CHAPTER IV. (CONTINUED). THE POLLARDS.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 151, 24 April 1886, Page 3

CHAPTER IV. (CONTINUED). THE POLLARDS.

Thoro's something in his soul O'er which his melancholy sits on brood — Hamj.kt Fkarful is tho experiences of this day had been, they were not yet at an end, for me. Indeed, tho most romarkablo wore to coino. As I sat in this room of death — it was not far from midnight — I suddenly heard voicos at tho door, and Mrs Gannon camo in with Dr. Farnham. *" It is very extraordinary," I hoard him uauttor as he crossed the threshold. " One dying and another dead, and both struck down by tho same cause." I could not imagine what he lnoant, so I looked at him with some amazement, But he did not seem to heed me. Going straight to the bed, he gazed silontly at Ada's pure features, with what I could not but consider a troublod glance. Then turning quickly to Mrs Gannon, ho said, in his somewhat brusque way : " All is over hore ; you can therefore leavo. I have a patient who demands your instant earo." "But " she began. " I have come on purposo for you," he put in, author itativeiy. ''It is an urgent case ; do not keep me waiting." " But, sir,"shepersisted, "it is impossible. I am expected early in tho morning at Scott's Corner's, and was just going to bed when you came in, in order to get a little sleep before taking the train." "Dr. Ferry's case?" " Yes." He frowned, and I am not pure but what he uttered a inild oath, At all events, he seemed very much put out. I immediately drew near. "Oh, sir," I cried, "if you would have confidence in me. 1 am not unused to the work, and " His stare frightened me, it was searching and so keen. " Who are you ?" he asked. I told him, and Mrs Gannon put in a word for me. I was reliable, she said, and if too much experience was not wanted, would do better than such and such a one - naming certain persons, probably neighbours. But the doctor's steady look told me he relied more on his own judgment than anything she or I could say. " Can you hold your tongue ?" he asked. I started. Who would not have done so. " I see that you can," ho muttored, and glanced down at my dress. " When can you be ready ?" he inquired. " You may be wanted for days, aud it may be only for hours.*' " Will ten minute? be soon enough ?" I asked. A smile difficult to fathom crossed his firm lip. " I will give you fifteen," ho said, and turned towards tho door. But on the threshhold he paused and looked back. "You have not asked who or what your patient is, M he grimly suggested. ''No," I answered shortty. " Well," said he, "It is Mrs Pollard, and she is going to die. " Mrs Pollard ! Mrs Gannon and I involuntarily turned and looked at each other. *' Mrs Pollard I" repeared tho good nurse, wonderingly. "I did not know sho was sick, " "She wasn't this noon. It is a sudden attack. Apoplexy we call it. She fell at the news of Mr Barrows's death." And with this parting shot he went out and closed the door behind him. I sank, just a little bit weakened, on the lounge, then rose with renewed vigour. " The work has fallen into the right hands," thought I. "Ada would wish me to leave her for such a task as this." And yet I was troubled. For though this sudden prostration of Mrs Pollard, on the hearing of her young pastor's sorrowful death, seemed to betoken a nature of more than ordinary sensibility, I had always heard that she was a hard woman, with an eye of steel and a heart that could only be reached through selfish interests. But then she was the magnate of the place, the beginning and end of the aristocracy of S ; and when is not such a one open to calumny]? I was determined to reserve my judgment. In the fifteen minutes allotted me 1 was ready. Suitable arrangements had already been made for tho removal of my poor Ada's body to the house that held her lover j for the pathos of the situation had touched all hearts, and her wish to be laid in the same grave with him met with no opposition. I could therefore leave with a clear conscience; Mrs Gannon promising to do all that was necessary, even if she were obliged to take a later train than she had expected to. Dr. Farnham was in the parlour waiting for me, and uttered a grunt of satisfaction as he saw me enter, fully equipped. "Come; this is business," he said, and led the way at once to his carriage. We did not speak for the first block. He seemed meditating, and I was summoning up courage for the ordeal before me. For, now that we were started, I began to feel a certain inward trembling not to be entirely accounted for by the fact that I was going into a stran^o house to nurse a woman ol whom report did not Bpeak any too kindly. Nor did the lateness of the hour, and the desolate aspect of the unlighted. streets, tend greatly to reassure me. Indeed, some thing of the weirduncanny seemed to minglt with the whole situation, and I found myself dreading our approach to the house, which from its old-time air and secluded position had always worn for me an aspect of gloomy reserve, that mode it, even in the daylight, a spot of