The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-11-24

transfer to the steamship from the
Bombay hotel, which she had hardly
dared to hope he would reach alive, and
was a witness of his convalescence on
board ship, as day by day his strength
and spirits returned. So it was not
wonderful that Tedde turned to her
for paper and pencil on the very first
occasion that he felt he could scrawl
line, and imperiously demanded that he
be allowed to write "to his people,"
/" Are you sure you can do it?" Mrs.
Diamond asked, producing her writing
board, but not giving it over to him un-
conditionally.
"Quite sure-that is, not bit of
it-but I'll try"
81 thought you said you had nobody
belonging to your"
"No more l have-no real relations
but an adopted family that is the
dearest in the world-not a mere acct
dent of birth like other peoples fam.
lilies. l must write them just few
words to say Pm alive and coming
home, and it'll be ready when an OPP
portunity comes for posting it, though
it can't reach Moyliscallan more than
an hour or two before l do myself"
" Moyliscallan," repeated Mrs. Dia-
mond, what do you know of Moylis-
callan? only heard of the place for
the first time month ago, and now it
Turns up again!"
"1t's my home," Blake said, pain
fully scrawling the date at the top of
his sheet of paper. 1.-THE castle be-
longs to me, only I've never been able
to live in it. My people live at the
rectory-it is to Mr.. 'Maley, the rec
tor, that Pm writing. And what did
you hear about Moyliscallan, the sweet
est place on all the earth?"
Why" cried Mrs. Diamond, ex-
citedly," this is the oldest thingl My
cousin, George Strangeways, rented
the castle from some one years ago
from you it appears-and now he is en-.
gagged, married probably by this time,
to one of the rector's girls, Ellen
O'Malley, daughter, 1 suppose, of
this very old gentleman you're writing
to. bad the letter just before l met
you at Rahmednuggar and had scarcely
given it thought since"
One of the rector's girls!
Teddie Blake had seen death glaring
at him from wall of black Afghan
faces; he had looked fever in the eyes
more than once; but he had never
known what despair meant till Marcia
Diamond told him her little story of
odd coincidence sitting on the steam
ship deck, halfway through their home
ward voyage. For moment he re-
peated the words, ELLEN O'Malley;
there is only one daughter at the rec
tory" and Mrs. Diamond, whose eyes
were on the silk sock she was knitting,
went on cheerfully: "Oh, then, that's
the girl. l did not hear from George
Strangeways direct; the news came
through my brother, but, of course, it
is the same-the young lady at the rec
tory. Fancy old George succumbing to
an Irish girls Ease nations after going
all over the habitable world unscathed
till now"
" Is he good fellow" Teddie asked.
Something in his voice made Mrs.
Diamond give a swift glance at her
companion, and in that glance she I'M
derstood everything.
" He is very good fellow" she an
swered, a little more seriously than she
had hitherto spoken; "any girl will be
happy anu tenuerly treated Dy MIN,
though he is an elderly man-fifty five,
l should think-and little eccentric
and old fashioned in his ways. You
will find letters telling you all about it
when you reach England, you may be
sure. Don't you think you had better
let me take that writing board down
stairs again? 1t will be time enough to
write when there is chance of posting
your letter."
He let her lift the writing things
away, only putting out feeble hand to
crumple up the sheet on which he had
begun his letter. Then he lay back
with his eyes shut, and her tact took
her little apart, for the struggle which
he had to go through now must be
fought out alone. BY and by his SER
want came and helped him downstairs,
and Mrs. Diamond saw him no more
again that day.
Moyliscallan woods in Septem Der !
How often Teddie Blake had pictured
his homecoming through the green
glades that stretched between the cas-
tie and the rectory. Those sylvan
aisles were the rally place of all his ia.