CHAPTER XL.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 98, 18 April 1885, Page 4

CHAPTER XL.

"you!" "We fair fine ladies, who park out our lives From common sU,eep-paths, cannot help mo crows , . .... Fro a flying over. We ro as natural still A3 Jlowsafindi." B. B. Brownixo. Long parlours opening one into another, ro vealingavista of luxury and beauty, andending in the shadowy gloom of a conservatory, from whence came musically the tinkle and splash of falling waters. Hero taste vitalised by wealth, reigned supremo. The walls were covered with pale gold Lincrusta Walton, save where ran a border of orimson velvet poppies. The Wilton carpet was a mowed wheatfield, upon which glowed . here and there the same rich blooms -so natural one felt almost remorseful in sotting foot upon their sweet, flushed taces. The furniture, of carved ebony, was upholstered in amber brocade and dull red satin. Tho pictures were magnificent. An enthusiastic connoisseur and collector was tho master of the mansion. The lace that draped the plate-etlass windows might have hung in the chamber of an empress. And fn>m the grand chandelier over all poured the mellow brilliance of gaslight. Up and down the room a girl walked slowly, up and down. A tall, graceful figure, stately for all its youthfulness, clad iiTa trailing dinner-dress ot dark-blue silk, which left the round, smooth arms bare to tho elbow. A fair, tranquil face, palo as the hawthorn blooms of May. Large bluogrey eyes, the genuine liish hue, dark nose. A mouth a trifle large for beauty, but deliciously red. A perfect chin. A throat like a swan's, curved and snowy. Save a locket of dull god at that same white throat, she wore no ornament. What could be keeping her father? Ue was usually so punctual. She went down to tho bay-window, pushed aside the curtains, and looked out. By the light of the street lamp half a block away she could distinguish approaching figures. Yes, there he was at last! But not alone, though Whom had he with him ? Some one he had asked home to dinner after his hosptable fashion. Doubtless that tiresome Horace Deakin. She dropped the curtain, turned away, and resumed her walk. Those without ascended tho steps. A latchkey turned. She could hear her father's voice. "Come right in, Evelyn will be delighted." " Will she ?" commented Evelyn, with a übious grimace. She turned listlessly as the door opened, and went forward to meet them. She 'anced up— stood still. "You!' The cry had burst from her in spite of h jrself. For it was not Horace Doakin who stood betore her, nor anyone bearing the slightest r&iemblance to that sandy- haired persistent young adorer of hero A man, tall and strong-limbed, with a splendid well-held head, wavy black hair, a handsome face, but thin and weary. Not the face she had known, the girl told herself, with a shock of positive pain thrilling through her, not the old, bright, dashing, | spirited face, this with the grave lips and sad, unsmiling eyes. An instant later she had recovered her self, moved forward with outstretched hand and welcoming smile. "It h really you, Captain Tracy. lam co glad to sec you. But where in the name of all that's wonderful did you drop fiom ?" His face lighted up at the greeting of friendship. He held her hand a few moments in a clasp which brought a startled pleasure to her eyes— oh, impulse misconstrued ! " This morning," flinging himself into a chair and putting up one thin brown hand behind his dark head in a manner sharply familiar to her, "from the deck of the Cunard steamer Servia." "Well," — the growl just at their backs was like that of an amiable bear— " just wait till I bring you home again, Mr Man Tracy, to have my own daughter ignore me." Hi 3 "daughter" turned and hurried to him in a fever of desperation. "My blessed dear, did I really dc-eit you ?' in compissionate and remorseful contrition. And she kissed him with usual warmth. Perhaps the peace offering with which he atoned for his unpunctuality had something to do with this caress of affection. A fine old man, John Gage, handsome, too ; at least, one thought so_ when his rugged face lit up with love or merriment. He was grey- haired and [white beaided, but his brows were still coal black. His eyes, once as handsome as Evelyn's, were nosy a \ little bearded. From him she had inherited her full red lips and curious lack of colour. "As I was parsing Ninth and Chestnut to day, whom should I see standing in the entrance to the Continental but this lad." with a declamatory gesture toward the i: • dividual in question. "And he captured me, Miss Gage," began Marc. "After the hardest work," finished his host, "the very hardest, my dear, I do assure you." Evelyn turned to her guest. "That was hardly kind of you,"' in accents of gentle reproach. He sprang up and joined them where ey stood. " No," he admitted, "it wasn't right. It was rank ingratitude and churlishness." She put up her hand in laughing protest. "No, no! It surely was not that. I refuse to listen to such treason against an old friend." Marc Tracy bowed his fine head with a gravity deeper than the pleasant speech warranted. "An old friend thanks you for your loyalty," he said. Over her white cheeks swept a burning tide which ebbed as rapidly as it had come. "What are the prospects for dinner, Evvie?" ! Miss Gage turned two big reproving eyes to her father's innocent face. "You hypocrite! That is the question he asks every evening he is shamefully late, Mr Tracy. Who would ever have believed him guilty of such a contemptible subterfuge? As if dinner was not ready exactly," glancing at a tiny, Bisque, rose-wreathed timepiece near, "exactly thirty-four minutes ago. And if the fish, papa—" "It will be deliciouß, I know," in adroit interruption. " Come, Marc." " It is just a year since you last honoured me with a visit," Evelyn eaid, as they made their way to the dining-room. There was a very pronounced note of aggrievement in the proud voice. I " A year !" He passed his hand over his forehead. "Yes, a year. It seeme like ten."

