THE HOUSEHOLD OF McNEIL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 172, 23 July 1890, Page 7

THE HOUSEHOLD OF McNEIL.

BY AMELIA E. BARR.

CHAPTER X,

grizelda's husband. __ . My life Has boen a golden dream of love; .but now I wake, I'm like a merchant roused Prom soft repose to see his vessel sinking, And all his woalth cast o'er. D-tYDEN. Two things were known about Grizelda, She was in Rome, and she waa unhappy. But no one in Edderloch suspected the true cause of hor unhappinoss. The circumstances which had made her so miserable ab the Earl of Lauder's ball, the very existence of Miss Julia Cas.elis, she had kepb in her own heart; though often in the lonely misery of the months thab followed, she longed to write bo Helen, and ask hor for comfort and counsel.

But such a loriging was always powerfully combated, and finally conquered,. by the pride and reticence of her nature. She did nob wish even Helen to know how miserably she had been deceived, how quickly the punishment of her disobedience had found hot out, how truly she was repenting at her leisure the marriage so hastily and wilfully contracted. If' she had only granted her father's final request, and waited one year ! she had told herself over and over, it would have saved her a lifetime of sorrow.

And it was not only in this negative way fehe looked at it. She felt that she might also have been very, very happy under other circumstances. Maxwell nob only gave her shamo and sorrow ; he prevented ncr enjoying the days oi her youth and beauty. He chilled all her little triumphs. He deprived her of all the reasonable eclat and pleasure which are the natural results of her position. And tho preventers of happiness are the cruellest ol all tyrants. Afflictions, from the hand of God, troubles that are independent of will and beyond control, may be endured with resignation ; but oh, how resentful the he_rc feels to those who wilfully and maliciously destroy the daily happiness which has been lovingly trusted to them !

It was in this direction Grizelda's bitterest feelings lay. She was young ; she was beautiful; sho was well-born ; she had all tho natural and accidental requirements necessary to make her a happy woman. Everyday aud every hour Max well tram pled upon them. After he renewed his acquaintance with Miss Casselis, Grizelda soon abandoned all hope of regaining her influence over him. A distant relationship and an old intimacy gavo him numberless opportunities and favours, and he pressed these with such tact and zeal that he soon became an invaluable aid and confidant, nob only to Miss Cassells, but also to the Countess of Lauder.

They consulted with him on all occasions, If theyhadan appointment attheir modiste's or a necessity to shop, he was their patient cavalier on all such tiresome excursions. If there was a dinner or a ball at Lauder House, Maxwell assisted them to arrango its details. If they wenb visiting bhey looked to him for those little attentions which give a certain dignity and respect to' visiting ladies. If they rode, he was generally their escort.

The countess did noteven think ib necessary to call on Grizelda. A country girl, the daughter of a'Scotch laird, without a penny of fortune ! How she pitied poor Maxwell to her friends! Such a'draw l - back on a promising young man. Ib was too bad. How did ib happen ? Oh, a summer in some Scotch wilderness, where Maxwell had bought an estate; a pretty face, contiguity, and nothing else to do. Half the miserable and unsuitable marriages there are come from such eloments, ehe sighed. Was Lady Maxwell in London ? Yes. A fretful, nervous invalid; made a very good appearance in her first season, but could not stand the demands of fashionable life. These poor country gentry never could. A person must be born in tbe purple to endure the weight and strain of it.

Nor was .he Countess Lauder afc all illnatured in her remarks. Her scornful pity was nob for Grizelda personally ; it was for the weakness of all the men and women who promoted such a set of uncomfortable and unsuitable circumstances. Julia endorsed her aunt's opinions, with the generality of Maxwell's discusser.. To himself ehe gave the much more seductive sympathy of sighs and smiles, and a comforting familiarity, which was easily excused on bhe ground of their distant cousinship, old acquaintance, and pity for the matrimonial blunder which he had made.

