Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 31, Number 287, 12 November 1906 — Page 7

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inen anorner voice, smoothly aiming, ns if to make no friction with tlie other's opinions, aked of whom he Fpoke, and thsit smoothly sliding voice I recognized as Mr. Abbot's, the attorney's. anI Captain Cavendish replied in a fashion which astonished me. for I had no idea to whom he had referred Harry Maria Wingfield, the eldest son end heir of as fine und gallant a gentleman as ever trod English soil, who Is treated like the son cf a scullion by those who owe him most, and tis a shame, and I care notnvho hears me." Then, before I had as yet fairly my wits about me, Mr. Abbot spoke again In that voice of his which 1 so hated In my boyish downrightness and scorn of all policy that It may have led me to an unjnst estimate of all men of his profession. "But Colonel John Chelmsford both no meaning to deal otherwise than fairly by the boy, and neither, unless I greatly mistake, hath his wife." And this he said as if both Colonel Chelmsford and my mother were at his elbow, and for that manner of sneaking I have ever had contempt, preferring downright scurrility, and Captain Cavendish replied with his quick agility of wrath, as precipitate toward judgluent as a sailor to the masthead in a storm: "And what if she be? The more shame to them that they have not I'uough wit to see what they do! I tell thee this poor Harry hath a harder time of it than any slave on my plantation In Virginia, I" But then I was on my feet and, facing them both with my head flung back and my face, I dare say, red and white with wrath and demanding hotly what that might be to them, and if my treatment at the hands of my stepfather and my own mother was not be tween them and me and none else, and, boy as I was, I felt as tall as Captain Cavendish as I stood there. Captain Cavendish stared a moment and red dened and frowned, and then his gaunt face widened with bia ever ready laugh which made It passing sweet for a wan. . , Tush. Iad," he cried out. "And had I known how fit thou were to fight thy own battles ft had not taken up the cudgels for thee, and I crave thy par don. I had not , perceived that thy aword arm was grown, and henceforth thou shalt cross with thy adversaries for all me." -Then 'he laughed again, and I fetared at him grimly, but sof teubut the attorney , in passing laid his4 rnt whit l.nn.i nn nw hinrt mn nf great white hand on my black mane of hair as if tie would bless me, and I shrank away from under it, and when he said in that voice of his, " 'Tis a gallant lad', and one to do good service for his king and country," I would that he had struck me that I might have justly hit back. It was lxth a great and a sad day for! me when I came to go to Cambridge vr.t nf mv HoKiro fnr knrt-i. edge and the sight of the world which ; has ever been strong within me, and sad because of my leaving the little maid without a chance of seeing her for so long a time. She was then six years old. and a wonder both in beauty and mind to all who beheld her. I saw much more of her In those days, for my mother, whose heart had always been sore for a little girl, was often with Captain Cavendish's wife, for the Bake of the child, though the two women were not of the best accord one with another. Madam Rosamond Cavendish was, I Buppose, a beauty, though after a strange and curious fashion, being seemingly dependent upon those around lier for it, as a chameleon is dependent j Tor his color nnon his snrrminfiirnrs T jhave seen Madam Cavendish, when praised by one she loved or approached Harry Wing-field facing Captain Cavendish and Mr. Abbot y the little maid, her daughter, with hn outstretch of fair little arms and a oercion of dimples toward kisses, flash nto such a radiance of loveliness that, Ky as I was, I was dazzled by her. Then, on the other hand. I have seen ' ler as dully opaque of any meaning of beauty as one Could well be. But she ! oved Captain Cavendish well, and I vot he never saw her but with that rvondrous charm, since whenever he ast his eyci upon her it must have een to awaken both reflection and true ife of joy In her face. She was so mall and exceeding 6lim that she ecmed no more than a child, and she k-as not strong, having a quick cough eady at every breath of wind, and she . ode nor walked like our Englishwom- ' n, but lay about on cushions in the ' a un. Still, when she moved it was with uch a vitality of grace and such readkiess that no one, I suspect, knew how rail she was until she sickened and ied the second year of my stay in 'ambridge. When I returned home I found in her read Madam Judith Cavendish, the jother of Captain Cavendish, who had ome from Huntingdonshire. She was t that time well turned of threescore, ut a woman who "was, as she had always been, a power over those about er. She looked her age, too, except br her figure, for her hair was snowy hite and the lines of her face fixed eyoud Influence of further smiles or pars. My imagination has always been a ilgbty factor In my estimation of the Jharacters of others, and I have often ondered how true to facts I might be.

