A Tardy Wooing.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIX, Issue 8125, 27 April 1906, Page 2

A Tardy Wooing.

CHAPTER X.—Continued. "Master William Winsom and Master Edward Winsom, 1 presume. Make your bows my dears, and .say 'flow d'ye do, ma'am? 1 to mo prettily. lam Miss Ayden-the lndy who is to have gratification of educating you and making you a credit to your papa iu India." Not without much persuasion from Wynnie could either of the children be induced to extend a flabby, little liand to their chosen preceptress. Her Roman nose, her apectacles, and her deep-toned voice so awed them that they shrank from her iu undisguised alarm. "Spoiled—quite spoiled, I see!" Miss Ayden ejaculated, and shook her bead. "Petted by an ignorant rustic, and not even grounded, I fear, in the rudiments of their native language. Did they behave well on the journey V 1 She was now addressing horeelf to Wynnie, who bad risen at her entrance, and would have withdrawn if the children had not prevented it by holding her more tightly than before.

"They were very good. They would be gjod now, but they are tired and sleepy." "Of course, it is against all rule that little boys of their aga should be out of their beds after seven o'clock—against all rule!" As Miss Ayden said this, she frownod and shook her head eo austerely that the younger boy sobbed a protest thnt it wasn't his fault, it was Willie's. He hud wuoted to be put to bed ever so long ago. "Little boys who cry must be punished!" said the awful voice of the majestic spinster. "If lam not ( punctual it is owing to the bad conduct of the oabrran', who told me a gross falsehood in saying that his horee was fresh and capable of doing the distance iu an hour. We have been nearly twice that time, and hia impertinences when 1 refused to pay him wns atrocious! i shall have to hire another vehicle for the return journey. I will leave you for that purpose." By the time she had accomplished this, haggling with the man anent his fare till he was driven to the pitch of desperation, Teddie Winsom had fallen asleep in the arms of hia patient nurse, and , the elder boy was leaning a heavy, little head against her and yawning dismally. But at last a porter came to fetch the trunk and hoist it on to the roof of the cab, while Miss Ayden caught hold of one of her new pupils, and signed to Wynnie to precede her with tlie other. "Got in—get in!" she cried impatiently, wheh the girl hesitated on the pavement. "Has thera not been too much delay already?" Acoustomed to be commanded, Wynnie did was bid, but it was iu great mental alarm as to tho consequences". She comprehended now that the spinster, finding her with the children, had jumped to the conclusion that they had been sent to London in her charge, and had, therefore, asked no questions. Wynnie was riaturally truthtul, but she lacked courage to undeceive Miss Ayden.' She was doing her no wrong, she mentally argued; indeed, the little ones would have been unmanageable if handed over to a person whom they regarded with terror; and it would have required a braver heart than the untutored flower girl possessed to untwine the arms that clasped her neck, and say to their new guardian, "I have no business here!"

Miss Ayden sat opposite Wynnie and the children, and pompously harangued the elder one on the groat advantages he would derive fiorn being placed iu her establishment. Sbe and her sister—a most excellent lady, she told them—whoui he must always call Miss Bertha, had a largo number of daily pupils, but this was the first time they bad consented to take boarders; and she hoped Master Winsom and his brother would behave so well that she and Miss Bertha would never have cause to regret admitting them into their family cinle.

Nodding the feathers in her towering black hat, Mies A yden talked on, and the ohild, as he nestled beside Wynie, nodded too, lentil a sharper jolt than usual jerked him off the seat, and it was discovered that he was asleep. When he had been propped up in the corner once more, the Koraaunosed instructress of youth folded her arm j and began to stare fixedly at Wynnie, who meekly endured the scrutiny, miserably nunsoious that the first question put to her must result in her detection. Miss Ayden knitted her she had just discovered that a little boot was resting against her silken skirt; and as sho rubbe.3 at a fancied soiled spot it might bo geen that tho silk so carefully preserved had been turned and dyed, and was limp with age. The preparatory school for young gentlemen at the north of London of which she spoko in such imposing terms, could not-have yielded very good returns, or why was she so painfully, unmistakably shabby. She opened her mouth, and began to spea l *, and a lump rose iu the throat of Wynnie. "Have they been vaccinated?" she asked. "I do not know," wad the tremulous reply. "I am only- " But here Miss Aydeu interposed. "Of course not. You cannot bo expected to answer such questions. I ought to have put them to the guardians of their infancy." Another silence, and then with solemn aspect, and uplifted finger, Mise Ayden said:

".Remember, young woman, they are not to be enoouraged to talk to their nurse. While you are with U9 —and it might be advisable for you to remain for a few days—-you must be careful to check in them any disposition to repine." A few days! Uould she by simply lidding her tougue secure an asylum

By Charles W. Hathaway. thov of " Marjorie's dom," " A llash Voit'f't " Joseph Dane's Diplomacyetc., etc.

for that period? Wynnse'a spirits rose. Beyond the term Miss Ayden named she would not look. For to-night, and for three or four succeeding ones, here be a roof to shelter her, and time to dooide what she should do with herself when tolcl that her services were no longer' needed.

Had she spoken, a sob of thankful joy must have escape her lips, so she kept bent over the child in hor lap; and Miss Ayden, who did not thiuk any answer necessary, compared her favourably with girls of her class, deciding—this with a sigh—that, if it had been practicable to keep a little maid-of-all-work, such a quiet, respectful young person frotn the country wouid have suited her admirably.

The cab stopped at last at the door of an old-fashioned brick house; the last in a row or terrace standing genteelly secluded from the highroad, behind a narrow strip of ground, railed in, and planted with dusty evergreens. The door opened as the cabman shouldered the trunk up the halfdozen steffs leading to it, but no one appeared, and Wynuie, cariying one child and leading the other, had followed Miss Ayden into the narrow cheerless-looking hall before she discovered that the feeble glimmer of light by which they guided themselves into the house proceeded from a candle held hy a female who stood behind the door. This was Miss Bertha Ayden, and she was so very muoh like her sister —even to the spectacles—that it was difficult to know them apa-t. When the cabman had been dismissed, and the outer door shut, another person appeared on the scene—a stout, elderly lady, who would have been comely but for the anxious lines about her mouth, and a habit she had of .starting nervously and glancing to right and left of her, as if she had caught sight of something that filled hor with sudden terror.

Both children, awakening as soon as they were taken into the house, and seeing none but strange ijaces about them, began to cry frantically for' their nurse and the old home they had never before quitted. In vain did Miss Ayden threaten the rod, and Miss Bertha grimly hint that a policeman would have to he called in, while Mrs Ayden tried the effeot of. lumps of sugar ad libitum. Only Wynnie could stem the uurrent of their grief, and prevail with them to eat the food set before them. Their tears broke forth afresh when they were introduced to the very sparsely furnished room they were to occupy. They had slept in b smaller and less airy one at their nurse's; but then it had been familiar; and it was long before Wynnie oould reconciloi them to this one. Some blankets were spread on an old sofa for her own use, and, this done, the Misses Ayden left her, with directions to have the children washed and dressed by eight o'clook iu the morning, that they might have plenty of time for breakfasting before school, which commenced at uine.

It was nearly midnight, and judging by the silence that prevailed Mrs Ayden and her daughters had retired to rest long since, when Wynnie ventured to withdraw her cramped and aching arm from under the head of the younger child. (To bo Continued).