CHAPTER I.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 348, 6 March 1889, Page 3

CHAPTER I.

MOllinil AND UArGHTERS. - was a sweltering summer's day. The sun shone fiercely in the blue heavens with a pitiless briliiane} 7 , while not even the most transparent of citrus clouds offered a tempoiary scieen to its aident rays. They turned the discoloured stone walls' pointed gables, and mullioned windows of Milnacot Lodge into a brilliant yellow. The house was of medium .size, unpretending, but comfortable, in appearance, with an old-fashioned w ooden verandah on either side of the porch, up which crept a wealth of yellow roses and bright broadleaved nasturtiums. In the far distant long stretches of gently undulating fields, ripe and full-eared wheat and feathery barley, illuminated the landscape like one ■vast golden sheet, until, blending with the rai^ty outlines of the horizon, they became lost to vision. On the lett ro^a a thickly-wooded hill of young spruce and tender larch, interspersed here and there with stately oaks and elms, among which the window panes in the white towers of Brabazon Hall catching the reflex of the setting sun, sparkled and flashed like gleaming jewels set in a diadem of emerald foliage. Close to the base of this hill, bordered by a fringe of dark, short-stumped, many-branching willows, whose delicate tracery could be seen irom afar, and by moistuie - loving alders, rippled — how in soothing monotony of cadence, anon with refreshing, boistereus sounds as in coursed through the narrows, splashed over the grey stones, and descended in tiny ioaming rivulets into the mill pools beneath — a slender thread of silveiy water, which, with many a devious curve, forced its onward course through the verdant bucter-and-daisy-starred meadows hemming it on either side. From the moss grown dripping banks grew delicate ferns and slender rushes, borne down by the weight of their great brown-tufted heads, whilst tail red soriel, long pointed-leaved iris, and blue forget-me-not, intermingled in sweet confusion. Gossamer-winged dragon-flies skimmed the surface of the stream, gnats danced and paused and flew about in perpetual zig-zag motion ; grasshoppers chirped, jumped, then chirped and jumped again ; and ever and anon, like a Hash of prismatic light, the sea-blue kingfisher stole swiftly out from his peaceful and secluded home. Only the low ripple oi the water, the bu/z of honey-gathering bees, and the steady hum of infinitesimal insect lite, broke the surrounding stillness, with a sweet, monotonous murmur calculated to steep human senses in drowsiness and sleep. Mrs Shepperton and her three elde-.t daughters — Charlotte, Ethel, and Marian — were seated in loa', wicker chairs, under a magnificent cedar-tree, which threw a grateful shadow on the bare, spine carpeted gra«s at its base. Mrs Shepperton held in her hand a ] gorgeous piece of fancy needlework, repre- | sent-.inpr a bewitching shepherdess whoso j graceful image grew and giew with each ! stitch introduced ; but after a while the j plump white, jewelled fingers gradually re- ■ laved their grasp ; the fair head, with its burden of caiefully arranged grizzled curls, surmounted by a many coloured and beribboned cap — commenced to nod, first gently, then with spasmodic jerks ot a breakneck and alarming nature. The pi'ominent light-blue, expressionless eye 3 began to close ; the irresolute, yet obstinate, mouth to open ; the somewhat heavy jaw to drop, with that fatuous and imbecile look so frequently noticeable in moments of surreptitious somnolency ; while the nose — that straight-cut, aquiline feature, in her youth considered Mrs Shepperton's principal source of beauty — gave forth certain mysterious and inutiled sounds indelibly connected in the popular mind with the vulgar term of snoring. There was no denying the fact that Mrs Shepperton, temporarily oblivious of the heat, the sun, and the manifold cares of this world, was sleeping the peaceful and untroubled ' sleep of the just.' She was a smooth, plump, middle-aged woman, nearer fifty than forty, yet bearing her years with a jaunty semblance of juvenility well calculated at first >ight to deceive the superficial observer. As Mrs Shepperton snoozes placidly under the wide-spreading cedar-tree, breathing stertorously, yet peaceably, and the light flickers on her tranquil