Nuttie's Father

e lady, lady

deceive

n sea and

constant neve

Kirkaldy, as her nephew strolled up to her a

and only distant shouts

an army

oir re

doth f

lley's so

the

is this the reaction,' said the

es were by no means thrown away. What would you say, Mark, if I

ark, as emphaticall

n gray and white; she seemed to be trying to check and tame a bright girl of eighteen or so, who was in a perfect state of rapture over the Vandykes. I managed to ask the cle

dwor

es

she would have

to put out a feeler by asking whether he knew what her husband had been, and he said he believed he had been lost at s

reluctantly. 'I wish I had seen her. I think I should

at comes of

hich I don't expect, it might have been awkward if she had heard my name! H

e same name, who had once been governess to the children of her sister, Lady Adelaide Egremont. Mark was rather a study to his uncle and aunt all the evening. He was as upright and honourable as the day, and not only acted on high principle, but had a tender feeling to the beautiful playfellow governess, no doubt enhanced by painful experiences of successors chosen for their utter dissimilarity to her. Still it was evidently rather flat to find himself probably so near t

ught to her, the first impression was that some such arrangement was to be made. She was sitting in he

ere good, the work quaint and tasteful. There was a grand vase of foxgloves before the empty grate, and some Marshal Nial roses in a gla

the surroundings, and liked the gentle but self-posse

n. My two children, as I call them, brought them home in triumph. I canno

'It struck me,' she said, 'on hearing your name that you might be related to-to a youn

lips trembled, she clutched tightly the arm of her c

then,' said the latter, 'i

nd said in an anxious voice, 'Do I understand that your ladyship

lars were given to me; but my nephew, Mark Egremont, your niece's old pupil, came to consult us, having j

her hands tightly clasped, 'Shall I really

and his father-'Lady Kirkaldy hesitate

eceived any reply, except one short one, desiring he might not be troubled on such a subject. It was cruel! Alice said it was not in his writing.

r to-to others,' said Lady Kirkaldy. 'He is very sorry now that he acquiesced in

se a clergyman would have been bo

of her mother, so she passed this over, saying, 'We are all very anxious to atone, as far as possible

m with great affection. How pleased she

Kirkaldy. 'I am afraid it is very painful to you, but I think we should

bject once since we came to settle here, seventeen years ago, but such things one c

having evidently dried some tears, perhaps of than

tion than yourself,' said Lady Kirkald

ittle ones died at the same time, and the mother married again and went to Shanghai. She did not long live there, poor thing, and little Alice was sent home to me. I thought I did my best for her by keeping her at a good school. I have often wished that I h

l the details,' was the s

lly so studious as could be wished, but docile, merry, gentle, a favourite with every one, and peculiarly innocent and childish. I wished her to remain a few years longer as teacher, but it so happened that Lad

letter about her pretty governess, and her boy's

ginning she could have. And she was very happy, and met with great kindness. Only, unfortunately, Lady Adelaide was delicate, and for many weeks entirely confined to the sofa.

lly have bee

ldren, so that she thought all was right. Oh! Lady Kirkaldy, I don't mean to defend her, I daresay she was very giddy and silly, she reproaches herself, poor dear, but I do say that a wicked advantage was taken of her innocence and ignorance. She says that she had begun to grow a little uneasy at the way people looked when Captain Egremont joined them on the beach; and the nurse, a German, said something that she could not understand. On the 1st of July-yes-but I have the date here-came a telegram to the hotel to have rooms for Lady de Lyonnais and Mr. Egremont ready by the evening. The whole place knew it, and some meddling person burst on Alice with the news, ro

ul folly-but sh

t Mr. and Mrs. Houghton were on board, and Mrs. Houghton was a truly kind protector who deserved her

it before you

hen I heard no more for seven months. I went to the Isle of Wight and made all inquiries,

our niece,

till my arrival, as Mrs. Egremont was not in a condition to be left alone. My dear friends, with whom I was then living, were as kind as possible, and set me free to go. I was there in three days, and truly the dear, beautiful, merry girl I had parted with only a year before was a sad piteous sight. Mrs. Houghton seemed broken-hearted at leaving her, thinking there was little chance of her living; but Mr. Houghton, who, I am afraid, was a professed gambler, had got into some scrape, and was gone to Paris, where she had to follow him. She told me all about it

Kirkaldy. 'It is hard to believe that he could be so heartless, but he was

I never expected, any more than Mrs. Houghton, to see her recover. I stayed there with her; she could not be moved, even if she would have consented, when she was continually expecting him; but at last-four days after her little girl was born-came the news of the Ninon having been burnt, with all on board, three months before. Do you know, strange to say, th

r death in May. All the letters were sent to my mother, and she did not think fit to forward, or open, any bearing on the subject.

church, and by their help and recommendation, with such capital as I had, we were able to begin a little school; and though that has had to give way to the High School, what with boarders, and with Alice's employment as daily governess, we have, I

as absolutely convi

wickeder man than even I supposed, to have forsaken her all these years. Is my

y Kirkaldy. 'I had better tell you how this visit of mine ca

ld roue had deadened his better feelings, and habituated him to dissipation, while his debts, his expensive habits, and his dread of losing the inheritance, had bound him over to the General. Both had been saved from the fire in the Ninon, whence they were picked up by a

tone, would on no account thus surrender himself to an evil bondage. Indeed he felt all the severity of youthful virtue, and had little toleration for his uncle's ways of thinking; though, when the old man had come home ill, dejected, and half blind, he had allowed

' said Miss Headworth. 'But since the-the man is aliv

er has rights which must be

, so far as that she need not go out in the world to earn her own livel

' returned the lady; 'but may I return to my question whether

easure of happiness; but at the same time she has shrunk from all notice and society, more than would be natural in so very young a widow and so attractive, more than I should have expected from her original character. And once, when she did apprehend symptoms of admiration, she insisted that I should tell the history, enough, as she said,

y not. But I

meantime, till we know what line he takes, surely she n

t you will not object to my nephew, her old pupil, Mark, coming t

e was there, for Lady Kirkaldy, wishing to avoid talk and observation, had left her carriage at the livery stables, and walked to St. Ambrose Road. The girl, whom in a moment she classed as

ress, and a face of refined, though not intellectual, beauty and sweetness, under a large str

, 'but I am aunt to some former pupils of yours, one of w

face lighted up. 'How very kind of

l. I see your daughter takes after them,' said Lady Kirkaldy, sha

something about

their father married a Miss Condamine, who has been an excellent stepmother to them. I have been to see them, but Mark was not then at hom

e watch, set off in search of him, and found him, as she expected, pacing the pavement in front of the church. There was no great distance in which to utter her explanations and cautio

eals made on her behalf. Far less had it ever occurred to her that the validity of her marriage could be denied, and the heinous error of her elopement seemed to her quite sufficient to account for her having been so entirely cast off by the family. The idea that as wife o

old Edda! You aren't a bit altered!' and he put his head under her hat and kissed her, adding,

fness froze him. They were all embarrassed, and had reason to be grateful to Lady Kirkaldy's practised powers as a diplomate's wife. She made the most of Mrs. Egremont's shy spasmodic inquiries, and Mark's jerks of information, such as that they were all living at Bridgefield Egremont, now, that his sister May was very like his new cousin, that Blanche was come out and was very like his mother, etc. etc. Every one was more at ease when Lady Kirkaldy

seeing that Lady Kirkaldy had no notion of the treasure she po

may,' said th

s, and then Gerard Godfrey can come and fish it out for us! Oh, thank you. He wants the pa

er nephew, and his first utterance outside the door was

' said his aunt; 'and secondly, if there