LO

GHELLES AND BHAUX.

[Frpruary 28, 1874.

 

 

“Tn what direction?”

“In her direction—in his direction. Oh!
good gracious! it’s enough to take one’s breath
away.”

“Tt seems to have taken more than one’s
brains away,” said Prissy, impatiently. ‘‘ Who’s
your ‘ her,’ and what about your ‘him? If it’sa
riddle, ’1l1 go back and have another snooze,
and guess it after breakfast.”

“Prissy, he has come back—Dick Kava-
nah!”

It was Prissy’s turn to open her eyes now.

“Dick Kavanah come back!” she repeated,
incredulously. ‘‘Who has seen him? Who
says so?”

“He was in the neighborhood yesterday.
St. George” (they would insist on speaking of
Cuthbert Deane as St. George) “saw him,
spoke with him.”

And then Kate Darling repeated to Prissy
what she had told the others.

“But in that bad man’s company!” said
Prissy—‘‘in company with thieves and mur-

derers! I am very sorry for that. Poor Su-
san!”

And tears of sympathy filled the young girl’s
eyes.

‘¢ And she looking forward for his return so
anxiously, so hopefully—she and her dear lit-
tle baby boy. Oh! it will break her heart,”
said Miss Linnet, tearfully.

Kate looked in bewilderment from one to the
other.

“But I did not know—I did not understand
that you knew where Susan was,” she observed.

The three girls exchanged glances, smiling
through their tears.

“That is a little secret of ours, dear,” said
Carry Maltravers—‘‘a secret that you have
now earned the right to participate in. Susan
Kavanah was not, as Miss Savernake fondly
imagined, thrown on the merciless world when
her husband was taken from her.”

‘““By whom was she succored then?’ Kate
asked.

“¢Oh, it’s a joint-stock company,” said Prissy.
‘We all have shares in it.”

SC ATI?”

“Carry, Letty and myself I mean, though
Carry is the head of the concern, I suppose, she
being the greatest capitalist, and which I am
happy to tell you is flourishing.”

“No, but seriously.”

“Seriously, then, Miss Darling, we three
conspirators have been guilty of the crime of
frustrating the Savernake’s amiable intentions
by assisting to maintain the poor girl whom she
would have crushed, out of our superfluous
pocket-money.”

“Ts it possible?” exclaimed Kate, gazing
from one to the other in bewilderment as to
which to fall on first and give her a kiss and a
hug. ‘Heaven bless you for the good act.”

“Good granny,” returned Prissy. ‘“‘I am
afraid we shall come short of a crown of glory,
or even half a crown, unless we do better than
that. It was to spite the Savernake chiefly
that we entered on it.”

“But at least poor Susan has been benefited
—saved, perhaps, by your noble geherosity.”

“‘Oh, we haven’t made a lady of her,” said
Carry Maltravers, laughing. ‘‘ We have not
established her in a neat mansion, or given her
so much as a maid of all work to wait on her.
She lives in a tiny two-roomed cottage not four
miles from this, and there she sits, stitching as
busy as a bee from morning till night. She
wouldn’t need anything from us poor souls only
that sewing is so badly paid for, and she was a
long time idle nursing her poor little boy, who
has been very ill.”

“But how did you communicate with her?”

‘Pepper is our agent,” said Prissy. ‘‘ That
poor Pepper, if he was to be so unfortunate as
to be cut off in his prime, and before he had
time to repent of the awful lot of wicked stories
he tells Miss Gritty in our behalf, it would be
our bounden duty to pray for him every night
of our lives. But it is dreadful news—this of
her husband coming back in such wicked com-
pany.”

Kate was silent and thoughtful for several
seconds.

“Do you think that he has returned to her
by this time?” she asked.

“ Not likely.”

“ Why not?”

“ Because, in order to put Miss Savernake off
the scent, she has assumed a name that it is
not hers, and has dyed her light hair dark
brown, and one way or another has quite alter-
ed her natural appearance.”

“Could you direct me to find her?”

“ce You 7

It was not one voice, but three that asked
her the question.

eV cer”

“ But what for?”

“T beg it as a favor—lI have a particular
reason for desiring it,” said Kate, earnestly.

“ But you must have a reason.”

**That, for the present, you must permit me
to keep as my secret. I mean no harm to the
poor girl, of that you may be sure.”

** But how will you contrive to go?”

‘Easily enough,” returned Kate, with a
shrug of her shoulders.

‘Maybe not. ~ There is no such thing as go-
ing and coming at will at this jail, remem-
ber.”

“ Perhaps Kate has a master key that will
save her the trouble of begging Miss Gritty’s
permission.”

“T have something more potent than that,”
returned Kate confidently, smiling.

“ How?”

““T have a friend in the jailer.”

“The jailer?”

