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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1933-08-31, Page 6THE... Mysterious asqucradc By .1, R. WILMOT .-o+ SYNOPSIS. sense" was beginning to play tricks At a London c ince club .dolly Car- with him. stairs meets Roger Barling, wvtuuaw m- Major Carstairs had catrtio ally eels to get Iraa job. T:.' ill, , p ' ng moraine, thole is stopped by a it Bion ep oil out his and Molly's immediate rnttn a,id tt.:Rn to the poli='e future. It would, he told her, be a whet a sere is idenurlea l y a, t ` nd week or two before formalities at the firs, Silver as their missing niece That night at the Silver's home site d1sRRverS War Office were completed and he she li being used asSlivers next gambling hones, the was, to all intents and purposes, a vtony that Major Carstairs, her father, flee lance civil; in once more, able to is on hes way home from ludic. A fur -runs follow his own dictates and, ill fact, Cher Rogers develops l when agony run d9 just as he jolly well liked. into Roger I3rtther leaving Paul Sitter's study, where there has been a, cluitiing.rel. silver employs Judltt I cirri- He bad l'llhitea.rivalatllat,lcha the Inspector Clayton interviews clay 10 1 g m - Harding the suicide of one of Roger'; friends, due to gambling debts. mon] ed as he 'would have been to accept meets her father. the Silver's hospitality indefinitely, it ----- was his intention to take a fiat in CHAPTER XVI.,--(Co..t'd.) town and to remain there until such "I think the Modern Age is a very time as he and Molly had finally de- nice age," supplied Molly. "Lots of tided on what plans the future was people say nasty things about it but to be built. I think that's because they're jealous "And you can't blame me, Paul," —because they've grown too old to the Major had smiled, "if I should enjoy it." wish to have my little girl all to my - "Good for you, Molly," cried her self for a bit." father. "That's the spirit. And I'ni Paul Silver had nodded, encourag- going to take jolly good care that you ingly. He had recovered from the don't find me a wet blanket. As you blow delivered to his composure by said coining down, Flora, I've got to the realization that the Major had get acclimatised. Well, I've plenty of no intention whatsoever of returning time to get that, haven't I, Molly? to India and that he would be settling You and I are going to do the most down. After all, he argued, :,some absurd things together—just like kids way out of the dilemma was sure to on holiday. Except that this isn't be found. If the worst came to the just a holiday," he added happily. worst, the girl could always conven- "It's for keeps." iently disappear again and like "the spa ever looked up sharply from other one" perhaps she would not be his p ate• quite so readily discovered. "You mean you're not returning to As a fact, Silver was rather reliev- lndia, Aldous?" he asked, keeping his ed to hear that it was the Major's in- voice as even as he could ender the tention to take Molly to town to live tircumstances. with him. So long as Carstairs re - "That's the ticket, Paul. That's my maimed at "Lawn House" those little little surprise -packet. I'm finished. gaming parties were quite out of the I'm through. I'm reporting at the question, and while their cessation War Office in the morning and after had, perhaps, been providential since a few very necessary formalities I'll the "mishap" to young Carruthers, be a free man. Nice little pension, things could not continue like this Paul, and I hope, a long life to enjoy indefinitely. One had to keep one's It, Why, Molly, what's the matter?" funds in a healthy state. It was one he added, quickly, noting how sudden- of the few economic laws about which lav pale the girl opposite him had be- Paul Silver knew anything at all. come ' Flora Silver was rather more per - Molly tried to smile. "I think it turbed 'at the hearing of it. She must be the excitement," she apolo- didn't trust "that girl." Anything gized, breathlessly. "You've no idea might happen. Once away from the bow excited I've been, really. I'll be restraining influence of Lawn House, all right in a moment." Molly might be constrained to tell Flora Silver had risen from her Major Carstairs everything, and that. chair and placed an arm around the "everything" might result in a spot girl's shoulders, while Carstairs dash- of unpleasantness for the Silvers. eel to the sideboard and poured out a Once again she devoutly wished that