WORTHILY WON.

Otago Witness, Issue 1901, 17 July 1890, Page 37

WORTHILY WON.

"Yes, Mrs Orton," said Mattie Meredith, as she sat down on her travelling dress in one of the wicker chairs. " I've come down here to get you to teaoh me housekeeping." ♦• D, ear mp,' 1 said that lady ? raising her hands in dismay. "I had np idea your father would fail. How does he take it, poor, dear man 1 "

" Qh, very well,'' said Mattie. " But who are you* boardejrs, Mrs Orton ? " "You know all of them but Mr Hageltine, my dear. I dare say they'll be glad to see you. Shall I show you to your room ? " A few hours later Miss Meredith, now thoroughly rested and arrayed in a cool muslin dress, started out for a walk through the woods, wondering in her heart if Lieut. Cooper, whom she bad met and liked last year, was an inmate of Mrs Qrton's hospitable home.

When she joined the little group on the verandah that evening, with the purple dusk glooming over the head of the neighbouring mountains, and the night birds whistling sweetly in the woods, her welcome was various. Mr Jefferson, a tall, handsome man, who was supposed to be " well off," bowed low, but a little formally. Mr Davidson Dover's spectacled gaze shone frigidly upon her, as he glanced up from his big " Commentary on the Gospels." »' I hope to see you well," said he. Mr Laidlaw bowed, scraped, and dropped her hand almost as soon as he had taken it, and retreated back into the parlour, murmuring something about letters to write. Lieut. Cooper shook hands so cordially that the pretty pink knuckles smarted fully five minutes afterwards, and then seated himself as olosely to her as the rules and regulations of civilised society would permit. Sfr Hazeltine said something polite, and retired into a shadowed corner, doubtleEs to think up " something funny " for the new series of lectures which he was going to deliver in the South-west that autumn, | Mattie Meredith spoke up, as soon as she had established herself on the settee, with the cat in her lap. " Mr Jefferson," said she, " what dc girls do when they want to earn their own liv1D Mr Jefferson twisted and turned in his seat like an impaled beetle. "Really," said he, "you have consnlted a poor oracle. I—l am not capable of advising in such an emergency as this. Very gorry, of course, but " " Perhaps Mr Dover could suggest something," mischievously added Mattie. 11 Oh, I assure you, nothing ,of the kind," said Mr Dover. M There's the factories, you.

■khdw, and— and— liaidlaw might have some idea " 11 Oh, noj no Idea at all," said Mr Laidlaw. 11 The mosquitoes torment me to death here. I guess I'll take my desk upstairs, if the company will excuse me." Lieut. Cooper said nothing, but later on in the evening he proposed to walk down to the little spring in the woods. " The moon is just rising," he said, " and really there is no dew to speak of. Please come, Miss Meredith. 1 ' So Mattie wrapped her white and gold burnous around her and walked with him down the shaded path, where they had so often walked before. But, close beside the spring, he turned abruptly to her and stopped. "',Miss Meredith," eaid he, "we have known each other for some time now. I'm only a poor naval officer, but I've my pay, and there is always the prospect of promotion. It goes to my heart to hear you talking of 'earning your own living— a delicate girl like you. Let me earn it for you. Promise to become my wife. For,> indeed!" he added, in his honest, straightforward way, "I've loved you ever siuce I met you here last summer. As an heiress I could not have ventured to ask you to share my humble lot. But now " " Oh, Lieut. Oooper 1 " she began, and then paused. "Yes, I know it seems presumptuous," said he. " But we've a pretty old homestead in Virginia, where r your father and mother would be heartily welcome. And I would work my fingers to the bone to provide every comfort for you and them, and — oh, Mattie 1 is it possible that you can teach yourself to love me ? " 11 1 — might — try," slyly murmured Mattie — " that is, if " And then she fcund herself elapsed in the arms of the man who had loved her so long and so faithfully. "But you're very much mistaken," she added, after a little. "Not in supposing that you love me?" said the lieutenant, in some apprehension. " In believing that I am such a pauper," said Mattie. " Papa has met with no losses w'natever. I came out here to learn to do housework, because I've just joined a domestio olub, one of whose rules is that every member must thoroughly understand the details of her own household ; but dear old Mrs Orton took it for granted that I was penniless, and when I saw that all the resfcbelieved the same thing I couldn't resist the mischievous impulse to gauge their true regard for me ; and you, Harry, are the only one who was willing to lift a finger in rriy behalf." "Rich or poor," said the lieutenant stoutly, " I would" go to the end of the world for you, Mattie." So he won his wife. "It was a long time before Mrs Orton would believe that Mattie Meredith was as much of an heiress as ever, for she oould not possibly oredit it that any girl could learn housework for her own pleasure. "Young ladies are so queer nowadays," said she.