THREE FEATHERS. nodded. "I wish I could throw a fly like you. By-the-bye, I have a little bit of news for you for yourself alone, mind." "All right; fire away," said Master Harry, still making the fine line of the trout-rod whistle through the air. Well, it is rather a delicate matter, you know. I don't want it talked about; but the fact is, I am going to marry Miss Rosewarne." Miss Juliott, being engaged to a clergyman, very naturally resented this language; and the two cousins had rather a stormy fight, at the end of which Master Harry turned to his grandmother and declared that she was the only woman of common sense he had ever known. "Well, it runs in the blood, Harry," said the old lady," that dislike to clergymen; and I never could find out any reason for it, except when your grandfather hunted poor Mr. Pascoe that night. Dear, dear! what a jealous man your grandfather was, to be sure; and the way he used to pet me when I told him I Rose- never saw the man I'd look at after see There was no more aiming at those bits of paper. The tall and handsome lad turned and stared at his companion as if the latter had been a maniac; and then he said "Miss Rosewarne? Wenna warne?" "Yes," said Mr. Roscorla, distinctly conscious that Harry Trelyon was regarding his white hair and general ap pearance. The younger man said nothing more, but began to whistle in an absent way; and then, just as if Mr. Roscorla had no existence whatever, he proceeded to reel in the line of his rod, he fastened the fly to one of the rings, and then walked off. "You'll find my mother inside," he said; and so Mr. Roscorla went into the Hall, and was soon in Mrs. Trelyon's drawing-room, among her six or eight guests. Harry Trelyon did not appear until dinner was announced; and then he was just in time to take his grandmother in. He took care, also, to have his cousin Juliott on his other side; and, to both of these ladies, it was soon apparent that something had occurred to put Master Harry into one of his most insolent and rebellious moods. 66 Harry?" said his mother, from the other end of the table, as an intimation that he should say grace. There was no response, despite Miss Juliott's appealing look; and so Mrs. Trelyon had to turn for assistance to one of the clergymen near her, who went through the prescribed form. ing him. Dear, dear!—and the day he sold those two manors to the Company, you know, he came back at night and said I was as good a wife as any in England he did, indeed and the bracelet he gave me then, that shall go to your wife on your wedding-day, Harry, I promise you, and you won't find its match about this part of the country, I can tell you. But don't you go and sell the lordship of Trelyon. Many a time your grandfather was asked to sell it, and he did well by selling the other two; but Trelyon he would never sell, nor your father, and I hope you won't either, Harry. Let them work the quarries for you—that is fair enough —and give you your royalty; but don't part with Trelyon, Harry, for you might as well be parting with your own name." Well, I can't, grandmother, you know; but I am fearfully in want of a big lump of money, all the same." 66 Money? what do you want with a lot of money? You're not going to take to gambling or horse-racing, are you?" "I can't tell you what I want it for not at present, any way," said the lad, looking rather gloomy; and, with that, the subject dropped, and a brief silence ensued at that end of the table. Mr. Tressider, however, the mild and amiable young curate to whom Miss JuPen-liott was engaged, having been rather left out in the cold, struck in at this moment, blushing slightly. "Isn't it shocking?" said Miss aluna, across the table, to Harry's grandmother, who was not nearly so severe on him, for such conduct, as she ought to have been. "I heard you say something about the lordships of manors," he observed, addressing himself rather to Trelyon's grandmother. "Did it ever occur to you what a powerful thing a word from William the Conqueror must have been, when it could give to a particular person and his descendants absolute possession "Grace before meat takes too much for granted," said the young man, with a cool impudence. "How can you tell whether you are thankful until you see what sort of dinner it is? And what's the use of feeding a dog, and barking yourself? Ain't there three parsons of a piece of the globe?" down there?" LIVING AGE. VOL VIII. 370 Mrs. Trelyon stared at the young man. Had a relative of hers gone and engaged gentleman, who was more outrageously herself to a dangerous Revolutionary, rude and capricious than ever, except who, in the guise of a priest, dared to when addressing his grandmother, to trifle with the tenure of land? Mr. whom he was always courteous, and even Tressider was as innocent of any such roughly affectionate. That old lady eyed intention as the babe unborn; but he him narrowly, and could not quite make was confused by her look of astonish-out what was the matter. Had he been ment, he blushed more violently than privately engaged in some betting transbefore, and only escaped from his em- action that he should want this money? barrassment by the good services of Miss Penaluna, who turned the whole matter into ridicule, and asked what William the Conqueror was about when he let a piece of the world come into the hands of Harry Trelyon. "And how deep down have you a hold on it, Harry?" she said. "How far does your right over the minerals of the earth extend? From the surface right down to the centre ?" Mr. Tressider was smiling vaguely when Master Harry's eye fell upon him. What harm had the young clergyman, or any other clergyman present, done him, that he should have felt a sudden dislike to that ingenuous smile? "Oh, no," said Trelyon, with a careless impertinence, and loud enough for two or three to hear. "William the Conqueror didn't allow the rights of the lord of the manor to extend right down to the middle of the earth. There were a good many clergymen about him; and they reserved that district for their own purposes." 