The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1877-03-22

mbDutEss NQeU ne met htI Cu u
. cliffs, and offered her his assistance
he had been charmed by the simp
!. unembarrassed way she had accepte
: il. She had made no Gemur, as an
: girl less entirely free from seif-c0I
I sciOusness would have done. Sb
J was too unversed in the worlds way
!. for the lack OF Introduction to max
: here hesitate in the fear lest this off
might be merely q pretext for maxim
the acquaintance OF q pretty girl, al
J too innately well bred to look on tn
: adventure as one out OF which sh
might get q filtration. Seeing q
: this, he is well pleased that fate,
= the person Of his uncle's old friend
3 should have ordained that they are
become better acquainted. Luncheo
finished, they all sit round the fire
and soon grow chatty and cOnfider
tiaI, quite like cid friends. By To
time Christopher KennIeots rises {
go the early Winter twilight has lon
drawn in, and it is quite dark.
"You will have a nasty walk to tn
hotel in the rain hut the wind viii
be sc your back, going in that diree
ton, Colonel Hursley ssys, biddini
his visitor goodbye.
SIT is an i'll wind that blows NJ on
any good, and I can't complain Of tht
harbor it drove me into this morn
Ing" says Mr.. Kennicote.
Then he starts on his way, up tht
hill this time, and as he walks briskly
along the vision of Rirlish fair younl
face, with frank blue eyes that NEE
his own without shadow Of cOquetry
/ -, A1f., IL
darkness. In the silence q clear
sweet voice seems speaking to him
still, talking, not very learnedly per
haps, but good deal OF girlish non
sense, which Is yet free from any
tendency toward fastness or fiippancy
and when Christopher KennIcot,
turns in st the door of his hotel he
knows that he has fallen in love with
Colonel Hursley's niece, and he re-
solves that he will not attempt to fall
out again.
Being still so minded, the next day
be found his way to Sea View Terrace
IS early in the morning as he felt he
could without unduly intruding. He
was received cordially by both uncle
and niece, who, already dressed to 20
out, invited him to accompany them
and be accepted the invitation CRATE
fully. The wind and rain OF the
previous day had given place to SUM-
shine and soft westerly breeZs that
came pleasantly against their faces as
they went up the hill to the cliffs,
toward the scene Of yesterdays disas-
ter.
1--WE must look for my umbrella, -
said Miss Seston. "I wonder what
has become of the poor thing ?''
"Perhaps mermaid has picked it
up" Mr.. KenDieote suggested.
"She would find it useful under the
sea to keep the water off, WOuldn't
she," said the girl, merriIy.
And so, laughing, talking now jest
ingly, now seriously, OF all things un-
der the sun, they passed that morning
and many following mornings, after
moons, and evenings.
During the next fortnight there was
scarcely an hour in the day when
when Christopher Keunicote was not
with his new friends. No excuse was
too trivial to afford a reason for going
where he might stay blissfully in
Phemie Seaton's presence. Colonel
Hursley looked on complacently +; old
bachelor though he was, he could read
the signs Of the times, and was more
thsn willing that Kennicote and the
child should make match Of it.
The child, as he called Der, was the
only one unconscious of what was
passing before her very eyes. She
had yet to learn the part that she was
now playing in the little drama of her
| life. She just knew she was very
happy, and that the days slipped
away very pleasantly; but it did not
occur to her to draw comparisons be-
tween the present and the past, and
call herself happier than she had ever
been before, and speculate on the
reasons (; this knowledge was to come
later. Now che was perfectly content
70 go on meeting christopher heunt-
cote day after day, on precisely the
same footing OF friendly intimacy (;
and he, seeing how utterly innocent
she was of any idea of love-making,
found himself progressing but slowly
with mis- wooing. If he made her
pretty fiattering speeches she only
laughed at him. When, in his de-
spair OF making her understand how
BACSCAN hC AAu lOoE AAo hCaIt1 nc
grew sentimental. Phemie would
look al him with an inquIsitive sur
prise in her blue eyes that fairly puz-
zled him.
"Was there ever such a girl before
a woman who positively did not
know when she was being made love
to ?" he would ask himself, in amaze
ment. 1t was new experience to
him, and the novelty was not with
out its charm it also had no time to
wear of, for fortnight after their
first meeting was the limit OF both his
own stay at Caercombe and Of hers.
December was nearly out, and
Christmas within a couple Of days,
when their last day together came.
The next four-and-twenty hours
would find them all scattered. By
that time Colonel Hursely would be
on board the troopship Niger, leaving
England to rejoin his regiment in
India, after six months leave.
Christopher Kennicote would be at
home in Leicestershire, where his
own people had been expecting his
return for the last ten days, wonder
ing what could detain him so long
during the hunting season, for he had
decided on keeping his own counsel
until he should have something
definite to say.
Phemie Seaton's destination was an
old-fashioned manor-house on the
borderland between North Devon and
Cornwall, some miles distant from all
neighbors, and 10 winter separated
from them by what the country peo-
pie forcibly term 'gashly" roads,
where she had hitherto led an un-
eventful contented life, mostly alone
with old Jenifer, the house-keeper I;
for the Squire, her father, took but
little notice of her daughter, never
having quite forgiven her for being
girl, when a son would have been so
much more to his taste.
Mrs. Seaton, Colonel Hursley's sis
ter, had shared his disappointment
fully, and died Of it, rather glad to get
away from a world in which she had
made two great mistakes, the greater
of which had been her marriage with
the Squire, for the husband and wife,
utterly unsuited to each other, had led
8 most unhappy life; and Mr.. Seaton,
left q widower, never entertained any
idea of marrying again, but resigned
himself to the fate that should one
day give RoscorlR into the hands of
his little fsir-haired daughter, be-.
tween whom and himself there was
small sympathy. Not that he was
actually, or even negatively, unkind
to Phemie I; it was merely the result
of circumstance that their lives, lived
under the same roof, lay 50 far
apart.
The Squire was devoted to outdoor
sports of all kinds these necessarily
kept him much away. from home du-
ring the day indeed Phemie rarely
saw him between an early breakfast
and late dinner, at which, until re.
Gently, he had not been thought old
enough to appear. Bat for the last
year they had dined together, and
Phemie, who took little interest in
the shooting or the runs across the
country with the Trelaby hounds, or
in the prospects OF the crops, which
formed the chief topic of her fathers
conversation, dreaded the return to
those dinners and to those nightly
efforts to make herself eOmpsniOnable
to him, oppressed by the humiliating
sense that her failure was to be at
tributed to the fact of her being only
girl.
In Colonel Hursley's eyes this was
nof cuah O draUhaak and phania