RISING ABOVE CIRCUMSTANCES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8172, 30 June 1906, Page 7

RISING ABOVE CIRCUMSTANCES.

"What will the girls say!" Mrs Carlisle raised her tearful face from the handkerchief in which it had been buried for several minutes. "I don't imagine they will say anything P retorted her husband petulantly. "We shall probably be treated to an exhibition of hysterics and fainting spells. But it is not their fault—poor things!'' he added with sudden remorse. "They have had no incentive to:lead other than a butterfly existence; and now" —he bent his hands upon his head with a desolate groan, sad to hear. "Is everything gone? Are we ab - solute beggars, Edgar?" faltered his wife. "No; not quite so bad as that. We must sell this house and the more expensive furniture, and put up with a much smaller and plainer dwelling, and with other retrenchments to be decided later, I cau continue my business and avert complete ruin. Just at tbig moment the door of an adjoining room, connected on one side by folding doors <vhioh had been slightly ajar, opened and closed so softly that the parents did not bear it, and a girl sped noiselessly np tho stairs to an apartment on the second floor.

"Wake up, May," the exclaimed, with a gentle shake to the girl who lay asleep on the bed; "1 have something to tell you more exciting than the book J sat up so lato to finish in my study downstairs, May was awake in a moment, and throwing on a dressing gown seated herself in a chair by a grate fire, and listeued to her sister's low but rapid communication; at the end of which the girls embraced, while tears stood in the eyes of eaob. "There 1" exclaimed Oarola at last brushing away the few drops that still lingered on iier lashes. "The terrible secret is out, without producing either the hysterics or fainting spells father predicted. And we will show him. May, that his two butterfly daughters can, when emergency requires, transform themselves into bees of industry and eoonomy.

When the sisters came down to breakfast the next morning Mrs Carlisle, nerving herself for the task of breaking the dreadful news as sooou as the meal should be over and her husband gone down town surveyed them in surprise, for both were attired in walking costume "May and I are going out this morning, mamma," said Carola. . "We will not be back until evening." Mr Carlisle, absorbed with gloomy thoughts, did not notice the remark, and his wife felt toomuoh depressed to make any enquiries. Within a few minutes of dinner time Mr Carlisle let himself into the house, looking a shade more cheerful, and just aa the dinner bell sounded the girls appeared, apparently in the best of spirits. "I reoeived a novel addition to my office foroe to-day" Mr Carlisle remarked, by way of leading up to the disclosure that must soon follow. "1 advertised for h bookkeeper, to succeed Mr Simmons, and just about da9k a lady of refined appearanoe applied fur the position. I cold not see her face clearly, for tthe wore one of those dotted veils; she showed me a book containing specimens of her writing and figur ing, and furnished excellent references from two professors under whom she had studied. She is willing to take one-third the salary I give Simmons, and a lower figure than I had fixed upon Her oarne she said, was Mason. "You said the lady showed you a book, fathor," interrupted Carola, throwing a significant glance toward her sister. "Was it Ike this?" She rose as she spoke, and coming round to his chair laid a book on bis knee. Mr Carlisle glanoed from the book to his daughter in surprise and bewilderment. "This is ihe identical book. How did you get hoxd of it? Is the lady a friend of yours?" "Well,, yes, I may say she is," said Carola, smiling,and laying one hand affeotionately on his shoulder. "I will tell you now that her full name is Carola Mason Carlisle, and, farther, that a little girl has antici pated the story you were about to tell us. I spent the morning with my old school professors, who, after a careful examination, told me that 1 had lopt very little of tbe book-keeping I had acquired, whioh as you will remember, was my one hobby at aohoo), and now I am able to turn it to excellent acoount, and intervene to assist my good father in an emergency, so you see the money your new bookkeeper earns will come right £back into the family." 'And 1 have a little story to tell also," said May, enjoying the sensation. "I have been house-hunt-ing, and found a dear little place at a moderate rent, and sold some of my superfluous trinkets, and I shall be preparpd, until further notice, to act as dressmaker for the family. There was silenoe for a moment, eloquent aa the disclosures which hart preceded it; then, springing from his chair, Mr Carlisle almost crushed bis daughters in his arms. "You dear noble girls! lean term this a most happy misfortune, sinoe it has revealed to me tbe treasures 1 possess. 1 shall be able to meet every dollar of my obligations, and in a few years, with such help and inspiration, I will win baok the material wealtn that we must for a time dispense with." A few days after this interview Clarke Reynolds sauntering into his fatber'sgcounting house remarked: "What do you suppose is the latest sooiety sensation? The Carlisles have gone all to smash, sold their bouse, and hired a little box somewhere and Carola is acting aa boofiJceeper, in her father's place. What do you thinK of that?"

"I'll tell you what 1 think, right now." Mr Reynolds whirled round upon his ahair, and regarded his son intently. "In the first plaoe it is what I expeoted when I learned that Carlisle was venturing upon that quicksand, speculation, and, in the seoond plaoe, £ think, a girl who can and will go to her father's assistance in flQoh an emergency is a prize worth any man's possessing And I tell you, Clarke, although l am called wealthy, I would

willingly resign it all and begin the world aB I did forty years ago if 1 could discern the datrning of sueh a spirit in you." ! . Olarke bad found hi mself lately becoming interested in Oarola Oarlisle; but her father's sudden downfall and her own oourageoua, if unconventional intervention had been quite a shook io his fastidious soruplea. His own faher's reception of the news had, however, given him a counter-shock, and his last remarK had struck his son with new and peouliar force. "Wonders never cease," remarked Mr Carlisle a few evenings later. "X received an application for the position of clerk in the store from no less a person than Olarke Reynolds. He says be wants to beoome thoroughly acquainted with mercantile life, and thinks our line would suit him better than any other. 1 am curious to learn how long this freak will last." May shot a mischievous glance at her sister, but Oarola kept both her eyes and the oolour down, although her heart throbbed tumultously. The "freak" proved of permanent duration, and during the year that Oarola filled her postion as bookkeeper Olarke was equally assidious in his duties, but his eveuings were largely spent in the little home that was daily growing more attractive to all. At the end of the year the ;seniors had several protracted interviews, the result o£ whiuh was that on the same day that Olarke Peynolds plighted his marriage vows to the happy girl whose timely intervention had brought so muoh good in its train, he was received as junior partner in the firm, to which his father contributed a sum that put it beyond any further fear of failure. Fortune rclls rapidly in one direction 01 the other, and in a few years from the time that Oarola had played the eavesdropper to such good purpose she was mistress of her own elegant home, with all tbit wealth and the most devoted affeotion, not only of her !husband, but of her relatives on both sides, oould bestow.