i ', W THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLABS, A NOVEL. MRS. J. E. BEOKWITH, AUTHOR 0? " THI WINTHBOPS." "Tbo tins of the parents shall be visited upon the children.* 1 NEW YORK: W. E. HILTON, PUBLISHER, 128 NASSAU STREET. 1871. THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. CHAPTER I. THE gray shade.? of quick coming evening settled over and around tlie gloomy homestead of Miles Sterling, standing solitary and half Blmt in from the street behind a row of Lombardy poplars, which lifted (heir ragged tops toward the lowering sky as if imploringly. There was a comfortless chill in the late au,tiimn air, anrl ever and anon scattering hail-stones were whirled against the window- panes, in promise of the wintry storm, whose purple clouds scudded over the horizon. The bleak hill upon whose crest the hottse stood, was all un- shielde.l from the fording blasts which whistled shrill and drearily around the rattling window-panes, and the low, wood-colored building itself, looked as if prematurely hastened to decay by a sense of its own uncared-for position in a bleak world. Its low windows had never repealed themselves in any second story, but stretched in a row of six along its front, shaded by the melancholy poplars which despised it in summer, and seemingly forsook it in winter, when the heavy, sodden snow of northern Ohio furnished a mantle under which they could screen themselves. Excepting these, the rambling, rail-fenced yard offered no object for the eye (o rost upon. Not a flower or shrub broke the tasteless mo- notony of the tangled weeds and grass which spread down to tho sandy road, along which the teams of the neighboring farmers plod- ded and dragged in a hopeless, weary way, as if no thought of a better footho.d beyond, lentpigor to the effort. The uncomfortable aspect of the situation was at this season of the year intensified by the ceaseless plashing of water falling over the dam that enclosed one end of a willow bordered mill-pond, which fed the red grist- mill below, and the whirr of the slowly moving machinery kept up a ceaseless undertone to the wind which whistled over th*> hill, and 4 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPKARS. around the casements, like the voice of departed hurricanes in pur- gatorial torments. Inside the weather-beaten dwelling, known as "the old mill- house," from its proprietary connection with the red mill, every- thing was even more unattractive than without. The ceilings were low nnd cracked, and dun colored by the smoke that rose in a per- severing cloud from the smouldering faggots laid upon the iron dogs whose laces are ornamented by a hollow ring, looking out like an eye ; and the row of windows impartially divided between the two front rooms, were each one covered to the middle sash by curtain- of smoke, discolored paper, torn and fretted into more than one irre- parable breach, eked out at the last one in the row, by an old num- ber of the county newspaper, no less stained and battered by mis- fortune. A faded rag carpet afforded some pretence of protection to the floor; but even this spoke of the wasting cares of existence, and illy concealed the traces of its direful throes under the grasp of the de- stroyer. A few red posted wooden chairs, a rickety-legged table, and a contemporaneous settee, comprised the furniture of the room in which Mrs. Sterling sat silently cowering in front of the cheer- le.-s fire, her face at times quite concealed between the hands in which she buried it, as she swayed herself restlessly to and fro as if striving thus to restrain some stronger outburst of impatience. But often she raised it toward the continually fading light yet lingering round the homestead, and despite the half disguise of ita usual ex- pression, imparted by a frown born of her present humor, it was a face one turned again and again to study, so contradictory were the lines by which one read it. The low, roundish, unspeaking brow of shallow womanhood, the unnoticeable nose, possessing no partic- ular contour, and the usual vapid expression of the mouth, spoke of a low order of intellect, unredeemed by any saving flashes of a high- er genius; and one looked again to discover in what lay the unde- fined influence exercised by such features. The gray eyes were ever changing, yet seldom brightening, but the occasional oblique glance darting from beneath the depressed eyelids, revealed the first cause for an involuntary distrust, and the peculiar formation of brain evi- denced by the contour of skull, might both literally and met;. ic;dly be pronounced " long headed ;" a decision confirmed by an occasional .expression of the usually placid mouth ; and the deep lines extending downward in a peculiar curve, towards the promi- nent chin, spoke of a jealous disposition descending into pos'iivo THE HOUSE BEHIND THE TOPLARS. selfishness. Her lithe, yet vigorous frame, evidenced strong vitality, and the rather coarse brown hair put tidily enough under the keep- ing of a horn comb, gave no clue to the ever contradictory conclu- sions as to her age, which at one moment might have been thirty, and at another seemed at least ten years more, as some internal emo- tion lined itself strongly upon her face. The sound of a cough issuing from the adjoining room, roused her from her last resumed cowering posture near the fire ; and with a jerk of the door sticking upon the sill as she essayed to open it, she pa-sed on into the other room, from which a chillier draft of air rushed out to exchange places with the smoky atmosphere of the scarcely more comfortable apartment she had left. The room was so dark that only at a second glance could one perceive the outlines of a bed, from whose occupant the tight, distressing cough contin- ued its appeal. " What do you want now ?'' asked Mrs. Sterling, fretfully, and a child's voice replied, " Oh, I'm so hot and achey ; and I want some water so bad ! my bones shake, and all of me" " There, there, that will do. I can't help it, I'm sure ! Doctor Kclley han't come yet, and I don't know as he's coming at all. He's too much else to think of." But despite the complaining tone which seemed to blame the boy for his sufferings, she brought a dipper of water from the kitchen, and when he had finished his eager draught, bade him " lie down and be patient, for once," and then walked to the window and looked moodily out, while the little fellow crawled back among his pillows and said no more. Even as the deep lines of discontent grew almost savagely marked between her eyebrows, the sound of wheels grinding through the sand, fell upon her ear, and in an instant more, a doctor's gig stop- ped at the bars which gave egress from the yard to the street, and without stopping to tie the well trained horse, the doctor ran hasti- ly up the narrow path between the tangled grass, and Mrs. Sterling opened the door, with the not gracious salutation, " It's well you thought to come, at last ! Time was, when I hadn't to wait half a day, and that, too, with the old man every minute likely to come in 1" "There, Lydia, don't scold, it's all thrown away on me, and, be- eides, quite undeserved. I tried to come at the hour named in your liote, but a sad accident at ju.~,tthe last moment detained me, as even 6 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. a doctor can't be always hard-hearted and put one off with a prom- ise to call to-morrow." " Not unless there's a woman in the case, and particularly an old one. I scraped the last pound of flour out of the barrel last night, and hid it ; and as Sterling's got more corn to grind, now, than he can any way finish by the time he's agreed to, and to-day's Satur- day, I knew he'd have to borrow of brother Jonathan, over the hill ; and so I had him off out of the way by two o'clock to-day, which is just the time I wrote you to come, and as children have long ears, I made him take the youngest boy with him. I wanted to have a talk with you, and here it is night already, and a bad one at that, so the old man won't wait to eat supper at Jonathan's, even to save the cost of one at home." " Never mind, Lydia. Any woman who is sharp enough to get her good man out of the way when he isn't wanted, is shrewd enough to dispose of him if he comes back too soon." " 'Good man ?' I don't know any," retorted Mrs. Sterling bitterly, as she stirred the fire into something like a blaze, and then silently watched the doctor as he shook his gloves and coat free from the \mthawed snow-flakes that covered them. "Well, how is the boy?" he asked, extending in turn each hand toward the blaze. " Sick, as usual. He's never seen a well day yet, and I don't sup- pose he ever will. He's nothing but a trouble to me, and never has been, and I could shake the daylight out of him sometimes, when I think how it was him who brought me into the miserable fix I'm in ! Look at my home : ain't it nice, not to say anything of Ster- ling's addle-headed, or, as lie calls it, crazy old mother, who'll live, and live me into my grave, in spite of everything not good for her he ilth ! All my trouble is your fault. Yes, you can't deny it. You croaked " awful exposure," and preached " respectability " at me, till I was scared and wheedled into it, while all you wanted was to get me well off your hands before you married that .very virtuous and highly respected lady, who is now Mrs. Kelley, as / ought to hare been the more fool I was not to have staid as I was, and let you get along about the brat the best way you could ! and you'd have made a good way; for you are respectable, a saint in the eyes of this world." Her anger grew fiercer and more bitter as she gave expression to it, and turning, at last, the doctor held her firmly by the shoulders THE HOUSE BEHIND THK POrJLAKS. 7 which attempted resentfully to shake off the clasp, and compelling her to face him, said sorrowfully, but unflinchingly : " Stop there, Lydia ! I am not as good as I should be ; I ac- knowledge it with pain, as I recall the past with chagrin ! but, Lydia, one thing I never icas a betrayer of innocence, or honest nf- fcction ! You were not unsophisticated when I first met you, and y .u know, as 1 do, that you are in no way worse than you were, for hiving known me. I will bear my share of it all, but no more though I wish to heaven I could suffer all the penalty poor little Lisle will unavoidably have to endure in maay ways." " I don't see how ; nor would you, if you could see Sterling fuss over and humor him when he whines, and brag over him when there happens to come a day that the weazen-faced, weak-legged brut can be got out to the mill. If you could hear him cracking up and glorifying " my little son," on all occasions, as I do, as if there was nothing else of any account under the canopy, yoiCd despise him, too, for being such a fool! Sometimes I can't help saying back at him, "your son,'' though it's lucky for us all he don't un- derstand it. If he knew it wasn't his son, but yours, he'd choke the cub to death, and so save the cost of his bringing up, over which he groans enough, I can tell you. He's stingier than the very mar- row in the back bone of poyprty !" "Well, we'll discuss him another time. Give me a light and let me see the little fellow ; poor boy !" Mrs. Sterling took up a pair of unwieldy, iron-handled tongs, with which she lifted a coal from the fireplace, and fanning it into a glow by a few vigorous puffs, lighted by it a tallow candle which wearily tottered over the high neck of an iron candle-stick on the mantel-piece, and resumed her seat before the fire, while the doctor went into the next room, and bent over fie bed where the little boy lay in a condition that sent a sudren stab into his heart. Rigid> motionless, the widely open eyes seeing nothing, it seemed at first view that he was really dead ; but ev- n as the doctor bent lower and clasped the little wrist with pitying fingers, a long, convulsive simdder shook the child's frame, and the blood leaped with sudden force along the arteries. For one instant the doctor leant over him breathlessly, then turned away and went back to the room where Mrs. Sterling indulged her reverie. Placing the candje back upon the mnntlepiece, he leant his forehead on the edge of the shelf, and gazed down into the fire in a perfect silence which caused her to raise her head in curiosity. b THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAKS. " Well, what is it ? This isn't the first time you've seen him o, I suppose/' 'Yes, the very first time I ever saw him so;" then turning sud- denly, be asked, " Lydia, how old is that boy ? ' " You've a happy memory ! I've been the wife of Miles Sterling going on seven miserable years." ''Yes, I remember. For God's sake speak lower, Lydia; for as* we both live, he has heard every word that has passed since I came in ! The door was partly open." " Nonsense ! he was asleep, and if he did hear, he couldn't under- stand such a mere little pimp!" " Less a child than you think ! Suffering, and I must say it, Lydia ill treatment, have made him painfully precocious. The child who bears suffering like an adult, thinks and feels as one. Oh, Lydia, you and I have much to answer for !'' " Speak for yourself, for I'm answering for it, I can tell you ! I don't suppose that men ever do answer for things of this kind. It is women, only, that are guilty and warned to repent. There ; don't you hear the wagon coming through the bars ? my husband has come ! You're a great favorite of his, and hell be glad to see you if you've had your supper, which is worth twenty-five cents, 1 ' and her lip curbed. " Lydia, why don't yon rectify all this in your home which seems so to embitter you ? The only part of any one's nature which you ever cared to learn, is the weakest part ; assail your husband in that, and lay your foundation for a new experience, -and, what is worth more, a new house. Thjs is dull and dreary ; but you, alone, can rectify it if you choose to do so." ''Yes, and I suppose I can 'rectify' a disposition so mean and stingy it won't let him put any flesh on his bones he's thin as a shad and an old woman who lives only to torment me ; and a half ' come-by-chance' child, who, to cap all, is forever sick ; and a Ster- ling brood that are likely to come and come on, lucky if not half of them twins ! and perhaps, after all that. I can ' rectify ' myself, in some way, into a respected, amiable, never tired woman, ' calculated to make a happy home,' as the wise books have it ! Yet, seeing mo as you do in all this misery, you, who helped to bring it on me, can