VIOLET LISLE; OR, A PEARL BEYOND PRICE.
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, By the Author of "All or Nothing,' "Two Keys,", etc., etc. PART 24. " She is here ' ?s eried Violet. "She is here ! I can see it in your face. Yes, let me see her, I would rathei open up all the old wounds than tc go on living like this. Oh, how good, bow thoughtful you are." " I understand now," murmured Lady Westall, as she went to fetch Goody, who had been waiting in Lady Westall's boudoir. " Mabel is longing for her friends, even for hoi father, who treated her so cruelly." It was so. For weeks the thoughts of Violet had been with the two people in the little cottage in Penarth village. It seemed to her, in those days when her fancy was morbid with the sorrow of her heart, that the only balm there could be for her would be found in going back to the days as they had been before she had met Guy. And it seemed to her, too, that since she had developed the same sort -of pride that was characteristic of her father, she could love him better, and enter into his feelings with closer sympathy. In good truth there was in her no such pride as was in her father ; but she thought there was, and it made h?r act as if there were, in some matters.
She felt that it was quite impossible she could ever go back to her childhood's home ; she knew that her father would never forgive her for her first false step, and if he could have done that, the fact that she had been a public singer would shut her out of his heart for evermore. But it was possible to see and talk to dear old Goody, and in,the course of a short time, Violet would of hei own accord have asked to have her brought up to London. And here Goody was, just at the time when she had been yearning for some sort of contact with the old simple life. Dear old Goody ! Sim-ple-hearted, loving old Goody ! Violet remembered bow the dear old woman would have gone out into the world with her that night when the doors of her home were shut against her.
She had unconsciously been pacing the floor, and had almost forgotten that Goody White was actually within a few feet of her, until the sound of voices beyond the door caught her ear and caused her to stop in the middle of the room, with eyes fixed expectantly on the door. Then the door opened, and she saw the old, familiar face of her nurse, peering anxiously into the room.
" Oh, Goody, Goody !" cried Violet putting out her arms. " Miss Vi'let !" and the old woman was fondling and caressing her baby with a sort of hysterical fervour.
" Dear old Goody !" said Violet ; and if Lady Westall had not shut the door and gone away to her own room, she would have seen a smile on the lovely face such as had never been there within her recollection. It was a smile of the old days, called up by the mere sight of Goody's face.
" The same Miss Vi'let," said Goody presently, holding Viplet at arm's length from her ; "only mort beautiful. Oh, Miss Vi'let I'm that glad to see you—" " Glad to see me !" echoed Violet, her blue eyes becoming intense with suppressed feeling. " Sit down here where I can look at you, and talk to me. I don't care what you say, only talk and let me look at you. How did you tlnd me ?" Voluble old Goody needed no more than a start to talk, and in a moment she was telling the way she had worked out the whereabouts oi her dear "Miss Vi'let" and Violet listened in a dreamy fashion, as if she hardly heard what was being told her, but as if she were quite content to sit there, with the work-roughen-ed hand in her two soft ones, and to hear the familiar voice that had talked to her at her bidding from the time she could remember.
" So," said Goody, concluding, " that's the way I came to find you, and it's the happiest moment I've known since that dreadful night when you ran away from me and I lost you. Oh, my blessed lamb ! What happened to you after that ?" " Never mind about me yet," said Violet, smiling into the faded eyes ; "you can see for yourself that 1 have fared well. I found Lady Westall at the beginning and I could never tell you all she has done foi me."
" Ah, I knew she was Heaven'? good the moment I set eyes on her. An* it was her as held out the helping hand to you ? God bless her ! An' she belongs to the gentry too. Ah, I'm glad of that. An' you. Miss Vi'let —you wear silk as if yo-j had never known anything else. Tel me there's nothing in blood ! I wist your father could see you this hlesse; minute and Goody looked shrewdly up into the beautiful face to sec liov. much resentment was betrayed in i for the father who had shht th< doors against her.
'■My father," repeated Violet. "Tel me about him. Is he well ?" "You don't bear him no ill-will then ?" demanded ©oody, with a glac smile.
" Why should I, Goociy ? I dis obeyed him. He did what wai right."
She said it trmly enough ; but ther was a sadness tfiat came into he: eyes that made the sympathetic crea ture exclaim :
" My poor lamb. It was a crue wicked thing to do, and I b&n't tbi osaa im eas aag& lie ksowi
It was now—has i'.-mwn it ever since and that's what's told on him so."
"He isn't ill, Goody?" cried Violet anxiously.
