CHAPTER V.—(Continued).

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 111, 18 July 1885, Page 6

CHAPTER V.— (Continued).

Mr Nott was evidently absent, and after a quick glance at the half-open cabin door, Renshaw turned toward the galley. But Miss Rosey was not in her accustomed taunt, and with a feeling of disappointment, which seemed inconsistent with so slight a cause, he crossed the deck impatiently and entered his room. He was about to close the door, when the prolonged rustle of a trailing skirt in the passage attracted his attention. The sound was so unlike that made by any garment worn by Rosey that he remained motionless, with his hand on the door. The sound approached nearer, and the next moment a white-veiled figure with a trailing skirt slowly swept past the room. Renshaw's pulses halted for an instant in half superstitious awe. As the apparition glided on and vanished in the cabin door, he could only see that it was the form of a beautiful and graceful woman— but nothing more. Bewildered and curious, he forgot himself so farasto follow it, and impulsively entered the cabin. The figure turned, uttered a little cry, threw the veil aside, and showed the half- troubled, half- blushing face of Rosey. "I Deg — your pardon," stammered Renshaw ; " I didn't know it was you." "I was trying on some things," said Rosey, recovering her composure and pointing to an open trunk that seemed to contain a theatrical wardrobe— " some things father gave me long ago. I wanted to see if there was anything I could use. I thought I was all alone in the ship, but fancying I heard a noise forward, I came out to see what it was. I suppose it muet have been you." She raised her clear eyes to his, with a slight touch of womanly reserve tha-. was so incompatible with any vulgar vanity or girlish coquetry that he became the more embarrassed. Her dress, too, of a slightly antique shape, rich but simple, seemed to reveal and accent a certain repose of gentlewomanliness that he was now willing to believe he had always noticed. Conscious of a superiority in her that seemed to change their relations completely, he alone remained silent, awkward, and embarrassed before the girl 'who had taken care of his room, and who cooked in the galley ! What he had thoughtlessly considered a merely vulgar business intrigue against her stupid father now fc6 his extravagant fancy assumed the proportions of a sacrilege to herself. " You've nad your revenge, Miss Nott, for the fright -I once gave you," he said, a little uneasily, " for you quite startled me just now as you passed. I began to think the Pontiac was haunted. I thought you were a ghost. I don't know why such a ghost should frighten anybody," he went on with a desperate attempt to recover his position by gallantry. " Let use see — that's Donna Elvira's dress, is it not ?" " I don't think that was the poor woman's name," said Rosey, simply; "she died of yellow fever at New Orleans as Signora somebody." Her ignorance seemed to Mr Renshaw so plainly to partake more of the nun than the provincial that he hesitated to explain to her that he meant the heroine of an opera. "it seems dreadful to put on the poor thing's clothes, dcn't it ?" Bbc added. Mr Renshaw's eyes showed so plainly that he thought otherwise that she drew a little austerely towards the door of her stateroom. " I must change these things before anyone comes," she said, drily. " That means I must go, I suppose. But couldn't you let me wait here or in the gang- j way until then, Miss Nott ? I am going away to night, and I mayn't seeyou again." He had not intended to say this, but it slipped from his embarrassed tongue. She Btopped, with her bands on the door. "You are going away?" "I— think— l must leave to-night. I have some important business in Sacramento." She raised her frank eyes to his. The un- - mistakable look of disappointment that he saw in them gave his heart a sudden throb, and sent the quick blood to his cheeks. "It's too bad," she said, abstractedly. " Nobody ever seems to stay here long. Capt. Bower promised to tell me all about the ship, and he went away the second week. The photographer left before he finished the picture of the Pontiac Monsieur de Ferrieres has only just gone, and now you are going." " Perhaps, unlike them, I have finished mv season of usefulness here," he replied, with a bitterness he would have recalled the next moment. But Rosey with a faint sigh, saying, " I wont be long here," entered the stateroom and closed the door behind her. Renshaw bit his lip, and pulled at the long silken threads of his moustache until they smarted. Why had he not gone at once? Why was it necessary to say he might not see her again? and if he had Baid it, why should he add anything more ? Whatever was he waiting for now? To endeavour to prove to her that he really bore no resemblance to Capt. Bower, the photographer, the crazy Frenchman De Ferrieres ? Or merely for something to say, would he be forced to tell her that he was running away from a conspiracy to defraud her father ? Was there ever Buch a folly ? Rosey was " not long," as she had Baid, but he was beginning to pace the narrow cabin impatiently when the door opened and she returned. She had resumed her ordinary calico gown, but such was the impression left upon Renshaw's fancy that she seemed to wear it with a new grace. At any other time he might have recognised the change as due to a new corset, which Btrict veracity compels me to record Rosey had adopted for the first time that morning. Howbeit, her slight coquetry seemed to have passed, for she closed the open trunk with a return of her old listless air, and, sitting on it, rested her elbows on her knees and her oval chin in her hands. " I wish you would do me a iavour," she said, after a reflective pause. " Let me know what it i% and it shall be done,"' said Renshaw, quickly. " If you should come across Monsieur de Ferrieres, or hear of him, I wish you would let me know. He was very poorly when he left here, and I should like to know if he is better. He didn't say where he was going ; at least, he didn't tell father j but I fancy he and father don't agree." " I shall be very glad of having even that opportunity of making ycu remember me, Mise Nott," returned Renshaw with a faint smile; "I don't suppose, either, that it would be very difficult to get news of your friend ; everybody seems to know him." "But not as I did," eaid Rosey, with an abstracted little sigh. i Mr Renshaw opened his brown eyes upon her. Was he mistaken ? Was this romantic girl only a little coquette playing her provincial airs on him? "He and your father didn't agree : that means, I Buppose, that you and he agreed ; and that was the result." "I don't think father knew anything about it," said Rosey simply.

