AS PURE AS THE

Bush Advocate, Volume I, Issue 44, 16 August 1888, Page 4

AS PURE AS THE

SNOW, c : CHAPTER 11. (Cpntinuod.) ' . " Oh, Phillis Rae, did you come up to the Park on any errand V }> 11 : Miss, Lenore told rae to come, I stamnieifed. Miss fekell turned towards her sister with a sneer. " Your tastes, Lenore, are, I fear, ineradicably low. The proper placjffor these people to be recognised by us is in the church or Sunday School. We are neither expected npr. required to carry our knowledge of them any further." " Oh, what a Christian creed! Miss Lenore said, with a mocking laugh; "and yet we were told by One long ago 4 tp -remember the ppor, who are always 1 With us." ,' .Miss, Eskell ignored the latter part of her sister's remark. " It is the only creed possible to our advanced civilisation," she said, cbiaiy,"and really your habit of satire, Lenore, grows unbecoming. . "You claim a monopoly of the accomplishment, Veronica ?" But there, was no answer to this. MisslEskel) -was occupied in arranging the lilies in her hair— lilies of the valley, whose pure w hite bells looked out ©f place among those unnatural braids and coils. Then she went off paying Miss Lenore to follow as she ofiose. \ 1 " I snail see you again before you goV'^id fny pretty young lady. ; -:<> Before supper I will contrive to sttjp' top into the gallery," and then she too left the room, and more - slowly^ wenfcdownstairs and joined ".. Ninon, who was waiting to take me 'to the gallery. '.'"'.. .* • "'l-isC)ien we took our seats, and, '■' ieatting forward, watched the guests entering, criticising them, in low • ; tones. There wore many pretty wo-

'r itfen there that night— &onie more : '':-. fchan pretty ; but the •• loveliest of theto all was Miss Lenore, though fioW fer face . had grown suddenly . <Jeddly pale, and ' her eyes burned \ :with a wild' unnatural lustre. Presently the. band began to tune . its instruments, anid we saw gentlemen scribbling thoir names on pretty pink programmes. Captain Lascelles was standing by Miss Lenore's side and she, with eyes downcast, listened in sileface to something he was say- ; ing.' Then she gave him her card, and I think he 'must have appropf.ited half the list, the little pencil was so long in writing. We saw her glance over the programme, the pallor of her face changing to an angry crimson. Then with a swift movement, she-crosse/L out at least Cwosttiirils of what he had written, and. then looked up into his face with those wonderful eyes of hers burning like stars. The look on his , face.made me. shiver, although the gallery was very warm, arid Ninon touching me on the arm, in her quaint broken English - . "He has the evil eye — le beau capitaine. I grieve gthat my lady has offended him. I made her no answer, for the band striicfc up the "Lancers" at that moment, and, looking down/ 1 saw that Miss "Lenore was standing bj/ the captain's side, vis^vis with her brother and one of our rector's daughters. But all through the . pretty figures of the dance I noticed that Miss Lenore spoke not one word to her partner, arid both ho and Mr Vyvyan looked, angry and uncomfortable. Wlien it was over she laid her hand upon his arm, and together / they walked through the room, the haudsdipest couple there." Heads word turned to look after them, and significant looks were exchanged, for rumour had been busy with their names, and it was considered almost a settled thing that they should make a match of it. looked after ; them excitedly; . - :■ tfi£ e Is going to propose/she said 11 but I hope my lady will not say to him ' Yea ' He is cruel-— what you call a brute. She will be miserable with. him," and I could not help smiling because, she seemed, to put half-a-dofcen "rV into the word miserable ; but I folt that she was right. The next dance was over before they reappeared, and then the delicate" pink of Miss Lenore's cheeks had deepened to a bright crimson. On the captain's face was a stormful calm. Ninon clapped her hands cxultingly, saying,— "My lady has given him his congd! Bah ! that is good." Miss Lenore was claimed by another gentleman for the quadrille j use forming, and the captain, walkin an apparently careless way about the room, was at last stopped by Mr Vyvyan. who was leaning against a pillar with a very moody look on his handsome, sensual face. Of course we could not hear what they were saying, but it could have been nothing very pleasant, for Mr Vyvyan started forward with clenched hands as if intending to go in search of someone or other, but the captain langhed a little, and held him tightly back. They say that onlookers see most of the game, and certainly it was so with me thaj> night, for after a little while I noticed ' that Mr Vy vyau was watching his youngest sister with an angry light m the eyes that •once were like hers, but now had grown wild and haggard in the terrible life he was leading. Mm) Eslcell joined him when Captain Lascelles moved away. She '„'414 not get many partners, although H fiomo were obliged to choose her because she was their host's daughter. -?3Bro|her ,ai)d sitter exchanged a few low^pokjon word?, and then she^too, ; pyjsd away, and I saw fcer also

standing, .opposite ...Lenore, and watching the flushed beauty of that lovely face. . ■ 'There was a formal supper (no snatching a morsel at a sideboard and hurrying back, as Miss Lenore .told me they did. at some of the grand houses she went to in London) and I was glad to see that she left the ball-room with a gentleman who was staying at the vicarage. . . I went down with Ninon to the housekeeper's room, . and : there we too, had supper, and resumed our places just as the ladies and gentleman returned to the ball-room, and a few minutes later I heard my name spoken in . the voice I loved best on earth (that is, after Alick's and mother's). I knew it at once, of course, and leaving my chair T turned to see Miss Lenore, standing behind me. " Phillis, I want to speak to you, she said in a low, excited tone; " coma this way, so that we are not overheard," and she drew me into a dark corner away from the others. " There will be a storm to-mor-row," she said, with a little laugh that sounded rather hysterical; Lascelles has proposed to me, and I have refused him. I dare pot thinkof my father's anger ; it makes me feel ill to know how quickly the hours are going," and she put both hands to her white, round throat as if something hurt her there. I could offer no comfort, for everybody feared the Black Squire, and when he was thwarted in anything he. was terrible. "My sister is doing the amiable to my rejected suitor," said Miss Lenore, laughing again in that sharp unnatural way. "Perhaps she is trying to heal the wounds, I have inflicted ; and Vy vyan looks at me as if h<3 would like to commit murder and make me the first victim. I wonder who would change places with me to-night, Phillis 1" She looked down into '> the room beneath, where gentlemen were seeking their .partners for a mazurka. " I must go down," Miss Lenore said . hurriedly. "I can see them looking for me, and for to-night I will enjoy rayseK if I have to die for it to morrow. To-night light, music, admiration — and after that the deluge-" There was no more pleasure for me that night, for though Miss Lenore was more brilliant than ever, more sought after by the gentlemen of the party, I could see the Black Squire's eyes fixed upon her with a look that boded ill for the morrow; and Captain Lascelles hovered about Miss Veronica as often as he could. Mr Vyvyan had disappeared, and I think hiss absence only served to intensify my fear for what was coming to. the dear lady I loved so well. CHAPTER 111, Of course it was very late when I left the Park. Alick was waiting for me, and being so seldom together we did not care to hurry. m I ha.d told mother not to sit for me, but to hide the key outside in a place where I could soon find it ; our door fastened with a spring, and this was easily managed, so I expected to find the house closed and dark, and all the inmates asleep ; instead of which, when Alick and I crossed the road, and turned the corner which hid the house from us, we saw that the lower windows were all ablaze , . with light, and the shadows of people moving about, showed plainly upon the blinds. (To be Continued.)