Evening Star Newspaper, December 8, 1929, Page 108

THF QUNDAY STAR. V\"\QHIN - PORCELAIN CUPS # owoio. onya Here Is a Different Sort of Stm)/__lVrltlen by One of the Recogmzed in the Fi iction I zeld 7 Today— The Author of “‘Jurgen” and Other Famous Books Tells the Story of How Death Stepped In to Decide a Woman’s Love Problems. Another Story From the O. Henry Memorial Awards Will Be Pub- lished in the Magazine of Next Sunda 1y’s Star. H, but they are beyond praise,” said Cynthia Allonby, enraptured, “and certainly you should have presented them to the Queen.” “Her majesty already possesses a cup of that ware,” replied Lord Pevensey. “It was one of her New Year gifts, from Robert Cecil. Hers is, I believe, not quite so fine as either of yours; but then, they tell me, there is not the like of this pair in England, nor indeed on the hither side of Cataia.” He set the two pieces of Chinese pottery upon the shelves in the south corner of the room. These cups were of that sea-green tint called celadon, with a very wonderful glow and radiance. Such oddities were the last vogue at court in this year of grace 1593, and Cynthia could not but speculate as’ to what monstrous sum Lord Pevensey had paid for this his last gift to her. Now he turned, smiling, a really superb crea- ture in his blue and. gold. “I had another message from the Queen——" : “George,” Cynthia said, with fond concern, “it.frightens me to see you thus foolhardy, in temmm: nllke the Queen’s anger and the plague.” “Eh, as goes the ‘plague, it ap.us nine out of ten,” he answered, lightly. -“The Queen; I grant you, is another pair of sleeves, Ior an irritated Tudor spares-nobody.” - - « --But Cynthia Allonby kept silent, mddidnot exactly smile, while she appnhed her famous young- kinsman. ... She .was’ flattered by, and a llmg afraid, of, the gay- self-confidence which stay, as a wldover Gerhtnla it was' .u very fllmfl “YB and-you- 'onld be an eleellent mtch ’* said Cynthia, “aloud, “if that were all.- AM .yet,” what must’ I reasonably expect in marzying, sir; the famous Earl of- Pevensey?" /- . “A-great deal ‘of love and petting,. my dear. And if there were anything to which you had & fancy, I would get it for you.” !ierghncevmttotbolelovelycups.nd" lingeted fondly. - “Yes, dear Master Generosity, if it could be purchued or man\ltacwred you would get it for me—" “If it exists” I will get it for you" he de- clared. * I think thfi. It exists. But I am not learned enough to know what it is. George, if I mar. mmlwouldhnven\oneyu\dmwc'lothes and soft hours and many lackeys to wait on me; and honor from all men. And you would ‘be’ kind to me, I know, when you returned from the' day's work lt ‘Windsor—or Holyrood or the Louvre. But do you not see that I would always be tc you only a rather costly luxury, ltke those cups, which ‘the Queen’s minister could afford to keep for his hours of leisure?” He answered: “You are all in all to me.- You know it. Oh, very well do you know and abuse your power, you adorable and lovely baggage, who have kept me attendance for a fortnight, without ever giving me an honest yes : right. or no.” He gesticulated. “Well, but life is very dull in Deptford village, and it amuses you to twist a Queen's adviser around your finger! I see it plainly, you minx, and I acquiesce because it delights me to give you pleasure, even at the cost of some dignity. Yet I may no longer shirk the Queen’s business— no, not even to amuse you, my dear.” “You said you had heard from her—again?” “I had this morning my orders, under Glori= anna’s own fair hand, either to depart tomor- row into France or else to come tomorrow to Windsor. I need not say that in the circum- stances I consider France the more whole-~ some.” Now the girl's voice was hurt and wistful. “So, for the thousandth time, it is proven the Queen’s business means more to you than I do.” He observed, unruffled: “My dear, I scent unreason. ‘This is a high matter. If the French King compounds with Rome, it means war for Protestant England. Even you must see that.” She replled udly “Yes, even I! 'Oh cer- . tainly, my lord, even a half-witted child of 17 can peteelve as much as that.” “I was mot speaking of half-witted persom, as I remember.. Well, it chances that I am honored by the friendship of one ‘sallant Bear- nals, and am supposed to have some claim upon him, thanks to. my good fortune last year h seving his life from the assassin Barriere. charices ‘that I may perhaps become, under Providence, the instrument of preserving my fellow ‘countrymen from much (flel and trum- - pet-sounding and throat-cutting.- ~Instead- of -pursuing that. chance, two weeks ago—as .was my duty—=-I have dangled at your apron-strings, in the vain hope of softening the most variable - and Jhardest heart in the world. Now, eclearly, ¥ bhave not'ihe rbht. to do that any longer.” ¥t -Sflmum\flnl&hfiym dook which; she- knew, . denoted that George nuhurmmhhdutyuhepwlt even in her dfigppotutment “No, you have not lhe ~You are: 'edded to your statecraft, to your petriotism, .o your self-advancement, - christen it what_you: will. + Younewe“ed,at , = all ‘events, $0 your man’s business. . You have . - -+ not: the time for -such-trifles as giving. & maid - .. - that-foolish and lovely sort of wooing to which - every maid . Jooks forward - in - her . heart of hearts. - Indeed, when you married- the first . ~time it was & kind of infidelity; and I am cer- ~ tain that poor dear mouse-like Mary wrust bave ' felt’ that often .and over again. Why, do you not see, George, even now: that your. wife will always ‘eome second to your real love?’