PRISCILLA'S JEWELS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 25, 19 October 1883, Page 7

PRISCILLA'S JEWELS.

(By Rosa Mulholland, in the Irish Monthly.') CHAPTER lll.— (Continved.) " Mary," said Priscilla, coming beside her, and putting her hand on the weeping girls's shoulder, " promise you will not be angry with me if I speak to you of something that is in my mind." " I could na be angry with you, Miss j you that ha' always stood up for Duncan." " Wbisper, Mary, do you think it is possible — might not Duncan have thought me dead, and have been afraid to tell you. and be in trouble now, and not know what to do for fear of all the world knowing it ? He might have done it without meaning wrong." Mary groaned and wrung her bands. " On, Miss Emeraon, I've been on my knees to him to tell me true. I knew it would be a temptation to a man, and him longin 'to go to Australia and buy a farm, and take me wi' him. But I thought the look in hia eyes would ha' killed me. ' You to doubt me, Mary 1 ' he said. ' Then the police may take me when they like.' " "It is dreadful to doubt him, Mary, dreadful ; but will you promise to try him again and say to him what I am going to tell you 1 If he knows where the jewels are, he shall have a share of them, and nobody shall be told that they are found. If may be that fear of disgrace, even in your eyes and mine, is holding him back. We would freely forgive him^ both of us ; and you and he might be in Australia." ™ " Ah, no, lady ! " said Mary, proudly, "we never could be happy ' again, once that had happened to us. If Duncan did that deed, Mary has only got to die." Priscilla put her arm around Mary's neck and kissed her. At this moment the handle of the door was heard to turn, and Mary, being to proud to endure to be caught weeping, instantly turned and fled out by another door leading away farther into the back premises. The person who entered from the hall was D,drymple, who hesitated when he saw Miss Emerson, and stood holding a neck-scarf in his hand. " Can I do anything for you, Mr. Dairy mple ?" said Priscilla. " Thank you greatly. I thought of asking Mary to iron this scarf forme. lam obliged to Dr. Craig for it, as for everything else at present, and it is too large. I have folded it so, smaller, and the iron would make it all right." " I will do it with pleasure," said Priscilla, taking it from him and placing it on the ironing-board. " I am quite ashamed to trouble you." " I ewe you more than a slight service like this, Mr. Dalrymple," said Priscilla, cheerfully, and proceeded of accomplish her task. The man leaned against the wall by the stove and watched her and, as he did so, her beauty appealed to him more forcibly than it, had over done before. The dimpled arms, the delicate pink cheeks, the large gray eyes and burnished hair all went to make up a picture which naturally charmed him. In truth, Priscilla was irresistibly pretty, and her trim light-blue frock and large white apron were extremely becoming to her. Mr Dalrymple had already made up his mind that she was a treasure not to be lost, and that he would ma r ry her ; and yet all the while Priscilla was daintily touching the scarf entrusted to her with tender fingers, not for the sake of the man whom she was actually serving, but because the bit of silk belonged to Kenneth. Yes; why should he not marry her ? thought Dalrymple. Poor as she was, friendless and penniless, it was not very likely she wonld refuse him. A gust of wind shook the windows. " Miss Emerson ," said Dalrymple, " do you not grow tired of this storm ? Do you not wi -h it over ? " Priscilla's face grew a little pinker, and she said, readily, " No." " I wonder da you, like me, dread the break-up of our little circle here?" " Why, yes," said Priscilla, folding her last pleat in the tie, and leaning the iron upon it heavily. " I have enjoyed the existing state of things very much. And when it is over " " We shall all probably part and meet no more." "Nothing more likely," said Priscilla. " Miss Emerson — Priscilla — why should we all— why should you and I part ? The sea has strangely given us back to life — us two alone out of a whole shipful. Why should we not agree to spend our lives together ?" Priscilla started and grew a little paler. She had not expected this. A seared expression was in the glance she hurriedly cast at the dark face that bad bent towards her. Instinctively and unreasonably she was a little afraid of Dalrymple. " I have enough means ; what you would perhaps think wealth. 1 'jajynve you a pleasant life, and the protection and companionship • l^ 61 WBPbd. You do not answer me, Priscilla ?" Toor Priscilla, in her consternation, was thinking how bard it was that she should have to refuse this man who at the moment of peril had thought of her, and given her his ulster. But she held Kenneth's silken scarf in her hands, and Bhe thought of him a3 she said, " 1 am so sorry, Mr. Dalrymple, so very, very sorry." " You mean that you can not take me for your husband ?" " That is what I mean," said hanging her hu.ad, and j feeling quite unnecessarilly ashamed of herself. " I have startled you with my haste,' said Dalrymple ; but at a time like this one lives a month in every day. I love you as I never loved a woman before. I have led a lonely, wandering life, and have known few ladies. Dark half-savage women have been the only representatives of their sex I have beheld for many years. Imagine, then, how I have been effected by daily intercourse with Mips Emerson." The more he spoke the less Priscilla liked him, and yet the more did she feel dismayed that she was bound to grieve the man who had lent her his ulster. Bed and pale by turns, she raised

