NOVEL

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 413, 14 April 1904, Page 2

NOVEL

(Continued.) She had never looked upon her appearance aa a disadvantage, for she found that she had quite as many partners as the prettiest girls in the room, quite as many invitations to picnics and boating parties, and quite as much attention from the nicest men in society as the lovelust of all tho crowds of women about her, and she was so simple-hearted and unsuspicious that it never occurred to her that there might be a very obvious reason for this phenomenon. * I know I am not pretty/ she would say to her mother, or to her young friends, ' but I believe people like me—at least I always Ind I am welcomed and made much of wherever I go, and perhaps it is even nicer to be liked, than to be admired/ And so Mary was perfectly and serenely happy. She was, moreover, a very pleasaat-lcoJcirg girl, and no one could nave called her actually plain. Her hair was soft and abundant, and of a pale flossy brown; her eyes, too, were brown and kindly, and hex large, mouth was redeemed from ugliness by the delightful smile which almost Invariably lit up her swaet and sensitive-looking face. If she was not beautiful, she was at any rate vary winsome and attractive.So among the erowd of pleasure-seekers is the busy London season Mary Boss was always the gayest of the gay, enjoying life to the uttermost with that enjoyment which a sourd constitution united to as absolutely clean aid wholesome heart and nature alone can bring. From her early morning canter in the Park on her beauti'ul bay mare, that her father said was the' best that money could buy,' and that she herself spoke of as the 'dearest darling gee-gee in the world' down to the latest dance of the evening, Mary Boss was always full of spirits and gaiety—sever sick, never sorry, never sired; always the same—sweet-tempered and considerate to others, full of innocent merriment, and radiant with good health and good temper, and full of a happy conviction of being beloved by her parents and her friends, and thoroughly liked and appreciated by all the rest of the world besides.

Then, one day, there entered into Mary Boca's life that sweet mystery of woman, hood which comes in time to the majoiity of other maiden*, be they plain or beautiful, rich or poor. Mary Baas fell in love, It came abcufc in this wise.

It tu on the river, on the eve of Henley Eegatta in July, that she first saw Captain Herbert Bawle. Mrs Eos and Mary had gone down to isstal themselves on the Monday in the new houseboat whioh Mr Boas had just purchased. Tor, of course, the Bosses possessed everytkng worthpoEiessiogthat money could buy—a mansion in town, a moor in Scotland, a villa at Cannes, stalls at the Opera, a bcx at Ascot and at Epsom, a beautiful schooner yacht, and now a houseboat. Mr Boss only did not own a coach, becauEe he could not for the life of him have driven four horses himself, and could not, unfortuntely, depute the driving of hia own coach to a dependant. The houseboat was the last new toy—the latest fancy, in fact, which Mies Boss had taken into her head. The mother and daughter, assisted by many domestics, were epesdieg a very happy, qui6tday together, decorating the • Water Lily' cutside and in, or rather supeiintendißg and arranging the decorations. They were expecting huge parties down from London for all three dajs of the races, and meant to keep an opsn houseboat all day long and nearly a week in the matter of luncheons, U&s, and dinners.

1 1 am sure I don't know how the people axe all to get backwards and fciwaida bom the fcho;e,' said Mrs II 3:3, perplexedly, aa ahe stepped back to criticise the pink liberty ei± drapery which a housemaid waa wreathing about the open doorway of the saloon. ' Hit jh it up a little more to the right side, J&re; it hangs down tco lew in that corner. Ttere—ec —that ia better. Don't yen think I had better telegraph to your father to get a tt-.an launch of seme kind, Mary?* ' What we want.' answered Mary, with her mouth full of tin tacks, for she was Mflrag same Japanese embroideries bitw*en tie windows—' what wa want ia

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ABBANGEMENT/ MABY'S FIRST LOYE,

BY Mrs Lovett Cameron.

COPYBIGHT.

a few more boating men to tak? the women about in the small boats. I shouldn't bother father about the steam launch. If s easy enongh to get to land, but really men who can print, or row, or padddle are rare, and amongst all our guests I can't see more than two or three who will be of the slightest use. ' Oh, my dear, do you think gentlemen like to be made use of ?' said Mrs Bqbs, doubtfnlly. 'Perhaps a boatman or two—'

'As if ladies cared to be rowed by boatmen when there are nice gentlemen to be had 1* interrupted Miss Boss. 'No, no, mother darling; no boatmen near the ' Water Lily/ if you please. I wonder who on earth that is I' she cried, suddenly, peering out of the small window at a passing figure that shot by in an outrigger, 'Oh, mother, what a handsome maul'