66 Harry," said his cousin to him, in a low voice; "is it your wish to insult me? If so, I will leave the room." When the ladies left the room, Trelyon asked Mr. Roscorla to take his place for a few minutes, and send round the wines; and then he went out and called his mother aside into the study. "Mother," he said, "Mr. Roscorla is going to marry Wenna Rosewarne." The tall, fair, pale lady did not seem much startled by the news. She had very little acquaintance with the affairs of the village; but she knew at least that the Rosewarnes kept the inn, and she had, every Sunday morning, seen Mrs. Rosewarne and her two daughters come into church. "That is the elder one, is it not, who sings in the choir ?" "It's the elder one," said Master Harry, who knew less about the choir. "It is a strange choice for Mr. Roscorla to make," she observed. "I have always considered him very fastidious, and rather proud of his family. But some men take strange fancies in choosing a wife." 66 "Yes, and some women take precious strange fancies in choosing a husband,” said the young man, rather warmly. Why, she's worth twenty dozen of him. I don't know what the dickens made her listen to the old fool-it is a monstrous shame, that's what I call it. I suppose he's frightened the girl into it, or bought sub-over her father, or made himself a hypocrite, and got some parson to intercede, and scheme, and tell lies for him." "Insult you," he said, with a laugh. "Why, Jue, you must be out of your senses. What concern have you in that warmish region ?" × "I don't appreciate jokes on such jects. My father is a clergyman, my husband will be a clergyman "The greater fool you," he observed, frankly, but so that no one could hear. "Harry," she said; "what do you mean by your dislike to clergymen ?" "Is that a conundrum?" said the unregenerate youth. "Harry," said his mother; "I don't understand why you should interest yourself in the matter." 66 Oh, don't you? Well, it's only this that I consider that girl to be the best sort of woman I've met yet that's all; For a moment, Miss Penaluna seemed and, I'll tell you what I mean to do, really vexed and angry; but she hap-mother- I mean to give her five thoupened to look at Master Harry, and, sand pounds, so that she shan't come to somehow, her displeasure subsided in- that fellow in a dependent way, and let to a look of good-natured resignation. There was the least little shrug of the shoulders; and then she turned to her neighbour on the right, and began to talk about ponies. It was certainly not a pleasant dinnerparty for those who sate near this young him give himself airs over her because he's been born a gentleman." "Five thousand pounds!" Mrs. Trelyon repeated, wondering whether her son had drank too much wine at dinner. "Well, but look here, mother," he said, quite prepared for her astonishment. THREE FEATHERS. "You know I've spent very little I've never spent anything like what I'm entitled to; and next year I shall be of age and all I want now, is for you to help me to get a release, you know; and I am sure I shall be able to persuade old Colonel Ransome to it, for he'll see it is not any bit of extravagance on my part speculation, or anything of that sort, you know "My dear child," said Mrs. Trelyon, startled, for once, into earnestness, "you will make people believe you are mad. To give five thousand pounds to the daughter of an innkeeper, a perfect stranger, as a marriage dowry—why, Harry, what do you think people would say of such a thing? What would they say of her?" for you, and a much better companion Mrs. Trelyon flushed slightly, and "I presume that I am best fitted to say what society I shall keep; and I shall have no acquaintance thrust upon me whom I would rather not recognize." Oh, very well," said the lad, with the proud lips giving evidence of some sudAnd you won't help me den decision. 66 to get that five thousand pounds? Then I shall have to raise the money myself." He rang the bell, and a servant appeared. "Tell Jakes to saddle Dick and bring him round directly." He looked puzzled for a moment, as though he did not understand her. It His mother let him have his own way, was but for a moment. "If you mean what one of those parsons would say of without word or question; for she was her," he said, impetuously, while a sud- deeply offended, and her feeble and senden flash of anger sprang to his face, "Isitive nature had risen in protest against. don't care; but my answer to it would his tyranny. He went off to put on a be to kick him round the grounds and pair of riding boots and a top-coat; and out at the gate. Do you think I'd care a by-and-by he came down into the hall brass farthing for anything these crin-again, and went to the door. The night ging sneaks might say of her, or of me, or of anybody? And would they dare to say it if you asked her here, and made a friend of her?" was dark, but clear; there was a blaze of stars overhead; all the world seemed to be quivering with those white