Novelest.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2549, 10 November 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

Novelest.

A STORY IN THREE CHAPTERS. BY DOEA KUSSELL, Author of " Footprints in the Snow,' "Thk Brokkn Seal," Benkath taik Wave," &c, &c, CHAPTER I. " I have often heard you say, my clear Ann," wrote Colonel Lee one evening to his only sister, " that there are no fools like the old fools, and I expect when you have read this letter that you will at least mentally repeat this truism. I have in fact a piece of news for you, and it will at first, I believe, astonish you exceedingly, when I tell you I am going to bs married, and that the lady is very much younger than myself. I know you will think this foolish ; but it is difficult to be wise under some circumstances, and I at least am not wise enough to resist my own feelings and those of the dear girl who has promised to be my dear wife. " You will remember her, I think, when I tell you she is the daughter of Captain Oliver, our adjutant. Since the return of the regiment, Mrs. Oliver, who left India some five years ago, for the sake of the education of her family, has rejoined her husband, and imagine my surprise when I met Katie, the eldest daughter, who, when I saw her last, was a tall, rather awkward-looking girl of fifteen, but who I now found grown into one of the most attractive young women I had ever seen.

"I am not going into rhapsodies, so don't be afraid. Katie has been good enough to overlook my brown skin and grizzled hair, and though she is too shy, poor child, to say much about it herself, her mother tells me she is truly and deeply attached to me, and please God I will try to make her a happy wife , and I am also, my dear Ann, going to beg for her a little sisterly kindness and affection.

" Iu old days, I believe, you did not like Mrs. Oliver. She is peculiar, I admit, but then she may not in her youth have had many advantages, and bringing up so large a family as she has had on such small pjcans, must have often prevented

her attending to those little details which you ladies are so particular about, but which must necessarily involve more time and attention than probably this poor woman was able to give. " I hope to hear from you soon, and with best love, I remain, " Your affectionate brother, " A usten Lee." " The Barracks, Silverton." This letter was left by the postman on the following evening for Miss Lop, at a small house in the suburbs of the cathedral town of Dunmore and the lady received it just after she had finished her solitary dinner. She was a good looking, dark woman of nearly fifty, who had grown sarcastic and bitter from having too keen an insight into her fellow creatures' hearts, and not a keen enough one into her own, and as she read her brother's letter she turned suddenly scarlet, and when she had finished it, flung it indignantly on the table before her.

" The fool, th» stupid fool !" she muttered half aloud. "So he does not see, does he, the little trap which has been set for him, not even neatly, and into which he has so innocently fallen. I remember Mrs. Oliver, indeed ! and have heard of Miss Katie Oliver too ! A vulgar designing woman—a vulgar designing girl. Fancy one of us ; fancy a Lee being connected with such a family as this !"

Miss Lee's indignation was very great, but it did not quite overcome her prudence. She had only a very small income of her own, but Colonel Lee for many years had generously doubled it by making her an annual allowance from his own purse, and thisfnet occured to Miss Lee's mind as she rose and went towards her desk for tke purpose of replying to his letter. " No," she thought, turning back after a moment's reflection, and sinking onoe more in her ordinary chair. " No, I will s'eep on it. They say twelve hours are necessary to get over one's first indignation ; I think it will take twelve years to get over mine." In the morning, however, she was cooler ; but still she could not resist telling her brother that she highly disaprovpcl of the family he was about to be connected with. " My dear Austen," she wrote, "there are fools of all ages, but about love affairs I do think old ones are the worst. I remember the Oliver family perfectly. Captain Oliver is a meek, light-haired, hen-pecked little man, isn't he? And Mrs. Oliver used to be a highly roughed, very untidy lady when I knew her, who was always presenting the poor meek little man with a new squaling baby to bother him out of the little sense he originally possessed. I have heard also something of your choice, Miss Katharine Olive, since she grew up. At Plymouth, where they lived while the regiment was in India, Charlie Pocock frequently met her. She is pretty, I hear, and f am sorry for your sake that she is. You know what Solomon says about a fair woman without discretion, and I will not disguise from you, my dear Austen, that this girl has, to say the least, been lightly spoken about.

