LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1306, 27 May 1878, Page 3

LITERATURE.

CAUGHT IN A SNARE.

[By Mns, Fkanois G. F. Faithful,]

(Continued.)

‘ How did you hear of her ? ’ I demanded again, recalling Mrs Frant’a odd manner, that evening, ‘ Oh, my stepfather wanted to get me placed out somewhere, and he was told of Mrs Frant's school, and wrote to her de scribing my great capabilities. But there, Jenny, you really mustn’t ask any more questions to-night, or we shall both get into not wa‘er. It’s past bedtime already,’ I think it must have been about a week later that, as we trooped into the school - room one frosty morning fresh from our daily walk, we found Mrs Frant sorting the letters. We gathered round, eagerly wait ing for our possible share, but various murmurings arose when there proved to be only one for me, one for Miss Benson, and two for Mrs Frant herself. I was devouring my home news when Mrs Frant spoke to Miss Benson.

* I must go into Hatherfield to-day by the twelve o'clock train. Aon will be able to manage the school work, I think; and Miss Merivale,’ looking across at her, ‘must help you as much as she can.’ 1 Certainly I will,’ assented Annette readily. * I shall be back by tea-time, I hope,’ proceeded Mrs Frant; • but if I should be kept later don’t wait for me 1

>**'o she departed, and Miss Benson reigned in her stead. Not much to our satisfaction, since she happened to be in an unusualy crabbed humour, and all Annette’s efforts failed to smooth her into amiability. The afternoon turned out wet, and we could not go out. It was dull work spending many hours in that bare schoolroom, and we looked rather impatiently for Mrs Frant’s r-turn, the more, as sfm had und rtaken to bring a small packet of bead*, floss silk, and the like, which we had ordered at the fancy shop at Hatherfield. But teatime came and she did not appear. The night set in, and we had been in bed nearly an hour, when the door-bell rang sharply, and we heard her voice speaking to Miss Benson on the stairs.

‘ Yes, I missed my train, and took a fly home. I think I'll have a cup of tea upstairs. 1 don’t need anything else. 5 She went on past our room, not looking in as she generally did to see that all was right, and I heard her enter her own, and cross the floor slowly, as though she were very weary. Yet the next morning, when the prayer-hell summoned us down, she was in her usual place at the end of the room Her back was towards the window, and it was scarcely yet broad daylight, but as I took my seat near her it struck me that her paleface was several shades paler than usual. Presently one of the eider girls asked for the exepeted parcel, and she started almost as if sue had been asleep, murmuring hurriedly—- ‘ Parcel! What parcel ?’ and then, when she remembered it, making rapid nervous excuses for her negligence—it had been so wet, she had not passed the shop, and so forth. All through that morning she was strangely fitful, as though her mind were preoccupied, and she were trying hard no ■ to show it. Now and again she would speak in a dull mechanical way, aud then all at once she would rouse herself to unusual energy and al rtuess. She bad a trick of passing her hand over her eyes, but I had never seen her da it so often as she did this day; and more than once 1 noticed that the thin white hand trembled as she raised it. Ido not know whether my observed these things, but some one else did. W hen the little ones we e released to their j lay, Annette asked leave to take the history

class. ‘ For I s m sure you have a headache, she said, ‘and reading aloud will make it worse.’ Mrs Frant hesitated. I think she was going to say ‘No but if so she changed her mind. ‘lt is only neuralgia, 5 she said. ‘ The foggy air about Hatherfield always brings it on. But you may take the class, for lam expecting my aunt, Miss Liston, here this afternoon, and I should like to be fresh for her. More than one of us looked up, ratherexcited at this bit of news. We had heard of this aunt, and knew that she had taken charge of Mrs Frant when she had been sent home from India with her ayali about thirty years before. But the old lady lived in France, and bad never yet appeared at Brook House. Something in Mrs Frant’s way of announcing her coming now made me fancy that it was not altogether a pleasant prospect to her. Whether that were so or not, she was plainly minded to receive her guest with honour ; for when she went up-stairs the two housemaids were arranging and embellishing the spare room with all speed. I had a good opportunity of observing them, for the six-bedded room to which I belonged was just on the opposite side of the passage. While I was watching the white muslin curtains put up, and the frilled pincushion brought forth, Annette, who, in rigid of her teachership, had a slip of a room to herself, came to her door, and I communicated to her in a loud whisper the result of my observations. She laughed. ‘ That frilled pincushion seems to give you a vast deal of dignity, Jenny. Now 1, on the other hand, fancy her a wizened little body, who’ll take snuff aud hobble about on a stick.’

‘ Hush !’ said I apprehensively. Annette was much too daring. She never seemed afraid to say anything that came into her head, and she never spoke in an undertone, as most of us did when discussing Mrs Frant’s affairs. My warning came rather late. Mrs Frant appeared on the stairs below just as Annette ended her speech, and she only reminded me with unusual sharpness that I was breaking rules in loitering upstairs.