peg of brandy. Paul had listened to her and had got "There, dear, take a sip at this," out while the going was good. What soothed Mrs. Silver, taking the glass wee the loss of a few hundred a year, from the Major's hand, "you'll feel she argued with pointed logic, to the ever so much better." risk of incarceration behind the cold - "I think I'll go upstairs," said ly forbidding walls of a prison? Molly, quietly, and turning to Major As for Molly, her emotions were Carstairs: "Please don't worry, it's. rather mixed. nothing, really it isn't." • Having recovered from the first When the two women had gone Car- shock of hearing that her newly -found stairs turned to Silver. "father," instead of being home mere - "You don't think I've been talking ly on leave from India was actually too much to her, do you, Paul?" settling down in England, she was "I don't think it's that," Silver re- forced to admit that Major Carstairs plied, "I think it's just asshe said— was one of the most delightfully the reaction after an exciting morn charming men she had ever met in her lig." life. No, she was wrong there. There was another, and his name was Roger Baling, for despite his strange be- haviour when she had encountered him on the stairs at Lawn House, she could not erase from her mind that happy time he had given her at The Cygnet Club. And while Molly had never yet been consciously in love with any man, she imagined that her feelings for Roger Barling ;were quite the nearest approach to that sacred emotion. Molly's problem, as a result of Ma- jor Carstairs' decision, was rather different from what it had been. She had now seriously to face the possi- bility of what would happen in the event of her failing to discover the Major's real daughter. He had ac- cepted her, she believed, in all good faith. He really thought she was the baby girl he had sent home from In- dia with the Silvers twenty years ago. That he loved her its a father should love a daughter, there was in her mind not the slightest suspicion of doubt. Yet all the time she was conscious of her deceit—that deceit the ;Jilvers had imposed on her, and the worst of it was that now there could be no going back. She had realized that from the beginning, but then Paul Silver had hinted that the Major would be 're- turning abroad in a few months. It was one thing masquerading as an- other man's daughter for a few weeks, and quite another finding that the deception might have to continue in- definitely. When she thought of that a teeter of fear surged through her because she realized that the longer the deception continued the harder it would be it unmask and the greater would be the pain which she must cause to the man who had accepted her..in all good faith as his daughter. As soon as they moved out of Lawn House and downs to the city she thought that she might have a better opportunity of setting about her task of finding the real Molly Carstairs. Towards the end of the week Molly and the Major found exactly the type of flat for which they had been search - It was within a few minutes walk of the Green Pant; ie fact, from one of the bedrooms at the back one 'could Catch a glimpse of the lean bare branches of the trees, with here and there a few curled and crumpled leaves hanging disconsolate, "I think it's beautiful," cried Molly, when Major Carstairs asked her how it suited her, It w,.s attractively furnished too. Its owner hied evident.. ly been a gentleman of considerable artistic appreciation (To be continued,) When the Paper Doesn't Come My father says the paper be reads ain't put up right. He finds a lot of fault, he does, per- nein' it all night. He says there ain't a single thing in it worthwhile to read, And that it doesn't print the kind of stuff the people need. He tosses it aside and says it's strict- ly on the bum— But you ,ought to hear him holler when the paper doesn't come. He reads the weddin's and he snorts, like all get out. He reads the social doin's with a most derisive shout; He says they make the paper for the women folks alone. He'll read about the parties and he'll fume and fret and groan: He says of information it doesn't have a crumb— But you ought to hear him holler, when the paper doesn't come. He's always first to grab it and he reads it plumb clean through, He doesn't miss a single item or a want ad—this is true. He says they don't know what we want, the dern newspaper guys, I'm going to take a day sometime and go and put 'em wise; Sometimes it seems as