Our Novelettes.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 2180, 4 July 1890, Page 5

Our Novelettes.

MOLLY'S MYSTERY. Chapter I. ' Jar],' cried the Rector, as he came hurrying in from hia gardening and rubbed his dirty boots on tho mat by tho back-door — ' Jael, where are you ? I want you directly ! ' ' Here, father ! ' answered Jael, leaning over the balusters from the landing above. ' Do you want mo down there ? ' ' Yea, child.' Jnol ran down-stairs and followed her fnther into his study. ' Jae), I have heard a most astonishing thing ! ' said the Rector. ' I saw Sandy Pinkerton atop at the gate a quarter of an hour ago,' remarked Jael. ' What is his latest mare's-nest ? '

' You know the now people at the Dame's Cotta^o ?

' Yes ; Betsy soid it was ' Wynne.' ' ' Didn't it strike you as odd that a stranger of the unme of Wynne should choose such an out-of-the-way corner of England as this to settle in ? '

Jael looked at her father with a pleasant shrewdness in her eyes.

' I begin to sco what you are thinking of,' she said, in an amused tone. ' What a romantic old man I have for a father, to be sure So you have made up your mind that this Mr. Wynne who has taken the Dame's Cottage for the Bummer must be a member of our Wynne family — some loag-lost heir perhaps, come to claim the whole property, and turn poor Lloydd Wynne out of house and home deforo he has held possession a single year ? ' ' My dear Jael,' remonstrated the Kector gravely, • such a state of things is not so wildly important as you seem to think. Old Mr. Wynne — Lloydd's grandfather — had two sen?. The elder, John, was a hare-brained, unmanageable lad, who ran away from home when he was only sixteen, and he has never been heard of since. Now Lloydd's father was the second Bon ; so you see the force of my argument. Sandy tells me that this Mr. Wynne hails from Australia. Now, if he should be the- elder son come back to claim his own, where would poor Lloydd be ? '

' But you have no reason to think,' began Jael.

' That is just the point I am going to sitisfy niyeelf on now,' interrupted her father quickly. ' I feel so excited about the matter that I can't wait until to-morrow on the chance of seeing this Mr. Wynne and his daughter at church. I want you to come wi'h me now to call upon them. I believe that if Hiis is really one of the Wynne's of Dmce-Wyune, I shall recognise him by the family likeness at once.'

' You spoilt old baby ! ' said Jael, with an air of resignation. ' I'm awfully busy, but of course if you want to go you must.'

The Dame's Cottage — built some years since by the then reigning Wynne as a dowerhouse to the estate of Druce-Wynne — bad never looked prettier in Jael's eyes than it did on that bright morning in early June, when she went with her father to call upon this mysterious Mr. Wynne from Australia. The large windows were all wide open to the breeze and the eunlight, and fresh white cm tains were fluttering giily at every one of them. The summer foliage, clinging in greon patches here and there about the gray rtone walls, was at its best and brightest ; and the laurel bushes and lawn?, not sufficiently well kept to be prim, nor neglected enough to look desolate, seemed to give a pleasant unstudied effect to the little house.

As Mr. Westmaeott unlatched the low iron gate — which was the only barrier between the cottage-garden and the main drive through the Druce-Wynne estate — a girl in a broadbrimmed hat and a plainly-made pink-and-white striped cotton gown came round the corner of the house with two good-sized pots of maidenhair fern in her arms. She paused for a moment and betrayed some signs of embarrassment when she saw the strangers, and Jael expected to see her turn and run away ; but she came forward and nodded and smiled with delightful informality.

' You have caught me beautifully ! ' she said, as the visitors walked up the path. ' I guess who you are. The housekeeper here has given me short sketches of everyone who is likely to call, and I recognise you from her description at all events. Will you come in ' — leading the way through the open door — 1 while I put these big things down ? — and then I will take you to papa. I am Molly Wynne, you know. No, no — you'll ruin your gloves 1 ' she cried, as Mr. Westmaoott attempted to take her burden from her j and, running on before them, she put her plants down on the haarth in the drawing-room, and thon turned laughingly to the Rector and his daughter.

' Even now I can't shake hands with you — they are too dirty ; but I am very glad to see you, and I think you are the dearest people in the world to come to us so soon. My father is in the gorden — will you come ? '

Ac they followed Miss Wynne through the open window to the lawn behind the house, Jael Westmacott could not help wondering where the child had learnt such charming manners. She could not be more than seven teen, and yet, combined with her childish freedom, she had the self -possession of a trained woman of fashion.

