CHAPTER IV.

Otago Witness, Issue 919, 10 July 1869, Page 19

CHAPTER IV.

It scorned to Mary Mackworth as if sho h^d suddenly entered a different world : a world of soft ctirpots and sweet perfumes, and warm summer air : tho sort of world which such creatures as Cilia oucrht naturally to inhabit, but which was quite out of keeping with hor own muddy bonta and dank cloak, ami with tho untidy atato to which tho winter wind had reducod hor bonnot and hair, Sho was glad to soo a mirror in which aho could arrange tluwo fluttered ribbons ami rebellious locus. A very few tmivhuit nmdo h«r foul tidy again, so sho reotod quilo content, though not at all avvaro that »\w w.i« looking much moro tlmn tidy, and tliat. hor throo miles uphill walk, through wind and oold, had given a glow to her gipsy coloring, and a brightness to hor clour dark eyes, which made hor, for tho moment, quito snarklingly pretty. Her father walked to and fro, admiring and approving. " Vory nice ! very nice ! Thorough good taste this man must havo. AH now and froah, and yot prnfted so cleverly on tho stylo of tho old plnco, that thoro is no jarring in tho lUnema of things. And all tho old books hero, I soo, and woll cared for now ! Not as it used to be in Hathaway's time, when it was onough to break one's heart to too tito way in

which they were used." His speech, which was almost a soliloquy, broke off as the door opened, and Mary started to her feet, aud well-nigh exclaimed aloud with surprise, as she found herself face to face — not with a portly middle-aged banker whom she had expected 1o see — but with her unknown friend, the hero of the Hansom cab !

The recognition was mutual, for he started and colored almost as vehemently as Mary ; while the curate, at a total loss to account for these manifestations, stared from one to the other in blank astonishment. Mary was the first to recover selfpossession. " E am very glad to see you," she said, holding oat her hand. " Papa, this is the gentleman I told you of, who was bo very kind to me when I was caught' in the snow." "I am very glad to have this opportunity of thanking you," said Mr. Mackwor>h, " and I must apologise too for paying you a business visit on Sunday : but 1 consider it a case of necessity. I think Mr. Langley advertised some days a«o for a parcel which, I fear, must have been lost on the occasion when you wore so good-natured to my daughter." " Yes, I did advertise," said the gentlemen. "I am Mr. Langley, 1 ' he pdded with a smile, as he saw that ooth father and daughter looked bewildered. " I advertised and offered a reward. Five hundred pounds." " The reward will not be necessary," said Mr. Mackworth, as he put his hand in his breast pocket. "I beg your pardon," he added, hesitating, " perhaps I ought to ask you to describe the contents." "Ten notes of one thousand each. I can't tell you the relief of getting them back. Thank you a thousand times ! It is much more than my carelessness deserves."