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MARY E. WILKINS but verily It seemed to me that after Madam Cavendish arrived at Cavendish Court the Influence of that great strength of character which when it exists In a woman intimidates every man. no matter who he may be, made itself evident In the very king's highway approaching Cavendish Court, and Increased as the distance diminished, according to some of my mathematical rules. j There were in her no change and shifting to new lights of beauty or otherwise at the estimntion of those around her; she rather controlled, as It were, all the domestic winds. Captain Cavendish bowed before his superior on his own deck, though I believe there was much love betwixt them, and as for the little maid, she tempered the willfulness which was then growing with her growth by outward meekness at least. I used to think her somewhat afraid of her grandmother and disposed to cling for protection and mother love to her elder sister. Catherine. Catherine In those two years had blossomed out her beauty. Her sallowness and green pallor had become bloom, though not rosy, rather an ineffable clear white j like a lily, ner eyes, at once shy and antagonistic, had become as steady as stars in their estimation of self and ' others, and all her slender height was as well In her power of graceful guldj ance an the height of a young oak tree. J Catherine In those days paid very litI tie heed to me, for her one year of superior age seemed then threefold to both of us, except as she was jealously watchful that I win not too much of the love of her little sister. I have nev- " 11 V T XJ l c WkV Diinli Iava T"rntn v T'Aiinrrin to her half sister Mary after the little one had lost her mother. And all that the little maid did, whether of work or play, was with an eye toward the other's approbation, especially after the advent of her grandmother. Catherine had lovers, but she would have none of them. It seemed as if the maternal love of which most maids feel the unknown and unspelled yearning, and which perchance may draw them '

all unwittingly to wedlock, had seized ed his hearers to better purpose had upon Catherine Cavendish, and she had, j they moved himself as regarded his as it were, fulfilled it by proxy by this ; daily life. But beyond a great efferlove of her young sister and so had j vescence of the spirit, which produced her heart made cold toward all lovers, j a high mounting froth of piety like the Be that as It may, though she. was ' seething top of an ale tankard, there much sought after by mom than onent came naught of it. Still was there in

high degree, she remained as she was. : For tne last Part of 8tay at Cam" bridge I saw but little of her and not so much as I would fain have done of her : sister. I was past the boyish liberty of lying In wait in the park for a glimpse of her; she was not of an age for me to pay my court, and there was little intimacy between my mother and Madam "? luai ..smsi T?., t i "V iUl U"C1U"U.'U'!"W sciousness of her in the world with me. ant?,tI?at at a time ?hD my lo7e mi well be a somewhat anomalous aL.J sexless thing, since she was grown a little past my first conception of love toward her and had not yet reached my second. , But oh, the glimpses I used to catch of her at that time, slim legged and swift, aud shrilly sweet of voice as a lark and as shyly a-flutter at the mo- i tion of a hand toward her, or else seated prim as any grown maiden, with grave eyes of attention upon her task of sampler or linen stitching! My heart used to leap in, a fashion that none would have believed nor understood at the blue gleam of her gown and the gold gleam of her little head through the trees of the park or through the oaken shadows of the hall at Cavendish Court during my scant visits there. Xo maid of my own age drew for one moment my heart away from her. She had no rivals except my books, for I was ever an eager scholar, though it might have been otherwise had the state of the country been different. I can imagine that I might in gome severe stress have had my mind, being a hot headed youth, diverted by the feel of the sword hilt. But just then the king sat on his throne, and there j was naught to disturb the public peace except his multiplicity of loves, which aroused discussion which salted society with keenest relish, but went no farther. I took high honors at Cambridge, though no higher than I should have done, and so no pride and no modesty in the owning and telling; and then I came home, and my mother greeted me something more warmly than she was wont, and my stepfather. Colonel John Chelmsford, took me by the hand, and m brother John played me at cards that night and won, as he mostly did. John was at that time also in Cam bridge, but only in his second year, being, although of quicker grasp upon circumstances to his own gain than I, yet not so alert at booklore, but he had grown a handsome man, as fair as a woman, yet bold as any cavalier that ; ever drew sword the kind to win a, woman by his own strength and her own arts. Tbe night after I returned there was bal1 at Cavendish Court, the first since the death of Madam Rosamond, and my brother and I went, and my stepfather and my mother though she loved not Madam" Cavendish. And Mary Cavendish, at that time ten years old, was standing, when I first entered, with a piece of blue-green tapestry work at her back, clad In a little straight white "gown and littla satin shoes and a wreath of rosea en her head, from whence the golden locks flowed over her gentle cheeks, delicately rounded between the baby and maiden curves, with her little hands clasped before her, and her blue eyes, now downcast, now uplifted with utmost confidence in the love of all who saw her. And close by her stood her sister Catherine, coldly sweet in a splendid spread of glittering brocade, holding her head, crowned with flowers and plumes, as still and stately as if thers were for herja ail tfct world

