THE EVIL GENIUS.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 56, 7 March 1889, Page 6

THE EVIL GENIUS.

. BY'ELIZA A.ADUP.UT, Author of " The White Terror," " Warning Voice," "Tho Secret Chamber," &c., &c.

CHAPTER XVIII.

INEZ HAS AIM OnIiNOOS __>A_GA3T. Tee gate was unlocked, and together the two wound through the narrow pathway leading to the house. By the time they gained tho open space in front of the stately portico, bbc door was opened, and Mrs Wilkins, with a clean apron and newly-smoothed hair, stood on its threshold ready to welcome the last descendant of the Horton family to the homestead of her grandfather. She glibly said :' ' You've took me quite unawares, Miss Lopez, bub you're welcome to the old place all bhe same. You're just one of tlio family that's visited Oakland in the fifteen years we've lived here ; but I'm sorry you didn't let me know you was a coming, and you shouldn't have been kept a-waiting ab she gate so long. Sakes alive !if Sammy here hadn't come along, I don't know how you'd got in anyhow.' To this address Inez smilingly replied : '' I did not know that I was coming myself till yesterday evening, Mrs Wilkins, bub I hope my brief visit will nob be an inconvenience to you. . I only came to look over the old place—to see the library, and selecb from ib some books which my aunt has been kind enough to allow my father the use of.'

' Books, is ib, that you've come after, Miss ? You'll find 'cm all right, for nobody has meddled with 'em bub Sammy there, and he was only 'lowed bo read and dust 'em, without taking any on 'em away. My husband wouldn't let him do that nohow.'

While speaking, Mrs Wilkins led the way into a wide, handsomely-proportioned vestibule entirely destitute of furniture, and unclosed the door of carved oak on ,the lefciiand side, which opened into a large apartment, tho floor of which was covered with a faded Brussels carpet. She threw open one of the massive shutters, and the light from a tall curtainless •window fell upon Louis Quaborze sofas, and chairs, covered with damask that had once been scarlet, but had now passed into the acre and yellow leaf of partial decay. . Several family portraits hung uponthe walls, and among them, Inez was surprised to find one of her grandfather, which, at a glance, she knew had been painted by Stuart. That, ab least, she thought would have been'removed by his daughter, on account of the value of the painting, if from no feeling of reverence f.jr the original. Ib represented Mr Horton in his youth, in the powder and queue worn in the latter half of the last century. He was a handsome but weak-looking man, and Inez wondered if he really had possessed, at the last, decision enough to rescue the child of his cast-off daughter from dependence on his sister. Mr Wilkins placed tho satchel of Inez on a table, an.d muttered something about the necessity of seeing his uncle on business. He hastily left the'room, telegraphing to his aunt to follow him, and the two stood a few momeut3 in the vestibule in earnest conversation. Mrs Wilkins then came back, and said : ' My nephew tells me that he can't stop hero to entertain you, Miss, as I expected he ■would ; and as I keep no help, I must excuse myself and go back to the kitchen to look after my supper. I must see to getting you something nice at once.' ' Thank yon, Mrs Wilkins : but lam not ab all hungry, and I beg that you will notput yourself to any trouble on my account. A cup of tea and a slice of cold bread and butter will be quite enough for me.: * Bless you, Miss, I can give you better than that"; and Sammy must have some thing more substantial, too. He don't b'lievc in no sich wishy-washy stuff as tea. I ain't got no store tea nohow, but I guess sassafras or sago will do just as well.'"

' Sage tea I That is a medicine, and so is the other. I believo I will not trouble you to make tea at all, if you please, Mrs Wilkins. I like milk for supper, and you can give me a glass of that.'' ' Bub there's plenty o' them yerbs, ami I just as leave make tho tea as not, Miss Lopez,'persisted the woman, ' on hospitable thoughts intent.' CI beg that you will not. do so for me, for I could nob drink either of the teas you mentioned. It is of little consequence what is set before me.' ' Jest hear to that now ! 'Taint o' no consequence what you get in this yer house, where your mother and father afore her was born. I'd be afeared o' their ghosts haunting me-if I didn't do the best I can for tho credit of the place, Miss Lopez. Bub I won't keep you talking no longer, for you look tired like, and you had better lie down on the sofy there and rest a bit.!

' Inez was glad to avail herself of this, advice, for she was still too weak to sit up all day. She drew the sofa cushion beneath her head, listened to the receding echo of footsteps as Mrs Wilkins and her nephew went toward the rear of the house, and then gave up her fancy to the thoughts that crowded on it.

