1940-10-25 — Page 58

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Page 2.

THE CHINA MAIL FRIDAY SUPPLEMENT, OCTOBER 25, 1940.

(SHORT STORYKO

HUSBAND AND WIFE

B

LANCHE knew that in a few hours she would be a widow. She stared at herself in the mirror. The face of a hard, em- bittered woman looked back at her. The beauty and the youth of the girl who had married An- thony Maitland twenty years ago had gone forever. To-day no one could realise that once she had starred in the famous Cafe Rouge cabarets.

Not to

him because it was the only way a man in a bath-chair could al ways be chasing the sun every year in the last ten had seemed like two.

The door of Anthony's bedroom opened quietly. The doctor the hotel had got for him beckoned her.

"Your father is-"

Anthony, Maitland put out a trembling hand in feeble recogni- tion.

"I shall Blanche. I

The wealthy widow felt she had never soon be leaving you been so happy in her life. Then came

shock. And no one could understand her babbling, "Oh, it's all going to star again," when she recovered.

"Anthony,. don't try to talk you'll only make yourself worse." She attempted a look of concern, but it died away at the piercing stare of his eyes.

"You'll soon be free now," he went on. "I know I've lived longer than was expected. But you

"I'm sorry - having rushed musta't blame me for that, Blan-

Blanche turned away.

She corrected him coldly. "My be released from the bargain un- husband, you mean,” til now, when there were grey streaks in her hair and

savage lines at the corners of her mouth and eyes..

Life had played a pretty cynical joke on her!

here--"

She could have slapped his face. It was the one thing that all. The infuriated her above way strangers always referred to She could Anthony as her father. Making

For she had been twenty-five when she married Anthony. The year after the War. have chosen a husband from scores of men-officers back from France, middle-aged .business men who had made money

By-

But Anthony Maitland, sixty lan Sullington

two-year-old millionaire, had seemed the best opportunity, es- pecially as he had a weak heart as well as his fortune.

She had seen herself one of Eng- land's richest widows before she was thirty. Jewels, clothes, cars, a fat in Town, a house in the country, a villa on the Riviera. everything that meant Life to her. Love could wait, she de- cided.

-

And now

only now, twenty years afterwards, Anthony Mait land was dying. Soon she would be free-but the best

years of her life had been taken from her.

obvious from her own words that she had her explain, making it married an old man for his money. Even now it had to happen. Well, it would be the last time, any way. There was that much com- fort."

che. We all keep ourselves alive as long as we can.”

"Anthony"

"What does it matter? The doctor told me just now that he couldn't do anything. I made him-always believed in facing facts. Same as I faced facts when I knew you weren't doing it he- cause you loved me. I haven't had any illusion since..

"But I'm so sorry-I thought” But they all brought back mem ories of Anthony to her. Th "Please don't apologise. An colonel suffered from gout. th awkward remark is always made salesman was going bald, and thi worse by explanations, I think. If count's joints creaked with rheu you wish to avoid awkward, re- matism." marks it is best not to speak to people you do not know."

It was not till she met Ald Stacey that she stopped travelling Blanche walked on. At any. He was

young, handsome and rate she had relieved her feelings. dashing. And he made love There was at times a real pleasure her in a way that erased everj in downright rudeness. It was year since the days of the Ca He paused and struggled for pleasant now to hear the woman Rouge.

behind her gasping with indigna-

breath.

ધ્ર

I

D

tion.

She felt she had never been "Well, it was a fair bargain,

happy in her life-and perha She knew what would happen.' she hadn't. Only the though Blanche-I'm not grumbling. You were

In a few minutes the wretched that she was so much older tha very beautiful woman

So I'm keeping creature would be rushing all over. he was worried her. then, my dear.

. I've left you

the hotel and hissing it at every- my side of it.

her father-he's few one "He isn't nearly everything. Just

her husband!" charities, that's all.

2

"Mind you, it isn't what it was "He has very little time left,"

lost a lot in the last ten "I'm sorry, but years. But you'll get about four said the doctor. there's nothing we can

do. At hundred thousand. I haven't im- his great age.

." He left the posed any conditions reckon it, I know it reference to Anthony's age tact- you've earned fully unfinished.

hasn't been easy for you-spend- ing your life with a husband everyone takes to be your father. I forgive you for all your moods and bad tempars-I shouldn't have lived so long."

*

않는

*

"Is he conscious?"

"Partly-only partly. He seems

She was not even a young-look- ing forty-five. Living with Anth- ony, watching him hoard his fecble energies like a miser, read- ing Dickens to him that had had to be louder each 1 came out " week because of his deafness, going from hotel to hotel with

It had been happening at every new hotel they had stayed at in the last ten years. It had hap- pened on their honeymoon very first morning.