Quite a glow and sparkle came into her face. So the time had seemed long— he had missed her. She turned to him, emiling. "Ah," sho said, "you have learned to flatter." Ho gave her a quick look. "Ihopo not, Miss Gage. I never mean to." Evidently ho had not just now. Thoy woro taking their scats. She looked at him across the glittering tablo. "Thon,"ehc declared, quietly, and she was pale as usual again, "tho world haß treated you ill." What ! Did ho hide his misery as poorly as that? Was he thin-skinned as a schoolboy, that this girl, with a more conversational needle for a weapon, had power to wound him ? He met hers with a glance in which thero was actual defiance "1 bog your pardon. The world has treated me royally." Sho archod her protty, dark brows. "And one year has seemed ten. Truly ' Time travols in divors pacos with divors persons.' " Ho strove to turn off tho qubjoct in a laugh. "If you quoto R<v,<Uind against mo 1 throw down my swo; J. J ' "Not against yoiy H fjentlo correction ; " rather in your • o?*<iO"/fck>*y " ' " What have *oing with yourself, anyhow, 1 jr Gage asked, as ho sipped his soup. ' Knocking around Europe ? Hope you're not getting -getting — c->in a word for mo, my dear, you know whit I mean." Evelyn laughed at tho naive appeal. "Foieignis-ed," she suggested. "That's just it. You're a brick, my— excuse me, a genius, my dear. Hope you arc not becoming foreignized, Marc ?" " Not a bit of it, sir," promptly. '• 0 lad to hear it, I'm «uro. It's a positive pity tho number of bright, honest young fellows who cross the ocean every year to do tho Continent and condoscond to return when thoy havo ground their healthy spiritdown to "tho prevailing pitch of langour, painfully acquired an ! accent,' or a jumble of them, and -u-c capable of screw ing a pano of glass into their right eye " His daughter and guest laughed out at his indignation. " All, but wo must romembcr, loo," reminded the former, " tho number of eager, art-inspired young souls who yearly seek | tho Old World and, rinding thero the garnered wealth of centuries, work and sufler deprivation in order to grasp the i secrets of its beauty, to come bick at last prouder of the laurels they wear for thoir country than for themselves." "Bra\o!" cried John Gage, heartily. " Ev\ic, you're a dais Excuse me ! I mean a born orator. Isn't she, Marc?" Captain Tracy smiled as ho laid down his glass of Sautei\ie. ! " American aspirants should be proud to boast so fair and dauntless a defender." With tho fruit G:igo renewed hia rather blunt inquiries. " But \ou haven't told mo yet ju?t what you've been doing. I always thought it a shame to <x'w o a mere lad — you were no ! more then, you know — control of that [magnificent McSlane property. Own up that you've made ducks and drakes of it." Tracy shook his head. " 1 r.'semblc the father of my country," he aveiied. Evelyc lautrhetl a5Ba 58 shero'o. '-Such veiacitj i^ tare, papa,"' g.tyly ; " honour it." I And 'he bowed her graceful blue-black head in acknowledgment as Marc hold open the door for her to pass out.