LITEREATURE.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1088, 19 September 1883, Page 4

LITEREATURE.

THE ROMANCE OF WALLIS . COURTWallis Court is about five miles from one, of the.ilargest towns in tbe , northwest of England. It is a fine old manorial house, and from the windows of the countless chambers the view is so extensive that although I have lived there for twenty-years without a break I always declare that I saw new points and effects every time I gazed at.it. Here I have LccrL.evor since I was two years fold. My mother died the day after I was born, and : my father joined her two years after, leaving me to the care of my. Aunt Wallis, of Wallis Court, his only sister. My father was a Frenchman of very ancient family, my mother a Miss Wallis, brother and sister having married brother and sister. Colonel Wallis had married my aunt when she was but seventeen srears5 r ears old, and three months after the wedding had disappeared from Europe with an American actress.. He was never heard of again. He had made his airangements about Wallis Gpn'rt* leaving it to Aunt Belle, with two thousand a year, giving her power to. leave it to whom she liked, with only one condition, that it was not to be left to churches, convents, or priests J.she, was a strict Roman Calholc. He was not .very much of anything. She knew exactly when he died, and he never knew that eight months after he left she gave birth so a son. She made up her mind that this boy should be devoted to the Church, and with this object always in view, he was sent to a Catholic college abroad, ns she. thought r there ; was less chance,, of his /getting any heresies into his head if brought up in a Catholic country. > /However, his father's military instincts came out strongly when he was about eighteen,, and/when he came over to Wallis Court he asked bis mother to buy him a commission in the English army.' This she refused to do. Angry words passed between them ; he declared that he wonld be a soldier like the Wallises; and she, in her wrath, said his father had disgraced them. The boy had never before heard her speak a word against the man who had so cruelly deserted her* and had always loved the handsome-looking soldier whose portrait hong in her bonddir. The next day Maurice left Wallis Court, as he averred, for ever, and shortly after enlisted in the French army. Two years after I came, and my dear old annt lavished all her love and affection on me. She was a very beautiful woman, as good and kind as possible.; With her and a governess I passed all my happy childhood. Miss Marchmont, my governess, had relations living on the other side of the town, and we sometimes drove over to see them. Her brother was a wealthy merchant, jwith an only daughter, about my age. Annt Belle was so afraid that I should meet any gentleman there, and perhaps end by making an unfortunate marriage like her’s, that my visits there were very rare. I used to tell her that if she ever intended n*e f -to -{marry* •if would . only - be with a Frenchman of ancient lineage, with half a dozen names to match, mine. ’ One evening in December, Miss Marchmont was taken suddenly ill, and alarmingly so. Poor annt Belle became

flamed.; She; wanted the doctor, one of the fathers, and Mr Marchmont all at once. Oar household consisted of on old coachman, who had lived with atmt Belle ever since her marriage, and was now nearly seventy, but who always, drove as. Under him was Watson, a young man about twentyfive, who did all the hard work ; besides Watson, there was a small boy of thir teen. Onr stud consisted of two handsome, large and lazy carriage horses, sleek and sleepy, one that went in the dog-cart and was ridden by Watson when he rode ont with me, and my particnlar steed. On the evening of Miss Marchmont’s indisposition, old Grant was laid up with bronchitis; Watson had gone to London to attend his father’s funeral, and the boy was the only available Jehu we had. Aunt Belle was in despair. She, and our old maid Parkins, did not dare to leaye dear Marchmont’s side. I told her, not to worry herself. She knew I was a good horse-woman, for she had thonght it only right that a Wallis should be such, and I had been presented with a pony on my fifth birthday and a horse when I was sixteen. I told her I would drive the dog-cart and ■ fetch the doctor first, and bring him Back, taking the boy with me for propriety. She assented to this arrangement, and I left her somewhat comforted. The snow had been days on the ground, and the road was rather slippery. Martin, the - boy, and I went into Boiler’s stables, and between us we managed to harness the horse, and we succeeded in getting him into the dogcart. He was very fresh, not having been ont for some days,’ and somewhat frisky. For a couple of miles we went along at a ptetty good pace. I never took my eye off Bolter’s head and the road until we passed a place called Thornton Pool, on which hundreds of skaters were disporting themselves. I always envied them, and longed to join them ; but such a proceeding would have so shocked aunt Belle that P never even dared suggest it, and contented myself with gyrations on our own pond, with the servants for an admiring crowd, . / (To be continued.)