The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1877-06-03

in London, seeing that 1t is less difficult I
3 drive round few squares than over o fe
| mountains. Sill, where there's a will there
is o way and every day n fresh carriage O
horse party rolled cantered mp the lon
silent drive /; the households pesled and th
knockers rattaned the servants put on th
aud barked at the bustle. Then came Dime
parties, evening parties, Greg parties, give
in honor Of Miss Neville, besides all the Othe
varieties of gaisty with which people in tn
country contrive to charm the monotony o
their qniet lives. Though Mr.. Neville kept o.
| closely in his sanctum as he could, he was o
course obliged to do something in return, and
| found himself at last sucked 80 deeply into
this vortex of dissipation that be threaten GO
to absoond altogether. and hide himself will
| the professor in u desert island. Nots Fanny
for although in the life of seclusion she bad
hitherto led the little maiden had declared over
| and over again that the world would never
have chsrms for her, nobody seemed TO enjoy
this altered state of things mora. Little by
little light stole into her eye and roses in to
her cheek and her father, only too happy
| In her improved looks aud spirits, woald rub
| his hand in glee, and ever and anon kissing
Maude, would tell her that it was like the wax
| ing up of tho castle in the old nursery tale,
aud that she was the fairy prince who had
worked the wonderful change.
Whether or not the alteration in Fanny was
to be attributed to her Cousins in nfluence, we
cannot say; but certainly in a very short time
she seemed to been transformed from timid,
sensitive girl into an earnest energetic little
woman, and nobody felt the alteration more
sensibly than aunt Barbara. For though that
lady still continued to hold the rens of govern
ment, the very domestics perceived that her
real power had departed and that her throne
was tottcring. II she any longer had her own
way. it was only on sufferance, aud in things
Indifferent; for in every matter affecting the
comfort of the household or the happiness of
her father Fanny now insisted on having hers.
Poor Aunt Barbara! Little had she now to
render life interesting; for Harry had gone to
Harrow, and cond no longer be scolded Fan
ny had grown hey ond her, and would no longer
be rul led the domestics had begun to look from
her to the latter for orders !; even the very cot
tsRers were growing independent, aud getting
u VIII of their own. Justly upjustly, Miss
Barbara traced all her trout bes to Maude, aud
egarded her accordingly, and grew tired at
length of the altered state of affairs that she
only waited for au opening in some other
branch of the family, in which her talent for
making people miserable might be turned TO
account, to take wing.
Much as Maude rejoiced in thu renewed hap
piness of her uncle and cousins, she was not
without her own secret little trials and wor-
res. Who isl In London nothing had been
more wearisome to her high and generous spirit
than the fulsome adulatlons of q crowd of for
tune hunters, who, measuring their attentions
by the breadth of her estates, had successively
pestered her for two whole seasons. She had
fondly hoped that in leaving London society
she would leave them behind, and certainly
none of them were hardy enough to follow her
10 Ireland but she soon discovered tb at dan.
dies like dandelious, will flourish anywhere
and found men who. for their folly and fop-
perry, might have been duplicates of those she
had left at the WesJ-end, awaiting her in Con
naught.
The festivities held in her honor were opened
hy a magnificent ball, gwen by a Mrs. Spencer
Wetherby, an old frleud Of her fathers family.
AS Miss Barbara had refused to act as ohape.
rome, hrs. Wetherby had invited Maude and
Fanny to spend two or three days at her bouse;
aud on the evening of the ball the doctor lad
dined there be hati enjoyed good half hours
tete a-tcte with his far friends before the IA T.
rival OF the guests. With those arrivals ho W.
ever, began tho presentations; aud little by
little the G0Totuz wn into the back
ground, where he SAT in shadow, watching
Maude as she fitted to and fro in the dances
She was apparently lost in the happiness of
the moment, for She never once glanced, as he
thought nhe would have done, at the corner
where 20 sar. II is not lively occupation for
mep who do nos dauoe TO si1 and watch men
who do. Especially when the latter carry of
talking 10 in the room. After sitting au hour
or two thus, O'Mearu beat retreat, aud before
half tho evening was over might have been
found comfortably stretching his legs before
mis- wn parlor fire at Kilnew. L at comfortable
AS he looked, his were not altogether pleasant
rehecJions, for in the smoke wreaths that
curied gracefully above his head the doctor
saw ugiv faces. and those were the faces OF
fonr of Maude Neville's partners. Partly from
personal intercourse, partly from report, he
knew these four men we'll, and understood ex-
ed to bring into the field; in a desperate en-
deaVor to win her-aud her patrimony The
ore, II ruined and jsded nobleman, would. he
knew. point to his coronet, long since sullied
aud defsced by the vice of it's wearer, bu,
none the less q coronet for all that. Another
a large landed proprietor, an elderly man, whc
had long had his eye on the Neville estate
would, he knew, whisper in gentle. faith er "
tones something about the advantage of join.
ing lands already contiguous. A third, a pro.
tiigate spendthrift of remarkably handsome
person, would trust ID his wealth of whiskeI
to hide the poverty of his estate. While the
fourth-the commanding officer of a regiment
quartered in the neigh ghborhood-could only
rely Oh his herculean proportions and the free
ana. easy elegance that his impudenca had en-.
sbed him to acquire, for success in au enter
prise that could alone save him from exposure
aud rnin.
Such we're the four worthless whom the doc
tor saw in the smoke, and who had that night
entered the lists to compete for the fair Will lte
hand that held the title deeds of Ballycross-
cnm-Nevillo Town. Yet what oonld he do
What command had he over Miss Neville's des-
tiuyT What right had he to shield or advise
herf None, absolutely none. He must leave
her, as her mother had left her, to Provdenc ce.
One thing, however. he could do, and did.
He refused every one of the Invitations that