GOLD AND GLITTER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 22, 27 February 1891, Page 21

GOLD AND GLITTER.

(By Victor O'D. Power, author of " Bonnie Dunraven," " Anasmore," " Sister Angela's Story," etc. ( Concluded.) •' Well, my dear," Mrs. Bellew said to her younger daughter when they had retired to the drawing room, " what do you think of Mr. Roberts ?" •'He is rather nice looking, but rather a bore, isn't he ?" was Constance 'B reply, as ehe sack into an arm chair by the fire, holding a crimson fire-screen before her fair face. " A bore ? " repeated Mary, who had, for once come to the drawing room with her mother and sister. " How can you Bay so Constance? Why, he seems to me to be the nicest fellow lever met ! " Mary spoke in all ingen uousness. She did not even change colour a 8 she gave her unqualified opinion of their guest. " Well, you know, Mary," Mrs. Bellew said. " it is very hard to please Constance, it is not every young man, I can tell you, who can come up to her standard . Still Constance darling," added the mother, " I really think Mr. Roberts is a rice, gentlemanly young fellow. He is rather shy, perhaps, and was not exactly prepared, I faucy, for all the spukling lutl.- things you said during dinner." Now, th s was not irony, remember. It was sai iin all good faith. Mis. Bdlew's prejudices in f.ivour of Constance so blinded her that she actually believed her y unger daughter had intellectually Hjop j il young Roberta in the dining-room, Wuen the gentlemen cam.! in by aud bye, music was at once introduced, and Co Bt.mci glided to the. pi mo. she selected a very mo iern Hong, the words of which were, needless to say, absolutely meaningless ; but the air *as showy and rather pretty, and had the distinctive advantage of carrying toe voice to B above the Hue in the last verso. Constance took this note with a kmd of frenzied shriek, and Mary coloured a, little as she lis ened ; for her keenly-musical ear was & imewhat shocked, and 6he glanced involuutanly at Frank Rob^rt-i in order to see whit his countenance expressed. Ttieir eyes mst. Youn^ Roberts cj.oured a little on his pare, and smiled. "Your sister has a very powerful voice,'" he said ; foe he felt called upon to say fcomething. Mrs. Bellew oveihead the words, and turning to her husband murmuicd triumphantly : ' Mr. Robert-, is delighted wilh Constance's voice. He siys it is the most powerful vuicj he over heard." When some visitors called next day Mrs. Bellew informed them that young Roberts had dine 1 at Bellew House and had been charmed wit.. Constance an 1 her sinking. ■' He eaii it was as powerful as Titiens" voice,' said Mrs. Bellew. And when the visrora weat home they informed their own astonished circle that Mr. Roberts, the young engineer, had stated that Constance Bjllhw saog bjtter than Madame Titiena 1 And so. in due time, the names of Consta-ice Bellew and young Roberts were c osely linked togetner in the neighbourhood and, mcl ed, with very good reasjn ; for Roberts was a frequent looker in at Bellew House. TTr> p-mic nnw nnitp infnrma'lv fur hp had rpppivorl a oronpril in. vitation to the Bellew's small circle. Sometimes the two girls and himself went for a walk together. " It would n )t be the thing, you know, ray dear," Mrs. Bellew sud tjher hiiibuid, "thu Consiaace should accompany Mr. Rjbartd 1 ah by hers; ff — ju.st yet." S > a small revolution took place in Mary's qu co life, and she was compelled to ldy a^ide her apron an I put on tier naw gown and jacket neatly every day, in order io join her sister and her sister's lover in these walks. Aud htile by little, Mary Belles became more an! more at home with >ouiL, r liober *, aivt eha ie i an 1 laughed in her own bright, winning w,ij ; aud as tne bweet gi,n eyes kindled, and the goodnatured uiouth wa^> wreathed in smiles, ana a new light — <» strange light, an oi the outer alioction oi inner happiness— beamed over the

