ONE WINTER DAY.

Wairoa Bell, Volume IV, Issue 148, 3 June 1892, Page 6

ONE WINTER DAY.

s|a!p| BITTER February day. Not a jjijllfe pleasant day to travel in, by any ■Ssop!!? means ; but then, Lettice Main arj* ♦ waring- was one of the sort that J* makes the best of everything. * It’s a long journey over the hills miss,’ said the wife of the landlord of the little one-story tavern that was perched on the crest of the highway, 1 and the snow’s powerful deep.’ ‘ I think a winter landscape is the prettiest thing in the world,’ said Lettice, cheerily, as she wound her fur boa round and round her neck. ‘And old Stoke’s stage is awful uncomfortable,’ added the landlady. ‘ I like stage-riding,’ asserted Letty. ‘ You’ll not get there till dark.’ ‘ Oh, that is sooner than I expected,’ And Letty climbed up into the stage coach, which stood creaking and groaning at the door, having just rumbled up from the next village, a mile or so down the hill. One solitary passenger occupied the opposite corner—a tall, dark man, with a Spanish sort of complexion, and clear, dark eyes, who wore an odd sort of olive-graen cloak or mantle, heavily trimmed with sable fur. He nodded briefly in return to Letty’s smiling recognition. Our little heroine would have talked to a polar bear, had a polar bear chanced to be her travelling companion. Letty arranged her furs and her basket and her bonnet strings, and wondered secretly how far the tall man was going. ‘ Can Ibe of any assistance to you ? ’ courteously queried the gentleman, as Letty seart-i < craw a r her feet for a drop i ‘ Thanks—no ’ said Letty, coming up again w'" 1 very red cheeks and curls a ili ’ eielled. ‘ Are you going all the wsi \ f I-' rough ? ’ ‘ As tar as the stage goes—yes.’ ‘Oh,’ said Miss Main waring, ‘ so am I.’ The gentleman nodded interrogatively, and went back to his paper. ‘ Cross thing ! ’ thought Letty, involuntarily pouting her cherry lips- Why can’t he talk and make himself agreeable ! And he knows very well that we are to be shut up here together for eight long hours.’ But the wild mountainous landscape, as it flitted by, white gleaming with snows, and darkly fringed with the waving of hemlock boughs and solemn crested pines, was, after all, nearly as good a study as the ‘ human face divine ’ ; and Letty soon forgot her temporary annoyance and chagrin in the white, skeleton-like walls of a deserted old paper mill long since disused and fallen to ruin.

‘ I wonder if it is haunted ? ’ said she, aloud. The stranger smiled, and laid down his paper. ‘Do you believe in such things ? ’ he asked. ‘ Lettice Mainwaring laughed and coloured. ‘Of course not ; and yet Are you much acquainted in this region of the country ? ’ ‘ I have lived hereabouts a good deal.’ ‘ Oh, then perhaps you know Easterham Hall ? ’ His face brigbetncd. ‘ Oh, yes. You are going there ? ’ ‘ Yes. lamtc be governess to the little children,’ said Letty, making haste to en lighten him as to her true position, in order that he should fully comprehend that she was no elegant young lady coming to the ball to make a visit, but a humble little working bee. who was obliged to toil steadfastly for the daily bread she ate. ‘ Indeed ! ’ be said. And Letty was vexed at herself for noticing ihe | o de indifference into which Ins tone subsided. ‘ I suppose it is a very line old place,’ she went on, <■ Yery—for those who fancy ‘ fine old places.’ To my taste they are apt to be

- And haunted, perhaps ? ’ mischievously put in Lettice, the roguish sparkles coming back to her eyes. ‘ So far as I know, Easterham Hall is free from any supernatural occupants.’ ‘I am sorry for that,’ said Letty. He arched his eyebrows. ‘ You would like to share your room with a ghost or two ? ‘ No j but I do like a little tinge of 10-

