The Storyteller.

Waikato Argus, Volume I, Issue 37, 3 October 1896, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Storyteller.

IN THE LION'S DEN. X. Mr Tkmi'LEß paced his room, and stood occasionally before his lire warming his hands. Then he paced the room again. Then went to the window and looked out. A cold fog lay over the landscape, every twig was beaded with water drops, the caves dripping, He half opened his window and looked out, but speedily closed the glass again. " That is well," he said, " the gardener has the (ire lighted in the greenhouse." There was a large pond before the house, and over this the fog condensed into thicker folds, and entangled itself in the great masses of withered Osmunda regalis that adorned the sides. Christmas was near at hand, but the weather was not Christmas-like. It depressed the spirits. Mr. Tcmpler, especially, was out of tunc, lie could settle neither to reading nor to turning. 110 could not walk up and down his room consecutively a dozen times. Having nothing better to do, he stood at the window watching a wagtail that ran along the gravel walk a few paces and then stood still, dipping its head, and wagged its tail, once, twice, thrice, then ran on, made another dip, and again wagged its tail, once, twice, thrice. "I suppose," said Mr. Templer, " the peculiar motion the bird makes with its head and breast has given it the vulgar name of Dishwasher." Then his interest in the creature was done, and he returned to the lire to warm his palms. "Confound it all," he said, " what a precious mess I have made of matter." He took out his watch and compared it with the black marble timepiece on the mantleshelf. " Eleven fourteen, by mine ; eleven fifteen by the other, a minute wrong somewhere. The train must have arrived ten minutes ago by one, and nine by the other. I suppose she will soon be here. Well! I wonder how matters will end. Really, Phyllis behaved very badly to me. She might have let n.o know the captain was engaged to her cousin, instead of tantalising and tormenting me for so long What is done is done, and is past recall. 1 must make the best of a bad job."

lie went buck to the window. The wagtail was still on the gravel walk, and Mr. Templer counted the vibrations of the (ail. " Four times on this occasion," muttered he. " There sceins to be no law about the number of times he wags his tail. Really, I have a great mind to take up natural history, ami study the habits of birds."

Presently up ilrtfvo a close carriage, and from it descended Theresa. She looked up and saw Mr. Templet's face at the window, ami smiled and signed with her hand. "She ought not to have dene that before the servants," said he, witli a frown. " Really she must be cautioned." A moment after, and his door opened ; she came in with both hands extended. "That was kind of you to look out forme. You were thinking of—expecting me." lie took one of her hands. " 1 suppose you are cold," he said. "Yes," she answered, "And yon also." She stood before him, and looked anxiously into his face. His eyes fell. lie stammered something without meaning. " You are not pleased to see me," she said, after a while of painful hesitation. '• You arc changed. What have I done 1" "My dear Theresa, you should not have waved your hand to me in that free and familiar manner on the carriage step ; with John Thomas and Sarah .Jane at the door."

" But J was so pleased to sec you, and to think that you were expecting, and impatient for my arrival." " My dear child, we must learn to control our feelings. We do not wear our hearts on our sleeves for every daw to pick at." "O my friend ! There is so much restraint at school, that when holiday lime arrives J cast it all aside." "You must not do so. Here, even more than at the Institution for Young Ladies, must you exercise great control over yourself, and command over your feelings. Do not expect of mo strong and fantastic exhibitions of love. I am past the years in which love is a tempestuous passion, and breaks out in poetic rhapsody. lam glad of this opportunity of speaking my mind on the subject, so that there may be no heartburning on one side, and annoyance on the other. You must Irani, my dear Theresa, that I do not love you the less, if 1 am not always expressing my passion in tall heroics. I love with gravity, and evenly ; and 1 ask of you to accommodate yourself to this." Then in came Miss Tompler.

" How do you do?'' she said. li I am sorry I was not in the hail to receive you, but J was called away about some domestic business. J am gl id to see you looking so well, but surprised to Jind you in Mr. Arthur Templer's study. This is hardly the place a young lady should run to, the moment she enters the house. Learn, uiy dear

