CHAPTER LVII.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 103, 23 May 1885, Page 4

CHAPTER LVII.

A NNATUUNU. " Whence come those shrieks, so loud, and shrill, That cut like blades of steel tho air I" "Pousn Boy." " Vsvlk !" No reply. ♦' Uncle Jamos !" Still silence. He half closed tho door as he came forward . " Oh, if you are going to be discourteous, very well !" went on the stern young voice. " I must say I thought you would try ignoring mo. I rather fancied that that was the tack you would go on. Well, you can pretend all of that sort of thing you choose, but you will hear me all the same !" Never a sound. In tho twilight oi the room Voyle stood leaning against a chair. Fie went on speaking still in a low tone, but it was tenbewith repressed passion. " According to the old Italian code of retribution one is bound to give warning before accomplishing the vendetta. Though this blow of which I give you warning now ip no act of vengeance. It is -or will be — only a tardy and enforced act of justice. Do you hear ?" Never in a vault reigned silence more profound. On it the lad's now tremulous voice broke strangely. " I beg your pardon I had forgotten your curious conception of politeness. Well, there is little more to be said. You sold my sister, you falsely imprisoned and branded me, you i*obbed us both from the hour you took us with perjured heart from our father's death-bed to the hour which saw us go forth from your house— paupers ! That is the score. It demands a reckoning. And I have sworn, James Vernell, it shall be a bitter one for you " He stood a few moments in excited silence. Then he turned and swung out of the room., No sooner had he vanished than the door leading into the adjoining room opened. The woman who had pprung from her bed from her feigned Blumber at the first v vrord spoken, who had crouched down at