The evirate held his tongue : if he had spoken his thoughts, he would have said "Just so !" Perhaps his face expressed something of the kind, for "when the banknotes had been counted over and locked up, Mr. Langley attempted an apologetio sort of explanation. " You mustn't suppose that I was such a fool as to leave the money in the cab while I went in at Grueby's," he said ; "I thought it safer in my hand than in my pocket, and I had just put it on the seat before petting in when the sudden snow-storm attracted my attention — and" — he hesitated. "And then you were so kind as to take pity on me," said Mary, and the curate smiled as he murmured some commonplace about virtue not being its own reward. "And now, Mary, my dear," he said to his daughter, " we had better be setting off homewards ; it is getting dusk already, and wo must be back for our evening service." "Oh! no," said the banker, warmly; "do pray take a cup of tea before you go ; my sister will bo extremely glad to make your acquaintance. And you must really let me send you home in the brougham. I don't generally have it out on Sunday, really," ho added, as he read some disapproval of the ready offer in the curate's face ; " hut this is an exceptional case — you said so yourself, and I hopo you will let mo have the pleasure of sending you back in it." He spoko so very much as if he" meant what ho said, that Mr. Mnckworth gave way, greatly to his daughter's satisfaction, and followed their host across the hall to a long drawing-room, fragrant with the sweet broath of the conservatory on which it opened. Here, as olsewhero, all was fresh and new : and on the walls were pictures which riveted her father in a moment. He had a groat natural taste for art, and during a tour he had c nee made in Italy as tutor to a friend, that tssto had boon highly cultivated. Hia remarks showed such knowledge and discrimination that Mr Lanirley felt rather out of his depth, and turned to Mary : '* Do you enro for pictures f" ho naked hor. " I caro," aho nnswored, " but lam qnifco ignorant about them. I know what. I liko, and that is nil." " And that is exactly my caso," said Mr Langloy. " I know nothing else about thorn." " You must havo excellent taste to brgin with," Mr Mack worth put in, " to select as you havo selected. Soo Mary," ho added, pointing out ono of Miilais' gorgeous pieces of coloring ; " is not this what you onco described to mo /" "Oh ! yes," cried Mary, eagerly, as plo.iacd as if she wero grcoting an old friond : it was in the Hoyal Aculomy two years «s»o." Do you often go to tho Royal Academy V a-iked Mr Langloy. " Whenever I Jim. Mrs IlnliMyd liktvj hor childion to tjo some* tiuu'ft, and th»n I tuko them. lam thoir flovornoßn," mho said, in answer to Mr Lanifloy'fl enquiring look. " T treat myself to an hour tlioro, too, whenever I can ; it does ono good aftor a dull day's work." "Oh doesn't, it," said Mary: " I always think, after a few months in London, that ono gets so weary of never aeoing anything but what is ugly." You don't liko London, 1 neo," said Mr Long* loy, smiling. " Who can I I liko tho poopio Inm with thorc — I am m happy us possible-— but, as to London itaoif ! I do so long for something green to look at : something really croon and wild, not *ll prim and spoilt, liko the parks. " "I