“Ay; our chief jailer—Miss Savernake.”

Carry Maltravers shook her head.

‘You don’t know her,” said she.

   

 

 

“‘ Anyhow, she shall stand my friend on this
occasion.”

“Shall?”

“Yes; and you shall see it. It shall be
through Miss Savernake’s intercession that Miss
Gritty grants me leave to go a long walk, and
all alone.”

“Prove it, and from this moment I will
believe in the art of conjuring,” said Prissy
Sharp.

“Then say no more about it, and give me
the poor girl’s address, and await the result,”
returned Kate Darling.

Great was the expectation and speculation
among the girls.

Breathless was the anxiety, when after
breakfast Kate approached the terrible Saver-
nake, and solicited a few minutes’ private con-
versation.

It was observed that the woman turned a
shade paler than ordinary, and that there was
a quivering of her thin, determined-looking
mouth.

“After dinner I will speak with you, Miss
Darling,” she said, turning away.

“Tn that case I must appeal to Miss Gritty,”
said Kate, boldly. ‘I cannot wait so long as
dinner-time.”

Miss Savernake turned and confronted her
with flashing eyes, but was met by a look that
seemed to trouble her exceedingly.

“As you will,” she replied. ‘‘ Follow me,
Miss Darling.”

Miss Savernake closed the door of her
little private room, and, like a clever General,
opened fire at once, without waiting to be at-
tacked.

“J divine your intentions, Miss Darling,”
she said; ‘‘ you wish to speak to me concern-
ing the events of last night. Permit me to
inform you—”

‘* Pardon me, Miss Savernake, you are mis-
taken,” Kate calmly interrupted her. ‘It
will be time enough for you to give me infor-
mation on the subject to which you refer
when I seek it. At present I have no such
intention.”

Miss Savernake looked baffled and confused.

“What is it, then, you desire?” she asked.

“Simply permission to absent myself from
school two or three hours.”

Miss Savernake regarded her suspiciously.

“Tt is impossible,” she said.

“And why, pray?’

“You shall not ask me why, Miss Darling.
‘You know the rules.”

“And I know that the ruler governs them,
Miss Savernake. You are able to oblige me in
this, if you will. I respectfully beg that you
will not refuse me.”

The governess was silent.

There was something so coolly audacious in
the command that she was afraid of it.

The events of the preceding night presented
themselves vividly to her mind, and she could
not but feel that Miss Darling’s request had
some connection with them. :

She was aware—how it happened she could
not tell—that Cuthbert Deane was the gentle-
man with the livery servant who had been in
the garden the night before, and she was not
to be deceived by Tom Pepper’s description of
him.

She had not seen Cuthbert, but she had heard
the cry, ‘‘ Kate darling, Kate I am here,” and
she had seen with what trusting promptness
Miss Darling had responded.

She thought she had hit the right nail on the
head when she responded, sneeringly :

“Can you be so very anxious to see him
again already?”

Kate blushed crimson.

““To see whom, Miss Savernake?” she asked.

‘‘ The original of the locket you wear round
your neck, Miss Darling.”

Kate bit her lip.

“Tam not here to answer impertinent ques-
tions, Miss Savernake,” said she, with her dark
eyes flashing, ‘‘ but to urge a civil request. In
support of it I can scarcely do more than re-
peat your warning—lI can scarcely think that
you meant it as a threat—of last night, ‘ Be-
ware! we both have our secrets. Keep
mine.’”

It was not so much the words as the depth
of meaning that accompanied their utterance
that caused Miss Savernake to start and turn
away her head that Kate might not see her
altered countenance,

““You can go, Miss Darling,” she presently
remarked; “‘ you have leave from twelve to
four.”

With a subdued smile of triumph, Kate curt-
sied and left the room.

As she did so Miss Savernake’s distorted
countenance turned toward the door.

“And I, too, will go,” she muttered, pas-
sionately; “‘ there is more in this than appears.
Let those that dig pits beware, lest they fall
into them.”

 

CHAPTER XI.
THE MAN IN TROUBLE.

Grxat, indeed, was the amazement of Kate’s
three confidantes, when they were informed
by her of the perfect success of her interview
with Miss Savernake. :

“The only difficulty will be for you to find
your way,” said Carry Maltravers. “By the
straight road it is easy enough to find Den-
ham’s Cross, which is just close by where
Susan’s cottage is, but a much nearer and
quieter way is through the wood. If Pepper
were only at liberty now.”

“Tt is plate-cleaning day with Pepper,” re-
marked Letty Linnet, “and he'll be busy until
evening. Besides, the griffin would be sure to
suspect under the circumstances, if she were
asked to spare him to go on an errand.”

Prissy Sharp said nothing, but left the room,

 

 

Whether . she held .communication with
Thomas Pepper is not certain.

