CHAPTER VI.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 335, 19 January 1889, Page 4

CHAPTER VI.

KEYNARD BEVERN PRAYS. Lady Blanche was aroused just as the day was breaking by a loud knocking upon her door, and at the same time her maid, Beitha, camo in from her little room adjoining. The latter, with a mantle thrown over her shoulders, answered the summons, finding Duff Murtagh in a state of wild excitement outside the door. The word was quickly spokon : The baron was dead ! Blancho was not wholly unprepared. The last words the doctor had spoken in her hearing had led her to expect the event at any moment. Yet she was deeply grieved. Oh ! if she could have known — if hhe could have foreseen — that the end would come so soon, nothing should have dragged her from her father's side. But she did not stop to speak her vain regrets. She dressed as quickly as possible, and followed Duff to the chamber of death. \Vithout fear or dread, but with a groat aching of the heart, she lifted the sheet from the still, whito face, and ga^ed upon it. It was culm and placid : the features fiee from all mark of pain ; and she fancied slio could detect a &»nile around the closed lips. Sho noticed that Duff had seemed the lower jaw, and closed the sightless eyes, and in her heart sho blessed him for his thoughtfulncss. When she had gazed upon the loved face until every lineament was fixed in her mind, she turned toward tho watcher, and asked him to tell her how her father had died. Could he not have called her ? ' O ! Duff! if it had been only one poor minute, it would have gi\ en mo great satisfaction.' 1 Bless you, dear lady !' tho man exclaimed, v> ith a depth of fervour that gave t>o his heaier entire faith in his honesty, ' 1 didn't have a minute's warning for myself, nor the tenth, nor the hundredth part of a minute. He had asked me for wine. His voice was a little more husky than before, but I didn't think it meant anything. I gave him the wine, and took a few drops myself ; and by the time I had put away the bottle, and fixed his pillows all nice and comfortablo, he was asleep again. And that was the last. Once after that he sort of gurgled, and struggled a bit i for breath ; and before I could get to him to help him he was quiet, and sleeping as peacefully as ever. When he died, I don't know. I ,only know that after a time I looked, and saw his jaw had | fallen. Then I lifted his head, and did what I could, but it was no use. He had fallen into the sleep that knows no earthly waking.' Duff was really poetic, as well as pathetic. Blanche was upon the point of speaking further upon the death, when she noticed, — or, for the first time thought of it — the absence of the doctor ; and with manifest surprise she asked why he had not been called. Dufl was explaining the cause of tho physician's non-appearance, and was well on in the story, when a heavy, hurried footfall sounded upon their ears, and on turning they saw the man himself- -Dr. Griffith — who came up puffing almost painfully. Something had impressed him with tho belief that bis patient of the castle was beyond his help, and he had hurried with all his might.* He shook hands with Blanche, silently, and then sank into a chair, and regained his lost breath. ** Grief for her father's death could not drive out from the heaiD of the gentlo maiden sympathy and anxiety for others who might be in trouble ; and perhaps there was something more than sympathy that aroused her interest at the present moment. Duff had told her that the patient at the inn was a young man, and a gentleman. As soon as Griffith had gained his seat, and before he could speak with the watcher, she had crept close to him, with both her hands on his shoulders, her eyes looking straight into his, and asked him of the wounded man at the White Stag. ' Quiet your poor little heart, my blessed child !' he said to her, with his soul in his homely, quiet face. 'It is not he whom you expect. You remember the youth who came here with the Laird of Inchard two or three years ago ?' 'You mean Kenneth! Ay, I remember him well. Was it he ?' ' Yes ; but be under no apprehension. I mean that you shall see him, well and strong, befoie he goes away from Ravendale. And, Blanche, when I tell you that my arrival at the opportune moment in all probability saved my life you will not blame me for leaving my post here.' She thanked him instead of blaming, and after one or two que&tions, she suffered him to turn to the serving-ruan, and interrogate as he pleaded. So Duff was obliged to tell bis story over again. However, having told it once, he prepared ; and nothing could be more free and flowing, more fiank and apparently straightforward, or more earnest and seemingly honest, than was the account by him now given. The doctor watched him narrowly. He knew the man was lying. There was an incongruity in the general parts of the story not to be ovet looked by the practical physician. One or two of the condition* he so glibly and confidently described were simply impossible in such a case. But the kind-hearted old man did not think it was worth while to brfng him to account. The worst he thought was, that the watcher had fallen asleep, and that the baron had given up the ghost while ho had been thus off duty. ( My dear child,' fie eaid, turning to Blanche, after he had gained all the information which Duff had to give, ' you have no cause for regret. Ilad I been present I could have done nothing. I might have called you, that is all.' Duff was eager to expostulate, but the old man stopped him in his full career. ! ' Hush !' he said, putting out his hand and giving the henchman a look that caused him to cringe. ' I might have seen and recognised symptoms which seem to have escaped your notice.' The watcher said no more. ] After this Blanche bent for a time over I the dead face, and thon suffered the doctor to lead her away, he promising her that he would himself see the body "properly prepared for sepulture. An hour later the old attorney, Mr Kirkland, arrived at the castle, and having' spent a short time in the chamber of death, where a few of the older servants, under direction of the doctor, were preparing the mortal remains of the late baron for the shroud, he sought Blanche, whom he found in her own apartment. ' Of course,' he said, when he had spoken a few words of such con^forb aa he had to offer, at the same time taking a seat, * the keys of the cabinet have nob been out of your possession since you took them from my hand last night ?' 'No, my good sir. They are whore I placed them when I first entered my chamber.' From a small scrip or pouch attached to her girdle she took a single koy, and with it unlocked a small drawer of her bureau, wherein the keys in question safely lay as she had deposited them.