sit there and roll out pills like a machine, or a man !" A little shadow of a smile crossed the doctor's face at this tirade; but it as quickly vanished, and dropping some mixture into a med- THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 9- icine glass, he carried it to the sick child ; and during his absence Mr. Sterling came in, leading by one hand a little boy, who, when unwrapped and set out to warm, proved as chubby and sturdy a little fellow as four and a half years ever accomplished. Mrs. Ster- ling herself drew the stout calf-skin shoes off the cold little feet, and rubbed in her own the fat red hands with a cold dimple on every knuckle, her every action and expression showing that this was tho mother's favorite, the child par excellence; and the hard, dissatisfied look her face had worn till then, softened into its usual vapid, weak- minded expression, betokening a character apparently incapable even of pique or anger. As for the child, he sat patient and un- demonstrative under all this manipulating, his wide open gray eyes, BO like his mother's, looking unblinkingly into the blaze, with a resolute expression of daring and hardihood lighting up the small round face, almost grotesque to witness. " How's Lisle ?" asked Mr. Sterling briefly, as he drew his own chair into the warmest corner, and taking out his spectacles, wiped them on a led silk handkerchief, and then evolved the weekly newspaper from an obstinately retentive pocket, accompanied by a grunt of approbation at the success of his efforts. " I'm sure I don't know. Dr. Kelley never came near him till a few minutes ago, and he never tells me anything if I ask him. He's in there with him, now, and maybe he'll tell you what ails him. Have you had your supper ?" " Yes, Jonathan's wife got an early tea for us. She's a smart woman, but extravagant; and, as I told Jonathan, when they run through their property they mustn't come upon me." " Told 'em so, did you ? I suppose your tea was too good to be economical more's the pity." " Where's the old lady ?" "In bed, for a mercy. She a'n't the best of company, a'n'tthe old lady, so I let her lie. She'll wake up when she gets hungry. Sakes alive ! how the smoke worries my poor eyes ! I'd as lives freeze and done with it." " Ma, don't Li. freeze, too ? a'n't he shivery in there?" "I suppose so, my son ; but sick little Lisle can't stand the smoke like the rest of us." Mr. Sterling laid the newspaper across his knee, and looked thoughtfully into the fire, his pinched and narrow face wearing an unusually serious expression, which his wife noied in the oblique outlook from under her brows. 10 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAKS. During the silence, Dr. Kelley returned from his visit to the sick boy, and after the usual common-places between Mr. Sterling and himself, he said, " Mr. Sterling, it is but one degree short of murder to keep that ick boy in this uncomfortable old shell of a house. The smoke, nnd continual exposure to drafts, of this room, is but little improved upon by the raw dampness of the one where he lies, and, with his feeble constitution, I won't be answerable for the consequence?. 1 ' "Ahem," began Mr. Sterling in the weak, indistinct voice natural with him : " I meant to have; built, this year ; but some way thu money didn't seem to come. It's a hard world to get along in with a growing family." " Don't borrow trouble, Mr. Sterling," said his wife mildly. " It may ple;ise Providence to take away some of us, and I'm sure you'd ought to be glad it's like to be Lisle, who's more expense to you than all the rest of us put together." The doctor buttoned his great coat preparatory to going, and Mr. Sterling added, more as if in comment to himself than in answer to the suggestion of another, " If I thought we'd have an open winter, I'd begin now. I s'pose .1 could find the money." " For that matter," said the doctor, cordially, " I will cheerfully lend a hand to help an old friend. I can accommodate you with a loan of a hundred or two, and of caurse interest is not to be thought of between such old neighbors. Think of it, Sterling, and you'll be ready to commence next spring, at the latest. And now good eve- ning, as Mrs. Kelley will be waiting tea." A whirl of wind and snow met the doctor as he went out into the street, and the falling water over the dam, added a chill of its own to the surroundings ; but scarcely noticing it all, he gathered up the reins and turned his horse's head- toward home, both brain and heart absorbed in deep thought. Left to its own guidance, the faithful Pegasus made good time homeward, and the doctor was taken by surprise as the bright light from his own windows shone upon him, nnd the boy came out to lead the horse to the stable. A warm fire and a cheerful tea table awaited him, and a pleasant looking little woman lingered for one last tucking in of the soft quilt which covered the rosy occupant of a wicker cradle in the warm corner, and then came forward to welcome her husband. L ' You are late to-night, William, nnd I know you must be both THE HOUSE 13EHIND TUE POPLARS. 11 cold and hungry. Has old Mr. Higgins an addition to his miseries, or Miss Dobton a relapse of hypo ?' : '' No, Emily, Mr. Allan's oldest boy fell from the hay loft and broke bis arm, which made me late with my other patients, and I am now just from Miles Sterling's." " Which answers my suggestions that you are neither wanned nor fed. Is little Lisle sick ?" " Yes, poor little fellow, and I'm afraid not too well nursed or cared for. That old house is as cold and cheerless as a barn ; and really, Emily, were it not for overtaxing you, it would be only Christian charity to bring him to our own comfortable home for the winter. I'm afraid he won't live it through, there, and if he does, it will be only at the price of much suffering which ought to be spared him. He is a manly, patient little fellow." "Yes, be is. Do let us go after him to-morrow. It will not over- task me at all, as Bridget is the best of servants, and baby is quiet as a kUten." The doctor smoothed the soft brown hair, and kissed the cheek of his wife, and his spirits rose to cheerfulness as they sat at their tea. The troubled expression which had hardened his face, relaxed, and he looked, now, a genial, benevolent gentleman, of about forty years of age. His large, finely-formed head, seemed in perfect har- mony with the square, well-made forehead, from which the plentiful locks waved back over the high temples, and his blue eyes had a kindly beam that won their way at once into the hearts of both young and old. His rather large but not unhandsome mouth seemed formed only to utter the kir.d words, which, accompanied by a still kinder voice, made him beloved by all. " Oh, Emily, this is what home ought to be," said he, as, tea over, he drew his wife's chair close by his own in front of the bright wood fire. "I never come back to it without feeling that here we do not know what trouble is. To see so many gloomy, comfortless, discon- tented homes, is enough to give one the horrors on purely scientific principles." ' Speaking of those Sterlings; even to pass their dreary placo makes me shiver ; nor could I ever account for the disagreeable feel- ing so commonplace, not to say silly, a woman gives me! I always feel as if her gray eyes were piercing me through and through in hope to discover some unconfessed unhnppiness, or possibly even gilt, though I know she hasn't the penetration to recognize it, if iound. I think Fate must have united that couple to punish him 12 'lilt: HOUSE BE11I.ND THE PuPLAKS. for his parsimony and narrow-mindedness, and her for her general disagreeability. How did such a marriage ever come abont ?" "An unanswerable question as to most marriages, but not this one. She was a Miss Fitzjame?, of good family, I believe at least their high blood is her constant boast but impoverished by some unexplained fatality, and being too poor to gratify her ambitions in life, and too proud to marry any one of less noble lineage than her- self, she passed her days in a vexed struggle between her pride and poverty, till at twenty-five she was no nearer her goal, and much nearer old maidenhood. " When I first commenced practice here, she was a rather pretty girl of nineteen or twenty years, whom I often saw at her work in a little dressmaker's shop which she kept for the town ; but it was not till two or three years afterward, that I ever formed any person- al acquaintance with her. I believe she rather schemed to become acquainted with Sterling, when his father died leaving him the red mill and the homestead ; iind he, unsocial, and pre-occupied as much as his illiterate mind could be occupied, was rather astonish- i-hed, if not really pleased, with the chattiness and energy of the lady whom his friends persuaded him would make just the wife he needed to look after his house, and his mother, who was even then a harmless sort of lunatic. ' Miss Fitzjnmes consented to overlook his inferior birth, in con- sideration of his superior property, and married him, to find it above and beyond her reach, and even her feminine aggravations and annoyances in consequence, fell unheeded upon the granite rock of his parsimony and obstinacy. If there ever was anything soft and womanly about her, it has vanished under the certainly not en- viable existence she leads with him there in that rickuty ' Castle of Despair.' I'm really sorry for her." " What a pity such a couple should have children ! They cer- tainly will avenge a miserable childhood, by a contemptuous man- hood ; and justly enough, too, because naturally." The doctor and his wife sat silently gazing among the glowing rindf-rs, and an occasional quiver >f his eyelids evidenced that las musings, at least, were not altogether general in their application. Did the thought occur to him that he, too, might fall heir to some- thing of this vengeance for a miserable childhood ? The subject opened a wide field for conjecture, and if the doctor lost himself among its intricate windings, and vainly sought a re- assuring way out, who shall say that his anxiety for the Uctle one THE HOUSE BEIIIXD THE POPLAR3. 13 over whom be felt a yearning responsibility, almost destitute of power, was not in part a reparation for a wrong long ago committed ? Gladly would lie have made it so, and he was ever seeking some excuse or pretence to adopt him as his own ; but Mr. Sterling felt for the child the first spark of real affection that h-itl ever dawned upon his flinty nature, and hi all ways such an act was hedged in by difficulties. No scandal had ever breathed upon Dr. Kelley's name, and if he bestowed unusual care and attention upon the Sterlings' invalid child, often tak-ing him along upon his country rides, or keeping him whole days at his house, it was accepted by the admiring town- people as only another proof of his kind heartedntss, and lauded as such, while his wife vied with him in attention, really feeling tor the delicate child a motherly tenderness only second to that she cher- ished for her own little daughter. The dread and mysterious Power Avho presides over matrimonial ventures had vouchsafed the doctor a good wife, and he prized her as she deserved. So they sat there musing and chatting by turns, while the wintry storm raged without, and having vainly beaten at their door, swept on and held high revel on the hill where "the mill-house " stood, breathing a raw chill through each crack be- tween the weather-beaten clap-boards, whistling a general rally of forces as it assailed the loose windows which each rattled and whis- tled in a voice of its own, and having at last thus fretted itself into quietude, gave place to a gi im, relentless cold, which laid a petrifying hand on all things without and within, stopping the noisy murmur of the dam, and sweeping with a frosty breath the upturned faces of the sick boy and his little brother lying side by side upon one pillow, the chubby arms of the younger thrown as if protectingly around the invalid boy, soothed at last into a deep sleep. THE HOUSE T^TTrND TTTE POPLARS. CHAPTER IL WHAT a spirit of squeaking seemed to pervade all inanimate things touched by the breath cf winter, as morning succeeded the night's storm carousal. The ci isp snow gave way beneath the tread, with only a faint and softened echo of the shriek poured forth Ly every hinge and crank, and human fingers stuck maliciously to each frosty substance with which they came in contact. Even the old well-pole hung a creaking bucket high in air, all decked with icicles and rime, and one listened exp ctunt of frosty wails issuing from the grinding machinery of the very cows chewing and turning their cuds to warm, iu the barn-yard. They were not early astir in the mill-house on this cold morning. It was Sunday ; and even had it been a working day, the voice of the mill was silenced by an icy command, and nothing was to be gained by leaving a comfortable bed for a cheerless territory beyond. Fi st, the boy who tended the mill, came out; and by dint of much kindling and coaxing, lighted a fire in the kitchen, as a fault promise of breakfast to come. Then Mr. Sterling seriously emerged to view, rubbing his lean, large hands together, aa if hoping one of them might contrive to impart some gleam of comfort to the other, and in course of time Mrs. Sterling followed, twisting up her back hair with benumbed fingers as she came ; and from cupboard and pantry, a series of vigorous attacks and hard raps, at length gave place to a more agn cable sound of sputtering and frying, and the odor of forthcom- ing breakfast called out the remainder of the family. The little boys scampered out to finish dressing by the fire, their stiff little fingers redly tugging at the buttons which persisted in considering themselves off duty, and lastly the door of a small bed room opened, giving egress to a fleshy old woman, who took posse- sion of the high-backed rocking chair in the warmest corner, and wrapping a faded black shawl around her shoulders, bent herself forward so that her knees might afford support to her elbows, as, looking anx- iously over into the frying-pan hissing on a shovelfull of coals drawn well out upon the hearth, she b.-gan an improvisation in her cu?