SHORT STORY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1687, 1 March 1913, Page 7

SHORT STORY.

CHBISSY AT JHE LODGE

(By Jane Barlow.) Towards noon of a blustery lateciutuinn day, Christina Nolan, commonly called Chrissy at the Lodge, was on her way home after fetching herself a cabbage from the. kitchen garden. It was the oaly part of tho grounds kept up at all since tho family's departure twenty years sinoo, and it was so merely because PotcY Walsh, of Baskiii Farm, had Tented it to sell the fruit and vegetables. Though lie made her wolcomo Jto as much cabbage ns she wanted, she said bitterly: "Cock liiin up to bo meddling in here"; and she availed herself of tho permission, as seldom as possible. But with just .an ol(l----■aga pension, and a. dwelling rent free, between her and destitution, tho pinch of sheer want might follow the loss of a sixpence; and this had befallen her today. Hence she now carried a fino, crinkled houd resentfully under her fluttering shawl. , Sho was a frail little' ol<l woman, bent partly, by rheumatism, and. partly by dejection, so that she looked than her real size and more than her real 'age, albeit tfell over seventy. Pattering down the grass-grown avenue, she was full of re.grets, which sprang from, her root- ' grief, the abfence of the family. It was (i .poor case, she lamented, to see Connor's Court with ne'er a Connor in it, nor like to be. Much chanca there was, and they out of it better than, twenty year. Sure, poor Master Hugh himself, supposing ho was olive yet at all, must be (t, very ould, feeble man by now. This was an exaggerated view, as tho beginning of the score had found him a sturdy lad of fifteen. ' ..

Almost at the entrance gato, > she was just turning into the putli to her tumble-; down' lodge, when a youngish man rail in off the road, and approachod, shouting; "Is this the gato' of Connor's Court,, ma'am ?" Ho was a stranger, and looked "none too respectable," in Chrissy's opinion. She replied, stiffly r "The back gato it'is, and tho back avenue." •"Oh, the back avenue, said he. . "Did yon say it nny better than. If" (ihrissy • inquired, sarcastically. Then pride and querulor.sness led her to continue "But': small blamo to it if it looks liko an ould cart-track these times," with sorra a living crathur working on it. I mind when three —" >"I suppose it's the shortest road np to the house, anyway," ■ the stranger interrupted, without listening. He seemed flurried. ' "If yon had any business up there lt-,-Bolf, you'd find nobody in it," said Chrissy, "for Hogan the caretaker's off with himself to. Derryconrath fair, and won't be back to-night, drunk or sober." But the stranger was already ■ running back to the gate, where she saw him'join a man and a woman, who were waiting outside. "Quare bolting in and out of othef people's places, you have, _ me fino gentleman," Chrissy said, glowering after hiirii' "and no fear of' anybody troubling • you - ;to'••stop.*' ••*. And she went, between Dver-gi'own laurel-)joughs, gloomily, indoors. •

