CHALK.

Otago Witness, Issue 1824, 5 November 1886, Page 31

CHALK.

By Alice, Author of " Flekle Jack," " Grandmother's Story," &c. [All Rights Reserved.} Chaptee XVIII. Winter months. " So you and the new governess hit it off together in first-class style, little woman ?"

Mr Grant sat in his red leather arm chair before the fire, his long legs stretched out lazily, his feet resting upon the fender. He was a man between forty and fifty. Not a remarkable-looking man in any way. It was not for anything striking in manner or appearance that won for him the proud position in his wife's admiration. It was far, far more enduring and endearing qualities than broad shoulders and an open genial countenance and his six feet in height that Mrs Grant adored him. Good looks may captivate the fancy of an inexperienced girl, but it takes something more to chain the admiration and love of a woman. It isn't much to boast of to be able to win the easily won love of a young miss. Any lad can do that, but it takes a man to be able to reign as king in his wife's heart all her life. It is no conquest to be able to count how many women's hearts yon have won. It is a conquest if you have retained one, and a conquest worth fighting for ; for as youth goes by a man is poor and desolate indeed if one heart does not hold him dearer than all the world. Men, you are fools to teach the woman who once loved to despise yon. A day will come when you will own you had better have sacrificed ambition than the love that would have made a heaven of your poor home. It seldom falls to the lot of any man to be loved for his own sake more than once. Many women may flatter and smile and love him because he makes life pleasant to themselves. When you are crowned in one true heart, reign proudly on your throne. A man may be a very fine fellow indeed in the estimation of all the world, but if the woman who knows him best despises him, depend upon it at heart he isn't much.

" So you and the new governess hit it off in first-class style, little woman ? "

The little woman was standing at the table pinning a paper pattern to a piece of cloth. Her mouth was too full of pins to answer at once.butbyandbyshetookthernotitandrnacfe answer to her husband, while her sciesort dranoh«d an<3 grinned cfvfcr the tfcble.

"Splendidly, pa; she has only been with us a week and I assure yon I am quite fond of her already. She has such a way with bova, you can't imagine ; they will do anything for her; their lessons seem quite a pleasure to them " Here the pins stopped the little woman's utterance for a time, and Mr Grant quietly watched his wife as she cut and slashed into the cloth with the audacity and ease of a professional tailor. Her husband was used to these pauses, and knew from experience that if he waited patiently for a while till the cutting and pinning process was over, his wife would sit down on her low rocking chair on the opposite side of the hearth and, with her fingers busily plying the needle, have what Bhe called " a comfortable chat."

The boys were making a great uproar at the opposite side of the room, teaching ••Poll" to say the alphabet backwards. Poll, with head held knowingly on one side, eyed her four teachers through the bars of her cage, and went on swimmingly as far as Z V X W V, and then insisted upon breaking off and bursting into a peal of laughter each time she reached that stage of learning, laughter in which the boys heartily joined. This noise did not in the least disturb the parents. Many a family matter of more or less importance had been discussed amid romps and shouts. Mrs Grant had finished her cutting out now, and sat down to tack together several small coats ready for the machine tomorrow. When pa was at his lathe the little woman did not object to work her sewing machine, but when he settled down in his chair for a quiet evening she always found employment for her fingers that would not interrupt their talk. " When she came in anawer to the advertisement," continued Mrs Grant, as though there had been no pause in the conversation, " I was struck with her face — such a grand face, pa, with a look of sadness upon it that went to my heart. She looked me straight in the eyes with her large, truthful eyes, and said, • Madame, I have no referenced to give you. If you take me, you must take me on trust. My past history I cannot reveal. But if you take me, I will serve you faithfully." " A daily governess does not undertake to teach morals, my dear. She can't do much harm if she sticks to the use of the globes, Latin verbs, and English grammar."

" Ah, but she does not stick at that," anBwered Mrs Grant with enthusiasm. " She enlarges upon everything, all the dry facts of history, as the school books have them. She enlarges upon and enriches with a wonderful fund of past reading — the same in the geography lesson. I declare I know more about China and the Holy Land than I ever knew - in my life." " Live and learn, little woman !"

" Then to hear her play and sing 1 She sat down at the old piano there this morning to please Ernest, and sang "He Bhall feed his flock like a shepherd " till Ernest and I both cried. Music was not in the agreement, but Ernest wishes so much, pa, to learn, and Miss Winifred is anxious to get a few music pupils; so if you have no objection, he is to go" to her house to receive bis lessons?"

Mr Grant had no objection to any health- ■ i ul form of amusement for his children, and go had none to this.

" I told Ernest you would be sure to say yes," proceeded Mrs Grant, " and I shall ask Mrs Johnston to send her daughters also. That poor girl is anxious, painfully anxious, ' to get work, pa." • ' " And your charitable soul is as painfully anxious to obtain for her what she seeks, • little woman ! Well, I like your active good nature, my dear— it springs from your unselfishness. That passive good nature that theorises for the mass and leaves the individual unaided isn't worth a straw !" "It is the least we can do, love, to do what we can for others."

" Oh, indeed 1 Then take my word for it, three parts of the world are satisfied with doing less than the least." " And then, pa, what has her history to do with me 1 It is quite enough for me if I see anyone doing their best noro What sort of a mother should I be to teach my boys charity in words and set them a bad example by my actions ? Charity does not poke its nose into other people's business, does not busy itself with other people's lives, does not think evil ; and besides, I heard her tell Ernest and Willie she lost her mother when she was a baby, and that they could never be too loving or obedient or unselfish towards their parents; that life gave a good many things twice over, but a mother only once." " That sentence was enough to open your heart towards her for ever, little woman."

