La Junta tribune., 1900-11-17

I scene seemed to rise before her.
Mollic 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 10 accept
| them.
Yes. from the very first Mollie had
dlsllked and dlstrusted 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
to 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 clinglng by nature. she had
not the strength OF character TO oppose
him In any way Mollie WIS 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
softsning vista of time. Mollie 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
love, while spelling Kate until she
was unbearable, resented the least at
teution 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 well 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 II she were a
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
hA. IAaI 20
ther. no one was so precious to her,
no one: and that her last thought and
prayer would be for her own Mollie.
II was not until her death few
months later that Mollie understood
what she meant. Chalfont and a 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.
falling them, she would be her heiress.
This had not been her mothers
wish-Mollie knew as well as IL 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
il mattered little to him that he had
ruined her mothers and her life to
obtain II.
They lived at open warfare during
the months before she was sent to
Hanover; and II was an additional
blow to find that he had constituted
himself her guardian in her mothers
place His motive was not far to seek.
| Mollie was her fathers heiress. and
| though he could not touch the princi-
pal, a handsome allowance was made
| for the care of Colonel L'Estrange's
| daughter.
And now he. too, was dead. and she
was going back to live at Chalfont
| House with her little half-sister and
Madam Dubois, Were brighter times
coming. she wondered. as, in company
with the English governess. she once
more set foot on her native land, or
was Madame Dubois but a repetition
OF Leonard Barlowe?
1t was a bleak March day when the
| governess put her charge into first
class carriage at one of the great Lon
| don stations, and reluctantly bade her
| farewell, after carefully scertaining
| that two elderly ladies in the further
corner were going the same Journey.
| and Reyerton would be reached in lit
| tie over an hour, where Madame Du-
| bois was sure to be at the station
| So she kissed the pet and pride of
Frau Seckendorf's scnool with fearful
eyes, and hurried away to catch her
own train, while Mollie Sank back in
/ the corner of her carriage. sorry to
| mart with her last friend. yet excited
Il A. l.~Sr Aase