  A theory of magnetic short--range order for high--$T_c$ cuprates is presented
on the basis of the one--band $t$--$t^{\prime}$--Hubbard model combining the
four--field slave--boson functional integral technique with the Bethe cluster
method. The ground--state phase diagram evaluated self--consistently at the
saddle--point and pair--approximation levels shows the experimentally observed
suppression of magnetic long--range order in the favour of a paraphase with
antiferromagnetic short--range order. In this phase the uniform static spin
susceptibility consists of interrelated itinerant and local parts and increases
upon doping up to the transition to the Pauli paraphase. Using realistic values
of the Hubbard interaction we obtain the cusp position and the doping
dependence of the zero--temperature susceptibility in reasonable agreement with
experiments on $\rm La_{2-\delta}Sr_{\delta}CuO_4$.