-

But he didn't seem to mir that. He was constantly tellin her how girls always bored, hirg

a

"I have nothing, to offer you he declared, "but love like mi

You the cannot be held back.

the most beautiful woman I hay ever seen I have friends in Ne Well, it wouldn't it couldn't York-they could get me a job- happen much more. Soon An- thony would be forgotten by, He was magnificently surprise everybody, herself included. She when she mentioned that she ha would spend her life in future in more than enough money for t places where he had never even people to live on. been seen. Where she could feel

could.

Anthony Maitland's head slip- utterly free-where she in a voice to want to talk to you: that is why ped back on the pillow, as if he make up for all the years she had ed away. "But although it is age

had decided to fall asleep

Bianche went into the bedroom. nect the end quietly.

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Blanche went to the door and called the doctor.

J

An hour later she returned to "A few hours," whispered the their suite: doctor. "He can't last longer than that.

He sighed exquisitely and tur

impossible, I shall never forg you."

"But don't be so absurd. WI impossible?"

"You would always think th I had married you for your mon If you'd like to go out in

She saw at once from the doc--other people would think so. the grounds for some fresh air, I tor's face that she was. now a sure that you're widow. She made no pretence of sent for, Mrs. Maitland.”

can make

·

He was superbly. obstinate b "grief. It would have been im fore he eventually allowed hir

For possible, anyway.

twenty, self to be persuaded. "I don't think it will be neces-

years she had dreamt of this sary to er-send, for me," she moment and now, even though it replied. "We--we have said all had come. ironically late, a feel- er. we need say to each other. And ing of happiness was surging I dislike painful scenes."

through her.

"As you wish. I only send for you should, he ask again."

"I don't think he will," she mur mured.

She slipped on her fur coat and went down to the hotel garden. But as soon as she passed through the sun-lounge, she knew she would not be left alone as she wished.

✡

They had arrived at the hotel only the night before, but every-. one knew Anthony was seriously

They were married a week 19

They arrived late in 't evening at the hotel they h picked for the honeymoon.

For six months after Anthony's Alec went down to dinner death she made, no definite plans, few minutes before she was read She simply relaxed, gradually. learning what it meant to be free

once more.

་*

She began to feel young again. The patches of grey were still in her hair, the lines were still gath- ered round her eyes and mouth- but she could feel a renewed vit- ality stirring within her.

Why, because she was forty- 'five, should life be over for her?

Better to be forty-five with fortune, of four hundred thousand than thirty with nothing.

B

a

ill he had collapsed so publicly. She had her hair dyed, She in the restaurant. If only he had: Vienna and had the lines on her went to a. famous surgeon in been taken ill in their suite no one:

would have known about it. She fare removed. She dieted until she bit her lip, as she saw two or three was almost slim again. women, oozing with sympathy and curiosity, leave their chairs and come towards her.

She didn't want to talk to peo¬ ple. She wanted to be aloneto think-to plan out some sort of fut-

ure.

Anthony, had taken the best years of her life: But his money could bring them back again.

ed life once more, as a widow of Full of confidence, Blanche fac thirtyl

The first of the sympathisers to the gay, lively, sort of: hotels She went on cruises, she went descended on her,

which-Anthony had always nyold she was older than she pretend Ed Other women might know ed-but she was not interested in the opinions of women. It love and romance that her heart a ached for, not bridge and gossip,

"Oh, my dear, please don't think I'm butting in, but is there any thing I can do? Such bad luck for you ús soon as you ar rivel Is your, poor father any better2"

Was

Blanche wanted to scream, Was fortune. Why should she? It was And sho: mado no secret of her she never to be released from the one of her assets. And sho had endless porsecution of that tactless, certainly corned it." assumption?

She said frigidly, "My father ed colonel from India: An Ameri-

Sho was proposed to by a retir -has-boen-dead for ten years.”

can- salesman offered: to go to Thỏ woman flushed nervously, wife, if only she would wait for Reno, and dispose of his present "Oby but Iwiyou:sedp [l?? A

him. A Russian count throated- "It was my husband, who was edito commit suicide it sho didn't {{takon) il); this morning."?:

clops, with him.

1

But she could not find h when she herself went down.

A kindly-looking woman sitti in a chair got up and walked wards her.

"I think your son's just got out to get a paper," she said:

Blanche fainted.

When she came to she kept repeating, "Oh, it's all going start again!" But nobody kn what she meant.

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