CHAPTER X.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 416, 2 November 1889, Page 5

CHAPTER X.

JSKKORK THK WKUDING. Majuueo on Now Year's Eve ! Married on New Year's Eve, Katherine ! Do I hear you aright? Is it possible you really mean this ?' Sir John Dangern'eld, seated in dressinggown and slippers before the study lire, laid down his 'Times' and blankly asked this question. His daughter stood behind Ins chair, keeping her lace steadily averted. ' Let me look at you, chil'l — come here. Let me see if this is my little Kathie who sang her doll to sleep yesterday, and who comes to me now and asks to be married on New Year's Dxy. Ah, you cannot — you do not mean it after all.' 1 Papa, I do,' Katherine cried, desperately, feeling again what a cruel thing it had been of Gaston to subject her to this ordeal ; ' at kast, I don't, but he — that is — oh, papa, I have explained already/ 4 You have repeated Mr Gaston Danlree's plausible protexts, of which I don't believe one word. He dared not face me again ; he ordered you to come to me and obtain my consent to your marriage on New Year's Eve. Coward ! craven coward !' ' Pap*\, don't. You misjudge him — ho is no coward — even you have no right to call him so. Oh, papa, how can you be so unkind to him, to me ? You were so harsh to him when he spoke to you before, and you knew that he would nob, could nob retort in kind. You wouldn't like it yourself — to sib still and be abused. You must not call Gaslon such hard names. Even from you I cannot bear it.' But in tho depths of her hoarb, even while she fought desperately for her absent lover, bhe felt ib bo be true. He was a coward. 1 Hear her,' the baronet said, wi^h suppressed intensity ; ' hear her take his part against me— this man whom she has not known two months. Well, well, it ia the reward the old always receive from the young.' Two white arms clasped his neck, two impetuous lipa stooped down and kissed him. ' Papa, darling, is it generous of you to say this? You know I love you deaily ; but, papa, I love him too; I can't help it ; I don't know why ; I only know I do with all my heaib." Ho looked at her tenderly— the hard bitterness of his mouth relaxing into a smile, half-sad, half-cynical. IMy little one,' he said, ' my little one, you don't know why. Shall I tell you ? A little for his dark eyes, a little for his silken hair, a little for his seductive voice and sugary words, and a gieat deal - oh, my romantic Kathie — for your own poetical imagination. If you saw Gaston Dan tree below the surface for an hour you would scorn him your life long. But you take this good-looking Lousianian at his own valuation, and invest him with a halo of nobility all your own, and set him up and worship him. My daughter, take care, take care. Your god will crumble to clay before your eyes ; and what is left then ? Believe me, little Kathie, there is more needed to make a Avife happy than long lashe3 and a musical voice.' Katherine looked up and met her father's eyes full for the first time, her lips compressed into a re&olute line. An hour ago she had seemed to him a wayward libble girl — he knew now, for the first time, he had a woman to deal with — a woman in love, and resolute to have her way. ' You treat me as though I were ten years old and asking a new plaything. Papa, I love Gaston, he wants me to be his wire, and I have promised. A promise given should be a promise kept. I will marry him, or go to my grave unmarried.' 'Then Hea\en help you ! My years on earth will nob be many — don't interrupt me, Katherine ; I know what I am saying — and when I am gone, and you are left to that man's mercy, I say again Heaven help you !' ' He has given you no earthly reason to say it !' Katherine exclaimed, ' and it is not like you to be co unjust. Ib is a shame, papa ! a shame ! You know nothing wrong of him — nothing. Even the grim, pitiless English law takes a prisonei in the dock to be innocent until he is proven guilty. You speak o f him as though he were a villain, double-dyed ! I repeat, ib is a shame to slander the absent in this wa}\ and a soldier who has fought for his country, as you have, ought to be the last to do it. Yon wrote to New Orleans to find out his character — did the answer justify such dark suspicions as these ?' I The answer left me as much in the dark as ever. Mr Dantree's characber in New Orleans is simply nil — no one knew anything much either to his credit or discredit. You defend your lover staunchly, Katherine I don't think the worse of you for ib, bub it won't do. Even you, my child, eloquent as you are, with all your special pleading, cannot make a hero of Gaston Dantree.' I 1 don't want bo make a hero of him ; ho suits me well enough as he is. As he is, with all his faults, whatever they may be, I am willing to take him — to hold him all my life ; and be very sure, whatever that life may prove, no one alive shall ever bear me complain of him.' • I believe you,' her father &aid, quietly ; ' you're nob a model young lady by any means, but you deserve a much better husband than Gaston Dantree. Child ! child ! you are hopelessly infatuated — 1 might as well talk to the trees waving yonder outside tho window as to a romantic girl in love. But think a moment— think how little you know of this man. Who is to prove he hasn't a w ife out yonder in the Southern States?' ' Papa !' But thero was a sharp, sudden pang in her voice as she übtered the indignant cry. 