though they must be blind and deaf and. dumb„ But you ought to hear him holler, when the paper doesn't come. —Simcoe Reformer. Descendant of Royal Line Dies a Pauper CHAPTER XVII. But Paul Silver knew it was no- thing of the kind. He knew exactly how the girl felt. He felt just that way himself. Why the devil hadn't Carstairs mentioned that he was com- ing home for good? Major Aldouu Carstairs had been back in England exactly a week and, quite frankly, he was puzzled. He had always been a man subtly conscious of "atmosphere-" He had experienced it, at time quite vividly, during his residence in Inda. On occa- sions it had been excepti' n^,i-ly useful to him. Once his peculiar sense had warned him of lurking danger in the, Wild mountain fastnesses, and he had heeded that warning and saved not dilly his own life, but the lives of a hundred men under his coiitmand: From that day he had respected his strange gift and never neglected to take due heed of the warning it invariably gave: There was nothing jiarticularly supernatural about it -- just a keen sense of the perceptions allied to a sensitive and delicately tuned mind. After the first excitement of his return to England had died down, Major Carstairs became aware that there was a strange atmosphere about "Lawn House." The Silvers appear- ed, to him, an ideally happy couple. They seemed prosperous, too, and the Major was much too refined a person to inquire, or even to indulge in hints uloncernirig the source of Paul Silver's {nc`eme. After all, he told himself, cul Silver had ever been a man of t'ifinite resource and much water had owed under the bridges since last e had met the man travelling ire ilia. No, it was not the Silvers g hat gave him cause for apprehelr- Mon. It was Molly. Even discount - Uig the fact that she was suffering from a temporary loss of memory, there were moments when she appear - id to be abjectly afraid. In his diplo- ',natic way he had inquired whether she was not completely happy, but she had answered him that she was won- derfully happy, in fact, And it was when she smiled up into his face and wound one of her Grins Wend his neck, that his fears melted rod he began to believe that his "sixth Milan, Italy.—Death in a free cot of one of Milan's public hospitals has closed the ill-starred life of Guido Lus- ignano, penniless descendant of the once - powerful Byzantine Emperors. Guido Lusignano, who was 77, was the son of the late Leo XIII., at one time King of Khorasan. Khorasan was a small state sandwiched in between. Persia and Arghanistan and the last bit of territory the historic Commeno family could call its own. The Commenos gave six emperors. to Constantinople and 10 to Tresizond during the Byzantine era. Reduced finally to Khorasan they lost house and country when that little state- was in- corporated into Russia. Lusignano led an adventurous" life, part of which was spent in great lux- ury uxury and considerable travelling. His pocketbook grew slimmer and slimmer. Several years ago he invested his last penny in a modest cafe in the Varallo Sesia, a village of northern Italy, but economic conditions grew bad and cus- tomers less and less. Several months ago he was obliged to close shop and set out in search of work. He was without funds when a seri- ous illness overtook him in June. From there his road led to the free clinic. Recalling his royal ancestry news- papers accorded him a half -column obituary. Mrs. GuBe Shaw Shuns Limelight World Knows Next to Noth- • ing About the Wife of the Famous Irish Play- wright Newsreel audiences seldom or never catch a glimpse of Mrs. "G.B.S:" when the old master comes into the focus of the camera. She remains invisible while he spoofs America, smiles like the cat. that swallowed the canary, and draws attention to his mighty brow, behind which all wisdom curdles into wise-' cracks, In fact, "Mrs. G. B. 5," might be a thousand miles away from her oracular lord, as far as an awed public and its emissaries of the press can detect any signs of her presence in his life. Yet she is not only present, but is very much of an active force in his career, according to those who know the famous couple well. The world knows next to nothing about her. It is her wish that it should know as little as possible. For, by an appropriately Shavian paradox, the least limelight -shunning of celebri- ties has the most limelight -shunning of wives. Mrs. Shaw is the one woman in Britain, somebody has said, who has put all her brains into