SIR JOHN'S HEIRESS.
CHAPTER I. HILDA AND HER UNNATURAL UNCuE. i "It h very nice of you to—to line me, Mr Linton!" 'I don't merely like you—l love you, Hilda, with my whole heart and soul!" „ , "I cannot understand why, the girl answered musingly, without a touch of embarrassment in either speech or manner. "I cannot in the least see why you should—love me, Mr Linton; still it is very nice. 1 had never heard a kind word since I was quite a child until you came here." Victor Linton's fair, boyish face flushed and his lips quivered. "Poor litile Hilda-to have received kinch ess from no one but a nur«e, an Indian ayah! I never had much faith in the genuineness ot East Indians, but I shall think well of them in future because one was good to you." "Oh, don't pity me—anything but that!" The girl's dark eyes flashed omimously. "I should prefer a slap in the face to being pitied The girls at the school begin 'psalm singing sometime, and I feel that I could kill them. 1 suppose you will end by hating me very soon? Miss Morgan says that I have a heathenish temper, and that I am a daughter of Satan!" she drearily adde !. r?:> '"Miss Morgan ought to be ashamed of herself. The idea of a schoolmistress using such abominable language to one of her charges!" "Weil, you see, I called her an old witch,"'Hilda said naively; "I couldn't Inlp it! She is so exasperating with her maxims and proverbs for the tiniest, teeniest little irregularity'•'" . „, u a "'lrregularity' is politic,' laughed Victor Linton.' "What wickedness does it not cover? But, seriously, I think that Miss Morgan should be taught to moderate her language. I will speak to the rector. He takes the class in divinity doesn't she? And he and I are great already. A will-timed rebuke " „ Hilda's ejes were alight with amusement. "Foolish Mr Linton! Don't you know that Miss Morgan annihilated the timid rector with a glance? Besides, the dear old gentleman has already given me several lectures." The girl shook her head doubtfully. "I wonder sometimes it I am really as bad as they say I am. I really am afraid that my case is hopeless! Miss Morgan declares that I am ..wilful, disobedient, and wicked, and that, as I am the biggest and oldest girl it. the school, my example is most demoralising. I think that I should be inclined to be penitent if jhe were less of a humbug." The dark eyes flashed wrathfully. The young man pressed a lock of the girl's raven hair to his lips, and kissed it hastily. Hilda flushed from annoyance, and drew farther away from ftim-Ba^MM****^ "Why will you be so silly, Mr Linton? I have told you before that I don't like that sort of thing! I want to believe you to be brave and manly; lam sure that you_are big enough to know better!" t^&aS*^* "I beg youi pardon, Miss Carrington." Victor said in mock dismay; "but I could.i't help it—really! If 1 may be so bold as to remind you. you thought it the usual thing tor lovers to kiss each other.'" ; "But we are not lovers. What a horrid idea"
"Not lovers? And we have been meeting in secret for weeks! Nat lovers? And your witchery has enchanted me to these Welsh mountains when I ought to be grinding at my desk in London! For your sake I, have deceived my dear old governor into believing I am ill and require a long holiday! I have stooped to shameful deception, then, all for nothing?" The girl gazed at him with startled eyes. "Didn't I tell you how it would be from the very first?" she asked miserably. "I am a wretch, and I always bring trouble! But it was so nice to have one friend—one person who did not scold and sneer! You have tslkcd of loving me and all that sort of thing, and then I have begun to be afraid What am Ito be loved and cared for? A homeless dependent, upon the bounty ot my uncle, who hides himself- like the hermit that he is—away at gloorry Woodcroft." She pointed fiercely over Llanberis, to a range of hills which stood out almost phantomlike against the paleorange sky. "I have heard of Sir John Carring' ton," Victor Linton said, "but I never connected you with him, Hilda." "No," she answered witheringly, "because he is rich, and I am so wretchedly poor, with hardly a decent rag to my back! And that is the man who doles out a miserable pittance for my education and maintenance. Bread and margarine for breakfadt diid tea, and siringy meat and waxy potatoes for dinner! Ugh! it's hor-
0 A 5 BY P. L. DACRE, 3 L Author of "A Loveless Marriage," "A Change of Heart," & V -Trenrioliue's Trust," "A Case for the Court," 3 / Etc, etc. /
ribl°! .And then to be reminded of it half a dozen times daily, and to be tuld that, if it wasn't for my kindhearted, generous and noble souled uncle, I should be thrown upon the world to earn my own living! I went to the castle once, and—and he had me turned away ! I should like to kill him!" She clenched her hands.