' They have nob been touched, sir, since I pub them away, and they wero certainly nob ont of ray possession before that,' she said, as ahe gave them into his hand. 4 1 have thought,' he replied, as he took them, ' that they had better remain with me until after the funeral. lam in custody ot your father's affairs, and must remain so until his will shall havo been executed.' Blanche gave them up more than willingly. She had felt a great satisfaction in the thought of being relieved of tlio caro and responsibility. In fact, she legarded herself as one too directly and deeply interested in the confconts of the cabinet to be custodian of its keys. ' Mr Kirkland,' she said, after a lengthy pause, during- which her thoughts were evidently far from pleasant, ' what do you think Reynard will do when he learns what has been dono ?' , ' What can ho do ?' returned the lawyer, feeling nono of the other trouble. ' Doctor Griffith and myself aro tho oxocutors of tho will ; and,' ho added, noticing tho shadow on her beautiful face, ' do you borrow no trouble. What ho has to say, he must say to \is. You havo had nothing whatever to do with tho matter, and he can in no wiso blamo you, or find fault with you.' •But ho will be very wroth,' said tho deeply anxious girl, trembling with apprehension. ' You know what he is — how ter riblo is his passion, and how rovongeiuh 1 wish — O ! 1 wish, almost, that I might never see him again !' ' I say amcu to that with all my heart !' the lawyer quickly responded, 'But, 1 added Blancho, with a show of compunction, 'I wish him no harm.' ' Nor do I wish him harm,' the old man nodded, with a giitn smilo : 'but I would certainly givo a good deal if ho ,weio lying in yonder chamber in your father's place.* ' God knows whether or no he deservos it,' the orphan echoed, solomnly. ' He does deserve it. — ho deserves ib most righteously !' asserted Kirkland, with a look stern and severe. A littlo pause, and ho went on : ' Dear Blanche, 1 see how thoughts of that man trouble you, bub, really, you have no occasion for alarm. Monger, it cannot bo a great while boforc your truo friend and protector will appear j upon tho scene. Remomber, he is, or will be, master of the castlo as soon as the will phall havo been read ; and wo know that he will come well supported. 1 believo that he is to bring a full battalion of picked men with him. lam very glad. [ have strong hopes that tho gallant young colonel will relieve our region of the curse that so ' long and so hoavily amictod it. Ay — have you heard ? Another outrage was committed during tho night just passed. A most worthy young man—' At this point Blanche interrupted him, informing him that tho doctor had told her all about it. ifcgd she thanked him for the comfort and courage he had given her in speaking as ho had of Malcolm MacGregoi'. ' I will bo as brave as I can,' she added, smiling. 'If Malcolm is pie3ent at the funeral, and afc the reading of fchc will, l shall look to him for support. I do not think Reynard would dare to harm him in a public place.' ' Pshaw ! Do not, I pray you, allow 9uch thoughts to run in your busy brain. Reynarrt Bevern is not the man to do a thing of that kind openly and boldly. That which our dear boy must guard against — and I shall bell him so — is a secret attack — an attack from behind, and in the dark.' After a little further conversation on matters of business, and a few words of instruction for the guidance of the young mistress, the lawyer departed, promising that he would look in again before the day was passed. Shortly before noon Blanche was called by Doctor Griffith to come and see if she could suggest anything further touching the preparation of the body for the coffin. She went with him cheerfully, feeling that it was a labour of love .she was performing. She found the mortal tenement looking very life - like. It had been clothed in tho rich baronial robes, with the emblazoned baldric over his shoulder, and the ciosp of the order of St. John of Jerusalem on his breast. She had reached out her hand to move the cross, as it appeared to be a little out of place, when tho sound of an approaching fooUtep, and at the same moment a slight exclamation from the doctor, caused her to lift her head and looked around ; and as she did so, she met the gaze of Ite3'uard Bevern ! (To he continued. )