The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-09-10

.l own tongue. with their own colioquia- lisms and rugged asent. and where even their slow blood was stirred bx the impassioned shouts and transports of the preacher). But wnoever Mir. Cave might miss. there were always three black figures in the Grange pew Miss Forde, supported by the sisters Jubber.
 The Reverend Edward Cave was that uncommon individual. a wealthy par son: he was good to the poor. liberal minded. and generous: 1t never dawned on him that Forde's wan, silent daugh- ter was an object of charity. secretly pfning for compant5nsnip and sympathy. He and her father had had littie Tn common. Mir. Forde was at heart Nnoconformist tearly impress heart a Nonconformist (early impress pIainness and lack of adornment in his home. the simple. austere, and secluded life. were not the result of poverty. but the outcome of an innate Puritanism; also. he had no taste for the books that were 10 the Reverend Edward Cave as his children and idols. He had never heard of the great Sutherland sale. much less of the Psalmorum codex i45s. or the ''Valdarfer Boccaccio.' Ambrose Forde's books" were chiefly dedicated to figures. and the word = books"
 
 counting -houses The Rector had known Hester since she was a lanky schoolgirl. spending her holidays at the Grange; in those days he had, entered into playful conversations, and offered her chocolates and jujubes. Now she was grown up. and seemly another individual; her silence and re- serve daunted and alarmed him. Occasionally he had ventured to visit her; was he not her pastor and trustee? But she seemed so cold and remote as they sat together in the gloomy parlour. and discussed the weather. the flowers. and the various village ailments. It had struck him that the girl looked faded and unhappy and he was sincerely anxious to help her in any way: he would have even lent her one of his precious first edl. tions bound by GroIier. if 1t would have afforded her pleasure or interest Vainly he endeavoured to cheer her with anecdotes and scraps of local gossip. Had she heard that Farmer Wade had called his twelfth and latest infant "Finis," and that Widow Timms had deplored the i'll behaviour of her boys In spite of his kind "dtstfuction": and that recently in Sunday School. when he had asked a class What was an epistle? one little girl. after a long silence and much painful thought, had answered.: Please, sir, the wife of an Apostle!
 Hester listened politely and nodded her head, but no smile dawned upon her severely cut lips; apparently. the wretched young woman lived in an atmosphere of mental gloom. never to be penetrated by the feeblest ray of humour. Before he took his departure her visiter earnestly exhorted her to go sonewhere for change, threw out various suggestions, and was eloquent respecting the benefit of sea air.
 T am off, myself. to the Tyrol," he said What would you think of a month at Whitby? You see. It's August now-eapital time therer
 But to this appeal Miss Forde merely replied: T could not go alone: I am all right here. thank you very. very much
 The Rector departed to the Tyrol, MT. Levin and family to Scarborough; even pr. Marsh snatched a holiday; but Miss Forde still remained at Shalesmoor. enjoying her own com pany.
 The Jubbers, now women of social importance. were much feted in the village. Miss Jane had relaxed her purse-strings (and the hearts of the butcher and the grocer were glad within them). 4 girl and a gardener had been added to the retinue. and she talked openly of carriage and pair. Jonah Tudgoose, the small farmer. had proffered his photograph and asked for a kitten! Events were marching. Even Fanny thanks to her fortune, had secured a swain--a young man who came In the evenings, grimm ed at her through the gate. and passed her certain conversational lozenges which excited her ecstatic giggles.
 And presently the fate that Nurse Dixon had prophesied began to over take Hester. The dark, low-lylng Grange. with its creaky boards and dusky corners. held two closed death-s chambers; these she frequently visited when the house was still. Often she paced the watermeadows and the fields (for she shrank from strange faces and the new gardener), standing or strolling as one in a dream by the tufted sedges and silent pools, or making a black blot amidst the grey green spaces, the foaming meadow sweet. the butterflies. and the sum shine. At night she slept badly, lying awake for hours, and listening with humping heart to the awful whispers of her imagination, hearing, as plainly as the lazy clock-tick. soft, timid foot steps outside her door, accompanied by siIken rustlings and long drawn shuddering sighs.
 Hester was in a curiously apathetic condition; her Iassitude was accepted for pure contentupent. and a gentle resignation to her lot. Her fellow inmates never discerned that the girl was failing in mind and body: that likeness and solitude were eating her very soul. Often she looked pitifully into the eyes of Jane and Liza In search of a sympathy which was not there. "She was just pale and quite," they remarked to one another; "it was Miss Hester's way, and she liked 10 be left to herself and her books"
 But sometimes Hester's spirit awoke. and her heart was filled with a bitter revolt against her solitary. purposeless existence. and the Inevitable monotony of her life. On these occasions her thoughts turned to Nancy Byng. If Nancy would but come to her! But what would Jane say to the visitor? Never had the Grange received one, and there was no spare room. Jane was so violently opposed to all out siders or change. that she had even grumbled at the new plano.
 But why should she fear Jane? Truly. because she had feared her al- ways-it was the incerdicable habit of years; as little child she had shrunk elha ell sha