LITERATURE.

Patea Mail, Volume I, Issue 2, 27 October 1887, Page 4

LITERATURE.

UNDER THE SHADOW. CHAPTER I. Onk rvftf.r.o-ui in ilia merry month of May, the !•!■! iron ga'ee of Knighton Revels ’.v>'!e swung open by the old lodge kieperpmd ayoong lady rode thiou-h. iSlowas soiall ih' UgbadniiiablY proportioned that there was not the slightest suspicion of “ gawkiness slim, and, as she ancient writers wen- loud of saying, “of giacvfnl demeanour.” In addition to a good figure tie go Is—wh , when they are in a good rimnoor, jr- lttvis.li—load ht-stiiwed upon her a face which falls to the portion of few of the daughters of men. Of a clear oval, almost colourless, save when excited, with large, dark eyes, shaded by long brows that swept the iv-oy tinted cheeks, framed in u silken setting of suit black hair ; with lips cleanly cut as a statue’s, —Lis Kuigh loti’s face was beautiful enough »o have furnished a model lor Titian or a Vandyck. But great paint ns «is i hey were, in no one of their canvasses is there a face so full of expressh n and so sojl m ving. Thank tJetuen, b<*nn ty is not uncommon in these isles ; but there are two kinds of beauty ; that which one admires ami—forgets. and that which one feels and—remembers ; and Iris Knighton’s was of the latter kind. The effect of this lovely face was disastrous enough when on-: saw it i» leposc. but ivlini she raised the long I to-lies and looked at you whh one of her peculiar, shady, half dreamy looks, one lost one’s heart at once and for ever. Byron remaik* that the devil lias not in nil liis quiver so deadly an arrow as a soft and beau iful voice; but though Iris Koighion’s voice was musical, and capable of playing many tunes, it was the dark eyes which were the deadliest weapons in her amionry, and Byron would have been the first to admi i, if it bid been bis good fortune to have lived long enough to have seen her—and level her, as he most assuredly would have done f As the tall, black horse she r >de pact d in a stately fashion down the to id, and through the single village street, as if ho were proud of his sweet burden, the go >d folks of Knighton, bearing the sound of hoofs, cams to their doors, or stood on the pebbly pavement : and the nun doffed their tints and tiie women an I children dropped profound but smilin; curtseys, for Miss 1 is was the daughter of Godfrey Knb'liton, Esquire, and Lord of the Manor of Knighton Beverley, and the most important lady in tlio piuco. I. is bowed to the resnccifu l . reverential greetings, but iu an i bien', dreamy’ fashion, and did not lift her long, dark lashes until she find passed out of the village street on to Knighton Heath ; then she pulled up, ami wailing until the gio,m bad got up beside her, said,— You can go back, Fenn ” Considering that bo had "taken the trouble to groom and saddle bis horse, and put on bis livery, the man might have been justified in looking a little surprised ; but bis face never moved a muscle, and touching bia finger to his hat, he tinned and rode back as if the order were quite a matter of course, and the must natural thing in the world. Iris red r on, stilt s’owly, until slm had reached the comer of the heath, then she stopped the horse again, and, bending » little forward in the saddle, looked round at the view, which stretched like a panorama in a circle b nealh her. Now the view was not only a familiar one, hut, so to speak, may be said to have belonged to her ; for the hedged fields anti coppiced woods for many a mile represented tin* m-tri-r of which her father was lord and

tuns'er. The Knighton’s were an ancient and a famous r.icc*, as you will liud if you taut* the trouble to turn to the page in Burk-' which contains their name and their many deeds. It ha I once been on the losing Hide in politics, and the winner had d--prived him of his title and his hinds. L iter on, when things had settled down, the lands had bnn nstoied to them ; but the Knight'ns of tlm day had refused to accept the leslormion of the title. “ A Kniglnon is a Knighton, and yon (■■ nnot rob him of his name. It mailers little whether you put 1 my lord,’ or plain ’mister’ In fore it." And although the lost umrqnisate had been tendered them more than once since, am! quite in recent limes, the Knighton of the day had always politely but emphatically declined if. bo it happened that the young Indy who snt so still and motionless on her horse, Was simply " miss ” instead of “my lady.”

It will be pliers •<! by the foregoing plain atatenicnt of tho case, that the Knightons were proud ; and it must be confessed (hat they were. Every family, i*e are told by people who to know, possesses its special and distinctive failing, and (he great f dling of the Knightons was pride. They were proud of having lost it in a good cause ; and they were prouder still of having refused its restoration. To be a Knighton of Knighton Revels, and lord of the manor of Beverley,seemed to Godfrey Knighton, and to Iris, too I almost as good ns being King of England. Mte was proud, and yet at times one would have thought her the meekest and humblest creature in (he world I when, for instance, site was talking to one of her p ople at suite cottage dour, or better still when she sat, aa she wou d do for hours, with some sick child on her knee or in her aru.e, while the poor mother stood watching her tearfully, as if her infant were ly ng asleep in the a ms of an angel. But proud or humble, all Kn'gidon, ftom the highest to the lowes', were fully convinc-d that no sweeter, no lovelier being cxiate’d than their liege lady Miss Iris ot the Kovela. Whatever she m iy have been thinking of aa she t-at with her eyes wandering over tho view at her feet, there was a strange tinge of ineliint holy—scarcely cf sadness, but of pensive reflection -in her eyes j and it was a cu ious fact that this faint ex* pression of wistlul dreaminess was far too treqmnt a visitor in those dark, lustrous orbs.

c*ho WPS the daughter of the richest imn in the country; his only child, ihs heiress to all In immense wealth. Iso wish was lett ungratitied. She had, ns th» old ballad says, “ rich satins to wear, rich fruits to eat.and #ood horses to riih.” All ihe world, which is ho hard and cruel a one foi some of ns, stir eI on her, and yet wl.e v elm pulled up on Ki Heath to look at the *iew, that etrnngo of melaii' holy crept like a thief into hj« i lieiinmHi eyes. Perhaps it was that 'ho miesed that which s rowns most girls’ live l ’with happiness ,md peace,—a mother ; for, look as iai luck as she could, iris could not from thu dim visions of the j.a.it bring; back any memory of her mother. Ever since she onold remember, she and her father ha<l lived alone. She knew that her mother was an Italian 1 hat her name was like her own, Iris, and t id ilm via is of her own childhood had t•n I- 'i'li her frith*-:, in the land of Jer mo f h 'i'a birth.

It was from her tno(ho r . doubtless, that she bad got the dark, lustrous eyes, the soft, black hair ami long lashes, while her father had contributed the patrician face and family pride. (To-Bk Continued.!