*- fni - r ry ihyrning way, singing the measure in a sort of colloqi 1 "* 1 * uo ; THE HOUSE BEHIND TlJE POPLARS. Id "Poor lady, poor lady ; 'tis pity, alas ! That things is come to such terrible pass. For sleeping all night as slim as a shad, In lack of full stomach, is awfully bad." " Hadn't you any supper last night, mother ?" asked Mr. Sterling in an injured tone. "No, thank ye. I was privately informed that Lydy had locked up all the eatables; so I didn't come out." Mrs. Sterling explained a little irritably "I didn't cook supper, because there wasn't any body but us two to eat it ; but there was victuals and drink enough to be had for the asking, as everybody knows." " Yes, yes ; I know it ; but I was privately informed by my hea- venly Father, that I wasn't to have any," said the old lady, hurriedly, with a glance over her shoulder ; and then resuming with a picler- atory '< hum, hum," she went on with her rhyming. " The weather is cold, for winter is come, It is well if you have a plenty of rum. But I see by the looks of this scant frying-pan, There won't be fried apple enough for a man 1" Hem, hem Lydy, don't you think you might chuck in a quarter or two more o' them greenin's ? The family a'h't all small eaters, like me ; and a hungry belly makes a cross temper. Here, Pomp (to the dog), get off the harth and let your little brother Lisle come to the fire. He's as pinched and weazen as if he'd just come down out o' the fog." " I don't want you to tell about folks being made up in the fog, before tbe children. It ain't scripteral," said Mr. Sterling reprov- ingly; and then lifting Lisle upon his knee, he clumsily but kindly finished the task of putting the buttons under subjection, as he asked, " How do you feel this morning, my little son ?" . " I feel better, father ; but something hurts me all the time in here," and he pressed a thin little hand over his chest, vainly trying to draw a long breath. "Yes, and his head goes round, round, round, and his nose wags up at the sky ; hem, hum I think you'd better give him some opium and salts, with a touch o' epicack, and hang him up to dry," suggested the old lady sagely. "You stop that, you gran'ma," shouted Eddy indignantly. Li. nn't going to be bullied by you nor nobody. Don't mind nassy gran'ma ; she old she don't know nothin'. She's a nassy gran'ma all the time." 16 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPI ARS. " Who's Uuit you call grandma, youngster ? Tm only nineteen year old, and going to be married;" "Serve you right if you be,'' retorted Eddy stoutly, without any definite idea as to in what being married consisted, but believing it some penalty for one's sins. "Don't be bad to grandma, Eddy," said Lisle, softly drawing him by the sleeve. "She don't mean any harm." " Come, now draw up ; breakfast's all ready," said Mrs. Sterling, shaking out her apron by way of toilet arrangements. '' Ma, give Li gran'ma's warm place to eat in. He's sick now gran'ma's fat and give he something "nice ; will you ?" suggested Eddy. " You make a baby of your big brother, Eddy. He can eat what the rest of us do, I'm thinking. Do you want some johnny cake, Lisle ?" "No, thank you. I don't feel hungry at all." "I can't help it if you don't ; you're going to eat. I won't have any putting on airs at my table." Lisle took the buttered piece thus pressed upon him, and leaning his elbow on the table, supported his pale face ia one hand while the other raised the unwelcome morsel to his lips. " None of that, now ! Eat it," commanded Mrs. Sterling, transfix- ing him with the cold gray eyes that always possessed a kind of terror over him. For the first time in his life, he gave her back a look of defiance, which she read with surprise, and laid the bread resolutely upon his plate. Mrs. Sterling colored in anger; but bo- fore a word passed her lip^ the child's self-command, singular in one so young and frail, returned, and he made an eifort to obey. Eddy looked wrathfully on; but, warned by former experiences, 1 waited till his mother's attention was temporarily distracted, ami then hastily smuggled away and crammed the offending morsel into his own not unwilling mouth ; and when she again looked at the child, she gave expression to the gratified comment, "I thought you'd find appetite when you found there was to be no titbits for titmen." "Titman yourself," shouted Eddy in a rage, which, instead of arousing his mother's ire, ns might have been expected, seemed to gratify her pride, as she said approvingly, " H sleep ? Don't he hurt you to nod so, and wouldn't you like it, to lie on a nice warm settee to home's house ? Li and I'll keep real still, and grau'ma'll preach to you till the nods come. Hello ; here's Dr. Kelley come, with lota o' sheeps' skins in his sleigh." All eyes now turned to the window, and Mr-. Sterling stirred the fire into a brighter blaze, and pushed Pompey unceremoniously from his station by Lisle, to make room for the doctor, who now entered, bright and cheerful from the bracing air through which he had driven half concealed by the warm fur robes Eddy had pronounced " sheeps' skins." " Good morning, good morning all. Glad to see you, Sterling. How are you, grandmother?" " He, he, he ! I didn't know I had so fine a grandchild," laughed the old lady, and then added seriously, "I 'spose, though, you might o' been down small the last time I saw you, before." " That's the old lady's way pretending not to know folks from one day to the next,' 1 explained Mrs. Sterling apologetically, as she drew up a chair for the doctor, and thus made an occasion to cast a warning glance upon the old lady, whose loquacity obediently subsided. " Well, Lisle, how are you to-day. Better, eh ?" and he lifted the boy to his knee, and smoothed his hair in the tender way Lisle always loved. A quick flushing and puling crossed the little face as he glanced up at the doctor, and the dark eyes wore a troubled expression, which, however, soon died out, and he leant his head contentedly rgainst the doctor's bresist, and twiued his fingers in and out among the little chains which formed the watch-guard decorating his satin vest. i: Always speak when you're spoken to, my son," said Mr. Ster- ling. " You are better to-day, an't you?" TIIE HOUSE BEHIND THE POKLAES. 19 Thus adjured, Lisle glanced shyly up at the doctor's face and no ided assent. " What ever ails the boy this morning, that he can't speak !" ex- claimed Mrs. Sterling impatiently. "He's generally free enough with his gabble when you come ; and no\v not a word out of him." A shadow of pain crossed the doctor's face, as in the child's un- u^u-il silence he read the strongest confirmation of his fears as to that overheard conversation of the preceding evening; and holding him more closely to his breast, he said, 'Don't worry the boy. His lungs pain him, I am sure. This cold, bleak place will be his death.' 1 ' I know it's bad for him," replied Mr. Sterling, " but I don't know what's best to be done. I'd send him to brother Jonathan's, over the hill there; but he's got such a snarl of his own children that his wife's beside herself a'uiost, and everything's topsy-turvey day and night. I don't know " " I'll tell you, then, friend Sterling ; let me take him home for the winter. My wife wants him, and it will be much more convenient for me to attend him there. He will need the best of looking after, all winter." "Why, you seel could eas'er make it all right with Jonathan, when he wants grinding done at the mill. Work an't like paying out cash." " Don't mention that. We've potatoes enough for the winter, and if we hadn't, the few he will eat wouldn't make any difference. In- deed, my wife will feel hurt if you speak of paying anything for him. What do .you sny, Lisle ? Would you like to live with us ?" . A quick, glad light flnshed over his face in reply, and again tho wistful eyes gazed into the doctor's. Dr. Kelley's heart beat quicker as he read the look, and involun- tarily he bent and kissed the boy's forehead. Mrs. Sterling had furtively watched it all, and with an air of well studied amazement she exclaimed, "I declare! it's wonderful, the understanding there seems to be between you and that child ! I hope you'll make him as good and honefet a man as you are, since he takes after you more than he does me, nor yet his father theie. You'll lose your boy, Mr. Sterling." Lisle turned a glance upon the thin figure bent into premature old age, and the narrow, unintellectual face opposite, and then upon the prepossessing exterior of the doctor, in an evident mental com- parison which it needed no filial affection to explain, or account for. 20 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. Yet Mr. Sterling was, in his -weak way, kind to the boy, and, moved by an impulse of gratitude, Lisle slid down from the doctor's knee, :md slipping his hand into the hard palm of the young old man, who had not answered his wife's last observation, said gently, "I won't go away from you at all if you don't like me to. You are always good to me, and I love you.' ' YLS, my son I hope so ; but I think you'll be better off at Dr. Kel.ey's ; so, if your mother thinks best, you may go " " But I don't think best. I don't believe in sending my children away from home to be raised. He'll live it through, here, I'll war- rant"'." " Don't mind about your clothes and things to-day. Til bring them down to you to-morrow, as I'm going by that way," said Mr. Sterling as if his wife had not spoken ; for it was noticeable that though he always asked her opinion, he was never at all influenced by it. Perhaps she herself took advantage of this well known pe- culiarity, to indulge in a little opposition, not attended wit-h any consequences in the present, and liable to end in a species of triumph if the unlucky hour ever arrived in which she could offer the conso- lations of "I told you so," for which, like most people, she had a proclivity at proper seasons. " Hurrah," cried Eddy, tossing his cap in air as the point was thu decided. ' . " I hope, Eddy, you are not so glad as all that to get rid of your brother," said Mrs. Sterling, vainly striving to suppress a little ex- ultation in her voice. "Yes I am too! Ma's real mean to poor Li, doctor; she spank him when he sick and can't lie still; don't her, Li? and this List eatin's, didn't her make you eat when you couldn't ; and don't like you all the time ! ay, Li ? now you run off and ntver come to homes house any more at all! I isn't sick, I'll run away for you. Yes, Li !'' and the little fists clenched themselves ambitiously over the happy suggestion. " Only to see how ungrateful children can-be!" sighed Mrs. Ster- ling, taking Lisle's cloak and cap from the nail where they hung when off duty, and detaching from another a pair of red woollen mittens linked together by a cord made to suspend them round his neck ; and he was soon ready for his ride. " There, that will do nicely," said the doctor, lifting him in his arms to cany him to the sleigh, between whirh and the house the snow lay heavy and deep. ' I've some nice buffalo-robes to wrap TUB HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 21 him up in, and we shan't be fifteen minutes going home. Let Eddy come down and spend the day with his brother, as often as possible. Well, what is it, little fellow ?" for Lisle was pulling at his collar to attract attention. " Please, sir, mayn't Pompey come with us? See how his face begs ; that's the way Pornpey talks. He sleeps on uiy bed all night, and is just like a little brother." , " Yes, of course he may. Come on, brother Pompey." There was a whole Gloria in Excelsis in the glad bark with which Pompey sprang through the open door, never stopping for the good- byes quickly spoken as the cold air rushed in to do battle with the glowing coals, vainly striving to impart a comfortable degree of warmth to the open room. " Providence grant this freak of yours mny turn out well," sighed Mrs. Sterling as the door closed. " It's plain as the day, the boy thinks more of Doctor Kelley now, than he does of his own kin, and the Lord knows how it will all turn outl'' " Yes, he does know, and that's enough for now," replied her hus- band, as, unfolding last evening's unfinished newspaper, he resumed its perusal, and thinking " discretion the better part of valor," Mrs. Sterling said no more. As for Eddy, unconquered even by his pro- phetic visions of loneliness, now that both brother and dog were gone, he looked steadfastly into the fire for a musing five minutes, and then fell to whistling practice, in his ambition to " do " his first tune. ' 22 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAKS. iOHAPTBB IIL THK events of that winter formed the first real glimpses of sun- shine that had ever dawned upon Lisle's little life. Nursed and cared for by kind Mrs. Kelley, who embodied all his childish ideas of motherhood, he often wandered among the romantic imaginings from which no childhood is altogether free, at times quite working himself up to the conviction that this was his own real mother, who in some unavoidable and inexplicable manner had been compelled temporarily to deliver him into the keeping of the woman at the mill house, who, under the title of his mother, disliked and misused him ; and he quite revelled in the fancy that this, his temporary re- turn to his true home, might grow into a lasting reality. The little baby who crowed her wildest on his lap, and played for hours raised to his level by her high ohair, at the table so gloriously stocked with pretty books and pictures, did not she, too, seem to recognize that they were linked together by kindred blood, and foreordained for companions ? Speculative as these musings were, they were the pleasantest among the many which crowded upon hia brain as he sat meditatively through the days when he was most free from pain, for, though bis health improved under better caro, he was still delicate, and often suffering. Often and often his mind reverted to that fatal dialogue between the doctor and his mother, striving to take in and fully comprehend all it involved of mystery. The sudden shock of what he did com- prehend, had at the time overpowered him ; but in a vague way hu felt that this was not all, and, as it' spurred on by a relentless fate, he thought and thought over it, feeling that inexplicably link" ' with it was a something, which if confessed to the world would make his mother scorned by it, and himself he knew not what ! Painfully precocious as he wa?, he thought, too, pityingly of Miles Sterling, the man whom the world believed and called his father, and yet whom he now knew held no claim to the name. An unap- peasing sense of wrong oppressed him, and a feeling that he himself THE HOUSE BEHIND THE TOrLAES. 