no wind or passion, and my hrother John looked at her, and I knew he loved her, and marveled wbat would come of it. though they'daneed often together. f The ball went on till the east was red and the cocks crew and all the birds M&ry Ca.vendish when ten years old

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woke in-a tumult, and then that happened which changed my whole life. Three weeks from that day I set sail for the new world a convict. I will not now say how nor why; and on the same ship sailed Captain Geoffry Cavendish, his mother. Madam Judith Cavendish; his daughter, Catherine, and the little maid Mary. And on the long voyage Captain Cav ' died &nd buried j j wheQ j Iq klngdom of i ... .. ...

t irsiuiu, n iiu iuk u.ue uiict-i liumjt uuu hardship of the convict before me, ytf ovrr bls fair Periwig, with strength and readiness to bear it, i Behind us straggled the black slaves was taken as a tutor by Madam Judith aa on our thither, moving unlialtCavendish for her granddaughter Mary, ,! inSly. yet with small energy, as do folk beinsr bv education well fitted for such i urSed hither and yon only by the will

a post, and she herself knowing her other reasons for so doing. And so it happened that Mistress Mary Cavendish and I rode to meeting in Jamestown that Sabbath In April of 1C82. CHAPTER IV. HEREFORE that April morning, though filled in my inmost heart with love and gratitude toward God, as I T mm had always been since I had seen his handiwork in Mary Cavendish, which was my especial lesson of his grace to meward, with sweetest rhymes of Joy for all my pains and reasons for all my doubts; and though she sat beside me, so near that the rich spread of her gown was over my knee and the shining of her beauty warm on my face, yet was I weary of the service and eager to be out. As I said before, Parson Downs was not to my mind, neither he nor bis discourse. Still he spoke with a mighty energy and a conviction of the truth of his own words which would have movhim some good, or, rather, some lack of ill; for he was no hypocrite, but preached openly against his own vices, then went forth to furnish new texts for his sermon, not caring who might see and judge him. A hearty man he was, who would lend his last shilling or borrow his neighbor's with equal readiness, forcing one to a certain angry liking for him because of his good will to do that for you which you were loth to do for him. Yet if there ever was a man in harness to Satan as to the lusts of his flesh and his pride of life it was Parson Downs, in despite of his bold curvets and prances of exhortation, which so counterfeited freedom that I doubt not that they deceived even himself; and he felt not the while he was expanding his great front over his pulpit and waving his hands, on one of which shone a precious red stone, the strain of his own leash. But I have ever had a scorn which I could not cry down for any man who was a slave except by his own will. Feeling thus, I was glad when Parson Downs was done and letting him self down with stately jolts of ponderosity from his pulpit, and the folk were moving out of the church In a soft press of decorously veiled eagerness, with a great rustling of silks and satin and jingling of spurs and swords and waving of plumes and shaking out of stronger odors of flowers and essences and spices. And gladder still I was when astride my horse in the open, with the sweet broadside of the spring wind in my face and all the white flowering trees and bushes bowing and singing with a thousand bird voices, like another congregation before the Lord. I had not the honor to assist Mistress Mary to her saddle. Sir Humphrey Hyde and Ralph Drake, who was a farofl! cousin of hers, and my Lord Estes, who was on a visit to his kinsman. Lord Culpeper, the governor of Virginia, and half a score of others pressed before me, who was but the tutor and had no right to do her such service except for lack of another at hand. And a fair sight it was for one who loved her as I, with no privilege of jealousy and yet with It astir within Parson Downs him. like a thing made but of claws J and fangs and stinging tongue, to see her with that crowd of gallants about her and the other maids going their ways unattended, with faces of averted meekness or haughty uplifts of brows and noses, as suited best their different characters. Mistress Mary was no doubt the fairest of them all, and yet there was more than that in the cause for her advantage over them. She kept all her admirers by the very looseness of her grasp, which gave no indication of any eagerness to hold and thus aroused in them no fear of detention nor of wiles of beauty which should subvert thalr - wills. And. furthermore. Mary