'Marie, De Lamac!' the name that had haunted her dream that morning, came back. 'Ah ! Kathie, flying into a passion will not p»ove his worth. I repeat, we know nothing of him — nothing but what he has chosen to tell or invent. Do you really believe, my poor Donna Quixote, that if some freak of fortune deprived you to-morrow of Soarswood and its rent-roll, he would prove faithful to the love he has vowed ? If you were penniless — as he is — do you believe he would ever mqke you his wife ?' She met hi 3 sad gaze, full ; but she was white to the lips. ' I believe it, papa. I know how I would act by him ; poverty— disgrace even would only make me cling the more devotedly to him. I would take his part against all the world, and why should 1 think him the less generous ? Papa, it may be your duty, but you torture me I What is the use of saying such things excepb to make me miserable V But it wbb not her father's words that made her miserable— it was the doubt in her own heart, the conviction that bespoke

I the truth. Not all her insane infatuation | could convince her that this man was loyal lor true. She had been brought up in a peculiar way enough, this impulsive Katherine, and if there is any excuse to be made for her wilful perversity, it lies in that. Motherless at the age of three, left to a doting father, spoiled by Indian nurses, indulged in every caprice, she had grown up headstrong and full of faults. The Indian colonel had taught her to scorn a lie as the base crime of a coward ; and taught her to be true as steel, loyal, generous, and brave; and she knew in her inmost heart that Gaston Dan tree was none of these things — was twice as unstable as water. Only her gill's fancy had gone out to him, and it was too late to recall the gift. Her father drew her to him and kissed her. * I will say no more — not one word ; and yet it was a cruel kindness. Do you know what I should have done, Kathie, when that fellow came here to ask your hand ? I should have said, " She is there ; take her if you will. She is quite ready and capable of running away with you to morrow, if you ask her ; but as long aa I live, not one farthing will she ever receive from — me not though she weie starving. I will never forgive her ; I will never see her. She is in love with you ;, take her, and when the honeymoon is over — starve ! 1 mean this, Mr Dantree, and we Dantrerfieldsknow how j to keep our words. Kathie, ho would never have set foot again within this house, and you — you would hate your father. I don't think I could bear that, and so, oh, child ! marry him, if you will, on New Year's Eve — what does a month more or lees matter — and may the good God keep you, and defend sou from the fate of a broken - hearted wife !' She made no reply ; her face was hidden on his shoulder. 'T fear foi your future, my child !— I fear ! I fear !' the old soldier said, with strange pathos — ' I foresee more than I daro tell. Kathie, listen ! Do you ' — his steady voice faltered a iittlo — 'do you think you could bear to be poor ?' ' Poor, papa?' she lifted her head, and looked at him in surprise. ' Yes, Katherine ; to be poor — not as we wore poor in India, with servants to wait upon us, and a colonel's pay to live on ; but if I were to die, and it may be soon — child, be still — and you were left alone in the world, friendless and portionless, to enin your own living as other girls do -do you think you could bear that? — to eat poor food ? to wear poor clothing ? to labour tor others. ?— that is the sort of poverty I mean.' She gazed at him, lost in wonder 'Poor, poor! I, a baroneb's daughter, the heirees of Scarswood ! Papa,' bursting into a laugh for the first time — ' what nonsense are you talking ? It is impossible for me to be poor.' 'But suppose it were not' — he spoke with feverish eagorness, shifting away from the gaze of the bright, wondering eyes — ' suppose it were possible— suppose 'such a fate overtook you — could you bear it ?' * Sir John Dangerfield,' the young lady responded impatiently, 'I don't want to suppose ib— l won't suppose such a preposterous thing ! No, I couldn't bear it — there ! 