23 was an agent in it; fevered him through the resfleps nights when ho was most pressed by it. Had not his mother, in referring to him, said that if Mr. Sterling knew the truth he would kill him ? Then was lie, too, guilty, and if so, how ? It was a tangled web. Then an instinct of profound compassion took possession of him as he thought of this narrow-minded, undemonstrative man, who yet manifested so much parental regard for him, and who, whatever his failings, was an honest man, and uncompromising in his ideas of right and wrong. He, of all, seemed most to be pitied, yet his own wife had spoken of despising him I Yet, puzzled and troubled as he was by all thi?, an unconquerable reserve forbade him to mention it even to the doctor, whom he loved with an all absorbing affection, and not the most remote allusion was made by either, to the topic that was often present in the mind of each. Often, raising his eyes from his books, the doctor met that trou- bled, questioning look he so well knew how to interpret dating from the time when he had seen it first, and the sens-it ion it gave him was one of mingled pain and pleasure. Sincerely attached to the boy, as much for what was really winning and noble in his nature, as from that parental affection, inevitable though unacknowledged, he yearned to clasp him to his heart and feel the tie acknowledged. Yet both judgment and affection restrained him. It involved too much, and consequences might be endless and fatal. The boy was BO young, tliere yet remained to him some years of ignorance of nil the shameful tale. When coming years, with their additional knowledge, should tear away the last remnant ot the flimsy veil be- tween him and it, then he would tell it all, and plead for such love and respect as extenuating circumstances might award him. So the doctor braved the searching eyes as he might, or turned away from them, satisfied that the plain path of affection-prompted duty, was sufficient for him to tread, till circumstances should force him into a wider field. As one standing before an. open powder- magazine feels that at any instant a falling spark may launch him into the unknown, the doctor waittd for what fate might inflsct, confessing that the hand which should drop for him the exploding spark, would perform an act of human justice; and only wishing that with it, the wrong might be wiped out, and his atonement blot from Lisle's life the shame and suffering BO unjustly forced upon if. Yet the doctor felt that he himself had been as much tinned against 21 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. as sinning. Lydia Fitzjames, when he first met her, was more than his equal in worldly guile and experience ; and while he now made no attempt to cast his share of responsibility upon her, retrospec- tion showed him how he had been lured on, step by step, by a de- bigning woman whom self-respect forbade him to make his wife when circumstances awoke him, too late, to a sense of his situation. Miles Sterling had entered upon the scene at a propitious mo- ment, and, glad of any loop-hole for escape from impending ruin, he had helped to influence and accomplish the marriage, with little pity for the victim thus offered up in his stead. Never had he forgotten the scene between them when the baffled woman learned that her scheme to entrap him for a husband had failed. Plain words were spoken by each, and the conscience! esa character of the woman stood out in characters from which he turned away, shocked and disgusted. Once for all he taught her that he recognized it all, and that though he might be her tool, he would never be her victim; and her upbraidings ceased when she saw they were vain. But she had never forgiven it, and never would, and she hated the child who had failed to perform its mission, and wreaked upon it the wrath that glowed ever in her heart as she re- alized the utter failure of all which even in her union with Miles Sterling had seemed alluring. The first retribution for an unjust act overtook the doctor when he learned that the man whom he had lured into the breach yawn- ing for himself, was really worthy of esteem for many qualities which redeemed his parsimony and narrow mindedness ; and coals of fire seemed heaped upon his head as he saw this man love and care for his unowned child, and bearing the tender name for which his heart ached unappeasingly ! Far better for his peace of mind, had he never learned to respect Miles Sterling ; far better had no deep affection thrilled his heart for the little boy whom he could never claim, and whom he daily saw suffering for the sins of others himself among the foremost. His punishment seemed heavier than he could bear ; and it was this care that had sprinkled his brown locks with gray, as self-respect felt many a stab of shame and agony under the ever recurring query, how many who called him "friend," and blessed him for "a truly good man,'' would offer him the hand of fellowship did they know of him what he knew. Conscientious as he was, he felt himself an impostor, and none guessed how restlessly he goaded himself on to .THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAES. 25 all good works, as if they could in some way make the balance weigh more evenly between him and the world. Alas, no ! In a small community, where everything is known and discussed, no secret deed remained unapplauded, as even one offset upon the score against him, and strive as he would, he could never set the matter any nearer right with his own conscience. He was the man whom society delighted to honor, and he must go on, feeling himself a hypocrite, to the end of his life. It was a retribution above all others best calculated to oppress the doctor's heart, and at the times when most savagely galled by it, he felt that he thus earned the right to all that was comforting in the interchange of affection between little Lisle and himself. Could he only receive it feeling that the child knew all he was bestowing! Time would soon teach him this; and the doctor waited, making the mo-t of wh.it was his while suffered to retain it, wishing for, yet shrinking from what that future with its revelations might bequeath him as so much belong- ing to him in free gift from one, at least, to whom he was no hypo- crite. " Really, William," said Mrs. Kelley one day as the doctor ssvt ex- plaining a large book of pictures to Lisle, "you have petted, and affiliated with that child, till he is growing to look like you! His mouth is the fac-simile of yours, and his eyes have the same dark blue; only yours are bright and sparkling, and his are languid and heavy. If his hair were cut and brushed like yours, you would see, .too, that your foreheads are not unlike. It strikes me that he imy l)e your twin brother, belated in 'the fog,' or ' superannuated down small,' as old Mrs. Sterling has it," and she laughed at the conceit, and then added in the same tone, "I think I'll call him 'Little Doctor,' after this, in compliment to his having copied so many of your features ; and really, now I think of it, why won't it be a good idea to read him Tip as an M. D.? His father will consent to his pursuing any vocation not likely to levy upon his own purse, and you could do so much for him in this." " You calculate very confidently my dear. How do you know the boy may not prefer to watch the mill wheel, like his father be- fore him, or even to smite the anvil like many another honest man ?'' " How can you suppose it ! Talent looks out from every line of his face, and such a head was never meant to be roasted near a blacksmith's forge. I could not love the child better if he were my oAvn, and I want him to become a smart man and a good one, like you." 26! *' But, my little wife, I'm no* good. This is all a popular delusion. I hope Lisle will shun the pitfalls into which I havo stumbled, and be a f;ir better man thaii 1 ever w:is. I have sometimes hoped ho may feel a preference for iny profession, and it he docs I will gladly help him in it. But by-and-bye, when we may have boys of our own, you will become jealous of poor little Li^le, whom you lovo now for the woman's reason find it's a good one, too that you take care of him and feel sorry for him. You'll love him less as he be- comes less dependent." " Why, William ! how can you think so ? Come here, Little Doc- tor, and speak for yourself. What will you do when you become a man, like this old croaker in the arm chair who wants to make a blacksmith of you?" "I'll take care of you, and him, and little sissy, and give Eddy lots of new tops and jack-knives. 1 ' "Very right; but Eddy will be too large for tops, then, and you'll have to make the money it requires to take care of sissy and us. Won't you learn to make sick people well again, and keep little children fom dying away from their mama's? " No, I don't think I'll be a doctor. I wouldn't like all the littlo boys and girls to cry when they see the pill-bags coming; and Jim- my Lucas says the doctor has carried so many baldes to his house, that his ' old man ' that's what he calls his pa swears awful every time he comes with another; and Jimmy says he hates a doctor wor.-c tlir.n he does a minister, or anything 1" "Thcr .-.' l-.U'4'hed the doctor to his wife. " See what you get by trying to ' bend (he twig.' Better let him wait till tlu- spirit moves him ; and sifter all there's time enough, as he has a worLl c.f tilings to learn before he comes to that.'' "Then, sir. if you please, why ant I learning some of them ? I can stop w'.cn my ea 1 aches, and I don't thinlc I'll die and cheat you out of all your trouble. 1 ' " Wh .t put siich an il( a in your head, child ?" ' T,,at'> what mo'luT always said. She s id ' what's the u=e wa-t- inir money on a child that'll die and cheat you out of it if he takes th notion ?' so, you see, I never asked anv more. Fred, in the mill, I me my a b c's, find I Can spell a little. Pompey knows more tlrm i do. though he's got good dog Laming, and I'm just a. dunce . A'n'tthat true, Pompey Thus appealed t;>, Pompey placed Irs nose c utklently in his youug master's hand, as if obligingly willing to assent to any propc- THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 27 sition coming from such, a quarter, or, perhaps, grateful for his own reward of merit. Lisle's evident desire to be upon the road of learning, resulted in Mrs. Kelley installing herself as his preceptress, and few were the days in which he was induced to avow himself too unwell to be taught. Eddy often spent whole days at the doctor's house, upon which occasions he divided his attentions impartially between the baby, whom he christened "Dummy," in compliment to her limited command of speech, and Pompey, who was inseparable from his mas- ter, sharing with him, and evidently thinking he bore an equal part of the labor at each lesson, so that it was a juvenile boast that Pomp already knew as much as the village justice, and would be run for President if he didn't look sharp an awful penalty which might well appall any rash adventurer on the highway to knowledge. Fired by a kindred ambition, Eddy hoarded all stray pennies which fell to his lot in reward for extra chip-basket filling, and when, after some task far too severe for his years, he received a whole six- pence, he was far more ela' ed by it than by the title of " little major " bestowed upon him by his father, who boasted, in the pride of his heart that his son was " no shirk." This hard-earned treasure was expended in the purchase of unlimited " Eobin Hoods,'' and "Punch and Judys,'' whom he liked all tha oetter after "Dummy" had mussed into a not too dressed up condition ; and he really shouted in delight when that bellicose young lady " hit Punch a rap in the 63*6 " in return for the one he administered Judy to quench her ap- petite for pie. Not fully appreciating her own success in meting out justice, ''Dummy" opened her mouth and swelled herself out hard in a vigorous shout by way of keeping company, which intellectual feat had an impressive effect upon her admirer, as proof of great ju- venile precocity, and if the shake of any dog's tail ever evidenced internal laughter, Pompey, too, was overflowing with appreciation. The winter passed by all too quickly for the doctor and his family, loth as they were to yield Lisle up again to his loveless life in the mill-house, and he already shrank with an unuttered, but unconquer- able dread, from all he was so soon to resume. Fully appreciating the injustice he suffered from a mother who often declared her hatred of him, he was yet too small and weak openly to rebel against it, and even a remonstrance from his lips increased his suffering. Shuddering recollections of dark closets in which he had been im- prisoned, and once forgotten through a long cold night when Eddy was not at home to champion him, rose again before him, peopled 28 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. with the myriad horrible images which danced before him in the rayless obscurity, jeering and menacing him till he could endure no more, and was at last taken out in convulsions, days of semi-starva- tion which racked the delicate frame totally unfit for any such dis- cipline, but one degree removed from heathenism when practised upon any growing child ; and, added to all these, blows frequent and severe, of whose very provocation he was often ignorant, yet which a real fear of threatened retaliation farbade him to reveal to his nominal father, who, had he known of them, would have sup- pressed them with a strong hand, from which even his wife shrank, though her only escape from its power was in Lislc's fear of her. Such were the retrospections which threw an ominous cloud over tho future, and preyed upon his delicate health till a real alaun seized upon the doctor's mind, and he made one more effort to get him entirely under his own custody. But Mr. Sterling was obstinate. The boy should return home when the first warmer days of spring should come ; he did not think it right to separate brothers, and he wouldn't have his children burdens upon any one. All this he declared with a determination nothing could alter, but stronger than all, though unexpressed, was a jealous dread, already partly realized, he believed what would he have felt had he known to what extent that his child would learn to love another better than himself. " After all," he concluded, "I don't see why the boy should wish to live away from his own home. His mother is here, and if he had the right kind of a heart, he'd want stay with her, even if he don't think enough of his father to want to come back. I don't see why he don't care more for his mother." " Excuse me, Mr. Sterling;" replied the doctor. " It is a delicate subject to mention, but I must say I often think she herself is far from blameless When a child shows the shrinking fear of a parent which Lisle cannot conceal he feels of her, there is some strong rea- son for it. He has told me nothing, nor would I encourage him to do so, but if you will accept the suggestion of a friend, you will keep nn eye over him, and, above all, prevent a repetition of punishments which he lias not the strength to endure." " I don't think he ever received any such ones. lie is most always Bulky after any correction, and, as his mother often snys, his health won't give out till his temper does. You know what Solomon said." "Solomon was an old fooi," retorted the doctor nngrily, then ewollowing his ire by an. effort, he said more temperately, " you nro THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 9 entirely mistaken as to the child being sulky. He is reserved, to a degree I never saw equalled in any. child, and in few grown persons. It is this very knowledge of how little even you know the boy, which makes me so anxious to keep him till he is older and stronger, and better able to fight Ids way among trials of which you do not dream. If you object to separating brothers, let me have Eddy too. I'm much nearer the school-house than you are, and at the summer term they can both commence, and go together. It certainly will be a relief to your wife, who will have her hands full enough without the care of them while you are building." "No, sir, thank you. The more she has to do, the better for her. If it's so hard for you to give the boy up now, what will it be a year from now ? 