Our Novelettes.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1580, 11 March 1887, Page 4

Our Novelettes.

THE DOMINIE'S SONS.

CnirTEß ll.—Okcy. (Continued.)

What had come to Cecy Rymer, who had gono awuy a rosy round-faced girl, to change her so, in addition to her natural growth ? Hints had travelled to Auldaeres in Ceey's leiters, bat they had been so slightly apprehended that nobody, not even her mother, had compassed their full import. The late dominie of Aulda' res had designed that C-cy, his favourite girl pupil, should become his fem tie ns distant in the school, since female assistants had come into vojuo. When that sebene fell to the ground with Andrew's accession to the post of schoolmaser, a distant relative of the Kymers had sent Cecy to Germany to qualify her for the higher order of governess. " Word " had come back apain and again to tho Whins of Auldacres ttiat Cecy was doing exceedingly well in foreign class room* and under lime trees breakfasting off cherries, supping off pear and plum soup, and lying down to rest under an eider down quilt,, with a cuckoo-clock at her elbow sounding her receillee for morning practice, and early lecture.

Cecy had staved on abroad, first teaching in her academy, and then fillit g a good situation in a private family, at salaries which had enabled her to keep her mother "like a queen," as Mrs Rymer had declared. Mrs Kymer had been latterly inclined to cap Mrs Auchinleck's crowing over her son David, his honours at Oxford and the company he kept there, with tiny crows over her daughter—the rank of the family in which she was established, and with which she saw a great deal of the Continental world, the favour that her employers showed Cecy, and tho friendly terms which existed between the governess anil her grown-up pupils. "Poor, silly, curtshying bo ly," reflected Mrs Au hiuleck in imperious disdain, " to think of speaking of her 10yd lassie, granting she's tamed now, a mere gouvernante looked down upon by butlers and futmen, housekeepers and leddies* maids, in thosime breath wi* our Davie, a Felly o' his college, in the society o' the grandest in the laud, who are proud to bo Fellies along with him—our Davie, who micht be a member o' Parliament or sic like ony day his sol'! Tho wumau's dementi d! "

Notwithstanding Mrs Auchinleck'sswifu! incredulity, however, the process of'' like " to " like," had gone on. To a fine, frank, naturally generous nature there is no insuperable difficulty (granted the model is provided) in the growth from a good, ingenuous, bright girl, to a good considerate in everything delicate-minded lady. Now that the work was complete and open to inspection, Andrew Auchinleek's first experience was a mixture of consternation and intense, ontire approbation. He instinctively took off the. cap which he had put on to go and visit his leased land and its crops, and wished a parsing wish for which he would have derided himself had he had time to reflect on its nature, that he had attended to his mother's suggestion, and given himself" a brush up," though not for the benefit of the coll- ge Fellow. Not thut Cecy Rymer showed any hostile perception of Andrew's rumpled grey coat with truces of ink on the sleeves, his coloured morning shirt, his faded neck tie, which were not calculated to set off the massive, somewhat statuesque, figure and face of a man who looked old for his years seriom, a little saturnine —truculent, his enemies might call it. Cecy did not appear disposed to be critic il on t'»e costume and bearing of her old companion. She seemed inclined to be a vast dial pleasanter and the world lers pert than in the d iys ol her non-age. She only looked as if she admired his progress in stature ami responsibility, while sne advanced, holding OMt a willing hand to clasp his. " I should have hnown you any where, Mr Andrew," ehe said quite eagerly, " though you are become a big man who can keep auihority." " A schoolm i-ter had need to keep auihority —but I should never huve known yo-i, Sliss Cecy," returned Andrew; y>it he grasped her hand, and the relations established between the two, difficult man as he was to deal with, were ut once friendly relations Mrs Rymer and her daughter did not remain long at the school-house. Mrs Auchinleck tooi care to let the elder visitor know the coi'.cidence of the expected urnval of Mrs Auchinleck s distinguished sou. The unobtrusive widow wts not only persuaded that the family reunion would be b.tur without tie presence of witnesses; she was, whatever Mrs Auchinleck might think to the contrary, deeply impressed by the superior distinction of " Davie Auci.inltck."

Bonnie and sweet, and altogether pre'tily behaved, like the privileged friend of ladies and gentlemen, as her daughter had come back, filling Mrs Rymer's heart with pride and gladness, still Davie Auchinleck was far beyond any of them—beyond Mrs Templeton and her son Cosmo, who was home from Canada, for health and a wife. Mra Uymer must " mind " to call Davie " Mr Dauvet," as Cecy had given her the exumpie in saying Mr to his brother, whom Mrs Kytner hud never thouuht of calling any. thing save Andrew. He was the master and ha t Deen so for the last half-dozen years, but bo had come much about her house as a callant, and though he was gruff to other folk, he hud ayo a canny enough word to her. Yet no doubt it was proper that Cecy should say Mr to Andrew, as everything Cecy did was proper.