Such a course oi treatment would have shaken the loyalty of an affectionate husband, but when the husband was at heart disloyal its effecb was completely destructive. And perhaps the saddest part of all such wrongs to a wifo ia that they do not go steadily, rapidly, and unrelentingly on to their legitimate end. ✓ Maxwell's shadowy remorses, his moments of piby, his passing fits of what he chose to call love, gave the poor wife attacks of baseless hope, which were worse than abbacks of fever. If he smiled at her, if he spoke with anything like courtesy, if he spoke at all, if he asked her .6 accompany him to any public place or entertainment, all Grizelda. c anger vanished; she forgave him at once, though she only provoked his contempt by suffering him to see how happy he made her. And in these torturing alternations and suspenses she had no human friend or confidant. Some Bad wives, in a situation so lonely and trying, have found a silent or expressed comfort in the sympathy of the eervant in their immediate attendance. But it was a part of Lord Maxwell's domestic tyranny to be continually changing Grizelda's maid. He had no mind to be talked over by two women ; besides, no one knew into .what house a lady's maid might go ; he was determined none of .ben. should Btay long enough in his establishment to tell tales out of ib. This was a little wrong, but a few Of such little wrongs insure a far greater and more bitter hatred than it is possible for a single" outrage, however unjust and cruel, to produce. Grizelda shed tears of mortification over'this small tyranny; proud heart resented the weakness it implied, that she would make a friend and companion of her servant. ■ '" # . *I! who have nob told even my Bister how wretched you make me,' she said to him indignantly, one day.. «Then do so at once. Remember that I order you to tell your sister and your father.' . He was quite sincere in his command, he hated both of them. And it was part of Grizelda's punishment to know in her heart that she waß to blame in a great measure for this hatred, . In the beginning of Maxwell's courtship she had found a sentimental pleasure in augmenting the opposition to their love. She had repeated words not intended to be repeated ; she had given to other words an animus more hateful than was their right. -And now, when she would fain have'had the comfort and support of her own kindred, she found that she had built a wall between her husband and them which no love nor patience could breakdown. .."''.

Things were in this wretched position when the London season cloS.d. In every respect it had been unfavourable. for Grizelda. Her health had failed continually. She was suffering physically, .as well as

mentally. She began to havedtrong home--Bicknes.es, to loner for a breath of the wild Atlantic, to feel the breeze come down the Jura mountains with the scent of the gorge and the bog myrtle on it • to have haunting dreams of the balsam odours in the fir wood, and the green'shadows where'she .» ~l ain among the ferns and brackens. If Maxwell would only go back to Blairgowrie, she felt as if all suflWing would be possible! One evening, whon their future movements" were still undecided, Maxwell dined at home. She hoped something from his presence, hoped that he would tell her that they were going to Scotland ; anywhere would be better than London. Lauder Castle was iq Fife j that was far enough from Jura to rid her of the influence of Miss Casselis, and, oh, if she could onlytake her life out of that shadow.

After the servantsleft the room Bhe waited anxiously for some word of hope. She had indeed come to a point when any change would be welcome. But Maxwell moodily sipped his wine in silence. If he turned his eyes from the portion of the wall he appeared to be studying, it was only to glance with sa'iefaction at the ruby colour in a freshly filled When-nearly an hour had thus passed Grizelda aeked :

' Have you any engagement this evening, Walter ? If you have not, will you take me for a drive ? I feel stronger than usual, I think.'

He did nob answer hor for a minute, then he turned to the window at which she sat, looked her steadily and silently in the face, and left the room.

No words could have so deeply and hopelessly wounded her. Hard words may bo borne, but if a husband never raises his eyes when he hoars his wife's voice, if ho makes hia cheek like stone when she kisses it, if he thinks her questions not worth answering, her wishes not worth a refusal, if his step to her is like lead, and his etep from her like light, what language can be so forcible and cruel ? .

Grizelda was not a weeping woman ; yet her eyes filled, and her soul looked sadly through tbem, as a lovely landscape looks blurred and mournful through a heavy mist. She checked the weakness at once ; it had been better perhaps if she had washed the wrong away in tears.