. - . " “¥n my heart, dear Sophist, you will always ‘come first.* But it“is not ‘permitted‘that any loyal gentleman devote every hour-of his life 10" sighing and making *sonnéts, and to the ‘oenmlmltém.ofnmsidslalelmm% re m Tittle Deptfm ” < “All this is but -nothvr way of nylnc yun-_ lommp would have cups upon a sheif,” . pointed out—“in readiness for your me 4 ..Hg shrugged, said “Nonsense!” and “began " more lightly to talk of other: matters, Thus v and thus he would do in France, such and sueh trinkets he would fetch back—“as toys for the -most whimsical, . the loveliest and the most obstinate child in all the world,” he phrased it. And they would be married, Prevensey declared, in September: nor (he gayly said) did he pro- pose. to have any further argument about it. .. Children should be seen—the proverb was dusty, but it particularly applied to pretty chil- dren cym,hla let him talk. She was Just a little afraid of his self-confidence, and. of his tall nobleman’s habit of getting what he wanted, in the end: but she dispiritedly felt that Peven- sey had falled her. He treated her as a silly “said, reflectively, “You Jool. infant: and his want of her, everi in that capacity, was a secondary ‘matier: he was going into France, for all his petting talk; and was leaving her to shift”as’she best 'might; until - he' could- spare ‘the time to resume "his love- ‘mklnl... NOW when Pevensey had tone the room seemed darkened by the withdrawal of"so much- magnificence. Cynthia wutched from the ‘window as the. isll éarl rode away, with three handsomely clad retainers. = Yes, George “was very fine and ‘admirable, no doubt of it; ‘even so, theré was relief in the reflection- fl'nt, tor ) month or two she’' waé'rid of him. - - Turning,” she faced a lean, ‘disheveled man, who-wodbymmm:umymnhmc’ his chin. 'He had unquiet, bright eyes, this it- at-elbows poef “whom a marquis’ deughter was pleased to patronise,’ .ndhhredhllr‘ody was unpsrdonnbly Sukiléd. ' Nor were' his man- anything, he’ 106 went to the”’ window. '’ dnuedomholnmlenhenm # “sbmymmtevqfiqdewu! Look how he vrldel in”triumph! like Tanié¢ Tamburlaine, with' ° ' Techelles” and Usumcasans pnd"l‘hefldtfiu o atténd him, and With "the fnisét ' turning ‘thé" ¢mr.wnmmu-fionmo.uc ‘of golden 'haae M them. It s a Beattiful” world. ' And ' Mistress Cyn,” WQ'M “th-t Pevensey is v‘ery‘ “ners beyond’ rq*«ch toc now,” without’ nlyln; o You big-eyed fool! Y¥ou lisping he matter, the Pevensey? ' His -ascent and h « declension “ will have been" eompleted, and hi foolish battles and treaties will have giv place to other foolish battles and treaties,’ a: oblivion will: ‘have swallowed = this glistenin -bluebottle, plumes and fine lace and: statel ‘rufl and all. ‘'Why, he is but an" adviser to - ‘queen ‘of half “sn islafid;’ whereas' my - Tam burlaine was lord of &ll- the. golden ancien| East: and what does my Tamburlaine matte ‘now, save that he gave Kit Marlowe the sub: " ject of a drama? “Hal, softly ‘tholigh! for doe “even that very lrettly ‘metter? Who' reslly care, today ‘about what scritches were made upo wax by that old Euripides, the latéhiet of whos “sandels I am fiot worthy to unloue? No‘ 0 qultc vorthy as yct - - ANI:" th«mpon ‘the .h-bby fellow sat de in. the tall MMM ‘ohair " whle splendldephenen nm.mhrmeu,' < R ‘least ‘he goes maghificently to settie’ the m-m of ’kings. Wmmodutynotmyumfi( Mistress Oyn, ‘T would acclaim you as straugely Jucky, in‘being beloved by two it Marlewe =" = v “But, Ibid how lerlo\uly P!vemey hlu it all! 'and himself in particular! ,wfly there de- parts from us,”in befitting state s Dersonage. whose ‘opinion as to every topic in the world % is written legibly in the carriage of those fine shoulders, even when seen from behind. and : from so considerable a distance. And in not one syllable do any -of these opinions differ from the opinions of his great-great-grand- fathers. Oho and hark to- Deptford! now all the oafs in the Corn-market are cheering this bulwark of Protestant England, - this rising young hero of a people with no nonsense about them. * Yes, it is a very qualnt and rather splendid ephemera.”, - A marquis’ d.ulhur eou)d not qulu ap- prove of the way in which this. shoemakeér's son, however talented, railed at his betters. . “Pevensey will be the greatest man in these kingdoms some day. Indeed, Kit Marlowe, there are those who say he is that much already.” = “Oh, very prob-hly' Still, I am puszled by human greatness. A century hence what will “fine ' fellows that’ have ¢ not' their like in England.” * 3 “Truly, you are not alvays thus modeot Mokt chfldleflnsheonbnt N-aeliwlth- "“Ah, but the moon s far away,” the idd, smiling—"tgo far to' hear. the * mpd * human . crying:. and besides;, the . moon; " remember .it, was never a -very -moro\u god. dou—— “Just so," he mmd “llso ‘she" was eal Cynthia, -and she,” 400, ‘'was béautiful.” “Yet is it the heart that cries to me. m| poet?” she asked him, softly, “or just the Mps? . “Oh, both of them, most beautiful and inae: cessible of goddesses,” Then Marlowe leaned toward her, laughing and shaking that dis . reputable red head. .“Still, you are very foolis! .in your latest incarnation, to be wasting yo rays upon carpet earls who will not outwe a century. Were modesty not my failing, I re peat, I could name scmebody who .will longer. Yes, and—if, but-I lacked that,p virtue—I would advise you to go a-gypsying with' that nameless somebody, so that t manikins might snatch their little share of the big things that are eternal, just.as the buts