GIRLS OF A FEATHER.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 67, 19 March 1894, Page 3

GIRLS OF A FEATHER.

A NEW YORK STORY.

BY AMELIA E. BARB.

Author of 'The Beads of Tasmer,' 'The Mate of the Easter Bell,' 'Jan Vedder'B Wife,' 'Friend Olivia, Etc., Etc. 1

CHAPTER "XIX. 'CLEAR SHINING AFTER JUIN.' And love, oar light at night and shade at noon. Lulls us to re»t with songs and turns away All shafts of shelterless, tumultuous day. Rossetti. The time of smiles came round once more. WISIXS. During the first day of acute humiliation Ambrosia had received a little comfort from the practical sympathy of Clara. She called very early in the morning and offered to come at once to Doctor Carter's house. Bub Ambrosia felt that this would be a faleo step. 1X have done nothing, Clara,' she said, ' that calls for the support of your presence. If you made this change, every one would say I anticipated neglect or scorn. lam sure it is best for Robert and myself to be sufficient for each other.'

'Then I shall go to Mayberry, Bessie has been too absolute for some time. I will nob any longer appear to sanction the crude cruelties and insolence of her youth and inexperience. When she is older, she will likely be sweeter; now she has all the acrid offences of her years.'

• Are the young necessarily cruel ?'

•There are beautiful exceptions to the general rule; yet, young girls are generally without pity. There is no question about | it. Their want of experience makes them i hard to sorrows they cannot understand. They say the most scornful things to their friends ; they even hurt and humiliate their own mothers. They are assertive and aggressive, because their instinctive selfishness prompts them to taking all and giving nothing. A young girl is a cruel creature! Ambrosia, but a young matron is frequently much worse. Beßsie's conducb lasb njght was a piece of brutality, and I have told her so. What right had she and Miss Saltar to pub St. Ange in such a position ? Ifc was lan interference with Doctor Carter's house-

hold and business that was unwarrantable. I do not say that she contemplated 8c . Ange's insult to you : sho thought of nothing but the little ripple of interest it would give to her party. People who talked of it, would naturally talk of Lor. That was as far as her reasoning went. How much St. Ange's wife would suffer nt> the time from shock or afterwards from , anger, she declined to take into consideration; And yet had anyone so interfered in her affairs, she would have babbled about it as an inconceivable outrage.'

' I am sure Uncle Madison was angry at her last night.' . I 'He is very angry indeed. Jack, poor fellow, thinks and speaks as directed, . Come to Mayberry with mo, for a few - days.' 'No, dear. I will not run away from a mouthful of bad words. Words will nob • slay me. And Robert has been so kind and jusb in the matter. .Perhaps this very > trouble may draw us close together again; If so, I will thank God for it. At any rate, I will take what opportunities it offers.' 'That is right. Bessie and Jack, Will and Louisa are talking of Europe this summer. They will make a party of their own. Bessie may find come changes when she comes back. She had been so tyrannical , in her home, that her father is beginning to rebel against her.' 'Clara, you do not believe anything wrong of mo, do you ?' . . ' I believe in your innocence to the uttermost. I am sorry that for any cans* you showed Sb. Ange more attention lately, I must tell you that Rome accuse yon of flirt' ing with him.' ' Who of our set has nob flirted with him I And if I did so, ib was for the purpose of quickening Robert's love.' .• ' Well, my dear, a bad road sever leads to a good place; and in flirting, you cannot) go on,with what you sever begin. There ought to be no suspicion about a wife conduct.' ' You are so old-fashioned, Clara.'

'My dear, purity and honour are never old-fashioned. ■ When they are so, good men and women may break their hearts and go out of the world.'

