CHAPTER I.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XV, Issue 52, 20 April 1888, Page 5

CHAPT ER I .

MISS CHARLOTTE. " GOOD morning, Mad.im tinouft. Have you any good chicory f" " Cenamiy, M<td<*me B6dere. When did you come back t Are you better ? " "Yes, thank yon, much better. I returned yesterday. And how are you ? You look worried. Is your husband ill 1" " Oh, no ; he seems to grow younger; if it were not lor hit wooden leg he would be always running about." " How is the sick lady you were uneasy about f" " Alas ! she is dead, and lam so anxious about the children ; they are in such difficulties." "Indeed I" " Yes, a relation of Madam Daubry claims her fortune." " What can you mean f Children must be their mother's heixs." '• Oh, but she was not really their mother; she was their father's secoud wife, but she loved them like her own children. Their mother died when I was nursing Miss Charlotte." " Oh, I see. But why did not the step-mother leave her fortune to her children ?" " She did, indeed, but it seems she had some mistake in her will; it is not valid, and a distant relation, ever bo rich himself, trie* to snatch the inheritance from my darlings. He will bring a lawsuit, and the children will lose it. They will be ruined, and I love them as if they were mv own. lam just sending my husband to find out the last news. He is dressing." Then knocking at the wall, she cried, " Are you going to be all day getting ready 1 " " Only a little blow with my comb," answered a strong voice. "and I am ready." " A blow from your comb 1 If Lottie heard you, how she would laugh." " If be misses the next omnibus he will be home so late," she continued ; " now then, is the blow with the comb over 1" "I am coming ; lam coming,' said the voice. And there appeared a tall stout old man in a military cloak, with a Greek cap on his head, enormous white moustashes, and a most good-humoured face. He had just greeted Madame Beclere when she exclaimed : " Here is a visitor." A carriage drew up at the door. "It is she—it is she ? " cried Monsieur and Madam Gnouft together, rustling forward. In to the shop skipped a lorely girl of about twelve years old, with long golden curls falling on her shoulders. " Good-day, my old Pouf," she cried. " Good-day, nurse." " Ob, Miss Charlotte," they said, gazing at her with a look ot idolatry. " Have you brought us good news, my darling ? " asked nurse. "No news at all; we are waiting, and that is why I came. I can't wait patiently. I have teased Jttaoul. I said I would go to the lawyers myself, and at last I told Martha if she would let me have the carriage I would come to see you." Poor Mr. Kaoul and M'ss Martha," said nurse. " Yes, they worry themselves dreadfully. Martha is so wise, I am worth nothing compared to her.'' " Oh, Miss Charlotte 1 " murmured Pouf. " Ob—oh, indeed 1 And who told you not to say Lotte.you detes» table old Pouf ? I wish to be called Lotte." " But I don't know if " " Say Miss Lotte, Pouf," said nurse, laughing. " Oh, very weil, but I can't say Lotte by itself ; it would be a liberty, you are so tall, so tall." " Well, I must be going." " Won't you mount with the coachman, and come to hear the news 1 " " Yes, do, Pouf. I can't rest till I hear," remarked his wife. " What about dinner, wife ? " "For shame, Pouf," cried Charlotte; "have you not always a knife and fork ready at our house ? Come along this minute." So Pouf climbed on the coach-box. Lotte, after embracing her nurse, was shut into the carriage, and off it rolled. The carriage rolled at last into a large court-yard, and Lotte sprang up the stairs and burst into an elegant drawing-room, where she found her sister Martha, a graceful, p nsive-louking girl of six* teen, sitting at her embroidery frame. " Raoul not come in yet? " she cried. " No, Lotie " "Itis a shame to keep him so long. Oh, here he is," as Baoul entered. He was a youth of about nineteen, handsome and distinguished looking, with a great deal of intellect in his face. Lotte seized his hands, " What do the lawyers say ? " "They think we shall lose all." '•' What I—Monsieur Darbault persists in going to law, Baoul T" ' Yes, Martha," said her brother, in a tone of deep dejection, ai be sank into a chair. " He may not succeed." Raoul shook his head. "He would never begin if he were not sure to succeed. A battle between an experienced man of business and three children is too unequal." " We have no luck," cried Lotte, in a fury. " When we were little things a fall at the Exchange ruined us, and now they won't leave us poor dear mamma's fortune. We are

three orphans, and, in books, they always say orphans are pitied. I begin to think nothing happens really as they say in bookB." Baoul walked about the room in an agitated way. " If I had only seen to matters sooner," he said, " before she died ; seen for mynelf that all was right ! "

" I don't thiuk you could," replied Martha, "We are not the natural beirs of dear mamma ; it would have looked grasping of you."

" What matter ? She raid over and over again she would leave all to us. She brought us up in every way to expect it. If her will is not legally made, we bave the moral right on our side." "Of course," said CbarJotte, " but what is the use of talking any more about it ? You two are as dull as two night-oaps. We have not lost yet. Who knowa if we shall lose, after all ? Come along, Baoul, and speak to old Pouf, He has to take word about it all to nurse."