Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1908 — A CROWN OF FAITH [ARTICLE]

A CROWN OF FAITH

CHAPTER XIII. The world of Abbotshold and its neigh-, lor hood rolled on for three months. May came—-sunny, warm, wreathed with White flowers, orchards abloom, woods dressed la living green, butterflies flaunting, drag«n flies darting. There was glad-music and gay color everywhere in the fields and woods ; life, in eyery green bud, in the flowing sap of the strong forest trees, in the frisking gambols of the lambs, in the noisy music of the thrush and blackbird, •nd the loud voice of the lark. “Singing at heaven’s gate. Is that heaven’s gate, Mr. Leigh, that large, white, sun-polished cloud, with edges of black, like rich point lace? I think there fa storm within that. cloud, for all its •been and beauty—electricity, Mr. Leigh. I seem a bright, gay thing enough; but, •h i I am charged with the thunder of iwar often, and often, and often, when I am grinning and bearing it, when mamma Is storming, and Miss Worthington preaching. Don't you hate Miss Worth- _ angton, Mr. Leigh? Please say yes, and I Will love you ever after !” She was such a mocking bird, Ella — such a bright, fascinating little wag, such • satirical creature. Lionel did not flush at her words. He was getting more aecustomlfl to these startling speeches, for {Slla Wycherly made them to him every day, and sometimes every hour of the day. All the arrangements proposed had been earned out. Lionel had given his month’s ■otice, passed over his pupils to another professor, and had been established at iWycherly as the tutor of Master Graves Power —who was to , take the name of iWycherly—for two months! His duties were light; lessons from aine till eleven in the school room with Piaster Power, and then Ella Wycherly appeared on the scene for her German lesson, which lasted one hour. After that, [Lionel and his pupil went riding, or walkfag, or boating on the river, taking their luncheon With them, and returning in the afternoon, when Master Power was left to bis own devices, and he usually improved the shining hours in the society of Ella (Wycherly, who' had conceived an extraordinary liking for him. The boy himself was completely fascinated with his beautiful, daring cousin. used seriously to tell Lionel that he hoped she would wait for him, since it was his intention, tp marry her when he grew up. "I don’t care about her being nine years older than I am, Mr. Leigh; but what a splendid wife she would make! I should have her always spangled over with diamonds, and dressed like the queen •f the fairies I saw at the pantomime. <she shall never wear bonnets and hats; •nly crowns and wreaths.” Lionel taught Ella every day, talked to her every day; sometimes he even rode with her, for the colonel had lent him a good horse, and he was at liberty to ride it. Had his heart and fancy been free, bis position at Wycherly might have been considered enviable, with two hundred pounds salary, rooms to himself, liberty, ■nd courteous consideration from all the family, save Miss Worthington. That lady bad always strenuously opposed the advent of the German tutor. Bhe was civil to him now, but her civility was of the coldest and her interruptions •f his tete-a-tetes with Ella were constant. One lovely afternoon Lionel was reading Shakspeare. His back rested against ♦he stem of a large, fragrant lime. At his feet was a cool, clear pond, where.Ahe fish were darting round in the sunny water Tushes; lily flags ornamented one side of the pond; but where Lronel sat the water was clear. All at once came a song—a sweet melody, chanted in a high, clear soprano. —— —:— r— He looked up. There she was—Ella 'Wycherly, heiress and witch, belle and romp, aristocrat and tomboy, perched up ■mid the branches of an elm, sitting with her feet resting on a lower branch, her head reclining against an upper one —an attitude of nonchalant, luxurious repose. “Do I look nice and comfortable up here?” she asked. “Now for a leap! One —two—three, and away !” Down she came safe amid the grass •nd ferns. Her pure white dress, made high to the throat, was scarcely rumpled. Bhe picked up her hat, and put it on her head. “Now, Mr. Leigh, up the basket, and let us trot down to Woodmancote, and lecture the old women and the young girls, and all the folks. I’ve heard Miss 'Worthington do It. I can do it beautifully." He stared in amazement. He knew that iU he committed the indiscretion of taking a stroll through the village with Miss Wycherly, the Woodmancote world would gossip. True, he had accompanied Miss 'Ella in her rides, but there had always been his pupil with them. “Won't yoq come? That basket is heavy. I was supposed to bring Chatter*ly, the housemaid, with me; but I hate Chatterly, as much as it lies in a young lady to hate a housemaid. Will you carry the basket?” What could Lionel do but pick it up and follow Ella to the village? Woodmancote lay about a mile from the pond. The way led through the woods—a wide path, bordered with fern and blue bright jblrd'a-eya. Overhead chanted the birds, •round about buzzed the bees, hither and (thither flaunted the flies. • Ella walked a little ahead of the tutor, '•he was inexpressibly provoking that day. illar escapade in climbing the tree seemed to harp, satisfied the exuberance of her apirit that afternoon. She was a dignl■fled damsel aa she walked on in white, her bead aloft, her furbelowed parasol between her eyes and the aun. , Lionel trudged after, carrying the basket, which should have been Chatterly’s jtaak. Ho felt strangely humiliated, inclin•d bow and then to fling down the banket and run to Mias Wycherly, and tell her that ha would not be treated aa an errand boy, even by her. ! tbe did not look once over her kboulder, die just kept on, now and then striking 0 lower bough with bar parasol, but never