Cavendish distributed her smiles as Impartially as a flower its sweetness, to each the same, though but a scant al-

, lotment to each, as beseemed a maid, f I could not, even with my outlook, ob-

serve that she favored one more than : so at the time, had kept her from jolaanother, unless it might have been Sir j ing his ranks. But indeed In this I had j Humphrey Hyde. I knew well that j full sympathy with her, though chary there was some confidence betwixt the ! of expressing it.

two, but whether it was of the nature of love I could not tell. Sir Humphrey kept the road with us for some distance after we had left the : others, gazing beside the horse block, j all equally desirous of following,- but ; knowing well that it would not be a f fair deed to the maid to attend her t homeward on the Sabbath day with a , whole troop of lovers. But Sir Hunipbrey Hyde leaped to hi saddle and rode abreast with no ado, being ever minded to do what seemetl eood to himself ed to do what seemetl good to himself, ! unless indeed his mother stood In the j way of his pleasure. Sir Humphrey's j motner. jaay iianssa nyae, was one of those unwitting tyrants which one sees among women, by reason of her exceeding delicacy and gentleness, which made it seem but the cruelty of a brute to css her, and thus had her own way forever and never suspected It were not always the way of others. Sir Humphrey was a well set young gentleman, and he was dressed in the farthest fashion. The broad back of his scarlet coat, rising to the trot of his horse, clashed through the soft goldgreen mists and radiances of the spring landscape like the blare of a trumpet, his gold buttons glittered, the long nlnme on his hat ruffled to the wind ot othtTS and uot h? their own; but presently through them, scalterin them to the left and right, galloped a black lad on a great horse after Sir Humphrey, with the .word that his mother would have him return to the church and escort her homeward. Then Sir Humphrey turned, after a whispered word or two with Mistress Mary, and rode back to Jamestown, and the black lad, bounding in the saddle like a ball, after him. I sill kept my distance behind Mistress Mary, though often I saw her head urn and caught a blue flash ot an eye over her mask. Then passed us, booted and spurred, for he had gotten his priestly robes off in a hurry, Tarson Downs on the fastest horse In those parts and riding like a jockey in spite of his heavy weight, nis horse's head was stretched in a line with his neck, and after him rode, at near as great speed. Captain Noel Jaynes, who, as report had it, had won wealth on the high seas in unlawful fashion. He was a gray old man with the eye of a hot headed boy and a saber cut across his right cheek. The parson saluted Mistress Mary, as he passed, and so did Captain Jaynes, with a glance of his bright eyes at her that stirred my blood and made me ride up faster to her side. But the two men left the road abruptly, plunging into a bridle path at the right, and the green walls of the wood closed behind them, though one could still hear for long the galloping splash of their horses' hoofs in the miry path. - , - Mistress Mary turned to me, and her voice rang sharp. " 'Tis a pretty parson," said she. "He is on his way to Barry Upper Branch with Captain Jaynes, and who is there doth not know 'tis for no good, and on the .Sabbath day too?" - Now Barry Upper Branch belonged to brothers of exceeding ill repute, except-for their courage, which no one doubted. They had fought well against the Indians, and also against the government with Nathaniel Bacon some half .dozen years before. There had been a prize on their heads, and they had been in hiding, but now lived j openly on their plantation and were In i , full feather, and therein lay in a great measure their ill repute, When my Lord Culpeper had arrived in Virginia, succeeding Berkeley, Jef fries and Chichely, then returned the brothers Richard and Nicholas Barry, or Dick and Ned as they were termed among the people, and as my Lord Cul peper was not averse to increasing his revenues there were those who whls pered, though secretly and guardedly, that the two bold brothers purchased their safety and peaceful home dwell ing. Barry Upper Branch was a rich plan tatlon and had come into full possession of the brothers but lately, their fa ther. Major Barry, who had been a stanch old royalist, having died. There were acres of tobacco and whole fields of locust for the manufacture of metheglin, and apple orchards from which cider enough to slack the thirst of the colony was made. But the broth ers were far from content with such homemade liquors for their own drinking, but imported from England and The Netherlands and Spain great stores of ale and rum and wines and held therewith high wassail with some choice and kindred spirits, especially on the Sabbath. Not a woman was there at Barry Upper Branch except for slaves, and such stories were told as might cause a modest maid to hesitate to speak of the place, but Mary Cavendish was as yet but a child in her understanding of certain things. Her blue eyes fixed me with the brave indignation of a boy as she went on. " 'Tis a pretty parson," said she again, "and it would be the tavern, just as openly, were it on a week day." I put my finger to my lip and cast a glance about, for it was enjoined upon the people under penalty that" they speak not ill of any minister of the gospel. While I cared not for myself, having never yet held my tongue except from my own choice, yet was I always concerned for this young thing, with her utter recklessness of candor, lest her beauty and her charm might not protect her always against undesirable results, and not only were the slaves within hearing of her voice, but none knew how many others, for those were brave days for tale bearers. But Mary spoke again, and more sweetly and shrilly than ever. A pretty parson, forsooth! And to keep eomjpany with a pirate captain! Fie! When he looks at me I clutch my gold chain and turn the flash of my rings from sight, and Dick and Ned Barry are the worst rakes in the colony! Naught was ever heard good of them, excepting their following of General Bacon, but a good cause make not always worthy adherents."

