BEGINNING ALONE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VII, Issue 9, 28 February 1891, Page 18

BEGINNING ALONE.

In Eight Chapters.—Chapter V. A WHITE GOWN. pleasant autumn weather came and went, I taking Miss Ruth away with it. After the \[ ‘coalition,’ —as Walter called the friendj /,. ship between Miss Wharton and Mr CoineW lius which was the result of her visit to the Littleton celebration, —the pressure brought to bear on Mr Wharton was more than he could resist, and Nellie found herself slipping unobtrusively into one college exercise after another, much aideil thereto by the creditable manner in which she had passed the earlier examinations. Her skill in household matteis now stood her in good stead, for things went so smoothly that duties at home did not greatly interrupt hei studies. Reginald and Elizabeth’s affairs were reduced to a system ; every morning they went to school, and each afternoon hail its separate occupation. They weie always dainty and whole in apparel and clean of face —the wonder and envy of the matrons of Dulwich. • Soap and system,’ said Walter, ‘ will be the ruin of those children.’ But Walter had verv little time to counteract the bad effects of either ; it was for him the gayest and busiest season of the year. The crowning event of Dulwich society —so the Wilmer Hall boys thought—was the celebration of the biithday of Lord Wilmer, who, at the solicitation of an active and aggressive old pioneer bishop, had given the funds to found the institution seventy five years before. ‘ Founder’s Day,’ as it was called, was generally celebrated by athletic contests between the college and ‘ Hall ’ boys, and in the evening a party was always given at the Hall, known derisively among the students as the ‘ Babies’ Ball.’ Walter had persuaded his father to allow Nellie to lie present at this festivity, although he was not pleased to have the concession made on the score that it was, after all, ‘ only a children’s gathering.’ ‘ It has been a splendid day,’ said Walter, as he and Nellie walked up to the Hall together that evening, ‘ and the colleye fellows are nowhere ! Would you believe they tried to steal the cake this afternoon while we were all down at the parade? There’s nothing a student won’t stoop to! Why, we’ve had to detail men from the sixth form to watch tie refreshments all the evening ! Each man gives up one quadrille.’ ‘ When is your watch ?’ ‘ The seventh quadrille, just before supper.’ Every one was theie when Nellie and Walter arrived, but the dancing had not begun. The hall was full of the pretty girls whom young Mrs Smith, the wife of the preceptor, always managed to gather at her ball, and as she was prettier than any of them, the boys adored her. Nellie found her programme rapidly filling up, to her surprise, for she knew but few of Walter's schoolfellows. She was, however, found of dancing, and was a good partner, and soon was enjoying heartily every moment of the time, though she had accompanied Walter with some reluctance after six months of quiet and seclusion. ‘ O, Walter,’ she whispered, toward the middle of the evening, ‘ what shall I do ? That dreadful little Brown has asked me to dance !’ ‘Come downstairs with me,’answered Walter. ‘He’ll never think of looking for you there. It is my watch now.’ John Tyler, Walter’s chum, was not sorry to be freed from the charge of those six depiessing, blanketed freezers, for, in spite of the cheerful music overhead, there was something decidedly uncanny in the half-lighted cellar, whose unhinged doors left yawning spaces opening into appalling blackness beyond. ‘ Step back from the wall where you can’t be seen from the window,’ said Walter.

‘ It is too absurd !’ exclaimed Nellie, obeying his suggestion. ‘ How I should feel to be caught down liere, watching these ridiculous freezers !'

At that minute two short whistles, following each other in quick succession, sounded from some place near at hand. ‘ Haik !’ said Walter. ‘ That is the danger signal of the fellows who are watching the cake in the dining-room ! Why doesn’t the relief answer?’ Tire signal was repeated, but the ‘ relief ’ had apparently

been struclCwith deafness, for there was no reply. Walter began to walk restlessly to and fro at the foot of the stairs. ‘ Why don't they answer?’ he repeated, nervously. ‘ Perhaps it is a false alarm,’ said Nellie. ‘lt can’t be. No one knows the signal. Nellie,’ —he stepped in front of her— ‘ would you mind waiting here while I run to the top of the stairs ?’ Now in the Hall cellars there lived a harmless ghost—the ghost of Nancy Baumkillar, an old cook. No one believed in her, and in broad daylight every boy in the school scoffed at her openly ; but at night—that was another thing. ‘ldo believe you aie afraid of old Nancy!’ exclaimed Walter, seeing Nellie hesitate. ‘ I am not!’ she cried, indignantly. ‘ But the servants are all upstairs looking at the dancing, and—’ Again the four whistles sounded. ‘ Nellie, I must go !’ said Walter. ‘lt is a question of honour.’ This made Nellie laugh, and taking consent for granted, he ran off. No sooner were his quick steps heard on the stairs than a strange thing appealed. Through the high, small, square window two long legs were thrust, and a boy’s form appeared making its way in backwards. Nellie understood at once. The signals had been counterfeited, and, unaware of her presence, the students were trying to steal the ice-cream. All the absurdity of being caught guarding the ‘ Babies’ ’ supper rushed over her, and before the long-legged figure could reach the floor she had slipped through one of the open doors into the dark cellars behind her. Holding her dress well away from the wall, she peeped out around the jamb. • Oh,’ thought Nellie, ‘can I let him go off with all Walter’s cream? How the poor boy’s “honour ” will suffer !' Softly she tried to cross in the darkness to another door somewhat nearer the entrance, having a faint hope of gaining the stairs without being seen ; but her crisp white dress would rustle in spite of all her efforts. The student, whom Nellie recognised as one of the Sophomores, stopped and looked around. Just, then Nellie stepped upon a loose bit of kindling wood, which broke with a sharp crackle, and threw her forward into what of all

