NOVEL

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 383, 10 September 1903, Page 2

NOVEL

CHAPTER VII.-(Continued.) littcy made distinct progress in Hopocastle's favour; her graceful riding delighted him; and be enjoyed her clever conversation and 4he sparkle of her wit; and if deploring a certain ever-present spies cf cynicism, he found ample condonation in the 'bard linea' tie little woman seemed to accept so pluckily. And then she flattered him so subtly, rather indeed by eysa and raancer than in words, that the vanity cf the really modest Hepeeastle was tickled. Certain things c unted besides in Lucy's favour. la the relations of Hebe and Hopecastle, the former took all* and gave nothing—nothing, that is, but the int luntary gift of beauty and charm. That was quite as it should be; all the same it was a new and rather piquant experience to be mada much of by an attractive and clever young woman. The least selfconscious el men cculd scarcely have been blind to Lucy's preference; it was so naively transparent; yet there was about it this peculiarity, that it was invisible in the presence of a third person. Only in Lucy's tele-a-tetes with Hopecastle did this shy fbwer bloom; before Hebe or any of the Yiearsge folk, Lucy was selfeffacement personified in regard to that young man. Need it argue even the shadow of disloyalty in Hopecastle that in this fact lay the savour of the things? Times change; but the fundamental weaknesses of humanity endure; and stolen waters are still apt to be sweet. Whether from prescience or principle, one person thoroughly disapproved of Lucy's rides. 'Heba darling,' her mother had one day v.ntnred, 'it is very good and sweet of you to lend Lucy your little mare, but do yen think it is quite wise ?' Hebe looked very sraight at her mother. * And why no!;, mother ? Lucy rides tetter than I do.' 'lt is not that, Hebe. I hardly like to siy it, Iu: do you not think it a pity to throw Arthur and Lucy together so much ?' Mrs. Carpenter's eyes shifted uneasily -undtr her daughter's direct look. 'I am not very much afraid, mother, thank you; I can truftt Hopecastle and I can trust Lucy; and perhaps I am vain enough to have a little confidence in myself.' * Oh, yes, darling; only you see ycu do set know the world as I do.* For answer Hebe only smiled, but the smile effected Mrs. Carpenter with a tingling sense of defeat; and she realised that though she had triumphed in the i&atter of Hebe's engagement, her day of supremacy had cloied with that struggle. Pocr Mrs. Carpenter was a prey to the most tormenting suspicions of her daughter's guest, and counted the days to the date which ended her Btay. Men were so unstable—so easily beguiled by flittery; Hebo was so wantonly careless of her vital interests, and quite impervious to remonstrance. In her distress, Mrs. Carpenter resolved to try if anything were to be done with HopacEstle—playful innuendo wae of course her only weapon. Even so she had to watch her chance. Lacy had returned from a ride radiant; and for a rare moim nt Mrs. Carpenter found herself alone with HopecaEtle. * How good of you to take so much trouble about that poor giri I' Sao laid her hand upon Uopecastle's arm; Mrs. Carpenter had a caressing way with young men. Her son-in-law presumptive edged unessily away; he was a fastidious man, and the contact with this faded lady, whoso arch smile disclosed long unbeautiful teeth, revolted him. Ana beside?, the man in him rose in aims against fc»<r adroitly implied depreciation of the absent. ' There is no question of trouble,' hj« s.id rather curtly; 'of pleasure rather.' 'So sweat of you to put it so; that is your kind heart. But really do you inow, if 1 were Hebe, I should begin to be quite j< alous.' Hopecistie was unable for more than a blank stare; but no studied tactics could have been so effect-ve. Mrs. Carpenter performed an inevitable climb down with what grace sha might. •Mylittle joke,' she said; *I know Hebe ia only too pleased for her friend to have tuch pleasure.' She leaned towards bim with so honeyed a emile, that Hopecactlo again shifted uneasily oat cf range. *Do you know where Hebe is V he asked. * I will sead her to yon,' and eo the lady covered her retreat * Da you know,' Hebe announced to her lover next day when they were riding, •Tuesday will be Lucy's twenty-fiist birthday.' 'lndeed,' ha said, 'and how do ycu propose t> celebrate the important occasion?' *I haven't thought—l mean—' Hehe laughed—'l thought perhaps you could auggest something, you always think of nice out-of-the-way teinge.* Hopecastle looked immensely pleased. ' ¥ju put me on my mettle, darling. Let" mo see, a picnic to Wenden Pevry, or— ' * Btop!' Htbe held np her Soger with a pretty air of pl&yfol authority. ' Say no more; you will never better that; it's where I've always longed to go. But how ever shall we get there, it?s eight miles from a station.' ' I den't think getting there wiil bo any Seat problem; I've a dozen nsgs eating eir heads off in the arables—it'll be < xercise for a few of them; we'll have the teach, oat*