mance about the place—something to set it a little above and beyond the level of a commonplace.’ He did not answer : and talkative Letty once more set the conversational ball rolling. ‘ The Easterhams are very rich, I suppose ?’ ‘ Yes.’ ‘ I never heard of them until last week,’ said she, musingly ; ‘and now—-how strangely things are ordered in this world ! —I am going to east my lot among them.’ ‘ How does that happen ?’ said the gentleman. He could not very well say less in ordinary politeness, and yet Letty felt triumphantly that she had ‘ drawn him out ’ ‘ They wrote to Madame Molignv, my old teacher, to select a governess qualified to teach two little boys ; and madarne knew that I wished for a situation, and so here I am. I wonder how they will like me ?’ ‘I hope you will like them,’ sail the gentleman, * That isn’t the question,’ Letty corrected imperatively, ‘Mr Easterham is a dreadful bear.’ ‘ You are acquainted with him ?’ ‘ Oh, no ; only what I have heard,’ answered Letty. ‘ And what may that be ?’ * You are a neighbour ?’ said Letty, doubtfully. ‘ Perhaps I’ve said too much already.’ He laughed with more animation than she had yet seen in his manner. 1 Depend upon it, I shall not betray you to Mr Easterham. So lie is a bear ? Well, I have thought so sometimes myself.’ ‘ But he won’t bite me if 1 am a good girl and do my duty to the little ones ; and they tell me they are very nice boys,’ persisted Letty. 1 They are very like their father, I believe.’ * Oh, said Letty, laughing, ‘ I can tame young bears ; it is only the full grown specimen, with sharp teeth and long claws. lam afraid of. Only think,’ and a demure apprehensive expression came over Letty’s round, blooming countenance, ‘he goes all round the house, all day long, and never says a word to anyone,’ 1 He must be a savage, indeed,’ observed the gentleman. * And Miss Electa Easterham, the oldmaid annt who keeps house for him, has quarrelled successively with every governess they have had,’ went on Letty, patting her little foot on the rustling floor ; ‘ but she shall not quarrel with me. I won’t let her. I am too good-uatured, and too accustomed to humouring people, especially old ones. Madame Moligny wrote me word that she disliked yonng and pretty governesses particularly. Now, I’m not young—-not very voung, you see.’ ‘ No ?’

‘ I was twenty last week,’ said Letty, solemnly, ‘ and I am not pretty enough to disturb her mind. 1 am tolerably decent looking. Now, if madame had selected Olive Dayton, who used to be in the same class with me—she was a regular beauty, with great, shady eyes, and a complexion all pearls and roses—there would have been danger then.’ The stranger began to look interested. ‘ Tell me more about your school,’ said he. ‘ I have a sister whom I think of placing in some desirable institution, and I should like to judge whether your Madarne Moligny’s would be a good home for her.’ Letty’s eyes brightened, her cheeks reddened, and herlittle tongue was unloosed at once. Her travelling companion was social and chatty,and the time fleeted swiftly away.

‘ You are going ?’ she cried, as at a lonely inn, overshadowed with silver-stemmed birches and funereal spruce woods, a light sleigh, drawn by two milk-white horses, was waiting. ‘ 1 nave reached the end of my journey,’ he said, courteously, touching his fur cap. ‘ I had intended to keep on to the end of the route, but I see they have sent to meet me here. I wish you every success and hiipphnss in your bear-taming,’ And as the sleigh-bells jingled away Letty felt herself flushing deeply. * I’m afiaid I have been talking too much,’ thought Letty ; ‘ but what is a body to do, shut up all day long in a stage-coach with a conversable gentleman ?’ And the rest of Miss Mainwaring’s journey was just a little tedious.

It was dusk when they arrived at Easterham Hall—a snosvy,chill dusk which made the glow of lights through scarlet moreen

curtains and the coral shine of a great wood fire in a stone paved hall as seen through the half open, door, most delightful and welcome.

Aunt Electa, a tall, prim old lady in snowy cap ribbons and a. brown satin dress, stood ready to welcome her ; and just behind her Letty saw a tall gentleman, with two little hoys clinging about him. ‘ This is my nephew Philip,’ the old lady said ; and Letty felt as if the blood in her veins was turning to fire, as she recognised —-her travelling companion of the day. '• Do I look very much like a bear, Miss Mainwaring V lie asked, laughing, as she stood, trembling and tongue tied, before him. ‘No don’t colour. I promise you to allow myself to become very tameable, And you must not cry, either,’ as the tears came into Lett.y’s eyes, ‘ There’s nothing for you to cry for. ’

‘ VY r hy didn’t you tell me who you were ?’ she asked, piteously. • Because you never asked me,’ Letty resolved within herself that she would leave Easterham the very next day But she didn’t keep the resolution. A.t the year's end she had neither quarrelled with Aunt Electa nor Mr Easterham, and the little boys thought ‘ Miss Letty ’ was perfection. So did their father.

‘ Letty, said he ; ‘ the year for which I engaged you is over.’ ‘ Yes,’ she responded, softly. ‘ Will you stay another year? Will you stay with me always, Letty ?’ And so, within the yellow shine of a wedding ring, Letty found herself a prisoner forever at Easterham Hall,