CHAPTER XXXVII. AN IMPORTANT DOCUMENT.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 363, 27 April 1889, Page 5

CHAPTER XXXVII. AN IMPORTANT DOCUMENT.

With duly Station on a market-day presented a somewhat incongruous aspect. Well-to-do farmers, with jolly, round, red faces and capacious waistcoatp, buttonholed each other in corners whilst awaiting the arrival of their different trains, and discoursed volubly on the price of fat stock, the fluctuations in cereals, and the disastrous future of agriculturists in general. Rotund butchers, sallow tradesmen, sleek horsedealera, gaunt labouringmen, mothers hushing fractious babies, and stout good-wives bearing flower-pots and baskets of weekly groceries, thronged the platform. Porters shouldering heavy bales bustled to and fro, whistles screamed, engines hissed, whilst Mr Blackley, the station-master, hoarse from repeated shouting, hurried backwards and forwards, driven almost to despair by the onerous lesponsibilities of his position." Outside the station stood a variety of nondescript vehicles, awaiting the arrival of the London express, due at 5 p.m. Squire Mornington 'strap, a high-wheeled dogcart, had pulled up under the shade of a big ash. Presently a low rumble was heard in the distance, and the next minute, Avith a roar like thunder, the train came dashing into the station. Bob Mornington was seated in a thirdclass carriage in one ot the rearmost compartments. He had expended all his available cash in the purchase of an engagement ring for Dulcie. In consequence of this piece of extravagance he had been forced to economise in sundry ways. Nevertheless, he felt excessively happy, and every now and again amused himself by producing the small brown case from his waistcoat pocket and examining the ring inside. • 1 shall become a regular miser at this rate,' he soliloquised with a smile, 'but every little saved will bring me so much nearer to Dulcie, and serve— bless her dear heart !— to give her one or two small extra comforts !' And then he fell to thinking of his love, and. wondering why it was she had nevar fulfilled her promise of writing. As he sat gazing abstractedly at the green fields and the dark hedgerows, the white sheep and lazy cattle, he ended by feeling almost angry with her. It was really too bad her not having written. Intent upon such thoughts, he jumped out on the platform, and a few minutes later was bowling along the road for home. Mrs Mornington stood beneath the porch, awaiting her son's arrival with a smile of welcome lighting up her pale, worn, kindly face. • Well, my boy ! so here you are at last,' she exclaimed, tenderly kissing his redbrown cheek. ' Yes, here I am. Are there any letters for me ?' For he thought and hoped that surely the one he had been expecting the whole week would be here to greet his arrival. ' I put thorn all upon the dressing-table in your room, so that you should see them at once, in case there were any of importance amongst the rest.' 'All right! I'll just run upstairs and have a look at them. Good-bye, mother, for the present;.'

So saying, Bob executed a hasty retreat, feeling positively certain he should find a letter from Dulcie awaiting him. He opened the door of his room, and rushing straight to tho dressing-table, took up his letters. They were- only five in number, and, with a quick, sharp sense of disappointment, he recognised that not one amongst them was in Dulcie's handwriting. 'By Jove!' he exclaimed, wrathfully, 'shan't she catch it, that's all !' But, a minute later, a consolatory reflection chased away the greater portion of his ill-humour. 'After all,' he said, giving utterance to his thoughts, ' we're going to meet in an hour or two's time, so perhaps she did not give me credit for being so impatient, but by Jingo ! shan't I just make the naughty little puss pay me out in kisses ! Dash it ! but I'll kiss her sweet lips until she is forced to cry peccavi for her" sins.' With which tranquillising conclusion he sat down, and carelessly proceeded to read his budget of news. A bill for cartridges, of two pounds twelve shillings and sixpence, from Tipkin? the ironmonger. Well, that demanded no immediate attention. The governor^ might have the pleasure of settling it after his departure. Another little memorandum of a similar nature reminding him of half-a-dozen new shirts dolivcred last Christmas. Next a note from an old chum, asking him to a shooting party in October. Then a printed circular from those thieving Jews, in which Mr Josiah Levi informed Mr Robert Mornington that he was ' prepared to make immediate advances upon notes of hand, also to arrange- loans upon entailed properties, reversions, and other securities, from four per cent, per annum,' and promising that the strictest confidence should be observed. Lastly — the only interesting-looking document of the whole lot— came a small, deh-cately-s,cented note, addre&sed in a fine feminine handwriting, not wholly unfamiliar. He opened it with mild curiosity ; but he had not road more than the two tir&t lines before his brows grew suddenly set and rigid, while his sun - burnt face turned ghastly pale. What, in Heaven's name, could be the meaning of this ? Settling himself anew in the arm-chair, he began again, and read the following : ' Dear Bob,— You will perhaps feel surprised at my writing, but Dulcie has informed me of two recent events. Firstly, ot her engagement to you, and secondly, of her refusal of Mr Denver's oiler. Kow, since both these occurrences took place, circumstances have arisen which have induced Dulcie to recognise the folly of her conduct,) and the litter impossibility ' (underlined) 'of ever becoming your wife. 1 teel convinced your own common sense must tell you that any idea of marrying on four hundred a year, which income is entirely dependent on your capacity for work and state ot health, is quite out ot the question, I therefore trust you will not. bear the poor child any malice, nor seek to take advantage of her youth and ignorance. Wo shall be very glad to see you as an old friend of the family, and to wish you good bye, provided you promise to place such control over your feelings as may not lead to any painful or unpleasant scenes. They can do no good, and are tar better avoided on either side, as Dulcie herself feels. We all join, my dear Bob, m hoping ihat this American expedition may turn out satisfactory financially, and that in course of time you will return to Mornington with a large fortune and a lovely Trans- , atlantic bride. In the meantime, with our united best wishes, behove me, yours aflectionately, 'Annie Linley Siiepperton. ' P.S.— Rather than that you should hear of it through an absolute stranger, I prefer to inform you myself that Dulcie had consented to become JMr Denver's wife. As a gentleman, I trust you will acquiesce in these altered arrangements, and not attempt in any \\ ay to disturb them.' When he ended this epistle, Bob sat perfectly still, like one suddenly paralysed. At first he scarcely realised its full purport, but by degrees Mrs Shepperton's meaning dawned upon his startled senses, and then, in a lib of ungovernable passion, he seized the pink sheets in his strong right hand and crumpled them up aa in a vice.