"SARAH TULDON."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12240, 8 April 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

"SARAH TULDON."

BY OEME AGNUS, Author of " Jan Oxber," " Lore in Our Village," " Zike Mouldom," etc. CHAPTER VIII. The minutes passed slowly, and Lewis rose up once or twice with an oath of impatience. But a little after seven there was a timid tap at the door, and' he smiled pleasantly as he hastened to open it. -■-■•- " Come in, my love," he said. " What a miserable night! But never mind we shall be very cosy here— the devil s this.' for Sally had pushed her nervous, f right - ened sister Maria in before, her. The wind had blown the hair about bally s face and the splash of rain had heightened her 'colour. Lewis, in spite of his anger, thought he had never seen a prettier creature as she looked up into his face with a deprecatory smile. "Do 'ee zee, zur, I was ter'ble afraid to come alone, it be so dark and lonely, and zo I asked Maria to come vor comp'ny." And then she leaned forward and whispered in his ear: " She zeed I gwain off, and I had to bring her along, or she would ha' told tales." .'■.!• It "was with difficulty lie restrained himself from a display of his beast-like temper. He came of a race that had never taken disappointment or defeat meekly, and the merciless, pitiless spirit of his ancestors flamed in his eyes for a few seconds. Was it pure mischance, or had the girl counterplotted and outwitted him? If so, she should pay for it. He looked fiercely for a few seconds into Sally's demure face, with its simpering smile of deprecation—and inwardly cursed mischance. At any rate his plans were spoiled. He could only send them both away again, or give them the supper. A moment's reflection convinced him the latter was the better course—he would perhaps be able to plan meanwhile for getting rid of the younger girl. _ He hid his chagrin under a winning smile. "I did not expect two of you," he said; " but no matter. It is quite ready; take off your bonnets and come to the table." Maria was dazed with awe and fright, and made no response at all to the questions and remarks Lewis addressed to her, but obeyed her sister as mechanically as an automaton. Their host had, to all appearance, recovered his gay spirits. "We'll begin with a pheasant," he said, as he carved generous portion for each of them. "You'm very good, zur," said Sally, beginning to eat, and added presently : " You must excuse manners that hain't to your liken. I shall zoon learn when we be married, I'd 'low." "How do you like pheasant, my dear?" " It be reely grand— there, I couldn' tell 'ee," replied Sally. " I am glad you like it, but you must have some wine with it," and he filled three glasses with an old rich port which he had carefully strengthened with brandy that afternoon. " Health to you, zur!" said Sally, holding lip her glass ; and Maria, in that as in every other action, imitated her precisely, though she never spoke a word. Sally sipped the wine and put down the glass with a wry face, turning hastily to the pheasant. "You like the wine? Isn't it delicious?" he asked. Sally shook her head. "It bain't to my taste at all, do 'ee zee, zur," she said decidedly. " I like tea, just about." "You shall have some tea presently," he replied, smothering an oath. " But you will never be a lady if you don't like port wine. That is what 'ladies always drink. Try it again." Sally sipped it once more, and again her face expressed her distaste. "Thik stuff do spoil the supper," she said with emphasis. "Do you like it, my dear?" he asked, turning to Maria, but the girl shook her head.

"Well, you must try the other wine, my dear," he'said to Sally, hiding his annoyance, and he poured her out a glass of sherry, but with no better result. That was worse than the other stuff, she declared. " Oh, nonsense! take a little of the port again. I know you'll like it by the time you have emptied the glass." "Gurt volks can only like it becos it be called wine and do cost a gurt lot," remarked Sally with a smile. She sipped a little now arid again, but always with a wryface.

At last he ceased pressing her. The small quantity she was taking would not aid him, and he could see no way of compassing his ends, though every glance at the girl inflamed him. It was bitter to confess to himself that his brilliant scheme had failed.

