CHAPTER XC.
" Tin: SAFE, SWKKT MORNING BREAKS ON T LAND AND SEA," Pkoi'i,k began to ask what had become of the young Countess of Leigh, and when would she reappear in society. They buid : " Slio lias been two full years, a widow. Is she going to bury herself at Leigh for ever? She is only about twenty-three years old, and was one of the most attractive, fascinating little creatures ever introduced. Will .she not come back next season ?" And it is quite true that fortune-hunters and others not so. mercenary, but yet with au eye to nuances, began to estimate tho riches of the Ainslie hehess, and the value of her title as Countess of Leigh. But Violet was not unhappy in her secluded life. Leigh Towers wiis one of .the most beautiful places in England, and under Violet's administration it was a very cheerful home. The tenants were pleased and loyal ; the servants devoted ; the rooms were sunny, full of air,, and light, and flowers ; the gardens were wonders of bloom. All Violet's plans had prospered ; no stigma rested on her dead husband's name ; undo* the management of Lord Alwold, and the btewaicl, Mr Stovma, and the countess herself r and relieved from the terrible strain of a spendthrift and gambler,, tho Leigh finances showed signs of recovery. Life at the Towers sped happily, if quietLy^ Pleasant friends went and came. The little earl was quite a wonder of beauty and brightness. And now two full years had passed since the day when nearly aIL the country followed the funeral train of Lord Leigh. " Violet, my dear," said Lady Burton,, on, a bright.late Septembei morning, "I with, you would do me a favour." "With all my heart. What is it?" said the counteas. " Lay by this mourning garb and resume other dreos. You have worn tliis long enough. Let little Rupert remember his mother as bright and youngs, aaid not always in this sombre guise." It was a year since Violet had used her crape and bombazine, but still her wardrobe boasted only black, or, at brightness, lavender, and she wore lier cap. She did not make any remonstrances in favour of " wearing, black always." She- knew thai that might do where the heart mourns as tho black suggests. She only said : " Why, Lady Burton, if I lay aside these things, what have I to wear ?" " Kate and I have been in a little plot," said Lady Burton, as Kate opened a wardrobe door. " See we have prepared several toilets for you." Violet could not help locking with some longing at the costumes,, as Kate laid them on the^ bed and chairs.. She had always liked bright, pretty things, and she was still young, and her cheerful, arch spirits had been rising again in the free, safe, happy life of past months. " Let me make you pretty for breakfast," said Kate, as it was yet early, and Violet was sitting by her dressing-table, and Kate was arranging the lovely brown hair. So Kate put away the cap and did the brown hair in the old-time pretty rings and general fluffiness, and dressed Violet in a white pique, trimmed with quaint Irish *point and beautified with knots of cream-coloured ribbon. Then she put at her neck a great cluster of purple and golden pansies. "I declare!" cried Lady Burton, "you look your old self, without a day's change One might fancy that the last six years had, turned backward, and you were little Miss Ainslie, not yet introduced " But then a child's voice rang shrill and clear from the terrace, where Kupert was playing with his faithful Jenny. 44 No, never that," said Violet, looking at her Mend, in her witching way, between I smiles and tears. " For it is better as it is, What would 1, what would the world do. without Rupert ?" Then they went down to breakfast, and Rupert, who had feasted on porridge and milk, two hours before, put his. sunny head into the room, and shouted with admiration of his " pretty mamma." After breakfast Lady Burton said : 44 Violet, I wish I had some wild-cardinal flowers to paint for this velvet screen 1 am making for Edna's birthday. Da you remember where they grow, just in the hollow near the spring, that they call the Maid's Bower ?" " Oh, yes, and they arc abundant there now." "Would you not go and get me some? I think the walk will be good for you. You have been sitting over your accounts, like a clerk, these two days." So Violet took a littlo basket, and a pair of scissors, and put on a quaint^ childish scoop bonnet, made of Irish point over cream silk, from under which her lovely, round, dimpled, rosy face looked out in the most bewitching way imaginable, and away she wont to the Maid's Bower. But when she had filled her basket, she stood suddenly still, and went into a dream, —for the slumberous beauty of the warm golden day brought back the idyl of her ife-the woods in Lincolnshire where Kenneth and she had wandered hand iv hand. She had been having letters, for a year, from Kenneth— nice, friendly letters, about his travels and his ward, but with no word of coming homo. She sighed. There were times when her loving, clinging heart longed after Kenneth, as, the one. great comfort in all the w«t&4
"Violet!" The voice made her start and drop the basket, and tremble like a frighted fawn. . And there was Konneth ! Bronzed some with foreign suns, and with his whiskers rather fuller, but still her own Saxon Kenneth with the smiling blue eyes, and th« winning smile, the strong and loyal heart. And she held out her hands to him, with a cry of : "Kenneth ! Oh, Kenneth P He clasped her in his arms. His Violet, his only, his for ever ! Thoy sat down under a beach tree ; and j now at last he could tell her how he had : passionately loved her all those long, long years ; and now she could listen to that outpouring of his love. The long and terrible bitterness of her ■ heart was tied away, like a dark and hideous dream of night, when safe, sweet morning breaks over land and sea. Her heart had found its true shelter, and she rested in sweet content within the circle of his arm. Suddenly she smiled in his face. " Kenneth ! I know you had planned this ' with your mother !" , And so. Violet roturned to London the next season, and was again presented at court, but now as Lady Keith. And all that Lonion season Violet Keith shone as a bright, particular »tar in London life, and for another season thereafter. But not nearly so much was she noted for her fair face and charming manner, her immense wealth and exquisite taste, as for her lovoly sympathy* her wide generosity, her noble rectitude,for all that makes a woman admirable,, as mother, wife, and friend. One evening, in the House of Peers, a door opened, not far behind the famous woolsack, whereon the Lord Chancellor sat in the biggest ot wigs, with an enoi mous hat laid at his right side. Through the door came a very beautiful boy of six, dressed in a suit ©f purple velvet, with full lace ruffles. The littte fellow stole softly along tc-the left side of the woolsack, and, •awed by the imposing presence of all his brother peers, and the bench of bishops in full lawn sleeves, he gave what he considered a very private and confidential grasp of his friend, the Lord Chancellor's arm. This was Rupert, Earl of Leigh, at his firpfc appeai'ance in the Upper House. His clutch of the Chancellor was seen with a quiet- saiile by his two guardians, Lord Keith and the Marquis of Alwold, in the body of the House, and by two very beautiful peeresses in their gallery, Edna of Alwold, and Violet Keith. [the kxi>.]
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Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 205, 28 May 1887, Page 6 (Supplement)
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1,334CHAPTER XC. Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 205, 28 May 1887, Page 6 (Supplement)
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