" Well, pa, I mas sorry for her, poor dear. No mother to nurse her when sick, or to advise her in difficulty. Why, if I thought myjboys and the littlejwoman's eyes rested on the rosy group and said the rest.

"Tut, tut, little woman, you'll live to 6ee them all middle-aged men, and make knickerbockers for their sons. Providence knows better than remove you to Paradise yet a while! Why, Hamlet's ghost would be nothing to yoa ! You would reappear at most inconvenient seasons with gruel and soup and worsted stockings, I could never picture you as an angel playing a golden harp while the boys wanted their stockings darned or a button sown on. No, no, my love, angels are not wanted in Heaven as badly as good mothers on earth."

*' Oh, pa !" " What does • Oh, pa ' mean ? That you are shocked at my spiritual condition 1 What I say 1 mean, little woman : that good women pre more lieeded in the world than angels." The two girls lived their solitary life at Laurel Cottage, Winifred, busy all the morning, at 1 o'clock was free, and then she hastened home, and they took their midday dinner together. On the dusky winter afternoons they read and talked together when Winifred was not busy with the pupils, who came in slowly increasing numbers. Two afternoons in each week Winifred was engaged this way, and on these afternoons granny generally contrived to drop in and keep Mary company. One of Winifred's pupils, Earnest Gran^ ©vineed a great attachment to Winifred

He was of a sensitive, reserved disposition, and capable only of rare and passionate likings. Little by little he was drawn out of his reserve by his teacher, and at length confided his most earnest hope to her sympathetic ear — to be a minister when a man. Winifred kept this fact in view, and sought by the choice of his books and the tenor of her conversation to exalt and ennoble the boy's aspiring, ardent disposition, and to idealise and spiritualise his mind. It was the lad's greatest treat to be allowed to remain to take tea with his teacher ; for after tea he would be on the rug at Mary'a feet, while Winifred uplifted her rich contralto voice and sang from great masters and the longing and sorrow of her heart.

In this way the Grants became aware of much of the home history of Laurel Cottage, but with a delicacy, as kind as it was rare, Mrs Grant refrained from asking any questions, but was more than content with Winifred as she found her.

There was only one interruption to the lessons during tbe winter months. One afternoon — a Saturday afternoon — all the four " boys " begged to go to the foot ot the Port hills on a flax gathering expedition. Mrs Grant demurred for some time over giving consent to Willie accompanying the others. She feared the distance was too great for him. Calling him to her she sat down in her rocking chair, and looking very anxious and grave, asked: " Willie, & ear, which would you rather do— go with your brothers to please yourself, or stay at home to please me?" "Go with my brothers to please myself, ' answered Willie, with characteristic candour. So be went ; but he was tempted on his way back to endeavor to mount a horse that was tethered in a' paddock, and the horse, resenting the liberty, kicked, and Willie was brought home in a cab insensible, with a gash in his head. Great was the alarm of the devoted mother, but while they hung over the boy he opened his eyes, and the doctor said : " Well, my little man, this ought to teach you not to meddle with horses." Willie responded : " Pooh ! That horse doesn't know how to kick. That wasn't half a kick. If I'd been that horse I'd have kicked much harder."

"Well, I count it lucky for you, young gentleman, that the horse did not kick much harder, or you would have been killed." But Willie did not seem very thankful. He seemed to entertain a hearty contempt for the animal, and admitted his head was a " bit sore," but whatever pain he suffered he bore without a murmur.

During the time of Willies convalescence Winifred came backward and forward as usual— sometimes teaching Ernest, sometimes helping to nurse Willie. Mrs Grant found her invaluable, and the boys voted her " a brick."

One day in early spring, when the violets and primroses and poly auth uses were sweet in the garden, Winifred left the Grants, the morning lessons being over, and, tempted by the bright sunshine, lingered longer than usual on her homeward way. The willows were just coming into their pale-green bud, and tbe birds were twittering a welcome to the sunshine.

" Nature, as Mary said," thought Winifred, "has many renewals— Life but one spring." And then came long, sad thoughts of the blighted youth of her darling girl at home, who tried each day to do her part and bear her burden as best she could. She too spent busy mornings at home, Winifred thought loviogly, in the unaccustomed task of preparing their midday meal. Mary's little fingers were often cut or burnt in her attempts, but she never failed on Winifred's arrival to serve up a dainty repast. Generally the door stood open for Winifred to enter ; to-day it was closed. The girl lingered to gather from the garden beds a sweet bouquet of primroses, then let herself in. No loving face greeted her, and the table was not spread for dinner. Mary was seated before the fire with her boy on her knees. She looked up quickly as Winifred entered. " Oh, Winifred, baby is ill t"

In an instant Winifred was kneeling down before the child. He was asleep and breathing heavily. Some great change had come upon the little face within the last few hours.

" How long has he been like this, dear V "He has been ill all the morning. In great pain at first. Oh, he cried dreadfully, Winifred, and I could not leave him to go for the doctor, and there was no one to send." " I will go now." In another minute she was on her way. Just as she was leaving the doctor's she met Bertie. "Bertie," she said, not stopping to shake hands. " Mary's boy is ill. If you can a moment before you go back to your office, will you ask grannie to come 1" " Of course I will." He hailed a passing cab, and helped Winifred in. " This is the better way," he said, jumping in after her. " I will drive you home and then go and bring grannie. The dear old lady is rather slow at walking. Is the child very ill 1" " I am sure he is. His poor little face is quite changed." (To be continued,')