MAB.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 66, 27 November 1880, Page 1 (Supplement)

MAB.

They wondered what she would be like— the new cousin who was coming to Redwood. " I believe she is called Mab," said Papa Beed. "I think she was named Mabel. She is abont seventeen, and has been at school for the laat six years. She haa no home, now that her grandfather is dead, and must come to us. ■ More than that I cannot tell yon, girls. Whether she is tall or short, dark or fair, pretty or ugly, I cannot say. I never saw her in my life.*' So Bell and Gerty wondered. Air their lives they had lived very quietly at Bed wood, having no companions of their own age, educated by private teachers, and never having' been five miles from the spot where i they were first bom. . It was no wonder, therefore, that they thought curiously of this unknown cousin, born on the sea, who had gone abroad as a child, whose home had been among the White Mountains, who had spent so many years at school, and could remember no mother. '" ' "She must be very lonely," said gentle Gerty. "She must know a neat deal to nave travelled about so much," said stately Bell. They were tall, graceful, soft-eyed girls, having much sweetness of nature, and a singular, delicate beauty, inherited from their mother ; and after awhile theycame to the conclusion that Mab, being a maternal cousin, looked like themselves. " I hope she likes music," saidGterty, "and singe." ' " I wonder if she embroiders, and can do fancy work ? " added Bell. i "I am told she is very highly accomplished," said Mrs. Beed, thoughtfully, " but so are you, my dears." Like most mothers, she -hoped that the" unknown cousin would not prove a rival to her own charming girls. And yet she was prepared to love the orphan and be very kind toner. * "It will be evening when" they get here. I hope the open grate and the lights will make the rooms look pleasant and homelike to James's daughter,", said Mrs.. Beed. G-erty practised, and' -Bell, embroidered Parma violets until the clock struck seven, when they heard wheels upon the drive and rushed to the door. It was dark, but by the light of the' carriage-lamps they saw Mr. Beed hand to the ground a petite, dainty figure, so small as to be almost child-like; but there was. the grace and confidence, of a princess in the air of the girl as she gathered up her rich travelling dress and turned to the door. ' Mr. Beed came up the steps at her side. , ' "This is Mab, my dears. , Come'rightin to the fixe. It is ft chilly night."

In a moment they found themselv.es all together 1 within J the loxaridua ' and Mab' heard the gentle 'tones of lie* anit and cousin's. ' They took her wrapi, and she stood revealed among them, a delioate little creature, yet with a strange' air 'of complete self-possession. > -■ ' "Thank yon. I have not suffered from, the weather. I am very comfortable,'' she said; .yet there. was a coldness, or something akin to it, in the silvery sweet voice, and Bell and, Gerty instantly conceived, the idea that she was a great deal oldertthari themselves. - j i She was, seventeen, she said, and was veryglad to have left school, and thought Redwood would be very pleasant, ,GfaduaUy the soft ' solicitude which had filled Mrs." Reed's face, gave way to a look of gravity and trouble. ' Mab was so 1 utterly different from her own timid, confiding girls that she began to feel at, a loss with her.-; , And iin less than half an hour, Bell and Gerty were conscious qi a feeling- .oi disappointment. At length came the hour of retiring. "I will give you a bedroom adjoining your oousins', Mab," Mrs. Reed said, "so that you may not feel lonely; and you need anything in the night, be sure, to speak." For an instant she fancied a grateful look in the long-lashed blue 6yes, but the cold, silvery voioe ' was unaltered, and frTiinTri^y herself mistaken, she contented herself with a gentle good-night, and.<Btw Mab go away, with her cousins. * ' a "I declare I haven't kissed her ! I wonder if she cares for one among us?" said Mrs. Reed to her husband. " She is a very selfpossessed lyoung lady,, and— and somehow seems to hold me at arm's length." " She is quite pretty and well bred. You'll' like her, I've no doubt, when you get better acquainted." ). Upstairs, Gerty had said to Mab :— " Shall I help you undress? - Perhaps you would like to have me, if you are very tired. I often help mamma and Bell." Mab declined, politely ; but her eyes dwelt an instant on the lovely face of her cousin with a look of wonder. Somethings hard and glittering she placed on the dressing table by the bed. Gerty turned pale. . . t " A pistol !" she faltered, involuntarily. : " Yes. Are you afraid f You need not be,' 4 replied Mab. " I have been forced to travel a great deal alone, and I find it safer to carry one," she added, quickly unthreading her brown braids. " I would not touch one for the world! I don't think we ever had one in the house