The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-03-31 00:00:00

BARRIER BETWEEN;

REPENTED UNTO DEATH.

CHAPTER XVll.—(Continued).
-NY one who did not know Miss Stuckup well would
have believed that the bright smiles, the gracious
manner, were true indications of cordial feeling. The
11.1ral young lady, who had some idea of sincerity and
hospitable feeling, looked on in silent surprise. The
Pale young gentleman with the dust-coloured mous.
!ache caught the expression of her face, and burst
?t!to as hearty a fit of laughter as good breeding and
!i!s delicate organisation would permit. He composed
himself sufficiently to say—
"My dear Miss Green, you have not been long
enough in London to lose a tinge of verdancy. That
gashing widow, and her pretty companion, know as
Well as I do that Miss Stuckup has a positive aversion
to them, because they are charming, and she is not.
But they belong to the same set; they must
occasionally meet, and the conventionalities of life
enPPly the rest. It is useless to look shocked."
"Did I betray so much? I must guard my face
better. Am Ito understand, then, that the friends
we grapple to our souls with hooks of steel,' are
°nIY to be sought and found far from London life ?"
"I beg to decline replying to your query, for
candour is sometimes invidious. I have surveyedyon
Whiskered pard' through my glass, and I find nothing
attractive in his ursine aspect. I trust my rosebud
Rose will retain her fortune, and refuse the pretender
to it too. I believe I will pay my devoirs ; it will be
time enough to desert the shrine when the golden
offerings are removed. What! shocked at me, too? I
Can only reply, I've in this atmosphere one year your-
Self, and see what you will come to."
The dust-coloured moustache sauntered up to Bose,
and drawled—
" 'Pon honour, Miss Chard, you are looking most
charmingly. to-day. Do you know that all the world
Says my fondest hopes are to be dashed by Don
Whiskerando there, who comes to claim you and your
fortune as his lawful property? I warn you before-
hand, that he will make an exacting prize-master.
He looks like a regular piratical chief."
"If the pleasures of hope' are particularly to your
taste, you may still enjoy them without interference
from Mr. Trevor. The hopes may only lose their gild-
ing by his appearance. In other respects, I shall
remain as I was—an idol minus the trappings."
A sparkle of girlish triumph lit up her bright blue
eyes, and dimpled her rosy mouth with smiles, as she
gave him this home thrust. With an expression
of melo-dramatic anger, he struck an attitude, and
said_

" That faithless villain, Idgo Simpson, bath been
Stirring up ill blood between us, fairest Rose! The
caitiff, then, hath told thee all ! Yes, an idol still,
Most beauteous enchantress, though my heart must
close itself to your attractions. What is a brilliant
gem without a fitting setting? Only a dim expanse
would be the broad canopy of heaven itself, without
its glittering pageantry of sun, and moon, and stars !
kb! Miss Chard, you are love!y and fascinating in
Yourself, it is true, but your fortune supplies the golden
halo with which even good people invest their saints
When they seek to represent them."
Rose laughed merrily—
" Your apology is made and accepted, Mr. Grey. I
bear no malice, but since your hopes are freighted
With so heavy a metal as gold, you cannot feel sur-
prised that they have sunk below zero. Spare me all
allusion to them in future, since with you the rosy
dream of love has assumed a saffron hue."

"Which will cause me to view with jaundiced
eye.' the approach of any other lover, whether the
Shrine be decked with gems and jewels rare' or only
of plain and unvarnished cedar. A man's strong box,
You know, is described in works of fiction as a casket
of cedar bound with steel. The last a wise precaution
against stealing, I suppose."
" What ! you—you—Mr. Grey, actually punning !"
exclaimed Miss Seraphina Stuckup, who had lost not
!I. syllable of their conversation, though much of it was
!ricomprehensible to her, nature not having cast her
la one of her brightest moulds. "I thought I heard
You say only yesterday, that puns me the last resource
of a feeble wit and demented mind."
"Did I really say anything so sensible as that, Miss
Seraphina ? Well, like other wiseacres I suppose I only
Utter my wisdom for the benefit of others. Good-
Morning, ladies. I have already idled away here
precious time that might have been better employed.
Pair Rose, I trust you will stun that whiskerando
there, by the strength of the negative you will put on
lus presumptuous pretensions."
And Mr. Grey departed; a fashionable lounger,
With an independent though not large income ; his
eate s t ambition was to amuse and astonish the young
girls with whom he chiefly conversed, an aim by no
Means difficult of achievement.

