CHAPTER XXII.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 93, 14 March 1885, Page 4

CHAPTER XXII.

A MIDNIGHT VISITOR. " Who comes so fast in silenco of the night?" Merchant of Venice. And at that very moment there came a little tinkling sound at Miss Dorothy's chamber window. But, after the intrigues and fatigues of the day, she slept soundly. Silence. Again ! This time quite a small shower of pebbles— a stony clatter on the glass. And now Miss Dorothy lifted her head from her snowy pillow with a bewildered start, looked about, comprehended, rose, hastily threw on her dress, thrust her feet into slippers, flung up the window and leaned ou t. " Aunt Dolly !'" cried softly a voice from below. "Ye?," in a faltering murmur. "I thought it was you, Voyle." "Let me in by the conservatory, will you?" " Yes, yes," came the tremulous whisper. %i Only, for [Heaven's sake, be cautious, my dear." She heard his low laugh at the words, and the assertion, "For my sake." She let down the sash. At the door she paused— listened. Tho poor little soul was trembling like a leaf. Not a sound. Stealthily as a midnight assassin she stole to the stairs, crept down, her footfall making no noise no tho thick pile of the Moquette carpeting. She reached the foot ; stood still again. Not a breath. She turned to the right, groped her way to the drawing-room entrance, prudently and safely, by the sense of touch as do the blind, navigated the room, steering with outstretched hands between chairs, easels, and conversaziones. If she had only thought to procure a match before ascending ! She must do her best without one now. She could hear the rain plashing in the lawn'a miniature lake. And that poor boy out in the storm all this time ! He would be wet through ' The second room successfully passed, she pushed aside the portieres and paseed under the arch separating the drawing-room and conservatory. A moment later the door leading into the gardens was reached, carefully unlocked, opened. A dark, drenched figure waiting on the granite steps without came quietly in. Aunt Dorothy put her shaking arms around him and kissed him. "They are all sound long ago!" she whispered. " Come up to your own room \ and tell me all about it." As noiselessly as the door had been opened it was refaetened, and the two made their way toward the hall through the dense darkness. " Take care !" murmured Aunt Dorothy. Scarcely were the words spoken when j there was a jar— a crash ! ] Less deft than a woman would have been he had come in contact with a dwarf cabi- 1 met laden witb bric-a-brac. ! Click — clang — clatter ! down they came, ' a bronze medallion, " bits" ef porcelain, a rain of mineral specimens. " Great Jupiter !" exclaimed Voyle, " now 1 have done it !" Already they could hear a stir upstairs. A door opened. Some one was coming down. Through the half-open door shone a flicker of light, a match probably, for in a second all was darkness. Another was struck. The gas in the hall flared brightly up. A ray penetrated here — sufficient to discover a large Turkish divan near by. " Quick !" gasped Miss Dorothy, " under there ! The Lord bles3 me !" Like a flaßh Voyle dropped to the floor, and rolleJ under the lounge indicated. The deep fringe completely screened him. And just then Colonel Vernell, in dressing-gown and slippers, cocked revolver in hand, crained his long neck inside the door. " D-d-o-on't shoot— James ! quavered Mias Dorothy. The hand which held the revolver dropped to his side. He came into the room. From head to foot his cool glance swept the little rotund, shrinking figure. " You !" disgustedly. " Yes it's— it's only me, James !" quite reckless in regard to grammar in her tremorous excitement. " I see ?" dryly. " I— l'm sorry I'm not a burglar, James. You seem disappointed in finding no target f" endeavouring to turn off the affair with a nervouß little laugh. By this time there was a group of startled servants on the stairs. Colonel Vernell turned to them irritably. "Go back to bed !" he commanded. " There is nothing to stand gaping at. Miss Vernell accidentally jarred a cabinet and a few things fell off. That is all." When they had gone, ho turned to his sister with a short, angry laugh. "Why in thunder couldn't you have called out to me at first? It's a marvel I didn't fire. What time i8 it, anyhow ?" He glanced at the clock on a console ne*r by. " Half-past twelve ! What on earth brought you downstairs at this unearthly hour, anyway ?" Miss Dorothy was on her knees, gathering up the debris. What a blessing it was the light of the hall-lamp penetrated but faintly here, leaving unrevealed her traitorous countenance. Her lined old mouth had been very, very truthful always. But now she must lie. To save Voyle she must, the good Lord forgive her ! she added, contritely, in the depthß of her simple heart : " I oame down to look for my keys. I— l left them here to-day. My matches went out, and I—lI — I knocked against this _ an d » " What did you want the keys in the middle of the night for?" he demanded, grimly. For what did she require them ? This was a poser. But trust a woman. Never doubt her resources. She thrust the last bit of porcelain on the cabinet, rose, and laid her hand on her stomach, with a groan. " Such pain, James ! Dear, dear, such cramps and pain 1 The fright of having disturbed you all made me forget it for a moment. Oh-h, there it is again 1 I wanted to get some peppermint," writhing nearly double, " and the key of my medicine chest was on the ring with the others, and—Oh, goodness —gracious /" "Peppermint!" repeated Colonel Vernell, disdainfully, in much the same tone as that in which the two disgusted old topers in Thomas Hardy's " Squire " echoed "Milk!" "Much good that would do you. Come into the dining-room and get some brandy !" Now if there was anything under the glorioussun this same little woman abhorred and detested, it was brandy. The very smell to her was nauseating. Under advice she had taken it in deadly sickness crossing the Atlantic, and ever since the very name