things she detested —a spider’s web ! Frantically starting and waving her hands to break the strands, she forgot all caution until an exclamation of alarm brought her to a sudden standstill. There stood the Sophomore, staring at the dim white figure that was gliding about in the black cellar, his teeth fairly chattel ing with terror. ‘ Nancy !’ he cried, in a hoarse half shriek, and jumping wildly, he caught at the sill, drew himself up, and crawled out of the window. At that moment Walter rushed in, accompanied by John Tyler. ‘lt was a false alarm ! Have they been here? Where is Nellie? If they have frightened Nellie I will break every bone in the Sophomore class !’ A boy on guard is a tenible creature, and Walter was wild with excitement.' ‘ Nellie !’ he began to call. ‘ Do hush !’ whispered Nellie, appearing circumspectly. ‘I am not Nellie. I am old Nancy, and if anyone happens to hear anything else I shall never forgive either of you !’ Accompanied and encouraged by rapturous applause, she told the tale of the discomfited Sophomore. ‘ What sort of a looking fellow was it ?’ asked Walter, as they walked home after the party. ‘ I know who it was, although I don’t know his name,’ said Nellie. ‘ That good-looking one, who sings at the end of the basses in the choir—the tall one with brown eyes.’ ‘ That must have been Girton ! Girls will call anybody good looking,’ said Walter, scornfully, ‘if he only has brown eyes, and there is enough of him !’ But Nellie bore this aspersion with dignified indifference.