Victor Linton was becoming interested, and his warm heart was full of love and pity for the friendless girl. "And is Sir John your only relative?" he asked.
"Oh, I've got a father somewhere out in India! He is a captain in His Majesty's service; but he never troubles himself about such an awkward encumbrance as a daughter." Tears glistened on the girl's dark lusht-s, though the eyes beneath the gleamed resentfully. "I can remember him; he was called 'Handsome Carving ton,' just as my uncle is known as 'Mad Carrington.' He broke n.y anther's heart Then lie married agaiu; and my stepmother use:! to slap me. I think I scratched her face, though!" she added with evident relish. "Well, I must go back tu school: and I am sure to drop in for a lecture. Miss Morgan told me not to go out without permission, and 1 defied her, and she has written to Sir John." Victor was silent for a little while, but his eyes never left the girl's rebellious faca.
"Good-by!" she said, suddenly holding out her hand. "The sun is setting. Look —you can see the towers of Woodcroft peeping over the trees!" Victor took the little brown hand and held it within his own; then he drew the girl nearer to him. „~ "Hilda," be said tenderly and earnestly. "I am glad that you have told me so much about yourself." m "Are you" She sighed. "Yes; because it makes me more hopeful." "And yet you pretend to like me! My misery pleases you?" "I have told you that 1 don't like you, but that I love you—love you!" And he dropped en his knee to give emphasis to his declaration. "And, now that I know that you are utterly friendless, I am no afraid to tell you, because I want to take you away from here." He arose from his knees, bent nearer and whispered, "I want you to marry me, Hilda!" She looked up at him almost bewildered. "I—l am astounded,' Mr Linton. I shpuld be of no use as a wife. I know nothing about housekeeping, and I should be ruinously extravaij* ant. I can talk French and play the piano, but I detest figures! Still, of course, I am only eighteen, and 1 might learn heaps of things"—she looked wistfully in the direction of Woodcroft Castle—"and I think I could love any one intensely who was kind to me! I know that I should be faithful and true till death. But I hate in just the same way as I love."
"You must love me, Hilda—you must—you shall! I want you to marry me—l want you for my very own! I am not a rich man, but I have enough for a modest litile home somewhere in London. I am a lawyer, junior partner in a firm of which my father is the head, and I write a little for the magazines." "Do you really write stories, Mr Lintou?" Hilda asked with sudden interest.
"Yes." He positively blushed. "Can't you call me Victor'"'" "Why, jes! I think Victor a capital name for a man; and you look as though you might become a victur'a hero."
"If I were fighting for you, Hilda, I should know no fear."
"I believe you you have such clear, steadfast eyes! And I think that I am beginning to appreciate you!" She spoke very soitly now, and her eyea became misty. He dared not trust himself to answer; his heart seemed to be leaping as though it would choke him. "Now, as regards your proposal, Victor, I want to be perfectly frank with you. Hitherto 1 had regarded you more m the light of a pleasant chum than anything else. You can't be very old."
She glai.ced at him quizzically. "Twenty - four,' he answered stoutly.
"And I am sure you did not think seriously of me for ever so long after we met at the rectory, six weeks ago." "No; I did not," he confessed. "You called rne by slang names, and taught me to smoke cigarettes." "Don't ever do it again, Hilda!" he pleaded earnestly. "I ought to have known better, but "
"Yes I now I was such a Tartar! Now you will please tell me what has wrought this serious change in you, Mr Lintou! I have lost my chum." "And have found a lover for life! Why have I learned to love you? Because you are so true hearted, so original and you have the loveliest eyes in all the world!" Miss Carrington flushed now. TO HE CONTINUED.
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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9663, 30 November 1909, Page 2
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1,654SIR JOHN'S HEIRESS. Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9663, 30 November 1909, Page 2
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