1'il go after him to-morrow and bring him home, where he belongs." So, instead of carrying his point, the last clays of the child's stay were curtailed, and the doctor sat that evening looking gloomily into the fire, with the old pain tugging at his heart against which little Lisle's head was pillowed as upon the only anchor of protec- tion this world held for him. His eyes, too, peered into the flicker- ing firelight, through a long silence employed by Mrs. Kelley in some last stitches upon his wardrobe which she hoped would prove a sug- gestion to Mrs. Sterling, who neither thought nor cared much for such little details. The doctor roused himself, and smoothing the boy's head, asked cheerfully, "What are you thinking all this time, little fellow ?" "I don't want to go atvay from you. Why can't I stay here al- ways ? Nobody loves me at home." " I think your father loves you, Lisle; don't you?" The child raised his earnest eyes to the doctor's face, and his lips quivered, but not a word passed them. Moved by an irresistible im- pulse, the doctor with both hands held the flushed little face up to- ward his own, looked with unutterable affection into the dark blue eyes all swimming in tears, and. covering cheeks and lips with fervent kisses, as suddenly put him down and walked to the door hesitated there, and then returning laid his hand upon the child's head and said sadly, "Poor little fellow; this is a hard world for us all doubly hard for you ! Be a man, always, and when you need a friend in anything, come to me. Remember always.^ A quick sob, the first he had ever heard from him, fell on the doc- tor's ear ; and turning silently, he lfc the room. 30 THE IIOTTSE T.^TTTXD TTTr, CHAPTER IV. B summer days drew on, and the new house was rj.pi.iiy pro- gressing. Banks of earth lay in irregular masses where it had been tossed in excavating for a cellar, and long rows of lumber locked fingers over the rail fence that supported it for a due amount of "seasoning." The ''raising day " arrived. They were early astir in the mill-house, and having made a tour of observation to the pantry filled with the huge loaves of orthodox "raising cuke," to make sure it had not been spirjtcd away during the night, Mrs. Sterling hurried breakfast, that it might be over and done with be- fore the neighbors, relations, and friends, should assemble, as in duty bound, to lend a helping hand toward the rearing of the new domicil. The little boys and Pompey ran busily around the yard, seized by the contagion an important day spreads all through a household, and even the old lady rocked more vigorously in her high-backed chair as. she plied the knitting-needles held to unwilling servico upon a long-legged cotton stocking grotesquely distorted by sudden and unmistakable cramps relieved by a liberal widening, and evi- dencing each, day's progress in a streak of tight or of loose knitting, according as she had felt the affliction of the family parsimony, or given rein to a liberal fancy. Mrs. Sterling's restless eyes detected some irregularity in the loop- ing and dropping of the stitches, and possessing herself of the mal- formation, she exclaimed, " For the land sake, what are you doing here ! The thing is pulled in an 1 let out, and puckered and twisted, till a lawyer's foot couldn't find its way into it !' : " Why ma'am, I was privately informed that I must put a new ctitch in the instep, by way of adornment, so Tve been con'rivin' and practisin' on one, but it don't seem to come. I don't like open- work stockins', they take so much sorubbiii' of the feet to set em off well. I widdened too much all day yesterday, what with thinkhr o' the new house and seem' you makiu' so much c ike ; and it seems all the navrowin' in the world won't get it back into genteel shape." THE, HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 31 "You'll have to 'superannuate it down small,' so ;'' find drawing out the needles, Mrs. Sterling proceeded to unravel the work with a liberal hand, the old lady indignantly protesting till she saw it was useless, and then breaking out with her i'avorite song under all trib- ulations " Poor lady, pool- Indy, you're always undone," finishing the lament with a statement of the particular grievance in hand. Hosvever, upon this exciting day trouble was not to be har- bored ; so, philosophically retreating to her own room, ?he left the knitting to its fate ; and a!'ter a vigorous round of shaking and dusting of apparel, she at length reippeared, serene in a fl-imc colored robe kept for state occasions, and an. armful of ruffled garments which she shook out one by one and examined not over complacently. " Now tell me, Lydy, which o' these Vandykes do you think '11 be most bicomin' to me for this 'casion ? I'm informed that my bride- groom will eat hen. 1 , to-day, disguised as a laborin' man though he's u prince of light and I want him to find me fine and gay." "Oh, clear out with your ' Vandykes!' The finer and gayer you arc, the worse you look! All you Sterlings have that peculiarity. You'll be a .sight, whatever you put on." "Enviou<," whispered the old lady to herself, and retiring with the insulted capes, she made ha 4 toilet by the broken bit of mirror in her room, and endured an hour of martyrdom in searching and pulling out the gray hairs mingl'-d with her still well preserved brown ones. It was a tedious operation, though semi-weekly per- formed with feminine care, aud she finished only as the men assem- bled and commenced work. Despite the little boys' pleadings for a holiday upon this grand climax of all days, they w-cre driven ofif to school, where they fell into d sgiace in the usual way; Lisle, for some unknown sin of omission or commission, and Eddy for espousing his cause nnd resenting tho penalty. Little heeding the schoolmistress' threat to follow them home and report them in person to their mother, they r in home tlu: moment school was dismissed, hoping to be "in at the death," if only to see one last beam lifted to its place in the new house but the frame was up rUnromantically complete and Poinpey seemed 1o deprecate nnd lament it,, as, meek and sympathetic, he caine out to meet them. Them w r as. nothing for it but 'resignation ; so, con- soling themselves with a huge pieco of the " raising cake," they seal- ed themselves on a sill, where they shared it bite for bite with Pom- 32 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE TOPI.ARS. pey, who sat genteelly awaiting Ids turn, and never took greedy inouthfuls. " Eddy, do you believe the school ma'am will come to-night, as sho said she would ?" asked Lisle, a little troubled. "I don't know, she's just mean enough to, a'i't she ? If she does, let's play her a trick. By jimminy, don't I wish I could lick her ! Schoolma'ams always ought to be licked !" i% I wi*li they'd baptize her, so she wouldn't be mean to me every time the boys do things. It wasu'i, me that put the thistle in Sally Bcebe's shoe. It was Carry Frink did it. You see she don't H!:o that Beebe girl putting on airs and not going barefooted like th rest of us. Sally, she thinks it's nicer to wear shoes ; so she wi-ars them ragged old things with th soles almost clear off, so that wlr-ii she sits down with her heels a little ways up from the floor you c -n see clean to her toes. Carry put the thistle on 'cm, and when sho let her heels down, to go into the spelling class, plunker! down sho came on it, and didn't she howl If I'd been Carry, I'd have owned Tip to it before Id sco a boy whipped that didn't do it ; but when she da'sn't tell, I wasn't going to; and 'cause the schoohna'am saw me laugh a boy couldn't help it she whipped me to make it all straight ; and now if she comes and tells, ma'll whip me again, for- getting flogged in school. I can take one licking well enough, but when a boy gels two for the same thing he never done at all, it's a shame !" ''I don't believe you'll catch it ngain, this time, 'cause I got it, too, to-day; and ma never licks mo. By jimminy, there comes old Schooley, now, with her yellow sunbonnet flying !" Through the open bar-way came the toachcr with indignant stride, and thinking discretion the better jiart of valor the boys stole off jxjid did not return till nearly dark, thinking that by that time t !io coast would be clear of the teacher, and their mother's first wrath abated. Dire and unwelcome vision ! There oh the settee re- posed the teacher, quite at home lor the night, received as an hon- oivd guest and regaled with all the house afforded. Mrs. Sterling drew the boys forward with no gentle hand, and condemning them, to go supperle>s to bed, dispatched them at once whero they lay planning vengeauce for the morrow, accompanied by Pompey, who seemed equally interested in their plan*, and looked from one to the other as if fully weighing each suggestion from tin* bu-y brains that were at last overtaken by sleep, without having settled upon any definite project. But fresh inspiration came wit'.i TUB HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 33 the morning's opportunity, and the young avengers looked on not uninterestedly, as sundry delicacies were compounded for the noon time delectation of the enemy, who, departing early, left the luncheon to be brought by tlie boys. It was past the opening school hour when they walked demurely in, but inquiry eliciting the f ict that tiiey were detained upon account of the delicacies now delivered to her, they escaped unpunished, and affairs proceeded much as usual, *avc that Lisle did not once fall into disgrace, and seemed unusually attentive to his books. The noon intermission came at last, nnd allowing the other boys to pass out before them, Lisle and Eddy lingered in the entry while the enemy took one by one the articles from the luncheon basket, f-niiling approvingly at the goodly array; for Mrs. Sterling prided herself upon her culinary skill, and gloried in an opportunity to dis- play it. The fried cakes looked sufficiently tempting, turning one golden side up at her, and she helped herself to a liberal bite of one. An expression of infinite disgust convulsed her face, as the offending, treacherous morsel was ejected. They certainly were flavored with snuff! Yes; she sneezed and strangled again and again ere the sus- picion had fairly fixed itself upon her mind. Eddy smothered a laugh with his handkerchief; for his had been the generous hand that lent such piquancy, while Lisle, nearly upsetting a pan of milk in the pantry, had called for maternal aid which he considered cheaply purchased at the price of a boxed ear. "With a warning ll hu&h," Lisle checked the threatened explosion, as tlie teacher cut in half a small pie serenely awaiting her attentions. It proved a heathenish compound of apple, salt, and sulphur, and when she had sufficiently conquered her disgust, she closely examined it. Yes, as she suspected, the upper crust had been separated from the lower one, and carefully replaced, since it left the oven, and a grim smile wreathed her lips as she thus detected the way-side iniquity. Lisle saw it, and knew the probable penalty, but he had the satis- faction of seeing her compelled to endure a dinnerless day in return for his supperlcss night. "There, Eddy," said he as they stole out together, "I did all that, you know, f-o ma can't whip you for it (the one who thinks how to do naughty things, is the bad one), and now all the sulphur is gone, so we shan't have any to take to-morrow morning. I only wish we rould have crammed in all the pichra and columbo, too 1 TJiat would have fetched her !" The brief feeling of triumph he experienced despite the impend- 34 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE TOPLABS. ing and inevitable penalty due, was checked by an unpleasant, if common incident; for as they passed down the steps, Bill Brown, the bully of the school, stepped slily behind him, struck him a blow behind liis ear, as severe as unexpected. Stunned for an instant, he leaned against the door-post while the young pugulist made off at the top of his speed, for, like all tyrants, he was a coward. He was the largest boy in the school, and it was useless to attempt wreaking a summary vengeance upon him. Eddy seized a stone which ho was whirling round and round to gather impetus, when Lisle looked up. " Put it down, Eddy. HeVl come back and whale us both, now, but I'll do him the first time he an't looking for it." The opportunity came sooner than he could have hoped. " Come here, Li Sterling," shouted one of the boys in a knot among whom Bill had run for protection, " make us a board house like the one you had the other day, and I'll give you something. Will you ? ' "Yes, I'll make you the house, but you needn't give me anything. I'm willing to do anything if I'm asked, but I don't like to be told," and throwing off his coat, he went cheerfully to work, and soon fin- ished a sort of commodious pen for a small family, dignified by the name of house. "Here, Bill Brown, you get in first," said the contractor who had called Lisle, "you are taller than any of us, so if you can stand up in it, we" can." " Oh, Bill is going to live in it too, h he ? Then it wants a higher roof," suggested Lis'.c. "Of course, booby; and if you don't stand around lively, I'll give you another knock to keep that one company," replied Bill clenching his fist suggestive;}'. Lisle obligingly and meekly rearranged the board forming fhe roof, and looked again at the foundation of the structure, with which at la&t satisfied, he raised the entrance and bade Bill enter. With an air of supercilious triumph at being the commander of such ser- vices, Bill entered the trap, when down it came around him, burying him among the ruin?, from which uncomfortable situation he bel- lowed most lustily, while Lisle, in turn, placed a safe distance be- tween himself and the enemy. This was but one instance among many of the daily bullyings visited upon and revenged by Lisle, whose lack of physical strength, was takon advantage of by the boys, who, as a class, dislike a sickly companion, and though he seldom TliE HOUSE LEI1IKD THE rOPLAUS. 