countenance, let us pause to examine it more critically. Does not that hectic complexion, untouched by art, in which the roses have so decidedly asseited their supremacy over the lilies, tell of a variable temper and uncertain disposition ? The small, dimpled, characterless chin, lying comfortably on its little layer of fatty throat, testifies to a large amount ot easy self-indulgence, and an appreciation of those purely mateiial comforts named the pleasures of the table The mouth is small and thin-lipped, speaking of cunning and secrecy ; while the narrow, low- browed forehead portends a want of intellectual power, or any real sympathy with the higher aims of life. As she lies there, with drooping head and heaving chest, Mr.s Shepperton looks what she is, a comfortable, small-minded, and essentially commonplace woman, unharrassed by the slightest touch of that breadth of thought or inquiring gropings into unfathomable mysteries which fill more philosophical, but possibly less contented, minds with bewilderment — a human machine, content to eat, drink, and perform the everyday actions of everyday life in a monotonous, hum-drum fashion ; possessing no aspirations beyond an intense desire to marry off, as early as possible, one or all of her four daughters. In fact, the wish that they .should settle in homes of their own had become — as is the case with many mothers — a perfect monomania. Indeed, Mrs Shepperton had grown to consider there were only two things in this world worth living for, money aud rank ; and, enormous as was her veneration for the latter, on the whole she preferred the former as being more tangible, and more satisfactory in its results. Since her husband's death, possessing a moderate, though by no means a large, income, she had contrived to live pleasantly enough, devoting herself to the bringing up of her four daughters, Charlotte, Ethel, Marian, and Dulcibel, and initiating them duly by means of sharp- voiced governessos, blackboards, and ruler?, into those useful and ornamental accomplishments without

which no young lady is considered filtiig to enter the charmed arena of polite society and 4 come out.' The three elders already enjoyed that privilege and distinction ; but Dulcibcl, the youngest — iamiliarly called Dulcie — still struggled daily with a voluble foreigner, thumping spitefully every morning on the piano for a couple of hours with a vicious energy worthy an animate rather than an inanimate foe, whose strings wero given to cracking, and the keys to creaking, in piteous remonstrance ; while Mademoiselle stood behind indignantly eloquent, and rapped the culprit's knuckles with a cedarwood pencil until they assumed an unnaturally scarlet hue. The blisses Shepperton, owing to their good looks, were in great request ; consequently during the last few year.s their mother had gradually crept into society, and formed the acquaintance of the principal county families. She was on those pleasant tarms when, if any large enteitainment weie given, she knew for certain she and her girls would not be left cut, and a card of invitation from Lady So-and-so which she could stick upon her diawing-room mantelpiece for months after the festival itself was over, to send a thrill of gratilied pleasure tluough her frame e\ cry lime she looked at it. • How dreadful mamma does snore, to be pure !' remarked tho oldest Miss Shepperton, contemptuously, shi ugping her shapely shoulders with an ineffable gesture of scornful pity, and casting an ii reverent glance on her maternal parent's slumbeiing form. ' It's a mercy there's nobody here, else I should feel positively ashamed of her making such an e\hib<tion of herself.' 'It reminds one of an old giampus,' re tinned Ethel, llippantly. She was the benuty ot the family, and as such commanded a cettaiu attention whenever she deigned to make a lemaik about domestic mnttei s. After gi\ ing vent to the abo\e opinion, she primed her long neck like a swan, and admiringly contemplated the point of one tiny loot that happened to be protruding. ' Yes,' assented Charlotte, indignantly, seeming to regard her mother's innocent nap as a personal insulfe, * I call it simply disgusting, people going to sleep in this barefaced way, and if they can't do so without giving \ cut to such diabolical noises — for that's the only teim one can apply to them - why, they ought not to go to sleep at all — at least in i.iy opinion.' And Charlotte uttered the concluding words with an air which seemed to imply that Ac; 1 opinion, whatever it might be, was absolutely indisputable. 