Miss Boss was so struok by hiß beauty that she actually put down her hammer and nails, and went to the door to look at him again. Captain Herbert Bawle, in dazzling white flannels, was pulling himself away in the sunshine with those long, vigorous, sweeping strokes whtch betoken the real 'river man/ Mary watched him from behind the shelter of the pink Liberty silk portiere with admiring eyes. How handsome, how big, how strong he was—this river athlete 1

.' He is pulling up by the 'Artemisia '— the Welton'a house boat/ she informed her mother. 'There—there is Helen Welton; she has come out to speak to him. I wonder who he can be. I never saw him before/

Later on Misß Boas set forth by herself in her Canadian canoe, and paddled herself up to the Artemisia, to visit her friends, the Miss Weltons. • Well, Helen, and how are yos getting on?*

' Oh, first-rate, and you P' •Capitally. We have pretty well done everything now, and to-morrow morning the flowers in pots and the hanging baskets will arrive from the nursery-man, and that will finish us. By the way, Helen, you had a visitor this afternoon, hadn t you P I saw you talkiag to a man in an outrigger.' 'Ob, Herbert Bawle you meanP Oh, yes, he is stopping at the« Bad liion'; he is a friend of my brother Ted's.' 'Who is heP An admirer of yours, Helen P'

•Oh, dear, no. Poor Captaia Bawle! He is a datximental; he hasn't a sixpence IB this world—a veritable pauper.' * He doesn't lock like a pauper exactly." ' Not in the least; does he P But I expect he trades on his prospects, which aro nominally splendid. Ha is the second cousin and heir to a marquis j the Marquis of Dirberley—a bachelor, you know Of course if ever Captain Bawle were to succeed his cousin he would be a great catch j but then, old Darberley is only sixty, and quite hale and hearty still, and Bomttimes thesß old men take it into their heads at the eleventh hour to marry, and generally they live till they are ninety. So I don't think so much of Herbert Bawle's expectations after all,' ' He is very handsome,' observed Miss Boas, musingly, Helen Welton laughed. ' Oh, yes, he is good-looking enough! Bnt, my dear girl, don't you go retting your young affections upon him, for he is just now in hot pursuit of a widow—Mrs Trelawney.' ' * The' Mrs Trelawney, do ycu mean P That tall, lovely woman with the golden hair and the glorious eyes !'

■ The aam*. They say he worships the grouad she treads on; and she has about a thousand a year of her own, and only one email child, eo Ted thisks Captain Bawle means business this time. He never takes the faintest notice of girls you kno?rj ho saya they are not in his line. However, if you come round this 67eniBg after dinner, you and your mother, I will introduce him to you, as he has promised to look in upon us, and to biing his banjo. He sings quite delightfully. Do come.'

Mrs and Miae Boss did go on board the Artemisia that evening, and were duly introduced to Captain Herbert Btwle. There were other friends there besides the Welton girls and their brothers—-

quits & little friendly gathering—and Helen sang duets with her sisters, and a Mr Greaves played the violin very creditably for an amateur, but then the audience was not critical, after which Captain Eawle sang song after song to his banjo. He had a sweet, pure, baritone voice, and he sang veil and with great feeling. He looked very picturesque, too, as he sang, leaning against the open doorway in his serge suit, with a scarlet tie knotted loosely round his neck, and with all the beauties of the moonlit river as a background to enhance the effect of Mb handsome face and figure. And the songs he sang were well calculated to awaken the slumbering passion of a girl's heart—dreamy love songs and pathetic little negro ditties, with a refrain in the minor key, which fell in deliriously and harmoniously with the stillness and beauty of the summer night. Often as he sang, Captain Eawle's eyes met those of one of his audience, a sweetfaced, insignificant girl, who sat just outside in the half-darkness on the cushions of the aiterswim, drinking in every note of his music with rapturous delight; and so simple and easy to understand was the face of the unsophisticated maiden, that Captain Herbert Bawle, who had a large and varied experience amongst the fair sex, had no difficulty whatever in reading thoughts which were betrayed all too easily in that eloquent upturned face. And what he read there could not fail to be exceedingly flattering to him. ' Who is that Miss Boss to whom your sister introduced me P' he asked of Ted Walton in a whisper, when he was refreshing himself with some iced claret in the background after one of his best ! applauded songs. 'lt is Miss Boss the heiress,'replied his friend, with a laugh. 'Se you had better cultivate her, my dear fellow.' \ •What, the daughter of old Boss,)the Greenock m'llionaire, do you mean ?' *! «The very Bame. I don't know if file is a millionaire, exactly, but at any rate]the old boy is very rich indeed.' * And as vulgar as you make them! Is that the mother?' >'