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ABRSNGEMENT. LADY HoFeCASTLE,

BY -K- Heid-Matlieson.

COPYRIGHT. 'Drive all the way J How lovely!' Her eyes sparkled at him, and the heart of the big ehy man Bpark/ed in response. How lovely she was! And Hopccestle had begun to find a new enjoyment in his poßEesßions—the pleasure of playice fairy god-mother to the girl he adored ' How many can you t.ke P' asked Hebe. Oh, all of you. You dor?t want any other people, do you P' 'Well, I only thought,' Hebe laughed and coloured, 'as it's Lucy's bhthday, dont you think w<j ought to invite a ewain for her ?' - ' A swain ? Wen't there be Guy P What more does she waatP' 5/ Oh, Guy-he's a child; it isn't interesting for Lucy.' 1 I'm afraid I don't know whom to propose,* said Hopecastle rather crestfallen; he did not believe in the importation of outsiders into this picnic. 'l'm sure my cousin, Jack Browning would love to come; he calls himself a barrister, but I don't believe" he ever gets any wbat-do-you-call-ems," ♦ Briefß ?' suggested her lover. * That's the word; I could write to Jack?' •Very well,' said Hopecastle resignedly; 'though I'm afraid poor Guy won't thank us.' ' Oh bother Guy !' said hia sister gaily. Times were changed. Hah" yearolder brother, the fetish of her \hood, had latterly shrunk in her sister's <=yes to the ungodlike proportions of ordinaiy immature manhood. * What are you goißg to give Mies Strong on her birthday ?' asked Hopecastle as they neared the gate of the glebe. 'I don't quite know.' Hebe crimsoned suddenly at the recollection of three and ninepence halfpenny reposing in her purse at home— indefinitely her available capital. Hopecastle seeing the blush, anathematized himself for a perfectly guileless blunder. «I only meant,, he said, 'that I have to be at Tattersall's on Monday, I might get something in town for us to give her together.' Hopecastle was nearly as surprised as he was delighted at his own inspiration. • Lovely!' cried Hebe, recovered in a monftnt. • Oh, I wonder what you'll choose.' CHAPTER VIII. The summer sun peeping through the nfte of the Venetians fell upan the ted, and the sounds of a new day woke Lacy on a birthday morning. She sat up with aluxuriuu stretch and yawn; but then caxe the pang of remembrance; and with clasped hands about her kneep, Bhe sat staring at the wide bed quilt, thinking. Her twenty-first birthday! H jr oomingofage! Wretched pitiful farce! Yet it must be played to please othere ; was there not to be a picnic in her honour ? lo day the picnic, to-mcrrow the bowwindowed villa in Brochley, a little later fangweilenburg, and the treadmill exißtence of a.boarding school governess. Sha could see no end of it. In imagination looking, ahead, she saw through a grey vista of years ever the same deadiv msaotony; routine and drudgery—drudgery and routine still. Yet Lucy had too ingrained a faith in herself omte to believe it-such death-iu-life for one of her dauntlesß spirit her wit and brain? Never, never, never. She would duel with Fate to the death ; win or die—and one or the other soon. Better death than always that drab schcol-life. Set dereliction of duty had never been Lucy b failing; but neither fulfilment tf it nor recognition moved her to pleasure It waa her daily bread, when one's mind is upon the fleaL-pots of Egypt ? She thought of Hebe and her future. Kiches, a title, society's adulation, a man's uve. Nice little li&r. While she—Lucy —wan thought by kind friendß passing happy in her governess post at £is a year! She Bet her teeth. Where was the difference between kerself A white ekm, golden hair, big childish blm eyes. Contemptible trifles; but thoy pull the balance down when a man is at the SC&I6S. But for the accident of a brilliant engag*ment Hebe, daughter of an obscu-e country parson in financial diffioultiea muflt have been doeineJ to a life of teaching and drudgery like Lucy's owe—if indeed she could get a situation. Lucy smiled a Lttle spiteful smile over tK IXVTIl X VTI T J"! B '. U2claB P in g: her knees, she balled her fiete in cramplike frerzy. Jt s too wicked-too wicked!' came from between her set teeth, and scaldine »K ft?/**.. esßence of a revolting .spirit, fell from her unaccustomed eyes Lucy rarely wept; tears would have argued certain characteristics which she did not poaeesß, and the absence of otlere which she did. To these lastctuiteda half-desperate, half humorous jiulosopbv of the «ltt us eat and drink for to morrow wo die Bfyle, which made her eprißg out of bed humming a snatch from a French vaudeville. At leaet ehe had another whole day, and the world might end before night Lucy fcuad beside her breakfast plate a little tollection of birthday offerings ; from host ard hostess a pair of gloves; from. Gay, whose last gold coin wcuid scarcely hava bten changed for a lo<s auspicious reason, a little cut glaaa sc«nt bottle with silver top; Hubert contributed a bouquet frem his own particular garden, and lest lu 1 ; not least, there waa a neat flat packet endorsed 'Mies Strong, with best wishes from Hebe and Hoptcastle,' in the latter's handwriting. Lucy appeared quite overcome. I fc Jf eall y is too good of you all,' she said, her fingers about the seals of the