j This last she said with a toss of her j head and a proud glance, for Nathaniel 1 Bacon was to this maid a hero of be-

i roes, and naught but her sex and her K, tender years, she being but twelve or i Mistress Mary Cavendish had .f ram- ( ed in black in her chamber a silhouette . of this hero, and she wore in a locket ; a lock of his hair, by which she had come In some girlish fashion through a young gossip of hers, a kinswoman of Bacon's, from whose head I verily believe she had pilfered it while asleep. And, more than that, I knew of her and Cicely Hyde strewing fresh bios8oms on the tide ot the York river 111 i hich Bacon had been buried, on the anniversary of his death aud coming home with sweet eyes red with tears Mary's silhouette of Nathaniel Baxon of heroic sentiment, which surely be not the most Ignoble shed by mankind. " Twas the only good ever beard of them," repeated Mistress Mary, "and ! even that they must need spoil by coming home and paying tithes to my Lord Culpeper that he wink at their disaffec- ; tion. I trow had I been a man and ; fought with General Bacon, as I would have fought had I been a man, I would have paid no price therefor to the king himself, but would have stayed in hiding forever." With that she touched Merry Roger with her whip and was off at a gallop, and I abreast, inwardly laughing, for I well understood that this persistency on other and stirring topics and sudden flight when they failed was to keep me from the subject of the powder and ammunition unladen that morning from the Golden Horn. But she need not have taken such pains, for I while in church had resolved within myself not to question her further lest she tell me something which might do her harm were I forced, for her good, to reveal It, but to demand the meaning of all this from Sir Humphrey Hyde, who I was convinced knew as much as she. CHAPTER V. nU3 we rode homeward and presently came in sight of the Cavendish tobacco fields overlapped with the fresh green T of young leaves like the bosses of a shield, and on the right waved rosy garlands of the locust grove, and such a wonderful strong sweetness of honey came from it that we seemed to breast it like a wave and caught our breaths, and there was a mighty hum of bees like a hundred spinning wheels. But Mistress Mary and I regarded mostly that green stretch of tobacco, and each of us had our thoughts, and presently out came hers. "Master Wingfield, I pray you, whose tobacco may that be?" she inquired in a sudden, fierce fashion. "Madam' Cavendish's and yours and your sister's," said I. "Nay," said she, "'tis the king's." Then she tossed her head again and rode r nd said not another word, nor I, but i knew well what she meant. Since the navigation act it was indeed small profit any one had of his own tobacco, since it all went into the exchequer of the king, and I did not gainsay her. When we had passed the negro huts, swarming with black babies shining in the sun as sleek as mahogany and all turning toward us with a marvelous flashing of white eyeballs and opening of red mouths of smiles, all at once, like some garden bed of black flowers at the sight of our gay advance, we reached the great house, and Mistress Catherine stood In te door clad in a green satin gown which caught the light with smooth shimmers like the green sheath of a marsh lily. Her bare, slender arms were clasped before her, and her long, white neck was bent Into an arch of