throbs of fire. The horse and groom stood at the door, 66 'Make a friend of her!" repeated their dusky figures being scarcely blackMrs. Trelyon, almost mechanically. She jer than the trees and bushes around. did not know what length this terrible son of hers might not go. "If she is going to marry a friend of yours, why not?" Harry Trelyon buttoned up the collar of his light top-coat, took his switch in his hand, and sprung into the saddle. At the same moment the white figure of a lady suddenly appeared at the door, and came down a step or two, and said "Harry, where are you going?" "To Plymouth first," the young man answered, as he rode off; "to London afterwards, and then to the devil!" CHAPTER VII. "Harry, you are most unreasonable if you will think it over for a moment, you will see how this is impossible. If Mr. Roscorla marries this girl, that is his own affair; he will have society enough at home, without wishing to go out and dine. He is doing it with his eyes open, you may be sure: he has far SOME NEW EXPERIENCES. more knowledge of such affairs than you can have. How could I single out this WHEN the first shock of fear and anxigirl from her family to make her a friend? I should have to ask her parents and her ety was over, Wenna Rosewarne discovsister to come here also, unless you wishered to her great delight that her ena very pleasant thing. her to come on sufferance, and throw a gagement was The ominous doubts and regrets that reflection on them." had beset her mind when she was asked to become Mr. Roscorla's wife seemed to disappear like clouds from a morning sky; and then followed a fair and happy day, full of abundant satisfaction and calm. With much inward ridicule of her own vanity, she found herself nursing a notion of her self-importance, and giving She spoke quite calmly, but he would "You could do it very well, if you herself airs as if she were already a mar- used to enjoy the malicious pleasure of ried woman. Although the engagement watching him shape his talk to suit the was kept a profound secret, the mere presence of a third person. For of consciousness that she had attained to course Miss Mabyn had read in books of this position in the world lent a new as- the beautiful manner in which lovers surance to her as she went about the vil- speak to each other, and of their tender lage. She was gifted with a new author- confidences as they sit by the sea or go ity over despondent mothers, and frac- rambling through the summer woods. tious children, and selfish fathers, as she Was not the time opportune for these went her daily rounds; and even in her idyllic ways? All the uplands were yelown home Wenna had more attention lowed with tall-standing corn; the sea paid to her, now that she was going to was as blue and as still as the sky overmarry Mr. Roscorla. head; the gardens of Eglosilyan were sweet with honeysuckle and moss-roses, and in the evenings a pale pink mist hung around the horizon, while the silver sickle of the moon came up into the violet sky, and the first pale stars appeared in the east. There was but one dissentient, and that was Mabyn Rosewarne, who fumed and fretted about the match, and sometimes was like to cry over it, and at other times grew vastly indignant, and would have liked to have gone and given Mr. Roscorla a bit of her mind. She "If our Wenna had a proper sort of pitied her poor weak sister for having lover," Miss Mabyn used to say to herbeen coaxed into an engagement by this self, bitterly, "wouldn't I scheme to have designing old man; and the poor weak them left alone! I would watch for them sister was vastly amused by her compas- like a watch-dog, that no one should sion, and was too good-natured to laugh come near them, and I should be as at the valiant protection which this cour- proud of him as Wenna herself; and ageous young creature of sixteen offered how happy she would be in talking to me her. Wenna let her sister say what she about him! But this horrid old wretch pleased about herself or her future, and|— I wish he would fall over Black Cliff used no other argument to stop angry some day!" words than a kiss, so long as Mabyn She was not aware that, in becoming spoke respectfully of Mr. Roscorla. But the constant companion of her sister, she this was precisely what Miss Mabyn was was affording this dire enemy of hers a disinclined to do; and the consequence vast amount of relief. Mr. Roscorla was was that their interviews were generally in every way satisfied with his engageended by Wenna becoming indignant, ment; the more he saw of Wenna Rosedrawing herself up, and leaving the room. warne, the more he admired her utter Then Mabyn would follow, and make up self-forgetfulness, and liked a quaint and the quarrel, and promise never to offend shy sort of humour that infused her talk again; but all the same she cherished a and her ways; but he greatly preferred deadly animosity towards Mr. Roscorla not to be alone with her. He was then in her heart, and, when her sister was beset by some vague impression that not present, she amused her father and certain things were demanded of him, in shocked her mother by giving a series of the character of a lover, which were eximitations of Mr. Roscorla's manner ceedingly embarrassing; and which, if he which that gentleman would scarcely did not act the part well, might awaken like to have seen. her ridicule. On the other hand, if he omitted all those things, might she not be surprised by his lack of affection, begin to suspect him, and end by disliking him? Yet he