her head, and was about to speak, wheu the door opened again and Kenneth Craig appeared in the doorway. "Oh I" said, he, looking from one to the other, "I beg your pardon," and immediately closed the door. ,' Mr. Dalrymple, here is your scarf," said Priscilla, trying to swallow her mortification, " pray forget all you have said. I fear you will think me ungrateful ; but I can not marry you. "I will not take your answer now," said Dalrymple, trying to detain the hand that gave him back the scarf ; but Priscilla withdrew it quickly and hurried from the room. She fled up the short, broad, oaken stair into the room that was hers for the time — a low-roofed chamber, with little windows, set deep in walls of extraordinary thickness. The floor was bare, nicely scoured boards,' with only a strip of carpet at the bedside. So scant was the furniture that the place might have looked dreary and empty, only for the sloping sides of the roof, which formed an alcove for the "bed, and gave an air of cosiness and quaintness to the apartment. Priscilla had learned to love this simple lodging, and to associate with her it idea of home and love. She sat down upon the bed and reflected on what had just been said to her. could she bear to go away with Dalrymple, and be rich with him and lead a gay life ; turn her back on this old house, this storm-girt nest where she was sheltered and at peace 1 She would rather stay here rocked by the storm"; but, then unless Kenneth loved her, how could' she dare stay here 1 And was it likely that both these men loved her ? She wsa a simple girl and, no great beauty, and she had not a rag nor a penny of her ownJ v? Her schoolmistress had always impressed on her scholars that orilyln story-books have girls a number of lovers at once. The love of one man was as much as any maiden had a right to expect in her life ; and if she was a wise girl she would try and make her" happiness out of that love, if it were good. Priscilla called up all the maxims of the wise woman who had educated her ; and yet as she paced about the floor, her little hands locked behind her back, unconsciously noting the cracks in the boards, and asking questions of all the knots in the wood of the walls, she was obliged to acknowledge to herself that all the good advice she had received had been thrown away upon her. She could not let her thoughts rest upon Mr. Dalrymple. She knew that it would be far easier to go away into the world and battle for herself, as so many girls do, alone, than to follow into pleasanter paths the man who had just asked her to be bis wife. She owned herself a perverse woman, as she sat down once more on the side of her bed, and folded her hands despondently in her lap. The man had been so kind to her on board the ship. Her eyes wandered to the spot of wall on which hung, from a high peg, the long, lank ulster which had, probably, a good deal to do with the saving of her life. How long it looked hanging there on the white wall 1 Yes, was very long ; it looked longer than Mr. Dalrymple. Could it 03 that the soaking it had gjt with salt water had lengthened it it out like that 7 But no ;if wetting had any effect on the size of a garment it must be to shrink, instead of to increase its size. A sensation of wonder took possession of Priscilla, and she got up and walked across the room to the ulster and touched it. Then she took it down from the wall, and measured its length from her own neck. It seemed to her the ulster was twice as long as she was. No, not twice as long, but what one would say rashly was twice as long, and she hersslf was not low in size for a woman. The feeling of wonder increased in her as she thought of Mr. Dalrymple walking about in this lengthy garment. He could not do it, she said to herself. He was not much taller than she was. Just then her hand struck against something hard, which seemed to be in the pocket of the ulster, and she put her hand into the deep pocket, and drew out a little clasped pocketbook. It had been soaked with water, but was now almost dry again. On the side of the leather cover, in small gilt letters, was the name, " G. Dalrymple." Here a knock at the door disturbed Priscilla, and she threw the u'.ster across a chair, and the book on the bed, and went to the door. A servant was outside the door who handed her a tiny note, saying Mr. Dalrymple had desired her to give it to Miss Emerson. Closing the door again, and retreating once more to her seat on the bed, she opened the missive, which contained only a few words : — " Forgive me for having startled you, and try to think of me kindly. I wish to make you happy. Allow me to hope I may yet do so " H Dalbymple." Piiscilla shook her head and bit her lips with vexation, as she began to tear the note in little pieces ; and as she did so, her eyes fell upon the name on the pocketbook, and then on that appended to the note. Where O. and H. Dalrymple one and the same man 1 Again she felt a shock of supprise, such as she felt on noticing the length of the ulster. And yet what could auch trifles mean 1 The difference of an initial, the length of coat. Priscilla again bit erly reproached herself for the distrust of this man which was rapidly gaining upon her — this man who had already benefited her, and who bud declared himself so anxious to make her happy. However, she now felt a reluctance, which she could not overcome, to the idea of returning the pocketbook at once to Mr. Dalrymple, though only a few minutes ago it had been her intention to do so without delay. Lying there with G. Dalrymple printed upon it, it seemed to beloDg to some other man, and she said to herself that for a little time, at least, she would keep it by her. Of course he must not leave the island without it, — and equally of course she must not open it, — but she conld not bring herself to part with it a* yet. Remembering that be had told her his property was safe, she felt the less scruple in withholding this small book for a day or two, as it could hardly contain money to any important amount. That night good old Mrs. Craig listened, as she was in the habit of doing for her son's footstep passing her door to his own room, and not hearing it, became uneasy. She had noticed that during the last few days he seemed to hava some anxiety on his mind, and she could hardly believe that it was altogether on account of Duncan and Mary. Her mother,s heart had divined that her son loved Piiscilla, and she desired with all her soul that he should not be disappointed.