One thing is beyond doubt, however-—she
was seen suspiciously near the windows of the
scullery, where Thomas was employed up to
his eyes in plate powder.

Anyhow, at about a quarter to twelve, the
unfortunate youth was seized with a raging
toothache,

The attack was fearfully sudden.

Like the sweeping blast of the Eastern si-
moom, the serenity of morning school was un-
expectedly disturbed by a terrific howling, and
the cook appeared at Miss Gritty’s door, lead-
ing the afflicted page, whose left cheek was
swollen out to an alarming size, his face be-
grimed in tears, and his hair in the wildest
disorder.

The agony of the poor boy was pitiful to be-
hold.

He could not, even in Miss Gritty’s august
presence, keep a moment still, but hopped from
one leg to the other, as though he had red-hot
hob -nails in his boots, and wriggled and
writhed as though he had swallowed a lively
snake.

“Good Heaven! what is the matter? Is the
boy mad?” asked Miss Gritty, in alarm.

Pepper responded with a howl so loud, and
with such a threatening demonstration of run-
ning at Miss Gritty, and butting at her with
his head, that that good lady started back with
a cry of terror.

‘He has been running about the kitchen just
in this way this ten minutes,” said the serious
cook, ‘‘I can’t tell what it is, unless it’s the
prickings of his conscience, ma’am, which you
know men—”

But at this instant, a more cruel spasm than
any that had preceded it, seized on Master
Pepper, causing him to utter a yell like that of
a wild Indian, and then to wriggle down on to
the parlor mat, and envelop his head, and
kick up his heels.

‘« Tt’s toothache,” roared the suffering lamb;
“it’s tick doler-o000! ow! ow! Let me have
it out before I goes mad, and bites the best of
missusses, Oh! let me cut off to the dentist
and have it out, for it’s worse than the gnaw-
ing of dogs.”

Miss Gritty, as well as Miss Savernake, was
truly shocked at poor Pepper’s agony, and
hastily furnished him with a shilling for the
dentist, and let him out at the side gate, from
whence he went howling up the lane.

Judge then of Kate’s astonishment when, a
few minutes afterward, on her starting on her
errand, she came on Thomas Pepper seated on
a stile not two hundred yards from the house,
eating sour apples and chanting a lively lay
between the mouthfuls.

“Here you are, then!” exclaimed Tom, sa-
luting Kate with an easy nod of recognition;
‘“‘T thought you was never a-comin’.”

“But you were not expecting me, were
you?” Kate inquired, not a little surprised.

‘“Wasn’t I though? Why, what do you think
I left the very important job I was engaged on
for?”

* But what about the toothache?”

“Toothache !—what toothache ?”
Pepper, with edifying innocence.

“Why, you inexplicable boy, did I not see
you writhing in torture with it not half an
hour since?”

‘‘ Oh, my toothache!” remarked the finished
young impostor, for all the world as though
he had made sure that she was speaking about
some one else’s toothache. ‘‘ Bless you, yes,
I’ve got it now, o’ny I’m such a stunner to
bear pain that I don’t-mind it, ’specially when
I can serve a nice rich young lady like you
are.”

Kate could hardly forbear laughing while
she reproved Tom for his artful behavior.

‘“ Besides, you know you took Miss Gritty’s
shilling,” said she.

“T know I did. I’d took a half-crown if she’d

inquired

offered it to me,” replied the delighted youth, .

with perfect complacency.

“But she gave it to you to spend in a
remedy.”

‘Well, these ’ere are remedies,” said Tom,
tapping his bulging pocket.

‘‘What, sour apples a remedy for toothache?”

“ Cert’n’y, Miss.”

“T should like to hear how you make that
out, Tom.”

“That’s easy enough to do,” replied the im-
pudent young dog, with a grin. ‘‘ You eats
’em and eats ’em—the sourer they are the bet-
ter—until you gets such a jolly stomach-ache
that you forgets all about the toothache.

“But come along, Miss,” said the rude boy,
jumping off the stile; ‘‘we shan’t get to Den-
ham’s Cross to-day, if we waste our time here.”

Not caring to pursue her inquiries with so
versatile a personage, and confident now it was
an arranged matter, Kate was content to place
her herself under Master Pepper’s guidance, and
for half a mile or so they continued on their
way, Tom enlivening it with his cheerful dis-
course.

Suddenly, however, and just as they entered
the path that, led into the wood before men-
tioned, Tom Pepper suddenly came to a stand-
still, at the same time pointing toward a figure
seated on a fallen tree.

It was a man, and he sat with his face buried
in his hands, and with such an abject and way-
worn look with him that Kate’s tender heart
was at once touched.

“Poor fellow!” she murmured.

“What, you know him then?’ remarked
Master Pepper.

