MORE ABOUT MISRULE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12044, 14 August 1902, Page 3

MORE ABOUT MISRULE.

[ALL ) BIGHTS . EEBEEVED.]

BY ETHEL TUBNER, Author."\; of ,r Seven ' Little '<; Australians," "Family at Misrule," etc. ; CHAPTER Vn.—(Continued) : Bbidget and Martha, iu the most stylis 1 of muslin caps , and aprons (Nellie's fingers again), were carrying in stacks of-little plates and silver, and giving a last-polish to the tumblers. You "are not to know that the coachman and Malcolm, also enlisted in the service, were waiting just in the pantry, armed with bowls of water and clean cloths, to i hurriedly wash up the scanty supply of plates and cups and send them flying back to use again. . , Up in Bunty's bedroom, which seemed quietest of all, Meg was putting her baby to bed in a clothes-basket, turned extempore into a cradle. She had 1 been helping all day and was to stay the night, as there could of course be no "question of his tender-ly-watched babyship turning out into the ; night air when festivities were over and 1 Alan was returning home. ? ' Meg wore a graceful black lace dress that had seen no end of service on board ship and at German concerts, but told no tale of it. Her face was fresh, bright, and full of girlish expectation of the evening's fun : only when you looked carefully at- the mouth, the eyes, and noticed the faint line across the brow, did yr.u guess at the storm and stress of the last two or three years. : " ■ '■ > . : . "You will help me to listen for him. won't you, Poppet?" she said as she tucked up the rosebud feet, ? and ; put the wee hand, always impatient of covering; ; under the blanket yet again.V . ';- - •» '. J' Of course I:. will," said Poppet: " I'll run up'after every dance. I shall have lots of time— many will ask inej I know. Nellie says it isn't proper of me to be up at all ; but it doesn't' matter, does it—just for once?" "Not a scrap," said Meg. "Come here and let me tie your sash again. How nice you look, dear ; Nellie really has very clever lingers, no one would think that was Esther's old white muslin ; ib looks as stylish as if ithad just conio home from one of the big shops. And that knot of cherry colour in your hair, just the right touch."" ''But I have only got on buttoned boots."." Poppet said, in a tone of much depression. : Meg looked at the small feet clad in their walking-boots, carefully blackened and polished it is- true, but unmistakably walk-ing-boots, v ; ~.,-.- * ,:.. .' ■ "Haven't you any evening ones?" she said ; .' • ; ■;'

"I've kept wearing them to play tennis in, 'cause my sandshoes .were worn out, and they are quite done for," sighed Poppet; "they are burst out at the sides." '■""■ . "Why didn't you tell, Esther, she would have let you have . new ones?" Meg said thoughtlessly. The Misrule income, whatever , it■•'■.Lad; appeared to her in old days, seemed a most comfortable and elastic one now' when compared with the narrow one she had to.bind herself within. "Oh," said Poppet, "poor Esther, v I couldn't! Such hundreds of things turned up we hadn't put„ on .the list. And I couldn't give'anything to it 'cause of being in •'•• debt :to the "bike ' man. '" Do you : think everyone will notice them much'?" ■ Meg reass.ur.ed her. " There ; will be such a crowd feet will be invisible," she said ; "just you ; enjoy yourself arid don't thinkabout tham. . . , .

."I've" got three dances down oil my pro- • gramme already." Poppet said, eagerly displaying her card. ' "Pip Las . promised, 'ihe one, and Bunny's,going.to give me two—unless the- Chinese lanterns keep; going out or flaring up, he has to look after 1 them, ' you know : do you think if.l begged hard Alan would give me just one?:'.':' Or he could halve one and just give me a turn or two." ■'- Meg answered for Alan—if he came at all, and no one sent for him to go back sadly unlikely thing. . - .■ ' • -■'~ Bunty came .striding up to his lookingglass again. He had shaved this evening almost for the first time, and was horribly self-consciOus about it; Also the white tie he bad borrowed from Pip fidgeted him, and he had twice split his white gloves. ■ " I've a good mind to turn in and not show up, at all." he said,- gloomily regarding himself. "Everyone else.will have dress suits on ;'mine isn't even black. " " It's such a very dark blue it looks black," said Meg, " and it would be useless for you to »et a proper dress suit till you have finished growing. Truly/old fellow, it is as right.as anything, especially as the dance is in our. own house." ~

