The Lamar register., 1900-11-14


the good Frau, who was secretly i'm
mensely proud of the pretty. we'll
dressed English heiress confided to
her care. and watched over her with
vigilant eye: and Mollie looked
round them with a friendly glance,
and a sigh at the thought that after
tomorrow she should see them no
more.
The dusk was falling fast; it was
difficult to see the houses across
the wide street. and as she stood by
the porcelain stove, warming her cold
little fingers. her thoughts went back
to her childhood days as they had not
done for long time. and scene after
scene seemed to rise before her.
Mollie could not remember her IA
ther at all, for he had died when she
was but a few months old, but her
pretty young mother had been her
playfellow, and until her sixth year,
her constant companion. Then came
the days when tall, dark man was
always with her mother. and that
dearly loved parent was somehow not
the same to her. while the dark man
used to bring her sweets. and smile
grimly when she put her hands be-
hind her back, and refused to accept
them.
Yes. from the very first Mollie had
disliked and distrusted Leonard Bar
lowe, and he had cordially returned
the feeling. With her mothers sec
ond marriage all her troubles began,
and the child would often sob herself
- sleep at night, feeling neglected and
forlorn, missing the tender voice, the
lullaby ever since she could remem-
| Der.
Afterwards Mollie grew to know
| that her mother had not forgotten her.
but that her stepfather. jealous and
morose. resented even the affection
| she bestowed to her own child. and
| timid and clinging by nature. she had
| not the strength of characterize oppose
him in any way. Mollie was sent
| to school soon after the birth of her
half-sister. Kate. and though she spent
| the holidays at home, Chalfont House
was never the same place again.
| Looking at the past through the
softening vista of time. Mollle knew
that her woes had not been imaginary.
She would have been fond enough
of the little usurper, who seemed to
have pushed her out of her place. had
she been allowed, for she was neither
| jealous nor revengeful: but Mr.. Bar
lowe, while spelling Kate until she
was unbearable, resented the least at
| tention shown to Mollie, and the
holidays had been misery, school
refuge. She gradually grew to know
that her mother was miserable. that
she only dare caress her in private, and
that she feared her handsome dark
husband more than she loved him.
How we'll she remembered the last
| time she had any talk with her
mother! 1t was the night before her
return to school, and her mother came
| into her room as she was preparing
for bed, and, closing the door, took
| her into her arms as If she were
| baby again, kissed and cried over her
| in a passionate, heart-broken way,
saying that whatever happened to the
| future, she must never doubt her poor
mothers love, that save her dead ia
| tber, no one was so precious to her,
| no one; and that her last thought and
prayer WOulu De lOr ueT oWH hoiile.
1t was not until her death a few
months later that Mollie understood
what she meant, Chalfont and good
income had been Mrs. Barlowe's pri-
vate property, and she left them to
her husband. for his lifetime, and then
to her daughter Kate, no mention be-
ing made of her elder child, save that,
failing them. she would be her heiress.
This had not been her mothers
wish-Mollie knew as well as If she
had been told-and the fierce anger
burned in her heart. not for the loss
of the property, but for what Mr..
Barlowe had made her mother suffer.
oh, how she hated him as she saw his
fine eyes rowing with an air of pro-
prietorship round her mothers room!
In her childish heart she felt that he
had got what he had schemed for, and
it mattered little to him that he had
ruined her mothers and her life to
obtain it.
They lived at open warfare during
the months before she was sent to
Hanover; and it was an additional
blow to find that he had constituted
himself her guardian in her mothers
place. His motive was not far to seek.