The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1901-07-23
| A KNIGHT ERRANT
How He Stood by an Innocent
Girl In the Hour Of
Her Peril.
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES

pectedly romantic under his apparent in
vulnerability. Once, long ago in early
manhood, he had seen for an instant ideal
love as he had dreamed it. 1t had not
been for him, and it had flown to fairer
worlds almost before he had realized its
beauty, but he had never forgotten the
revelation.
If now he sometimes looked over curl
ously at the girls and women he met, it
was because he had always an irrational
hope that that divine glimpse might again
be vouchsafed to him. How did he know
but that any day, in any drawing room,
in the street, on the river, he might meet
the lady of his dreams. He had always
been disappointed hitherto. Never since
Mary Grayson died had he met love.
Women of all ages made much of him.
He was eligible as well as attractive and
had gifts of mind as well as Of person
and manner.
So it was that he had drifted into be-
ing made much of by Mrs. Lawrence, the
wife of Tom Lawrence, a good, honest,
stupid fellow, one fair hair of whose head
was worth all worthless little Mrs. Dolly.
Standish could hardly have explained
how he had drifted into being always at
Mrs. Dolly's beck and call and why he
was to be found so often on the hearth
rug at the Cedars when the Lawrences'
butler brought in the afternoon tea. 1t
was Mrs. Dolly's doing, no doubt, and
Tom, who was head over ears in love
with his heartless little wife, looked on
Dolly's friendship with Herbert Standish
contentedly.
Standish arrived one afternoon in April
rather later than usual and found Mrs.
Lawrence very much put out at some
thing or other. Even the lilies of the val
ley which he laid at her feet failed to dis
pei the cloud on her brow. For the first
time Standish felt that Mrs. Dolly was
inclined to impose a yoke upon him to
which his broad shoulders did not bend
gracefully.
While he Vas chatting a little at the
ladys exactions the hopes of the house,
Guy, Cecil and Arthur, rioted into the
room, followed more demurely by their
sister, Millicent, a mincing little girl,
who, by and by, would be the image of
her mother. 1t was jest of Mrs. Dolly's
that Standish was to marry Millicent one
day, and even now, at s years old, Milli-
cent, nursing her doll, made unsupported
eyes at the tall figure on the hearthrug.
Following came Nora O'Brien, Mrs.
Lawrences new governess.
As the slender girl in the straight blue
frock passed silently to her place behind
the tea table Standish's heart gave sud
den, unexpected throb. With such a
heart throb the lad of Is had looked on
the heaven destined beauty of Mary
Grayson, but never since, never since,
had it beaten with such high hope, with
such a quick despair.
An instant and he had stepped forward
to take the cups from the new govern
ess' hand.
Mrs. Lawrence had not introduced him
to the new inmate of the house. She
never did introduce her governesses, a
fact of which Standish was aware and
which had often caused him a feeling of
contemptuous irritation with charming
Mrs Dolly. But since he was so often a
visitor he had come to be on speaking
terms with the long line Of Mrs. Law
rence's governesses, so many of whom
had failed to please the lady and her ex-
acting young daughter.
As he took the cup from Miss O'Brien's
hand be paused an instant and looked
down into her eyes. She did not change
color, but looked up at him steadfastly.
Her eyes were dark blue, fringed with
black lashes. He seemed to look down
into her heart in that instant of time, to
ask her if she was really the one he had
been looking for since he lost Mary Gray
son. What she answered with her stead
fast long look he could not read easily.
Only he was sure she was honest and
true and that her love was his to win if
he could He smelled the fresh. spring
like smell of the daffodils in the breast of
her blue gown. 1t was bewildering.
Then a word from his hostess, spoken a
little snappishly, recalled him. He car
ried the cup of tea to Mrs. Dolly and
fetched her the tiny table to hold it
which she was in the habit of using. He
offered her the foie gras sandwiches and
the buttered toast. Only a very fine OBJ
server woulc have noticed that his eyes
were alert now, no longer jaded, and that
something like spring wind had put a
little color in his face and ruffled his
smooth hairs ever so little.
Little Millicent, on her footstool,
watched the new governess from eyes
that had trick of narrowing like her
mothers, watched her and then went on
furtively to Herbert Standish's subtly al
Tered face.
The weeks of the spring went by In
jocund procession. Standish was as as
siduous as ever in his attendance at the
Cedars, and the house by the river grew
pleasanter as the May burst in blossom
and the little flotila of the water lilies
rocked at its moorngs.
To hardly ovor smoke will Mrs Law
rence's governess, yet from his place on
the hearthrug against the background of
palms and ferns which had taken the
place of the fire his eyes watched her in
cessantly.
He had angered Mrs. Lawrence once or
twice by, unnecessarily as ii seemed to
her, turning over the pages of the gov
erness's music and lingering by the piano
while she sang heart piercing Irish songs
In the richest. softest of contraltos How
ever, after time he was forgiven, be-
cause he loved music, and 1t was excuse
enough for his transgression, since ever
Mrs. Lawrence could not deny the beauty
of the Irish girls singing.
So few words had passed between them
and yet he seemed to know so much
about Nora O'Brien and her uneyentfu
history, Her father. the retired army
officer. her delicate mother, the old, big
barraga of a house on the Shannon, full
of out at elbows, happy, hungry girls and
boys. He imagined 1t as Morals homesicl
eyes saw it. He knew about her years il
the French convent. He knew the very
names of the dogs in her Irish home
And yet so little, so little, had passed be
tween them.
He was so far from making her con
spicuous by his attentions that perhaps
only one person was aware of the steady
regard with which the very eyes of his
soul seemed turned on Nora OBrien, and
that was n little person, supposed about
this time to be much engrossed in the
making of dolls rousseau.
1t was about two months after Miss
O'Brien's coming to the Cedars that
Standish came in upon perturbed scene
in the drawing room, where things were
usually so well ordered. He came in un'
announced by way of the garden and the
veranda to find Mrs. Lawrence and heI
governess confronting each other.
The lady was in high state of wrath
Her check had an added brilliance to that
of the rouge pot, and her eyes were mar.
rowing and opening to display fierce
light in depths that usually looked shall
low enough. Her voice was raised, her
dramatic right hand pointed to the pale
| girl, who stood with one hand resting Cd
the table, as though for support.
As soon as Mrs. Lawrence caught sight
| of Standish she dropped into chair and
pressed her handkerchief to her eyes.
II am so ashamed she began, "such a
| e..t a., o,,L ff Of
children! How little | knew
"Mrs. Lawrence thinks stole one OF
| her Jewels" said the girl, answering the
| ...an4in., a., Gtandish,s faca Sha WINS