A few evenings later Walter came home to tea looking wonderfully mysteiious, and when the little ones were safely in bed, he drew Nellie to his own room. • The college fellows are going to have a trial to-night,’ he whispered. ‘ “ Warner against Girton,” and I’m to besubpoenaed as a witness.’ ‘ What is it about?’ asked Nellie, indifferently. ‘ I thought I might as well tell you. It’sabout the ghost.’ ‘ Oh, how annoying !’ ‘ You see, the college fellows have been making life hideous for Girton, and this morning he struck Warner for calling him a coward. Warner says that he saw the bottom of a girl’s dress in that cellar. The window is placed in such a way that he could see her only from the waist down, and he was uncertain as to whether it could be anybody at all in that dim light; but since Girton’s fright he says be is sure, and that she wore black ribbons.’ ‘ O, Walter,’ cried poor Nellie, ‘they are not going to bring me into a thing like that?’ ‘ I’d like to see them dare to mention you if I am there,’ answered Walter, hotly. ‘ I shall slip oft’ quietly about seven, and you needn’t tell father where I have gone. He might be anxious; besides, the fellows want to keep it private. ’ About seven -o’clock mysterious whistles began to be heard, and the tread of feet, all moving in one direction down the middle path. The evening was warm, and Nellie and Walter were sitting on the verandah. Suddenly a hollow sound filled the air. Some one was using a speakingtrumpet. ‘ Oyez, oyez, Walter Wharton, come into court !’ sounded all over Dulwich. ‘ I must go,’ said Walter, starting oft'. ‘ They are taking singular precautions about keeping it private,’ Nellie called after him ; but he was already running toward the basement of the old college chapel, where the meeting was to be held. Nellie waited ; the time seemed interminably long ! Theliglits from the chapel streamed toward her, glancing against the trunks of the oak-trees, and occasionally a great burst of laughter told of some happy hit. Walter, in the meantime, had gone to the trial full of interest and excitement. The judge, a big fellow, sat in a high, ecclesiastical-looking chair on a small platform at the side of the room, which formerly had been used as a chapel. In front of him stood a small reading-desk, and the old pews remained as seats for the audience. The defendant had been p'aced on a kitchen chair in the midst of a large crate, called the ‘ prisoner’s box.’ He was sui rounded by policemen holding enormous clubs. A similar box was provided for the witnesses. The jury was ‘ packed ;’ in other woids, all twelve jurymen were crowded into one pew of the ordinary dimensions for six persons. This was a delicate witticism on the pait of the judge, who stoutly refused to accommodate them with two seats. In the case before the court, that of Warner against Girton, the question seemed to be whether Warner was justified in calling Girton a coward. ‘ If my client really saw the frightful apparition,’ said Crete, Girton’s lawyer, ‘ winch, I have no doubt in my mind he did see, then who of us can blame or censure his hasty and terror-stricken flight ? Before a spectacle so appalling the bravest have been known to quail. Saul before Samuel; Brutus before Cresar ; Hamlet, prince and courteous soldier, quaked in the presence of his own father ; and when the heavy tread of the commandant thrills with terror the guilty heart of Don Giovanni—’ ‘ Hear ! Hear !’ cried Warner’s lawyer ; and the listeners began to laugh, while the judge pounded furiously and declared he would clear the court if proper decorum were not observed. * Walter found it all delightful. Several witnesses were called and cross-examined, the lawyers interpreting the process literally and questioning them with every possible demonstration of rage ; but no proof was forthcoming as to the ghost. At last Warner himself testified to having seen through the window a girl’s dress, from about the waist down. ‘ What was between you and her face ?’ asked Crete. ‘ The cellar wall.’ ‘ Why, how is that ?’ ‘ The windows up there slope in such a way that you cannot see the head of a person standing a little way from the further wall, if you look in from outside.’ ‘ It was one of the servants, I suppose.’ ‘ It most emphatically was not,’ said Warner. ‘ The feet were fine and delicate and handsomely shod, and the hands small and white.’ No amount of cross-examination could make Warner swerve from his statement, and he was sent down. Then Walter Wharton was summoned to the stand. ‘ Were you on guard in the cellar of Wilmer Hall ?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘ Give the name of the young lady who was there with you.’ * Nonsense 1’ said Walter. ‘ Who has proved that there was any young lady with me ?’ ‘ Was there a young lady with you ?’ asked the judge. ‘ You have no business to put such a question,’ sputtered Walter. ‘ Gentlemen don’t bring young ladies into affairs of this kind.’ ‘ Young man,’ said the judge, ‘ what you say sounds remarkably like contempt of court.’ ‘ Does it ?’ said Walter, with nonchalance. ‘ You had better give the name at once or I shall be obliged to commit you.’ Walter seemed interested in the ceiling. ‘ Young man,’said the judge, ‘do you know what contempt of court means ?’ ‘ No,’ said Walter, ‘ I only know how it feels.’ At this theie was a tumult of laughter, cheers, and hisses. ‘ Sheriff,’said the judge, ‘commit Mr Walter Wharton to the coal-hole for contempt of court.’ Walter knew the ‘ coal-hole ’ better than his judge did. It opened up into the large chapel overhead by a small, square trap door in the floor. The upper room was seldom used in winter, and then was heated by wood ; the janitor had cut a hole in the floor at the back of the great stove, and was in the habit of handing up the fuel through this opening instead of carrying it around by the stairs and door. Consigned to this dungeon, Walter mounted the woodpile and managed to piise back the trap-door and then climbed through. The large fiont doors of the chapel were usually closed, and the windows were not only high but

heavy and difficult to open. The gallery, however, was entered by two flights of stairs which opened without, directly upon the portico of the building. The doors at the foot of these staircases were often forgotten and left unlocked. Walter determined to climb one of the gallery pillars and go down the outside way ; but hearing the constable moving about on the chapel portico, he concluded to wait until it was quieter, for fear of being recaptured and consigned to a safer prison. The large windows of the chapel had no blinds and were glazed with hundreds of panes of glass ; but the Virginia creeper that covered the outside of the building draped them with its graceful tendrils, and through the leaves of the vine the moon was shining, casting a delicate tracery over the floor. Walter settled himself back in one of the heavy oaken pews, and stared about. There was something eerie and solemn in the old building even in the daylight, and at night, in the loneliness and moonlight, it was' even impressive. Walter was not sentimental, nor was he nervous except under extraordinary provocation ; so, after arranging some cushions to suit his back, and mentally commenting a little on the ‘ grim old codger ’ whose profile ornamented the mural tablet back of the chancel, he fell asleep. While Nellie vainly waited his coming he was dreaming sweetly that Bishop Hunter was going to toast him on a fork for not telling who was with him in the hall cellars. He woke suddenly. The fork turned out to be the carved head of the pew, and the moon had moved from all the windows. Now Crosse Chapel filled with moonlight was very different from Crosse Chapel when filled with gloom ! Walter leaped to his feet, rushed down the aisle and clambered up to the gallery in breathless haste. He had done it too often to find much difficulty or to lose his way in the dark. Fumbhngdown the outside staircase, he tried the door. For once in his life Dick, the janitor, had locked it! Walter went back and came down the other side ; that door, too, was fast. Dismayed, he slid down again into the body of the chapel, and felt his w'ay to the trap door, through which he descended. Then he'tried the door of the cellar that led to the * court-room.’ That, too, was locked, and there were no windows in that part of the basement. Scrambling back, he began trying the large windows of the upper chapel, one after the other, but they were all very high from the ground and had, moreover, been nailed down tight before the summer vacation, during which the building was closed, and since that time had not been unfastened. They were not to be stirred, and there was no way out. Mary Tappan Wright. (TO BE CONTINUED.)