"What an entertaining creature Mr. Grey is!" said
Miss Alicia, with a half sigh; "only I cannot
always tell whether he is in earnest, and sometimes
I do not quite understand what he means."

"With these reservations you must find him
charming company," Rose was tempted to say, but
her good nature prevailed, and she did not utter the
sarcasm.

During the conversation, Miss Stuckup had been
Playing the agreeable to Trevor in a very animated
Manner. _ _

"I thank you very sincerely Mrs. Pierre, for bring-
ing your friend to call on me. I have heard
of some-
thing 6 your romantic history, Mr. Trevor, and lam
uYing to have some of the incidents confirmed by
Yourself. Is it true that you have been a prisoner in
Turkey, and one of the Sultan's wives fell in love
With you, and eloped with you?
This was a pure invention on the part of the lady,
Suggested by a sudden reminiscence of the history
of the most extraordinary John Smith who has
krured in the annals of that extensive family.
Trevor stroked his moustache in a self-complacent
nanner, as he replied—
" If such an incident occurred, I have no recollection
of it. Ido not wish the impression to get out that
cozy lady had claims on me before I returned to this
garden of beauty, this land of the free, and home of
the brave, which should read the land of the fair, for
no woman can compare with my own countrywomen
in beauty."
"What, not even the enchanting Circassians, from
'whom the great sculptor has modelled his Greek
lave ?"
"With all due deference to the sculptor's genius
and his marble woman, too, I have seen handsomer
creatures in the drawing-rooms of London than she ever
Was."
"Marble woman! ha, ha! I perceive, Mr. trevor,
that you are an original. We really feel flattered
that to great a traveller as you have been, should
give the palm to the ladies of England."
".1 will not only give the. palm, but my whole hand
to one of the fair encbantrases if she will only con-
sent to take it," replied Tfevore with a glance toward
nose which filled MisV Stuekup .with rage; but she
Sweetly said
"What wit, yet what impulsifeness of nature You
must possess, Mr. Trevor ! I declare it is quite re-
freshing to meet a person so unsophisticated amid the
heartless routine of our life of conventions."

- - - -
"What is that about conventions? I understood
that you women in this country have taken to holding
them. I hope you are not one of the strong-minded.
Miss Stuckup ?"
The lady was quite aghast. She exclaimed:
"Dear me, Mr. Trevor, you have lived on the sea
until you strangely confound terms. I meant nothing
of that sort."
"Oh, if lam allowed to confound things in such a
highfaultin set as yours, I'll do it without stint. All
this making believe to be one thing when you're quite
another is a confounded bore, I must say. Here am
I, plain Albert Trevor, sailor and Englishman, who
can't be received in the set to which my father be-
longed unless I put on fine airs and graces that are not
natural or becoming to me. I say, again, confound
the whole thing since I'm free to say so to so fair a
lady as yourself."
Mrs. Pierre repressed an amused smile, and gravely
Laid:

_ .
"Really, Mr. Trevor, you shock Miss Stuckup.
had no idea that you ignore forms to such an extent,
and if I am to act the part of your patroness in
society, you must consent to pay a little more regard
to them."
"Beg pardon, ladies, if I've said anything beyond
rules. Can't lay aside the natural man and become
a fine gentleman all at once. Don't forget that for
more than twenty years I have lived on the sea, and
consorted with sailors. They are very good sort of
people in their way, but not up to fine fixings and
genteel doings. With a little training I'll answer the
bit finely, but just now I can't help running restive a
little when the liberty is granted me. I'm glad to find
one woman above nonsense, Miss Stuckup, and you'ro
that trump."
And with great appearance of cordiality Trevor
offered his large hand to the lady, who touched it with
the tips of her delicate fingers, as she said—
"Your originality is charming. Mr. Trevor. I have
no doubt that we shall understand each other better
When we are longer acquainted, and I assure you, as
a friend of Mrs. Pierre, that you will always find a
welcome among us."
"Oh, hang it, Miss Stuckup I it a fellow can't be
received on his own account, his welcome ain't worth
Much, I'm thinking."
"Upon my word, Mr. Trevor, you are a most extra.
ordinary person," faltered the deeply-shocked young
lady, struggling between her desire to claim this new
lion as an acquaintance, and her deep disgust at his
want of cultivation. "Pray do not misunderstand me
wilfully, for I meant to give you a cordial invitation to
visit our family."
. "Now that is something like! always speak out
what you mean, and then there will be no danger of
a misunderstanding"
When after leaving with Trevor and Miss Chard,
Mrs. Pierre had set Rose down at her own door, and
the carriage rolled away, she gave free vent to her
mirth. At length she said—
" Amigo, that scene among those horrid girls was too
good! But really, now, are you not afraid they will
represent you as a bear to all their friends ?"
"I can't help it, Lonore ; I am a rough fellow; and
can't be anything else, try as much as`l will. I've
concluded to play my own part naturally ;.f or half