watchful grace. Her face was the gravest I ever saw on maid, and not to be reconciled with my first acquaintance with her, thereby giving me always a ' slight doubt as of a mask, but her everv fea. ture was as clear and fine as ivory, and ! her head proudly crowned with great wealth of hair. Catherine Cavendish was esteemed a great beauty by both men and women, which shows perchance that her beauty availed her little in some ways, else it had not been so freely admitted by her own sex. However that may be, Catherine Cavendish had had few lovers as compared with many a maid less fair and less dowered, and at this time 6he seemed to have settled Into a'n expectation and contentment of singleness. She stood looking at her sister and me as we rode toward her, and the sun was full on her face, which had the cool glimmer of a pearl In the golden light, and her wide open eyes never wavered. As she stood there she might have been the portrait of herself, such a look had she of unchanging quiet and the wonder and Incredulity which always seized me at the sight of her to reconcile what I knew with what she seemed was strong upon me. When her young sister had dis mounted and gone up the steps she kissed her, and the two entered the hall, clinging together in a way which was pretty to see. I never saw such love betwixt two where there was not full sympathy, and that was lacking always and lacked more in the future, through the difference in their two temperaments got from different mothers. Madam Cavendish was still in her bedchamber, and the two sisters and I dined together in the great hall. Then, after the meal was over. I went forth with my book of Sir William Davenant's plays and sought a favorite place of mine in the woods and stayed there till sundown. Then, rising and going homeward when the mist floated over the marshlands like veils of silver gauze and the frogs chorused through It in waves of sound and birds were circling above it calling sweetly with fluting notes or screaming with the harsh trumpet clang of the sea fowl, I heard of a sudden, lust as the sun sank below the

western sky, a i Ighty din of horns and bells and voices from the direction of Jamestown. I knew that the rnorts which a certain part of the community would have on a Sabbath after sundown, when they felt so inclined, had begun. Since the king had been restored such sports had been observed now and then, according to the humor of the governor and the minister and the others in authority. Laws had been from time to time set

, forth that the night after the Sabbath. the Sabbath being considered to cease at sundown, should be kept with decoram, but seldom were they enforced, ' and often, as now. a great din arose when the first gloom overspread the earth. However, that night was the aoth of APrU th nlht fore Mcy day. and there was more merrymaking iu ' consequence, though May was not here as in Ungland. and even in England not what it had been tn the first Charles reign. Bat they kept up their rollicking late that night, for the window of my chamber being toward Jamestown, and the wind that way, I could hear them till I fell asleep. At midnight I awakened suddenly at the sound of a light laugh, which I knew to be Mary Cavendish's. There was never In the maid any power of secrecy when her hu-

mor overcame her. She laughed ( a surui uuei or girusn taugns ana meragain. and I heard a hushing voice, i ry tongues before the house. Then,

