A BUSH-TOWN BEAUTY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1107, 19 May 1893, Page 9

A BUSH-TOWN BEAUTY.

BY AIRLIE. (WIIITTEN FOK TnE MaIL.) Nobody .knew exactly who she was, or where she came from. She had been in the township about three years, and lived with an old woman, aunt or mother, no one knew which, and no one cared for that matter. The two women were not popular. To begin with, they lived a little apart from the rest of the population, which in itself generally implies superiority or its opposite, and the inhabitants of Bush-town certainly did not consider these women superior to them in any way. That the old woman drank was no bar to her popularity; most of the old women did that more or less, but they generally went on an all round hospitable ' booze,' during which they washed their metaphorical dirty linen, and neglected the actual garments ; and this old person gave offence by shutting herself up to drink alope. The girl used to lock her up in the shanty, and her pale, wrinkled, old face could be seen at the small window as she shook her fists, and used language at the passers-by. The girl herself, though she had been three years amongst them, they still regarded somewhat as a mystery. The elder people strongly disapproved of her for no particular reason, and the young ones decided'that she put on airs. Three facts, however, were patent to the whole community. First, that she was extremely beautiful; second, that Ralph, the young half-caste, who was groom up at George Drummond's station, was in love with her ; and third that she was in love with the schoolmaster.

The schoolmaster rapped the desk sharply with the cane. 'Now, children, he said, ' to-morrow is Friday.' 'Keep your nose tidy,' squeaked a little voice somewhere in the background. A sudden and awful silence fell upon the whole school. It was in a long bare room built of unpainted boards, and through the windows the afternoon sun streamed hot and dazzling, lighting up the faces of the children, and the slight form and pale, dark countenance of the young schoolmaster. After staring and frowning for a minute or two, he began again: ' To-morrow is ' ' Keep yer nose ' started the voice again, but like many older and more experienced people, its owner made the mistake of doing a thing once too often. The young man left his place, strode down the room, hauled the culprit out of the form by the shoulders, and marched her into the middle of the room. She was a lanky, boldlooking girl of twelve, and he gave her a slight shake, and put her outside the door, closing it after her. She deserved more punishment he knew, but he was so weary of teaching all day in the hot, ugly schoolroom, driving spelling and tables into the heads of these, uninteresting colonial bushbred children. He was of a refined and delicate nature, and had been brought up amongst art, and books, and cultured people, and now he taught a Government school in a miserable township burnt out of the middle of the bush. He had eighty-five pounds a year and a house to live in, plenty of bread and meat and tea, and never saw a soul fit to speak to, or a thing that interested him from one month's end to another, except—yes, a little excitement had come into his life lately, in the shape of a beautiful golden-haired temptation. Another hour's droning over sums and reading, then 4 o'clock struck, and the scholars stood up and sang. The master did not join in the song, which was woefully out of tune ; in fact, he seemed to care little whether it was or not, but busied himself. putting away books and pencils, then dismissed the pupils, who went hooting and tearing off to their several homes. Then he walked about with a slightly limping gait, putting away slates and books, then locked the door, and put the key in his pocket, came out of the porch, and stood blinking in the fierce afternoon sunlight. He was tall and slight, with a pale, sweet, almost womanish face, and deep-set grey eyes. He looked like a poet or an artist; in reality he was nothing particular: a disappointed man of about seven and twenty, and he had taken the post of teacher at this Bush-town school because everything else had failed, and a man must live. The one consolation of this desolate place was having the glorious bush so .near. In five minutes he could get away from all the fret and worry of his present existence, and find himself in a green palace of delight, with the murmuring stream and the wild birds for his companions. All the poetry in his heart was stirred at these times, and the bitterness and disappointment of life forgotten, and the image of a certain little blue-eyed woman at Home, who imagined him making a fortune out in this new land, danced before him in the cool waters where the sun gleamed through the green boughs, and the warm sweet wind felt like her breath upon his cheek. But- latterly a lion had stood in the path that led to the forest, or more correctly speaking, a lioness: a beautiful creature, with tawny hair, sweet curved lips, and level brows over great violet eyes, which far eclipsed in lustre those sweet blue ones. He had, been strictly brought up, and in his estimation any dalliance with this Bush-town beauty would be as sin, and with him as yet sin was sin, and not merely a matter of comparison, or the result of circumstances. This was why he stood irresolute outside the school-house. He knew that when he turned round the hill road, there by the grove of karaka trees, he should find her .waiting for him, smiling and beautiful Was it relief or disappointment that'.he elt when,

on turning the corner, she was not there ? A mingling of both sensations perhaps, together with a slight feeling of wonder as to what could have kept her away. He certainly slackened his pace, and almost unknowingly assumed an air of waiting and watching. The road, which was cut out of the side of the hill, wound round, and gradually downwards, and after a long, slow glance before and behind him, the schoolmaster leaped lightly up on to the bank beside him, sat down, filled his pipe, and began to smoke.