The two girls soon wandered away from the Rector and Mr. Wynne, who were pacing the lawn deep in a discussion which appeared to give them great pleasure, but whiob failed to vouss any interest in the minds of their daughters.

' When once the dad finds himself in company with a congenial spirit, he forgets his duties shamefully ! ' Miss Wynne murmured to her visitor. € Come and see some ferns I had 6ent down from London this morning. I brought them down from Ballarat with me. Are you fond of ferns ? If you like you shall have one or two of my rare ones. Now this one I believe is very rare in England. I have always classed it with the mosses; but a friend of my father's who called upon us during our stay in London told me I was wrong 1 , and promised to send me a new book upon ferns.' 'Do you know,' said Jael Westmacott, tmrning to Molly with unconcealed surprise in her mauner, ' you are giving me fresh shocks every five minutes. You can't think what a surprise you will bo to the Fyllertyn people.' Molly turned her large gray eyes upon the speaker with a look of calm inquiry. ' You arp so different from whnt we all expected,' explained Jael frankiy. « You won't be vexed if I tell you that you and your father were the principal topic of conversation at the tenniß-club on Thursday afternoon ? '

' And what did you expect to find me ? ' asked Molly, with pardonable curiosity. ' Well, personally I had formed no expectations,' returned Miss Westmacotb, with a certain hesitation in hor manner whioh Molly detected and understood at once.

c But somebody else had,' she exclaimed mischievously ; ' and they were not very complimentary ones, I can see. Now, Miss Weatmacott, you have advanced too far to retreat! You are bound in honour to tell me what was said about me. Oh, but you muft, though ! Don't you know that if I don't know what was really said I shall imagine all ports of impossible horrors and sink under the burden of my terror ? '

Jael looked at her companion and shcok her bead laughingly. ' You are not that kind of person at all, Miss Wynne.' < x am— indeed 1 am ! ' declared Molly, with a tragical air. 'My manners have a certain bolflno=s, I know ; but tbat is becauee I had so few lady-friends in Ballarat, and I have learnt to epeak aa freely as papa and his friends did ; but indeed I am a timid fearstricken creature at heart, and if you do not relieve my mind I shall pine away — I kcow I shall ! '

Mies Westmncott laughed again, but rather uncomfortably this time.

• Well, there can be no harm done by my repeating it, since it is bo utterly different from the truth,' she observes thoughtfully. ' But you must remember it was pure nonesense, nnd not let it vex you.'

Molly Wynne nodded vehement ascent and waited with grave lips, but with a merry mischievous light in her eyes, for what was to come.

' It was Lloydd Wynne,' began Jael, still unwillingly, as if she were conscious even as she spoke that her words were to bring forth tares in tbeir harvest-time. ' Someone had seen your luggage at the station, and was saying it was labelled' Paseengeis by Bteamship Lithuria, from Melbourne to London ; ' and Lloydd Wynne laughed, and said we Fyllertyn girls had better give up at once if a Colonial young lady, and especially a Melbourne one, was going to settle down among us. Ard when we asked him what he meant, he said you were sure to be a little savage; you would boast about Melbourne until we should be ashamed of having been born anywhere else — that you would dress us clean out of sight, and talk us all clean out of hearing.'

'Oh!'

The monosyllable dropped so clear and short from Miss Wynne's lip 3 that Jael looked anxiously at her, wondering if she were offended. But, though Molly's eyes were studiously averted, there was a tell-tale tremulousness about the lipß that looked like suppressed miith more than vexation ; still it was with a perfectly serious face that she epoke again presently. ' This gentleman, with the same name as mine, must be a bit of a wizard, I think ; for do you know, Miss Westmacott, I am — like that.'

' Like what ? ' asked Jael, startled

' Like Mr. Lloydd Wynne imagined me to be. I love smart dresses, and I'm fond of the sound of my own voice, and I don't think there is a city in the world equal to Melbourne — bearing in mind its age, and '

She stopped abruptly as she caught Jael's look of grave astonishment, and moved quickly down to the farther end of the little greenhouse, and stopped to pick up a small plant. ' This is the fern I was speaking of,' she said ; ' but, before we lea> c that other matter, I must nsk you one question. I'm curious about this namesake of mine. Who and what is he ? '

cHe is the owner of Druce-Wynce. He oame into the property last July at the death of bis father.'

' Druce-Wynne ! ' repeated Molly. ' That, is the name of the estate we are living on, is it not ? And what is he like, this young lord of the manor P Tremendously good-looking, I suppose, and absolutely irresistible among the Fyllertyn young ladies ? '

Jael Westmncofct flushed a little, and for a moment felt offended as she thought that this child was chaffing Ler ; but she was too genuinely good-tempered to nourish the feeling.