'Not in public, you mean, I suppose, Lottie?' corrected Maiian, mildly. 'Surely people are permitted to do as they like in the bosom of their own family ?' 'And why, pray, may I ask, should the family bosom be deemed a sufficient excuse for every irregulaiity oi conduct?' letorted Charlotte, with considerable asperity. ' Nine people out of ten stem to labour under the disagieeable delusion that anything will do for their own folks. It's the gieate&t mistake in the world. Now, if our Lord Bishop were heie to-day, with his beautiful thovel-hat and immaculate silken hose, or even the Rural Dean, :lo you mean to tell me that our worthy mother would curl luuself up in an arm chair, nod hei head aftei the fashion of a Chinese mandarin, and snere — ' piusing in search of a suitable and sulticicnty foicible metaphor — 'snoie li'-cc a megatheiium? No, not she!' And Charlotte looked around with a tiiumphant glance, trying to catch from the expression of her sisters' countenances what cPect that formidable and learned woid had produced upon their comparatively uncultured minds. It was not without iuS result, for Ethel and Marian, not possessing Chailotte's iuquhing disposition, had ne\er even heaid of the exfnet edentata lcfeued to, and, feeling proportionately impiessed by the pin funditv of Chailotte'fe acquiiements, wisely took refuge in silence, as a means of shielding their lamentable ignoiance. 'I suppose you two ninnies never knew that such a creature existed e\enV' continued theelder MissShepperton, loftily, delighted ab the achantage thus obtained. • You,' addressing herselt more particulaily to Ethel, 'you and Marian have no soul for the treasures of prehi&toiic antiquity, or for the revelations of the paleolithic and the glacial period I ?.' 'No, thank gooJnc-s !' replied Ethel, with provoking composure. 'We prefer the present, and find it quite a sufficiently in teiesling story. By-llie-by, did you that the — thing — ' she dared not pionounce if& name — ' snored like mamma?' But her remarks were here brought to an abrupt conclusion, for Mrs Shepperton — thanks, partly, to that extraordinary prescience which seems to confer most unaccountable and inconvenient powers of di\ination upon the apparently sound somnolent, and pait'y to the exaspeiating prefeience of a busy bluebottle that insisted on cii cling round and round the bridge of her loseate but susceptible nose — woke up at this juncture with a start, nibbed her eyes with her fat knuckles a few times, ju'-t to lecall her wandering senses, and ex- " claimed sharply.' ' Eh ! What ! Snore ? Pray who &ays that I snore ?' There was a slight pause, each looking to the other to answer the question ; but Charlotte,*, •who, whate\er her faults, possessed at least the courage of her opinions, broke it by replying, • I do, mamma. I cay that you snore hoiribly, and I really wish you wouldn't.' ' Nonsense, child ! I do no such thing. I wouldn't snoie lor vsoilds.' 'Humph! It's apietty good imitation of it, then,' muttered Ethel, >occ. ' Now and again, when I tall asleep,' protested Mrs Shepperton earnestly, 'I admit that at rare intervals the free passage of air through my nasal organs becomes temporal ily impeded, but that is a mere trifle not worth mentioning.' ' Please don't apologise, mamma,' reI turned Ethel, saucily. ' It's quite unnecessary ; besides which, I never yet met anybody in my life who confessed to the infirmity. It's a strange but universal peculiarity of the human species.' • Dear, dear !' exclaimed Mrs Shepperton, in an impatient and irascible tone ot voice, for she felt keenly that her daughters were nob treating her Avith that respect which she, as their mother, had a light to expect. ' What a fuss about nothing ! I'm sure, with the thermometer standing at close upon eighty degiees in the shade, and with a sun outside sufficient to roast an ox. there is some excuse for a woman ab my time of life indulging in a little afternoon siesta.' Whereupon Mrs Shepperton sat bolt upright, and began stitching away ab the shepherdess with renewed vigour, conscious that, however sturdy her denial, she had in a measure laid herself open to Chailotte's charge.