CHAPTER XL1X. BEFORE THE BRIDAL.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 100, 2 May 1885, Page 4

CHAPTER XLIX. BEFORE THE BRIDAL.

" Yet wedlock's a very awful thing: ; Tis somcthincr like that feat in the rinjsr, Which requires grent nerve to do it— When one of a ' Grand Equestrian Troupe Makes a jump at a gilded hoop, Not certain nt all Of what >^ay befall After his gotting through it ! "— HOOD. And just then Mrs Charu's maid was giving the last touches to the toilet of her mistress, and Hilaria Jackson's mibtress was impressing on her maid tho final instructions. "I do not know how long we shall be gone, Hilaria,'' as the woman bent down to button her high kid shoes, "but you will see that thing? are kept in order during my absence. On my return I shall break my house keeping, and turn over most of my furniture to the auctioneers. I would have preferred doing so before my marriage but was too pressed for time. , So, as I have said, things shall stand as they are till I come back. Tho other servants I have given notice to leave. You I shall retain." Tho face bent over Mrs Charu's shapely foot was not lifted. A low voice, however, answered : " Thank you." * ■ " Yes, I shall retain you 1 ," went on the widow, apparently eager to digress on any subject whatsoever rather than give herself opportunity to think. "You suitme admirably, principally becauee you mind your own affairs, and seom averse to prying." The maid had risen. What a dusky flame of colour showed through the burnt sienna cheoks ! But then stooping always does flush one. Mrs Charu rose, tco. She -walked across the room to a fulllength mirror, and stood before it regarding herself critically— rather her dress. Tailor- mado of brown broadcloth, it fitted with marvellous smoothness a figure which rigid compression alone prevented from transgressing the modern rule? of beauty. Beauty ? Heaven forbid the mark ! From the soutaohe-braided and much bebuttoned costume she lifted hor eyes to the face above. j She uttered an exclamation of horror. To look like that on her wedding-day ! It was enough to disenchant a man even at the altar ! Who would ever have imagined a few sleepless nights could have wrought such havoc ? " Quick, Hilaria !" she cried. " Bring mo that box of Blush Rose Bloom ! Just look at me ! Surely you could not think I would go out looking like this. lam ghastly I" " I did put on some of the bloom, madam ! her maid declared, deprecatingly. "You said it would do."

" Did I ? Well, I must have been dreaming. The powder you used must be good for nothing. Get me the Jacqueminot Glow -quick !" She snatched the gilt box her maid brought her, caught up the pouf and began to " fluff" the beautifying powder on her white cheeks. " Madam I" And then she hesitated. "Well?" "Let me do it. You are using too much. The effect will not be natural." The words arrested the nervous hand. More intently the bride-elect regarded herself in the glass. On the brunette face, dark almost to swarthiness, the patches of starting colour showed ludicrously. " You are right !" she said. She sank into a chair, resigning to Hilaria the box whose contents were warranted to renew youth and make the least lovely complexions rival nature's rarest roses." " Yes, do it and be quick !" she nodded, impatiently, "Make me look less like a corpse than I did a few minutes ago, and still less like an apoplectic inebriate than I do now." Swiftly, deftly, with a practical hand she did as bidden. " There, madam." By the cold afternoon light she regarded horself again. She breathed a sigh of satisfaction, •'Ah, yes! that will do! It's much better." And it was. The soft, unexaggerated colour of the cheeks died naturally away into the creaminess of the throat. The clock on the mantel struck, then tinkled out in a gay little Swiss tune, ' ' So late ! I have no time to loco, Hilaria. Get me my cloak, hat, gloves." There came a knock at the door. The maid remarked how her mistress Btarfced. She clutched her by the arm. " Remember, I am at home to no one," she whispered. " Make no blunder— no one !" "Yes, madam." She went away, returning almost immediately, bearing & small package, Mrs Charu looked relieved at sight of it. 1 ' There was no visitor ? That is all ?" "All, madam." She took it, tore oft" the wrappings. Within v,as a little trunk-shaped morocco case. This she opened. Inside, on the purple velvet bed, sparkled a magnificient pair of solitaire ear-rings, diamonds, each worth a small fortune. There was no name or card, but, of course, she knew the donor. He was giving her these, wealth, position, but they were not enough. Something priceless beyond these must he yet surrender. And that last awful treasure must be taken. She could scarcely put in the brilliant stones, her hands were trembling so. From behind her blue glasses her maid watched her. Of late she had learned little. Since the night Miss Dorothy had summoned her to be her companion on that visit to Voyle, Grimes had not called. Whether or not Mrs Charu had met him elsewhere she did not know. In her spying she was at limes a trifle clumsy. She was new at the pursuit. That accounted for it. An experienced hand -one of your bewitched dime novel detectives, for instance, who hears two blocks off and seos through stone walls— would have allowed no intercourse to escape him. But Guila Grimes was nothing half so wonderful. She was only a woman who was masquerading for an end, extremely timorous as to discovery, and apt to blunder. That letters had passed between Grimes and Mrs Charu she knew. Of their contents she was ignorant. Her mistress had herself awaited the ring of the postman, read, and immediately thereafter burned them. During tho previous busy week of shopping, planning, sewing, astrugglo hud been going on in liilaria's mind. Ought she imform Miss Dorothy of the approaching marriage? She had not visitod Mrs Charu; her name had not been mentioned in the heating of tho maid, bo, presumably, the dear little lady was in the dark as to the whole affair. But she had decided not to do so. She would know it soon enough. Besides, tattling would most likely loso her her place, tj;ivo Miss Dorothy no pleasure, and cause discord all round. No ; whatever her personal aims, she had no right to bring trouble on her mistress, as such would assuredly be the result were the fact of the engagement broken to the colonel's sister by her. " Is tho carriage below ?" "Yes, madam." " And it is —gracious ! ten minutes to six ! Bow do I look, Bilaria ?" "Charming, madam." Enveloped in a Russian circular of heavy Ottoman silk, the exact shade of the gown it covered, and lined with costly fur, a becoming bonnet to match on her dark head, a veil which protected but did not hide the cold, handsome, artistically tinted face drawn smoothly over the same pretty chapeau, all combined to form a costume atonco subduod, harmonious, and elegant. "Do I? Goodbye." She nodded brightly, and went out of tho room. Hilaria, standing in tli6 window, as did at that same hour, on Prairie Avenue Miss Dorothy, watched her enter tho close carriage in waiting, and gazed after it as it rolled iway. (To be Contimied. )