In front of him was the road, a red, brown tangle of fern, and then the hill sloped down into the gully, where all was dark and shadowy. Up apain; up, up on the other side, where the bush was brightened into a thousand hues- by the slanting rays of the sun; beautiful with varied greens, and rose flushed with the vivid crimson of the rata. Higher still all melted into purple, and ended in a faint blue peak against the clear distant sky. The young man sprawled among the fern and grass, his lithe, grey-clad form as still as any log, the curl of blue smoke rising from his pipe into the lambent air. He had drawn his felt hat over one side of his face, and his view of the peaceful landscape was confined to a patch of bright blue sky, across which part of a wire fence ran like a stave of music, and on the top line was perched a little note in the shape of a chirping, twittering brown bird. He smoked and thought, and at last he must have slept, for he did not hear her coming. She approached stealthily from among the bushes, where she had been watching him, a tall, fair girl of surpassing grace and beauty. She did not speak nor touch him, she only crouched down by his side on the grass and fern ; but presently he opened his eyes, and instead of the wire fence and the bird he saw the golden nimbus of her hair against the sky. He saw the liquid violet of her glorious eyes, and her sweet lips parted in a mischievous maddening smile.

Wisdom and virtue, mentors and morals go hang! The highly proper and poetic young schoolmaster was only a man, the other blueeyed woman was several thousand miles away, and this one was near, very near, just for one moment while he kissed her, then he sat up and pushed her away, he was frowning. - --,...

' Why do you follow me like this ?.' he said. ' It is disgraceful.' She sat among/the fern, and wound her arms round her knees. She wore a white cotton dress with tiny red. spots on it, and a red ribbon at her throat. She was bareheaded, and the strong late afternoon sunlight found no flaw in her perfect beauty. 'ltis your fault,' she said, half sullenly. ' You followed me first; wanting to sketch me in the interests of Art, I suppose.' ' Purely,' he said, without looking at her, shutting up his pipe-case with a snap. 'At first,' she continued, a little smile curving her lips. ' And always,' he added coldly. ' You praised my hair and my eyes,' she went on, gently rocking herself to and fro. 'Well?' he asked, raising his brows slightly. ' Well ?' she echoed mockingly. ' And because I am a poor girl, living in a god-for-saken place with a drunken old woman, you presume that I have no thoughts and feelings, that I am like the painted canvas thing you would make of me.' He was silent, his face moody, and he was tearing up the grass in handfuls. ' Well,' she cried again, ' you have kissed me now, good saint; that was your own doing!' and with a swift movement she laid both hands upon his arm. Her eyes met his in a glance half sad, half inviting; and just then there came quickly round the corner a dogcart with the slim figures of two women in front, distinct against the sky, and some one sitting behind. As they passed the women looked curiously at these two upon the hillside, and one of them said.

' Why, that was Mr Fane, the young schoolmaster. I should have thought him above that kind of thing.' ' My dear May,' said the other, with a little mocking laugh, as she lightly flicked the horse with the whip, ' men are above nothing where women are concerned. I was not brought up in cotton wool, my dear, and I know.' And the man in the back seat, a handsome young half-caste, with a complexion like a ripe banana, and immense black eyes, clenched his fists, ground his white teeth, and muttered deep low curses.

Mr Fane rose to his feet. ' Who are those women ?' he said quickly. ' I have seen them before.'

' Mrs North and Mrs Drummond,' she answered, looking up at him from where she still crouched on the grass; ' and the young half-caste behind, who is so handsome, is the groom—Ralph, the groom.' ' I don't care about him,'he said scornfully. She laughed as she rose to her feet with a swift, undulating movement. ' You will soon, perhaps,' she said, ' for he will probably shoot you, or stick a knife into you.' So the hot monotonous days went on with the droning of the children in the school all day, and at night the sound of the soft wind in the trees. - He hated the longdays, and the strong bright sunlight, which now always seemed to hold for him the golden gleam of a woman's hair, and the sweet cool nights, with the intense hush of the great forest all around saddened him; ghosts of the past arose and haunted him. He avoided the hill path, favourite haunts in the green oush. He went straight from his cottage to the school, and back again from the school to the cottage. He never saw the girl. The children said the old woman was ill, so he supposed Rachel was looking after her. With his lips he thanked God, and kissed the portrait of the woman which he wore upon his watchchain. In his heart he knew that he was a liar, and that every day he longed more and more for a glimpse of the perfect form, and wondrous eyes of the Bush-town beauty. Bush-town awoke to a state of excitement one morning. The old woman had died in the night. Women gossiped over their doorsteps, discussed the character of the deceased, and speculated as to what would become of the girl. No one was very sorry, and everyone took a holiday except the local Chinaman, wao xnbbedbis yellow hands, and

remarked ' Welly good; me gettee allee washee now,'for, much to his disgust, the de- ; parted had frequently done washing for the more superior members of the community,! and taken some of his custom.