1 would rather die than be poor — living on crusts — wearing shabby dresses— and working for insolent, purse-proud common rich people. Papa, I would just quietly glide out of life in a double dose of morphine, and make an end of it all. But what's the use of talking such rubbish? I'm Katherine Dangerfield, heiress ; it is about as likely that I shall go up to the moon, like Hans Pfaal, and live there away from everybody, as that 1 shall ever turn shop-girl and poor.' He set his lips hard beneath his iron-grey moustache, and his soldier's training stood him in good stead now. Of the sharp pain at his heart his face showed no sign. ' And you consent, papa — you dear, goodnatured old papa?' the girl said, her cheek close to his, her lips to his ear ; ' you do consent ! lam only seventeen, and silly, no doubt, but let me be happy in my own way. I can't help liking Gaston — I can't indeed — and I want to trust him - to believe in him. You'll let me, won't you ? You won't say bitter, cynical things any more. And you know you won't lose me, as you would if I married anyone else. You'll only gain a son instead — and we'll all live together here, as the fairy tales say — happy for ever after. Ho sighed resignedly, disengaged himself, and arose. '"When a woman will she will," etc. Have your own way, Katherine. Let the wedding be on New Year's Eve. I give you carle blanche for the trousseau — order what you please. I can say no more than that. 1 will make the best of a bad bargain, since it is inevitable, but I can't like him — I never can. Marry him if you will, but I would almost sooner see you dead than give your fate into his hands. Keep him away from me — I had rather nob meet him. And Katherine— ' a pause. 5 Well, papa,' she spoke rather sadly. It seemed very hard that the two beings on earth whom she loved be3t could like one another no better than this. Her father was standing with his back to her, looking out of the window at the boecheb tossintr their striped branches in the high autumnal gale. ' Yes, papa — what is ib ?' 'Don't offend Mrs Vavasor.' He spoke with an effort. ' You don'b liko her, and you take no pains to hide it. Katheiine, it won't do.' ' Why not, papa ?' ' I can't tell you why — only she is your guest ; as such she should be breabed with courtesy.' ' Well, I do try to be courteous — that is, I try to endure her ; but papa, she's simply unendurable ; it stifles me to live in the house with hcv. I don't know why — I suppose we're antagonistic, as Gaston says, but my flesh creeps when she comes near me, juat as it does when I meet a toad. She's like a serpent, papa -one of those deadly cobras wo ut>3(l to have out in India - with her glibteriug eyes, and her sharp, hissing voice, and her noiseless, gliding walk. Why can't you give her all the money she wants and pack her off about her business ?' ' Because — well, because the world is civilised, and she is our guest. Let us respect the sanctity of the bread and salt. She has a hold upon me — I may admit that much — and ib places me in her power. If I or you offend her, Katherine, it is in her power to injure us both more than I can cay. It is impossible to explain ; I can only say for the present, treat her civilly for my sake.' ' I will bry. For your sake, papa, I would do anything.' 4 Except give up Gaston Danfcree ! Well, well ! ib is the way of the world — the way of women— a very old way, tqo. And now go— l think I'll settle my mind by reading the " Times " after a]l this. Arrange everything— buy the wedding dresses, let the wedding guests be bidden, and when the hour comes 1 will be ready to giye ray daughter away to a man of whom I know nothing. That will do, Kath,ie— l'd rather have nq thanky. Let the subject of Mr Dantree be dropped between us — it is a subject on which you and I can never agree, bhough we balked" to the crack of doom.' Katherjne laid her hand on the handle of the door. There was a swift swish pf silk outside. She flung ib wide. Had that odious little wretch, Mrs Vavasor, been

