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The Brussels Post, 1940-11-20, Page 2THE BRUS$E1GS POST Weauea'day, November 30411, 1340 •••••••••+••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••••••••••••40.4 CREAM Producers Bring your Cream to the BRUSSELS CREAMERY OPEN SATURDAY EVENINGS BRUSSELS CREAMERY PHONE 22 BRUSSELS Starting Another New Serial Entities]. Second Bloomin By Anne Ward fry] CHAPTER I. Strange Interlude. The fiat seemed €mpty when Anne came in from her morning's shopping. True, from the kitchen came the murmur of conversation where the two maids were prepar- ing to serve the lunch, but those sounds of human intercourse only in - /ermined Anne's loneliness. She was going to miss Dudley badly. What a bore ft was he had been obliged to go off like that for the • week -end, just at this lovely time of year when they could have motor- ed to the sea together and had some bathing. But Dudley had deemed the busi- ness—which was the reason of Ms absence—too important to be put off. He was going to meet a very influential producer, to discuss plans about a successor to the very successful comedy now sunning to full houses in a West End theatre. tit was lovely to think that Anne had contributed to the writing of that play, though this was a secret between her husband and herself. Dudley said producers did not like plays written in collaboration be- tween husband and wife. They had a prejudice against them. When he was better known and bad es.. tabtished his fame beyond question 'by one or two other plays, then Anne could have her share of credit. Not that Anne wanted it. Site was intensely proud of her hus- band's success, ,Her own part in the creation of 'Four Wise Men had been very small, in her own and Dudley's estimation. it was he who had thought of the plot—Anne had only added little touches to the dialogue, sparkling, frothy, amusing touches which had made, as it were, an omelette of what otherwise might have- been 'a some- what stodgy affair. She threw her hat off in the pretty hall and went intothe dining - room, where luncheon awaited uer. The solitary cover at one end of the flower -decorated table looked oddly desolate. She smoothed her chest- nut curls before the antique mirror over the fireplace and rang the bell for the parlourmaid. It was such an exciting novelty to possess a parlourmaid. In fact, the whole fiat and its furnishings, as well as the two inmates of the kitchen, were the direct outcome o? Dudley's success with 'Four Wise Wen.' Before that they had been really poor. Anne had been just over eighteen when they sad made that romantic ,marriage nearly two years ago, and everybody had Predicted disaster to such an Impe- cunious and youthful courple,. Neither of them had anything be- yond what they earned, Anne as an artist for monthly periodicals Dud- ley Baron as writer and would-be playwright. The first few months _ had been a struggle, but there had been fun also. Anne had cared nothing for the lack of money. It was so amusing from another, meet- ing such killingly funny landladies, having erratic meals in Italian ces- taurants, sharing the last cigarette ou,? of the last packet, and wonder- ing where the next was coming from. Yes, it had been fun, she thought. as she ate her beautifully -cooked cutlet of the pretty china plate, be. longing to the expensive service she and Dudley had bought only last month. But, of course, they could not have gone onlike that for ever. It was only fun when one was very young and newly -married. Dudley's success was wonderful. It had launched them into an entirely new life, and.such an exciting life, too. 1 They met such intereating people now Dudley had become quite an important person. People wanted to HIGHEST CASH PRICES PAID FOR EGGS AND POULTRY Fn M11 SAMIS .a PHONE 80 — BRUSSELS We wish to announce . . the installation of a Large Battery Charger and are now in a position to Charge Your Battery AND HAVE FOR SALE— A NEARLY NEW BATTERY CHARGER (small size) ALSO —Associate Dealer for .. Canadian Tire Corporation Products Let Us Help You NOW, with your cold weather MOTORING NEEDS Harry MoCutcheon, Riverside Garage phone 56 Brussels 't *ACM JIIST I 1 j , Ulf/ureahim under her long fpave him provocative smiles, fid things lrrlta,ed Anne. An <,ider, more experienced wife might have laughed late thing out of exis- tence, but Anne was very Mug and quite unversed in guile. She did not know why she was thinking of Celia now,, but the other gig Thad a way of impressing herself upon people, Site was so beauti- ful and smart and mendaine, so In- dependent and modern an success- ful. No one quite knew where she got ber money, but she lived ex- pensively in a smart service flat, went everywhere and did every- thing. Most of her female fiends wished sincerely that she would get married, but though her men friends were legion 6she never seemed :o want any one of them as a husband. "I think," Anne told herself takin„ a second helping of strawberry mould, "I think 1'11 run over and see Christine. She says she likes weekending in London, because everyone else goes away. I must go somewhere. It's so horribly lonely without Dudley." And just as she contemplated asking the maid to get her Christine Mu:ray's number, the telephone rang. know him. Invitations poured 1:1 iron]. all classes of ,Society and the wPle found themsalvea young CO Popular everywhere, And yet—sometlanes when she an Dudley hardly met except at nigh or for breakfast, Anne would lin herself regretting those lost days ,: good companionship, when they tw had been alone against the world when they had discussed ways an means so cbeerfully together—Wh she had helped him over a difficu Point in a story, or put her via brains to work to think out a ne plot, She felt sure that she must be most exasperating person to bav these regrets, but nevertheless the persisted, in spite of all the posse sions of her new home and he social importance in their set. To -day, for instance, bow anno ung that Dudley had had to go t meet this tiresome p.oducer perso —at a weekend, too, 'when the Cu shone and the breeze called to se or countryside. What should she do with herself There were people she could hay gone to ---friends out of their 01 days, but Dudley did not want be to mix with them any more. H discouraged all intimacy with peopl