'features, that plain face looked almost beautiful at times; or, in truth, it seemed, in Frank Robert's eyes. Sometimes, as the three walked along the country roads, one of Mary's poor pensioners would pa9s, with a friendly smile and a sweet greeting. And Mary always smiled back and said a kindly word or two, greatly to Constance's indignation. "I am always telling Mary that she is lowering herself unnecessarily, "' Constance said to her lover one day. " /never notice ■uch people, Mr. Roberts ; but as for Mary— she makes herself quite at home with them ? " It was not often that Constance suffered herself to talk with such animation as this. As a rule, she adopted the languid "Pc Bray " air, which her mother assured her was the characteristic tone of the best society. Frank Roberts, however, did not appear to sympathise with the spirit of Constance's rebuke. He was to dine that evening at Bellew Housa ; and during the inanvais quart d'Jieure before dinner, it so happened that Mary — her work over — came into the drawing room, and seating herself at the piano, began to sing, in her usual sympathetic, unaffected way a strangely touching old ballad. Her rich low contralto voice vibrated and throbbed with music ; every note came from her heart. She believed herself to be alone in the room, but Frank Roberts had stolen in quietly behind her, and was listening with rapt attention. When she had come to the last note of the last verse Roberts hurriedly drew -»ear and placed his hand impulsively on her shoulder. " Miss Bellew— Mary I That is singing. I was never so touched in my life before I' Mary coloured to the temples and halt rose from the piano stool ; but by this time Frank Robertß had taken possession of her hand. " Mary, do not leave me I Do not be annoyed with me ! Thank heaven, we have this moment together, without your sister at hand. Mary, you have won my heart I Henceforth, my life is so wound np in you, that if I lose you now I honestly feel I shall lose all human interest in existence I" The girl started violently ; the warm colour fled from her cheeks, leaving her very lips white. " I— l thought," she gasped weakly ; " we all thought that — that it was Constance I" " Constance?" he echoed, and an involuntary frown contracted his brows. " How could you, Mary, every suppose, for a moment, that I could love such a girl as yonr sister ? I say ' you,' because the very first evening I met you I felt tbat we were in sympathy— you and I. It was for your sake I came again and again to this house ; you alone attracted me. I observed how you were kept in the background, your noble qualities never touched on, your beautiful, soulful voice utterly silenced, for it is by the merest chance tbat I ha/c heard you sing now at last. Mary, I know your true worth, and I ask you to come to the heart which can love and appreciate you as you deserve. What do jou say ? For a moment the girl hesitated, while, in spite of her, the happy tearß strolled from her downcast eyes. Then Bhe silently placed her other band in his, and at that instant thedoor opened, aud (Jonstauc j arrayed in creamy silk and diaphanous lace, glided into the ro mi, She paused thunderstruck. She almost gasped for breath. CjuM she believe the evidence of her eyes ? An awkward little silence followed, and it must have been a relief to all parties concerned when Mrs. Bellew entered the room. But Frank Roberts was no coward. It was not his intention to compromise in the smallest way the girl he loved. He took Mary's band in his and smilingly approachel her mother. " I have just ventured to ask Miss Bellew to be my wife," he said, with his characteristic simple straightforwardness. " I only trust, Mrs. Bellew. that her conseut may meet with the full approval of you and her father I" ***♦*■* •' Who could have thought it!" Mr?. Bellew gasped, when she and her husband were alone together, later on. " Why I never for one second even dreamed that he cared for poor, plain looking Mary I Dear ! Dear 1 How blinded some young men aro 1 And my peerless Constance fit to be an earl'a wife. Well, well, after all, it is as it should be. Constance could never be really happy with Frank Koberts. She soars far higher thau a young engineer. I shall bring her to London next season and get her married into the nobility." "Just so, my love," assented George Bellew, who was secretly delighted that nis favourite child bad carried off the prize, and could afford to humour his foolish wife now as much as she required. " Bring her to London by all means and pick up a young duke." But by the time the London season arrived, the poor Bellews were too cruelly embarrassed to leave home. Mr. and Mrs. Frank Roberts were gone away to Australia, where Frank had got a splendid commission. They were to rpturn in a couple of