85 failed to reap his revenge, it was done by some strategy which cov' crcd it from recognition by others, however satisfactory to himself. Compelled to perform many tasks distasteful to him, it was uselc a to refuse, but Ids services seldom bestowed much felicity where he dlt not chor.se fh'it they should do so. His teachers were quick to recognize this avenging tal-?nt, and, wholly unheeding the aggrava- tions which stung him thus to wreak out justice upon his persecu- tors, they considered and treated him as a bad, designing, treacherous boy. Thus with a rankling sensa of injustice gna\xing ever in his heart, he dragged on his miserable school days, feeling that every one's hand was against him. From the little girls in the school he received sympathy, and with them might have had companionship, but the natural pride and ar- rogance of boyhood made him shrink from joining a congregation of girls, and his shabby clothes made him. ashamed to do so, quick as they were, by instinct, to observe and remark upon thorn. " I'd like you better than any other boy in school, if you wore good clothes," said a little g'rl to him one day. '' Why don't you have nice n -w clothes, like that hateful Bill ? You're a great deal the nicest boy, and your pa is ever so much richer than his." " "I don't want to be a dandy " sneered Lisle, flushing, nevertheless, with shame, and trying to conceil a patched elbow as he spokL 1 . " Oh, then you aren't so nice as I thought you were ! You ought to want to be real nice ! I wouldn't go patched nor ragged for any- thing. Just see your brother Eddy, now don't he look like a little beggar boy? And you look worse than he does, because you're longer and bigger than your clothes, bad as they are !" .In dignified silence he turned and walked away, but once out of Bight, lie threw himself upon the grass and tore it up by savage handfuls, as tears of rage and bitterness rolled down his cheeks, lu all the world there was not one bright spot for him to turn to, and the very heavens seemed to frown upon, or mock him. He heard the teacher loudly rapping on the window with tho back of a book, to summon the scholars to their seats arid afternoon exercises, but he did not obey. Time passed till his class was calLd, and the noisy summons was repeat ed,for him, as he well knew. An interval passed, then Eddy's voice called him, at first impatiently, then in alann; and dashing away his tears, he answered and came forward. "Oh, Li, but an't the schoolma'am mad as hops! and she's cut- ting notches with Irer penknife in the butt end of a big switch that 3G THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. won't leave an inch of hido on you ! Oh my, but you'll catch it now !" " No I shan't. I won't catch it any longer ! I may ns well die now i.s any time, and I'm going home. Go back and tell the schoolma'aui I'm gone home ; that's a good boy." " But, Li, ma's worser than the schoolma'am is." " I shan't go to her, I'm going straight to pa. Never you mind about me, Eddy. Go back and say your lessons." He watched him back to the door, and then turned his own steps homeward. Mr. Sterling was standing in the door of the mill when Lisle reached it, and surprised to see him at such an hour, asked, "What are you doing here, Lisle ? "Why an't you in school ?'' "Because I an't fit to be there, and I won't go any more 1 Kill me if you want to ; I don't care. I can't stand it and I wont, so there !" find his usually pale face deepened into a more glowing crimson. "What language is this to use to your father, Lisle?" "What kind of a father is it to let his children go looking like little beggars ? There an't a boy in the school but what hates me, and even a little bit of a girl not that, high, told me to-day that she wouldn't go patched nor ragged for anything-! The teacher whips me because I'm ' a mean little chimney sweeper,' and calls rne ' vag- abond,' and ' rag-a-muffin,' and everything else mean and dirty. 1 11 go driver on the canal before Til stand it any longer !" "Do you know what kind of boys drive horses on the canal?" "Yes; bad, mean, wicked boys, that swear, and drink whiskey, nnd play seven up for money. But I don't care, I'd better have a good time like them, and maybe go to hell afterwards, than be mis- erabler than them all the time and may be go there all the same. I'm going to try if", any way." Mr. Sterling was shocked beyond measure. That a son of his should not only sloop to be a canal driver, but thus coolly reason upon and accept the penalty, was enough to make him doubt his own exist* nee! He looked at him in speechless horror. The steadfast, defiant glance which met his own, taught him at once that no moral lecture or parental sternness would conquer the resolution, and taking him silently by the hand, he led him into the mill, away from any chance of interruption, and there lifting him upon l.i-; knee, said very seri- ously, but gently, THE HOUSE BEHIXD THE POPLARS. " 37 " Now my son, tell me what hns put all these ideas into your head. Who abuses you ? Tell me the whole story, and then we'll see wlrxt can be done." " Every body abuses me ! Ma hates me because T was born, and says if you knew as much ab le is his father's boy, you know ! That makes a differ- ence. Take what you can get, and be thankful." "I wish, wife," said Mr. Sterling, " you'd teach that boy some re- spect for his father. lie threw his new shoes at me." " I'll warrant it ! Just the Fitzjames spirit ! You won't be able to snub 1dm very long, Mr. Sterling. Why hasn't he boots, like Lisle's, the re r" " Because Li*le tricked me out of what I didn't mean to give him. lie played me a trick I shan't forget of him." " How did you do it, Lisle ?" asked Eddy in sudden interest, as if a new idea had occurred to him ; but before the reply was given, if indeed any would have been ventured, there, Mrs. Sterling said sar- castically, " What, your model son deceive his father ? Impossible !" L : s'e sat regarding his ill-gotten treasures with a look that plainly asked their opinion as to whether he had not paid too dearly for them. Supper soon ended the scene, and Eddy was appeased by his father's promise to exchange the despised shoes for the coveted boots. So quist descended upon the troubled dny. Thoroughly resolved upon a complete revolution in affairs, Mr. Sterling the next day had a long interview with the bchoolinistress, which, as he was one of the directors, had the desired effect ; and it wns arranged|that henceforth any misconduct upon the part of liis children was to be reported to him, and upon no account punished by herself. The teacher shut up her pen-knife with a littlo dick, as Mr. Sterling left her, and her lips closed uncompromisingly. But the flesh of a teacher is weak, and the power of a director is strong. For ;i few days the Sterling boys were absent from school ; but they reappeared, newly clothed, and looking comparatively cleg mf, despite the fact that the " Cadet grey" was not a most desirable lir., Mrs. Sterling's labors proving more persevering thnu successful, nor were the pride and glory pertaining to Iheir proprietorship sensibly abated even by the derisive shouts, " Stingy Sterling has been ty a fire ! Lord, what a haul I" THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 43 CHAPTER V. COULD irritating boys have been brought to terms as ca^iiy as frightened parents and unresisting, if unwilling, teachers, Lisk's school-day troubles would have been ended. The mistress of the rod and ferule, now dethroned as far as he was conceaned, kept ob- stinate silence when reports to headquarters were honestly due, de- termined that if Mr. Sterling wished his boys to go straight to the Great Unmentionable, they should encounter no obstacle in her; and thus assured that no penalty would follow any satisfactory drab- bling he might deem it judicious to administer to his enemies, a fair allowance of physical strength would doubtlessly have made him famous, but proper caution in regard to avenging justice kept half his prowess concealed, or only guessed at, and he was never known as the attacking party. Only in self-defence 'was he ever seen to raise his hand, and theu.if lack of strength were atoned for in stategic ability, it was excusable, and few wero the evil-doers who escaped him, though he was compelled to master his impatience and wait for opportunity, when the first salient point in the enemy's defence was attacked to the lasting remembrance of the discomfited. What an undisguised blow with his own fist failed to perform, was accom- plished by a stone tied in the corner of his handkerchief; nnd the boys fell back astonished that so feeble a child could deal such blows, while skillful concealment of his weapon prevented the patent from being infringed upon. There was glory in being feared, if he had not the pleasure of being loved, and, after all, as fear is the move enduring sentiment, it was well that he went on his conqrteiing way rejoicing. Only under Dr. Kellcy's roof did this feeling of isolation and lrev. T beamed upon him here alone was he made to think himself any- thing but an interloper nmongthe herd of mankind. The one bright spot to which he looked forward, was the Saturday holiday closing the weary week, when he and Eddy went early to the doctor's house, nnd were carried home at night in the doctor's own carriage. 41 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. Little Julie, having long outgrown her sobriquet of " Dummy," was an object of unceasing interest and amusement to them, and each in his peculiar way made her his companion. Eddy was never weary of arousing her indignation, and submitted to be pummelled, or roundly lectured by her, according to the enormity of his offence. A putty-headed doll of evil countenance and cotton and bran corporosity, was the principal object of their contention, and the victim whose sufferings compelled her to submit to any imposed terms of peace. This infant member of the fraternity was called " Old Kate," and many were the executions she diurually suffered by hanging from the door-post by her neck, after which she would have been drawn and quartered had not the strength of her consti- tution resisted his inhuman exertions to that effect, through which little Julie screamed till she was purple from her chin to her eyes. Agonized pleadings of " take her down, oh, do take her down," often called Lisle's attention to the crucifixion of " Old Kate," whose vivid color and serene countenance under her sufferings, were remarkable. Toward Julie, Lisle was always tenderly protecting, and he never failed to hasten to her relief and reprove Eddy for his cruelty. Julie herself was not unfrequently false to the instinct of maternal tenderness if any such instinct there be though, in justice, it mut be conceded that when so, it was from a mistaken sense of duty, how- ever performed with the cheerful alacrity for which many mothers in real life who are older if not wiser are remarkable. Knowing that half-way measures spoil children, and undermine family government, the young maternal martyr to duty seized " Old Kate" by the morocco covered extremities, and beat her putty head upon the wall till divers indentations attested the force of her blows, and in one instance, after an unusual misdemeanor, a broken skull was the consequence, which, after the customary prayer following the chastisement endured by " Old Kate J ' as by many a juvenile, with a sense that the worst was over, and this only a sort of " sum- ming up" she was carried to the doctor to be dressed and plastere I in the most approved surgical manner, after which she soothed and rocked her to sleep, with the comforting assertion that " mamma didn't punish her because she liked to, but to make her good;' 7 a declaration which called out a shout of derision from the skeptical Eddy, for which he was seriously reproved by her. An untimely end befell poor " Old Kate ;" for having been left by the road-side " for the pigs to eat up, for her naughtiness," they act- ually cnmo along and did so, much to the horror of the bereaved THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 45 mother, who mourned for her in a dark wadded hood with a black neckerchief drooping over it for a veil, till a new doll, of waxen conijjlexion, and with real, curling hair, filled the void in her heart, like the advent of a beauty among a family of real children. All this, which infinitely amused Eddy, was a source of real pain to the ever reflective Lisle, real life in miniature as it seemed ; nor was he to be laughed out of it, for which serious way of looking at things he received the litle of " deacon." Little Julie's self-dcfenco was plead with a comical mingling of earnestness and affectation, as, uplifting her rosy face and softly stroking his serious one, she rea- soned, "You know, dear deacon, that you can't understand a mother's feelings : no one but a mother can. I had to whip Old Kate and bo very strict with her, because she had a bad temper ; but I never havo to punish little Pet, because she is the sweetest little thing in the world, and never soils her pink silk dress and she's so pretty ; isn't she now, Lisle?" "Yes, that's just it. And you abused poor Old Kate because sho wasn't pretty, though she was just as much your child as Pet is, wasn't she ?" "Hush; she's gone to heaven, now, and I suppose she is a lovely