The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-07-26

THE ARKANS% after Lena joined her, and then, without one word about her past or one refeEeuca to the chile ren's father, she fell nGeoop. The only direction she Iek behind hea was that Lena should take her boys to her old home.
 When Lena reappeared in the Engiish village, bringing with her two little boys, whom she stated to be the children oi Mary Seymour tho one would call Mary by her foreign name, which vas unpro. nounceable among the vilinSers), there were many remarks made. Unfostunateiy the children took after their foseien fafhes and not their English mother. Mr. Sey- mour himself could find scarcely a trace of his loss daughter in their faces. Mrs. Seymour refused to believe that they were Mary's af all But they were taken in, probably because no other eourse could be pursued, and inquiries were se, on foot to discover their father, or to as- certain the fact of his death.
 I f1lA NAkkD oaS&UU4 kk3G C0ikG1Gu v0Iy little- They had the open air, and their play-room, and the garden and the fields. Above all they had Maddalena-theis Maddalena who played with them, and petted them, and told them stories; and what did they want besides!
 For Maddalena, also-it makes me glad to remember this-a new life began With her two little lovers-that was what she always called us-beside her, she held her head high. and went about joy fully. While her Lucius and her Am- prose adored her, she could never be a creature apart.
 l come no. to the time when our troubles began. Our grandfather died suddenly. He left everything he pos sessed to his wife, with reversion to his daughter. lfhis daughter died withou, children the property was to go to dis tant relative, in whom both he and his wife were interested. In the body of the but in codieil, signed but unwitnessed, it was entreated that Mrs. Seymour would provide suitably for their adopted daugh- ter.
 Our grandfather's death brought many changes to us. Mrs. Seymour, who had never professed to believe that we were her daughters children, now showed her feelings openly. We were banished from the Sitting-rooms and our play-room was taken away from us. But for Maddalena, who clung to her little lovers courage ously, we should have been banished al- together to the kitchen and stables. Worse, however, was to come. The rela- tive mentioned in Mrs. Seymour's Will, who was to have been the heir had Mary died childless, paid us a visit and gained strong influence over our grand mothers mind. He confirmed her in her suspicion that we were no kin of hers, and advised that we should be sent to our country and brought up in the posi- ton to which, he was pleased to say, we undoubtedly belonged.
 l remember poor Lenas agony when she heard of the mischief that was being matched against us and saw how power less she vas to avert it; for the ground upon which our enemy went was her in- ability to think and act as a reasonable being. She had not meant, he said, to deceive MT. and Mrs. Seymour but she herself had been deceived. It was not Mary who had sent the summons to Lena, 1t was one of her own Italian relatives, who having heard of her good prospects had wished to make provision, through her, for other members of the family. She had gone to Italy in an excited frame of mind and she had believed everything that was told her.
 This, at least, was the conclusion ar- rived at by Mrs. Seymour, who now sent for Maddalena and sternly bade her make her choice. The Italian boys, be- ing no kin of the Seymours, were to go back to their own country; she might re- main where she was and enjoy the pro- vision promised to her by her late bene- factor. In such case, however, she must promise to have nothing further to do with the little aliens.
 It did not take long for Maddalena to decide. Desert her little lovers Not for the world: not for a hundred worlds. If they went she would go too.
 On that very day we left England to- gether on our way to Florence. Lena had little ready money and so had we, and we lived on that for a time. Acting on the advice of her only friend in the world, the Florentine doctor who had at tCuuSo out uIOkuSI iu uGI l13I uiueSS, Lena wrote to an English solicitor for ad- vice about us. She was told that we had no rights whatever against Mrs. Seymour. After her death, if we could establish our identity with the persons we professed to be, our claims to the property might be put forward. Nothing daunted. Lena st herself to work. She kissed her little lovers, who were not in the least uneasy either about the future or the present, told them to be of good heart, for though all the world might desert them she never would, and began to consider how she could make money for them.
 Lena had inherited her motheEs beau tiful voice, and Mir. Seymour, ~bo loved music, had procured some good instruc- ton for her. With little more training, giveu to her freely by an Italian master who admired her for her independence, she became a finished concert singer, and managed, Sor some time, to support har<a1f and nd,rafa nc t,,, sy c,,.x~ sv co