the keyhole, shaking, listening, came creep, ing in now She gaat a glance at the door. It was closed. She went; gliding across tho floor to the lounge in her embroidered rohe-de-nuit like a lithe and snowy snake. She dragged down the crimson comforter. Thrust one head above the grey head. Jerked the othor limbs into distorted positions. Thon sho stolo back again— half walked, half crawled into her room, into bod. Now she was absolutely safe— absolutely ! He had died in a spasm -a case of heart affection. But if troublesome questions, suspicions, should arise, and aught was discovered (it was not at all probable, of. oourso— but //"!), even then she would be secure. For had not his nephew boon last with him, threatening him— an avowed j enemy ? Miss Dorothy, sitting by her dressing-case spectacles on noee, devoutly reading a chapter of her littlo brown Bible, started up with palpitating heart as there came a low knock at her door. Instantly the personality of her late visitor occurred to her. It must be Voyle ! Was not this tho night he had said he would come ? How stupid of her to have forgotton ? How had ho succeeded ia ontering unobserved ? She went hastily to the door — oponed it. lie came slowly into the bright, comfortable apartment. As she greeted him fondly she noticed how pale he was — more so than she could remember having ever seen him His late passion, the more intense for its repression, had thrilled him by its own force. 4t Why, Voyie, how white you look, dear ! Are you ill ?" He took off his soft felt hat and sat down. "Oh, no. Just a trifle ' broke up,' though. I was passing Uncle James's room, and noticed ho was still up, so I went in and gavo him a piece of my mind. Why, what's tho matter?" "I'm so sorry you did, dear — to-night of all nightd. He's been feeling and looking wretched all day. Letitia had quite a time this evening to get him to sleep." " Did ho go asleep there, on the lounge ?" "Yes." "Jupiter!" "What did ho say?" she asked, anxiously. He burst out laughing. " Never a word, Aunt Dolly. I did not think of the probability of hia being asleep. You know it was not cis habit to sleep there — just lio, and emoke, and think. I'm beginning to believe I've wasted my eloquence on deatears." She nodded, with a satisfied smile. '• If he didn't answer you, you may bo sure he was asleep. James is as inflammable as you are, and that is saying a good doal." " You didn't expoct them last ovoning?" "No, indeed. 1 had no idoa they would make such a short trip. But, by tho way, I wasn't expecting you this evening either." "Why, 1 told you I'd come for those flannels and clothes, Aunt Dolly." " 1 know you did, my dear ; but in tho (lurry of their coming homo so suddenly, overythinc clso was knocked out of my head." " llavo you heard from Yolla &ince ?" looking up. "No." " Whai will you give for a letter ?" " Oh, Yoylc ' Have you got one?" " Don't feel too glad over it, or you'll be proportionally cast down. ' Blessed arc they who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed,' you know. This is only an old letter, which should have reached us long ago. Vella sent it in caro of 2\lrs Mayno, your old yrote {,((•. She happenod to be in Denver with 'a family, one of whose members sho was nursing, when it arrived Tho tenant of her former hoiKso held it for her till her return, which was only this morning. She immediatly set out to bring it to you, but mooting me, intrusted it to me for you. Sho knew it was the same thing " JMtss Dorothy took it eagerly, broke the seal, and read the trembling lines penned whilo at Starr's, thon passed it to Yoyle, who gravely perused it. He handed it back. " Poor little thing ! Well, she is safe with hor friend now." A iow minutes later he askod Miss Dor othy what ailed tho colonel. " You mentioned his not feeling well — what is tho matter ?" .lust business trouble; but it seems to affect him physically as well as mentally." " What is wrong?" " I don't just understand it, laddie, Hi-, lawyer was up la"t ovoning to sco him about it, and again today. »Jame=> has a good deal of Colon — what is tho name of it?" " Golondrinas stock ?" he suggested. " That's i»" ; and it seems that it is going down, or something " " Nonsense ! " ho broke in, sharply. " I beg your pardon, Aunt Dolly ; but my uncle, his lawyer, or both, are labouring under an enormous delusion. Golondrinas stock was never in such a flourishing condition. It is fairly blooming. I've a chance of knowing a good doal about how such things are going on, on account of being in Costello's establishment." "I hope you are right," breathed Miss Dorothy. " 1 don't think I ever saw James so moved and worried by anything." " Very likely not," was the dry reply. "And how aro those- dear children ? " she asked, after a pause. "Oh, tho (Jostelloa? They aro all well. I told them I would possibly sco you to night, and they commissioned mo with ever so much love and kind messages." Into Miss Dorothy's face came a glad little flu°h of pleasure. "Did they, really? How good of them to remember me ! I don't see how they could help being nice, though. They had a most lovable- grandmother." "Oh, Aunt Dolly?" Right up to her guilty blue eyes sho now coloured. •'Well?" "Won't you give their father any credit ?" " Oh. he is a thorough gentleman, of course," carelessly, and earnostly regardful of a tiny stain on her sleoves ; " but Ido think children derive their good qualities principally from their grand nothers." Voyle laughed. But in this bold and singular assertion, as unwarrantable as novel, and born of embarrassment, he could not acquiesce, He rose. "I must go now, Aunt Dolly. It's getting late. I'll just get that heavy suit and a few othor things. Then good-bye to the old room for good and for all. No, don't worry about me. I'll get out all right. Roberts is going to leave the door unlocked for me. The girls want to know when you'll go over again. What shall I tell them ?" "Do they now ?" quite flattered. "Oh I'll bo over the beginning of tho weekMonday or Tuesday. Really oil:'? Well, good-bye, my boy ! God bless you !" When she had closed the door behind him she made short work of retiring, and soon was wrapped in the slumber which moralists ascribe to unincumberod consciences, but which, I think, waits more unfailingly on unimpaired digestion. Twelve ! Throughout the great house many clocks proclaimed the midnight hour, pealed, tinkled, jangled, lisped it.

Then again silence. The houis crept by. The chill winter dawn waa reddening in the east whon through the utter stillness rang a cry- a shrill, piorcing, terrified, wailing sbriek, which echoed and re echoed through the house in bleak and discordant repetition. In an instant every soul was aroused, out of bod, horror-struck, dazed, bewildered. {'To be Continued.)