CHAPTEE II.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1598, 30 September 1882, Page 1

CHAPTEE 11.

One morning, several months after the time of which I haye been writing, my father received a communication which appeared to disturb him a good deal, and, knowing what I did of his precarious condition, I watched him with considferable anxiety from the other side of the breakfast-table, as, with knitted brow and hand nervously trifling with his tea-spoon, he read and re-read a letter, the envelope of which I could see bore a foreign postage-stamp. At last he laid it down, sat for a few moments in deep thought, and then tossed the epistle over to me. " Bead that, Harry," he said with a halfsmile, " and tell me what you think of the proposed addition to our establishment." The letter, which was dated from St. Petersburgh, was signed "Frederick Kempsford," and, much to my astonishment, contained a request that my father would give a home to the writer's only daughter, who would, ho said, bo an orphan by the time the letter reached its destination. A good deal was said about remorse and penitence for something of which my father appeared to be cognisant, and a final appeal on behalf of the prospective orphan was made in the name of early friendship. " You are acquainted with this Mr. Kempsford, then," I said, when I had finished. " Yes ; we were fast friends at one time, till circumstances arose — but first tell me what you think of this request." I hesitated ; for though it seemed hard to refuse such a piteous prayer, my first duty was to my father, and the state of his health was in my thought as I answered that I feared such an addition to our household would inconvenience and disturb him. "It need do neither," he answered. "To you, who aie young, would fall the task of amusing tho young. Twenty years old," he added, glancing again at the letter," and you are twenty -five. You would be much thrown together, and might chance to fall in love with each other 1" " And would that be a very terrible catastrophe ?" I asked with a laugh. My father laughed, too. " No," he said. "It would be neither very dreadful nor very surprising, but still there are reasons which would render such an event undesirable in my eyes. But what is the use of speculating? What will be, will be !" with which incontrovertible proposition be rang tho bell for the housekeeper, and, much tefher astonishment, directed her to make the necessary preparations for a lady inmate. " This girl's mother," he said, when the woman had retired, " was a "native of Malta, and a Eoman Catholic. The daughter will in all probability have been brought up in that religion, and though I need not tell you that I am perfectly free from anything in the way of bigotry, I have observed that a difference of religion in wedded life is almost invariably productive of trouble and ill-feeling, if not of downright quarrelling. But that is a minor objection ; another and more serious one is that while her mother's character might easily have been better, her father's could hardly have been worse. Frederick Kempsford is distantly 'related, I am sorry to say, to your mother's family, and when I first knew him it would have been difficult to find a more attractive young man. Handsome, highspirited, and good-tempered, he was the life of the circle in which he moved, and from organising private theatricals to getting up a picnic — from making an after-dinner speech to singing a comic song, there was nothing he could not do. At all kinds of tricks with cards he was particularly au fait, and it was his ability in this direction that finally led to his social ruin. " He entered the Guards, and I saw no more of him though horn, time to time I heard of him as playing a leading part in fashionable society. Then rumors began to arise that suspicions with regard to his honor were entertained in connection with the high play to which he had become addicted, and at last the storm burst in the tremendous esclandre raised by his having completely ruined a foolish young fellow-officer named Warwick. Kempsford, it seemed, had won from him — or swindled him out of — every shilling he was worth — some ten thousand pounds — and had afterwards shot his victim in the shoulder, in a duel which was the result of the affair. An investigation was held, Kempsford was cashiered,' and both he and Warwick left the country. What became of the latter I do not know, but his destroyer was heard of from time to time as roaming about the Continent — a professional sharper ! And now his end has come, and I am asked to take charge of his daughter. Unfortunate daughter of such a parent 1" concluded my father, as, with a sigh, he sat down to answer Kempsford's letter. I took my gun and went out. The .day was bright and breezy, and, as I strolled slowly out of the grounds, the rabbits which had overrun the place scampered about in all. directions, but I was absorbed by the, story I had just heard, and the piece lay idly on my arm. Suddenly .there was a lumbering rush behind me, and my abstraction was rudely ■ dispelled -by. something which .came, into forcible ''yithi; my backhand me* Aqlm's s^en*l<p iok^d^mjfself ujppf ,'f 6unil|

boated all over England for their size and purity of breed. He had at this time some seven or eight, and, with one exception, they possessed the stolid good temper peculiar to the mastiff. That exception was this very dog, Titan, as ho was called — an enormous brute of the brindled variety. He stood thirtythree inches" high at the shoulder, and had once cost his owner a good round sum on account of a horse which he had pulled down and killed. Under these circumstances I was doubtful whether it would be wise to take him with me ; but", as he appeared just then to be in excellent temper, I decided upon letting him come. A trifling matter to record, it may seem, but one which I was long afterwards to find was of terrible significance. Turning up a lane which gave a short cut to the river, I saw a strange-looking object at the other end, which, on a nearer approach, turned out to be an old woman on a donkey ; and, as she came towards us, I saw by the man's hat and long blue cloak which she wore that the rider was an old dame known in the neighborhood as Black Betty. Black Betty was a pretender to the magic art, and her powers in that direction were firmly believed in, and devoutly feared by the country-folk for miles around. Certain it was that she pos sossed a great knowledge of herbs and their properties, and drove a thriving trade in tho usual rude rural medicines, and even, if rumor did not lie, in decoctions of a less innocent character. She was the very incarnation of spitcfulness, and, with her nutcracker jaws, hairy chin, and little piercing eyes, looked the part of witch to the life. Pulling up her donkey as I approached, she scanned mo from head to foot with a diabolical grin. " So, you be old bookworm Eaymond's son, be you!" she said. "Well, you baint much to be proud on !" "Hallo, Betty!" said I, "yau're in a bad temper to-day ; what's the matter with you ?" " Gi' me none o' your Betties, you longlegged, saucer-eyed cub ! I'd like to pizen you, I would, an 1 your feyther along of you ! " Here Titan walked up to sniff at the donkey, which, having probably never before beheld a dog of such dimensions, backed hastily into the hedge, and thereby drew down his mistress's wrath upon the dog. "An' that's one o' they great beastses of dogs that your old fool o' a feyther keeps, to fright the lives out o' folk an' eat tho meat as were meant for Christens. Take that, you brute!" she concluded, bringing her thorn stick violently down upon Titan's broad back. Any of the other mastiffs would have treated tho insult with contempt, but Titan's blood was hotter ; with one bound he knocked the old wretch off her donkey, and then stood sullenly over her, mingling his deep growl with her shrill cries of " murder I" With some difficulty I got the dog away, and held him by the collar while the hag scrambled on her donkey, and rode off, without daring to open her mouth again, lest .the terrible animal should be set free to pursue her. "I don't think Titan would have injured J her," said my father when I mentioned the occurrence to him ; " but I must get rid of him, for his infirmity of temper is a decided proof of faulty breeding. He has done what was never done before, though — stopped Black Betty's mouth !" And tlien we both laughed, all unconscious that the dog had done what was to cost us dear.