Fotheringay's Son.
(\V9 SfcRUL.)
BY ALAN ADAIR
Ci-Uri'KH. VIII. (Continued.) Roth these kind-hearted people v,cm.(, concerned about tho vounjTman's welfare. They knew 'him to ho desperate, and despairing, but thov line! no idea of the essential weakness of his character. Therefore, when in throe months' time—after they liatl. <'>* 'Tony predicted, become almost proud ol : their daughter's ex- . alt oil position—it was no little shock to them to open their paper and see a heading. "Regimental Scandal," and to read that Captain Anthony 1 Fothoringay had been placed under arrest on the charge of appropriating moneys belonging to the regimental mess. CHAPTER IX. Symoncls' farm lay smugly between [wo rounded bills, with its hack turn- ( ed towards Lh.e sea., from which it was sintered by a tall cliff. Indeed, the j | (•■••'M lav, :i« it. were, between two! hills, and at the font of another, so j that most of the winds blew straight \ over it. While there was a burly-: hui'ly all round it, the fa-m itself wo- ' as still as if never a wind blew. Something of the peace of the. situation seemed to have got into the character of the Symondsef. For generations there had l>een Sym- i oiulses at the farm—his, plneicl men, taking all the ills that came to them with patience and rejoicing in the good that was theirs. They were a sober, industrious race, and things ■prospered with thom. Their wives! d daughters Miperintended the poultry, and were responsible for the dairy, had the management of the ,' garden produce, so that they had not J much time for the social side of life, j There were only two children at the fnr.m. Mrs Symonds had died shortly | after the birth of Adelaide, her sec- j ond. child. 010 Sytnonds—he was eal- | l<kl old to distinguish him from hh' . son—had never thought of rc-ma.r-riage. He had gone wooing once. | and ('rat wan quite enough for him. | Thero was a difference of ten years h"twoon tho ages of his two children. ■.Tohn. tho o'cler child, was a regular Symonds—sturdy, thick-set, very tall. J with all the phlegm and the placidity that belonged to the race. Adelaide \ was small and rather slightly built. "Don't know wlien there was such a thing as little Avoman in the family," her father was wont to say—"at least, not since Great-grandmo-ther Symonds. Seems to me the maid Lakes after her. By all that has e.en •■•• down to us about her, she was fond of her book, too." Adelaide was very fond oT reading. I She eagerly devoured every hook she | could lay her bands on. The vicar happened to be a keen student of English literature, and it was he. who introduced Adelaide to Byron and to Sir Walter Scott, .and later to Dickens and Thackeray. And with it all i ■she did not neglect a -single One of j ■her domestic duties. Thero was one thing in which Ade- j laide did not follow family tradition. .She wag twenty years old. and no wooer ever found his way to Symonds' farm. When sho clambered down the cliffs .and ensconced Herself in a corner of a .sandy bay, of which there were many little ones, no one went with her hut the companion she. tucked under her arm and reveled in during the whole of her leisure time. There was no man in all tho distiet who would (have ventured l to woo Adelaide Symonds. She/ wag waiting until she should find a, man of learning,- one who would be pleased with her appreciation of it. Tho years crept on until her father wa? sixty, her brother thirty, and she herself twenty. There had been no change at the farm for the last twenty years, and the only prospect of a change now lay in the fact that the younger John Symonds wandered "over hill" to Trevelyans', where there was a grown-up daughter. In about two years' time he would onnst assuredly bring her Home a« his wife, for John never hurried over anything, least of all love-making. "Then thou hadst better get a husband thyself," old Symonds said to Adelaide on one occasion wdien they had watched John making his way over the hill, "for T take it there must not be two mistresses in one house, and it is time there should be grandcMldren growing up round my knee. Adelaide had not felt affronted at the suggestion. It had always been the way of the Symondses. Nevertheless she did not encourage any possible wooer—she had other plans for herself. True, she did not j intend to stop at home when her bro- i ther John brought home his bried, j but that event would! be some time in j soming. Brother John had probably
Author of "An Island Princess," "A Marriage of Felicity " Etc.
lot whispered a word of love yet to , ;ho dam <:;] of bis elioiee, s;o that there ■v-as plenty of time. Time passed pleasantly at the farm. Adelaide, the only one. who *aw the beauty of the seasons apart from their usefullness, felt her heart stir within her at the first breath c.- r spring, but she rejoiced likewise in the joy of harvest, and that peculiar fragrance of the autumn which every lover of the country knows. Adelaide, however, was not of a specially blithe temperament. She. very seldom sang except when sho wa;. enjoying detail of it. but so in church. Sbo went about her work enjoying every detail of it, but so quietly, so unobtrusively that no one but herself knew that the enjoyment was there. ft was winter time, and a terrible winter it was on that coast. The low-lying reefs wero covered with masses of foam, so that no one ' who was not used to the coast realised its dangers. Indeed, passing ships j never apprached within half a mile of the shore, Adelaide had returned from an errand. It was afternoon, and the wind was blowing a hurricane. She was glad to reach the shelter of the hill that protected the farm. As she was abo Tit to enter she saw the figure of her brother on the skyline. John was standing still, looking seaward. He seemed to be absorbed and she began to wonder what he was looking at. She breasted the hill, and tho wind caught her and almost knocked her down, but she struggled on, curious to know what it was that riverted her brother'? attention. She reached his side, panting, and laid hold of v -his arm. "What is it?" she cried. Her brother pointed with his left hand to an object dimly seen through the spray and the low-lying clouds. It was evidently a ship in distress. The young girl tried to a&k a. question, but her voice was drowned by the hurricane. Tt was not until tliey had turned to go down the hill that she was able to make herself heard. "Can nothing be done?" she asked. ■ "I don't think so," said John. "The vessel can't come in here s yon know. If she gets well out to yea she may be all right, but T doubt it. She looks a big ship. too. T should . say a passenger steamer between J here as;.! Amoriei'.." "Oh John, and you think she is in danger? Can nothing be done?" ■• "Nothing!" answered John, and walked home in hiy usual matter-of-fact manner, fie ate a good tea whilfl describing to his father the size and position of the ship. "You don't say so!" exclaimed the old farmer. "Well, what people venture out to eea for when they have good solid land to walk on beats me! No Syimonds ever went to sea," ;i----added complacently. But Adelaide could not get the doomed ship out of her mind. The storm raged until about four olclock in the morning, but when daylight came all was calm.. Although she h.'.d slept but little, Adelaide rose, at her esiml hour anc went out to feed' her fowls. A temptation seized her ; to climb the hill .snd look down at the scone of yesterday's storm. (To be Continued.) MMMMMMMMMMnM
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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10713, 18 December 1912, Page 2
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1,357Fotheringay's Son. Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10713, 18 December 1912, Page 2
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