turning round. At length the village was reached. The road was bordered on one side with a box-hedge, cut and clipped with punctilious neatness. On the other side were little cottages and little gargardens, starred with sunflowers, with here and there a pear tree, on Which hung in those later May days bunches of tiny fruit. Ducks waddled about the road,’ quacking loudly. Yellow-haired children frolicked about the tiny garden gates, but stood still to stare at Miss Wycherly, their round eyes wide open, their round faces aflame with heat and exercise. Ella stopped before such a group and shook her parasol at it. “Hello!" said Miss Wycherly The children smiled, put their fingers in their mouths, but answered nothing. “I have come instead of Miss Worthington," pursued Ella. “I want to see your grandmother, Letty Harrison; she is indoors; I Letty, a very sunburned child, with straight, yellowish foair about her ears, and a brown-holland pinafore covering an old blue dress, opened the little gate, and ran up the garden, where the sunflovyers were coming out gaudy and awkward, like overgrown school girls. Ella now looked round at Lionel; she nodded at him. “Please to bring the basket,” she said. And he obeyed.

CHAPTER XIV. Ella and Lionel went down two steps into a little, dark, brick-floored kitchen, with raftered ceiling, a low, wide fireplace, pots and saucepan-lids hanging over the chimneyplace; a little, quaint, wooden dresser, with queer little cups, and mugs, and jugs, hanging on brass nails. Before the smoldering fire, a very old woman was seated, sknifting a stocking. She got up with some alacrity when the young lady entered, turned rqund, and showed a smiling, old, brown face, surrounded by a clean cap border. She bobbed a curtsy. “Please to take a chair, missie.” “No; I think I would rather stand, Mrs. Harrison; I can’t brought half a pound of tea. Don’t you think it’s very good of me?” “That ’tis, missie, bless your pretty heart! and send you the finest nobleman in London for a husband!” Lionel Leigh looked down at the brick floor, and smiled. Ella saw the smile—saw and the sadness which formed K elements. “Mrs. Harrison, I wish I was to be married to-morrow. Coach and four milkwhite horses, twelve bridesmaids, a box of diamonds, a great iced cake, a ball in the evening, and the next day to be whirled off to France or Spain on a wedding trip. Wouldn’t it be jolly?” She wheeled about as she spoke, and then began to inspect the little jugs, and mugs, and cups, which, hung upon the wooden dresser. Then, passing close by the side of Lionel —who, having placed the basket on the ground, was standing with folded arms, following with a somber smile the movements of Ella —she said, in a whisper: “Am I not a delightful, angelic creature? My sentiments express a superb intelligence, a sympathy with what is noble and true, an appreciation for the poetry of life.” Ella ran out to where all the children were gathered about the gates. She took out her purse, afld straightway dealt them sixpence apiece all round.

“Ginger-bread, bull’s-eyes, and oranges,” said Miss Wycherly. “You like those better than spelling and multiplication. Come on, Mr. Leigh. There is one more old lady to whom we must dispense provisions ; but she is bedridden and deaf. Don’t you think that I am an instructive kind of young person, just the one to visit these poor ignorant creatures, and teach them the road they.should walk in? Just turn round and look at that group of young faces. How they are all grinning over their sixpences! If Miss Worthington had been the dispenser those same faces would etfch have lengthened half a yard or more. She would have lectured them on their shortcomings and misdoings; she would have threatened them with the terrors of the law, both human and divine. Not a hole in their pinafores, not a smudge on their little faces, would have escaped her criticism. Don’t you think they must like me a great deal the better of the two?”

She did not wait for his answerp but led on to the next cottage, where the bedridden patient received her thankfully. “Now, Mr. Leigh, we must go home,” said Ella, looking at her watch. “It is four o’clock, and we dine at seven. A short cut across the park will take us home in less than an hour. No more woodland rambles, and the empty basket is light, and I am in a very good temper. It has done me good to sec those children delight over their sixpences. Mr. Leigh, how very silent you arel I have been trying to distinguish myself in your eyes and you look as glum as if you considered me stupid and uninteresting. If not a most orthodox and imprudent young person. Why don’t you talk, Mr. Leigh?” “I have nothing to say, Miss Wycherly."

