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Cromwell Argus, Volume XXVII, Issue 1372, 13 August 1895, Page 2

[cofyiught.] MIGHT VERSUS RIGHT. [TWO INSTALMENTS APPEAR IN THIS DAY'S ISSUE.] BY JULIA MACK, Author of " Th' Boggart o' th' Mill," " GlenGordon," 4'c CHAPTEE Vlll.— Commnmo. " Trouble ? Ay ! trouble enough!" sighed Betty. " The mon has come about a bill, and th' inester canna pay." "Is that all ?" answered Elsie, in a tone of relief. '"Canna pay!' Unfortunately that is no new thing, Betty. Ask the man to wait a few weeks; there will be money coining in, and we must get papa to settle some of these bills. Tell him to go away, and his business shall be attended to." "My dearie, you dunna understand," said the old servant, wiping her eyes with a corner of her apron; " this mon canna be sent away a-thaten; he's a bailiff. Alack-aday! that I should live to see sich a disgrace!" and sitting down on the nearest chair, poor Betty began to cry bitterly. The girls looked at each other in utter bewilderment; the word " bailiff " conveyed no very terrible idea to their minds. Elsie threw down her hat and gloves, and set herself to comfort Betty. " Why, Betty, you dear old stupid, a bailiff is nothing to be afraid of! 1 think they are rather nice sort of men; don't you remember our calling at the farm where Sir Robert Talbot's bailiff lives, and what homely, hospitable people they were? Hike bailiffs!" "Law bless us!" cried Betty, almost angrily, "you and Miss Mary are nobbut like babies; you think you kijow iverything, andyon know just nowt. Yon mon in the kitchen is a different sort of bailiff to any you know about; he's sent by a lawyer, and he has to stop until his bill is paid, and if it is not paid, he can tak' what he likes out of th' house, and sell it until he gets as much as he wants." The girls looked aghast at this new definition of the word bailiff. Just then Bertie and Mr. Sam Dodd walked in. looking very much surprised to see Betty seated in the dining-room, red-eyed and dishevelled, and Mary and Elsie standing beside her, looking pale and frightened. The crisis was so a larming, that not even the presence of a visitor could check the recital of the new calamity; indeed, for the time he was foreotten. Standing in the background, he listened to Bertie's eager questions and Betty's lamentations, a curious half-smile on his well-cut lips, and a l%>h't in his dark eyes which certainly «did not betoken sympathy. " What abowt father, Betty P " asked Elsie, presently. "Of course he knows about the man? " "'Oh, yes. Miss Elsie, but he canna do nothing;; he seeros fair moithered wi' trouble." "Poor dear father! "sighed the girls. " You had better allow me to see this fellow," said Sam, coming forward. " Bertie can go with me, if you like; I daresay the matter can very easily be arranged." He spoke to Elsie, and she gave him a quick, questioning look; the money difficulty was, after all, only an old foe with a new face. It was very dreadful, but Elsie's heart was oppressed by a still heavier and more personal trouble; and the intention she read in Sam's face only added to the weight. Like a bird caught in a net,' every effort to extricate herself only resulted in tightening the meshes which encircled her. Sam walked into the Vicarage kitchen with the air of one who is master of the situation. The unwelcome guest was Beated before the fire, his feet on the fender, and his whole person enveloped in a cloud of coarse tobacco smoke. "Put that pipe out directly," said Sam, in a peremptory voice. "I wish to speak to you about this business." The man looked half inclined to be impudent, but a glance at Sam's cool, determined countenance modified his intentions. He stood up awkwardly, and disposed of the obnoxious pipe. "I'm only doing iny dooty, sir," he said, in a surly, but abject manner. " A poor man must obey orders, sir; this ain't none of my doing." " Let me see your warrant," demanded Sam, taking no notice of the man's attempt at apology. "Where is the bill?" Sam took the papers and examined them in a business-like manner, explaining them to Bertie, who knew as much about such matters as his sisters. The bill was for a sum of £SO, and was due to one Jones, a man who had apparently lent money to the Vicar, years ago. When Sam had satisfied himself that the claim was made in proper legal form, he took out his pocket-book, and producing a cheque, he filled it up for the amount required, and having obtained a receipt in full from the discomfited bailiff, he ordered him off the premises, and gave him notice that if he heard of his staying to gossip at the public-house, he would make him repent it. The man took up his fusty old cap, and, departed in so humble a euise that Butty's feelings were greatly soothed, and when she had thrown open the window, and removed all trace of her late visitor, she began to feel herself again. " Now, Bertie," remarked Sam, taking up his hat, " I fully intended to speak to your father this evening about Elsie, but this tiresome little affair must have upset him, and I think it will be better to wait till to-morrow." "Perhaps so," said Bertie, "but do just come into the study, and let him thank you for your kindness; I—l don't really know how to thank you myself." "No thanks are needed, my dear boy. Between relatives, as I hope we may call each other, this sort of thing is nothing at all." Elsie heard the words as she stood at the head of the stair-case, and they struck a chill to her heart. He evidently thought it a settled thing, then; this new obligation would give him a sort of right to her; was there no way of escape P She waited until he had left the house, followed by Bertie ; then she slowly descended the stairs and went into the study. Mary was already there, talking to her father, who was in a very distressed state of mind. He was standing on the hearthrug, looking at the receipted bill in his hand, with such an expression of pain, perplexity, and shame on his refined countenance* that Elsie for the moment forgot her own trouble in the instinctive desire i to soothe and comfort him. I Mr. Vere stood in a very curious rela-' tion to his children; they admired, ! trusted, and looked up to him, as the best of earthly beings. His affectionate, sweet temper and deep piety had won for him this high place in their hearts; yet in times of trial and difficulty, it was usually the father who turned to the children for support, and not the children to the father. They were well aware of his faults and weaknesses, and the habit of watching over him, and shielding him from the consequences of his imprudence, had become a part of their natures. This was especially the case with Mary and Elsie, whose love was not only filial, but had in it almost the protective, self-forgetting devotion of a mother. " It is very kind, Mollie," Mr Vere was waving, as Elsie entered the room, •' Of