CHAPTER XIV— continued.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 310, 28 March 1879, Page 5

CHAPTER XIV— continued.

At length Mrs. Barton rose, and taking some books that were lying on the altar, the placed them in Maude's hand, and walked quietly out of the room. They were books of Catholic devotion, bearing evident marks of long and freqtient use, and Maude, on opening them, found her mother's name inscribed in each, in writing fast turning yellow with age. Convulsively the young girl pressed them to her lips and heart, hardly able to realise her happiness in possessing them, when fi pound outside the room warned her that a servant was about to enter with the breakfast, and she replaced her treasures on the altar, drew back the curtain, and resumed her seat. The moment after Mills bustled in, smiling all over with the pleasure of unexpectedly encountering bis young mistress; and Maude, as she stirred the fire into a blaze, and sat down before it to await the rest of the breakfast party, looked round the room for the first time. Jt seemed, she thought, to icalisc to her mind all that the boudoir of an idolised wife would be. As the soft firelight flickered and reflected itself in a hundred angles of the polished grate, in the broad mirrors, and among the silver and china of the breakfast-table, and as a soft perfume was wafted from the flowers with which the skilful hand of O'Keefe had adorned every corner where the flowers would grow, it seemed impossible to connect such a spot with a form long since mouldering in the grave. The whole apartment, on the contrary, looked so redolent with life, that the form of her mother seemed to preside there from her picture once again, endowed with all the faculties of living, moving, breathing existence. The breakfast-party only consisted of Maude, the two old gentlemen, and Harry ; for Fanny, tired out with her unwonted exertions, and further incapacitated by a bad headache, had signified her intention of keeping her room till noon. As soon as breakfast was over, Professor Broadview, who had promised to take the chair at a committee to be held at Dublin, prepared for his depart&re. Mr. Neville had already offered him the use of his carriage to drive to the station, but he now offered himself too, seeing that it was a lovely morning, and they frhould have plenty of time to take a certain ruin, or rather heap of stones, by the way, that had long been a standing puzzle to antiquarians. Harry obtained leave to accompany them on bis pony, and the party soon started in high glee, leaving Maude to keep her own company and dream of her mother.