Bliss | Page 5

have had a day."
Stanley scented a rebuke.
"Well, I suppose you did not expect me to rush away from the office
and nail carpets--did you?"
"Certainly not," laughed Beryl. She put down her cup and ran out of the
dining-room.
"What the hell does she expect us to do?" asked Stanley. "Sit down and
fan herself with a palm-leaf fan while I have a gang of professionals to
do the job? By Jove, if she can't do a hand's turn occasionally without
shouting about it in return for... "
And he gloomed as the chops began to fight the tea in his sensitive
stomach. But Linda put up a hand and dragged him down to the side of
her long chair.
"This is a wretched time for you, old boy," she said. Her cheeks were
very white, but she smiled and curled her fingers into the big red hand
she held. Burnell became quiet. Suddenly he began to whistle "Pure as
a lily, joyous and free"--a good sign.
"Think you're going to like it?" he asked.
"I don't want to tell you, but I think I ought to, mother," said Isabel.
"Kezia is drinking tea out of Aunt Beryl's cup."
4
They were taken off to bed by the grandmother. She went first with a
candle; the stairs rang to their climbing feet. Isabel and Lottie lay in a
room to themselves, Kezia curled in her grandmother's soft bed.

"Aren't there going to be any sheets, my granma?"
"No, not to-night."
"It's tickly," said Kezia, "but it's like Indians." She dragged her
grandmother down to her and kissed her under the chin. "Come to bed
soon and be my Indian brave."
"What a silly you are," said the old woman, tucking her in as she loved
to be tucked.
"Aren't you going to leave me a candle?"
"No. Sh--h. Go to sleep."
"Well, can I have the door left open?"
She rolled herself up into a round but she did not go to sleep. From all
over the house came the sound of steps. The house itself creaked and
popped. Loud whispering voices came from downstairs. Once she
heard Aunt Beryl's rush of high laughter, and once she heard a loud
trumpeting from Burnell blowing his nose. Outside the window
hundreds of black cats with yellow eyes sat in the sky watching
her--but she was not frightened. Lottie was saying to Isabel:
"I'm going to say my prayers in bed to-night."
"No, you can't, Lottie." Isabel was very firm. "God only excuses you
saying your prayers in bed if you've got a temperature." So Lottie
yielded:
Gentle Jesus meek anmile,
Look pon a little chile.
Pity me, simple Lizzie,
Suffer me to come to thee.

And then they lay down back to back, their little behinds just touching,
and fell asleep.
Ê
Standing in a pool of moonlight Beryl Fairfield undressed herself. She
was tired, but she pretended to be more tired than she really
was--letting her clothes fall, pushing back with a languid gesture her
warm, heavy hair.
"Oh, how tired I am--very tired."
She shut her eyes a moment, but her lips smiled. Her breath rose and
fell in her breast like two fanning wings. The window was wide open; it
was warm, and somewhere out there in the garden a young man, dark
and slender, with mocking eyes, tiptoed among the bushes, and
gathered the flowers into a big bouquet, and slipped under her window
and held it up to her. She saw herself bending forward. He thrust his
head among the bright waxy flowers, sly and laughing. "No, no," said
Beryl. She turned from the window and dropped her nightgown over
her head.
"How frightfully unreasonable Stanley is sometimes," she thought,
buttoning. And then as she lay down, there came the old thought, the
cruel thought--ah, if only she had money of her own.
A young man, immensely rich, has just arrived from England. He meets
her quite by chance... . The new governor is unmarried.... There is a
ball at Government house... . Who is that exquisite creature in eau de
nil satin? Beryl Fairfield....
Ê
"The thing that pleases me," said Stanley, leaning against the side of
the bed and giving himself a good scratch on his shoulders and back
before turning in, "is that I've got the place dirt cheap, Linda. I was
talking about it to little Wally Bell to-day and he said he simply could
not understand why they had accepted my figure. You see land about

here is bound to become more and more valuable ... in about ten years'
time. . . of course we shall have to go very slow and cut down expenses
as fine as possible. Not asleep--are you?"
"No, dear, I've heard every word," said Linda.
He