5 Her day passed in lonesome monotony, s bringing no sight of another fellow-crea- ,® tufe. The remoteness of her • residence £ would have discouraged caller 9, oven if a ' habit, of harsh-thinking and plain speak- . ing had not ruada Chrissy at the Lodgo ! unpopular among her neighbours; Alter 1 sunset she went out to pick up sticks in J the shrubbery, more from bored restless- ' liess than because she ■ needed them.' 1 liain was-falling heavily,: yet few-drops J pierced the matted -ov.ergreen ■ r00f,., and t she limped on quite a long way through c tho gathering dusk. But when she reach- 6 tfd tne junction of her path with tho t avenue, sho stopped abruptly, startled'by a voice. So deep were tho shadows by \ this time that sho could hardly descry it c owner; however, she recognised it as that of the mah who had • questioned her in t the morning,' ; Ho Was standing-in tho c avenue, 'calling to' someone Whose steps ' sMrished hiifl:' I!, ls;that" yourself, c -gtro « you'inigh't have'been there and back hop- « ping on one too. Eaging they' are up above." ' « . "They may rage," was Jim's gruff an- [ 6wer.;--'-"Is Himself come?"c ' ■;-• ' ! "Half'an : hour-ago, by the front en- ' trance;' Come along witn. yoa now, and 1 we'll get in through' the' house-yard. < They're waiting for them, contraptions you have. 'Tis uncommon handy, to be J surei that Hogan taking, himself oB." „• While the two voices died away into : the windy darkness, old Chrissy stood still, nothing short of horror-stricken. For sho was instantly seized by the conviction that these intruders formed part of a gang who were about to commit a burglary up at the House. What else would bring them there at that hour ? Breaking in they'd be, and plundering all before them:. every. stick" the' Family had left.to. their-name. . She'remembored hearing tell that soke of the painted ' pictures on- the 'walls were worth a power of monoy. After them the miscreants would be, as euro as fate. But the worst of it, was that she herself had no doubt given them valuable aid by her information about Hogan's absence. "As good as bidding them , walk in it was," sho confessed, "when, if I'd had tho wit of a doting owl, terrifying that villain I'd have been with talk of wicked mastiff dogs, and watchmen, and all manner. Bad luck, to, me gabbing tongue—as-little-good-for I am as Hogan ' himself. ..., . I' declare, now, if I dono right, I'd step after tlicm, and soo what they're at, I would so. Then I could got out tho front way unbeknownst—unless it's killing me they were—and warn the' polis. ■ Or maybe I might frighten them off mesolf. I'd a right to try it, and that's what I'll do." Nevertheless it was what she did not do while several minutes passed. The undertaking seemed indeed very fprmid,able.' She was still a long step from tho House j wind and rain were furious and drenching; above' all, she intensely desired to slip .back'down tho -shrubbery,, itnd barrioado herself indoors, where she oould pray for protection from murdering villains and thieves of the world. Against this instinct, however, othfti- feelings vehemently strove; as when at last'she said tolierself: "'Tis poor Master Hugh.they'd be robbing, I believe, and he' bs'likc none f -oo well off. 'A dale tho Family lost one time. I always had a great, wish for poor Waster Hugh. . . . I'll go," sho said aloud,""in the namo of God." 1 It was easior said fhon done in the face of the storm which mot her on the long, bleak avenue. Perhaps tho physical struggle helped her on, by diverting lier mind from the perils of her go'til. Sometimes sho propped her courage by devising ferocious threats and denunciations wherewith to overawo the house-breakers, should she enooimt'er-them. Sho had most confidence in telling them hove "Ould Sir Denis did be walking yet about the passages, letting woeful groans. If that didn't put their across, it was hard to, say what would." Under a blinding downpour she came to the wide gravel sweep before tho house, and had an impression of gleams from the windows, but oould not Taise her head in its flapping shawl to malco sure. Strong blast!! nearly took her off her feet, driving her into siidden short trots, such as a successful cat allows a doomed mouse. One of them brought her. to tho stops of the portico, wlioro she stumbled into tlio riiielter of a pillar and tit that moment a wonderful thing happened. Tho heavy oak liouse-door was thrown back by a groom, who ran out, leaving it open behind him, and through it came what seemed to Chrissy an astonishing blaze of li<*ht. All about tho hall lamps and candles wero- burning with profuse brilliancy, ' which drew her like' a fascinated, halfdrowned moth, until sho stood on tho threshold peering in. Two or three servants were busily astir, and in ono of them she recogniscd, despite his livery and remarkably genteeler deportment, the jnan who had first roused her suspicions. ' Next came the crowning marvel. For P he 'aw crossing the hall a tall gentleman dressed in beautiful evening black and white, a grand, grown-up gentleman, y«t so like the schoolboy ''-of her cherished recollections that before she knew she had called shrilly: "Glory be to God, Master H»;rh. and is it yourself? / , ■ "And I give you mo word, ,she used to Telate "ho remembered me every lotum as well , as I did him. To be\sure, he left me an ould woman, the way lie wouldn't notice more differ, after a great ■ whilo itself, than there is in a rusty gate, that's the same thing ever, only a trifle shabbier. And he come over to shake hands with, ntfti and 6aid ho was glad to 0 enjoyed only a brief interview, as wife and dinner waiting obliged him to conclude auickly with: Well. Chrissy,

I'll eoe you to-mo/rrow, and somebody must get you a cuy of .tea." But she was entirely satisfied, fuot ,to say enraptured, and her felicity e'xtsoon received a finishing touch, when jsho became aware 'that a little boy had Viegun to jump methodically over each wfhite square of the chessboard patterned {marblo iloon, exactly as sho had seen Master Hugh do at the same age. "I£ Ihe belongs to his Honour thoro, lie's jthe living moral of his father." sho said/ to her acquaintance, tho footman, who had.'drawn near to i observe this dripping f'riend of tho Family. "Aye, indeedi" he said, "and in bed ho ought to be." I. „„ . "Are they staying here? Chrissy. inquired with ayixious eyes. "So I understand," he said. "Sir Hughs come into a fino fortune, and is intending to carry out) all sorts of renovations. They're wamted bedad. Some of us should by ri.fehts have been in it a week ago to make/ arrangements, but tho jnres went wrong], and wo never got word till last night. I Kim oil our legs, wo ore, trying to gfet the place a bit regulated. "Och, it is," said Chrissy, and good-nightf to you kindly." She set)off homeward on her dark and stormy way in a specips of blissful trance, impervious to the roughest weather, ino wind roared through the trees till their straining branches loudly creaked; but she oroly heard a sound of many.Takes, and'h.oes grating .on the neglected avenue, wliicj/i had so long grieved her as a symbol ,'of evil days. Now they were ended, and: she felt herself a wholo generation voirnger, in a world grown at once old and neiv. "There'll be people driving in and o.tit," she mused, and coming and going, like tho good times over again. And "'twill be quare if I can't contrivo a griddle-cake to entico the little gentleman. Master Hugh tvo.9 powerful fond of griddle-cakes; troth, he'd have one 'part ate while you'd bo buttering him tho /other, "fis tho lucky day for Connor's Court.".

When she wa3 safely indoors, and had stirred np her smouldering turf-sod To warm and dry herself, she found that her adventures had made her rather hungry) so she set about heating what remained over from her dinner of greens. As she watched them beginning to steam, another happy forecast occurred to her, "Peter Walsh will he apt to have to find somewhere else for to grow his ould pitaties and cabbages in," she reflected. "Aye, will he,; himself and his impidence." And as she lifted the pot off the fire: "Cock him up!" she Padded with very ungrateful glee.—"Everyman."