angel, with that black patch off of her head. I shall go there and see her some day." " I say, little Ju, if she sees you coming there, won't she cut and run! 1 ' laughed Eddy, holding up his hands to receive the blows he expected she would ruin upon him ; but to his surprise she walked away with her eyes full of tears, and refused to be comforted short of much repentance and apology, and even then only by degrees. Praises of Pet at last accomplished what protestations had failed to achieve, and her smiles returned. On the whole, their companion- ship was a very happy one; and time went by only marked by these Saturday periods in the weekly pages. Thus affairs went on till Lisle attained his fifteenth year, when a new event broke the monotony of existence in the mw mill-house now standing complete on the hill near where the old one had been. The same Lornbardy poplars towered up into the air, but looked less hopeless and forlorn now that the tangled weeds and grass which had choked their root-!, had given place to smoothly shaven turf, fenced in from the street by a substantial white railing, and the old bars were succeeded by a double gate, from which a drive led up to the stables in the side yard. 46 TIIE HOUSE BEHIND TIIE POPLARS. It was a comfortable, rather pretentious farm-house, of solid arch- itecture, and, awakened to something of her old-time ambition by these BUI round ings, Mrs. Sterling displayed a luudable pride in making continual internal improvements as she could command tho means of paying for them. Mr. Sterling glanced silently at theso additions to the household furniture, and sometimes adjourned to the bed-room and examined his pockets suspiciously. The amounts thus appropriated were insignificant in detail, and if questioned about them, she assumed an air of outraged innocence, and then berated his carelessness in losing so much money which he had far better expend upon his family. Then followed an enumeration of the many sacrifices she daily made upon the altar uf economy, of the number of pounds of cheese and butter she had contrived to sell from the rnilk of four cows, and how she had done it, till, glad of escape upon any terms, he said no mure of the still unabated suspic- ion, but went out andlei't her to finish the harangue at her pleasure. The mill was doing a good business, and crops had been good 'despite one or two late irosts ; so the Sterlings were prospering, not- withstanding the melancholy addition of three girls and another boy to the household number. Old Mrs. Sterling, meantime, had sung her last-" Poor lady," and departed for the silent land. Her high- backed chair still occupied its accustomed corner; but the old black cat had enthroned herself upon the faded cushion, and the thin, grey- black shawl had been, by the powerful agency of trade, transformed into an indefinite portion of a glass preserve dish. Mrs. Sterling saw that she had been blessed in many ways, and felt the better for it. Such was the situation of affairs, when the arrival of a bachelor brother of Mrs. Sterling's added a new interest to the life of the family and its neighbors. Mr. Filzjames resided in Kentucky, in which state he had "ac- cumulated a fortune in the mule business," as all who were acquaint- ed with Mrs. Sterling were repeatedly informed, and though the in- tiicacies of '' the mule business" remained a sealed mystery, the for- tune was accepted as a facr, as also her assertion that "her children, being his next of kin, would some day come into it." In her own mind she had become convinced that Eelward, now a fine, manly boy, would fall heir to the bulk of this fortune, and she spared no pains to instruct him how he should win and retain his uncle's fa- vor; lessons which fell uselessly upon his ear, for he was as much a Fitzjames as ever, and would neither assume to be what he was not, THE HOUSE BEIIIXD THE POPLAE.S. 47 nor conceal what ho really was, from any one, or for any purpose, and when unusually irritated by her teaching, unceremoniously " wished the old cove and his money hi Balluhac !" The old gentle- man one day chanced to overhear this irreverent consignment of himself and his possessions, and suddenly addressing the discomfit- ed hid, exclaimed, " You do, do you ! and pray may I ask what for !" "I've no objections to you, sir; I prebume you're a nice old chap enough ; but it's enough to make a boy swear, to have you and your money thrown in his face every minute !" " Be ally, sister Lydia, he doesn't do credit to his training. Ho might come in for something handsome at my death if he could play hypocrite ; eh ? Well, there's plenty of time for him to learn it, yet ! I'm rugged and hearty, and likely to be," and smiling grimly, the- old gentleman walked away. Filled with shame and contrition, Eddy soon followed him. Mr. Fitzjames took no nolico of him for a time, but at length turning quickly upon him, he said, " An ' old cove ' am I ? Wished me where was it ?" " Oh, sir, I'm sorry I said that. No ; you're the nicest old boy I ever saw, and it wasn't you I was vexed with. If it wasn't for that everlasting ' money,'' we'd be real tip-top friends." "So we are, my boy ! Go off to your play, and dou't be sensitive over trifles. I can't see that it's any worse to be an ' old cove ' than an. ' old chap,' and either name is good enough when a gentleman isn't over particular,' and readjusting his spectacles he went on reading, serenely. " I thought so," commented Mrs. Sterling, nodding her head sa- gaciously as she .retreated from the door crack which had served as her observatory, and returned triumphantly to her pie cru^t rolling. " Every tiling works for the best." Mr. Fitzjames' visit drew nearly to a close, and no farther mani- f; station of partiality for the young embodiment of the Fitzjames' virtues and spirits^ cheered Mrs. Sterling's watching eyes. Nothing seemed farther fioin his thoughts than his young nephews and nieces, and if his attention was ever in any way directed toward them, he bestowed it briefly, in an indifferent manner, which might liavo sprung from pure carelessness, or been only the exercise of a bach- elor's privilege, who, owing nothing to posterity, declined being an- noyed by it. At least there was no hope for any of them if not for Edward, and Mrs. Sterling felt a dim forboding that the proceeds 1-3 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAK3. of the successful "mule business" might not be preserved to the i'.mily after all these expectant years. The thought was not a pleasant one ; and raising her eyes from her early apple drying employment, she glanced sharply down upon the busy mill, and the pond sleeping so lazily below the house, un- disturbed by the fnmily chatter of a congregation of ducks who were holding a session meeting with much ado. At the head of the pond, Lisle and Eddy were laboring diligently upon the construction of a raft, their pantaloons rolled compactly p over their knees, and their shirt sleeves similarly elevated above the troubles of life, in the fashion so dear to the hearts of industri- ous juveniles. Eddy, as the more vigorous of the two, dragged to- gether the planks for the miniature ark, while Lisle officiated as master architect. Mrs. Sterling looked on for awhile, and her lip curled as she mentally commented, "That's always the way it goes! Prince Lisle always plays the tine gentleman, while others obey his bidding. I'll put an end to his domineering for this time," and go- ing to the cradle in which slumbered the youngest representative of the family, she roused to action a pah- of lungs which were the terror of the household. The unwelcome summons fell upon the little boys' ears even before Mrs. Sterling called from the door-way, 'Lisle, come right in here and mind the baby. She's screaming herself into fits." " Let her scream herself out of 'eni again, then ; and if she don't, there's enough in the family without her !" shouted back Eddy, de- fiantly, as Lisle commenced rolling down his pantaloons legs prepar- atory to obeying. "Don't budge an inch, Lisle ; the raft wont be done to-day if you do, and the more you tend and coax that young one, the more you have to. That's just the way of them little she things! Ten to one the old lady made her squall. She never lets you play a minute." Lisle had his own opinion upon the subject, but he said nothing, and casting one longing, lingering look back upon the rait, went up to the house and seated himself by the huge iron-bound cradle, which had creaked to sleep not only the present generation of Ster- lings, but two broods in the ascendant. The more he strove to rock the baby into quietude, the louder she screamed, and administering a box on his ear, Mr;?. Sterling bnde him take her up. It was a fat, hi avy child, nearly a year gone in teething, and Lisle could scarcely lift her, but once having gotten her upon his lap he was rewarded by an instantaneous cessation of the protesting yells, and resting her THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAKS. [ 49 head back upon his breast, she fell into a silent and absorbed con- templation of her chubby fists, as if speculating upon the unknown purpose for which they were made. Thus relieved from any active care in her behalf, Lisle fell into a study upon the construction oif the raft, and planned how he should secure possession of a ie'w nails much needed to make a neat job of it. "What are you sulking about now, young gentleman r" asked Mrs. Sterling so suddenly that he came out of his musings wilh a little start. ' Nothing; that is I mean to say" and at a lo^s what to reply, he stopped short. " Yes, I'll warrant you do! None of your impudence to me, sir." He raised his eyes deprecatingly, and commenced to reply, but feel- ing assured that denial of any accusation, however unreasonable, "was worse than useless with her, he closed his lips and said nothing. " I caught you at it this time, sly as you are! I'll teach you to think up impudence towards your mother !" and bho reached for the ever-ready rawhide. " Truly, mother, I wasn't thinking anything saucy at all! It was only about the raft." 'Now tell a lie about it, will you! Put down the baby and get up here. I won't leave an inch of skin on your body, you evil boy!" Lisle placed the baby in the cradle which he took care to inter- pose between himself and the uplifted whip, and stopped back Avhile a. hot flush dyed his face and as suddenly retreated leaving it like marble ; and there was something ominous in the tone with which he said, " No, you won't whip me, mother. You've struck me the last blow you'll ever give me." " What's that, you hop of my thumb ! You dare me?" " No, I only say I'll never stand it again ! never .'" Mrs. Sterling took two hasty steps around the cradle. " Seize her, Pompey," commanded Lisle. T.olh to obey, yet ever faithful, Pompey sprang forward between them, and showed his teeth savagely. Mrs. Sterling screamed, as much in anger as in flight. She dared not advance, and after a mo- ment of mutual defiance, through which Lisle stood with eyes ablaze, she said threateningly, ' I'll have this dog shot within an hour. Then we'll see!" " Lydia, let the boy alone. lie is too large for you. to manage now. Turn him over into his father's hands, in future,'' interposed CO THE HOUSE UriTIXD THE rCPLAES. the voice of Mr. Fitzj-imes, who, from the adjoining room hnd seen and heard all that transpired. ' That I will, Warren, and he shall get such a tanning as he never got yet. Go up to your room, young man, and don't you show your fVice till you are called. Just make the most of your bones whilc- they're whole, too, I advise you." Calling Pompey witli him for safe-keeping. Lisle obeyed, and ro- m lined in his room till Mr. Sterling himself opened the d"or and came very seriously in. " What's all thi=, Lisle-? Did you set the dog on your mother?" " Ycs, sir, I hoped he'd kill her if she struck me !" Mr. Sterling raised his hands in horror, but not a -word fell from hi* lips. Lisle bur^t out impetuously, "I know it. I'll be hanged if I have to stay here. I know I and you'll be the one to blame, too, for not letting me go off long ago when I wanted to. I'll go to-monow if I'm alive." "To drive horses on the c >nal ?" " Yes, or anything else. I won't live here. I hate the ve: that shines on this house !" ' Th^n you ought to be ashamed of yourself. Don't you think it's my duly to whip you for your conduct towards your mother?'' "No. I don't, and I won't take it. She is the one to b'ame, nnd I didn't want to quarrel. She's always treated me worse than a :;iid always hated me." "No she hasn't. It an't natural for any mother to hate her child.'' "But you. sir, don't know all, and I do. I could make you h:xtc h^r worse than I do, but I won't. Only let me go away from here forever, and I'll never open my lips against her." 'I'm going to send you away. I've spoken to your uncle Frz- . ? about it. and he will take You home wi'h him." "Tin-re, f ithcr, that shows 1 wa-n't the one to blame ! H ] word of it, and if I was such an a\\ful boy ho wouldn't have >nr him." ' You are too bad to be allowed among your little brothers nnd . and with him you can't set a bad example before any chil- Come to dinner now, if you think you deserve any : I don't." Lisle was not in the spidt to accept another's estimate of his mer- '.'.- an 1 deserving?, so he took his accustomed place among the se- r u>fice-=>urrounding the ri'tnrr table. He cast miny i. gliiKx 1 upon Mr. Fiizjames. hoping to obt-iin s >me clue to his opinion of the mof ning's adventure, but not a re a ponsive glance met his own, TIIE HOUSE LliHIND THE POPLARS. 51 and not a word relative to himself was uttered ti:l Mr. Fitzjauies finished his meal and shoved back his chair, when he said briefly, " I hope the boy will be gotten ready to leave next week ; I mean to start for home Tuesday." "A pretty pa-s it's come to now, young man !" said Mrs. Sterling to Lisle, "I hope your uncle will shut you up in his nigger pen and give you what you deserve. Now go down to Dr. Kelley's and give a report of yourself, and ask Mrs. Kelley if she's likely to get the thirts she's making you done by Tuesday." Mr. Sterling loolfed up as the door closed, and said slowly, " I don't see, wife, why you can't get along with that boy. Every body else seems to like him. I hope no judgment will follow his being sent away from his own home in this way. It seems strange a mother can't live with her own child." "He's no child of mine! There an't a drop of Fitzjames blood in Lim, and never was. He's just a mean, tricky, miserable Sterling, and won't come to anything better ! besides it's none of my notion having him sent away. Pd find a way to manage him, if he was kept at liome. That dog'll be shot dead enough before he gets back from the doctor's, and he won't have him so handy next time." Mr. Sterling rubbed his large hands together, and drew a long breath of meek resignation, and the conversation was closed by Eddy making his appearance for his dinner. Tossing his hat in a corner, ho waited for no ceremony, and all unwashed as he AVOS since his labors upon the raft, commenced his meal. 