The Morning herald., 1877-10-13

ne 10 expect Jn0 favor OF Mr. dreSnAm,S
company at breakfast that morningp"
The Baronet lay himself back. majestic
cally in his chair; thus would he conde-
scend to listen to the artists excuse and
apologies, and the look Of offended dignity
which that gentleman would receive would
be to him an amply sufficient reproof. Sir
Jonas was becoming weary Of his dignifed
attitude, and was commencing to fdget in a
manner which was anything but majestic,
when the servant who had been sent with
his masters message returned to say, that
Mr. Arthur Gresham had not, last night,
slept in the mansion; that early in the
evening, he had quilted it, and had not
since returned.
The three persons to whom this was an
nouned were, all Of them, struck with great
surprise, but with Rosaie's astonish1nent
was mingled species Of terror.
The preceding night had been to her a
sleepless one, and she had heard. though
very family, the reports Of those two pis-
tolls which had been fired in the dell that
hollow was not SO very far from the Baro-
nets mansion, the window Of Rosaie's
sleeping chamber looked towards it, and
on still and frosty night sound will travel
to an almost inconceivable distance.
Those shots, so little distance, as she be-
lieved they must be, from the mansion.
and at that strange hour Of the night, had
greatly startled Rosalie, as awake she lay,
with only most unhappy thoughts for her
companions and with every nerve unstrung
by them.
Long and vainly did she strive to ac-
count satisfactorily to herself for the alarm
ing sounds which she had heard, and then
she shought to Danish them from her mem
ory; but even in that could not succeed,
for still they clung there, inspiring her
with terror of she knew not what; but
none the less, terror which caused her to
tremble, until, in the far morning, sleep
mercifully came to close her aching eyes,
and to chase from her mind images which
had become almost appalling.
Now, her thoughts con lected Arthur
with those sounds, which, in the still night,
had been 80 terrifying to her; though why
she should do so, she could as little to her
self account, as she had been able to drive
thence the strange dread which had sprung
to her heart so soon as she had heard them;
and which, ever since, had chung to her, to
be dissipated by no one of the many efforts
which she had made to convince herself
that her fears were most unreasonable and
groundless, were, in effect, but hallucina-
tions engendered by an agitated, oer-
wrought mind.
Had Sir Jonas and his niece but looked
towards Rosaie now, they would have seen
her as pale as ghost, with widely opened
eyes, gazing forward into vacancy; and
trembling as though there were before her
something as ghost-Gke as herself.
But Sir Jonas and Mistress Cameford
both were too busy just then with their
own thoughts to notice Rosaie. The
Baronet was thinking Of his hurt dignity J;
that an artist, whom he had condescended
to employ, only at the request Of that very
estimable gentleman, Clearance Hartley,
should be so very free and unceremonious
with his patrons mansion, entering 1T, and
leaving it when he chose, as though it were
a mere tavern, and the Barcnet host, who
had no right to expect more than the pay
ment of his bill.
Mistress Augusta Camelord's thoughts
were, of course, Of very different COM
plexion to those of her uncle; but though
differently, she was as greatly annoyed,
and as fully perplexed by Arthur's absence
from the mansion for whole night, as was
the Baronet hin elf; and her dignity, too,
was somewhat offended, and her jealousy
considerably reused.
Silence had reigned in that breakfast
room, since the servants announcement LOT
Arthur Gresham's absence from the man
sion: Sir Jonas and the two ladies had
been too busily employed, each with their
own particular thoughts, for speech.
Sir Jonas, however, was about to shape
his Indignation against the artist into words,
indeed, he had already commenced to
speak, when young woman smartly, not
to say coquettishly attired, burst suddenly
into the room, and hurried towards Au-
gusta,
This unceremonious intruder to the Baro-
nets mighty presence, was Mistress Camel
ford's waiting maid and, to some consid-
erable extent, her confident-was, in short,
the Laura Hutchinson Of whom, though not
before seen, we have already heard so much.
She was, of short stature, OF figure even
more slender than that Of her mistress, and
by far more angular-nor had she very
pyrepossessing face; high cheek-bones, a
nose which resembled parrots beak, and
small, peculiar eyes, with but little ex-
oression in them, save that but Of lowest
cunning, were not calculated to make
very agreeable impression on any beholder.
She was about thirty-ive years Of age, and
unmarried-which latter fact was not at all
to be wondered at,
She had never possessed even an admirer,
and that again was not surprising, except,
Of course, to herself.
Laura Hutchinson was not without one
great passion, an inordinate love Of money,
an unbounded avarice, whose qualification