Mr Renshaw rose. And this was what he had been waiting to hear ! " Perhaps," he said grimly, "you would also like news of the photographer and Captain Bower, or did your father agree with them better V " No," said Rosey quietly. She remained silent for a moment, and, lifting her lashes, | said : " Father always seemed to agree withyow, and that — »" She hesitated. •* That's why you don't." ! "I didn't say that/ said Rosey, with an incongruous increase of coldness and colour. "I only meant to cay it was that which makes it seem so hard you should go now." Notwithstanding his previous determination, Renshaw found himself sitting down again. Confused and pleased, wishing he had said more, or less, he said nothing, and Rosey was forced to continue. "It's strange, isn't it? but father was urging me this morning to make a visit to some friends at the old ranch. I didn't want to go. I like it much better here." " But you cannot bury yourself here for ever, Miss Nott," said Renshaw with a sudden burst of honest enthusiasm. 1 Sooner or later you will be forced to go where you will be properly appreciated, you will be admired and courted, where your slightest wish will be law. Believe me, without flattery, you don't know your own power." "It don't seem strong enough to keep even the little I like here," said Rosey with a slight glistening of the eyes. " But," she added hastily, " you don't know how much the dear old ship is to me. It's the only home I think I ever had." 11 But the ranch ?" said Renshaw. "The ranch seemed to be only the old waggon halted in the road. It was a very little improvement on outdoors," said Rosey with a little shiver. "But this is 90 cosy and snug, and yet so strange and foreign. Do you know, I think I began to understand why I like it so since you taught me so much about ships and voyages. Before that I only learned from books. Books deceive you, I think, more than people do. Don't you think so ?" She evidently did not notice the quick flush that covered his cheeks and apparently dazzled his eyelids, for she went on confidentially, "I was thinking of you yesterday. I was sitting by the galley door, looking forward. You remember the first day I saw you when you startled me by coming up out of the hatch ?" I "I wish you wouldn't think of that," said Renshaw, with more earnestness than he would have made apparent. " I don't want to either," said Rosey, gravely, " for I've had a strange fancy about it. I saw once, when I was younger, a picture in a print shop in Montgomerystreet that haunted me. I think it was called "The Pirate." There was a number of wicked-looking sailors lying around the deck, and coming out of a hatch was one figure with his hands on the deck and a cutlass in his mouth." "Thank you," said Renshaw. " VTou don't understand. He was horridlooking, not at all like you. I never thought of him when I first saw you, but the other day I thought how dreadful it would have been if some one like hi m and not like you had come up then. That made me nervous sometimes of being alone. I think father is too. He often goes about stealthily at night, as if he was watching for something." Renshaw's face grew suddenly dark. Could it be possible that Sleight had always suspected him, and set spies to watch ? or was he guilty of some terrible intrigue ? "He thinks," continued Roaey with a faint smile, "that someone is looking around the ship, and talks of setting bear traps. I hope you're not mad, Mr Renshaw," she added, suddenly catching sight of his changed expression, "atmy foolishness in saying you reminded me of The Pirate.' I meant nothing." " I know you're incapable of meaning anything but good to anybody, Miss Nott. perhaps to me more than I deserve," said Renshaw with a sudden burst of feeling. I wish —I wibh — you would do me a favour. You asked me one just now." He had taken her hand. It seemed so like a mere illustration of his earnestness that she did not withdraw it. " Your father tells you everything. If he has any offer to dispose of the ship, will you write to me at once before anything is concluded ?" He winced a little — the sentence of Sleight, " What's the figure you and she have settled upon ?" flashed across his mind. He scarcely noticed that Rosey had withdrawn her hand coldly. "Perhaps you had better speak to father as it is his business. Besides, l shall not be here ; I shall be at the ranch. " " But you said you didn't want to go." "I've changed my mind," said Rosey, listlessly. " I shall go to-night." She rose as if to indicate that the interview was ended. With an overpowering instinct that his whole future happiness depended on his next act, he made a step toward her with eager outstretched hands. But she slightly lifted her own with a warning gesture. " I hear father coming ; you will have a chance to talk btisiness with j him," she said, and vanished into her stateroom.