somewhat fearful interest. Dr. Farnham, who may have suspected my agitation, though he gave no token of doing so, suddenly spoke up. "It is only right to tell you," he said, ♦'that I should never have accepted the fe-. rvico of an inexperienced girl like you if anything was necessary but watchfulness aud discretion. Mrs Pollard lies unconsciou3, and all you will have to do is to sit at her side and wait for the first dawning of returning reason. It may come at any moment, and it may never come at all. She is a very sick woman." "I understand," I murmured, plucking up heart at what did not seem so very difficult a task. " Her sons will be within call ; so will I. By daybreak we hope to have her daughter from Newport with her. You do not know Mrs Harrington ?" I ghook my head. Who was I, that I Should know these grand folkB ? And yet But I promised I would say nothiug about days now so completely obliterated. " She will not be much of an assistant," he muttered. " But it is right she should come— quite right." I remembered that I had heard that Mre Pollard'a daughter was a beauty, and that she had mode a fine match ; which, said of

Mrs tollard's daughter, must have meant a great deal. I, however, said nothing, only listened in a vaguo hope of hearing more, for nay curiosity was aroused in a strango way about these people, and nothing which tho good doctor could have Baid about them would have come amiss at this timo. But our drive had been too rapid, and wo were too near the house, for him to think of anything but turning into the gateway with the necessary caution. For tho night was unusually dark, and it was difficult to tell just where the gate-posts were. We, however, entered without accident, and in another moment a gleam of light greeted up from the distant porch. " They are expecting us," he said, and touched up his horso. We ilew up tho gravelled road, and boforo I could still tho sudden heart- boat that attacked me at sight of the grim row of cedars which surrounded the house, we were hurrying up between the two hugo lions rampant that flanked the steps, to where a servant etood holding open the door. A sense of gloom and chill at once ovorwhelmed mo From the interior, which I faintly saw stretching before mo, thero breathed even in that first moment of hurried entrance, a cold and haughty grandeur that, however rich and awo-in-spiring, was anything but attractive to a nature liko mine. Drawing back, I lot Dr. Farnham take the lead, which ho did in his own bru^uo »vay. And then I saw what tho dim light had not revealed before, a young man's form standing by tho nowol-post of tho wido staircase that rose at our left. He at onco camo forward, and as tho light from the lamp above us fell fully upon him, I saw his face and started. AVhy ? I could not toll. Not bocauso his handsome foaturos struck me pleasantly, for thoy did not. Thero was soinothing in their expression which I did not like, and yet as I looked at thorn a sudden sonsation swept over mo that made my apprehensions of a moment back seem liko child's play, and I bocame conscious that if a sudden call of life or death were behind me urgiug me on the instant to quit the house, I could not do it whilo that face was beforo mo to bo fathomed, and, if possiblo, understood. " Ah, I soe you have brought tho nurse," were tho words with which ho greoted Dr. Farnham. And the voico was as thrilling in its tone as the face was in its expression. "But," he suddenly exclaimed, as his oyos met mine, "this is not Mrs Gannon." And he hurriedly drew the doctor down tho hall. " Why have you brought this young girl ?" he asked, in tones which, howovor lowerod, I could easily distinguish. "Didn't you know there were reasons why wo specially wanted an elderly person ?" "No," I hoard the doctor say, and then, his back being towards mo, I lost tho rest of his speech till tho words, "Sho is no gossip," came to saluto me and mako mo ask mysolf if there was a secret skeleton in this house, that thoy foared so much tho eyes of a stranger. " But," tho young mm w ont hurriedly on, "sho is not at all the kind of person to have over my mother. How could we " and there his voice fell so as to becoico unintelligible. But the doctor's suddon exclamation helped mo out. " What !" he wondoringly cried, "do you intend to sit up too ?" " I or my brother," was tho calm response. " Would you expoct us to loavo hor alono with a stranger ?" The doctor made no answer, and the young man, taking a glance sidowisso/.threw ma a glance full of anxiety and trouble. "I don't liko it," he murmured; "but there must be a woman of some kind in tho room, and a stranger " He did not fineih his words, but it scorned as if he were going to say : " And a stranger may, after all, bo preforablo to a neighbour." But 1 cannot be sure of this, for ho was not a man easy to sound. But what I do know is that he stepped forward to me with an easy grace, and giving mo a welcome as courteous as if I had been the oneof all others he desired to see, led mo up tho stairs to a room which hoannounccd tobe mine, saying, as he