The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1895-07-30
&. THE PAINTER.

talk to gentlemen who have not been in
trOduced to you. But when you are
sweet and 20 and are staying at a coun-
try house all alone and are rather bored,
and handsome young man comes to
your rescue in a wood, when your poor
little dog has caught it's foot in a cruel
trap, how can you possibly pass him by
the very next day as if he were stran-
ger? And he was so kind to the dogl
He bound up it's poor little bleeding foot
in his handkerchief and carried it in his
arms to the lodge gate. Then he said:
"Do you often walk in the wood?"
She was feeling too grateful to him
to resent his impertinence as she should
have done. So she only said, "Some-
times" and thanked him again with all
her heart in her pretty eyes,
He looked up to where, through the
trees, the big red house showed its twist
ed, old fashioned chimneys and said:
"My name is Lavender. You are Miss
Verinder, suppose?"
She looked at him quickly.
1T am Miss Verinder's humble COM
panion. My name is Smith. y
"We are comrades in servitude," he
said 1T am Lord Hahbut's secretary.
You walk In the woods sometimes. Then
it ism goodby. Do they let you come
out often?'
''I am my own mistress at present, "
she said "a lot of people will be COM
ing down on the 25th for the heiress'
coming of age. They give grand enter
tainment to the tenants. Lord Halibut
is to be there What is he hke?"
"Oh'' said the young man indiffer-
emily, "he's not bad sort of fellow.
There's some talk of their families wish
ing him to marry the heiress. The es-
tates go very well together. But he's
never even seen her. He's been SO much
abroad, you know
"I don't believe the heiress will have
him." the girl said sharply and turned
away with her poor little dog in her
arms.
Now, 1t is quite clear that she ought
not to have walked in the wood-at
least, not SO soon as the next day, or if
she walked there the next day she ought
not to have chosen the very hour when
poor Troll had met with his misfortune.
But to the bored much may be pardoned,
and, as for Lord Halibut's secretary, he
had right, one may suppose, to amuse
himself. And that meeting was not the
last. How could it have been? And when
you meet person every day without
ohaperons or other tiresome people you
soon make friends. Before the week was
out Mr.. Lavender had heard how Miss
Smith was left an orphan and had to
earn her living, and she had learned
that Mr.. Lavender's part in life must
always be that of a subordinate.
Is she kind to your" he asked one
evening as they sat ON a messed tree
trunk and watched the red sunset across
the valley where the corn grew.
"Oh, yes, she's kind enough" the
girl said. eat least am sure she means
to be.
"She's revoltingly clever, Ihear. Beat
the senior wrangler at Cambridge, or
something"
''She did. But that's not criminal,
and Lord Halibut is at least her partner
in iniqulty. He took first class in
greats, didn't he? Oh, how do hate
clever menl''
"You have my sympathy. abhor
clever wome-' !"
They both laughed And the days
went on, and July melted into August,
and August grew in grace, till the time
came near for the coming of age of Miss
Verinder, and if during these days there
had been a hand pressure SO slight as
not to be worth resenting, or look SO
nearly tender as to make a mans heart
beat high with hope; if he had treasured
the forgetmenots she gathered by the
woodland pond and pressed them in the
volume of Browning from which he had
read to her in the woods, and if she kept
certain handkerchief, stained with
poor little Trolls blood, in locked
sandalwood box, and took it out and
laid it against her face, for all its blood
stain, when no one else was by-all that
concerned only the companion and the
secretary, and no one else in all the
wide world.
1t was bright noontide, and they
walked through the woods, and present.
ly they came to the wishing tree, with
its two trunks growing from one root.
"If we pass through the wishing
tree," she said, land wish as we go, the
fairies will give us the wish of our
hearts.
SO they went through, hand in hand,
because the way was rough. AS she
passed out of it bramble caught her
dress, and he stopped to disentangle it,
but the folds of her gown were electric,
and his hands trembled.
"How tiresome it isl'' she said. at
believe that bramble will never let me
60"
"Can you blame it?" he asked, look
ing up at her, and she turned her face
away. They walked on "a whole
month";" he said, land seeing you every
dayl When did such good fortune ever
before come to poor secretary"
"Or to a humble companion? No,
don't mean that. But it has been pleas
ant. !"
They walked In silence to the little
gate that divided the woods from the
grounds. Here they stopped, and she
said, looking at him for moment half
shyly, half proudly: Come in. should
IKE you to see the garden. ALI the
smart people are coming tomorrow to
keep the heiress' birthday.
He hesitated, and she laughed. "Oh,
we needn't go in sight of the house. The
grounds are big enough"
He flushed and stammered in word
less denial Of the thought she had read
in him that his being seen with the COM
panion might compromise her, and to-
gether they walked under the arching
trees to the old lawn where the sundial
stands
''This is where the tenants dance,
believe, she said, "and all the grand
people dance with the cottager folks,
which seems to me rather silly, for am
sure each set would rather dance with
themselves. Lord Halibut is coming.
Will you be here?"
II shall certainly come if Lord Hall
but does. May dance with your"
She laughed. II don't think you
know what dancing ON turf is like. Be-
sides probably our steps dom suit. F"
Let us try now," he said
He laid his arm ON her waist. The
next moment her hand was on his arm,
and they were whirling down the lawn
toward the sundiaL
what foolish people we arel'' she
said breathlessly, and half moved to
pause. But his arm held her closer, and
they waltzed to the end of the lawn,
past the sundial and into the shade of
the great copper beech, and there, before
she had time to move her hand from his
arm, both his arms were round her, and
he was raining kisses on her soft, flush
ed cheek. She shrank little, and then
laid her face SOFTLY auainst his and mt