last packet. J A little morocco case dieoloaed itsefl; j one press to the spring and there, nestled coyly in puckered white eatin lay a bangle set with pearls. A glow came to Lucy's cheek, 'Hebe, how sweet! I never siw anythieg eo lovely.' Heba's bine eyes glistened reeponelvoly. 'lt is rather a darling, isn't it ?' she said; ' but it ien't really I yon h%ve to thank for it, you know.' |Ah ! but no doubt it was your idea,' said Lucy, secretly hoping otherwise 5 and she wt nt to Hebe and kissed her. Then the bangle went the round of the breakfast-table. ' Charming, dear ! such porfect taste !' declared Mrs. Carpenter, ' how very kind of Lord Hopecaetle' (with the mental reservation ' and how perfectly unsuitable and unnecessary.') ' Yes, very pretty,' said Guy; * though I don't know why the fellow wants to go giving jewellery to other girls, now he's engaged.' The poor boy felt his own genome burnt Bacrifico discounted by the bangle. His stricture was met by. a peal of laughter from the girls; lut he fouad a supporter in his younger sisfcfcr, who declared that she 'rather agreed with Guy.' At 10-25, some minutes after the time fixed, Hopecastio tooled hie drag up to the vicarage porch. That something had gone wrong could be read in his face, for he was the poorest of dissembler?. In point of fact his favourite leader had been badly pricked in shoeing, and a black mare bad to take her place, which spoiled the matching team of bays. A groom in attendance placed the ladder,, and the vicar, an unrecognised martyr, and very sheky, was helped to a Beat, his wife and children following. • You shall have the box saat to-day, Iracy, as it's your birthday,' said her friend, but Lucy after a tentative glance at the whip, knew wisdom, and ostab lished herself in the seat behind, between Guy and Jack Browning who had not failed to turn up. It was an ideal day for a picnic outing, and air but Hopecastle were in holiday frame. Once put out he was not qu'.ck to recover; and that black c if-side leader stuck to his vision as a perpetual blot on the landscape. Even Hebe's attempt to win him from his sombre mood ftjtfed. By contrast with the festive trio behind them, Hopecastle showed little to advantage, and booh Hebe facing half round transferred her attentions and made one m a quartette of gay fooling, Jack Browning", roughly describable as the 'beet, fellow in the world,' recognising no need for restraint, flirted with his pretty cousin after a fashion light-hearted and above-board enough to have disarmr d most lovers. Unluckily* the exception was handlisg the ribbonp, though Jick had not the wit to perceive it. Hebe knew ; but nettled to have had her smiles met so sombrely, she bestowed them lavishly elsewhere, and had no notion of repelling Jack's cousinly gallantries. Jack had fi.ie eyes that could look languahing, hia manner just that spice of gay devilry and implication of knowledge of the world and its doings—a sort of debonnair B; hemianism calculated to dis par agea sulky