left mo at tho door, " Come out in five minutes, and my brother will introduce you to your duties." So far I had scon no woman in tho house, and I was beginning to wonder if Mrs Pollard had preferred to surround hereolf with males, when the door was suddenly opened and a rosy-eheeked girl stepped in. " Ah, excuse me," she said "with a staro ; "I thought it was the nurse as was here." '• And it is the nurse," I returned, smiling in spite of myself at her look of indignant surprise. " Do you want anything of mo ?" I hastened to ask, for her eyes were like saucers and her head was tossing airily. "No," she said, almost with spite. "I came to see if you wanted anything ?" I shook my head with what good nature I could, for I did not wish to make an enemy in this house, even of a chambermaid. "And you are really tho nurse?" sho asked, coming nearer and looking at me in the full glare of the gas. "Yes," I assured hor, " really and truly the nurse." " Well, I don't understand it '" she cried. "I was always Mrs Pollard's favourite maid and I was with her when sho was took, and would bo with hor now, but they won't let me set a foot ineide the door. And when I asked why they keep me out, who was always attentive and good to her, they say I am too young. And hero you bo younger than I, and a stranger too. I don't liko it," she cried, tossing her head again and again. "I haven't deserved it, and I think it is mighty mean." I saw the girl was really hurt, so I hastened to explain that 1 was not the nurso they expected, and was succeeding, 1 think in mollifying her, when a step was heard in the hall, and she gavo a frightened start, and hurried towards the door. " So you aro sure you don't want anything ?" she cried and was out of my sight before I could ans There was nothing to detain me, and I hastened to follow. As 1 crossed the sill I almost started too, at sight of the tall, slim, truly sinister figure that awaited me, leaning against the opposite wall. Ho was younger than his brother, and had similar features, but there was no charm hero to make you forget that the eye was darkly glittering, and the lip formidable in its subtlety and power. He advanced with much of the easy nonchalence that had so characterised the other, •• Misa Sterling, I believe," said he ; atid with no further word, turnod and led mo down the hall to the sick room. I noticed even then that he paused and listened before he pushed open the door, and that with our first step inside he cast a look of inquiry at tho bod that had something besides a son's loving anxiety in it. And I hated the man as I would a serpent, though he bowed as he set me a chair, andwas careful to move a light that he thought shone a little too directly in my eyes. The other brother was not present, and I could give my undivided attention to my charge. I found her what report had proclaimed her to bo, a handsome woinan of the sternly imposing type. Even with her age against her and tho shadow of death lying on her brow and cheek, there was something strangely attractive in the features and the stately contour of hor form. But it was attraction that was confined to the eye, and could by no means allure the heart, for the same seal of mys-

torious reserve was upon her ' that characterised hor sons, and in her, as in the younger one of thoao, it inspired a distrust which I could ioiagino no smile as dissipating. She lay in a state of coma, and her heavy breathing was the only sound that broke the silenco of tho groat room, "God help ino 1" thought I ; but had no wish to leave. Instoad of that, I felt a fearful pleasuro in the proepact before me— such effect had a single look had upon me from eyes I trombled to moot again or road. I do not know how long I sat there gazing in tho one direction for that faint sign of life for which the doctor had bid mo watch. That he who inspired me with dread was bohind me, I knew ; but I would not turn my hoad towards him. I was dotormined to resist tho power of this man, oven if I must succumb at rillo to that of tho other. I was, therefore, surprised when a hand waa thrust over my shouldor, and a fan dropped into my la{). " Ib is warm hero," was tho commout which accompanied tho action. I thankod him, but felt that Lis sole objoct had boen to covor hia chango of position. For, when ho sat down again, it was whero ho could aeo my faco. I theroforo felt justilied in plying the fan ho had offered me, in such a way as to shut oil' his somewhat basilisk gnao. And eo a droary hour went by. It was now well on towards morning, and I was beginning to suffer from the langour natural after so many harrowingoxcitements whon tho door opened bohind mo, find tho eloefcric thrill shooting through all my mombers, testified as to whose step it was that entered. At tho eamo momont tho young man at my sido arose, and with what 1 felt to bo a last sharp look in my diroction, hastened to whoro his brother stood, and entered into a whisporod conversation with him. Then 1 hoard tho door closo again, and altno»t at the saino instant Mr Pollard the older advanced, and without