before," answered Gerty. She saw Mab lock the pistol in a drawer before she went to bed. The ,mext morning she reported the incident to her mother. ] " Wiafca strange girl}" exclaimed Mrs. Reed. She was, forced to repeat the ejaoulation many times during the next three months. Mab did not care for embroidery. She sang and played- magnificently. She also rode horseback, could drive two horses, and liked to take long, -lonely-walks over the hills. She was faultlessly polite and pleasant, and 'seemed to like 'her oousins; but "there was, , somehow, a shadow between, her and them, Bell said. They did not get on well' or talk together,' and their tastes did not seem congenial — even in music. Mab seemed sometimes to delight in minor airs, and even played dirgies often, until they would beg her to desist. There was something passionate and forceful in her nature utterly unknown to her gentle, dovelike oousins. , Mrs. Seed felt this vaguely, though not quite understanding it, and wondered what I eheTshould'tlD'to win the orplisn*B"ii6Hrt7 : ~ '"" It was a singularly happy home, full of ■ love and refinement., Mtb. .Seed had the pleasure of seeing that, under her kind care, Mab gained hr health and flesh, 1 and actually seemed larger than on her arrival at 'Redwood, while she had quite abandoned her | solitary walks and Aiea, And. otbener aou'ghb their united society of her own free will. It was just after Christmas, and Mab had seemed strangely touched by the numerous gifts she received, when Mr. Reed found it, necessary to leave home for a few days. The coachman and bis wife, who was' the cook, had gone to a funeral, and only one domestic — a timid German girl— remained with the ladies. " I do not like to be left so," said Mrs. Reed, "because we always have money and valuables in the house." ' -'"• • ' . Slab's email, proud head was lifted quickly from her book. '■ " Do you really think there is any danger,' Aunt Gertrude P" " I suppose there is some," said Mrs. Reed reluctantly. ''One of our neighbours was robbed last fall. Our house is isolated by the grounds, and we are known' to be in good circumstances. "Will you' be kind enough to go around and see if the outside doors are looked, Mabf Gretchen is to miserable !" It was twilight as Mab made the round of the large, rich house. ' Several' doors, which she found unfastened, she ' looked, and suddenly stopped in the front hall and'looked about her with a suspioious airi Then she came into the library, where her aunt was writing- a letter. " Aunt Gertrude, has anyone called at the house to-day who 'smokes cigars?" "No." " I think I can smell oigar-amoke in the hall." " You must be mistaken, my dear. It is probably the broiled meat which Gretchen burned at supper." Mab smiled faintly as she sat down again to her book, Her senses were all very fine and. keen j it was impossible that she should fas mistaken. She left the library-room, and went carefully all over the house, coming back to her book, but not to read. When her cousins went up to their room, she went with them. . She sat by the open fire for a few moments, then quietly remarked : " Gerty, I would like to sleep with Bell to-night. It seems lonesome in my room, now/that "onole has gone." Gerty looked surprised, but answered: ' ' You can just as well, can't she, Bell ? I will go down and sleep with mamma. I meant - to have proposed it to her, but forgot." ' In a moment, Gerty, enveloped in a wrapper, had run down stairs. Mab went into her own room, and came back with a magazine.. Don't you want to enjoy the fire a little while, Bell P Sit down here, and I will read you a story." , Mab was a very beautiful reader, and Bell eagerly acquiesced. They were- soon occupied with the book, and presently |the dock had struck eleven, and the entire silence of the house told that all were deep in slumber. " Do you like the story P" asked Mab. „" Yes ; I think I never heard you read so beautifully, Mab," Bell replied. , , For. Abe had been struck by the unusual clearness and steadiness in her consin's voice; when Mab leaned forward, and laid a written slip of paper upon her lap. I silent surprise, Bell took it up. .It read, in pencil: " There is a thief under the bed. Do not make. any noise, but trust me." ■ 1 As Bell raised her- eyes, blind with terror, she saw Mab draw her little, glittering pistol from her bosom, and walk toward the bed. She stopped before it. ' "Come out I" she called, in a clear, resolute voice. ' ' Come out from your hiding ' place, or I will shoot yon in it J" On* thrilling instant tliere was »ltno«;

