CHAPTER III.—(Continued.)

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 26, 26 October 1883, Page 7

CHAPTER lll.— (Continued.)

Twelve o'clock struck, and the old lady left her room and went down to her son's study. He was there' lying in his chair and gazing into the fire. " Why, Kenneth, do you mean to stay here all night 1 I feared you had fallen asleep on the sofa. ' " Had I been sleepy, I should have gone to bed. I only fell into a fit of thinking, Why are you not in bed yourself, mother V " Because lam anxious for you, my son. You are troubled about something, Kenneth ?" "A little annoyed about this jewel business, dear. It seems to me absurd to suppose the jewels were not. lost in the sea ; but if others think differently, something must be done. I wish this storm were over, so that steps of some kind might be taken in the matter." " When the Btorm is over Priscilla will want to go away,— and we would like her to stay here with us, Kenneth. You and I are fond of her." " Ay, mother, but she will not slay with us ; and, perhaps, the sooner she goes the better. She will marry, and go with her husband." " Her husband ?" " Don't you see that Dalrymple is wooing her ? — and as a man of property he has the first right." -^J " Don't speak so bitterly, my hoy, my poor boy," said Mrs. Craig, as she read in her son's darkened eyes and constrained mouth all the pain and passion he was trying to hide from her. "I do not believe Priscilla cares for money. She speaks to me so cheerfully of going out ' to earn her bread.' " Kenneth gave a short laugh that might as well have been a groan. " She earn her bread I— who would let her earn her bread ? A creature so beautiful and dainty as she is 1" " Girls as prettly as she is, and as delicate, have done it, in spite of all likelihoods. And mind, I tell you, she will do ib sooner than marry one man while liking another better. I know more of women than you do, and Priscilla is of the finest fibre of womankind. Woo her yourself, my son, and Mr. Dalrymple will disappear." " No," said Kenneth ; "he shall do his best, and have every opportunity. She eball be the wife of a man who can give her all the luxuries her delicacy requires. If she can be persuaded into liking him, he shall have her. I will never interfere, to chain her to the stormy rocks of Orra." " But if she should like you best ?"' " That is a fancy of yours, mother. I accidentally witnessed a scene this evening which leads me to believe you are mistaken. However, time will tell us many things. Go to bed now, dear little, old mother 1" When the mother had gone, the son leaned forward on the table, and buried his face in his arms. He loved Priscilla with all the freshness and ardour of a boy and all the strength of a man. His youth had been clouded by care ; by a reverse of fortune he had been early cut off from all the gaieties and pl< asantnesses of life, and had been obliged to fight the world in poverty and obscurity, comforted only by the presence of his mother, who had been his friend and fellow sufferer though bitter years. Young as he still was, he had endured the flatnees and isolation of his days in Orra with patience, seeing that the island was a haven, from which later he might emerge for a fresh, and, perhaps, a successful, encounter with the difficulties which lay in the way of his upward progress in life. Of women he had known few, except his mother ; from her he had gained a high standard of what women ought to be ; and he was inherently of a somewhat romantic and chivalrous nature. Whether he was ever to have a wife, or what his wife was to be like, he had scarcely thought of till he saw Priscilla sitting in the shelter of his fireside. He had since then dreamed' a short dream of keeping this dove in his ark for ever, and thus so enriching his life with leve that he could accept worldly failure with equanimity, or stretch out his hands with more eager courage than before to receive whatever prizes of fortune it might be possible to his future to win. But to-day ho had seen the dark face of the man he himself had introduced into daily intercourse with Priscilla rise between him and the happiness he wag coveting ; and to-night, as he hid his face in grief, in the solitude of his study, and heard the unwearied tempest beating around the walls, it seemed to him as if all life were but a succession of shipwrecks! mercilessly robbing the heart of man, and casting it again and again upon rocks and quicksands of disappointment and pain. " Why," he thought, " why did the sea wash her to my threshold, only that another struggle might be flung in with my lot, that a sorrow hitherto untasted should arise on my very hearthlstone, to cast a yet" .. *JBfer shadow upon my life ?" CHAPTER IV. From this day forth Priscilla's happiness became more and more overclouded. Mr. Dalrymple paid her open attentions, which embarrassed her ; and. as be became fo evidently her suitor, Dr. Kenneth Craig grew more distant, though never less kind in his bearing towards her. As the storm still raged, and it was impossible to go out of doorp, Priscilla's position was sometimes almost intolerable. She was shut up in a house with three other people, all of whom had assumed an attitude towards her which made her life painful to her, and there was no chance of getling out of doors. Sitting on the edgs of her bed in that slant-roofed, thick-walled room of hers, she tried to escape the society of Dalrymple, and the watchful eyes of Mrs. Craig, who took heed of all her changes of colour, her words, her smiles, her distress. Here, also, she tried to think out the problem of her own life, and to lay plans for the future, which wai to dawn with the cessation of the storm. Mrs. Craig, she thought, must have friends outside in the great world, and would probably be good enough to recommend her to some one as a companion. Her foolish fancy that Dr. Craig loved

her had faded quite, away since she had seen how content he was to le&ve her to the company of Mr. Dalrymple. And this being so, she was now as eager for the storm to cease as she had hitherto been glad of its continuance.

