Our Novelettes.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1524, 26 March 1886, Page 4

Our Novelettes.

A SLIGHT MISTAKE. (Continued.) Mrs Ford made no audible reply, but she again asked herself in her inmost heart why mothers with marriageable daughters were bo sorely tried. In the meantime Agnes had entered the seventh heaven of felicity, and, although no word of love or even admiration had ever escaped the Captain's lips, she succeeded in persuading her'elf that the language of his eyes was too evident to admit of any mistake, and she carefully treasured in her heart nil the trivialities of daily interroure, and held them to be marks of a profound attachment. At length the important night arrived, and Juliet, in a flutter of excitement, prepared to meet her Borneo. Her heart beat till she could almost hear its throbs as she stepped out of the balcony ; and her nervous utterance of the words "Ahme !" in answer to Romeo's passionate language, passed for an indication of a carefully-studied reading of the part ; and, when, at the close of the scene, her voice faltered and almost failed her with excess of emotion as her lover's parting words, spoken with a tender loving cadence, followed her, the delighted audience testified their satisfaction by loud and vehement applause.

After the performance there was a magnificent supper, at which the two principal actors, in their stage dresses, occupied the post of honour, and received the thanks and praises of the company. The entertainment was prolonged till a late hour, but, Mrs Ford not having been invi*ed to stay for the night, Agnes willingly agreed to return home with her. The Captain gallantly escorted hi* lovely Juliet to the carriage, andjas they passed through the entrance-hall, which was proiusely decorated with hothouse flowers, he plucked a spray of heliotrope and presented it to her, exclaiming, with a threatical voice and gesture—- " Accept this flower, fair Juliet, from your Borneo!"

Poor Agn's, m the carriage-door closed upon hir, pressed the cherished blossom to her iips. and, pleading extreme fatigue, sank back in her seat and indulged in delicious anticipations of future felicity. The heliotrope became, of course, a sacred relic, to be carefully treasured among her most previous possessions. Poor Agnes, she wm only eighteen, and she wm given to day dreams. A strong minded girl would hate tossed the flower on her dressing table, and thought no more about it j but Agnes Ford was not a strong-minded girl—only a Tery silly one.

"If I only knew what Captain Crofton's intentions really were!" said Mrs Ford meditatively. "I hope you have not mistaken him, Agnes." " I think there can be no doubt, mamma," returned Agnes, with a becoming blush. " A soldier's is a sad, roving life, Agnes, and I hope he will not take you away to India or any of these horrible places." " Oh, no doubt, he has interest enough to manage all that, mamma! I think he knows the Commander-in-Chief personally." " Well, I must say I shall be very glad when it is absolutely settled. Is theie a title in the family, do you know P" Poor Mrs Ford could not yet ".reconcile herself to plain Mrs Crofton, when she might have plumed herself on Lady Maybury. " I don't know indeed, mamma," repliel Agnes, with the most chilling indifference.

" I hare been thinking of white satin and Brussels lace, Agnes," said Mrs Ford, pursuing the tmin of her own thoughts " Corded silk is fashionable I know, but it is rather heavy. I wonder if there are any diamonds in the Crofton family. By-the-bye, Agnes, remind me »o look in Debrett." And a reference to Debrett gave Mrs Ford the satisfactory information that " Algernon Herbert St Aubyn Crofton was the second son of Sir Herbert St Aubyn Crofton, of Crofton Park, in the county of Slowshire, and a Captain in Her Majesty's Regiment of Hussars.

" Oh, Mamma, What a lovely name !" exclhimed Agnes, rapturously. " 3b, Agnes, what a capital match!" ejaculated the delighted mother in the same breath.

The only drawback to all this felicity was the fact that the Captain had not yet thought proper to call ; and it was not till a week after the party that he actually made his appearance. Mrs Ford received him with almost affectionaie cordiality, and Agnes's fair face was suffused with a most delicate blush. There was no doubt in Mrs Ford's mind as to the purpose of his visit; and, after a short time, si e began fo consider the expediency of leaving the young couple to thf mselves. But a sentence trom the Captain's lips arrested the movement she was about to make.

" I have this moring received a summons fro n the War Office, and I must be in town this evening, as my regimeat is rather unex» pectediy ordered abroad."

For a few moments even Mrs Ford's self* possession deserted her, and Agnes felt as though she bad received an electric shock, but tier busy imagination conjured up an immediate proposal—a wedding even—and visions of dresses, cards, cake, and orangeblossoms rushed through her mind in rapid succession. Mrs Ford was the firjt to r cover her senses.