For bhe first time sho deliberately indulged the thought of leaving him. Hitherto, if it had suggested itself, she had pub ib positively away. But hope was nearly dead. The question to bo decided in her mind was whether to return to her father, or go to some placo where she was quite unknown. Thero wero little Highland hamlets where ehe could live a long life not uncomfortably on two thousand pounds. Herfatherand Helen would lament her, but it was better they should lament her as dead than trouble thoir hearts wibh hor living misery. And Colin and Helen would marry, and fill bhe old castle with new life ; and her father would bo comforted. She had given thorn nothing but trouble for two years 5 they would forgive and forget hor faults when sbo could grieve them no more.

To these thoughts she wandered restlessly about. The butler came to close the dining-room, and she bad nob spirit enough to delay him ; she trailed her heavy feet and long cabin garment slowly upstairs, and, after Btanding awhile ab a window looking into tho square, sho turned to the drawing-room. It was a large room, or rather series of rooms, covering nearly the whole floor, and bbc bhoughb of its apace and dimness Was a grateful one. The door opened noiselessly; tbe deep soft chairs made her suddenly feel how tired she was. Bhesab down in one of them, and, lulled by the weariness of repressed emotion, by the grey cwiligbt and the deep stillness, she fell asleep. •, . $9. „one ...Jqoked for her* or Felt any uneasiness as to where she wm. All the servants understood my lady's very small in.<pOTfc#n._?*her maid, a new one, quite familiar wibh tho utmosb privileges of her class, bhoughb her duby f ally done when she answered the calls made upon her. There was a little social meeting in the housekeeper's room ; at tbab hour Lord and Lady Maxwell were the most unimportanb persons in bheir home.

Ib was ldng after midnight when Grizelda's soul came back to her. Ib had been at Edderloch, wnndered bhrough all the pleasant places of the casble, kissed the laird and Helen as they lay Bleeping, and then in a fisherman's boat on the Jura Sound been soothed with the cradling motion of the waves, and the chanb of the men at the fishing:

' Bnskly blows the evening gale. Fresh and free it blows, is. on the llsbing boat— ' How merrily alio goes! - c.tri.t He loved the fishermen >Viilkh. k by the sea, . 0 .v He blessed tho fishing beaU UowninCialilce.'

The familiar melody was in her ears and almost on her lips when she awoke; she was stronger, and her heart was calm and reßted. She stood up and remembered all in an instant. Bub ahe had lib no light, and there was a dim ono in the furthest room. She did nob think of walking softly or of avoiding the ottomans and stands which encumbered the floor. But she did avoid them, and, still as a spirit;, she reached the poinb which commanded the lighted room. Lord Maxwell was there. He sab ab a table with his elbow on ib, and his head in his hand, lost in thought. She watched his face as his angel might have watched it, looking anxiously for the good there, sorrowlul over the evil. He was in evening dress, and looked exceedingly handsome. Her heart grew tender toward him. She was uncertain whether bo go silently away* or to speak. As she hesitated, he touched a case lying on the table beneath his eyes, She had not noticed it before, but surely she knew ib. Was it nob the case of the likeness which had been taken of her during those happy weeks of her first season when she was a bride beautiful and beloved? What was he going to do with it ? She moved into the shadow ; she was determined now to see his inmost thought of her. She watched with her in her eyes, and her heart beating at her lips. 'Itis a righteous curiosity,' she thought, * for if he looks kindly at that pretty remembrance of me, I will still hope. I will still remain by his side. I will bear everything. I will make no complaint even to God. I will only ask Him to give me the power to win back the love I have lost.' While she was thus musing, Maxwell also had his own thoughts. For some minutes he sat with the case in his hand unopened. Then he slowly pressed the spring, and Grizelda said:

* My face is before him !' •She was so eager to read his feelings that she stood on tiptoe, slightly bending forward with outstretched bands. For a moment the tension was all she could bear. Then she saw him stoop to the pictured face and kiss ib, kiss it as he had kissed her in the sunlight and the moonlight when first they loved -each other. She was able to delay no longer. With a cry of delight, she sprang Then Maxwell leaped to his feet, and the instantaneous change in his face froze her where she Btood as completely as the summer B treamleb is claimed by tbe winter ice.

(To be Continued on Saturday next, *