An Inherited Feud.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 12866, 26 May 1905, Page 6

An Inherited Feud.

By EFFIE ADELAIDE ROWUNBS,

..uUhor of "' vlnrtvew Leicester's Love," " Btavc Barbara/ " Tke hiterluoer," "A tipu >><dul Heart/ " 2h<s Temptation of Alary Barr," etc, etc.

The light oi the old-fashioned oil 1 lamp fell) softly upon her. She j was wonderfullyj pretty — one of j those ejxeecdiagly fair Knglish girls ! met with occasionally, with a skin like a peach, eyes of forget-me-not blue, and an abundance of golden 1 brown hair. I Patricia kissed her fondly. Until 111 1 his girl had come to herj home,, ' ,-ix or seven months before, there had always lurked in her heart an ■ nuconfessed long-ing for a sister, ; lor some one to share her thoughts, some one on whom she could lavisfe the loye that filled so great a part of her nature. : '"Now, come along, 1 ' said the eld'vr girl, quickly : "I am going to have those wet shoes off. Then we will into the kitchen and see what Anne has been doing." I Patricia made Leila sit down on a chair in the old-fashioned hall, and ran up to her cousin's room herself to bring down another pair of shoes. She only stopped to toss oil her coat and cap ; but when she returned to descend the broad oaken • staircase the shoes were 'snatched out of her hand. ' "If anybody's got to wait upon LUiss Arundale," said a middle- ' aged woman, who had been guilty \of this familiarity, "it's not your I duty, Miss Patsy. If she must go ! a gallivantin 1 about after dusk, ! why can't she put on proper I things ?" 1 Patricia laid her linger on the I speaker's lips and nodded, signifyi ing that Leila was in the hall be!low. But Barlow, who was housekeeper, and maid and general Tac10turn to the young mistress of the Glebe Farm, only snifEed. She passed down the | stairs carrying the shoes, and v Patricia followed her, vas she had done when ske was sl little child, and [Barlow was her nurse. She alI ways let Barlow order her about ; !it was one of the many things ■ which Miss Arundale could not uni derstand. "Why do you keep such a disagreeable woman about you ?" she I said, when she had first come to Glebe Farm. •'Oh, Barlow has been/ with me all my life," Patricia had answered, ; "I don't know what 1 I should do I without her. She is part of the house, part of my life — and I love her," she had added, softly. "She has a heart of gold." j "No onq would think it," Leila had said, a little quickly. "She ; may "be all very well to you, but .-ametime^ she is very) rude." Then, more quickly, the girl had added : "But I dare say she doesn't like me." ! Though Patricia had hastened to reassure her cousin on this point, Leila had stated the truth. Barlow was perhaps the only one about 1 che farm or the village who had not lost her heart to Miss Arundale. Even when Patricia had rer.olved upon offering a home to her cousin, Barlow had shaken her i Lead. "Though she is the child of your mother's sister, Miss Patsy," .she ad said, "don't you 1 forget that ; .-lie's got bad blood inj her veins. I Jf anyone should take care of her, now. "her mother's fomc, it ought ito her her father : but you maybe I pretty sure/ Barlow added, signilicantly. "that he'll keep well out of the way." •'It is very hard, Barlow," Patritia had said,j with a .*-igh, "to punish the child 1 for what the (father has donco" "That depends on the child," the other had answered, doggedly. "But Leila is a swek girl," Patricia had protested a little vexedlv, "and you know I have always 1 wanted her. Ofl course, I could never take her away from poor j Aunt Minnie while she was alive ; j but now that % Leila is alolie, and I talks of going out as a governess, vr doing something of that sort, why, Barlow, it would be horribly mean of me if I did not ask her to come here." "W'cil, ask her to come 0,11 a <-isit," Barlow, the practical, had M'gm'sted. hut Patricia had not taken this advice. She had goliei Lo Loud'oiij j herself, . and as she clasped her arms about the young cousin who', looked so desolate, so pretty,, so pathetic in her black dress, and glanced about the shab- ! by room which J was the only ; home Leila Arundale had known i fur the past few years, she opened , her heart and welcomed its newguest as a heaven-sent girl. And when Patricia Chesterton did a thing she did it thoroughly. { There was never any looking back wiUil her- — never . any v sccoml' thoiu/ghts. She took Leila home, and she gave the girl the very best; that she had. Her own mother's room was prepared for her cousin ; everything she had she shared with Leila ; and the other accepted all with a pretty pretence of gratitude. She had always been taught to believe that Cousin Patricia Chesterton was poor ; but at first it had seemed to her that, simple as the life was at the Glebe Farm, Patricia lacked far nothing. / Th<> house was full of beautiful, old fashioned furniture ; there' wjis a horse in the stables ; she had servants to wait upon her, andl dcli..vies to, eat such as Leila hud never seen since she was a (hild. Leila started by envying her cousin. She wa? jealous, too, oi Patricia's position. Befoie she had