" Dear brother, do not be angry with me, but is this warning too late ? Consider for a moment; you are fifty one—and you are guileless as a child. I believe this of you, though of no other human lieing I have ever known. Women like these Olivers will impose on you : will cheat and deceive you— are deceiving you, lam sure. Dear Austen take your old sister's advice and do not bring such a set of hornets about our ears. You can surely make some excuse, and compensation for injured affection, will lam sure be acceptable to them. I implore you, dear Austen, not to throw away all chance of happiness for your natural life, and I remain ever, Your affectionate sister, "Axn Lee." " The Cloisters Dunmore." The tanned brown skin, which Colonel Lee had told his sister that Katherine Oliver had consented to overlook, turned a deep dusky red as he perused this letter. He rose after he had finished it, and went and stood looking for a moment into the narrow dim glass which adorned the modern uiantel-piece of his barrack room, and then he turned away from the contemplation of his own features with a restless sigh.

Yet he need not have clone so. Though fifty one, Colonel Lee, if not handsome was certainly a distinguished looking man. He was tall and soldier-like, and though his hair was grizzled, and his face was brown, his honest manly expession, and his bright regular features, made his appearance at once agreeand impressive. But Colonel Lee had only looked at the lines and the grey hair when he sighed; and perhaps he was mentally comparing these as he did so, with the blooming skin and shining locks of his promised bride. But his sister's letter, though it left a rankling sore there, had no further effect on his mind. He wrote in reply to it a few short words, which Miss Lee was forced to be content with, and make the best of, for she saw plainly that she had deeply offended her brother. "My honour and my affections are alike engaged to Miss Oliver," wrote the Colonel, " and I trust that in future you will spare any comments on her, or her family, which I assure you were equally

unjust and untrue," and Miss Lee out of respect either for her brother or the income she derived from him, forehore any further remarks on his engagement, and when she next she wrote, made no illusion to it whatever. If the contemplated marriage was distasteful to Col. Lee's nearest relation, it was at least highly agreeable to every member of the future bride's family. (Japt. Oliver had nine children, of whom Katherine was the eldest, and no private fortune, therefore his elation, and that of the Irish lady who shared his name and his pay, was almost equally unbounded at the event.

"Sure if mo first had been a boy Colonel, as I settled it was to be before Katie appeared, I should have wished him jest like yerself," said Mrs Oliver, in the first fullness of her heart, " and now Katie has got ye, it conies to the same thing, and I feel like a mother to ye already. The newly-acquired son only smiled very feebly in reply to this remark of his gushing future parent, She was a lady some two years younger than himself, and in spite of his regard for her daughter, he could not feel comfortable in her society, »r adapt himself to her free and careless ways.

Miss Lee's description of her might be rather ill-natured, but it was hardly exaggerated. For twenty-one years she squabbled with barrack masters, ■with lodgingkeepers, and servants, and had generally proved victorious in these encounters; and for twenty-one years, as she frequently declared, "she had kept up her whatever there happened," and it must be admitted had borne herself bravely in many a troublesome

She was a stout little woman, with light hair, and troubling grey eyes, and in the evening was always highly adorned. She then wore rouge and a chignon, which she considered unnecessary in the morning "among our own people," as she used to say, with an expressive wave of her little hand. " Our own people," consisted of the entire regiment, officers, servants and camp-followers, generally. These she would receive with perfect composure at any time, attired in an old red flannel dressing gown, and with her dusty hair arranged in a small tight screw at the back.

But when she went " out," no one was smarter than Mrs Oliver. The many countries she had visited were then generally represented in different parts of her costume. At Aden she had obtained a large supply of ostrich feathers, and with these she and her family were constantly be plumed. But though she talked very loud, and boasted, and was not particular in speaking the truth, she was still by no means a bad little woman, she was, in fact, a clever little woman, and had done her best for her husband and family, and very often for her neighbours as well, all through her long and not unrueritorious career. She had arranged her daughter's marriage after this fashion.