I listening ? Bur, the passage was deserted, and a tall Indian cabinet hid the little crouching figure completely. Miss Dangerfield rode out under the open sky and sunny downs with her affianced, and Mr Dun tree simply heard that papa had consented that the marriage thould take place upon New Year's live — no more. But he could easily infer the rest from [ Kabherine's clouded face. • The sharp-sighted old baronet has been 1 abusing me,' reflected Mr Dantres ; 'he has taken my erauge pretty accurately from the first. 1 wonder how it is, that my face, which makes all women fa'l in lovo with me, makes all men distrust me ? I Is it that women as a rule aie fools, and the other pox are not ? What an awful muddle I nearly made of it by carrying that confounded packet of letters, about. Katherine's a prey to the green-eyed monster already, and will bo for the rest of her life. I suppose it is the eternal fitness of things, somehow, that plain women should be always savagely jealous, especially when they have remarkably handsome husbands. Before the year ends I will be the son in-law of Scarswood Park, and the husband of eight thousand a year ! Gasbon Dantrue, my boy, you're a cleverer fellow than even I gave you credit for.' There was a. dinner party that evening at Scarswood, and Mr Dantiee, with a fatuous smile, made known to all whom it might concern tliafc the happy day was near. Mrs Vavasor's black eyes sparkled with their snakiest light — the rustling silk twisted, and twined, and gleamed about her in more serpentine coils than ever. She flashed a glance across at Peter Dangerfield, who sat, with spectacles ov6r pale, near-sighted eyes, on the opposite side. And Captain De Vere stroked again his big, heavy, dragoon moustache and shot sharp glances of suppressed ferocity at the smiling bridogroom-elect. ' Hang the beggar ! I'd like to throttle him, with his soli-satisfied grin and confident airs of proprietorship. I suppose Sir John's falling into his dotago — I can't account for it in any other way, poor little fool,' with a look at KaLheiine ; 'if he treats her as I know he //*/// treat her after marriage, I'll thrash him within an in oh of his life 'fore George. I wish I had asked her myself.' The wedding day was announced, Katharine was congratulated, and a little before midnight, with her lover s parting kiss still on her lips, singing softly, she went up to her room. Draped with rose silk and laces, the carpet wreaths of rosebuds on snow, puffy silken chairs, a Swiss musical-box playing tinkling tunes, firelight and waxlight gleaming over all — how pretty — how pleasant it looked. And Katherine, in her dinner dress of rich mazarine blue, and sapphire ornaments set in fine gold, sank down in the pulliest of the chairs with a tired sigh. There came a soft tap at the door, not the tap of Ninon. Katherine lifted her dreamy eyes from the fire. ' Come in,' she said. The door opened, and Mrs Vavasor entered. She too still wore her dinner dress — the rich green-silk glowed in the light far behind her. The diamonds that were not from the Palais Royal flashed splendidly on her neck, and arms, and ears and fingers. Her shining, luxuriant black hair floated over her shoulders, and the smile that rarely left her was at its brightest on her face. ' Am I an intruder ?' she asked, gayly. 'What blissful visions of ante-nuptialfelicity have I f lightened away? You will forgive mo I know, my pet. I had to come. Kathie, dear, you don't know how glad I am your wedding day is so near.' She took both the girl's hands in hers. Katherine's first impulse was to snatch them impatiently away, but she remembered her father's warning. The odious, fulsome, fawning creature had some mystorious power over him ; for his sake she muab be civil. ' You are very good,' but, despite the intentions, Miss Dangerfield's voice sounded cold. ' Will you sit down, Mrs Vavasor?' ' No, love ; I will stay but a moment. See, it is midnight. Weird hour !' with a shrill laugh. ' Are their ghosts, do you know, at Scarswood ? Such a dear, lomantic old houso ought to be haunted, you know, to make it complete. I suppose every house, as the poot says, where men and women havo lived and 3ied, is haunted, and we all carry our ghosts with us through life. But I won't turn prosy and metaphysical on this happy night. Ah ! darling Kathie, what an snviablogirl you are — how brightly your life has been ordered! Seventeen, rich, (lattered, caressed, and beloved ! I suppose you have never had a single wish unsjratih'ed in your life, and in two months you marry the man you love with your whole heart— a man like one's dream of Olympian Apollo. And others of us. go through life, and don't find one completely happy day. [t is the old nursery story over again : " This little pig goes to market, rind this little pig stays at home." Katherine Dangerfield, what a happy girl you ought to be.' 4 [ am happy, Mrs Vavasor.' Still Mrs Vavasor stood and looked at her. How strange the gleam in her eyes, how strange the smile on her lips ! The firelierht sparkled on her emerald silk, on her costly jewels, on her shining laces, on her coils of satin black hair. Katherine had never known fear in all her life — but something in that woman's face made her shrink away in a sort of terror, ' Mrs Vavasor,' she said, l'ising and burn ing white, • what is it you have come here i to say bo me ?' The widow laughed aloud — that shrill, metallic laugh that rasped upon the ear. 