Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1860-01-05

THURSDAY, JANU
Hall, and of her fathers wealth. And Mrs
Hilbert groaned, and the archdeacon shool
, his stick, and something very like an anathe
ma few across the seas to rest on the brieb
head of the young girl sitting in the balloon,
overlooking the Grand Canal at Venice
thinking of the mother she had loved, and O
the father she had lost.
This young girl leading the secluded life
of foreign damsel !; seeing no one but he,
faithful English. nurse and the various mis-
tresses of such accomplishments as her father
had desired her to learn, and her own arts
tic taste had directed her to; living in q
world of poetry of her own creation, her full
heart yearning for love and sympathy. and
companionship her imagination filed with
great visions Of her mothers home, of that
large strong England whose voice sounded
through the whole world, and whose sons
held sway in every quarter of the globe: this
young girl stored up large treasures of poet.
ry and affection, all the purer because OF
their depth, all the more enduring because
of their muse.
Mrs. Malahide lived at Brighton in a
pretty little house on the sea-shore, occupy
ing herself with the education of her four
daughters-her only son was at Cambridge
in quite natural and un-Eyerett fashion.
Not that she was wholly natural either: for
inherited reserve and early education were
too strong to be set aside, even by the freer
life she had led since her marriage. There
were still traces of Green Grove, in the pre-
else slow manner in which she spoke, and in
the stiff hand held out like cleft bar of i
ron, which formed the chief characteristic of
the Everett world. But she was good crea-
ture at heart, and had been softened, first by
owe and then by sorrow, into more real ami
ability than her rigid manners would give one
to believe.
1t was to Mrs Malahide that all Estella's
feelings turned. She knew the secret of her
birth, poor child and though too ignorant
of the world to understand it in all it's social
bearing, yet she was aware that stain of
some kind rested on her. which made her
grateful for any love as for an act of condo
scension. She knew that her fathers family
had disowned her, and that the very woman
who now expected is live on hers, had writ
ten in letter to her lawyers, thus "No one
can feel more strongly than the sin and the
shame which the existence of Miss Fay's
daughter entails on our family; still, for the
sake Of my children, trust that she may
continue the allowance made to me by my
brother in PREPARATION of my fathers injustice,
and that, in so doing she will not feel she is
comforting benefit, but simply doing her
duty in repairing,so far as she can, the wrong
which her birth has done to US ALL"
But, although Estella knew that these
were the proud and hostile feelings with
which the whole Everett world regarded her,
yet, as she used to say to herself, whom else
had she to love ?-whom else to benefit p
Her father had left her his fortune and his
name she must see the old Hall at Green
Grove; she must some day go down there as
mistress, sole and unaccountable, Of all the
farms and lands around and, do what they
would, they could not keep it from the world
that Jacob Everett had left his property and
his name to the child of his unmarried wife.
She pitied them; she would have pitied them
more had she understood the matter more !;
but she knew nothing better to do than to
win their love and conquer their esteem, and
so make them forgive her for her unintention-
al wrong towards them.
She therefore determined to go 10 Brigh-
ton, where she knew Mrs. Malahide resided !;
to find some means of introduction to her !;
and, she said, looking on the waters of the
Adriatic, force aunt to respect, to love, and
in the end to acknowledge her. The scheme
was romantic enough; but it did not promise
badly. Estella and Betty Thorne left beau
tiful Italy, and went, in the dull autumn
months to Brighton.
1t took little time before she and her faith
full nurse settled themselves and then lit
tie time longer before she discovered Mrs.
Malahides address. Then she had to make
her plans and determine on her point of at
tack; for thing Of such gravity she thought,
was not to be done in a hurry. She felt
frightened now, that the time lad really
come when she was to see and be seen by her
fathers family, and she almost wished she
had remained in Italy. She felt strange too
in England. Everything was cold and formal.
The language sounded harsh, spoken all
round her with gruff, rough voices and I'M
grateful accents; the houses looked small
and mean after the glorious marble palaces
of Italy; and the people were strangely dres.
sed in shabby finery-dirty bonnets in place
of the white veil of Genoa, the simple flower
of the Mediterranean coast, and the pictur-
esque head-dresses Of Italy =; trailing gowns,
with founces dragging in the mud, worn by
women who, in her own country, would have
been dressed in peasants costume, graceful
and distinctive-all was so strange that Es-
tella felt lost and miserable, and wished her.
self back among the orange trees again, far
away from land with which she had not
learnt to be familiar in its familiar features,
and whose industrial grandeur seemed to di.
minish as she approached it. For, ideal adj
miration does not 60 very far in daily life.
At last, Estella took heart and courage,
and one day boldly went to Mrs. MaIahide's
house. She Knocked at the door, which a
prim, neat looking servant girl opened. To
her inquiry if Mrs. Malahide was in her own
honse, FOR Estella did not speak English
with perfect knowledge of its idioms-the
servant with broad stare, said Eyes," a
vague belief that she was somebody improp-
er crossing her brain.
Estella was ushered into prim room, with
the chairs, and the sofa, and the curtains
done up in brown holland; no fire in the
CRATE, and a girls work all about-Berlir
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