“That is a fib. You have a great deal to say, only you are afraid to say it.” She looked at him as she spoke, dangerously, out of her dark eyes. Lionel's heart trembled within him. What did this girl moan? What was this odd, flashing, beautiful creature, with her smiles, and her salliee and her somber moods'/ It seemed to him at times that an element of evil mingled with tho atmosphere that surrounded her. Where it was and what was it, he could not say. When she looked at him so 'dangerously, and dared him to speak, there was in his soul a strange feeling. Was it fear or sudden revulsion? What was it that made his heart quake, and his blood run cold? They had entered a shady alley in the park. Ella suddenly stopped, clutched him by the shoulder, and looked him in the eyes. Her beautiful face was close to his own, the red lips terribly near. TTje man's whole soul was stirred within him. “I hare made up my mind to tell you

everything,” said Ella, “I must -hava « confidant— l must have a friend. You know that night Arthur Calthorpe ■" “What —what?" cried Lionel, in wild ’ excitement. “Hush! don’t speak so loud! But I know how he was struck, and why. I will tell you all. Listen !” She' held up her finger. She wasvery pale. ( .. ( | “You will never betray me?” Her clutch upon his shoulder was so desperate, that he carried the marks for months, and; her eyes were filled with a ight that made, them beautiful with an unearthly beauty. Lionel, looking into the white face of the girl he loved, read there a story, mystic, perplexing, full of a shadowy horror. It seemed that for Ella Wycherly the summer day had no brightness, .no heat. Her eyes were fixed upon vacancy; she shivered in the fervent sunbeams; she was, so it appeared, half-unconscious of the presence of Lionel. He, meanwhile, looked upon her face with a certain namelessj intangible awe. What was it that he dreaded? He h%d had his doubts before now in regard to this' most fascinating young creature — doubts vqgue, yet dreadful,. ( Was she as as noble, as truly innocent as she seemed? Was there some latent evil or crueltjTlurking within her soul? Why was she so curbed and ocerced by her mother and her governess? There was a something, a secret; and wherever there is a secret there is a wrong, thought Lionel. At last he spoke. “If you would trust me,” he said gently, “I would devote my life to do you service. And,” he added, halfjntterly; “btrtryou know that, Miss Wycherly.” He was right. , Ella knew that she held complete sway over his inmost thoughts, that his heart, his hopes, lay all within her power. Her lips moved, but she did not speak; still her dark eyes were fixed on the far-off sunny landscape. Had Lionel believed in second-sight, he might have, fancied that this beautiful creature saw a vision. He ventured to lay his hand ou her arm. “Miss Wycherly, will you trust me?” She gave a great start, as though awaking from some painful dream. “Yes, I ought to trust you,” she said, looking at him i fixedly, “because I know you love me. I will not coquette about that any more. Mr. Leigh, there has been a, crime in the long past, and reparation is demanded. I have suspected this long. I listened at doors. Yes, I have even opened letters addressed to my mother. You will blame me! Do I deserve blame? Put yourself in my place, and have a little upon me. I have known for two years that my mother designed me a life of privation and constant penance—a life between the walls of a gloomy prison house. lam to go barefoot, lam to wear sackcloth; I am to live on bread and water—l, who love life, warmth, gay clothing, dainty repasts—l, who have had my love dreams, my imaginary hero in the future, like other girls; this is the life designed for me by my mother. “My mother has founded a sect. Miss Worthington is the priestess. It is a sect which the sisterhoods would term heretical simply. Mamma has bought an old tumble-down house near an Italian village. She is having it repaired and propared for my reception. Seventeen en, with Miss Worthington at their head, are to dwell in that house, and pass the years in fasting and penances. An old man—an enthusiast, belonging to no especial churqh, but calling himself Peter the Preacher —is to live in the house and.conduct the services of the chapel, which is being built. These seventeen women belong to various nations—English, Dutch,' French, German and a few Italians. My mother and Miss Worthington and old Peter have sought out these people, and converted them to their way of thinking.” v “But such a thing is preposterous*” cried Lionel. “It would not be allowemj “Not in England, Mr. Leigh. But ilk Italy, since the place will he paid for) and kept in good repair, nobody will interfere. They will only be considered as a few crazy women. I have found out that I am to be shoeless, to live only on bread, to sleep on a hard bed of straw, and never during alt mr life to stray beyond the grounds of La Maison.” ' “And your father?” said Lionel, who had listened to This account in wild amazement. “What does your father say?” “He?” cried Ella. “He is the bond slave of my mother. Her will is his law.” (To be continued.)