PART II.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 30, 29 December 1883, Page 4

PART 11.

"he'll kever have me back, for sure?"" "I think you have been in the wrong, Nancy, indeed I do." "Ah, then, do you indeed, Miss Flora? Well, it's myself that's thought so time and again. But sure you don't know what it is yerself to have a cross husband. Your oww .good man is far from you now, but they say there never was such sweethearflin' 1 as when he was. by you. ESutfc if you'd ever had a man alwa^n* lookin' crooked at you, saying, 'Comehere' and 'go there,' and 'why do not you straighten things up a bit?' and never a pleasant word or a smile, and times takin' no more notice than If you was a woollysheep, and a deal more of his dog, why, you'd think it hard yourself, Miss Mora, and that you would." "Perhaps you were'nt too pleasantyourself, Nancy, and certainly you did'nt have much patience. By your own confession you only stayed three month?. Why, I've often been told that married people seldom get on well together at first. They find out all each others little faults and peculiarities, and often provoke one another, until they fc©6h) learn to make allowances. Certainly I db> not speak from experience, for my own dear husband and I never Jiadl any disageeetnent, however slight. We were always happy during short time we were together." Here Flora sighed heavily, and looked from the window wistfully towards the sea. The little casement was set wide open. A gentle breeze stirred the roses and geraniums in the bright little garden. Beyond lay a great expanse of blue sea, shiningf, glittering, 'shimmering in the sunshine, and dashing in long white rollers on the beach below. It was the Ist of November previous tothe scene of our last chapter. Nancy was lying back in a low chair, with a shawl wrapped round her, although the day was wax-m . Her face was pale from recent illness, but still remarkably pretty. Her glance wandered continually to an article of furniture near by, easily distinguishable as a cradle. It needed no great penetration to guess that it contained a sleeping babe, even if the young mother's hand had not now and then reached over and turned down the pink coverlet to gaze with ever renewed interest on a tiny round brown face and a soft little head covered with fluffy blaok hair. Nancy's companion was also young and pretty, but her face was marked by a higher degree of culture, thought and intelligence. Her large brown eyes had a slightly sad expression ; absent, wistful, deep with suppressed feeling. Although Nancy called her Miss Flora, it was plain that she owned a more matronly title. There was a wedding-ring on her small bar© hand, She had a nabit of twisting and playing with it, as her eyes had a habit of wandering wistfully towards the sea. r Flora Fitzroy was a sailor's wife. Three years before she had .married the lieutenant of the Recovery* against theadvice and wishes of ! all her friends. Harry Fitzroy was as , gay and , careless a young , ..sailor , , as „ ever. „ .sailed • the sea. He and r pretty Flora 1 Percy; had

