HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9224, 23 June 1909, Page 2

HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.

BY HENRIETTA B. EUTHVEN. Author of " His Second Love," " Corydon's Infatuation," " Daring Doia," " An Unlucky Legacy," Etc., Etc.

CHAPTER XXlX.—Continued. Miss Braysby would have resigned her office if she had not been afraid that it would load to the engagement of a governess, and a polita intimation that she had outstayed htr welcome. So she kept her pupil at bay f>s much as she could, and when General Haydun would inquire what prorgess Lois was making always anwsei-ed with smiles and flattering speeches. But Laurence, running up-staris one morning to the pretty sittingroom set apart for Miss Haydon, found governess and pupil at high words.

The latter had scornfully refused to believe that lying on the floor for a couble of hours daily was absolutely necessary to the development ot her figure; she had declined to copy the sunflowers creweled on kitchen toweling which Miss Braysby regarded as a positive work of art, and was now attacking the lucubrations of a rhymester whom the soinster called divine.

"How can that be called poetry, when it's not a bit like Shakespeare?" and the daintily bound volume was tossed onto the table. "When I read to grandfather his favourite pieces my eyes grow full of tears: but I couldn't cry over that rubbish!" "Lois, the poet you are abusing is among the esthetes, and his genius is transcendent. You have no soul'" "How do you know that, Miss Braysby? The young fellow you think so much of may be all very well in his way " "She is speaking of the Apollo of the present period!" interjected Miss Braysby, with a look of horror. "No man that was a man would let himself be called Poll oh?" cried Lois triumphantly; "nor lie down among the moldering graves as he says in his verses that he did. It was very silly of him, and must have spoiled his clothes." "It was to commune with a dear dead loved one." "His wife or his mother? Whichever it was, I should be ashamed if I were he to let any one know I'd acted so foolishly."

"His descriptions are as harrowing as they are magnificent!" ejacoulated the poet's votary "If you had ever known the thrill of human pain " "And so I have many's the time," Lois interposed, "When granny did hit you, my!—didn't she make you feel! I've often had big bruises, if that's what you mean by thrills; and yet she was fond of me, too." Miss iiraysby signed and shook her head.

"It is plain that your heart has never been wrung with sorrow; if it had, the sympathetic tones and harmonies of those verses would touch every sensitive chord in your nature." "Whereabouts are they?" asked her hearer incredulously. "You needn't try to make me believe that if I were in trouble I should go and lie on the wet grass and then print it in a book. I tell you I'll not learn such silly poetry as that; I'll get by heart that piece grandfather likes, called the 'Spanish Armada,' if you'll explain to me what it means." "Search your 'Histoiy of England,"'was the tart response./'As yoj prefer the most prosaic topics, an hour with Hume and Smollett may entertain you." "I don't care for the history book; it finds fault with King William the Something for planting my own dear beautiful forest!" x "He was a horrid man!" said Miss Braysby. Her reminiscences of the events of the remote centuries was rather obscure, but this was one of the few she could recall with ease. "It you were not so frightfully ignorant you would know that he destroyed villages innumerable that he might form the district into a hunt-ing-ground. It was a shameful thing to do." But Lois could not be induced to view the Conqueror's act in this light. "You shouldnt' blame him because he loved the green leaves, and the tangles of undergrowth, and the wide spread of heath and furze, better than dull, narrow streets, and bricks and mortar? Why, so do I, a thousand times. If I built myself a house it hould be on the top of a hill where I could see what one can never see here-—the sea and sky stretching away and away till they meet in the far distance." "How very odd you are!" tittered Miss Braysby. "But if you are going to study that poem, which to me sounds like a mere string of names of places, you can do without my assistance, and I'll drive with Lady Marcia to Waterloo House and order some silks to be sent for our dresses for the fancy ball." "I shall not go to it," said Lois decidedly. "Why should I dress up like a Christmas mummer for people tho stare at me? I'd rather stay at home with grandfather." Now, Miss Braysby had set her heart on the ball, and she retorted sharply: "You are most provoking, Miss Haydon! How am 1 to mould you into a graceful, elegant woman if you oppose all my efforts 9 " "What sort of moulding should I get at a ball?" "The best, the most important. You would insensibly acquire the

tone of good society; the —the proper way to hold your fan; the art of conversing with ladylike ease and propriety; of walking, sitting, and standing gracefully." "Can't I learn these things without dressing up? If you knew what a fright you looked, Miss Braysby, the last time you went to one of those great parties " But the affronted spinster would not let her finish.

"Pray do not let us have any further exhibition of your want of good breeding! You are quite right in declining to exhibit yourself in public till you have learned to be more grateful to those who expend their time and patience on you." "Good morning, Miss Bravsby," said Laurence Haydon, entering the room just then. "Is this daughter of mine taxing your forbearance beyond its limits?" The tart tone was instantly softened to dulcet sweetness. "Ah, my dear Mr Haydon, shall I confess that our precious one does try me occasionally? She is not so sensible of her poor Lollie's affection as I could wish her to be." "I can quite believe it," he answered dryly. "It is not fair tba you snould be trounied with tier so much. Let me relieve me of your charge for a little while. Come down-stairs, Lois; Sir Rollo Rawlings is here, and waits to see you." As he spoke Laurence eyed the girl critically, debating in his own mind whether to bid her make a few additions to her toilet. But he decided that it was not necessary. The severely plain dark cloth £dress chosen for her by Nurse May suited her fin a figure admirably, and her firm, round throat needed no other ornament than the quilling of net that surrounded it. "Sir Rollo Rawlings!" cried Miss Braysby eagerly. "I am so anxious to see and thank him for his kindness to our darling! Oh, take me with you, please!" "You can go in my place," said Lois. "I don ? t like him. He stares and laughs too much." "I bade you come do ro n and be civil to your visitor!" exclaimed Laurence imperatively. "Among all that you are taught, does no one ever inculcate the virtue of obedience?" Lois was silenced and followed him to the morning-room, lingering a moment in the hall to cast a wistful look toward the garden. There, in his invalid-chair, she knew that the general would be found at this hour, and Hal Dartford with him. j TO BE CONTINUED.]