remaining unknown. Thus Mr. Hayden Church in the New York Times Magazine. Writing from London, he continues: What is she like, then, this woman who looks after a "national institu- tfon?" She is an elderly woman now, :for she and Shaw have been man and wife since 1898, and at the time of their register -office wedding they were, according to G. B. S., a "middle-aged couple." Actually Shaw was then forty-two and she not so many years younger, so that she is now presum- ably in the late sixties, he being seventy-six. In her youth she was not unlike the masterful Ann Whitefield in Shaw's "Mau and Superman," but the years have mellowed her as they have her husband. To -day she -is plump, -with a rather small face, soft, gray hair brushed straight back, kindly green - gray eyes that beam through nose glasses, and a general air of repose and calm. She dresses in modified Fldwardian.style which, to .her sur- prise, is again fashionable. She is a strong advocate of short skirts. Irish, like Shaw, but, unlike him, without even the trace of a brogue, Mrs. Shaw might, as the saying is, be anybody. The fact is, however, that she is able, shrewd, intellectual, and cultured,, with definite artistic gifts. "A clever woman," Shaw pronounced her soon after their first meeting, when writing to Ellen Terry. With her qualities—not to mention the considerable fortune she inherited from her father—Mrs. Shaw might have made an outstanding -career for herself. Instead, she subordinated everything to assisting the man she loved, and whose genius she recog- nized, to realize all of his great possi- bilities. And to this extent undoubt- edly she "made" him. She was rich; Shaw was then rela- tively poor. But not even as an easy way to securing independence had he the slightest idea of being false to his L. The "Recovery Dance" The laved across the line President Ttoosevelt. Here we is the "recovery See two patriot* 'demonstrating, igAg dance" dedicated to almost fanatically antimarital views. "Marriage," declared the hero of "Man and Superman," undoubtedly speaking for his creator, "is to me apostasy, profanation of the sanctuary of my birthright, shameful surrender, igno- minious capitulation, acceptance of de- feat," Nevertheless, Charlotte Payne Town- shend "lured G. B. S. into matrimony as effectively as his own Ann White- field did the furiously protesting John Tanner," Mr. Church records, con- tinuing: She did so largely, no doubt, be- cause she happened to be fond of him, but mainly, it seems certain, because she recognized that, provided with a comfortable home and an assured in- come. there were no limits to what he might do. She was a slaughter of Ilorace Payne - Townshend, a rich magnate of Derry, County Cork. An interest in Socialism led her to make the acquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb, who wrote extensively on economics and kindred subjects, and it was through the Webbs that, in 1806, she became acquainted with Shaw. Shaw and Miss Payne -Townshend were fellow guests of the Webbs dur- ing an autumn holiday at Stratford St. Andrews, in Suffolk, and were thrown together a good deal, their hosts being absorbed in each other and their own writings. A few months later when G. B. S. had returned to London, he began spending his evenings at Miss Payne- Townshend's residential flat at 10 Aclelphi Terrace — afterward their home together—and, as the Terry cor- respondence shows, she was taking part in his work as a volunteer secre- tary. "She- doesn't love me," Shaw wrote to Miss Terry. "The truth is she is a clever woman. The idea of tying her- self up again by, a marriage before she knows anything—before she has ex- ,ploited her freedom and money power to the utmost seems to her intellect to be unbearably foolish, "She got fond of me and did not coquet or pretend that she wasn't. I got fond of her, because she was a comfort to me down there. You kept my heart so warm that I got fond of everybody; and she was the nearest and best. That's the situation." So this. curious "romance" went on for more than a year, says Mr. Church, neither of the "parties" relinquishing their distaste for the fetters of matri- mony.. But then Destiny stepped in. Thus: Destiny in this case took the shape of an abscess which Shaw got on his instep, producing necrosis of the bone. .At that time Shaw's mother bad a house in Fitzroy Square, London. Theirs was a home almost completely lacking in creature comforts. Mrs. Shaw, who supported herself, and, while