Louisa and Will followed Glara ; and Will's anger at Bessie and Louisa's womanly criticisms of her conduct were a little consolation,

1 Bessie has such a high opinion of herself,' said Louisa, 'and the world: has

caught this opinion from her. But I wish she had fewer virtues and more amiability. I will tell you something about Bessie. After her last ball, I found her writing a description of it for the " Home Journal," and she had incidentally remarked that she " looked lovely." Think of such courage !' Ambrosia smiled; and Will put his thumb in his vest and strutted out with an affectation of weariness:

' Oh, for an age so sheltered from annoy; That I may never know how change the moons v Or bear the voice of women's defamation!'

It struck Ambrosia, however, that Will and Louisa treated the affair with too little interest. Yet it was a difficult visit to pay, , and very likely they felt relieved when ib waß over. Then the day went wearily on until Robert's return home. And ho was silent with wrath and not inclined to talk before dinner had lubricated his feelings.Then it was different. He told Ambrosia* all be had longed to say to St. Ange, and « found solid comfort in this explanation of himself. Still there was an unhappy, restless atmosphere in the house and a weight , on each bosom that sympathy did nob lighten. 3 .;.

On the third morning the premonitory unhappiness was explained. The doctor found in hia morning paper a letter from St. Ange, claiming the discoveries already linked with Doctor Carter's name, and boldly accusing the dootor of taking advantage of hia poverty to appropriate expert- >'' meats he was himself incapable of making, j For this end, he averred, lie had been poorly .■ paid and kept in poverty, every advantage having been taken of bis being a stranger without frienis and without knowledge of the peculiarities of Northern life and practice.1

Ib was a cruel accusation, and bo cleverly based on its foundation of truth that Robert saw ab once how difficult1 ib would be bo answer ib. Besides, the world has no time to make judgments. It takes assertions and believes them until more plausible assertions are made. And ib was a truth thab he had dismissed Sb. Ange jusb when bheir long experiments were being brought to a successful close. For ib is a general facb thas an unfortunate thing is almoßb always forced to be done ab an unfortunate time.

Ib had been so in this case. Bub how could he explain circumstances resting upon an insulb offered to his wife ? Or how bring forward the part which Bessie Madison and Adelaide Saltar bad played in the wretched denouement ? .

He wrote answer after answer and each one seemed tamer and more improbable than the other. He had really intended to give St. Ange all the credit he deserved. Bub who would nob believe this? Ib was , easy to authenticate his generosity to the man in money matters. Bub how many would take the trouble to satisfy themselves of the fact? He was actually in a position where even Truth might shrink from explanations and find ib a'mosb im« j possible to clear herself. And then came the interviewers, and all alike perceived that Doctor Carter did nob tell the whole truth. Besides which, he lacked the suavity of Sb. Ange—-the familiarities, the plausible affectations of wounded confidence, the scarcely restrained tears over « his late employer's faithlessness.

Ambrosia did nob appear in these interviews with the press magnates ; bat St. Ange's wife seconded ably her bus- , band's accusations. She had no compunctions or reservations about a class of women from whom she had received nothing bub insulting condescensions. She did not)

hesitate to blame Mr Carter, to insinuate, ■ay, to asaerb those imputations which sprang naturally from St. Ange's wounded vanity and wicked heart. For ab that time St. Ange was playing the devoted husbaad and father, and Leanore would have cheerfully sworn to anything he choee to assert.

So ib mattered little thab Doctor Carter

crippled his own defence rather than to \ ; allude to his wife. His very reticence was ■ a kind of confirmation of Madame St. ■ Ange's assertions, and thus a guarded bat still sufficiently clear association; of Ambrosia in the qnarrel was consequent. *A. woman in it, of course,' said the readers; 'there is always a woman somewhere I 1 And then they recalled Doctor. Carter's beautiful wife; bow much younger she was than her hnsband, how gay and fashionable and how intimate the fascinating ycung Sb. Ange had been with the family. Every one had his own verdict, based upoia bis individual likes or dislikes, and there really appeared to be no nse in resisting this tide of opinions.

(To be Continued.)