" He ben't well, Miss \ i'let, that's the gospel truth ; an' it's the blessed reason why I took it into my old Ivad to work it out where you was, and come for you to tell me how things was going on, and let you know how he was. I did think you would, maybe, hold it against him ; but you don't, do you, Miss Vi'let?" A gleam of hope and gladness shot into Violet's eyes.
"No, I love him better, it seems tc me than ever I did before." she answered. " Tell me about him, Goody."
" That I will, my lamb," said Goody, greatly relieved, it was plain, by Violet's answer. " Von will remember what, he was—so proud and harsh like. Well, I won't say he's not been jest as proud to this blessed day ; but he's broi en and aged like, Miss Vi'let, so that you would not know him for the same. Why, I ups an' gives him my mind, now, frequent, which you very well know he wouldn't have tolerated, to say the least, in the old days ; an' what should be the blessed cause on it but you—jest you ?" "I ?"
" Yes, you, Miss Vi'let. It began at the very first after you went away. Leastways it was about a, week or so after it. I was scared at the very first, and didn't dare to say nothing at all ; and by-and-by it all came to me what a shame it was an' a sin too, if it comes to that, an' I went right up to him in his study, an' I said right out that he was a hard, cruel old man. Do you think he sent me pacttin' like he would in the old days ? Not he. I expected it, Miss Vi'let, an' to tell you the truth, I had my bundle all pacl#3d and ready. But what does he do but answer me back. I don't remember what it was he said ; but I knew the minute he talked back th3t I was safe to speak my mind, an' I iid." " Poor father !" said Violet, softly. " Ah, to be sure !" said Goody, tvith a triumphant toss of her head ; " but he learned some things in those lays that I never would 'a' thought to teach him. Well, it was some time afore I noticed mucb change besides that ; but by-and-by he began to talk o' the time when you was a little lass, an then I noticed that he wasn't eating as he should an' the ong an' the short of it is that he's a broken man. Oh. he has his pride and much as I think he'd give to see you I didn't dare send you word through the lawyer gentleman till I'd seen you and known with my own eyes that you hadn't done nothing to disgrace—" "Goody !" said Violet, her eyes flashing with an angry light that Goody White had never seen in them *' Body o' me !" cried the old woman, " that's the first bit o' your Eather I've ever seen in you. But I didn't mean I believed you could, not him."
" And did my father ever believe that dishonour could ever come to me ?" demanded Violet, her head proudly erect, and her voice cold and incisive.
" There now," »aid Goody, " how q[uick you are ! I didn't say so. Why I thought he meant it myself, once, an' I jest up and was rating him for it, when he flew into one ol his old tempers, with ' Woman my daughter would die before dishonour would overtake her !' Bless me ! but [ was scared ! What he meant was that he was afraid you had lowered the name of Lisle by doing something that a Lisle never should do." "Ah !" exclaimed Violet, with an accent that was at once one of anguish and one of pride, "my father aad faith in me. And you think he wishes me to return to him ?" " I think he is sickening and growing old with longing for you, and .vith fearing that his act has ruined your young life. Oh, Miss Vi'let, if you would but come back an' humble yourself that much as to say you would like to be with him as before, and ask him to forgive you, it would be the saving of his life, I'm sure." " I will do anything to be back with him and you, Goody." "My blessed lamb, I am sure of :t."
" But,' Goody," said Violet with a sudden sadness, " I think my father will not receive me back." "You don't know him now, Miss Vi'let —" began Goody, when Violet stopped her. " I have disgraced the name ; or what is the same, he will think so." " Oh, Miss Vi'let what are you saying ?" "Did. you ever hear of Miss Mabel Vlarsden, a public, singer, who has created some sensation in London ?" " Oh, yes, Miss Vi'let." " Do you think my father would be proud to know that she was his daughter ?"
"His daughter ! Oh, Miss Vi'let !"
" You see," said Violet, sadly, " most people would be proud of it ; hut my father would think I had disgraced him."
" Yes, Miss Vi'let," answered Goody in a sort of dismay, knowing the inveterate and unreasonable pridt of the man ; " but. Miss Vi'let, you needn't say nothing about that part of it. Why, don't yon see, Miss Vi'let, there ben't nothing so very disgraceful in it, is there ?" "Nothing at all, Goody," answer ed Violet, smiling sadly at the no tion-
" Well, won't you sa;> not,bin'.' at all about it ; but jest let Lady Wort, all that has been such a good mcvu to you, fro to your father, an' tel him you've been with her, and nol say a. word about the singing.'' " It would be a deception. Goody,' said Violet ; but it was plain sh had grasped eagerly at the idea.