lover in the j< uag girl's eyes. Was it Habeas fault that Hopecastle had arrived in a ready-made unreasonable fit of glumness P Sae was therefore indisposed to take the initiative with the olive branch. With here and there a brief halt at waysideinne, the coach bowled through half a county coastwards, past farmstead and hamlet, and country homes of evary degree, a kaleidoscopic vision of arable and pasture, woodland and heath. The corn was yellowing to harvest, and the cleared hay fields lay bare to the August sun; here and there a field of cxcabbages, shading delicately through dove-grey to green and purple, delighted the eye, and acres upon acres of swedes and mangel gava promise or cover to fee sportsman. Surmounting a rise, our party had a p9ep of Bhining trackless plain, the distant saa, to lose it again and rtfifid it in the dip ardrieeof the land. A man might have looked upon it all and praised his Maker that he was English. Wenden Ferry was reached soon after one, a primitive hamlet cuddling a village green, and removed by a long hja T f-mile of shingle from the eea-shcre. Here the river Wend, stealing down between pileanpported reed-fringed banks to join the sea, intercepts the high-road. Crossing by horse-ferry or boat, and pursuing the shingly highway for Eome two miles one reaches Beachness, an east coast watering-place whose merits row get too much recognition to please its patrons of old standing, i'rom Wenden Ferry across the marshes, you see it, a conglomerate mass of red and grey, crowned by the magnificent flint-built tower of its parish church. . Hopecastle being ttrongly of opinios that al fresco repasts have their drawbacks, while supplementing the catering of mine host of the * Ship,' had bespoken bis' beet parlour.' It was a long low room with whitewashed beams and uneven oak floor, and musty with that country mustinesa we all know, and which, from association has its delight. Those coloured Scripture prints, too, whose absence would be a miss to us were not"wanting here. A plump and well-liking Prodigal son in piak depriving yellow pigs of their just dues without the shadow of apparent excuse, paired witn Daniel in purple, fawned upon by greenish Hone. Oa the mantel-piece, a.pied pheasant in a glass case divided vaiious horrors in china, set out in rigid pairs. Three era all latticed windows along tho room'B leDgth looked coyly cut from bußbes of feathery stocks and marigolds, and away over the hedge to a narrow strip of eea below the horizon. Attic end of the room a fourth window gave upon the ferry, and some half-ecore pleasure boatß drawn up in line upon the hitherward bai k, It ought to have been a gay feast; i. roupwise and fitfully it was eo; but the dark mood of one brooded ever it cloudlike and oppressive. Poor Hopecastle! he sti u jgled hard, but manner with him sever contravened mood successfully, and his tfforts met no recognition except Mrs. Carpenter's, and of that the palpability I made hie Bick mood Bicker. ( To be continued.)