which I knew to be neither her sis -

ter's nor grandmother's, but a man's. but Mary Cavendish and Cicely Hyde, I was up and dressed In a trice, and , her great gossip, and a young colored sword in hand, and out of my window, S wench, all washing their faces in the which was on the first floor, and there i May dew, which lay In a great flood was Mistress Mary and Sir Humphrey j as cf diamonds and pearls over evHyde. I stepped between them and j erything. thrust ' aside Sir Humphrey, who j I minded well the superstition, oldwould have opposed me. "Go into the er than I, that if a maid washed her house, madam," said I to her, and, face in the first May dew it would pointed to the door, which stood open, j make her skin wondrous fair, and I Then, while she hesitated, half laughed to myself as I peeped around shrinking before me, with her old habit the shutter to think that Mary Cavof obedience strong upon her, yet with j endish should think that she stood in angry willfulness urging her to re- need of such amendment of nature, bellion, forth stepped her distant Down she knelt, dragging the hem of cousin Ralph Drake from behind a her chintz gown, which was as gay white flowering thicket, and demanded with a maze of printed posies as any to know what that cursed convict fel- garden bed, and she thrust her hollow did there, and had he not a right lowed hands into the dew laden green to parley with his cousin, and was her and brought them over her face and honor not safe with her kinsman, and rubbed till sure there was never anyhe an English gentleman? I perceived thing like it for sweet, glowing rosiby Ralph Drake's voice that he had ness. perchance been making gay with the j Cicely Hyde, who must have revelers at Jamestown, and stood still ' come full early to Drake Hill for that when he came bullyingly toward me, purpose, did likewise, and with more but at that minute Mistress Maty necd a9 j thought, for she was a spoke. brown maid, not so fair of feature as

"I will not have such language to my tutor, Cousin Ralph; oiu ou.. Ralph Drake and his shadow "and I will have you to understand It He is a gentleman as well as yourself, and you owe him an apology." So say ing, she stamped her foot and looked at Ralph Drake, her eyes flashing in the moonlight But Ralph Drake, whose face I could see was flushed, even in that whiteness of light flung away with an oath muttered undfcr his breath, and struck out across the lawn, his black shadow stalking before him. Then Mistress Mary turned and bade me good night in the sweetest and most curious fashion, as if nothing unusual had happened, and yet with a softness in voice as if she would fain make amends for her cousin's rough speech, and fluttered in through the open door like a white moth, and left me alone with Sir Humphrey Hyde. Sir Humphrey was but a lad to me, scarcely older than Mistress Mary, for all his great stature. He stood before me, scraping the shell walk with the end of his riding whip. Both men bad ridden hither, 'and I at that moment heard Ralph Drake's horse's hard trot "If you come courting Mistress Mary Cavendish, 'tis for her- guardians, her grandmother and elder sister to deal with you concerning the time and place you choose," said I, "but if it be on any other errand" "Good God, Harry," broke in Sir Humphrey, "do you think I am come love making in such fashion and with Ralph Drake In his cups, though swear be fastened himself to me against nay will?' I waited a moment Sir Humphrey had been much about the place since he was a mere lad and had bad, I believe, a sort of boyish good will toward me. Not much love had he for books, but I was accounted a fair shot and had some knowledge of sports of hunt ing and fishing and had given him tome lessons, and he had followed me about some few years before, somewhat to the uneasiness of his mother, who could not forget that I was a con vict I cast about in my mind what to say. being resolved not to betray Mary Cav endish, even did this man know what I could betray, and yet being resolved to have some understanding of what was afoot. "A man of honor includes not maid ens in plots, Sir Humphrey," said I finally. ".- Sir Humphrey stammered and looked at me and looked away again. Then suddenly spake Mistress Mary from her window overhead, set in a climbing trumpet vine, and so loudly and recklessly that had not her grandmother and sister been on the farther side of the house they must have heard her. "'Tis not Sir Humphrey included the maid in the plot but the maid who in cluded Sir Humphrey," said she. Then she laughed, and at the same moment a mockbird trilled in a tree. "Why do you not tell Master Wingfield that the maid and cot you nor Cousin Ralph is the prime mover in this mystery of the cargo of furbelows on" the Golden Horn?" said she, and laughed again. - "I shield not myself behind a maiden's skirts," said Sir Humphrey grimly. 'Then," cried Mary, "will I tell thee. Master Wingfield, what it means. He cannot betray us, Humphrey, for his tongue Is tied with honor, even if he be not on our side. But he la on our side, as is every true Englishman." Then Mary. Cavendish leaned far out the window, and a white lace scarf she wore floated forth, and she cried with a areat burst of triumph and

childish enthusiasm: 'I will tell the what.it means. Master Wingfield; I will tell thee what It means. I am but a maid, bat the footsteps of General Bacon be yet plain enough to follow in this soil of Virginia, and and the king gets not our tobacco crops r

