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6-Orono Weekly Times, Wednesday, August 31, 1983 "romances CONTINUATION OF STORY (Crossley Barranger, a writer, visiting England, becomes enthralled with the ' chamber maid-part owner of ' the hotel in which he is staying staying and has become involved in her life.) "What could I have been thinking of?" she murmured to herself as she made up the bed in his room. "I must 'have been mad. What shall I do if he said anything to father?" She almost choked on the word father - but her mother always insisted on her calling him that. At least she felt fortunate having a different different surname, although several times pressure had been brought to bear to change that! Millicent Collins, wasn't a bad name she concluded, at least it was better than Millie Brookes. She dusted the room thoroughly pausing to look at some of the books on the writing desk. There was Ward and Locks guide to London, a copy of Punch, a book on English dialects and one that attracted her attention attention enough to pick it up and browse through a few pages. It was a thin paper-covered book with a distraught looking looking woman on the cover and a rather, handsome man looking looking over her shoulder contemptuously. contemptuously. The title made her smile. 'She Loved Him Far Too Much', and it was by . Barry Crossley. "Isn't that strange?" she thought, "Barry > Crossley -Crossley Barranger - is it an incredible coincidence? She wondered if he'd miss it if she borrowed it for a couple of hours. Her 'father was goi'tlg out that afternoon and she had to cover the desk. It might give her time to read for a short while. Placing it inside the top of her apron she left the room and continued continued her rounds. There were 12 rooms in the hotel altogether and most daw she had to make up the beds and carry all the coal up for tjie fires, and clean them. She hated going down the coal cellar. It was dark and damp and there were little black lizards down there. They'd scurry over the wet coal in front of her sometimes and she'd scream and step back -but she knew nobody would come and see what was the matter - and so she'd just have to reapply herself to the task. Then with a coal shuttle in one hand and an oil lamp in the other, she'd struggle up the 16 well worn steps back to the main floor. in the afternoon, her father reeking of whiskey, dressed in his best suit, and carrying a silver nobbed cane, bid her farewell and disappeared disappeared through the front door. He had been a little more amiable that day and she couldn't understand why, : As soon as the door closed she took the book from hèr apron and started to read it. She' thought it was marvelous. It was about a big lawyer from Boston in the USA who married a woman, who nursed him in hospital when he was ill. He was so touched by her dedication in bringing him back to health (hat he proposed to her. However she kept on dedicating herself to him, catering to his every whim until he grew tired of her. Millicent was very emotional emotional and it wasn't long before she had tears in her eyes. "What a wonderful writer he is!" she thought. "Well that's if it is him. , Maybe he just picked it up for fun because the name sounded so much like his." She put the book down from time to time as guests passed to and fro, and then at, 3:30 her father suddenly barged in. laughing loudly accompanied accompanied by a woman, whose flushed cheeks and ruby lips were not given to her by nature. "Oh Ethel," he said, iii n !oud voice. "This is my link daughter- Millie. Millie mcc Ethel." Millicent tried to force a smile and Ethel with the rasping rasping voice of a street vendor said how she'd been dying to meet her and oh how pretty ' she was! They were just about to enter the private sitting room together when her father saw the novel sitting on the side of the desk. "What's this trash?" he demanded picking it up. "I've told you that I won't have you reading trash like this" and in spite of Millicent's Millicent's protests was about to tear it in to two pieces when Ethel took it from him. "'Don't tear it up, Dearie," she cried. "I'll read it - might get softs good ideas from it ieh?" and she let out a piercing piercing laugh that rattled the small glass chandelier by the door. "Well," he said, rather taken aback. "1 suppose you're old enough to read th.ings like that" and with a laugh he smacked her rear and they both jostled through. the door laughing and giggling giggling as they went. "Now I am in a mess," thought Millicent. "How am . I going to explain the missing novel to Mil Barranger." She felt rather insecure in the fact she had confided in a man she now had to tell she had bor rowed Ms book without asking asking and for all intents and purposes had lost it. The thought had no sooner crossed crossed her mind than in walked Crossley. "Hi," he greeted her spritely. "They've given y oil a new job today eh?" She blushed a little and answered with her head bowed bowed forward a little, "Yes, I'm just covering for my father." She looked towards the door marked private "He's busy, with other things." * "I wonder if you could do me a favour?" he asked, leaning forward on the desk until their noses almost touched. "Yes sir," she replied Without hesitation. "1 have a suit badly in need of pressing. Could you do it for me?" "Of course," she said. ."In the next half hour?" he asked with a pleading look on his face. "I think so." "I appreciate that," he said with a smile and started up the stairs. She walked over to the door where her stepfather and Ethel were doing who knows what and knocked. "Who's that?" her step- ' father yelled with a threatening threatening note in his voice. "It's me," she answered meakly. "Millicent." "Well go away and don't bother me," he yelled. After a few moments of silence, she raised her hand to knock again and thought better better of it. She would just have to desert her post at the desk and collect Mr. Barranger's suit herself she reasoned. Crossley poked up the fire a little for it was a chilly afternoon afternoon and stood with His back to the fire. He had had a fruitful afternoon and he had decided on his subject matter, matter, The article would be about London itself and its phenominal growth. Few people he decided, realized that London was adding seven miles of new streets to its area each year. The city had grown from a population of under one million at the beginning of the century to over 5 million in 1898. I He intended to find out what the impact had been on the small .owns and villages that had been swallowed up over the years by this hungry giant. That day he had planned planned his strategy and he intended intended to make a start first thing the next morning, by travelling travelling out to Hampstead and' possibly staying over night at the home of Mr. Peeries' sister Martha. He was deep in thought when Millicent knocked and entered. "Ah," he said. "That's what 1 call fast service," he pointed to the big wooden wardrobe. "It's in there - the brown check." He watched her as she walked over and opened the door. "She's quite a lovely girl," he thought. "Quite lovely." "Is this, the one sir?" sht asked, bringing it over to hint and looking up with those big brown eyes. "Hm, yes," he stammered, loosing his power of concentration concentration for a moment, "Yes that's the one." "Is that all sir?" she asked. '■'Yes, I suppose so," he replied, and as she left the room his eyes followed her until she disappeared through the door. "Quite a lovely girl," he muttered, "1 wished I could think of someway to help her but I've just been too busy. Perhaps when I get back from "Hampstead," he thought. Inwardly however he knew that he rarely kept such promises, it seemed that , he made them and then got involved in some project or other and forgot! He promised promised himself however that this time hfe really would do something! Millicent had wanted to mention the novel to him but just couldn't find the courage; she was still quite worried as she walked down the stairs but when she arrived arrived in the lobby - there was fai more to worry about. "Where the hell have you been?" yelled Brooks, who was standing there with his arm around the voluptuous Ethel, "We could have been (Continued page 7) DURHAM CENTRAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY iCOME TO THEeeeee •e e ••••••••••••••• •-••• ••••••••••••••••• ORONO THURSDAY, FRIDAY, SATURDAY. SUNDAY SEPT. 8-11 "Golden Helmets" Thursday Evening Queen of the Fair Contest Durham County Holstein Show O.P.P Motorcycle Précision Team / "The Golden Helmets" Demolition Derby Fiddlers' Contest Friday Afternoon Public School Parade -12:30 p.m. Contests ' School Amateur Talent Show Dairy Cattle Show -, 4-H Club Day - Fat Calf Show All exhibits on display '.'Golden Helmets" Saturday Afternoon Dairy Princess, 1:00 p.m. ■ Light and Heavy Horse Shows Western Horse Show Beef Cattle Show The Lea'hy Family Show All exhibits on display . V7V . 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