Rachel shut herself up in the cottage and would see no one, and no one knew what she had passed through that awful night. There were terrible secrets in the dead woman's past, and there had been wild sayings and almost incoherent mutterings of early days in London and Paris, of a good man tricked and betrayed, of later times in Sydney and Melbourne—wild cries for forgiveness for her own sins, because she had brought away his daughter into this wilderness far away from the wickedness of great cities and the eyes of men. Quietly and calmly the girl moved about, doing all she could for her mother' whom she did not know was dying, but when next morning, after it was too late, someone rode ten miles for a doctor, he just glanced at the figure on the bed, then took Rachel by the shoulders and looked into her face. 'Go outside,' he said,' into the air,' and gave her some brandy. ' Poor girl,' said one woman,' she will go away after the funeral,' but the funeral took place, and still she remained amongst them, and one day Bush-town awoke to still greater excitement, for a lawyer came over from the nearest town and was closeted with the girl, looking over letters and papers, and the amazing discovery leaked out that the old woman had had money, heaps of money, and had left it all to Rachel.

' Now she will go,' they said, ' and enjoy herself,' but still she lingered, holding herself aloof from them all, and showing neither grief in her bereavement nor joy in her new found wealth. So at last they left her alone, and she sat upon the doorstep of the shanty with her elbows upon her knees, and her chin resting upon her clasped hands, staring straight before her, silent, white, and beautiful.

The sun went down in a blaze of glory, for half an hour longer earth and sky were exquisite with rosy lights and purple shadows, then the great moon rose over the dark bush clad hills, and shed its soft light down into the deep valley, glistened upon the railway lines, and made more weird and ghostly the black and white trunks of the burnt trees where the destroying fire had passed through, and stiil she sat there, mute and motionless as a statue. Hours went on, the lights of the houses were extinguished one by one, silence reigned supreme, except that upon the sweet stillness of the night there arose in the distance a Weird mysterious sound like the throbbing of a giant heart—it was the ceasel less beating of the machinery down at the meat-freezing works where most of the Bushtown men were employed. Then round the corner of the house, keeping well in the shadow, a man came cautiously creeping towards her, crouching in a half timid sort of way. Suddenly he stood out in the moonlight for a moment, then threw himself upon his knees before her, and buried his face in her. lap. ' Rachel!' ( he .cried, ' I love you. I am a weak fool, but I love you!' ]

She raised her face in the moonlight and smiled like ahappychild, then bent down and kissed him upon the lips, and folded her arms round him, and they remained thus, silent in their rapture as the great hushed forest around them. Then; her voice came to him sweet and thrilling, 'I knew you would love me, sooner or later,' she said, ' and now it is too late.'

He looked up at Her with adoring eyes. ' Too late, my dear, and why ?' She drew her hand caressingly over his face and throat, and her voice was sad and bitter." '>;" '

' She hated all men, she made me promise never to love any man, never to She left me all her money, so that I should not want, the money I should not care for, but I promised——' .';'.:'■'. f ' I cannot marry you, my sweet,' he said, still gazing at her beautiful face, 'I have a wife already, she is,a good woman, and is probably praying for me at this moment.'. She gave a little quick gasp, then'went on in the same voice, still with, her hands about his throat, 'lt is all''the sarhe, it would make no difference if you? could, I must five alone, always alone. Buty'ou love me!' she added, passionately, 'thatis enough, you love me ! you scorned me out there upon the sunlit hill, and now you creep to my feet, and gaze into my eyes, and say you love me !'

He drew both her hands down and kissed them. 'Rachel,' he said hoarsely, 'I have had aspirations and dreams of a great future, I have a pious old father who would shrink from me in horror if, he saw me now, there is a woman at home who loves me, and is thinking of me, and I will give them all up, all, if you will only come with me, my beautiful Rachel!'

She laughed, a little glad low laugh. ' I have won you, despite yourself,' she said softly, but you will leave me and go back to your father and the good woman, and you will not tell them about me, you will keep all that locked up in your own heart.' Then she wound her arms round him again, and neither spoke, while the township slept; the great moon sailed placidly through the purple sky, and ever towards them came the beat, beat, beat, of the machinery down at the works.

The wind had risen a little, and was bringI ing the throbbing nearer to them, their own hearts were beating, and their eyes gazing upon each other. .But something seemed suddenly to draw her gaze away from that of her lover, and she saw the half-caste standing before them in the, moonlight with his gun raised to his shoulder. With a scream and a swift movement of her lithe body she threw herself across the schoolmaster. A blinding flash, a loud report that came sharp upon the silent night. For a moment the two men looked at each other in speechless horror, and when they raised her from the ground there was nothing to be said, nothing to be done. Love and life, alike were over, the bullet meant for Fane had gone right through the heart of the Bush*town beauty.