believe," said her father, amused by her genuine earnestness, "that my. daughter would have everybody agree that London ia unfit for human habitation. ST ow I, on the contrary, think London life one well worth the living." At this moment, when the curate had given up hia study of the pictures on ascount of the gathering darkness, tea made its appearance. Lamps were brought by one or two soft-treading servants, and a square table seemed to start from the large bow window, covered with shining silver, exquisite china, and the whitest of napery. Mary's perfect en j oyment < was a little mawed by her almost self-reproach-ful regret at being there instead of Cilia, and also by a slight degree of shyness which crept over her when the comfortable twilight no longer sheltered her. This feeling was rather increased by the entrance of a small pretty woman dressed in handsome half mourning, whom Mr Langley introduced as "my sister, Mrs Lester." He briefly explained to her the affair of the bank-notes, and she turned to Mary with warm thanks and expressions of the greatest relief. "It is more than you deserve, Vincent," she said, shaking her head at her brother. And then she took her place at the table, and dispensed most welcome cups of tea : and the conversation grew so animated that both Mary and her father were sorry when the brougham was announced. As they rose to go, Mr Langley came up to the curate rather nervously, and offered him something enclosed in an envelope. "You must let me pay my debts," he said. Mr Mackworth looked at him for a moment in bewilderment : then suddenly examined the packet, and tendered it back, shaking his head. " Bat I really shall not feel satisfied unless I pay the reward, as I have publicly offered it— for your poor people, Mr Mackworth," said the banVer. " For his penance, Mr Mackworth, on moral grounds you ouc;ht to take it," interposed Mrs Lester; "don t you think so ?" She turned her agreeable face on Mary, who laughed aud hazarded no opinion. To tell the truth, she would have no objection at all to those five hundred pounds and the comfort they would bring to her mother and Cilia, the advantages to Harry, the addition to everyone's well-being. No doubt papa was right, and she wa3 low-minded and ignoble, but still— so ahe said nothing, and her father rejoined : " As to my poor people, if you like to Bpend the sum in charity, there are plenty of ways of doing so, which I am sure I need not point out to yon. I thank you very much for your hospitality, and above all for the sight of those pictures : you don't know the treat it has been to me." "You must come by daylight : tUis evening it was too dark to see them well, said Mr Luigloy. Will you not bring him ?" he added, as he handed Mary to the carriage. We shall be delighted," Mr Mackworth answered for her ; aud the brougham drove oil. Of course the home party were in some excitement as to the visit to Nottlehurst ; and after service, as all gathered round the fire, Mftry was eagerly questioned and crosa-questioned. The discovery that her unknown friend was the banker himself caused great amusoment to the younger branches, and Mr Mackworth gave a little sigh of resigned surprise at the folly of youth and womankind, when ho found that even his wife was moro interested in hearing all about Mr Langley and his sister, than in what ho had to say about that beautiful Millais, those exquisite Landseers, and that Madonna ufter Sassoter Zata, which he really almost thought must be an original. The questions followed ono anothor thick and fast; but perhaps Mary's answer* wore not quite so ready as usual : she described the houso and grounds with animation, and drew a clover picturo of Mrs Lenter, " a small, sharp, protty littlo woman, with ft faco liko a good-natured hawk ;" but sho had so little to nay nbout JVIr Langloy that Harry reproached her for ingratitude, and the fire of family wit kindled again, reducing the curate to fall back on ono of lm ofton ropoatcd and utterly disregarded injunctions : "My dears, do try to talk about things ; not people." I supposo," Cilia suggested, as the evening drew to a cloac, " there is no chanco of our being asked to tho Nottlohurst ball." Mary shook hor head. " Though," she said, coloring a littlo und glancing at her father, "Mr Langloy did say ho hoped wo would como again. «<Ho waalobligedto say that," Mr Mnckworth observed ; "but I cortamly shall not take him at his word ; by this tnno to-morrow ho will hnvo forgntttm our very ©xistanco." |"Oh, papa!' Mary looked no much nggriovod by this speech, that hor mother dancod at her in aurpnao, and then said gontly : " Darling, I wish yon could ao to this ball : it would bo a groat treat for you." Oh ! I don't mind about that a bit, mamma," said Mary, rallying her spirits. "Como, Harry; you lioip me to go nnd got tho supper. It is growing quitolato." At tho sumo momonfc, Mr Langloy, •fitting over h» dewwt with Mr* Loitor,

had just said abruptly : ■ " Kate, I want you to call on the Mackwbrths,and; ask jthem to the ball." , ".Call on", them, ' of t course I will ; but as to the ball, Vincent, I wouldn't if I were you. Depend upon it they have no clothes for such an occasion." " What does that matter ? Surely they could do up a muslin gown or a something or other of some kind," said her brother with masculine vagueness. "Do call, Katie, and take them a card ; won't you ?" "My dear ! considering that the ball is yours, and I'm only a guest myself, you need not speak so imploringly," Baid Mrs Lester, laughing. "Is it necessary to call on them tomorrow ?"

" I suppose not." There was a silence ; then Mr Langley got up and walked to the fire-place. "I say, Kate, I wish you would though, if you don't mi nd. " ' ' Wish I would do what ? Oh ! are you thinking about the Mackworths still ? Of course, dear, I'll do exactly what you wish about it, and about asking them too." " And, Kate. Don't ask them so that they feel bound to say no." "You feel wonderfully interested about these people, Vincent," she Baid, looking up at him. « Well— isn't he an interesting man ? And I have heard so much of the good he does at Farley. It would fare ill enough without him, for oldLowther scarcely ever goes near the place." "Mr Lowther is dying, is he not?" "He is byway of being ill, but he has cried wolf so often, that he is sure to live for ever. People of that sort always do." "I will call to-morrow," said Mrs Lester, rising ; "and as to the ball, though I daresay they won't come, people like to be aaked. However, to tell you the truth, we have quite girls enough already." The Mackworths were spoken of no more that evening, but Mr 3 Lester thought that she had never known her brother so silent and pre-occupied.