"But you feel such an ass with gloves on," said Bunty, glowering at his hands; "you feel as if everyone's looking-at you. There, look at the fools : of things, they've split again—hurry up and sew them again, will you?" :, -■■■-~. ' .'*; " You keep stretching, and twisting them so," Meg said, getting out her needle to him for the third .time. " Try to forget them, and just be as natural with the girls as you are with us." ;: ■ - - * ■■ ,' •

"Oh, that's all very well," said Bunty, " but what in the world can I talk about to a girl rye only just met? You just say, 'May I have this dance?', and she says, ' Yes' she doesn't say no, thinking I look the right cut to crush* her feet to jellies— and then what on earth is there left to say'" ■ / " Oh, you say it's a warm evening, and isn't the floor nice, and have you been to the theatre?" said Poppet, who -had also been, trying to learn up conversation." Bunty still looked unhappy. Yes, I know those things," he said, "but they don't take a jiffy .-to say, and then all the rest of the time you can't think of a word to say, however you cudgel your head." " But the girl generally gives you. an opening, doesn't she?" said Meg, "and once you've got fairly started isn't it all right?" ,'"Oh," ' said Bunty, "she generally says, ' How sweet your sister Nellie looks!', ■or 'What a lot here to-night!' but that doesn't keep you going for long. I often wish I had Pip's knack : he's a smart fellow, that chap, Meg; I often watch him, and his lips never seem to stop moving all the time. ■ And he can make a girl laugh no end. I'll always be an ass at talking." "Oh, no," said Meg, handing back the glove, ,'.' it comes with practice. At your age Pip had just as little to say. But do your best to forget all about yourself, and try to give the girl as nice a time as you can." '■ ■ ■ - • -

The first ring sounded through the house, and a flutter and thrill went with it. Bunty, who was just going out on the landing, dived hack into his room again, and flattened himself against the wall lest anyone . ascending the stairs should catch a glimpse of him. Poppet rushed importantly off to the bedroom to be ready with her delightful distribution of the pretty programmes. Essie ami Peter crept out of bed where they were lying very wideawake, and stole in their nightgowns to a corner of the landing, where they squeezed together and giggled and squeaked and ; admired the oj>er: cloaks, and fondly imagined they could not be seen. *

Nellie, anxiously contemplating the jellies once more, beat a hasty retreat to lie in readiness in the drawing-room to help Esther and her father receive. Nellie, in cloudy white, with white jasmine in her shining hair, with fair young arms and ten-derly-moulded white neck and shoulders, [With dewy, lovely eyes, and a most exquisite, excited pink in her cheeks! A man—Nellie's "real man," going upstairs to the cloakroom, caught a glimpse of this vision and smiled to himself approvingly. '• ] "Shows up even better by night than day," he told himself. I'm not so sorry I came after all." . While he changed his boots and removed his overcoat he looked a little superciliously around at the eager fellows who were doing the same. Friends of Pip's most of them were, embiyo doctors and lawyers, University students, all very young and anxious to enjoy themselves, many head over heels in love with the white vision downstairs, and burning to inscribe her name on their programmes. They lost no time in getting on their patent-leather shoes, and dragging on their gloves, and " settling", their ties; quite an army seemed to present themselves to,, Nellie at one and the same moment, so determined was each not to be last. ..But the blue eyes glanced at the door •once , or. twice, over their heads, in the pauses of introductions and seeing all the girls had their programmes well on the way to being filled. , . >

And when lie came in coolly, languidly, what a throb her heart gave, what a tumult of ; sweet 'colour -• rushed into her, ; •; face ... Nearly 1 all the girls were looking at him, and with eyes so 'clearly admiring, their partners could have gnashed their teeth. .-I v Almost a head taller than anyone in the room"; he stood, finely' made, distinguished looking. .A black moustache with a military cut about it hid his lips, but hot the cynical lines around them that thrilled these girls; dark eyes, with a somewhat "bored, melancholy expression in them, looked out at you. ..'.. This was Captain Reginald Morton, who had been invalided home from the Transvaal with a sufficient amount of commendation for courage to make society delighted to pet him as a hero. He was enjoying the petting. '"'' - ' . Nellie gave him a dance. Those eager youths had left her only one, and when he begged so hard for a second, what' could she do but cross off Buritys name and give him that space? -,-■ ', • "But they are both together," she objected, "six and seven." >" That is as it should be." he returned. "I .shall enjoy -? six so much; it would be impossible for me to give you up for seven. We shall sit the: second one out and talk to each other."■ ' \ : .-j (To be continued-daily.) j