THE MEASURE OF FRIENDSHIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12280, 26 May 1903, Page 3

THE MEASURE OF FRIENDSHIP.

It was an old, old house, and it took my fancy, for it seemed to me that some romance, or deed of daring, was attached to it. There was a lawn in front of the dwelling (which was of the decorative lath and plaster style, all black and white), and here and there on the lawn were irregular-shaped flower-beds, filled, with white lilies, foxgloves, and roses, while close to the house flowers of smaller growth, just as pretty in their way, grew and flourished. At the further side of the lawn and flower-beds a river meandered and rippled, and by its side was a walk, over the edge of which stonecrop and nasturtiums crept down to the very water's edge, and up and down the walk of an evening paced a slightly-grown, whitehaired lady, whose dress was a trifle antiquated, though rich, and altogether the place, and. the lady as well, interested me not a little.

"Oh. aye," said my landlady, when i mentioned it to her; " I know the place well, none better-save Miss Margaret herself —that's the lady with the white hair and the heroine of the tale attached to it." '"Then there is a tale," I said. "Aye, there is a tale, and I can tell it, too, as well as Miss Margaret herself, seeing that I was living there at the time, and, being romantic and pretty young as well, I managed to get it all at my fingers' ends." "You'see, Miss Margaret was going to be married to one Mr. Lion, the choice of her grandmother, who, having the care of her, thought, I daresay, that she must choose her husband for her as well. Miss Margaret didn't like it, though, and I must say I didn't neither, for he was a big, burly man, with a red face and loud, blustering voice; net a bit fit for our Miss Madge, who was gentle and sweet as could 1*?, ami beautiful as a midsummer's dream. She had blue eyes and golden hair, which tumbled in little curls all over her head, and what with her short sleeves and low necks to her frocks they were worn thenshe looked beside him just like a fairy or a beautiful little child. I mind .now a friend of hers who had been to school came over it hundred miles to be at the wedding as bridesmaid, and after sho came how the pair of thorn did walk up and down that same walk Miss Margaret was walking in this very day: their bare arms all wound about each other. " And,' says Miss Stella, her dark eyes a-flashing with mischief, ' Oh, Meg, do tell me, there's a dear, what Mr. Lion is like, and do you think I shall be falling in love with him and awanting him from you?' " "'Stella, don't laugh,' says Miss Margaret ; ' you wouldn't if you were in my place and going to be married to him; and, as to what he's like, why, he's like nobody else I know: he's big and rod, &nd —' '" ' Ugly,' puts in Miss Stella. ' Oh, dear, don't tell me any more, for I saw him as the coach, was driving through the village, —if he's the man I thought he was—why, you shouldn't marry him; that is, if you don't want to, so there!' with a kiss from her pretty lips, as dainty and sweet as those of a queen. '" The pair of them stopped and looked clown as they did so into the beautiful limpid waters of the river, 'and,' says Miss Margaret, 'I'd rather lio there at the bottom of the water than I'd marry him. If so be that 'twasn't wicked to do so, I'd— drown myself, Stella, this very night.' "'Hush, hush,' said the other: 'yon shan't be married to him, either, not if I can help.' "'But how will you hinder me?' " ' Oh,' says Miss Stella, ' don't you ask no questions, darling, and then I shan't tell you any stories.' " Just then Janet, who was old Mrs. Fowler's maid, and 40 or thereabouts, and wore a mob cap, and looked about as prim and sour as the old lady herself, came and called them in to where Mrs. Fowler sat a-waiting for them, in the best parlour (as they called the drawingroom), with the best dragon china, laid out ready for tea, for she didn't have dinner just before bedtime, as folks do now, but dined in the middle of the day, and had tea. at the proper time, as sho called it, and Cake and wino before going to bed. "'I shall bo disappointed, though,' said saucy Miss Stella, ' after coming all this way and having my bridesmaid's dress and all made. But I'll wear it to vhurch—you see if I don't!' And with that they went indoors.

"'Margaret, how thoughtless you arc,' began old Mrs. Fowler as soon as ihey entered the room. ' I shouldn't wonder if you haven't caught cold, and the wedding so close and all.'

" But she said she hadn't, and with that | Mr. Lion came in from another rooms and i was introduced to Miss Stella, and turned '• white, so Miss Margaret thought, at sights of her, for that was the first he'd heard of who her bridesmaid was to be, so it appeared. Well, Miss Stella was the life of the party that evening, and so she was the next morning at breakfast, and all the morning while Miss Margaret was busy helping her grandmother and Janet with getting ready the wedding feast Miss Stella was pacing up and down the walk by the river (for I saw her) a-talking to Mr, Lion, and he was not very well pleased, as his face showed plain enough. "Then at dinner-time, when the- young ladies went up to dress for dinner and the afternoon, what should they both come down wearing but their wedding finer*-not their hats, of course, but their gowns—Miss Stella's of white muslin, with little frills up to her waist, and a frilled sash, too; and Miss Margaret's of white silk, with her waist up quite under her arms, and a sash, too, and a little spray of orange flowers in her bosom, which made her look quite lovely. " But Mrs. Fowler quite screamed when they came into the room, and Margaret turned pale, while Miss Stella laughed outright. "'lt's unlucky, unlucky!' gasped the grandmother. 'Go and take it off before Mr. Lion sees you! They soy. that if a bride puts on her dress before the day she'll never be a bride really and truly. Something will happen.' ' No, no; nothing will happen to hurt Margaret,' says Miss Stella, and with that they went away and changed their things. As for Mr. Lion, he came in while they were upstairs, and they say he turned as white as death when Mrs. Fowler told him.

