CHAPTER II. THE PAJROFS.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 131, 5 December 1885, Page 5

CHAPTER 11. THE PAJROFS.

Malissoi? was not unsociable. People callod him a misanthrope, but they slandered him ; unfortunately he preferred the society of clever people, and had consequently a fair number of enemies. On arriving in the country, he made several calls. There were not many changes in the neighbourhood ; the preserving qualities of provincial life exceed those of any pickle known ; after ten years have passed the same faces are to be found, a little plainer, a little older, it is true ; bat as every piece of furniture remains in the same place, you coon resume your old habits, and by a slight effort of imagination may fancy that time has not rolled on. Yot tho children had grown up. The boys had become men, and were mostly dispersed in every direction ; many of the girls had married, but not all. Some few, not the prettiest, of course, were left to adorn the neighbourhood, much as the withered aniseed stalks of last season adorn the kitchen garden when the grass begins to spring. This rustic world had a certain charm for MalisBof ; to begin with, it brought about a change in his ideas and habits, and then he admired a kind of patriarchal simplicity in this mode of life. People were certainly no better than in the great world, but there was a charming simplicity in their offences. Selfishness was so undisguised that you recognised it without being bold enough to condemn it. Thero was one old lady in the neghbourhood whose house frequently attracted Malissof. She had kept up all the old customs ; she and her husband would have thought themselves wanting in self respect had they ever walked the twenty yards which lay between their house and the church. Within the memory of man the Pajarofs had always driven to mass. The good lady married her servants, held their infants at the font, reared an innnmenible Hock of sewing-maids in her household, and watched a varied collection of little servants of every size and occupation growing up in her anterooms until the day when their short jackets and breeches warned their mistress that they were ready for promotion. Then sho sent for a troop of the young scamps, and distributed the vacant situations right and left : — " You shall bo coachman j you, butler ; you shall turn the handle of the barrel organ ;— you shall be cook" — all without tho slightest reference to their respective capacities. Fortunately, her memory was rather short, 30 these young rogues found no difficulty in exchanging their posts without asking leave. Sometimes, of course, Madame Pajarcf would bogin to be suspicious. "I thought I bad made you cook," sho would say to a strapping fellow. " Excuse me, madame, that was Ilia ; I ;ioa lachka, and you made me groom ; — by /our honour's permission, I attend to tho lorses you drive." " Well, woll, my memory is so bad," mittered the good lady, and the matter was settled. This lively household, where fifty attendants of both sexes found it hard work to ivait on two persona, was much to Malissof's ;aste. Incidents were always occurring 3here in the most unexpected manner, and visitors turned up from every side. The Pajarofa always kept open house ; ten guest jhambers stood ready for chance comers and ivero seldom unoccupied, Towards the end of June, Madame Pajarof took it into her head to make some Matches among her eerfs ; it was a long Arne since sho had made any, and she >ught to keep her hand in, she said. An ivrkward case presented itself ; one of her woodmen had fallen head over ears in love with a girl born on a neighbouring estate, whose owner was inclined to forego the profits accruing from the girl's especial ijifts. Madame Pajarof, finding herself inablo to satisfy everybody, decided one Jay upon sending off a messenerer to sumnon Malissof to her aid. He came at once. The good lady was )utside, awaiting him on the steps ; in her mpatience sho had heard the sound of the .vheels half a mile off. " What is it you want, Anna Karpovna ?" said tho new-comer, even before he had •cached the top of the steps. " You have been in the diplomatic service, knton Petrovitch, come to the rescue !" "With ploaaure, it will rub off the •ust !" returned Malissof. " What is the natter ?" "My neighbour will not let me have her ;irl for my woodman," said the old lady, jinking back into her chair. " What a iool she is !" " No, my dear, she is no fool," broke in jrenerol Pajarot, rising from a large armchair in which he passed most of his waking noments. " Good day, Malissof. Tell my wife that her neighbour is no fool ! That in proved by her wanting the woodman to jome and live on her estate ; she does not nean to present us with her milk-maid, we nust make her present a of our woodman !" 11 She is certainly no fool," said Malissof, aughing, " but I see only one way of settlin :he question." " What way is that ?" " Buy the fair bride !" " There !" cried the old lady, turning ,o her husband : " did not I tell you that iiplomatists find a way out of every lifficulty ? You are right, Anton Petrovitch, jothing could be fairer. But supposing she refuses to sell her ?" " If you manage the affair well—" u Yes, to be sure, but it must not cost me 100 much," added Anna Karpovna in an 3arnest tone which made Malissof smile. "Could you make up your mind, dear leighbour," he resumed, "to refuse these jnhappy lovers the small sum required to make them happy ?" " You talk like a romance," said the old lady, with an eloquent twinkle in her eye, "but it is a sheor waste of time. Try to ?et me out of this dilemma on reasonable terms." 44 1 will do my best. Where does the owner of this Dulcinea live ?" 4t At no great distance, not two miles off ; do you see her house with an apple-green roof, bohind that little wood ?" "I sco it. Fatal neighbourhood!" exclaimed Malissof. "I feel sure that this wood is the accomplice, the Gahotto that ruined them !" "Quite right, my dear. Well, then, since you condescend to place your talents at the service of ill-starred love, go back to your carriage and drive off at once to the wicked fairy who is malignant to the end of the story." 11 And if she touches me with her wand? said Malissof, pausing on tho threshold as he left the room.

The old lady shrugged her shoulders con-! temptuously. The general growled out in sonorous tones from the depth of hia chair :l " Don't let her marry you !" " What, is she a widow ?" Paid MalisBof,< in consternation. ; "She is single." "And what age?" 11 Thirty-peven and a half." "I am safe," returned the messenger lightly. "May I venture on another question ?" "Let us hear it." "In spite of tho full respect duo and shown to your incomparable judgment, I cannot help asking myself, why, Anna Karpovna—" " Well ?" " Why you don't ga yourself ?" At this question, the general buiat out laughing ; his better half was ready to join him, but restrained herself to utter the sentence : " Words have passed between us." Pajarof laughed more than ever, and Anna Karpovna could no longer contain herself ; Maliesof supposed the dispute must have been a comical one, and with a grave bow, took his departure.