seeking an oxcuso for his action, sat down closo by my sido. Tho fun at once dropped ; 1 had no wish to avoid tins man's scrutiny. And yet whon with a secret bracing of my nervos I looked up and met his eyes fixed with that ballling expression upon rnino, 1 own that 1 folt an inward alarm, as if eomo thing vaguoly dangerous had roared itself in my path, which by its very charm instinctively bade me bewaro. I, however, subdued my approhonsions, thinking, with a cortain haughty pride which I fear will never be eliminated from my nature, of the dangers I had alroady mot with and ovorcorao in my brief but troubled lifo ; and mooting his look with a gmilo v\ Inch I knew to contain a^picoof audacity,! calmly waited for tho words I felt to bo hoveling upon his lips. Thoy wero scarcely the ones I oxpected. " Miss Sterling," said ho " you havo scon Anico, my mothor's waiting maid '!" I bow od. 1 was too much disconcerted to speak. " And sho has told you hor story of my mother's illnoss ?" ho wont on pitilessly holding mo with his glance. "You need not answer," he again proceeded, as I opened my lips. " T know Anico ; sho has not tho gift of koeping hor thoughts to herself." "An unfortunate thing in this houso," 1 inwardly commented, and mado a deters mination on the spot that whatevor emotion1 might experience from tho mystories surrounding me, this master of reserve should find there was ono who could keep her thoughts to horsolf, oven, perhaps, to hid own secret disappointment and chagrin. "Sho told you my mother waa strickon at tho sudden news of Mr Barrows 'a death ?" "That was told mo," I answered; for this was a direct qucation, put, too, with an effort I could not help but foel, notwithstanding the evident wish on his part to preservo an appoaranco of calmness. "Then somo explanation is needed," he remarked, hia eyos Hashing from his mother's face to mine with equal force and intentness. My mother" — his words were low, but it was impo a siblc not to hear them — " has not been well since my father died, two months ago. It noeded but the slightest shock to produce tho result you unhappily eeo before you. That ahock this very gill supplied by the inconsiderate rolation of Mr Barrowa's fearful fate. We havo taken a prejudice against the girl in consequeuco. Do you blame us ? This is our mother." What could I feel or say but No ? What could anyone, undor tho circumstances? Why then did a sudden vision of Ada's face, as she gavo me that last look, rise up boforo me, bidding me remember tho cause to which I was pledged, and not put too much faith in this man and his plausiblo explanations. " 1 only hope death will not follow tho frightful occurrence," he concluded ; and do what ho wjuld, his features became drawn, and his face white, as his looks wandorod back to his mother. A sudden impulse seized me. " Another death you mean," said I ; " one already has marked the event, though it happoned only a fow short hours ago." Ilis eyes flashed to mino, and a very vivid and real horror blanched his already pallid chook till it looked blue in tho dim light. " What do you mean '!" he gaspod ; and 1 saw tho doctor had refrained from telling him of Ada's pitiful doom. "I mean," said I, with a aocrot compunction I strove in vain to .subdue, " that Mr Barrows's betrothed could not eurvivo his terrible fate — that she died a few hours since, and will be buried in tho same gravo as her lover.'" "His betrothed?" Young Mr Pollard had risen to his feet, and was actually staggering under the shock of his omotions. " I did not know he had any betrothed. I thought she had jillcd him " " It is anothor woman," I broko in, jealous for my poor dead Ada's famo. "Tho woman he was formerly engaged to novor him; but this ono " I could not finish tho sentence. My own agitation was beginning to master me. Ho looked at me, horrified, and I could have sworn the hair roso on his forehead. " What was hor name ?" lie asked, " la ifc — is it anyone I know V" Then, as if suddenly conscious that ho was botroying too keen an emotion for tho occasion, pitiful as it was, he forced his lips iuto a steadier curve, and quietly said : "After what has happened here, I am naturally overcome by a circumstance so coincidont with our own trouble " "Naturally," I assented with a bow, and again felt that secret distrust warring with a new feeling that was not unlike compassion. "Her name is Ada Reynolds," I continued, remombering his last question, " She lived " " I know," he interrupted ; and without anothor word walked away, and for a long time stood silent ai the other ond of 1 he room. Then he came back and sat down, and when I summoned up courage to glance at his face, I saw that a change had passed over it, that in all probability was a change for life. An 1 my heart sank— sank till I almost envied that unconscious form before which we sat, and fiom which alono now caino tho one sound which disturbed the ghostly silence of that dread chamber. (To be continued.)

A considerable quantity of passengers' luggage ha8 been recovered from the hold of the Taiaroa and sent away.