Bat soon they mingled, faded away, and the fatigue of the day threw her into a sweet and refreshing sleep.

Little faith as Inez had in her father's visions, ono now came to herself that impressed her vividly. She thought that the portrait ox her grandfather, which hung over the sofa on which she reclined, suddenly bent forward, and, in a voice of deep sorrow, spoke these words : . 'Too late! Too late! Why did you' nob come a day, a few hours sooner? Awake ! Be up and doing now, and you may save all. But no.! It is too late!— too late /'

Inez started up with the thrilling sounds of that- weird warning ringing in her ears, and saw before her Mrs Wilkins, who was saying: - I am sorry to disturb you, Mis 3 Lopez ; but my supper is ready, and the light biscuits will spile if they bakes too long, and it's getting late—very late.' The words seemed almost an echo of those she had heard in her dream, and Inez smiled as she thought how easily her vision had dissolved into something so commonplace as the announcement of a late supper.. She saw that the sun was setting, and she arose and smoothed her hair before the large mirror which occupied the space between two of the windows.

Mrs Wilkins then led the way to the kitchen, or living room, as she called it. This was gained by crossing a long piazza, at the back of the house on which it opened. Inez found herself in a large, oblong room, with a rag carpet on the floor, and a stove in the farthest end of the apartment. Closets in the walls concealed the cooking utensils, and on a charcoal furnace on the wide hearth the tea-kettle was merrily singing. The welcome aroma of what Mrs Wilkins called ' store tea,' greeted Inez on her entrance, and her hostess said in explanation : "-' ' Sammy brought some from town to-day, Miss. When he was hero last week ho turned up his nose at the sassafras tea I made for him, and told me he'd bring me something better tho next time he came, It's lucky for you that ho did so, I guess, for you look as if yon want something to got you up. Been sick, I guessf 'Yes ; I have lately had a slight . .tack of illne.3 from which I. »?e not/ entirely re» j covered.'

' La sakes ! And yet you come all the way hero by yourself, aa you may say, for Sammy didn't know anything about you till jest afore you got oil the boat. Why didn't yer pa come Lisself, now ?' •My. father's health is so delicate that ho rarely liaves the house,' replied Inez. 'He thought tho trip would benefit me, and I was glad of an excuse to visit a place that is so interesting to me as this one. Bub what has become of your nephew ?' ' Oh, he's had his supper, and he'll be off agin on the night boat. He only came to see hi 3 uncle 'bout a lawsuit he's 'tending to for him, for Sammy's a mighty 'cute lawyer. As soon as he got a bite he went out in the harvest field to see Tom, and he was off without ever coming back to the house at all.'

Inez was most happy to hear of this unexpected deliverance from the espionage of Mr Wilkins, and she ate the broiled chicken and toast which had been prepared for her with muchinore enjoyment than if he had been sitting opposite to her at the neatlyspread table. She found that she must have slept two hoursM'or the sun had by this time sunk to rest amid a flood of golden glory which'afforded assurance of a brilliant day on tlio morrow.

Inez was glad of this, for now she was actually at" Oaklands, she wished to roam over the place and visit every spot of interest, it contained. She inquired for 'the key of Clie library, and Mrs Wilkins said': ' It's in the door now, Miss Lopez. Sammy went in there while I was a fixing the supper to set things to rights a little. Not that the pace ain't kept straight enough, but. when the lads was hero not long ago he used that ere room to read in and to keep his guns and fishing-tackle in. But he's cleared 'cm :iall out now, and I guess there's nothing: left that don't belong there.'

* You guess! Why didn't you go and make sure, Hannah Wilkins?' asked a gruff voice so close to Inez that it made her start and turn quickly in the direction of the speaker. Ho nodded his head to Inez and went on :

' / havo always found it necessary to look after that nephew of .mine, for he is as careless as—as—nobody ought to bo. I've been into the library myself, and I found that he had left his memorandum book behind him. I'm blessed, though, if anybody can make out a thing that's in ib, for it's all writ in shorthand. He's a 'cute chap, careless as lie is. Your servant, Miss,' and Mr Wilkina made a more respectful bow to the young girl who he knew was the next heir to the property on which he lived.

He was a large,healthy-looking man, with fair complexion, light-blue eyes, and a coarse under-jaw. He looked shrewder than his wife, but it was evident that neither of them was above the average of common farm hands in either manners or education.

Inez explained to Wilkins the object of her visit, and ho offered to accompany her at once to the library that she might see with what care the books had been kept. Finding that he had already taken his supper with his nephew, Inez gladly accepted his offer, and rising followed him toward the front building. (To be Continued.)