One day the heavily-burdened Captain Oliver almost rebelled aagainst the authority which had so long been exercised over him, on Mrs Oliver declaring she must have money to buy a new " frock " for Katie. " I cannot afford it," groaned the unfortunate Olirer, "so its no use you asking me any more." "The child must have decent clothes, or how is she to get married 1" said the mother, decidedly. " Katie's a pretty girl, but all girls need setting off. Why Henry, I don't know ye would have had me yourself if it hadn't been for all the smart things I wore for yer sake— some of which I declare," added the lighthearted lady with a little laugh, " are not paid for to this very day." " I dare say," said the unfortunate Henry with another groan. " We've only a poor lot with us now," continued Mrs Oliver, contemplatively considering her daughter's matrimonial chances with the regiment. " The lads who join now are hardly worth powder and shot. There's young Wilkinson certainly —they say his mother allows him five-hundred; the Colonel told me " " Well, the Colonel is a bachelor himself," said Capt. Oliver with a satirical grin.

"And so sure he is," answered Mrs Oliver with alacrity, " and cjuite time too he was thinking of being something else. Why, Henry, nothing could be better-" " He's old enough to be her father," said Captain Oliver. " To be sure, and to be her husband too !" said Mrs Oliver. " Capital, Henry. Ye don't often put ideas into me head, but ye've put one now, and I'll carry it out as sure as me name is Maria." She did cavry it out and very cleverly. Without making it conspicuous, she began to encourage the Colonel at once to " drop in " more frequently in the evenings, and always tolling him what a treat it was to the " children, poor things " to see him. The Colonel liked young people, and the pretty smiling girl he always found ready to welcome him, soon began te interest him exceedingly. He bought her music and gloves, and teased her about her admirers among the young officers; her mother all the while looking apparenty carelessly

on, till she thought the time was ripe for her to interfere. Then one evening the Colonel received a little note from Mrs Oliver, asking him to " come in " for half-

an-hour on particular business. He went at once in perfect innocence, and was received by Mrs Oliver alone, looking exceedingly pensive, and with her best lace pocket-handkerchief lying ready open on her knee. " My dear Mrs Oliver," said the Colonel, noticing these indications of sorrow with much concern, " I hope nothing is the matter. "Then there just is," answered the lady with a heavy sigh. Pecuniary difficulties which were not uncommon to the Oliver household, instantly represented themselves to Colonel Lee's imagination. " I am sure my dear madam," he said, drawing out his purse, "I shall be most happy- " "It is not that, Colonel; it is worse, than that," said Mrs Oliver with a sob, throwing her handkerchief judiciously over her face as she spoke, apparently to hide her tears, " it is that poor child—poor Katie," " What on earth is the matter with Katie 1 Good Heavens! I hope nothing has happened to her 1" "It is just this, Colonel," said Mrs Oliver with another sob, and wiping her eyes vigorously. "Just that ye must come here no more— the poor silly girl."

*' I cannot understand you, Mrs Oliver. I trust you will explain what you moan." " Well, then, she's fallen into love with ye ! there's the plain English of it," said Mrs Oliver, " and as I tell her, poor child, ye'll niver look nt her. So, Colonel dear, ye must jest keep out of the way, and maybe she'll get over it in time." The Colonel stammered and blushed ; the Colonel rose and sat down. Katie's pretty ways, and Katie's pretty face recurred to his mind—the dear child—the sweet child—how could he cause her a pang? " l—l—am sure, Mrs Oliver, I do not know what to say," he faltered. "J — I—am so old." "Ye don't look a day above forty!" said Mrs Oliver, briskly, forgetting her grief. '• If it's ye're age" that's troubling ye now, Colonel, don't mention it, for I consider ye quite in ye're prime." The Colonel was mortal, therefore flattery was sweet. " If—if—l thought that I could make her happy—" said he hesitatingly, and looking down. " Happy! happy as a queen," said Mrs Oliver. " A few words from ye're mouth this day. Colonel, would give Katie a happy heart!" The few words were spoken, and as Katherine Oliver listened to them, she blushed and trembled, and finally burst into a flood of passionate tears. "The poor darling!" cried Mrs Oliver, embracing her, " the poor shy little pet! Kiss her, Colonel dear :—ah, thin now my darling, jest consider ye've got a good husband, and ye'll niver want for anything more all ye're life long. , ' [To be continued).