tile people I meet will call rudeness oriel:may, as
Miss Stuckup did, simply because I am known to be
the claimant of a large fortune, and have a history
attached to my name."
Mrs. Pierre looked grave.
Nature made you rough, it is true, but unless you
put some curb upon yourself, you will have no chance
of success with Rose Chard. I could see this morn-
ing, that she was amused with your conversation with
that absurd woman, but repelled by your want c f re-
finement."

"Miss Chard will never accept me with her own
consent, but that does not signify much. With the
power your intimacy with her places in our hands, she
can be decoyed from her home, carried off, and mars ied
in spite of any opposition she could offer. I cln
arrange matters so as to spend our honeymoon abroad ,
where she could appeal to no one against me, and htf
mother might take her own time to become reconciled
to the match. I can see plainly enough that this will
be my only chance."
"But really, 1 have hardly made up my mind to aid
you to that extent," she nervously replied.
"It matters not, Lonore ; you will do it, for you
dare not refuse to aid me when 1 demand it, in the
way most likely to win the stake for which we play."
Mrs. Pierre became deadly pale. She firmly said:
"Oh! that must be your last resource. Do you
understand me, amigo, must is the word I use."
He shrugged his shoulders.
"It sounds very pretty and imperious fr.'m your
whitening lips, and means as such words usually do
with your sex. Bali! Lonore, don't be a fool, and
spoil everything by affecting compassion for the bird
you have limed for the fowler's snare."
"But this is far more than I expected. I trusted to
the chances of the suit in your favour, and the
natural unwillingness of the heiress to relinquish her
fortune, when she can so easily retain it by becoming
your wife."
"And a charming fate that would be for one so
daintily reared as she has been," ha bitterly retorted.
"1 cannot see that it will make any difference, if
she marries me either with or without her own con-
sent."

"Then why seek to marry ber at all? The award
may be in your favour. Then you can act mag-
nanimously, by waiving your claim to repayment of
what has been spent out of the income, and leave
Rose still independent."
"This advice is very different from that you have
hitherto given me; and now, just as it becomes
necessary to act with vigour, you show the white
feather."
_ _ _ .

"Has anything happened to defeat us?" she ap
prehensively inquired.
"Only this—that the true man has disappeared
from the room in which I kept him, and 1 cannot trace
him anywhere."
Lonore fell back nearly fainting; she gasped:
66 Tell me—tell me—do not keep me in suspense."
"You know the clairvoyant I called on at yout
suggestion, who gave me the clue to the hiding-place
of the papers ? Well, it seems that she has called to
tee the puling idiot more than once since, and gained
access to the room by means of the chambermaid's
key. Last evening she came in a carriage and took
him away withher. I felt confident it could be no other
person, and this morning I went to her house. It
was closed, and an old woman came out from the
house next door, and told me the family had gone
into the country."
"And what have you done ?"
. "I set a policeman to find out what has become of
her; that is all I can do for the present."
"Is there no chance for a compromise yet ?" she
asked, in a tremulous tone.
" None—l have seen old Spring again, but he is too
keen for me. I can't cope with him."
"Get someone that can, then," she impatiently re-
joined. "Employ a man skilled in all the subtleties
of the law, who can meet your antagonist on his own
ground. Frighten him with a show of your proofs,
and make your own terms."
"The last is sooner said than done, Lonore ; though
I shall do as you advise. I will save your fair friend
from the stupidity of her counsel if I can. I really
have no desire to do what I hinted, if it canbe avoided,
for a wife would be a dead bore to me."
_ _ _ . _

Oh, means can be found, must be found, to release
me from the necessity of throwing Rose Chard into
your power."
"If they are not, look to the fulfilment of your part
of the contract; fail me, and the brilliant belle falls
from her position to—her true level."
With this parting threat, he left her.