had recalled with horrible distinctness the smell of the engine-room oils, the lurching ■ of the vessel, the grinding of the wheel. •«I— l think it is getting better I" she avowed, faintly. For answer the colonel produced another match, and turned toward the dining-room with an authoritative gesture. " Come, porothy, you've got to take it. One can't risk cholera — come ! " Miss Vernell groaned. Was that a giggle proceeding from beneath the divan. Thank goodness James was already busy at the sideboard. Truly it had been a gleeful, explosive, irrepressible giggle. She bent down as she passed the spot from whence if emanated, "Hush, Voyle ! When all is quiet come to my room." "Make haste, Dorothy," said the colonel. She hurriedly crossed the hall. Ao she entered he held out to her a glowing Venetian goblet half full of brandy. "There, drink that! No, it won't hurt you if you are ill. Be quick ! I'll get my death of cold." Valiantly the old woman and young actress took a sup. It scorched her throat, filled her eyes with water, and sent her off into a fit of coughing. " That's right ! Down with the rest of it." "I believe— James— l'll take it— upstairs — and finish it there !" declared she in the intervals of coughing. " Very well." She mounted the stairs, her brother remaining behind a moment to put out the gas. Once in her own apartment, she straight- 1 way approached the stationary basin in the ' corner, and poured the contents of the Venetian goblet therein. Then she sat down to wait. Ton minutes passed. He was prudent. He would not I venture out too soon. Fifteen ! I Hark ! I Such a peal as rang through the silent house— such vigorous, repeated jer kings at the bell, as though the nocturnal visitor would wrench it from its socket. What was it ! What could it mean ? In an instant the servants were crowding out of their roomß, James Vernell, who had only just got to bed, was pulling on his dressing-gown and swearing like a trooper. Aunt Dorothy was clinging to the topmost pillar of the balustrades, her nerves wrought up to the pitch of hysterics. The colonel swung out of his room with an oath, "Go down and open the door, you blockhead !" he cried to the footman. He did as bidden, the colonel following close at his heels. The hall-door was flung wide, then the massive vestibule door, disclosing a substantial dark object just without. "Come in — you !" growled the colonel. In response to this cordial invitation he did come in. He had been absolutely unprotected from I the storm, having neither oil cloth coat, surtout, nor umbrella. Littlo pools and rivulets were trickling down all over him. He was soaked to the ekin. He was positively dripping. As he came forward into the gaslight he suggested to one a condensed Niagara. Colonel Vernell started back at sight of the short, corpulent figure, the deep-set, glaring eyes, the flabby, colourless, agitated face. "Jonas Claflin!" ho ejaculated, "how — what— the deuce— do you want?" And Jonas Claflin answered : " My wife !"