' I'm afraid we do rather spoil him,' she said pleasantly. 'Heis so amioble and hind that perhaps we think more of him than he really deserves.'

' Ah,' sighed Molly, shaking her head seriously, 'that is bad for him — very bad! He will grow to think himself so far above the rest of his kind as to be insufferable. In the cause of humanity you should give him a good snubbing now and then.' But Jael only shook her head and puraed up her lips, as if she thought the task beyond her strength.

' Father,' said Molly, after their visitors had gone, putting her hand within his arm, as he still pacsd up and down the lawn, ' Miss Westmacott has been teliing me about a Mr. Lloyid Wynne, wao is the owner of this estate. Isn't it odd we should have come straight away from Australia and settled down on a place belonging to a namesake of ours p * The heavy thoughtful J look disappeared from Mr. Wynne's countenance as he looked down at his daughter's inquisitive little face

'You young Jesuit,' lie replied with e?i dent amusement — ' to try to pump your father in that barefaced manner .' You want to know if I am related to these Wynnes of Druce-Wynne, and whether it was by chance or design lhat I fixed upon this place for our summer dwelling ; and so you come at me in this roundabout way, instead of asking me the direct question.'

Molly made no answer to this ; she only squeezed his arm and looked up at him coaxingly.

They took one or two turns across the little lawn in silence ; and then Mr. Wynne spoke, but with snoh a troubled air that Molly was sorry she had broached the subject.

' I don't think I shalll gratify your curiosity, Molly. I can do no good, and it might do harm. No, dear ; we will let things remain just as they are at present, until we see what is likely to happen.'

Molly's curiosity, however, wasnotnppenßed. She knew her father had relatives in England, for she had once heard him allude to them ; and after this conversation she came to the conclusion that these Wynnes of Druce- Wynne were connections of his, and that he had been wronged by them in the past, or why should he hint that harm might come of acknowledging the relationship ? She would have dearly liked to know the whole truth of the cnaej but her father's manner forbade further questioning.

' I begin quite to hate this young man ! ' she said to herself vehemently, as she brushed her curly brown hair into order for luncheon. ' The firet thing I hear of him is that he has prophesied all kinds of hateful things about me ; and then comes this insinuation of the dad's that he has suffered in some way from the doings of this paragon's family in che post. Yes ; I've made up my mind to detest him cordially ! '

Mr. and Miss Westmacott were scarcely beyond earshot o£ Molly, as aha leaned over the gate to wave them a farewell, before Jael put the question to her father which he had gone to the Dame's Cottage to answer. ' Well, father, what do you think ? Is Mr. Wynne the missing heir ? Is he one of our Wynnes ? And in poor Lloydd to be deposed in favour of that pretty child ? '

' I can't make up my mind, Jael. Once or twice I fancied I caught a passing expression that reminded me of the boy I knew years ago ' 'But,' interposed the practical Jael, that might have been only because you were on the look-out for it, you know, dear.'

'True; imagination has a lob to do with family likenesses. And that long gray beard is such a disguise to the lower part of the face, too. No, Jael, I must confess myself at a loes.'

' I'm bo glad ! ' said Jael. 'It would be an awful thing for Lloydd I I like them though don't you ? They will be pleasant acquaintncee.'

Mr. Wynne

'Yes; they will be popular, is a remarkably well-read man.'

• And the daughter,' added Jael, ' is the most perplexing mixture of child and woman I ever met.'

Chapter 11.

The friendship between the Rector and Mr. Wynne grew apace. The two men had many tastes in common, and took such mutual pleasure in each other's society that before a forfnight had passed since that first visit scarcely a day went by without a meeting between them.

Molly brcame so used to those informal calls of tbe Rector's that she fell into the habit of continuing the occupation of the moment when he appeared, acknowledging his coming only by a hand-shake, or, if both bands were occupied, by a smiling ' Good morning,' and tben leaving his further entertainment in her father's hands.

In these early days of their residence at Fyllertyn, Molly's whole energy was devoted to getting the garden in order j and she was in euch a chronic state of torn frocks and wildly-disarranged hair that she had denied herself to all visitors sinje the day Jael Westmacott had called.

To Jael herself Molly showed no more ceremony <han to Mr. Westmacott ; the girls bad ' taken to ' each other from the first, and, no matter how untidy she was, Molly always had a welcome for the Sector's daughter.

'Do you know,' said Jael one day, ' the neighbourhood is getting quite rabid with curiosity about you? Why do you shut yourself up like this? I met one of our most persistent gossips yesterday, and she tried to pump me about you — asked if there was any truth in the report that there was a very good reason indeed for your retirement — insinuating that you were a little bit weak in the intellect, you know.'