knew that not for ten thousand worlds could he muster up courage to repeat one line of sentimental poetry to her. The young lady, however, soon invented what she considered a far more effectual means of revenging herself on Mr. Roscorla. She never left Wenna's side. No sooner did the elder sister prepare to go out, than Miss Mabyn discovered that she, too, would like a walk; and she so persistently did this that Wenna soon took it for granted that her sister would go with her wherever she went, and invariably waited for her. Accordingly Mr. Roscorla never by any chance went walking with Wenna Rosewarne alone; and the younger sister - herself too sulky to enter into conversation with him He had never even had the courage to kiss her. He knew that this was wrong. In his own house he reflected that a man engaged to a woman ought surely to give her some such mark of his affection - say, in bidding her good-night; and thereupon Mr. Roscorla would resolve that, as he left the inn that evening, he would en hate a man who always thinks what he's going to say, and always has neat sentences; and he watches you, and is so selfsatisfied, and his information is always so correct. Oh, Wenna, I wish you had a young and beautiful lover, like a prince! 66 deavour to kiss his future bride. He never succeeded. Somehow Wenna always parted from him in a merry mood. These were pleasant evenings in Mrs. Rosewarne's parlour; there was a good deal of quiet fun going on; and, if Wenna did come along the passage to the door with him, she was generally My dear child," said the elder sister, talking and laughing all the way. Of with a smile, "young and beautiful lovers course he was not going to kiss her in are for young and beautiful girls, like that mood as if, to use his own expres-you." sion, he had been a jocular ploughboy. "Good-night, dear," he managed to say to her on one occasion, and for ten minutes thereafter as he walked home through the darkness, he felt that his face was burning. He had kissed her hand once. That was on his first meeting her after she had written the letter in which she promised to be his wife, and Mrs. Rosewarne had sent him into the room where she knew her daughter was alone. Wenna rose up to meet him, pale, frightened, with her eyes downcast. He took her hand and kissed it; and then, after a pause, he said, "I hope I shall make you happy." She could not answer. She began to tremble violently. He asked her to sit down, and begged of her not to be disturbed. She was recalled to herself by the accidental approach of her sister Mabyn, who came along the passage, singing, "Oh, the men of merry, merry England," in excellent imitation of the way in which Harry Trelyon used to sing that once famous song as he rode his black horse along the highways. Mabyn came into the room, stared, and would have gone out, but that her sister called to her and asked her to come and hold down a pattern while she cut some cloth. Mabyn wondered that her sister should be so diligent when a visitor was present. She saw, too, that Wenna's fingers trembled. Then she remained in the room until Mr. Roscorla went, sitting by a window and not overhearing their conversation, but very much inclined to break in upon it by asking him how he dared to come there and propose to marry her sister Wenna. 66 Oh, Wenna, how can you talk like that!" said the younger sister; "why will you always believe that you are less pretty than other people, when every one knows that you have the most beautiful eyes in all the world. You have! There's not anybody in all the world has such beautiful and soft eyes as you - you ask anybody and they will tell you, if you don't believe me. But I have no doubt I have no doubt whatever that Mr. Roscorla will try to make you believe you are very ugly, so that you mayn't think you've thrown yourself away." Miss Mabyn looked very indignant," and very much inclined to cry at the same time; but the gentle sister put her hand on hers, and said "You will make me quarrel with you some day, Mabyn, if you are so unjust to Mr. Roscorla. You are continually accusing him of things of which he never dreams. Now he never gets a chance that he does not try to praise me in every way, and if there were no looking-glasses in the world I have no doubt he would make me believe I was quite lovely; and you shouldn't say those things of him, Mabyn - it isn't fair. He always speaks kindly of you. He thinks you are very pretty, and that you will grow up to be very beautiful when you become a woman. Mabyn was not to be pacified by this ingenuous piece of flattery. "You are such a simpleton, Wenna," she said, "he can make you believe anything." "He does not try to make me believe anything I don't know already," said the elder sister, with some asperity. "He tries to make you believe he is in love with you," said Mabyn, bluntly. "Oh, Wenna," she said, one evening some time after, when the two sisters were sitting out on the rocks at the end Wenna Rosewarne coloured up, and of the harbour, watching the sun go was silent for a minute. How was she down behind the sea, "I cannot bear him to explain to this sister of hers all those coming to take you away like that. I theories which Mr. Roscorla had deshouldn't mind if he were like a sweet-scribed to her in his first two or three heart to you; but he's a multiplication- letters? She felt that she had not the table sort of sweetheart everything same gift of expression that he had. so regular, and accurate, and proper. I "You don't understand you don't |