belonging to that period of his lit said they would interfere with h career, that a man in the publi eye had to choose his friends car fully, much as he would choose hihouse or his furniture. And though this was not Anne' idea of friendship, she told herse that Dudley was so much cleverer and wiser than she, and must know best. She was possessed of a great mod- es -y where her own attainments were in question. It never dawned apon her that she could be Dudley's equal in tbrains, much less his .superior. Love, the blind, un questioning love of a young g1;1, had veiled her eyes to any im perfections in the Beloved, and though there were many points upon which she found herself in dis- agreement with her husband. she tried to hide the fact even from her sett. There were, for instance, many 0 their new friends whom she could not snake herself like. Some of them seemed so silly and conceited aaa mercenary. They judged people bt different values. from Anne's ideals by their money or worldly fame o: social advancement. Also, they seemed unbalanced 11 their love -affairs and marriage; Nothing Was dependable or lasting with them. The women seemed to change their lovers as they Chang ed their clothetss the man to discard newold loves for new with more east, than they would change their favo* ite brand of cigarette. It was al distasteful to Anne. Sometimes it was difficult to disguise this did ,taste, and she was sure many of Dudley's new friends found he,- deadly dull. ,Celia Carnock, for instance, who always gave Anne quite an inferior ity complex, eyeing her with sucl amused disdain out of those velvety eyes with the uncurled lashes which lent her an expression of contemptu ons surprise. Celia was lovely. Anne though withsecret reluctance. It was the loveliness of a sleek, . glistening puma—her movements, so incredibly graceful and lithe, were like those of the cat -family, and though her eyes were dark they had much the same disdainful, secretive look. And how beautifully she dressed. Just the right clothes for her exotic beauty. Once, a few days ago,Dudley had asked Anne why chs didn't ask Celia where she got her lovely frocks. As if a Celia would have told her, even if Anne would have asked. Even clever men were silly sometimes where girls were concerned, Anne thought, But she had gone out that day and bought herself some perfectly mar. veloua clothes—even iCella's eyes had lost their amused disdain :whenshe had seen that primrose chiffon frock; .Dudley thought Celia marvellous, all men did. ,She treated them to a course of indifference alternated with flattery which intrigued them one and all. With Dudley she nal naueedtingly flattering, Anne con- sidered, rShe listened to himwith a deferential air, quoted bits of his t 0 d en it k w a y 5- r Y- 0 n ? a d r e Is e- lf 'It's someone wants to speak to you, madam, but she says her name would convey nothing," the parlour - maid told her, and, grateful for the interruption to her boredom, Anne went to the telephone. • "Is that Mrs. Baron?" asked a voice. A woman's voice, with something furtive in its hurried tones. Anne never knew why, ba*, some instinct warned her she was about to hear something unpleasant. "Yes, I am Mrs. Baron," she re- plied a little haughtily because of that nameless dread, and the voice continued_ "I don't know If you are aware that your husband has flown ;:o Paris this morning with Celia Car - nock," The sentence ended with that un. mistakable click which shows the person at the other end his "hung UP." tNot ,that Anne could have answer- ed. For she felt exactly as if she had suddenly been turned into stone, ,Ali over her body, warm and lovely day though it was, she felt a chill sensation creeping; as if a Elm of ince were covering her, She stared at the telephone as if it were some ,poisonous creature which had at- tacked her—at that moment she had received a poison which was destined to fill her whole being. She did not know how long she stool there, staring at the tele- phone. Little by little her numbed brain started to work again. Life crept back to her chilled limbs. She became aware that the parlourvnaid was, looking at her curiously. iSomehow she must have walked back to the table, for she was sitting there, crumbling her bread into tiny morsels, "Bring my coffee, please, Maud," she staid quietly. "Ask for it to be very strong, will you " Even now she had not begun to think properly, But when her coffee arrived she carried her cup into tete drawing -room, away from the par- lour -maid, and sank down into a corner of the low divan with its pile of pasteihued cushions. For the time all her senses had ceased to function. Only a dull, throbbing in her head showed she lived and felt. Perhaps the coffee quickened her perceptions, for at last the full aig- nfficance of what she had heard dawned upon her, and her blood be- gan to run iu scalding rushes till her cheeks burnt and her head felt as if it would burst. It wasn't true, Of course it was- n't. Anonymous messages never were. No one over took any notice. of them. It was someone with a spite against Cella darnock who had invented that odious lie—or some envious acquaintance of Dudley's, Jt couldn't be true. Dudley would never deceive her so, He loved her. Her brain was working feverlehiy new. Where had her husband said he was going, To some place in Oxfordshire where his produsen friend hall a bachelor establishment. Ho had said it was no good giving any address, because there was no Sunday nail even if there had been cause for Anne to write to him -and his friend hated the telephone and loved to get into the country away from it, so that he could give Anne no telephone number either, Anne didn't even know What clothes he had taken, because the very efficient parlourmaid had pack - hen in need Bread & Pastry Phone 32 TRY THE PALACE BAKERY W. WILLIS BRUSSELS. ONT. ed his suit -case for him. 01 coutrse he had gone to Oxford' shire. Men like Dudley didn't de- ceive wives they cared for and who cared for them. Such things hap- pened in novels or plays, not in real life to real people. Some 'wicked person was trying to make mischief to serve some revengeful motive of her own. Over and over Anne persuaded herself of this, and let all the time her heart ached to know the truth. 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