While the mother and the daughter did stay, Cecy and Andrew found no lack of words to say to each other. She told him voluntarily that she had just come home on a visit. Sbe was going buck to the Thornycrofts. What excellent people they are, and how happy they made her—Cecy— r.s happy as she could be, save for the separation from her mother! There were old Mr and Mrs Thornycroft and their three daughters, each of whom had been, and one of them was still Cecy's pupil. The family hoped that the Squire would foon get clear of his embarrassment —he was so kind an old man, only too kind—which had condemned them to live abroad for the family's education, so as to enab'e them to return and lire at the Hall in another year at the farthest. That would bo nice, for Northumberland was but a step from A ul(lucres after Germany. Had not she— Cecy—been fortunate ?

Andrew shook himself half awake from tho sluggish apathy which had possessed his mind while bis body was having the pre-eminonce, and talked of foreign literature, which he knew passably well, and of foreign places, wiih which, though he had never seen them, he was familiar by reflected light, until, before Cecy left, he had gone so far as to agree to accept the loan of a new German book of note from her, and to vouchsafe a half promise that ho would rub up his German and read it. Andrew had not done so much since he had been schoolmaster of Auldacres.

" Tint lassie of Mrs Kytuer's is no that braw," said Airs Auchinleck in a puzzled but candid tone to Andrew, " yet somehow sko is turned into a leddy, as fair a leddy as Miss Tom plot on or Miss May. Will Cecy Ry mor oo bo uuco out o' place now at the Whins ?''

" Are ladies ever out of place ?" counterquestioned Andrew. " I though'' it was their mission to walk up hill and down dale, refining if not reforming the world. Did you feel Cecy Rymer out of placa tho few minutes she was here ?"

" This is a fell different place," Mrs Auchinleck took up the cudgels indignantly. "A scule-hou*e is surely no like a widow wiman's little bettt-r than cot-house, though Cecy has paid the wages of a servant to her mother this twa year come Martinmas. Cecy ha* been a dutiful dachter, Ido not deny that. But the humblest scule-house, be it attached to a charity or a free—not to say a richt auld parish scule, is the next thing to a eeat of learning. The time was," Mrs Aufhi-ileck continued, with an ostentatious flourish, " 88 your father often tel'ed me, that it rankit with the manse in the parish." "The time has gone by, then/'corrected Andrew, with a man's provoking composure. " May be," acknowledged Mrs Auchinleck, imp itieit'y ; "but,my word," she cintinued, swelling into wrath, " the place that is going to welcame Davie Auchinleck, Felly o' his college, may weel be fir to receive Cecy Rymer —neither more nor less, however honourably tret, than a gcuvernante."

" Mother," said Cecy Rymer, abruptly, as she and her mother pace 1 home in the twilight, deliciously balmy on this June evening, along the unsheltered fi-ld road, and the pathway across the uncultivated moor, " is Andrew Auchinleck eo much changed, or is the change in me ?"

" Bairn," remonstrated Mrs Rymer, with mild wonder, " didna you say you would have kenned him ony where t" " Ah ! yes, as I should ken that cry of the corn-craik and now of the plover. But poor Andrew ! —it was not his birthright which he sold for a mess of pottage —no, it was the intellectual and foeial pottage he gave up because of his birthright."

"Sly dear," objected Mrs Rymer again, this time more uueisily, though with even greater mildness than before, "Idinnalike newfangled remark-! on Scripter. I dare eay I'm auld-fashioned and prejudiced, but, if you please, we'll loep frae sic remarks. The minister lias aye be> n cautioning me against the wild opinions and the unsiun'-ne-s o' Gt-rmany, till lie has made my hair stand on end for vour best interests, Cecy, and you a godly minister's bairn." " The minister mu;ht have more charity to spare for the true, k nd Germans, the truest, kindest folk in the world," exclaimed Cecy, in hssty indignation j but she c-ilmed down in a moment, in order to rias'ure her mother. "Mr Templeton thnks only of my goo i; I know that, and I hope I um right, as you and he would have me to bo So you will take my arm, dearie, for your step is getting a little slower now that we hive walked half a mile. How Mrs Auchinleck talks! I know our sharp friend is worthy and sterling—a good, good mother, but why does she speak so much of Diivie and so little of Andrew ?'' Andrew Auchinleck wus softened by some subtle influence from the revival of his acpuaintance with Cecy Rymer—the new Cecy Rymer. He had been tempted, even while, poor fellow, he had beeD sufficiently pleased witli and proud of his brothers acquisitions, to meet David cava'ierly—rather to ignore the contrast which had arisen between the two, and to take nothing off his successful relative's hand, should the latter be so left to himself as to attempt to come over Andrew with pationizing couusel or faultfinding. After all Andrew smoothed down his rising tomper, and was, to his mother's satisfaction, free und gentle wi»h David when the hero stepped at lust on the old stage of the schoolhome. David Auchinleck in the outward man was ill-kuit, irregularly featured, but he was at the same time not only well dressed, but seen in the One setting of gcod breeding, and high intelligence. Farther, the uiaiure scholar was fifty times more at ease and simpler withal than when he was a raw student.

