CHAPTER I.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13429, 21 March 1907, Page 6

CHAPTER I.

A MYSTERY 80HBWHKEE.

" And besides, you know, my dear Mrs. Rose, there is generally something wrong about a woman who dresses so very well." So spoke Mrs. Bonnihgton, the vicar's wife, laying down the law; a law, indeed, which most Englishwomen are ready to take for granted. Mrs. Rose, a tall, thin, pale lady who had "nerves," and who, on this bright April morning, wore a woollen shawl half over her shoulders as she ' sat in the warm sun [by the dining-room window, assented (readily. " That's what I always say. Especially a widow. I'm sure if anything were to happen to my husband," went oh Mrs. Rose, euphemistically, " the last thing I should think about would be my dress. I should be far too unhappy to trouble myself about the fit of my dresses, or the shape of my bonnets."

Now this was perhaps true, as Mrs. Rose, though she spent as much money and as much thought upon her clothes jas her compeers, never succeeded in Hooking as if her clothes had been made for her, or as if the subject of " fit " were, rof any importance.

Mrs. Bonnington shook her head with grave disquietude, and resumed her homily.

" I assure you the matter has caused | me a good deal of anxiety. You know how solicitous both the vicar and I are about the tone of the. parish."

"I do, indeed," murmured Mrs. Rose sympathetically.

" You know how hard we work to keep up a high standard. Why, everybody knows that it was through us that those objectionable people at Oolwyn Lodge went away, and how we would do anything to rid the place of those terrible Solomons at Stone Court!"

At the other end of the^room, a young face, with' gray eyes full of mischief, was turned in the direction of Mrs. Bonnington with a satirical smile. Mabin Rose, the overgrown, awkward stepdaughter of Mrs. Rose, and who hated. the. vicar's wife,, and called her a busybody and a .gossip, brought her darning nearer, to the table, and dashed headlong into the fray.. t

" Papa wouldn't thank you if you did' drive the Solomons out of the parish, as you did the people at Colwyn Lodge, Mrs. Bonnington, '* broke in the clear young voice that would be heard. "He says Mr. Solomon is the best tenant he ever had, and that he wishes that some of the Christians were like him."

"Hush", T Mabin. 66 on with your work, and don't interrupt with your rude remarks," said Mrs. Rose sharply. " I am quite sure your father neVer said such a thing, except perhaps in fun," she went on, turning apologetically to her visitor. "Nobody is more] anxious about ' tone ' and all those j things than Mr. Rose, and he was saying onjy yesterday that he would rather I didn't call upon this Mrs. Dale until something mope was known about her."

Again the young face at the other end of the table looked up mutinously ; but this time Mabin controlled her inclination to protest. .She looked down again, and began to darn furiously, to the relief of her felings, but to the injury of the stocking.. Mrs. Bonnington went on: " You were quite right. It's not that I wish to be uncharitable." " Of course not," assented Mrs. Rose, with a fervour.- : k " But a woman like yourself, with daughters to take. care of, cannot be too careful. Young people are so easily led away; they think so much of the mere outside.. They are so easily dazzled and taken in by appearances."

Mabin grew r^d, perceiving that this little sermon. was directed at herself. Her stepsisters, Emily and Ethel, one of whom could be heard "practising" in the drawing-roqm, were not the sort of girls to be led aw(|y by anything. " But why shouldn't a nice face mean something nicer" put in the rash young woman again.*

The fact was that Mabin had been charmed with ofr sweet, pink-and-white face and blue eyes of Mrs. Dale, their new neighbour at " The Towers/,' $n& was ' mentally comparing the ' widow's childlike charms with the . acidulated attractions of the. vicar's dowdy wife.

"And why," pursued Mabin, as both the elder ladies seemed to pause to gain strength t,o . fall upon her together, " shouldn't she be just as sorry for her husband's death because she looks nice over it ? It seemed to me, when she sat near us at church on Sunday, that she had the saddest face I had ever seen. And as for corrupting us by her ' tone,' she won't have anything to do with any of us. Mrs. Warren has called upon her, and the Misses Bradley and Mrs. Peak and a lot more people, and she's always ' not at home.' So, even ff she is wicked, I should think you might let her stay. Surely, she can't do us much harm just by having, her frocks better made than the rest of us."

When Mabin had finished this outrageous speech, there was an awfuV pause. Mr a. Rose hardly knew how to administer such a reproof as should be sufficiently soathing ; while Mrs. Bonuiugton waited in solemn silence for the

reproof to come. Matin looked from her stepmother's face, to that of the vicar's wife, and thought she had better retire before the avalanche descended. So she gathered up her work hastily, running her darningrneedle into her hand in her excitement, muttered an awkward apology and excuse for her disappearance at the same time, and shot out of the room in the ungainly way which had so often caused her stepmother to shudder, as she did now.

When the door had closed upon the girl, closed, unfortunately, with a bang, Mrs. Bonnington sighed.

" I am afraid," she said, unconsciously assuming still more of her usual clerical tone and accent, "that Mabin must Jbe a great anxiety to you?"

Mrs. Rose sighed and olosed her eyes for a moment wearily.

"If you could realise how great an anxiety," she murmured, in a solemn tone, " you would pity mcl If it were not that Mr. Rose gives his authority to support mine in dealing with her, she would be absolutely unmanageable, I assure f you.'' r r .. . _ .■ ■ " A forward spirit! Arid one singularity unsusceptible, t$ good influences," said the vicar's wife. " However, we must persevere with her, and hope for a future blessing on our labours, even if it should come too late for us^to be witnesses of her regeneration." "I am sure I have always done my best for her, and treated her just as I have my own children. But you see what different results \ The seed is the same but the soil is not. I don't know whether you knew her mottier? But I suppose Mabin must, take after her. She is utterly unlike her father."

" She is, indeed. Mr. Rose is such a particularly judicious, upright . man. The vicar has the highest respect for him." (To be continued.)*