" Mrs. Fowler and Miss Margaret went in the carriage to make some calls that afternoon. They asked' Miss Stella to go with them, but she said she'd rather stay at home quietly and read a book out in the summerhouse, at the end of the walk by the river. I saw her go out, but I was busy all the afternoon afterwards, for I had to get out tho silver and see to it, and several other things to see to, so that I was as busy as I could be till the two ladies came back. Tea was ready and Mr. Lion expected, but he hadn't come, and Miss Stella was not indoors either, so I went to call her, and nowhere was she to be found.

"Mrs. Fowler was crossperhaps she was tired— Miss Margaret frightened and anxious, and, for the matter of that, so was I too.

" We watted tea for some time, and two or three ladies called to see the wedding presents. They were not many, as wedding presents arc in these days, but, such as they were, they were good, and laid out to be seen in the library. And, mind, the ladies stayed so long and mistress gave them cake and wine, and though it was dusk when they went away Miss Stella had net returned nor Mr. Lion either.

" 'That girl has run away with your lover, Margaret,' .[ heard Mrs. Fowler say. 'I saw there was something between them at the very first, and you 1 ought to have seen it, too.'

"But Miss Margaret would not say a word against her friend; only she was frightened well nigh to death when twelve o'clock came and Miss Stella net found, and Mrs. Fowler save orders that nil were to go to bed, and that the house should be locked as usual for the night. " Nest morning she came down quite earlv looking liko a ghost. The morning was beautiful. It was harvest time, sad there was a lovely breeze blowing (.lie golden corn up in the fields yonder, and the sky was that blue, and the sun lovely and golden, and the? coloured window in the hall was all sparkling, and the coloured lights flashed on the marble floor, but Miss Margaret said afterwards that it made her feel almost sick when she saw everything so lovely, and she herself so miserable and full of care. I was standing in the diningroom looking at the long tables, and wondering what I wiu to do about laying the wedding breakfast, for I had had no orders, when up comas Janet over the lawn from the river, and I saw that in her face which made me like to faint. Janet seemed hard and cold, but she was neither; and she said afterwards to me that she'd have died herself willingly if it would have given Miss Margaret comfort, or would have undone what we soon were all to know.

"Margaret ran to her and put her arms round hor neck, and cried out, " You needn't tell me, Janet—she's dead ! She's dead!" and then away she sped like a fawn over the grass to the place where Janet came from, and whore rough though kindly hands were taking out of the river all that remained oi poor Miss Stella. How 'twas we'd never seen her the night _ before will ever l.<> a mystery; but we didn't, and if we had 'twould have been too late, for the doctors said that she must have died some time in the afternoon.

" And there was no Mr. Lion all that day, or ever after that. And Miss Margaret has never married, though she's been asked to times out of number. , "Of course, Miss Stella's parents and friends were sore and bitter about her COI f:" ing all that wav and meeting with her death so, and poor Miss Margaret grieved sore about it, and for a long, long time the affair was a terrible mvstery to us all. Then at last it came out. Miss Stella had a great friend abroad, who had seen this Mr. Lion once when she was in England the year before, and told Miss Stella that he had' a wile somewhere in France. Ho had married nei for her money, for she was plain and nan sillv, and after being married she lost her wits altogether, and he had her put into an asylum, and Miss Stella must have taunted him about it and dared him to marry Miss Margaret, whom it seemed he really l°Y? (if such as he could love), and we all think that when Mrs. Fowler and Miss Margaret were out of the way and we all busy, be drowned' her just out of revenge, afterwards going away and leaving his promised "riue for how did he know what Miss Stella had told her, or how could he marry, with Miss Stella's death lying at his door ? "Folks say Miss Stella haunts the place, and that on moonlicrhfc nights they see hex peering into the water, as though looking for her own self ; but that's all naught. * llS^ Margaret herself says that her dear, dead friend has hallowed the spot for her, ami that she shall never leave it till death cau= her away to meet the one who. in a way, gave her life to save her a lifelong misery and maybe disgrace: for if Mr. Lion had a wife living it would have been found out, and then Miss Margaret would never have lifted her head again— I think would been almost worse than the marrying him and being miserable. They say that when Miss Margaret dies the old place will be pulled down, but I hope not in my l«o----time for I should miss it finely, and Miss Margaret too, and miss telling the tale to my lodgers, for most folk like to hear about the old place."