" It maun be his grand education and the rank he has risen to which makes Davie so pleasant," concluded his delighted mother; " for i carina say that he takes it either frae me or trie his pjor father, who hasua lived to see thesj days. D ivie is a hantle plea-autrr than Andrew, and I shoul Ina wonder though Davie were easier to serve for a* the dainties and tikes he has been accustomed to; no but that Andrew's bark is waur thau his bite, poor cheild."

When David the Fellow took Andrew the schoolmaster's measure after the two had come to closer quarters, iu more prolonged and interested intercourse than the brothers had held since they were boys together, An Irew little guessed how favourable was David's estimate. David might have got his surfeit of superficial advantages so as to end by sinking tuein to their due level or belo* their level, and by turning back to and exalting the primiiive qualities ; or he might have had a lurking inextinguishable regret, and borne his brother a yearning grudge because he, David, had allowed Andrew to pluy the part of (Junius, and not interposed and himself taken the leap. David said to himself, as they parted for the night, "A grand old fellow Andrew, sagacious and original! no b jorishuess in him can be more than skin-deep." Chapter lll.—the winneh. The novelty us well as the undreamtof lustre of Cecy's reappearance in her limited home-circle had its results. In considerttion of the temporary character of her stay, and of the manner in which she had returned, as it were, franked and superscribed by her patrons and friends the Thornjcroits, and further verified by her artistic German music, her teals in waterco ours and illumination, and htr familiarity with German literature, the four or five Misses iempieton call* don Cecy. They had not, save in the profe sional minister's daughters' way, called on her mother, but they extended to Cecy the actuul right hand of fellowship, which was only to be taken for two months. During these long summer days in the dull country neighbourhood, two of Cecy Rymer's admirers were birds of passage like herself, and were in that dangerous condition of idleness which is highly favourable to the growth of a flirtation. It must be admitted that one of these admirers entertained for her as she knew, and was content to know, a purely Platonic regard. Cosmo Templeton, *vho was so fond of escorting and waiting upon his sisters' friend, was publicly pledged to another friend of his who was not then in his vicinity. He was not a bad sort of a fellow as men go : a quick, gay, good-humoured, smartish man of the world. He was the last mm to be guilty of —not to say a breach of his word, but of the worldly folly of an imprudent marriage. Cosmo's father, mother, and sisters, and the young lady whom he was going to marry, if it reached her ears, could remain quite tranquil on Cosmo's fancy for Cecy Rymer: admitting that, Cecy was as a Lammas lily. More than that, the other one of Cecy's admirers with whom Cosmo had run up in a trice a conveniently agreeable intimacy, was not in an appreciable degree jealous of the Colonial Government official, and of bis fair income ready-mado to marry o»-

But David Auchinlock's case was different from Cosmo's " Bcratch the Russian, and you will Cnd the Tartar." In spite of David's elaborate oulture, he betrayed in this matter a Bosnian brutality of earnestness which might yet war sue 'e?sf ullr, in all the crisis of hi* life, with his acquired dilettantei»m. David was very soon very far gone indeed in a violent attachment to the witch, Cecy Rymer. In the teeth of his Fellowship, in reckless regard of ways and means, he shocked and nffronted his mother, half flattered and wholly terrified timid Mrs Rymer, while he slighly touched and hugely provoked his mistress.

Cecy had returned, in the case of David Auchinleok, to the sauciness of her youth, and was indignant at being besieged, in her own mother's hou s e, by the mo't aggressive Fellow who could forfeit a Fellowship for her sake. David Auchinleck, fr)m whose knowledge and manners, rs his mother reflected bitterly, more might have been expected, threw discretion to the winds, and pursued Cecy Rymer per?ever>ngly, wherever he could hope to meet her, during these June and July weeks.

Poor Mrs Auchinleck'a pride was laid in the dust, and §he had great trouhle to keep from groaning aloud under the reverse. TV little rural world of Auldacres had not accepted with entire complacency ths schoolmaster's wife and widow's conceit in her sons. It grinned when human nature returned at a gallop in D.ivid Auchinleck. The men at the manse shrugged their shoulders. The women there, especially Amelia and May, and Bab and Harriet, who no longer treated David de haut en bat on their own account, were a little scandal'isd by his prompt and pointed selection of Cecy Rymer. They were forced to remind each other that gutter blood has a long course to run before it waxes blue. But the passing fl ivour of sour grapes did not prevent the girls from feeling secretly attracti d to, amu?ed by, and inclined to promote in a womanly way the College Fellow's devotion to the governess at home for her holidays. Mrs Auchinleck tried her hand at arresting David, on what she held, his road to ruin, without avail, and was reduced to pouring her grievances into Andrew's ear.

