Two Bids For a Lober.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 230, 27 June 1872, Page 9

Two Bids For a Lober.

" I wonder why he don't come !" Miss Renforth stood at the wide open French casement, the cool September wind blowing her flowing blonde hair about, and stealing spiry odours from the knot of tube-roses in her ribbons ; a tall, lovely girl, with a peach-bright complexion, clear blue eyes, and an oval face. ,"He!" Mrs Mortimer laughed, as she spoke the monosyllable. " Just the way of the feminine world ; after a certain event, there is but one 'he ' in all the world. Hush ! is that six o'clock strr ing ? "What did you write to him, Madeline ?" " I told him to come at half-past five, as I — that is, Aunt Sopjiy — would be at home then ?" Mrs. Mortimer shrugged her shoulders. "Upon my word," she said" this don't look particularly like an anxious lover." Madeline Eenforth coloured and bit her lip. If only Clara Mortimer could have seen some of those letters he liaJ written ; if only she could have heard him plead his cause in those eager, burning words which might have t melted a heart of ice, let alone mere i human flesh and blood! " By the way," said Mrs. Mortimer, indifferently, " Bridget admitted me again. Tour aunt has not succeeded in replacing Pierre yet." " No" said Madeline carelessly ; "I came very near engaging one ; but when I told Aunt Sophy that he rejoiced in the appellation of Hezekiah Saunderson, she declared she wouldn't have him in the house " "And what did you do ?" " Why, of course I had to write and put him off; what else could I do ?" " Hush ! who is that on the doorstep ?" Mrs. Mortimer stretched her pretty neck over the vine-\vrea6hed edge of the balcony to look. "You may as well dismiss those charming roses from your cheek, Maddy ; it's only a servant with a note." " Oh !" and Madeline scarcely took any pains to conceal the accent of chagrin in her voice. The next minute Bridget came in, with a folded note on a salver. "For Miss Madeline," she said. "And if you please, Miss — " " Well", what now ?" said Madeline impatiently, with her finder under the sealed edge of the envelope, which bore Colonel Aubrey's well-known monogram. " There's a person in the kitchen insists on seeing you, Miss — one Hezekiah Saundersou." " Tell him to go away" " I did Miss but he won't go. He sits on the edge of the table a-svhistlin' and a-wlnstlin', till cook she's almost crazy, and Mary Ann she says she won't stay there if he does." Miss Renforth's cheek flushed redly. " But this will not do at all !" " Tell him to go away at once or Annt Sophy will send for a policeman'" " Yes, Miss." And; Bridget, evidently not illpleased with her errand, disappeared. Madeline Eenforth, the instant that she was left alone, broke open the seal of the letter, which had lain in her lap all the while, and Mrs. Mortimer leaned curiously forwai'd. " It is from Colonel Aubrey ?" Madeline inclined her head ; but as her eye roved over the written wor Is the hot colour mounted to her cheek in fiery torrent. ."-What does it m Dan? What can it mean?" broke, almost involuntarily, from her lips. "Let me see it," demanded Clara, with the licence of old established friendship. _ And Madeline made no effort to resist the gentle imperativeness with which Mrs Mortimer took the letter from her. It was brief enough at all events, and so Clara thought, as she read the I following words — '• I shall trouble you no more, Miss Eenforth. Your dismissal might perhaps have been couched in gentler terms, but such as it is I accept it, without appeal. — Yours, very respectfully, " Ralph Aubrey." Clara Mortimer looked at Madeline Eenforth. Madeline Eenforth looked at Mrs. Mortimer, and for a moment there was silence between, them. "Madeline!", burst forth Clara at last, " you haven't dealt frankly with .me! You never told me that you dismissed him." " But I did not dismiss him!" '"^hen, what does this note mean?" demanded Mrs Mortimer. " I>m sure I have not the least idea," Made/tine answerer 1 , in a tone of calm despair. " Tett me, as far as you can remember what it was that you wrote to him." "I a^ked him to come here this afternoo^ at half- past five, and if Aunt Sophy consented — " She parsed' here, colouring and embarrassed — "Well, I\am sure that was plain enough," aaid'vMrs Mortimer. And — " But her sentence was here interrupted by the' reentrance of Bridget the persistent. \ • "If you ple&se, MiX Madeline — " Madeline screwed uj? her face into a gesture of despair. \ || What is it now, Bridget?" "It's that Hezekiah Saunderson, Miss; he won't go away! Uo saysW

" But I don't want to hear anything more of what he says, Bridget," interrupted Miss Renfortb, with an impatient movement of her hand, as if she would fain put the obnoxious subject away from her. " Yos, miss ; but this note ? He says he got it from you this noon." " I know — I know. I wrote to tell him that he wouldn't suit." But Mrs Mortimer reached out her hand and took the letter which Madeline Renforth was motioning away from her. " Madeline," she said, with a puzzled expression of countenance, as she. perused its contents, "I think there must be some mistake here." " No'm, there ant?" uttered a nasal voice, and the young ladies glanced up to behold a long sallow specimen of the American backwoodsman in the doorway, with a carpet bag in one hand and a battered hat in the other. "I'm Hezekiah Saunderson, m'ji, at your sarvice, aud I've been waiter at the Benny-castle House, and I understand all about the cai'e o'horses, and—" Madeline uttered a little shriek as she glanced at the note Clara, held in her hands. " Clara," she cried, " it's the wrong j letter! I—lI — I sent it to this man by i mistake! I wrote the two notes at the same time, and I must have put them into the wrong envelopes!" " Yes," said Mrs. Mortimer quietly, "and you sent Colonel Ralph a letter informing him that he wouldn't suit. Upon ray word, Madeline, you have got yourself into about as pretty a network of blunders ns I ever siw ! " " And," pursued the impassible Hezekiah, in a voice like a damaged French horn, "I've got the best o' recommends from Major Spriggins ; him that kep' the Larkspur Hotel, and-—" "Never mind all that," spoke up Miss Renforth quickly, with hot carmine flushes on either cheek, and a strange, bri^Lt, shifting light, in her eyes. "There has been a mistake here, Mr. Saunderson. The letter which you received was intended for — for quite another person. I wrote you a note, stating that you would not suit us in any capacity." "Eh ? " stuttered Hezekiah, blankly. " And you will please to leave the house as soon as possible," went on Madeline, with an air of quiet authority that was impossible to rjsis-t. And Brilget, wifc'i infinite delight in her countenmce, showtd the discomfited waiter-expectant to the door. " What are you doing, Clara" ? " asked Miss Renforth, when at last the course was clear. " I am putting this letter which our Yankee friend has left behind into an envelope directed to Colonel Ralph Aubrey. I shall add a line or two of explanation to it, and I shall then confidently expect the gallant Colonel to make his appearance here within the next two hours." And Madeline Renforfch did not object. Mrs. Mortimer's expectations were in nowise disappointed. Colonel Aubrey came with commendable promptitude, to hear Madeline's blushing excuses for having been "so careless." But it is all right now, isn't it?" she said pleadingly, and Colonel Aubrey answered—.- " Yes fit is all right now." And everybody was satisfied, except Mr. Hezekiah Saunderson.