spent a summer of flirtation while the Recovery was on duty, anchored in the harbour of a colonial town. There had been dances, picnics, summer days spent in the bush, riding parties, walking parties, and the upshot of all had been an engagement. Rings and vows were exchanged. A few short months followed, in which each made the other's joy, and there was no cloud to mar their sky. At last a cloud came ; a thunderbolt fell. The Recovery was ordered to a distant station, to a station where 'jt was impossible for an English lady to reside. The future lay shrouded in much uncertainty before the lovers. The thought of parting was unbearable, still more the uncertainty as to when, where, or how they might meet again. Experience, observation, knowledge of the ways of the world, all suggested that lovers, once parted by the long seas, too often never again come together. They determine to make assurance sure, to conti-act a tie that nothing but the death of either could sever. As husband and wife, only time and the sea could part them. One fine day they went to church and ware married. Their friends Mere indignant, but Harry got three months' leave of absence and the lovers were happy. It was a short married life — a brief preparation for years of parting ; it was over too soon. The Recovery steamed away on her uncertain career. Three months afterwards, Harry Fitzroy packed up, said good-bye to his young wife, and set off to join his ship at her distant station. Flora's friends were so fat reconciled that they wished her to live with them. They had not objected to the man but to the match, advising waiting until Harry had command of a ship. She went home to live with her parents until the joyful day of his return, with some definite plans for their future. Harry was a good correspondent and wrote regularly to his wife, sent her remittances to the utmost of his resources, and cheered her soul with hopes of a speedy meeting. Nevertheless, the months seemed endless to the wife at home. The months grew to a year, then dragged slowly on tow aids the close of another. The young lieutenant's prospects grew no brighter. His letters became shorter, and were slightly despondent in tone. Then they ceased, and for five long months no letter came. Flora occupied her mind as best she could. She attended to the duties of a daughter in her parents' home, and visited the people round, but her heart was very heavy. Neither was she free from occasional taunts from those " I told you so's '' that add a sting to disappointed hopes. Her happiest hours were spent in the cottages of the poor. Nancy's parents were honest Irish people, who occupied a small lot near the sea-side village where the Percies dwelt during the greater portion of the year. They kept the proverbial horse, pig, and cow, and Nyith fowls and potatoes picked up a living in a truly Irish fashion. Nancy had of fcsn been in the employ of the Percies from achild, and "Miss Flora" had often been alternately her friend and mistress. About the time of Flora's marriage Nancy had insisted on taking a situation on a distant farm. She wanted a change and to see other parts. Her change resulted in her curious match, and her wilful disposition had brought her again beneath her parents' lowly roof. Such was the position of these two young women, " Yes, you ara wrong, Nancy," repeated Flora, sadly. " You should have had more patience, and tried to please. A woman s proper place is with her husband. You must once have liked the man, or you should not have married him." " Ah, for the matter of that, then, Miss Flora, Shepherd Jock is a fine upstanding man as ever I saw, and he was civil enough when he was courtin'. All the other girls said Shepherd Jock was never known to be civil to a woman before, he was that shy like. It was flatterin' to any girl you see, Miss, and sure I did like him well enough. It was when he got me home he was so contrary like— and that jealous '' "Perhaps if he saw the baby it would please him, and he would be more kind and patient. Take my advice Nancy ; take your baby and go back to him. Some day you will be very sorry if you do not." "I've half a mind to that same myself, but I'm feared he'll be so morful angry with me for going away. He'll never have me back for sure." "You can but try. You ought never to have come away. If he won't forgive you, you can come back again." " Is that yourself that's advisin' Nancy to go back to her man, Miss Flora?" said an old woman, entering the room leaning on her stick. " 'Deed, then, you're right. Many the time I longed to tell her the same thing, and more'n ever since the spalpeen came.*' And the grandmother bent over the cradle as she spoke, regarding the infant with affection and pride. " Dearly I love to have her to home with her old daddy and me, but it's a poor thing for a young woman to live away from her husband." The saucy queen oughtn't never to have married the man if she didn't mean to stick to him, and it's myself that often thinks he can't be so bad after all. It's very handsome gounds he's given her by times, enough to please any woman ; and the neighbours' tongues is sharp enough, the Lord knows." "Don't you talk, mammy," ejaculated Nancy ; but there were tears in her eyes which did not escape Flora's observation. She changed the conversation, leaving the advice given to sink into Nancy's mind, and grow there. Presently the old woman rose and left the room. " What about your own young man, Miss Flora ? " said Nancy, softly. " Sure I don't like to see you so pale and thin like. You're white as any lily, and I'm afraid its fretting. Do you not hear of his coming back to you one of these days ? " "I did hope," said Flora; and now it I was on her eyelashes that the dew gathered swiftly. " I did hope he would have been I with me ere this, but I have not heard from him for such a long time. Nancy, I grow very weary waiting for him. Sometimes I fear he may never return, and now I dread that some harm may have come to him. Surely he would write to me if he were living still. He may be drowned as I nightly dream. The cruel sea may have swallowed him, and I shall never see him more." And now a white handkerchief had been drawn forth and fluttered a sure signal of distress. "Don't take on now, Miss Flora; don't now," said Nancy, with much feeling, wiping her own eyes. "Maybe he'll be here before Christmas. Maybe his silence is just a sign that he's comin' home to you. 'Deed an' you make me quite ashamed of myself that had a husband handy and didn't stick to him. I believe I'll go back to Jock myself and ask him to forgive me and have me back, for a bad wife I've been in leaving him so long."