Molly laughed immoderately. 'You'll make something of me presently among you ! ' she said, wiping her eyes and throwing herself back in her chair quite exhausted. ' One says I'm a savage, and another hints that I'm a lunatic ! '

'Oh, Lloydd Wynne still sticks to that theory of the savage ! ' returned Jael. 'He has been in London for a week or two, but he came back yesterday. The Rector and he travelled home together from Hereford. I went to the station to meet my father and saw him. Almost the first words he spoke were about you. He asked if you walked about Fyllertyn in moccasins with a many-coloured blanket over your shoulders, and whether you held a weekly pow-pow for the enjoyment of tobacco and fire-water in your father's back garden. 1

Molly laughed again, but not with such keen enjoymeDt as before, and there was a little flush on her cheek which might have been caused by vexation.

' I shall have to pose in some extravagant fashion when I do appear,' she said j ' it would be such a disappointment to them all to find me an everyday young woman, in spite of their conjectures.'

But, though she pretended to make light of Lloydd Wynne's nonsense, it did in reality make her feel rather shy about facing her new neighbours ; and several weeks passed away and found her still practically a stranger to everyone in Fyllerfcyn except the Weßtmacotfs.

My. Wynne ventured at last to remonstrate against this unsociable conduct ; but his daughter quieted him by saying she would make the amende Jionordble by return-calls all round as soon as the garden was really straight.

Molly was still an unknown quantity to the neighbourhood at large, when, one morning, while she was standing at the garden-ladder, nailing a too-luxurious rose-vine against the wall just outside the drawing-room window, she heard Mr. "Westmacott's voice inside.

She was even more untidy than usual this morning, and, to make matters woree, she had a rough canvas bag of nails slung from her neck. But she did not flinch at the Rector's voice, and went on calmly driving in her nails, until she heard him say to Esther —

' Tell your master I have brought a visitor to see him.'

Molly paused at that, with her hammer in the air. She wondered who the visitor was, and the next moment she knew.

c There is your namesake in the garden, Wvnno,' she heard Mr. Westmacott say. •We may as well go out to him ; he is one of the most unceremonous of men.'

Molly was horrified at the thought of being caught in such an untidy condition by this hateful Lloydd Wynne. She glanced round. Her father was standing at the lower end of the garden with his bock towards her, gazing at the park beyoDd. The footsteps inside the room were nearing the window. She glanced at the laurels under her. Would aha hare time to bide among the bushes before the visitor stepped through the open window ? It was worth trying.

In her desperat6 haste she missed her footing and fell backwards ; down among the shrubs she went, with the nail-bag, jerked up by the fall, emptying its contents into her mouth, just as the Bector stepped on to the lawn. For a moment she was terribly scared, and the thorns of the rose-tree on one side and the sharp ends of the laurel branches on the otaer stuck into her bare arms and hurt her cruelly. But she had sufficient presence of mind not to shout; and she lay there wi f h her face turned to the sky, enduring her agony with the heroism of a martyr, and hoping against hope that the two men had not seen or heard her fall. To her dismay however, the Rector called out-

' Bless me, what was tbat ? Did someone fall out of a window ? '

• I don't think so,' answered his companion, who was still on the topmost step leading from the window.

Molly tried hard to shrink out of sight among the branches, as ohe saw a pair of keen, pleasant blue eyes turned full upon her in her awful position. Their eyes met for an instant \ then the Hector's friend stared behind ber ss though he had seen noshing.

' A dog among the bushes, I think,' he said coolly, without a trace of the intense amusement Molly knew he was enjoying at her expense ; and then he walked on, down the steps, without another glance in her direction, and she lost sight of the well-shaped head and handsome features of her bete noire. She struggled to her feet, and pushed her way between the bushes until she got round the corner of the house.

' You horror ! ' she cried, under her breath, as soon as she dared stand upright, shaking her fist threateningly towards the baok garden ' How I wish I could pay you oat for this ! ' And she went into the house through the side door and up to hor own rcorn, vowing vengeance on the innocent cause of her misfortune. A nife object I look ! ' she said to herself ruefully, as she examined a long scratch on her chin and half a dozen others on her arms; and even while she wss still busy counting her wounds she heard her father calling her from the hall below.

She went quietly to the stairhead and peeped down. He was alone. ' Have they gone ? ' she asked, in a tragic whisper.

He shook his head, and smiled in a way wnich made her think that ' they ' must be within heariug.

{To be continued.)

The so-called antique oak is ordinary American onk sawed in a peculiar way, and stained to look like the old English oak.