bi^en at thu Cilcbe Kann a week she realised that Miss Chcstorton was quite a personage, not only in the village, but in the country itsel». \\ hen she walked abroad with Patricia the people greeted her cousin as though she were a little queen. When Patricia paSvSed up the aisle of the vsmall church on Sunday, I^eila felt that her cousin's entrance was regarded as an important event. K\cn the interest she herself aroused was chiefly due to the fact that she belonged to Patricia. "Why did mother always tell me that you were so poor ?" 1/eila once asked, half impatiently, and Patricia's happy look vanished for a moment. "I am poor," she answered; everything go^ by comparison. Fifty years ago my family owned half the land in the country. When I was born my father lived at the Court ; now nothing remains but this farm, and sometimes it is hard work to keep this going, as I promised my dear father it should be kept." "You have done a good deal to please your father," Leila said, on another , occasion^ "It was his wish, was it not, that you shou I *' be engaged to Sir Hubert ?" Patricia coloured a iittle vividly, and then turned the conversation, but Leila managed to learn all that she wanted to know from other people. There was always somebody ready and pleased to tell her the story of the various families in the neighbourhood, and the late Mr Chesterton had been a man of cuich strong character that his inlluence had not even commenced to die out. For some reason, it pleased Leila Arundale to hear that the marriage that was to take place some day between her cousin '. and Sir Hubert Dalborongh was one of convenience — a betrothal arranged almost on the lines of continental marriages, and brought to a culmination by th(> respective fathers. As the days of the summer went by, and Leila grew stronger, the uiemorv of her mother's illness and death faded away, and all the care which Patricia had lavished upon 1 her brought serenity and health. Thus she had taught herself to -give a measure of pity to the very handsome young man who lived at Heron Court, and whose future was to be linked j with that of Patricia Chesterton. She came to the conclusion that j Patricia was not the wife for Hubert. ' The mistress of Heron Court should be delicate, graceful, \ aristocratic. Leila considered that Patricia was too strong, too practical, too useful for such a position. ''Fancy helping to make the butter every week and getting up at five o'clock in the morning to pick the fruit ! Why, her hands are quite hard, and brown, and ugly." Here Leila would stretch out her own white, slender hands and look at them admiringly. Yes, Barlow had taken the measure of this voting creature pretty shrewdly. As she knelt down now upon the hall floor and changed Miss Arundale's damip shoes. she had a longing to take Leila by her very pretty shomklers and turn her out through the doorway. "Miss Patsy doesn't know how to treat her," she said to herself. "Why doesn't she give her something to do ? A la/.ier wench I've n^ver set eves o» before ! And where there's laziness there's bound to be mischief." (To \m contifi 1 !'"'! )

i No cqy S needed. Tuc'se: 1 ": t'u.-tnr'l choice addition to .-.lcwi <i fruit. Nd trouble lo make Ka b -i\j>i % i!iiy l>o\ i-oiiUiiit.- I j>;u-!.<'ls (! llawiurs) each 'lavoiir ii"iivir on. 1 j .n<. Ttleker'.S'mshitM T'l-i.-iiil JVv. r!,r Ad\!. Turkrr'.s Sim-hiiie Cn-Lti (I Powder. al\\a;>': drlij^hlful as an ;i«l<htuni to (lie de: -wit- \vi ( l) -lesved fnnt tsjU 1 ' i;i!k . !S'o < <r<js needi'd, better Custard than wiih ei,'L',-> (1 UttAoiu.s in ca<l] C<rl box) lea<I ea< h flavour makes one pint.-- Ad\ t. Your i ""oiiblcs dir'i.'iir'li when nsiiit; "Malko," t'w so s< otl.in;. a!-.<! satisfy iri)_-. — Aflvt,