then a stir zander the^bed betokened, .wj&hput doubt, a presence , there. la a moment, a brutish y>na|r fellow brawled from imdMLtha bed, arid stood, trembling, before the sfeftAily presented revolver.' „ • ' ! '_' c "'j "Don't shoot me ! " he wMmpered?' 11 " I didn't mean to hurt nobody, 'an" wanted money-bad." ' . • o ;>'fi •« " J4J 4 Take yourself downstairs without'riiafeng the least noise," -Mab responded; advonoing ; upon-him ' with* the "revolverj andsolbiely following* the young man ; down' the 1 thicklycarpeted stairs. 'She closed the; front'door upon him, remarking-,' at ilia last;- "-(Brer attempt this again, and you will nob get" off ■o easily!" ■ J ~- »t: Sell met, on <her return, MaWs blueosysß glittering, her. cheeks burning. '■;'■ s'u .-- to . "HeAas gone," she said; " .aridmafona .has 'been- disturbed v or alarmed," rwheiuihe colour suddenly , faded from her face,iandi»he : sank into the eaay-ohair ; she had. just left, white and helpless. . ,<. - > '• . '/.:^ " Oh, Mab— aear^aearMab— *oi£bsamkl" .oried • Bell in a terrified whisper, dinging about her. , , , s AS Bat- poor Mab,, her delicate strength,- all spent,i.lay as, if dead, and, in spite of > herself, Bell felt forced' to, call her ; mother. u > /, ; . ,* - Bravely imitating; Mab' a "self -xsontrola'jshe revealed nothing but , the fact that Mab, was in a faint; and Mxd/'Reed, accustomed to Bioku6B|, deroted herself to JJiab's featorf^iou without alarm. A , , "*,, ir The latter soon'reooTerecl.fand, folding ttie .girls tenderly in tHeir bed| Mrs. Reed gaye a few last directions and warnings', and^atole back, satisfied, to her own warm couch., ; Bell, for the. first time in her, life, ;stole caressing arms about her cousin,- arid, Mab returned the embrace. " '-- ?, Bell 1 was filled with 1 wonder : 'at'^Mab'a character, and Mab— a strange' sweetness stole over her as ehe fested iv the. geiitlo embrace. ' .' It was nearly daylight before- the'^. two slept. Mr. fteed came home early, and?rhey were oalledj at last, to a late breakfast. " What da those pale cheeks mean P" he oried, in wonder - \' r , ll r T * And then Bell oould be no longer restrained. To the amazement of the reßt of the family, the whole truth was told. ' . > s ■ ::i Mr. Reed caught the^small form of Mab in. his. arms, and, as if she had beea'his^bwn girl, drew her down to his knee,- add looked searohinglj into her pale countenance. '^ " You, ohild?"';he ßaid, " how daredy6u??» ,','Unole' Godfrey, I knew there hughe be terrible work if I, did not,'.' answered Mab, earnestly. "But a! thief is > most always a coward, ain't he? - iY.et.a brave. robber is conquered by a revolver. . X.was .ready to kill h'"i on the spot rather than he should imrb one of y0n..,, Ob, imole, : Aunt Gerfapndft, girls — you don't know what you.are toViae I I never was loved and cherished before^ I can't remember my motherland no one^else has ever loved me. I seemto ypu small and young, but from a 'child my heart has .grown old in breaking for affection ! And I oared 'so much for it. that I,could not make light friendship like other girls. ' I have always been' alone; and I have tried to do without love and be brave' and useful in the <world. Do you ufideratand ? Why, I never in\ all my life have known anything like ybur thoughtfulness,' your little jattentidns, y^our glad pride in each other, your unselfishness. Aunt Gertrude, do you remember the, night you rubbed my feet in your warm 1 hands when I came from riding P I went tombed and oried, yet' 3 tried to keep myself from loving 1 yon. < TJnole, do yon remember "the ohamois jacket you brought me, lest I ahtfold take cold skating f No one ever thought of -my bßalth^befDrey -jiiroef 1^ can remember. Do these seem >little things to you? in Oh, they have .been so imuch tpme ! • And^ifow that I have told: you all, perhaps you" will and do love me a i little, for I loye*yon.< I love you all dearly !'! and the poor' child , broke down in passionate crying. • • ■ ■ '<■ •''' They gatiidved about her, weeping: t©o> and bestowed upon her kisses and caresaes enough even to satisfy her hungry heart. Her Aunt, Gertrude must needs take-' her right in her lap, and when all. were calmer, Mab began to tell more about 'the strange . story. tJ j „ . -'. • , i -■ ~i " I knew J was not mistaken in smelling cigar-smoke; I ■ never' am > .deceived- in odours. And the.more I. thought of it, the more sure I -was <that something m was wrong.' 1., could jsmell it, too, i-ittj -the chambera, .and I became certain that- there wag an intruder concealed somewheravoa the <floor. .■ 1 knew I, must' do. something; I have, been used to emergenciesi'and/had confidence in myself; butiliseemedto have i so little, time.. ,< [The evening 'flew caway before I had , decided; vwhat to-do. ,u;But when I went upstairs) with thetgirhf, I began to understand, forlfeaw a man's feat under the, .'bed. i I got (forty to go down, and kept i Bell iwith./me, because.ishe.waa leBB nervous— had, more . composure., lhan Gerty. Bell, I. did not know a wbrd.l.J«ra« reading from that magazine, jl-wasimly remembering to , read - steadily^ .while I thought what it was best toldo. ' X did.' not want to frighten you, Aunt iGertrudeJ't. Her aunt kissed hec niece tnrice. . ■■- Cf Tou are a Btrange girl> Mabj but thank heaven you aie what you are I", •'■';