“Tt is not n to know him to see that
he is in deep distress,” Kate replied.

“ But do you, know him?” persis' ted Tom.

“Certainly not.”

“Would you like to know him? You’ve only
got to say the word, you know.”

 

“T wish you would leave off talking nonsense,
sir,” replied Kate reprovingly.

‘Well, you know best, Miss; since you are
going to see the wife, I thought you might take
some interest in the Lusband.”

Kate had started to walk on, but she came to
a stand-still at the boy’s words.

The husband!

Her husband!

“‘T haven’t clapped eyes on him for very nigh
two years, and the last time was that night
when they took him away for prigging—I beg
pardon, Miss, for purloining Miss Gritty’s
things; but I’m ready to take oath it’s him.”

“You are quite sure of it?”

“Certain.”

Kate reflected for a few moments, and then
turning to Pepper, she bade him stay behind a
little way, and if she walked on with the stran-
ger, to follow at some distance.

Pepper obeyed, and summoning up all her
courage, but with her heart beating fast, she
approached him.

He was sodeeply occupied with his miserable
‘thoughts that she was close to him before he
was aware of her presence.

He was a young man, apparently not more
than three or four and twenty, but weather-
stained and weary-looking.

“T beg your pardon,” said Kate Darling,
timidly; ‘‘are you in distress or trouble?”

It was with something of a scowl the man
first regarded her, as though he resented her
disturbing him, but her kindly tone of voice
and her gentle manner wrought their effect on
him,

His eyes became moist, and there was a ner-
vous twitching about the mouth.

“You are not far wrong, young lady,” said
he; ‘‘I am in trouble—I’m about drowned in it,
in a manner of speaking,” and he covered his
face again with his hands, and big tears trickled
through his fingers.

‘‘Have—have you lost any one?’ Kate ven-
tured to ask.

“That is my grief, lady.”

“ By death?”

“God forbid,” he said, raising his face sud-
denly, ‘‘and yet, perhaps, I am wrong in that;
better so than worse, as he says.”

“As who says?”

“Eh? Oh, no one in particular, lady; a
companion of mine.”

“One who has traveled with you ?”

And Kate eyed him keenly. :

(To be continued.)

 

AFFECTION.

BY CAROLINE OLLIVANT.

 

 

How colt would the world be, unwarmed by affec-
on,
How dark and how cheerless, unlighted by love;
The home where true love is casts bright the refiec-

tion,
Of beauty and harmony, perfect above.

Then, oh! let us ever, with kindliest feeling,
Greet all our friends, while we have them below,
And touch all their sorrows, with love’s softest
healing,
Which leaves a sweet balm that naught else can
bestow.

Yes, love scatters flowers on the path we're all
treading,
So let it then always abide in our breast,
The love and affection, that ever are shedding
On all things a halo of beauty and rest.

 

 

UNCLE HARRY’S MATCH-
MAKING.

BY ARCHIE C. IRONS.

 

 

64 ELL, young man, and what do you
think about it?”

“To be frank, uncle Harry, I don’t like it.”

“‘ And why not, ‘pray?’

“In the first place, I don’t think the young
lady would consent to be disposed of in such a
way, and I’m sure I wouldn’t, if she would.
What do you suppose she would think, if she
knew your harum-scarum nephew was sent
down there, post haste, to confer on her the
magnificent honor of making her his wife? I
shouldn’t admire her much, uncle Harry, if
she didn’t resent it.” And Roy Lester looked
up at his uncle with just the least shade of con-
tempt on his handsome face.

Mr. Harry Lester took another turn around
the room.

“‘ Leah Chester is a sensible girl, Roy; and
besides, you needn’t tell her anything about
your plans—”

“Your plans, uncle Harry.”

“Well, my plans then. Leah is the child of
my wife’s sister, and I love her as if she was
my daughter, and it is my dearest wish to see
you and her united; and as the city is pretty
dull now, you might just as well take a run out
there as not. I will drop them a line to apprise
them of your visit, and you can go the first of
next week. It won’t do any harm; you ain’t
obliged to marry her, if you don’t want to.”

And Mr. Harry Lester looked down upon his
nephew with the air of one who has arranged
everything to his own satisfaction.

Roy arose to his feet.

“‘It won’t be any use to go, uncle Harry,
but I will, just to please you. A couple of
weeks in the country in strawberry time, won't
be any punishment, at-any rate, and if your
niece is such a paragon as you think her, I
should like to make her acquaintance. So long
as she don’t know the object of my visit, I can
g0 with a good grace.”

Uncle Harry looked after him as he left the
room, with a sly twinkle in his gray eyes.

“Tt’s a good thing he got that impression,”
he muttered. ‘‘I never would have got him off
if he had known,” and forthwith uncle Harry

we

~< ee —