her son was finding his metier, had for long supported him, by giving music lessons, was not, as the phrase goes, domesticated. G. B. S. himself, immersed in his literary work, cared little how he was lodged or catered for. As an invalid G. B. S. presented a new problem to Miss Payne -Town- shend: She took prompt measures in the shape of a house at Hindhead,, in Surrey, to which she proposed to carry off Shaw. . His mother raised no objection what- ever, but Miss Payne -Townshend had reckoned without the conventional side of the theoretically completly uncon- ventional Shaw. He declined to be her guest at Hindhead. But Charlotte Payne Townshend woultl have none of this nonsense. Comb to Hindhead Shaw must, and be properly nursed and fed and taken. care of. The irresistible force had met an immovable obstacle, and as the im- movable obstacle was a woman and the irresistible force only a man, he had to find a solution. "Go out and get a ring and a license," he commanded, and within a week Miss Payne -Townshend found herself a married woman, and Shaw, to the surprise of all who 'knew hint, was a married man. "We married because we had be- come indispensable to one another," he told somebody, and that appears to be the plain truth. In .five years from his wedding day he was famous; in ten, world-famous. For all her devotion, however, it seems that Mrs. Shaw is not merely her husband's echo: , About twenty years ago she made a translation of Brieux's play "Mater- nity," and added two other translations of plays by the French dramatist to make a book which had considerable success. Moreover, site induced the Stage Society to present a perform - (thee of "Maternity." Later she translated Brieux's "La Femme Seitie," as "Wonsan On Her Own," 'sect repeated her previous feat by obtaining its performance by the Actresses' Franchise League and 'std publication in another three -play vol. ume. Of it she naively says: "'My husband consented to write a preface•" As if wild horses could have kept him from it! Too Many Specialists Declares Dr. W. J. Mayo New York.—Declaring physician should not forget the importance 01 "taking care of the sick," Dr. William J. Mayo, one of the founders of the Mayo clinic in Rochester, Minn., said he would advise the country's medical students to become general practiF tioners instead of specialists. Dr. Mayo has just returned after attending medical meetings in London and Dublin. While abroad, the University of Aberdeen conferred upon hint the honorary degree of LL.D. for his wor]i in medicine and surgery. "It is true," he said, "that there are too many young specialists, a1 least in my opinion. They come our of school and suddenly they are spe. cialists." At the University of Aberdeen ht read a paper on the goal of medicin(' in the United States. He said he de parted from medicine and surgery ix the address to explain why it wa( necessary to spend vast fortunes her( in educating young people to thin] and live properly. He pointed' out, hE said, that in America there are 1,+ 000,000 college students, while it Great Britain there are only aboui 50,000. Dr. Mayo expressed the opinion that the younger generation "is muck nearer to being civili .ed than we of our generation were at their age." "The youth of my generation wag denied information and allowed to live in a secretive world," he said, "whist the. children of today have a complete ly reversed treatment and are tole] everything that they night wish tt know." Big Business The manager was retiring and the stat decided to give him a radio set for s present. From each of the S000 em ployees the foreman collected Gd, male ' Jug £200 in all. With the money h( bought cigarettes at a wholesale rat( and with the coupons from the cigar ettes he got the radio -set. So th( manager received his present, east pian in the shop was given a pack o1 fags and the foreman got a commission from the wholesale house. ` Doubtless he was a Scot. .Financia Times. "Rugged individualism is not so bad however much we jeer the phrase to day."—Owen D. Young. Von Nurse Baby :Ou elf . . . Ti.'y 1 a 10 Brand: Countless thousands of healthy, happy babies have Loon reared onEagle B,radd during the last eovonty-fvo years. You will And our littlehooklet,"naby's Welfare," full of valuable hints on baby ogre. write for It. Use coupou below. Tho Borden Co., timitod, Yardley House, Toronto. Gentlemen, Please send ,ne free copy of booklet entitled J "Baby's welfare." Name address ISSUE No. 34••- '33