Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1881-10-21

you might call at The Vlckerage, girls.
said the mother, land ask for the children
to come and spend long afternoon, and
perhaps you could manage to take bask
ct of currants. There are good many
things for you to do on your way. You
must take bundle of rags to old Betty
Freer and call and see how that poor lit
tie Harry Caswell isl
Gard there is the Fortnight to leave at
Mrs. Barrow's'' said Grace; ''you have
done with it, uncle, havnt you"
"No use keeping it for me,'' said Mr..
Holt And so the programme was made
out. and when dinner was over the girls
went up stairs to change their dresses and
make ready for their walk.
1t was always pleasure to them to go
to cousin Mary's.'' Belle had long ago
announced that she meant never to be
married, but to be lust like Cousin Ma
ry.''
GAS if you could be- had sneered her
big, schoolboy brother Tom.
Miss Funnival was tall, graceful wo-
man, with tender face framed in hair
which had early lost it's color and turned
gray. She lived in 1.-The Church House."
where she had been born. Father and
mother brother and sisters, had departed
and she was alone; and yet were its ramb-
ling passages, its quaint parlors. its old
fashioned garden, bright and pleasant pla
ces, shone upon by the mistress serene
eyes and made merry by the voices Of the
| obi al oh, loIi TO
have about her. Mr.. Holt, of Dorley
Grange was her cousin, and to his children
'Cousin Mary" was the fountain of all
good things. She was to them the grand
designer of Christmas games and charades,
the giver of charming presents, the organ
izer of picnics in the pleasant summer
time, the best of all nurses, the kindest of
all comforters. She it was who drove Ell
lice into Middeham every week for sing
ing lessons, she it was who was keeping
Tom at school for another year. There
vas no end to Cousin Mary's kindnesses.
So the girls were as merry as larks, and
rs happy as queens (if that old expression
Tetns anythingl, that sunny June after
noon as they covered the village library
books, and told Miss Furnival all the home
news. Grace and Belle were doubling and
fitting the covers, and Ellice, with a big
apron over her pretty pink dress, was
''pasting."
They had been hard at work for two
hours, and the piles of clean tidy looks
were almost complete, when handmade
Jenny opened the door.
"a gentleman, please, ma'am, wants to
S ae you. In the library he is, please, nm"
and she handed Miss Furnival card. The
mistress looked at it wonderingly, and
then left the room and crossed the hall.
holding it in her hand. Who could "John
Y Colin Cameron. M {. d. be?
A tall young man standing by the wind
ow turned as she entered and bowed, and
said with smile, as he gave her letter.
This will explain my Intrusion, mad
ann
Miss Furnival read
My dear Old Friend Mary Furniyal,
l hear by side wind that You are still
living at Dorley. Long years have passed
since we met; but it is to me an lmpossl-
BILE thing to think that my school sweet
heart Mary can have cast out an old affec
ton. In this faith l have desired my good
son to call upon you. | want to hear about
you, and | want you to know him. You
will like him for his own worth, [ we'll
know; but at first be kind to him for the
sake of your old friend,
| MARGARET bLAKE CAMERON.
Miss Furnival put out her hand with
cordial earnestness.
''This is a pleasure to me, DR.. Cameron!
Pray come into the other room, and have
tea with me, and tell me the history of
all these silent years. 1t is SO long since L
heard of your mother that really did not
recognize your name, am sorry to say
So the young man stopped his tall head
through the two low dnorWays and follow
ed his hostess into a long quaint room,
smelling all of roses. Well it might, for
there were roses on the mantle-piece, roses
looking in at the open windows, roses in
the middle of the tea table, which stood
there ready, covered with dainty white
damask and delicate old china and shin
ing silver, and heaped-up ripe red straw
berries.
When the ceremony of introduction had
been duly performed, and the Doctor was
talking to Miss Furnival, he glanced now
and then at the three pretty girls whose
acquaintance he had so suddenly. made.
One was in white, another in black, and
another all pink, like the roses
Poor Ellice 1t was embarrassing to be
in this trim, covered up with one OF Su-
sans great kitchen-aprOns
Nd oil rbay,
the next hour was passed. Colin Cameron
had been so entirely thrown into the soci-
ETY. of men only. since his settlement at
Midlothian, THAT this daintily-appointed
board and TINS groupe of fair women SEEM
ed to him like getting a glimpse into the
House Beautiful in Bunyan's allegory,
while to his fellow-guests the impromtu
addition to their party of this intelligent,
world-experienced man gave q peculiar
interest and piquancy to Cousin Mary's
always pleasant entertainment. When tea
was over DR.. Cameron rose. and. with a
courteous expression of regret at leaving
such good company, said he must GO on to
see Dr. Main, the village doctor, who had
asked him to come over and consult with
him on difficult case. So he was initia-
ted in the easy geography of Dorley and
went his way.
Soon afterward Grace and Belle set off
hnmeward, having call to make on the |
way, while Ellice stayed to help Miss Fur
nlval number the books, in correspondence
with the catalogue. She would go home
by the fields, she said, later.
Colin Cameron was walking home to |
Mddleham in the dusk by the field way