other a week; or on the other duces a certain sense of romance. hand, remembering that Singapore is But the couple who occupied a table a great forcing-house of the less res- dicreetly tucked away in corner, pectable emotions, he might not. during one of those tea-dances which are justly famous throughout the East, were not conscious of it, perhaps be- cause they were wrestling with a pri- vate romance of their own; which, at the moment, seemed to be present- ing certain difficulties.
a
In any case so it was. Leslie Meade was a quick worker and Eve Auner- sley-well, she was a woman. in the East where the atmosphere and sur- roundings tend to foster a taste for quick workers. But even she felt he was going just a shade too fast. She traced the pattern of the tablecloth with one nervous finger.
An unbiassed observer with a pen- chant for studying dispassionately the follies and frailties of his fellow crea- tures would have been interested in he is my husband." the pair. She, small, dainty, obviously
"But, Leslie, I've got to go. After all,.
"That doesn't give him the right to
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"Ban Patom. But we'll only be two nights there."
"Yes, with no proper hotel, no one to talk to, nothing earthly to do-it's not fair on you, Eve."
"But he couldn't leave me here. Stay in the hotel all alone," and was conscious of an uncomfortable that she was being suburban.
:
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rather than by the stress of his own feelings. But he was above all ar opportunist.
"Here he is, darling. Come on, let's dance. It will give us a few more minutes alone together."
Eve hesitated. Part of her longed for his arms around her, his body pressed against hers in the intimacyTM of the dance, part of her shrank in- stinctively from what she herself de- sired.
So she hesitated an instant, and in that instant Annersley spotted them, lounged over to their table, a big, intensely masculine person, look- ing bigger than usual in polo boots and breeches. He greeted them casual- ly.
"'Lo, m'dear, Enjoyin' yourself? Evenin', Meade. What about a drink?"
Leslie Meade looked at him with that curious air of deprecating inso- lence which he adopted towards other men, specially if they were large and virile,
"Thanks, no. I was just trying to persuade Mrs. Annersley to dance."
Meade evidently thought so too. "My "Oh, no hurry. Here, boy. Whisky. dear! Of course he could. There're lots Lekas lekas. You'll join your husband of grass-widows about. Nobody thinks anyhow, m'dear. Gosh, I want it too. anything of it. There's dancing Hell of a match, only won in the sixth here
"he waved a hand round chukka. You don't play polo, Meade?" "Can't afford to." Which, incidental- the crowded lounge "Bathing out at the Swimming Club "A sudden ly, was untrue. picture of her in her scanty bathing Annersley shrugged his shoulders, dress, poised like a slim blue goddess buried himself in his drink. against the deeper blue of the sea, made him catch his breath ... Oh, my dear, you can't go."
"But he's my husband," she remind- ed him, gently and no doubt uncon- sciously poking the tire. Her efforts met with a success not entirely unex- pected but somewhat frightening withal.
mere
Conversation languished into empty politenesses till Meade again. suggested that they should dance; and got a refusal, although this time he was backed by Annersley.
"Run along, m'dear. You won't get another chance for a fortnight."
Eve shot a quick glance at the other man: here surely was his chance to "Damn it all, darling," in a low put in some cogent argument against pitched voice, yet sounding so loud to this, from her point of view, stupid ...... her guilty conscience that she looked trip Into Siam, But he did not, from apprehensively at the neighbouring motives possibly of tact, possibly of tables, "Don't go on rubbing that in. trepidation. She at any rate took it It's hell Just plain hell. Hell to know, for the former; being in that interest- you belong to him, that he can do what ing stage when, although not actually he likes with you, that you've got to" in love with Leslie or in reality any- He broke off, recklessly laid a hand where near it she was eager to im on hers. "Eve, darling, can't you see? pute the best possible motives
everything he did or left undone, But,. I love you, want you,
even so, she was conscious of a faint. feeling of disappointment when he merely said-
But that was going much too fast, Hastily she withdrew her hand physi- cally, herself mentally, from the blaze She herself had fanned,
"Leslie, don't. You mustn't. You're not to talk like that. You're-you're spoiling things.”
tó,
I
"You're going up to Siam, aren't you? Catching to-morrow's mail, suppose.”
"That's right. Business in Bangkok.
Nice little change: "What things? Oh, don't bother to And Ban Patom. do the dutiful wife stunt. You know for Eve here. Isn't it, m'dear?”
Here was her chance and Leslie's: you don't really care for, that great lumping brute. You know you do- turn to look hopefully at her. But she care for me." She essayed a feeble too did not take it: she wanted time to gesture of protest. "Yes, you do, dar- ling. Listen, you've got to make some excuse, say you've got fever, anything, and get out of going."
"Oh, I .
་
couldn't."
think over Leslie's suggestion and its bewildering, intoxicating, frightening possibilities. It was not just a question of a gay, idle fortnight in Singapore with an amiable and unexacting cava- Ber. It meant--she knew enough of: the world to realise that he would not long be content with a few dances or even kisses. He would want more, much more, and she did not know if And the curious thing was that, at she was ready to give more. In fact He she knew she could not, give more and! the moment, he did mean it.
"Yes, you could. And you will. And we'll have the most marvellous fort- night that ever was. Give me that fortnight, beloved, beloved. I'd will ingly dle for it."
always did mean his own passionate yet go on living with her husband. protestations, whoever they might be Other women did, quite lightly, every addressed to for the moment: and it day: she just could not. But was she was that faculty beyond all others, be ready for the alternative? She did not yond his good looks, his undeniable know. eloquence, his perfect dancing, that
me,”
Beneath a barrage of light conver--
was responsible for most of his success sation she weighed and compared the with women. They were tricked by two men. Eric, her husband of five. standing, undemonstrative, his specious sincerity, because it really years' was sincere--for the moment.
monosyllabic: who showed about as Evé Annersley, no exception to the much thoughtfulness as a bull-ele-- dream of rule, was swept off her feet, knew a phant; who would never timorous delight in so being, yet, wo- giving up any fraction of his work or man-like, still held back..
his games for her, at least to devote "Leslie, don't. You mustn't tempt most of his ted, a fatal mistake in dealing with a woman; who was yet "Tempt you, sweetheart?" With his solid and dependable in any sort of unfailing, instinctive flair for the right crisis, provided he himself considered: moment he swung round to flippancy, it a crisis, Leslie, ardent and eloquent, "Eve and the serpent, Singapore ver- who anticipated her lightest wish; who -sion. But I'm no serpent, darling, hung, or appeared to hang, on her Just an ordinary man... back to lightest word; who was prepared, seriousness again"who loves you not quite to die for her: at least to with all his heart and so
body, devote most. of his time to her: who who would live for you, dle for Oh could thrill her with a word or
touch; who yet, as some not to be hell."
proclaimed, The unfortunate bathos. Was caused silenced instinct in her p by the fact that he had just caught was unstable, as water which, para-
(Continued on Pago 17). sight of Annersley entering the lounge,
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