WINNIAN'S LOVERS.

Bush Advocate, Volume XI, Issue 866, 2 December 1893, Page 4

WINNIAN'S LOVERS.

Chapter 111 (Continued ) . ' Neither, so far as I could make out. He had attained a veiy hqnourable post in the colonies, and I fancied some friend advanced the ■ ten thousand pounds that his property might be freed before ho eailed.' 1 Then the estate is free 1' ' As free «s the Netherleigh ones themselves. I've put the money in the lunds till you came home. Mr Trevanon spoke very feelingly of your kiudncsa and generosity.' 'My generosity wasn't needed. He had till tho first of next Juno, in any case' ' I know, but he seemed to feel it, for all that. I tell you, I was quite struck with him. He leaves his two boys in England, and takes his -wifo and daughters out with him. 1 ■' Where to V ' Some place with an unpronounceable name. I did hear the eldest girl stayed behind. There was a client of ours— a Mr Dugdale—who used to admire her vastly. He was a strange man, Last May he actually set us to draw his marriage settlements ; he Eever came to finish his instructions, and I found out later he bad gone so far without consulting her, and found himself rejected. I did think,' went on the lawyer, sagely, ' she ■ perhaps relented when her father took this post abroad. Young girls hate being exiled from England. • This Dugdale fairly worshipped ber, and it came into my head that perhaps he froed Trevanon Grange at the price of her hand.' ' Very likely,' said Bertram, bitterly, forgetting it was the case he had himself suggested to Winnian 'as likely to occur. ' The most pro-

bablo state ot things, I should say. - Women are saleable commodities just now, like chairs and tables, only they take care to put a high price on themselves.' Mr Carpcntor looked surprised. * You speak bitterly.' * Have I not cause ¥ •I think not. Lady Sylvia Mullius injuied you, of course ; but I fancy she injured herself more.' •How so? ■ ' Mullius is a veritable martinet. Of course, he is proud of her, and presumably fond, too ; but, for all that, theirs is a stormy career, and I don't fancy it is much consolation ' : to, my lady chat her husband has ■ fifty thousand a-year when she is ; not allowed the spending of it. Ah ! Captain Deney, after all people have written of ' old men's darlings ' itis an unsatisfactory state of things, and, take my word for it, unions be- : tween May and December rarely turn but happily.' Bertram took his leave soon after. Captain Deney found himself wondering as he drove towards Piccadilly of what age was the Mr . Dugdale set down by hia lawyer as Miss TrevanoD's husband. 'If he were of the December "■ type, Heaven help her!' thought ■ Bertram ; for hers was a 'nature illfitted to sink into the placid sere- " ,of an old man's darling.'.

CHAETER V. 1 After a etorm there comes a calm' is true of many other things than the atmosphere. Mr Dugdale's proposal and Winnian Trevanon's expedition to London were events which quite convulsed the usual torpid state of things at the Grange ; but in a month or two the excitement of this died away and the old dreary, uneventful life returned. Only that William West, senior, in whose heart the news of Winnian's visit must surely have evoked some, instinct of cousinly feeling, wrote offering to take upon himself the education, maintenance, and launch ing in life of one of Lilian's sons, and,;at the same time, an old friend of the family, and the lad's godfather, offered to provide Oswald's expenses at Eton- and subsequently Sandhurst, and get him into tho army, if he showed the requisite amount of ability to pass the examinations

Winnie expected thefirst offer to be indignantly refused ; but perhaps the pater was awaking to a sense of his children's true interest, for he actually sent a letter of grateful acceptance to Mr West, and took Harold to the kind-hearted jeweller's on the very day when his elder brother started for Eton.

It was dull without tho boys. Winnie missed them at every turn.

■ There was a gap of five years between her and the eldest of her ten step-sisters.

The whole ten were mere children, and somehow t'.io events of the last three months seemed to have made Winnian put a'va.y childish things and grow more womanty. Her thoughts now often wandered far away to the Egyptian battlefields, and she read tho accounts of tho war in her father's newspapers with interest that amazed everyone ; but she never saw the name of Penhurst in all the long columns through which she so laboriously and eagerly pursued.

'Do you think we shall ever do it V she asked Mrs Trevanon, anxiously, when the September days were growing short and cold and a little fire burned cheerfully in the little parlour. • I know fire years is a long time, but think of the sum-- ten thousand pounds !' 1 1 have very little hope, Winnie, but the delay is a great boon to us, dear.'

' 1 don't see that it is,' said Miss Trevanon, who was in a melancholy mood.

'In five years time the twins will be eighteen, and Vera seventeen. I could leave them all as governesses in England if I should have to go abroad.'

' Abroad !' cried Winnie, fairly aghast. 'Oh ! mother, you don't surely think of that V

'I must, dear. Your father would never live in England away from the Grange. He is taking »teps already to gain a colonial appointment. If he found one soon, it is just possible we could, by letting this place, and pinching and screwing very much iv our expenditure abroad, raise the redemption money in time.'

To he continued )