In the solitude of this queer little room she also thought and though again of the length of the ulster hanging on tlie wall, and oE the letter "G " on the side of the pocketbook. Hating what she called her own ingratitude to one who had benefited her, and would be glad to -benefit her more, she drew a sort of inexplicable comfort from that vague impression of something being wrong which always come upon her whenever her eyes rested on either of these articles belonging to Mr. Dalrymple. That she was right in. keeping her impressions with regard to them secret she was not at all sure ; and yet she was withheld from sharing her feelings of distrust with any other person by a dread of unjustly, suggesting evil of one who so evidently and persistently took thought for her own welfare. After long reflection on all these matters, she would come slowly down the stairs and take her seat by Mrs. Craig and the household workbasket, within which she_was 6ure of finding occupation for her eyes and fingers. Often she would find Mr. Dalrymple reading aloud to Mrs. Craig, while Kenneth sat in self-imposed exile in his study. Priscilla's heightened colour, as she took her seat and replied to words addressed to her by Dalrymple, did not escape the vigilant old lady, who sighed as she thought of her son, and blamed the girl, saying to herself that, in spite of her apparent.simplicity Miss Emerson was attracted by the man who could boast. of his wealth. It did not occur to her that Priscilla coloured because Mr. Dalrymple was especially disagreeable to her, and made her feel unhappy and ill at ease. But Priscilla, with truer instinct, saw straight into the eldeT woman's mind and suffered in silence from her judgment. One day Priscilla, Mrs. Craig, and Mr. Dalrymple ,were sitting at a table near the fire in the drawing-room, the ladies working, as usual, the gentleman reading aloud. Mr. Dalrymple read sentimental poetry with effect, and Mrs. Craig noticed, how. he emphasied certain passages, with glances at the girl, whose face was bent over her sswing. t'riscilla felt his thoughts and the thougnts of her hostess pressing upon her, making her cheeks burn and her will rebel, and unable to bear it any longer, she threw herself back -in her seat and shaded her face with her hand. The reading came to an end, and Mr Dalrymple rose and walked across the floor to the window. Pris^illa gianced after him idly, her heart swelling with vexation, when suddenly the idea often in her. mind, came across her thoughts, and something said to her : " How very short he is to wear that ulster 1 "

Mrs. Craig's eyes were upon her, noting her disturbance, and it was almost without reflection that she said at last, merely to say something and break the unpleasant silence : " Mr. Dalrymple, lam wondering how did you ever wear that lengthy ulster ?" Dalrymple started, and his dark face became darker and paler than usual, but he passed bis hand over his smooth hair and smiled. *' Is it very long ? Does it look long ? Perhaps the wetting may have stretched it." " Wetting shrinks things,,' said Priscilla, shortly. " Ah, so it does. And you think my ulster looks too long for me ?" "If you saw it hanging from a peg on the wall of my room, you would think so too," said Priscilla.

" Well, to tell you the truth," said Dalrymple, after a pause, during which Mrs. Craig was regarding Priscilla with surprise, " I should not wondes if it wa3 not my ulster at all. There was a tall manbeside cue, and we threw our ulsters to one side a few moments before we put mine— what I thought was mme — upon you. It might have been his."

" Then in that case, nothing belonging to you could possibly have got into the pocket?' said Priscilla.

Dalrymple looked at her with a strange look, and then said smiling, with an indulgent air : " Miss Emerson is pleased to be mysteiious to-day."'

" Ob, n o," said Priscill, " I was only thinking " ; and then she began to consult earnestly with Mrs. Craig upon some questions as to the work she was engaged on.

After a short time, daring which he stood wrapt in reflecton at the window, Mr. Dalrymple left the drowing-room. Immediately afterward Priscilla had occasion to run up to her bedroom for some trifle, and went lightly along the lobby to her own door. The door was ajar, and she pushed it opsn a little farther. It happened to make no noise and neither did she ; though it was with great difficulty she repressed an exclamation as Bhe beheld Mr. Dalrymple in her room. He was standing, with a frown on his face, before the long ulster which hung from a peg on the wall, and his hand was in a pocket ©f the garment. So intent was he upon what he was doing that he never turned his head ; and after one amazed glance into the chamber, Priscilla retreated as quietly as she had come. Returning down stairs, she reflected, with satisfaction, that the pocketbook bearing the name " G. Dalrymple" lay safely at the bottom of one of her drawers, and that the key of the drawer was in her keeping. She sat down in her place by Mrs. Craig, and went on with her work, but her fingers were trembling, and her heart was flying so that she could scarcely breathe. What urgent desire had that man to know if there was anything in the pocket of that ulster ? What necessity so pressing that he would transgress all propriety in his eagerness to sitisfy his mind ? The sight of him standing in hei chamber with his hand in the pocket of that thing on the wall, which had become so odious to her, had suddenly increased her distrust and dislike of the man to something that felt like a mingling of terror and hatred. Mrs. Craig saysr her agitation, and, unable to control her curiosity any longer, said : "My desr, I suppose it is all settled between you and Mr. Dalrymple?"

Priscilla looked up and smiled. Here was the opening she had longed for. " Oh, yes," she said brightly ; " quite settled.' The old lady changed countenance. She had not expected to hear that things had gone at quite so quick a pace. " Indeed," she said, a little stiffly ; " allow me to congratulate yon, — when are you to be married ?"

(To be continued.')