years, and then they purposed to settle down somewhere in the neighborhood ot Bellew House. But Bellew House was now a melancholy establishment. Sincj Mary's marriage everything aeemed to go wrong. The housekeeping *"£S Deglect^cj ; «be cv>k'n<» «"« vi!.' • thp weekly pxp->nsp<* had strange to say, almost doubled. The one remaining servant, a faithful creature who had share 1 all the vicissitudes of the family so far, de-ertei the sinking ship, and sought employment elsewhere. She " could not stand Miss Constance !'" she declared : and, indeed, her co mplaint was a just one. The new duties which had devolved upon Constance soured her temper and accentuated her unsympathetic hauteur towards her inferiors. She had been always patted and spoiled and never knew what it was to sail her dainty fingers by the drudgery of household work. Now it became necessary that someoae should take Mary's place ; and Mrs. Bellew fell a victim, just at this time , to a severe and prolonged attack of illness, Constance it was wno took up the keys and the management of the house. I

So, as I tell you, she quarrelled with the old family domestic and dismissed all the poor pensioners ; and week by week, rendered the lives of her parents more and more cheerless and miserable George Bellew's stockings, he declared wrathfully, " were all holes I His hnen had forgotten that such adjuncts as buttons had ever even existed. His morning " raaher " was always burned • his i evening cocoa sometimes tasted of soot. " Good Heavens 1 " he broke out at last, utterly unable to suppress his pent up feelings any longer, " you are the most utterly useless good for nothing girl, Constance, I have ever met ! God be with poor Mary ! You and your mother never gave her credit for anything • but she was the mainstay, the sunshine, and the happiness of our home I Then and th«>re did poor foolish Constance begin to amend her useless ways. At heart she was by no means bad, after all ; and had her mother only permitted her natural tendencies to develop, she would have been as sensible and good a girl as one could fairly expect to find ; not so much so as Mary, perhaps but then the world can produce but few Mary Bellews. Mrs. Bellew, however, had, as you know, well nigh ruined her pretty daughter by instilling into the child's mind the conviction that her handsome face alone would carry her through life successfully, and that nothing more was required of her. Now the real truth Bmote Constanca Bellew's heart at last. The scales fell from her eyes. She saw her folly in its true light, and Heaven gave her the grace of amendment ere it was altogether too And so it came to pass that when Mr. and Mrs. Roberts returned to England in due time, Mary found an extraordinary change in her sister. b Could she believe her eyes? Was thin the languid, indolent Constance of two years before— this busy, bright eyed, hard-working girl, who actually condeacinied to wrap herself in an enormous apron every day, and who dusted out rooms and made up linen with her own fair handß? "Oh, Mary, I see now at last what a treasure you really were," poor Constance murmured when the sisters got together " Darling, I never valued you in the old days. Oh I when I think of the life I led for the first six months after your marriage, I almost sink beneath the humiliation— the shame of the remembrance. I was utterly miserable myself, dear, and I made everyone around me miserable. Now I am happy agaiD, and our old servant has returned, and all your pensioners, Mary, come to me every week, just as they used to come to you long ago, Mary. I see now plainly tbat you were a domestic angel ; and I have determined to follow your example to the last hour of my worthless, misspent life." " Hush. Constance ! Hush, dear I' Mary cried at once. " You must not talk like that. Frank and I will take a house near this, and you shall spend part of every day with us ; and next summer Pranks cousin. Will Koberts-uh, such a splendid young fellow, Constance, and so well off— is coming on a visit to us, and I have made up my mind, dear, that you and be shall be married. He ia c ver so much nicer than Frank, Constance, ' added the good-natured Mary, by way of capping the climax," and he will just suit you V And he did. Poor Constance Bellew had had her own trials, and it was only fitting that she should meet her reward.