" Then we shall not have the pleasure of seeing you a<ain for a long time, 1 fear," she said, in her blankest tone. " They will miss you sadly at the Castle." " They are kind enough to say so," returned the Captain, "so I have promised to run down if possible and bring Mrs Crofton with me." Mrs Crofton! A horrible suspicion darted through poor Mrs Ford's mind, and she could only articulate faintly—- " Mis Crofton P Tour mother, I suppose i" —" No, my wife." The shock was too cruel, and for a few seconds there was profound rileuoe. The mother was the fir.-t to recover. " Oh, I diet not know!" she said, hmriedly, without daring to glance at Agnes, who sat a little apart, apparently absorbed in watching something in the street. " Does Mr* Crofton accompany you abroid P" " Yes—and she would hare been with me here only for the illness of her mother, 1 should like to introduce you to my wife, Misa Ford," continued the Captain. " 1 am sure you would like; and I shall not fail to tell her of our joint efforts and tut ir auoceasful termination. I muat pay you the compliment of saying I never played with a better Juliet."

Then he rose and took his leave, and poor Agnes heard as in a dream, the clanging of the hall door behind him, and the quick clatter of his horse's hoofs down the quiet street. Presently she too roe, intending to retire quietly to her own room, but her mother stepped forward with a pitying gesture, exclaiming—- " Oh, Agnes, my dear child 1" " Don't, mamma," ate pleaded, in a low hurried ma*\ "it does set matter. It tea.

all a mistake. Don't tell papa." A few weeks afervards Mrs Foid discovered that she required a change of air, and, accompanied bv her daughter, she left Ward ham Wick for a short stay on the Continent. • t • t • " I really cannot understand it. Such an elegar t girl as Agnrs Ford ! Not that she is what she once was —but people do change in ten yeas, and it must be quite that since she danced at Lndv Alicia's ball. " Yes ; at d flirted so outrageously with the handsome Captain Crofton, who after all turned out to be a married man, I beli< ye. But, she has certainly gone off very much as you say, and her father has enough to do to make both ena* me't, if all reports are true — so that may account fo" their anxiety to get her The suitor i« a millimaire, I understand." " Well pei-lmp* he is at present, but trade is always uncertain, and he is ore of the largest merchants in Wiveri>lrigb. Of course if there should come a panic, < r a s'rike, or any great commeri itl disaster, he must take his chance with the rest; and I hear that he has no real estate to fall back upon *' " And the Fords havenot a farthing. Well, well, it is their own look out. What sort of looking fellow is the groom-elect ?" " Short and stout, with the shortest possible hnir, pale and watery eyes, and a sort of brick-dust complexion. His name, too, is not recommendatory—Spratt—John Spratt— Jack Spratt we call him—ha, ha, ha!'' Such was the conversation carried on in the dining-room in one of the bouses of Wardham Wick, when the ladies had retired and the gentlemen bad gathered round the decanters. Upstairs in the darwing room the same theme was played with rariitions. «• Isn't it a pity, this affair of Agnes Ford's ? I have known her all her life, and if she had been my daughter " "Int true then? Well, I really could scarcely believe it—such a lovely creature as she is too." M Was, my dear friend—was. Agnes Ford is sadly gone off. At the same time it is •s you ity, a great pity. The man is a boor, a perfect monster, with not a particle of refinment about him, and quite illiterate—drops his *'■ you know, and eats with his knife." •' You don't say so ! How horrible! Is he good-looking P' •«Oh, de»r, no ! And so particular as Agnes used to be about looks! But there i» never any accounting for these things. The ' fact is, to use a homely simile, poor Agnei has gone all thmugh the wood and picked up a crooked stick at last."

" Well, at her age, you know, firls can't afford to be particular —and perhaps they were afraid she would not pick one up at all. But wasn't there some talk years ago about her and ?ir James Maybury P" " To be sure there was. And I believe there was really something in it, but she played her cards badly and lost the game." " Whom did he marry after all P" " Oh, some great foreign Duke's daughter! She was said to be the greatest beauty of the day, and had an immense fortune. But that ia an old story now. Why, their eldest boy must be seven years old!" " How vexed the Fords must have been!" «• I should think so indeed. But A*nes was such a romantic girl in those days. However, she has mide up for it now, poor thing I onlv hope she may be happy, that's all." . J J And so the nine days* wonder ended, and Agnes was allowed to make her way through the world as best she might. But she had learnt maty a hard .lesson since those early days, and whatever was left to the old romance was carefully bidden from those among whom her lot was cast. Only one little trace remained of the tender d<iy-dream of her girl-hood j and that showed itself in a strange aversion to the scent of the heliotrope and a singular dislike of Sbakeapere's exqusite play of Romeo and Juliet, F. P. A.