"Bother the deception, Miss Vi'let said Goody. " Let. us go to Lady West all," sni<l Violet ; and she rose and nodded tc Goody to follow her. CHAPTER XXXI. FATHER AND DAUGHTER. Violet knew she did not need to ask Lady Westall to serve her ; but she wished for the friendly and unprejudiced advice she was save of obtaining from her. and so she prof:!re;l her request by a brief account of hoi lather's condition, supplemented ny -ueh interruption's as Goody could not refrain from littering. " I wish to go to him," said Violet at last. " I have been pinin;: for the old life.—l don't, kinow why : and now I think I must go to my father, nnd lie to him what a child sh mid he. Help me again, as you hYrve so often helped me." The singular pride of the father Lady Westall could not sympathise with, though she knew full well that t was common enough ; but the distress of Violet she could understand and sympathise with, and sne was willing to humour the father for the sake of the happiness of the child. 3hc could see what apparently Violet ;ould not—that it was to get nearer ;o the life that had had Guy in it ;hat was urging her on. " Mabel, dear,", she said, " let us say nothing about the singing since t will offend, and I will do as Gocdy suggests. Is he so wedded to nis present home that he will never :eave it ?"
" Not he," answered Goody. " I think the 'only reason he remains there is because he has kept on hoping that Miss Violet would corm back to him." " You would wish to live somewhere else, would you not, Mabel?" asked Ladj Westall. "If it could he," answered Violet, thinking shudderingly of what had been said of her by the villagers because she had gone to London with Martin Jenkins.
" Then I will go to him ; and if he is willing to have you return, and will go to some new place to live no one need ever know that you and Mabel Marsden are the same." "It won't be ' willing * to have Miss Vi'let come hack, but glad he'll be," said Goody, with such a confident air that Violet looked up at her with a bright smile. " An' if you only manage him right there won't be no trouble about getting Him to go somewheres else to live." Lady Westall smiled.
" I will do my best at managing," she said, and I will be at Penarth to-morrow, if you think that won't be too soon after your absence ?" Too. soon ?" queried Goody.
" I mean so soon that he will suspect that you have had something to do with my visit," explained Lady Westall.
" Bless your dear heart, my lady," said Goody, with a pitying air, '"he suspects now ; but as long as he does not know that I know he suspects it will be all right. You know what men are, I'm sure, an' he's one o' them. He's willing I shall do anything to get Miss Vi'let back but he ain't willin' I should know he wants me to. You jest come to-morrow an' don't have no doubts."
So this arrangement being made, Goody returned to Penarth that afternoon, and pretended not to notice the uneasiness of her master whenever she was near him. He would have been willing to hear any volunteered information, but he would not ask for any, and Goody chuckled complacently as she went about the cottage with as indifferent an air as she could assume. ■
The next afternoon she opened the door of the cottage in answer to a summons, as if she had not heard the stopping of a carriage in front of the gate, as if she had not been excitedly peering along the lane ever since the early morning, and as if she had no more notion who the visitor was than the man in the moon himself. ' " Does Mr. Melville Lisle live here ?" asked Lady Westall, with difficulty keeping a serious face in view of the suppressed chuckles and grimaces of glee made by the delighted creature who stood curtseying before her.
"To be sure, my lady—ma'am, I mean and Goody nearly shook to pieces with her mirth. " Will you give him my card and say I will be glad of a few minutes of his time ? I have come on an errand of importance."
"Walk in, please," said Goody, ushering her visitor into the little parlour.
Then she went upstairs to the study where Mr. Lisle who had heard all of the conversation, sat nervously twitching his long fingers.
" Well, well ! who is it ? What does she want ? Give me the card and he almost snatched it out of Goody's hand. " H'm ! Lady Westall. Help me on with my coat, Goody. How clumsy you are, Goody." " You' ought to have a valet, you ought." grumbled Goody, thereby showing more plainly than she could have done in any other way how greatly changed her master was. " Don't vex me." he said petulantly ; " don't vex me. What do you think she wants. Goody ?"
" How should I know ?" returned she, as if in sulks.
He rubbed his hands nervously together. and looked as if he would liki to ask her sornet.hr.)e more direct, hut thought better of it, and went downstairs, erect and bearing herself like a Lisle, but with very little of that haughty bitter air. that he had worn when Lady Darlington waited m the little parlour for him. He bowec courteously to Lady Yvestall, wbc half rose when he entered. To be Continued.
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King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 458, 20 April 1912, Page 2
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2,905VIOLET LISLE; OR, A PEARL BEYOND PRICE. King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 458, 20 April 1912, Page 2
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