At unit, after David and Cecy returned, Andrew did something to redeem his position as their comrade. He roused himself from his wilful mental stupor. He resumed with fresh relish the tastes and habits of his eirly youth, criticised new editions of the classics, and plunged deeper into metHpbysics with David. He read Ceey's Freiligrath and Auerbach, listened, edified and entertained by the woman's quick, delicate opinions on characters and sentiment", or lie had the evil spirit charmed away from him by Ceey's music, for it was An lrew and not David who had a soul for music,

All that was before Cecy was drawn away to speak German or gossip about art or botanise with David; and then was driven to escape from such engagements and take refuge in helping to form the Templeton»* croquet party at the manse, though David Auchinleck was also of the party. The croquet players played and jested in the company of their kind, amid the bright sights and sweet sounds of a summer garden, while Andrew Auchinleck toiled for his own and his mother's daily bread, and taught the young idea how to shoot, in the baked and buzzing atmosphere of the school. Andrew listened to the groan? with which his n other relieved her*elf in hi« ta>, nd turned towards her a still, impassive (aco, white with exhaustion un ier the burden and heat of the day. He rarely spoke back or remonstrated unless the incensed woman slandered Cecy Rymer or accused her of beguiling David. Andrew Auchinleck had always been a just man, and when his mother was glaringly unjust to Cecy Ryiner, or even to David, Andre* fi eJ up and came down upon the speaker in not the most filial terms, though he was sorrr ior his rough woids and sought to atone for ihcm in his shy, dogg'-d manner, the moment alter they were spoken.

It was by no means the fault of Andrew (who kept his mother back fi-uin the undignified and us<-les9 retaliation so long as he was able, and was very angry and disgusted when he failed as a moral pohci-nwi) that Mrs Auchinleck —to whom the Bummer had brought a sore trial instead of the broken felicity which she had anticipated—at last assailed Mrs Rymer as a .-eci ndary cause of the misfortune which had befallen David Auchinleck.

Mrs Rymer had been unswervingly loyal to Mrs Auchinleck for a large part ot both their lives, but now she was bewildered, hurt, and resentful: she dew, in tears, in tre.ubling, aud in anger, to her natural protector. Cecy in her turn was, to begin with, what she called " furiou-ly angry," then unavoidably struck with a sense of the ludicrous, and at last simply vexed. '* I wonder Mrs Auchinleck does not get so dangtrous and wicked a person as I put out of the parish, since she cannot shut up her distinguished son! Never mind Mrs Auchinleck, mother; she is really mad about Davie, and I am a afraid she must lead Andrew a Bad life."

But as for poor Mrs Auchinleck, she had already discovered that her son Andrew also had come under the spell of the enchantress Crop Hymer.

When the second blow struck Mrs Auchin leek, and she knew her two sous to be rivals, she crossed her arms, interlaced her workworn bands, drooped her poor mother's vain, energetic head, and sat lor hours uuprecedenedly, ominously silent. She was inuignaut with her younger son ; she deeply pitied her elder, and longed to help him or console him.

One evening, when Cecy's two months had dwindled dowu to two weeks, and David Auchinltck's vacation to rxictly ihe same period, the inunre became so generous in its hospilulity as to contemplate a party which should include Andrew as well a* David in llh' list of its guests.

"An important functionary, the parish schoolmaster," explamed Mrs Templeton. " Mr Andrew Auchiuleck is a respectable, talented young man, besides bis connection witb his brother. Ah, he is a very clever fellow, David, in addition to having bis heart in the right p'ai-e. But he is astoundingly soft, for a college mun of standing, on a gin like Cecy Kytner. They say bis brother the schoolmaster is a so smitten with her."

" It is delightfully romantic," said Amelia Templeton.

" It is an awkward chance," the minister pursued, " but not likely to lead to anything very disastrous with a praiseworthy family such as the Auchinlecks. Fortunately there is no old family here to have their pride outraged by David's choice of a wife." " Oh dear no," assented Mrs Templeton, emphatically. " Mr Andrew, as well as David, is a kind of old schoolfellow of Cosmo's," Mr Templeton still excused himself. " You remember we had both brothers some evenings, years ago, before the elder was schoolmaster, when we wanted to recognise them as a couple of exemplary lads." " vVe reneraber," said May, shaking her head, " and dreary evenings we had of ithow David Atcbioleck U changed since thenJ"

(2b bi continued.)