If Sally did not care for the wine she ! did not fail to express her approval of the rest of the supper. Pheasant was nicer ! than anything in the i way of meat, bub the puddings and jellies sent her into ecstasies. If she were rich, she remarked, she would have some of that sort of sweet stuff every day. Lewis' patience had almost given way before the guests had been satisfied. He got up and stood at the fire, and beckoned Sally to him. " You were a little fool, my love, to bring that child with you," he whispered. "I should have thought a clever girl like you could have got rid of her. You see I can't let you try that pretty frock now, and something else I had for you. Can't we send her away?" "Lor'/ no!" replied Sally, : with no pretence at a whisper. " You" wouldn't like to go hwome by yourself, I z'pose, Mar?" Maria shook her head, and looked terrified at the mere suggestion of it. " I never thought country girls were afraid of being alone in the dark," remarked Lewis £ with the suggestion of a snarl. "Don't 'ee trouble 'bout she, zur," said Sally, sitting down and leaning back in her chair. " You can talk avore she, zame as she wasn' there. We'll have a look at thik pretty vrock in a minit or two. Now, when do 'ee think of marryen I?' and she looked up into Ms face with a child-like smile. "We can't talk about that, now, my dear," he whispered, hastily ; i -' not with that girl here." "I thought we was gwain to arrange about that after we'd had this grand supper, do 'ee zee. We bain't far away from the Hall, look zee ; take I now to the squire and tell en I be the maid you'm fond of and you'm gwain to marry. If you do think it wouldn' do to gwo in thease clothes I'll put on thik grand vrock you've got. You said it would make I look like a lady." He looked at her sharply. " No, my dear," he said, after some hesitation, "I can't.' Uncle has the gout today, and can't leave his room. And, do you see, I don't want him to know till we're married. I—l ' want it to be a surprise to him, for I think he would like me to marry a lady who is not a. hundredth part as pretty as you." "No, of course you don't want he to know," mocked Sally, putting off almost instantly her look of simpering innocence, and showing the real Sarah Tuldon to him for the first time. " Very well, we'll be gwain hwome, I'd 'low." And then she looked him squarely in the face, her lip curling slightly. , " You thought, look zee, that I be a silly creatur, and I didn't know what you meant by all the nice things you zaid, and all thease to-night. A nice supper, you did .zay, just for we two. You did think I should come by meself, and I should drink thease stuff"—indicating the wine by a contemptuous wave of her hand—"till I was stupid, and you could play the vine gentleman, look zee. I bain't a Jinny Dalloway zort of maid, look zee. . I zeed through 'ee vrom the virst, and I knowed what it all meant. You'd marry I and take I to London! Ees, you did think I believed it all like a pore, silly maid. It bain't I that was took in," and Sally leaned back in her chair, and "laughed loud and long. Lewis stood staring at her in stupefied silence. If his dog had, like Balaam's ass, suddenly assumed speech, and had taunted him, it would not have been more overwhelming than this metamorphosis of the simplest,; demurest country wench he had ever met. ' - Almost as slowly and painfully as one recovers from a stunning he began to realise that the trickster had been tricked, tie biter bitten, and his face turned grey with fury and the cords of his heck stood out like ropes. The latter was said to be a characteristic of the Deverills when their l£*asissa were reused.,