Theresa, that you have to mind you i' P's and Q's whilst hero ; we must not allow ihe world to talk. Gome now with mo, and 1 will show you your room. What? with tears in your eyes? lam surprised. Follow me. We lunch at one o'clock." When Theresa had left the room, Mr. Tcmpler went to the window oiice fi'oro, to see if the wagtail was still there. "Of course it is not," said he, when lie saw that the drive was hare of birds, " the carriage seaied it away." Though there was no wagtail there, he rem lined at the window, looking dreamily out into the dreary sky. it seemed to him that his prospects were not less melancholy, How could his marriage be happy ? Theresa was an exacting person, she would demand much affection, a thousand tokens of love, and he would not be capable of giving her what she asked for. lie would deny her nothing that his means would allow him to furnish her with. If she desired a fernery with exotic ferns, she should have it, but all those little tendernesses which a woman's soul craves for, ho would be incapable of giving her, and without them she would languish, or become discontented. In the evening, at dinner, Theresa looked very pretty, dressed for the occasion, Mr. Templer kept up an animated conversation about everything that came into his head ; but it was not possible to animate the girl, lie looked at her covertly, and did not fail to notice a change in her. The brightness, eagerness and glow, with which she had run into his study to greet him were gone, and had made way for a look of deep depression. Her eyes had lost their brilliancy, her checks their colour, the dimples had faded from the corners of her lips, and earnestness had oast a shadow over her brow. The girl seemed to have been transformed into the woman. She was absent-minded throughout dinner, and Mr. Tcmpler was annoyed to find that she had not heard some of his remarks.

In the drawing-room, after dinner, he sat at the piano and played .Mendelssohn's Songs without Words —the typical music of shallow scntimentalism. lie was not a good player, he had taken up music as he had taken up poultry and and turning. Presently lit; left the piano, and saw that his aunt had fallen asleep in her chair beside the fire.

Theresa was on a low stool, looking into the red ashes, lost in thought.

" My dear girl," said .Mr. Templer, taking her hand, " I want you to smile Von have grown ve.-y grave. Are you angry with raof Theresa did not reply, she continued gazing into the fire, but her mouth twitched, and hrr eyes filled. " Look about you,"' said Arthur, "I particularly desire your opinion about the drawing-room. 1 have had it entirely refurnished. Sagegreen, and sear-leaf, and ivory-white, with a touch here and there of gold. 1 flatter myself it is tasteful." She stood up, and looked round, but her eyes were dim, and she could see nothing.

"You remember the old paper, do you not, white with nondescript gold donations on it. and the furniture covered with the crudest green. I think that the curtains are particularly handsome. They have a border of leaves embroidered round them. Come and see."

ilo led her to the window, and showed her the curtains. She tried (<> disguise from him that she was obliged to use her handkerchief to clear her eyes before she could see. " i T es," she said in a gentle voice, " that is very pretty. The whole room is rich and beautiful."

" L have had it done, Theresa, against our marriage. .My aunt has been considering, and she says it will not do to postpono it another year, so it is to be about May," " Very well."

"You see, yon must cither remain at school during the holidays —and to that I would not consent —or you must come here. Well, people might talk if this were done often, so Miss Templar thinks that, taken all in all, it had better be got over as soon as Dsssible."

" What had Letter ho got over T' " The marriage." " My good friend," snid Thfircsa, leaning back against tlio shutter.-?, and putting lier hand on his arm to arrest him. " 1 am sure you are hind, and will do all you think right and considerate, hut I do not ask of you to re-paper rooms, and rc-gild cornices, and embroider curtains, to make me happy. The more splendid the house is made, the more unlike home it seems to me. Do not think me ungrateful for your many kindnesses to me, I value every little token you afford me, that you love mo, but only as a token of love. The love is that which J care for, which I desire above everything. If vou were to go into the most gorgeous palace, and lind, in the midwinter, no lire on the marble hearth you would shiver and sigh Cor the little cabin where; all is sordid, but whero yet there is a glowing lire. So is it here ; everything takes its worth from your love. If you love me, aU is beautiful, all is glorious. If you do not, nothing can please me, 1 am dazzled, I am estranged. i can, I feel, be here unspeakably happy or unspeakably miserable. If you do not love, mo, then all 1 receive from you helps to humble- —oven to degrade me, it makes of me a pauper on your alius, if you

i love me, it is quite different. I accept everything, as my own, with j°y-" " Theresa, this is unreasonable." " Not at all. It is plain, goud sense. 1 fear, my dear friend, that you do not love me any more. When I arrived at the station and found you were not on the platform to receive me, I was disappointed. 1 had reckoned on seeing your face there. However, I thought to myself m the carriage that probably Miss Tcmpler had interfered, and said it would not be proper for you to meet nw. When 1 saw your face at die window watching for my arrival, my heart; revived, but when I came up the steps to the door, and entered the hall, and you were not there, then I was disappointed again, and I ran, without a thought of doing wrong, to your library, and there " She put her hands over her eyes and sobbed. Mr Tcmpler was disturbed. Nothing is more difficult for a man to undertake than the consolation of a weeping woman. lie was awkward and unsuccessful, and it was with relief that he heard Miss Tcmpler awake and ask when the tea. would be brought in. Theresa recovered herself and replied that the tea was already there, should she pour it out. " Certainly not," said Miss Tcmpler, affronted. "It is my place, not yours, child. When will you learn what is proper, and what is not ?" (To be cmithwnlj.