'What have 1 come to say? Why, to wish you joy, of course, and to tell you I am going away.' ' Going away !' Ah, Kathie, what a poor di=sembler you are ! The light of unutterable relief and gladness lights all your face at the words. ' Going away, my dearest ; and if I dared harbour so inhospitable a suspicion, I should say you looked glad to hear it. Bub you'ro nob, are you, Kathie love— and you will speed the parting guest with real regret. ? Yes, my pet, I am going— never to come back — well, nob more than once again, perhaps — on your wedding day. For I think I must really come to your wedding, little Katie, and wish that beautiful Mr Dan tree joy. How well he loves you, Katie ; he is one of those artless, frank kind of men who wear then hearts on their sleeves, for all the world to read. Yea, I leave Scarswood just one week preceding your wedding day. You look as if you did not understand — but you are evev so much relieved after all. By the bye, Katherine, you grow more and more like your mother every day. Just at thia moment as you stand there in the firelight, in that lovely blue silk and sapphires, you are fearfully and wondei fully like her. Would you believe it, Miss Dangerfield, — your mother once prevented my marriage ?' • Mrs Vavasor?' * Yes, my dear,' the little widow said in her airiest manner, ' prevented my marriage. It was all for the best, you know — oh, very much for the besb. I am not speaking of Mr Vavasor, poor dear— your mother never know him. I was qujte young when my little romance h,app ; ened, a year or two older than you, are now. He was scarcely older than myself, and very hgjid-

some— not so hancisomo as that divine I Gasfcon, though, of course. And I was — well, yes — I was just as deeply in love as you, my impetuous darling, aro this moment. The wedding day was iixed, and the wedding dress made, and at the last hour your mother prevented il\ It is nearly twenty years ago, and if you will believe it, the old pain and disappointment, and anger, and mortification comes back now, as I talk, almost as sharply aa they did then. For I suffered — as I had loved — greatly. I have never seen him for twenty long years, and I never want to now. He is alive still, and married, with grown-up sons and daughters, and I dare say, laughs with his wife — a great lady, my dear— over that silly opisodo of a most silly youth. And I— l eat, drink, and am merry as you see, and I forgave your mother, as a Christian should, and married poor, dear Mr Va\asor, and was happy. Your mother died in my arms, Kathie, and now I am coming to her daughter's wedding-.' She laid her hand burning as though with fever— on the girl's vrist, and fixed her black, glittering eyes strangely upon her. ' Look for me on your wedding - day, Katherine— l shall be there !' The girl snatched her hand angrily away. ' Mrs Vavasor !' she cried out, ' what do you mean ? Why do you look at me so ? You frighten me !' 'DoI ?' with her mocking laugih. ' Now I never meant to do that. I don't mean anything— how could I?— bub best wishes for you. Good-night, Katherine— bride elect — hoiress of Searswood — baronet's daughter -good-night, andpleasantdreams. "The mom is merry- June, I trow. The rose is budding fain ; But she shall bloom in winter snow Ero we two meet again. He turned his charger as he spoke, i Upon the river shore, He prave the reins a shake, and cried Adieu for evermore. My love! Adieu for evermore !'" A last derisive glance of the black eyes, a taunting smile — singing Mr Dantree's song— Mrs Vavasor vanished. ! Hours and hours after Katherine sab very still, very pale, and very unlike her bright, dashing, defiant self, before the flickering fire. What did it all mean? Mysteries in books were very nice, the thicker and blacker the better ; but in everyday life — well, they were exasperating. VVhab power did this woman hold over her tather ? — why could he nob speak out and tell her ? If ho could not trust the daughter who loved him, whom could he trust? What did Mrs Vavasor mean by her sneering taunts, only half hidden, her innuendo, her delusive smiles and glances, her ominous song ? Was it in the power of this dark, evil woman to part her and her lover ? ' ¥o,' she said proudly, lifting her head with that haughty graco that was her chief charm ; 'no man or woman on earth can do that. Nothing in this woild can come between Gasbon and me, unless he should prove — ' ' False !' Not oven to herself could she repeat that word. She got up shivering a little. 'It grows cold,' she thought ; ' I will go to bed, and to morrow I shall tell papa, and beg him once more to explain. I cannot endure that woman's presence much longer.' ( To be continued. )