" Damn you!" he said, slowly. . Sally laughed as she had laughed at David when he offered her money to release him. "You devil! You she-devil he -said, with the same slow emphasis. His lips were quivering, and his limbs trembling, and it was with difficulty he kept himself from springing upon her and marring her beauty, for the'fierce passions of his race had been called out. His ancestors would have taken her by the throat and choked the insolence out of her for ever. "I bain't ' dear' and 'love, and they nice names now. then," she laughed, with reckless . indifference to the passions she saw surging. He stood gnawing at . his nails and gazing at her. though her insolence and triumph drove him to the verge of temporary insanity, with a species of admiration as she sat facing him, more beautiful in her superb and fearless womanhood than as the demure, simple maiden, and he longed to take possession of her by sheer brute strength. As he made not reply she rose up. " Well, we'll be gwain," she said, and began putting on her bonnet. " You won't vind I any mwore, look zee, unless you act like a man and come to our house and tell vather you do want to marry I. Yather haven't got no gout just now," with another mocking laugh, "zo you can come any time. Good night, and thank 'ee vor the nice supper." He sprang forward and put his back against the door. "No you don't," he said, thickly. " You'll go when I choose. You're a vixen, I see, but I'll show you I'm your master. Marry you! No," with a laugh, " I don't many your sort." And then his mood changed. "No, I don't mean that, but you are such a little fury, do you see? Come now, be a sensible girl and I'll make you happy. You can go now if you like, but you must come to meet me to-morrow or I shall take back those pretty things I gave you." "I paid for they, I'd 'low," replied Sally. " Zee, she added quietly, baring her strong and shapely.right arm and drawing herself up till she looked like a young Amazon, " I bain't afraid of 'ee, and if it do come to a tussle, look zee, we shall be well matched. You don't want a woman to down 'ee, I'd 'low. Tales gets about, and it wouldn' be nice for 'ee when volks laugh as you pass by. And I don't want to hurt 'ee, zo you'd better stand away." He glanced at her, tempted again to fall upon her. but even in his madness he was sober enough to recognise that if he were worsted in a scrimmage with her he would never be able to hold his head up any more. He capitu?afed at last to discretion, but the wound to his pride was one that would never heal. "No, my dear," he said with a forced laugh; " of course you are right. You know I wouldn't hurt you—you are too pretty for anything but to be kissed. You'll give me a kiss before you go, won't you? And I shall look out for you tomorrow." . . "Well," said Sally, with a wicked little smile, p'raps you ought to be paid vor thik nice supper—and Maria will kiss 'ee vor it. Maria, give the gentleman a kiss and thank him nicely." It seemed 7 to him that Maria, in her automatic way, was on the point of obeying. He felt" he should kill the child 'if she approached him to offer that crowning humiliation, and he hastily threw open the door and moved away from it. "Come, Maria," said Sally, with .the same malicious smile, and moved to the door. " Good night to 'ee, zur, and thank you kindly. If you want to see vather you ask vor Bill Tuldon's. Anyone to Barleigh can tell you where we do live. Good night, zur," and they were gone, leaving behind them a young man who, for the time being, felt too humiliated even to curse himself. The rain had increased during their stay in the hut, and the wind, risen to half a gale, blew it viciously in their faces. Sally smiled pleasantly to herself. Suddenly Maria broke into a fit of wild sobbing. " What be the matter, my dear?" asked Sally kindly, putting her . arm round the child. The question had to be repeated again and again before the girl sobbed— "I—l don't know." Indeed she did not know, but the fact was the scene in which she had shared had been too much for her nerves, and she wAs slightly hysterical. She lived to be an old woman, but the scene in the hut impressed itself so vividly and forcibly upon her, that she could reproduce it with a wealth of detail when she was a bedridden woman of sixty-nine. " Oh. don't 'ee take on now, me dear," said' Sally. "It be all rightthere bain't anythen to be vrightened about. I be gwain to give 'ee a shillen vor your very own vor comen with I. Only you musn' tell a single thing about it to nobody— vather or mother or Mrs. Wills. If they do ask 'ee. you'll zay you walked with I to Suckton to zee a maid you dicta' know." "I won't tell," sobbed the child. "I— I be vrightened, just about. Won't he have 'ee put in prison?" "What vor?" "Vor upzetten him." " No, you silly child: there be nothen to be vrightened of, I tell 'ee. There! dry your eyes, do 'ee. I bain't cryen; it do make I laugh," and as if to convince the child that she was speaking the truth, a peal of unforced laughter was carried on the wings of the wind. It was after nine o'clock when they got indoors, and all the family had gone to bed save Mrs. Tuldon, who was sitting up from sheer curiosity. ■ Why, where have 'ee been?" she asked. "Have Maria been zomewhere with 'ee? I couldn' think where she be." "Ees," said Sally glibly; "we have been to Suckton, do 'ee zee. I didn' care to gwo by meself." "What vor?" "To find out zomethen—you know what about." "It haven' take yon long." " No, the maid 1 went to zee bain't to hwome,; and we got a lift on the way back." "I thought you med be gone to see the wold rogue hisself," and as Sarah made no reply Mrs. Tiddon yawned and betook herself to bed. The next afternoon, as if nothing had intervened, Sally went out to see the keeper. She felt she must relate her profitable and amusing experience to someone, and she deemed Hanger, who alone knew of her meetings with the young squire, was the most suitable recipient of her confidence, and she desired, moreover, to justify herself to him. Hanger, in spite of threatening to himself that he would blaze the matter abroad, had mentioned it to no one. He had a despairing sort of hope that the girl would see her error before it was too late, and if such a miracle were to happen he believed that there would be no hope for himself if he had gossiped about it. """ Sally came upon him as he was leaning upon a gate in-moody meditation.' "Hullo, Jarge!" she cried, cheerfully, " how be?' Hanger turned round, and her smiling face irritated him. "I haven' zeen en about thease afternoon," he said, with an attempt at bitter sarcasm. " Mebbe he bain't well, and you'd better gwo to the Hall to zee en. If you ask vor en they'll be sure to take 'ee straight to 'en." " I'd 'low he bain't very well," laughed Sally, "You be a very vullish maid, my dear. It be a gurt pity." "And you be a born vooil, my man," said Sally, attacking in her turn, her smiling eyes taking the sting from her epithet. " You pretends to respect I, and you thinks I can't take care of meself without you helpen. You be mistaken, look zee. Now just listen to I. If ever a pore young gentleman went out vor wool and came hwome shorn- the pore young squire be the one thease marnen," and Sally went on to tell the whole story to the amazed and, at first, incredulous keeper. " You didn'! you didn'! it bain't true'."-lie kept ejaculating, but as the story proceeded he was convinced, and with the account of the supper-party tears rolled down his.cheeks with laughing. " You didn'! did 'ee, now?" he repeated wheD the story was finished. V"Of all the maids I ever zeed you be the article." " Eees,'"' said Sally ; " and you be the man that behaved to I zame as to a baby that couldn' take care of meself. I should like to thrash'ee vor it." . . "Itit was vor your sake, look zee," explained the keeper. "How was- I to know you were maken game of him? I didn' thir4k nobody would . dare, look zee, let alone a maid. I be go vond of 'ee, do 'ee zee, and I be- sorry. And look zecj you

be the very article of a maid, and I must have 'ee. ' You can thrash I now zo much as you be minded if you'll promise to marry I next month." "Mind, you tell nobody what I've told 'ee, orwell, you'll be sorry for it." " No. 'pon me life, I won't. But I should have liked to zee it, Zay you'll marry I, me dear, straightaway." " You gwo and zee to Harriet. P'raps the young gentleman be playen his tricks with she thease very minit." " Dang 'ee," said Hanger, as she walked away laughing. (To be continued daily.)