It was growing dusk that same evening, ' - i SEa

girls crowded to the schoolroom window just in time to see an old lady alight cautiously, and mount the broad stone step to the front door, followed by the driver carrying a big box and a travelling bag. Truly Annette’s fancy picture had been wide of the mark, for Miss Liston was tail and upright, and though she walked feebly, leant on no supporting stick. So much and no more could we discover before she entered the hall, amid a confused murmur of greetings and directions. Tea-time brought us no fresh opportunities, for a separate repast was served her up-stairs. The next morning, however, fortune unexpectedly favored my curiosity, for Mrs Frant sent me to the drawing-room for some sealing wax, and there, in the easiest armchair, and deep in the study of a newspaper, I found the strange lady. She must have been a fine looking woman in her youth, for even now there was something striking about her wellcut nose and mouth, and her high forehead snaded by its bands or silvery hair. But somehow I rather felt afraid of her, as she sat scrutinising me over her spectacles while I hunted in the inkstand drawer. ‘Come here, child,’ she said suddenlj", when, having found what I wanted, I was creeping away, ‘They don’t teach yea manners seemingly. Come aua tell mo your name ’

She spoke harshly and imperiously, as if she were used to command and be obeyed. ‘ lenuy Lucas,’ standing before her shamefacedly. I think she enjoyed my confusion, for she sat me composedly, and smoothing down her rich silk dress with her gloved hands.

* You needn’t look so scared. I’m no t going to eat you yet awhile. How old are you ?’

‘ Fifteen,’ I responded. ‘You don’t look it, then. I should have taken you for twelve.’

And hereupon followed a long string of questions as to my tastes and companions, to all of which I was conscious of replying with a very ill grace. I was dismissed at last with a curt ‘ There, you may go. Fve had enough of yoa. just put that cushion at my back. It’s time I took my morning nap.’

I was only too glad to obey orders, and I had no further desire to see this alarming person ivade our dominions We wondered why she should have come just now, when Mrs Frant s hands were especially full with the final business of the quarter. But it was clear that she meant to make a long visitation, for this same day Mrs Frant in-

formed Miss Benson at dinner that she had changed her plans, and that she should spend the holidays at Brook House. I looked at Annette to see whether she was glad or sorry, but she was too busy helping potatoes for me to catch her eye. I soou forgot her, however, in watching Mrs Frant herseh'. Her manner was so odd and fluttered, and she was so strangely restless. A dozen times that day she laid down her book or pencil, and left the room with some muttered explanation, as if she were thinking anxiously and fearfully of the stern old

lady sitting alone in the drawing-room, or more often in the bedroom upstairs where a good fire was kept burning, the never stayed away long, but generally came back looking more troubled than before. The change in her was so marked that we all noticed it; but it was only Annette who interpreted it. * I’ll tell you what it is,’ she announced gaily, when we were pacing, some three or four of us, together along the broad sunny walk at the bottom of the garden. ‘This Miss Liston is an old dragon, and bullied her when she was a small child, and she hasn’t forgot her child’s fear of her. 1 daresay she half expects to have her ears boxed if she should happen to otfeud The good lady looks quite capable of doing it on provocation ’

* Have you seen her again ?’ I asked eargerly. ‘Oh, dear, yes—half a dozen times, when

I’ve been going to and fro, and her door has chanced to he open. J ust now I encountered her on the stairs, but she took no notice of me, and I made myself as small as f could. I was afraid of sharing your fate, Jenny.’ it was a half holiday that day, and we were all going to the common beyond the town—all, that is, but Annette, who was to stay in and draw up the school report. Mrs Frant usually undertook this work herself, but to day she had an engagement, and she had desired Annette to make out the forms. We were all in the hall ready for our start, and Mrs Frant, who was going

part of the way with us, was imfolcliug her shawl, when Annette coming out of the school-room offered to put it across her shoulders She would have done so indeed had not Mrs Frant almost pushed her back. ‘ Don’t, ’ she said, and the word sounded almost like a cry; ‘I can do it myself—l would rather.’ Annette drew back and her colour rcse. Good-humoured as she was, it could not be pleasant to get such a rebuff as that; but she kept her temper and silently retreated to the schoolroom. Just then I, standing near the h ot of the stairs, heard the rustic of a silk dress, and glancing up I saw the gray head and lilac cap of Miss Liston on the landing ab we She had evidently heard Mrs Fraut'a exclamation, and had come out,of her room to see what it meant. She was looking down at her niece with an expression so fixed and so peculiar that it quite startled me. But V>rs Frant did not see her, and the next moment she had disappeared. Jt was nearly dark when we came in from our ramble, and it was a good halfhour later when wo saw Mrs Frant w T alk slowly up the flagged path to the house ; but she did not come into the schoolroom, and Miss Benson and Annette were again in charge. The younger girls were playing noisily, and I and two or three others were reading as well as we could amidst the hubbub. Suddenly Miss Benson, going over to the long chiffonier, uttered au ejaculation : ‘ i ear me ! Why, Mrs Frant has forgotten her keys j here they are, hanging in the lock. 5 Her amazement was natural, for Mrs Frant was erpecially careful about her private keys. 1 had never seen them out of her hands before. Miss Benson stood for a moment considering, and then turned to Annette. (To hfl enntinned )