CHAPTER VI. IIAVE always observed with wonder and amusement and a tender gladness the faculty S3 with which youug creatures. and particularly young girls, can throw off their minds for the time being the weight ot cares and anxieties and bring a11 ot themselves to bear upon those exercises of body or mind io no particular end of serious gain, which we PlT and frivolity, That very next morning after I had. learned from Mary Cavendish, suprlemfnted by a sulky silence of assent ; from Sir Humphrey Hyde, that shs had, under pretense of ordering ferninine finery from England, spent all her year's Income from her crops on powder and shot for the purpose of making a staud in the contemplated destruction of the new tobacco crops, and thereby plunged herself and her family in a danger which were hard to estimate were it discovered. I heard ! on looking forth, whom should I seo SOme, though she had a merry heart , u-nwn vtt v to tier n-n r.or nr lira and welcome of friends as made her a favorite. Up she scooped the dew and bathed her face turning ever and anon to Mary Cavendish with anxious inquiries, ending in trills of laughter which would not be gainsaid In May time and youth time by aught of so little moment as a brown skin. "Howlook I now?" she would cry out. "How look I now, sweetheart? Saw you ever a lily as fair as my face?" Then Mary, with her own face dripping with dew, with that wonderful wet freshness of bloom upon It, would eye her with seriousness as to any Improvement, and bid her turn thla way and that Then she would give it aa her opinion that she had best persevere, and laugh, somewhat doubtfully at first then in a full peal when Cicely. . nothing daunted by such discouragement in her friend' eyes, went bravely to work , again, all her slender body shaking with mirth. But the moat curious sight of all, and that which occasioned the two maids the most merriment though of a covert and even tender and pitying sort, was i Mary's black serving wench, Sukey, a half grown girl, who had been bidden to attend her mistress upon this morning frolic . She was seated at a distance, square in the wet greenness, and was plunging both hands Into the May dew and scrubbing her face with a: fierce seal as if her heart was in thatj pretty folly, as no doubt it was. And I ever and anon as she rubbed herj cheeks, which shone the blacker and. glossier for it she would turn the,' palms of her hands, which be so curi-f ously pale on a negro's hands, to see 1ft perchance some of the darkness had; itirred. And when she saw not then' would she fall to scrubbing again. Presently up stood Mary and Cicely, and Cicely flashed in the sun a Ilttl silver mirror which she had. brought and which had lain glittering in th grass a little removed, and looked at herself, and saw that her brown cheek were as ever, with the exception of tb flush caused by rubbing, and tossed i( with her undaunted laugh to Mary. "The more fool be IT she cried out "Instead of washing mine own face ln the May dew, better had It been had I locked thee In the clothespress, Mary Cavendish, and not let thee add to thy beauty, while I but gave my cheeks the look of fever or the smallpox. 1 trow the skin be off in spots, and all to no purpose!' Look at thyself, Mary Mary washing her face in the May 4sr Cavendish, and blush that thou be so much fairer than one who love thee!" And verily Mary Cavendish did for a minute seem to blush as she cast a glance at herself in the mirror and saw her marvelous rose of a face, but the next minute the mirror flashed in the grass and her arms were about Cicely Hyde's neck. "Tis the dearest face in Virginia, Cicely," said she in her sweet vehement way, and laid her pink cheek against the other's plain one. And Cicely laughed and took her face In her two hands and held it away that she murht see it (To Be Continued.) 'Phone or write a card to the Palla dium of the little piece of news your neighbor told you and get your name in the news tlp" contest fe- this week.

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