• Yes. She is Hot interesting, but quite inoffensive; but as to Mary—Maryjs a dear girl I She is really good; there is not a bit of pretence or ' side' about her/ •She isn't much to look at/said Gap. taia Bawle, depreciatingly. ] •Don't you think soP Well, I think her face is very sweet Besides, she if so nice-mannered and amiable; and Bhe is a very clever girl. She and Helen were at school at Brighton together—that is Bow my people came to know her/ Tie immediate result of these revelations was that Captain Bawle went back and took a seat on the cushions by jfche aide of Miss Boss : and opened a conversation with her; aHdupon that very evening, under the witchery of the dark sapphire sky, spangled with stars and hazy fith silver moonshine, whilst the ripple of the water beneath the bows of the boat kept time to their talk, and the occasional dip of a passing oar into tbe glagsy stream broke the Bweet stillness of the night—on that very evening did poor Mary Boss lose her heart irrevocably fend for ever to handsome Herbert Bawle.

When Mia and Miss Boss went away, the former at a sign from Mary, invited Captain Bawle to join their party on the Water Lily' for the races. Captain Bawle thanked exceedingly, and said that he should be delighted to do so,-—not, however, to-morrow—he had gome friends coming down from town to whom he must devote hint salt—but if he migbt come l on Thursday P—and perhap3 Friday, tooj if it was not asking too much—' He waß welcome ta coma any day 1 he liked.

•My daughter tells me we want some more gentlemen who can row and punt, to take our ladies about/ explained the good lady frankly and naively, ' and we shall esteem it a great favour if you will come and help us, Captain Basrle.' Captain Bawle bowed. 'lf I may be allowed to take Miss Boss out in my punt, I shall be only too happy,' he said significantly, with his eyes on Mary a; and Mary's eyes gave back a glowing answer, and then fell confusedly beneath his, The next day she eaw him at a distance in bis punt, and was vaguely disturbed to find that the 'friends from town' resolved themselves into one friend—the beautiful widow, Mrs Trelawney, who, attired in an exquisite Parisian raiment of gauzy white, l»y back agaiaet the pale blue silk cushions of his punt, with a snowdrift of lace above her head to shelter her lovely complexion from the Bun, He did not come near the Water Lily all day, but early the next morning he presented himself at the houseboat looking fresh and clean and handsome—a veritable hero out of a picture book. He was eager to make himself useful, eager to be friends with them all, including Mr Boss himself, to whom he was especially careful to make himself agreeable, and eager above all to devote himself to Mary. She had a very happy day of it, with HGrbeit Bawle at her elbow from morning till night, and ehe enjoyed that punt above all things, and lay back upon the pale blue cushions with a serene f orgetf ulness of the late occupant of that highly favoured situation.

love is proverbially blind, and as Mary was by this time desperately and deliciously in love, she wilfully shut her eyes to all recollections of tho beautiful Mrs Trelawney. On the third day things were a trifle less delightful. Captain Bawle could only devote himself to the service of Miss Boss during the early part of the day. He was obliged to go up to town by an afternoon train. ' Business,' he informed her briefly, and with a contraction on his brow which seemed to imply deep regret at being obliged to leave her. Mary asked no questions, and took the word 'business' in its most literal sense, wishing her swain a kind and almost tender adieu when the time came for him to catch his train. Would she, I wonder, have laid her hand quite so softly iH his, or gazed up quite so adoringly into his handsome face, had she known that the «business' which took him back to London was nothing moro than a seven o'clock tete-a-tete dinner at Mrs Trelawnej's house in South Kensington, to be followed by a vi3it to the Haymarket Theatre, with the beautiful widow for his only companion! But 'where ignorance is bliis/ saith the poet Gray, "tie folly to be wise,' and Mary, all unconscious of what had gone on on the third aid latt evening of Henley Eegatta, met Captain Bawle with the brightest welcoming smile, when a few days later he came to dine at her father's house in Park lace.

Daring the next three weeks they met almost daily, He rode with her, danced with her, and was included in all the parties given by Mr and Mrs Boss, who in this, as in all else, were ready to give their child all that she wished for. It was perfectly clear to Captain Bawle's comprehension, as he expressed it tersely to a club acquaintance with whom he discussed the situation with shameless candour, that the rich Miss Boss was quite ready to tumble into his arms. ' She ia to be had for the asking, my dear fellow,' he informed his friend with airy complacency. To be continued.)

'Do you like the new clergymanP ' Very much, his wife is so stylish.' i