'Eddy, why didn't you come when the rest did? Your dinner is all cold, now, and there wasn't any reason for waiting so," said his mother, helping him liberally to what was before him. " I wasn't ready to come then. Do you want me to do like the pigs, who run. squealing and stick their noses in the trough the minute you say ' swill ' to 'em ? I'm a human boy." " You'll be a drowned one if you don't keep away from the pond." " Well, then you'll only have to bury me thatis if pa can be made to sliel? out the money. I heard you groaning once when you thought Lisle was going dead, beer. use it would 'co.sttwenly dollars to bury him, and mourning bcsi'les.' You can just leave out the mourning, for me, dame ; I'll bury just as well without any, Oh give us a hot potato for the love of" " Edward," exclaimed his father sternly. " Well, then, ' Amen!' but it's hard when a fellow can't ak his own blessing. But siy, pa, what's the use of asking a blessing over the 52 THE HOUSE DEHIXD THE POPLARS. grub, like you ? If the Lord wants to bless a fellow, he'll do it, and if he dont, lie an't going to be worried into it." ' Let your victuals stop your mouth, sir. You talk too much." ' Won't you let the boy speak, Mr. Sterling V asked bis wife quer- ulously. "If it was Lisle, now, you'd think he was pinfeathei ing out for a philosopher." Nothing more was said till Eddy finished eating, and took his hat. ' Where's Lisle ?" he asked, unconscious of the morning's incident. " Gone to Dr. Kcllcy's, to tell them he's going to be sent away from home next week. He's going away with his uncle, to live in a nig- ger-pen and get flogged into decency," replied his mother. " By hoky ! If Lisle go ;s I'll go too. I an't going to stay shut up here a*one with the girls. I never could bear girls to play with ! They just want to fuss a boy into ' a s : ck baby ' and pull him around in a pinning blanket all the time. They never will learn a decent play ! "When is Lisle coming back homo ?'' " Never, I hope, but don't ask me. I'm done with him." Eddy's loquacity was thoroughly checked, and he went out with- out another word. Mr?. Kclley marie few comment} when Lisle made the announce- ment of his approaching banishment from home, but taking a more cheerful view of it than had yet occurred to him, felt a real thank- fulness that he was to be released from his unhappy situation under ihe roof of a mother who unnaturally persecuted and disliked him. The doctors first pang under the impending separation, soon died away as he realized that any change in the boy's life must be for the better ; and looking into the future, he thought how naturally a mu- tual attachment might thus spring up between Lisle and his uncle, which would be a lasting benefit to the son he could never acknowl- edge and provide for as he so longed to do. The future had looked dark and hopeless, and here was light from a quarter most of all to be desire '1 upon Lislc's own account. Had anything been necessary to reconcile him to the proposed change, this cheerful scquiesence of the doctor and his wife would have effected it, and he turned home- ward with elastic step. The report of a gun, as he neared home, stayed Irs footsteps and brought his heart into his mouth. Pompey ! How could he hnfve forgottpn him after that threat ! Seldom al- lowed to leave the place, he had seen Lisle depart, without any man- ifestation: nnd with his own head full of other thoughts, Lisle had forgotten him. The report of that fatal shot was more bitter than THE HOUSE BEHIiVD THE POPLARS. 53 his own death blow would have been, and choked by grief and pas- sion he stood a moment without power to move. Poor, faithful Pompey ! He had died literally for him, and wrung anew by the thought, he turned away and walked into the woods where no eyes might chance upon his sorrow. Grief invariably seeks to revenge itself upon some object directly or indirectly connected with its cause, and if to Lisle's poignant so;- row for his dumb friend and protector, a hatred as bitter succeeded, and welled up towards his mother, it was only human justice. Sho had wilfully and maliciously caused him this anguish, and he sol- emnly vowed never to forgive or forget it ! It was nearly dark when he returned home, and merciful hnnds had buried Pompey from his eyes, despite Mrs. Sterling's remon- strances, who, thus deprived of half her vengeance, waited exultingly for the btorm of grief she knew must follow the death of the one staunch friend and playfellow Lisle had ever known, beside his brother. But not a trace of emotion was visible upon his lace as she saw him receive the announcement Eddy indignantly poured forth, and mentally querying " what on earth the boy was made of," she felt her victory robbed of all triumph, while her brother ou l - spokeuly declared it " a mean aclion of which a Fitzjaines should be ashamed." TUB UOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. CHAPTER VI. THE hour of departure arrived, and Mr. and Mrs. Sterling drove to down with Lisle for his parting visit to the doctor's family. Little Julie was inconsolable. Of her two playfellows, he was much the most popular and beloved, and though she had long out- grown the horrible executions of former days, which even the vic- tims themselves some way survived till decayed dollhood finished their earthly career, Eddy was still too tormenting a companion to be as popular as his more gentle brother. She refused to aay good bye, but flew to the library, alone, where he found her sobbing with her face bowed upon the table at which so many happy hours had been spent among their books and pictures. Vainly searching for some word of comfort, he laid his hand upon her head. She pushed it off with mingled grief and anger, and re- fused to look up. "Well, Julie," he said at last, making a pretence of going; "Tin sorry you won't kiss me good-bye. If I never come back, how will you like to remember that you treated me so the last time you ever saw me ?" Shoving back her chair, she sprang impulsively into his arms, and covered his face with kisses ns she sobbed, ' No, no; I'm not angry with you, but I'll hate your old uncle as long as I live, for taking you away ! He don't want you half as much as I do. I haven't any body left now !" " No, I only wish he did want me. I'm sent with him, Julie sent away where no body wants me ! It's bad enough without your making it any worse. I'll came back and see you when I'm a man, and thai won't be long. You'll write me lots of letters, won't you?" li Yes ; and I'll tell you all about Eddy, who, though he's a boy. can't write near as well as I can," and she dashed away her tcurs at ihe thought that such a link of companionship was yet left them. " Come, Lisle, we are all waiting for you," said the doc' or, open- ing the door. Tenderly unclasping the arms Julie again threw around him, Lisle pressed back the tears which sprang "to his eyes, HOUSE LEHI:-;D 122 POPLAES. 55 and slipping his linn 1 within the doctor'.-;, ieft tb.e room. They stopped in the hall, and raising Lisle's f ice to his breast the doctor said with a voice he vainly strove to reader firm, f f a bad, ungrateful child!'' exclaimed an old lady in the h, throwing an annihilating glance upon him. coachman cracked his whip, Mr. Fitzjamea raised his hat in ag salufc, the horses sprang forward, and they were off. Once more Mrs. Sterling sobbed, and really deceived by her apparent 56 THE 110 USE BEHIND TUK POPLARS. grief, it became contagious, and Mr. St'Tling's own eyes grew miafy as he unhitched his liorses, and with a hasty adieu to the doctor and his wife, they drove homeward. " Wh'it an abominable she-hypocrite that woman is !" commented the doctor as he went back into the house with his wife. " It's a blessing she over-shot the mark, for once, and so let that poor child out of her clutches." The only real suffeivr under this sepnration WHS Eddy, who, ut- terly refusing all consolation, abandoned himself to a grief as pro- found as it was silent. Lisle hud vainly searched the whole prem- ises over, to bid him good-bye, and lingered till the last moment, hoping he would appear ; but, carefully hidden on the hay-loft, lie heard, unansweringly, Lisle's shouts for him, nor crept forth till th ; sound of departing wheels told him he was gone. Then, descend- ing, he wandered off by the river, deep into the woods, and throwing himself upon a mo c sy knoll, gave way to choking sobs and uncon- trollable anguish that shook him convulsively. At last his violent emotion exhausted itself, and, wondering at his physical weakne-s, he thought he might perhaps thus die, and closed his eyes hoping that he should. Gradually this feeling subsided, and in its plnce arose* an indig- nant sense of wrong against himself for which he could find no ex- cuse. What right had any one thus to separate him from his broth- er to rob him of his most natural and best loved companion ! Had any one loved Lisle as he had always done, fighting his battles and avenging his wrongs? Yes, that, was it! Their mother's wrongs ngainst him had caused him to be sent away ; and all the force of his resentment was turned upon her. " It was she who had misera- bled his life all up for him! and, after all, what right had she to do so ; or to abuse Lisle in any way ? She was nobody but Lydia Fitz- james till their father married her; and here she \va, whipping his children as big as life !" and strong in the justice of his argument, he rose, and crowding his hat combatively down ovt-r his browe, went home. Unfortunately, Mrs. Sterling did not perceive the force of ]\'< rea- soning when he r.ither ostentatiously advanced it, and I lie implie-l slight towards her family provoked a vigorous and lengthy : as to their ancient birth and importance, dating back to roy. !ty Lt self, with the vast estates in England which would in due coi : legal proceedings come into the possession of the branch of t ily now in America, and an assurance that all the intellect hvi 1 -A-.'-A- THE nOUSB LEIIIXD TIIE POPLAB3. 57 dreii possessed, was derived from her side of the paternity, while the Sterlings, as everybody knew, were mere flint skinning nobodies ," an assertion under which Mr. Sterling put on his hat and meekly adjourned to more complimentary regions, while Eddy stoutly de- clared his resolve to run away from the whole tribe of them. However, time softened and undermined his resolution, and after sin interval he returned to school in charge over a younger brother, in who^e cause his coat was pulled off so many times a day that he at last It ft it off altogether, for convenience, and so conquered a place on the play ground for a wee young Sterling who was as ragged and seedy as his brothers ever had been before him. Only on one oc- casion did his patron saint desert him, and this was doubtless owing to the fact that his opponent was much the larger and stronger; but anger yielding as much temporary vigor as more reliable muscle, Eddy reinforced himself from an unfailing supply, and, having van- quished the enemy, walked off declaring he wasn't going to t.ike all tiie blows and let the other boy cany off all the glory. In short, having given him the physique for a champion, nature seemed resolved that the talent should not rust for want of legiti- mate exercise, and the very excitement of it proved the best diver- sion from his stfriow. Meantime Mr. Fitzjames and Lisle were whirling rapidly South- ward, and as for the first time in his life L : sle saw houses, woods, jind fields, glide away from him as if by magic felt hiinselt rolling over high bridges with swifc, dark water, seemingly miles bel >\\ us his inexperienced eyes looked down upon it, or caught the earthy smell of swamps decked with myiiad strange blossoms and tangled ferns, he felt himself in an unknown and new world. His uncle, with the sang froid of a traveller, had comfortably en- sconced himself in one of the car seats which he turned so that Lisle might sit opposite him, and with a book in his hand, which he read or doZL'd over as inclination prompted, seemed altogether too far off in virtue of sueh sacoir vivre, to be addressed by so mere a wight a^ the boy seemed to himself sitting there in the smallest corner of space ho could shrink into, and altogether too much confused and excited by all this novelty to read one word of the book with which he ha I been advised to amuse himself. Looking up from time to time, Mr. Fitzjames saw that he was contented, and tllently congratulating himself that the boy was quiet, and as genteel as such shyness admitted, he re-addressed him- self to his book or his nap. Rousing from one of these, he observe,! 58 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. Lislo fixing a wistful, inexplicable gaze upon some object in the rear of the car, and, having turned his own eyes in the same direction without encountering anything of interest he asked, " What interests you so much, Lisle? Do you see anyone you. know ?" "Oh no, sir. I was only watching that lady over there with the baby. Do you think it's her own, sir ?" ' Why, yes ; I suppose so. Few ladies care to tote other people's babies around the country. Why do you ask such a question V " Because, sir, she seems so fond of it, and I thought people never liked their own very much." " Singular conclusion, that, for a boy of your age ! Who upon earth made you, iind aren't you anybody's child, yourself?" " Oh, :-ir,'' he began, but suddenly stopped and colored painfully. Mr. Fitzjumes looked at him curiously a moment, and then with an inflation of his cheeks which he reduced with a puffing sort of whistle, said in a mystified tone, "The child must be illegitimate upon both sides of the family ; he isn't a bit like either Lydia or Sterling !" He turned again to his book, but its interest seemed to have fled, and Lisle became really embarrassed under the frequent scrutinizing reviews he bestowed upon him, painfully conscious as he was of his own sickly physique and almost infantile tout ensemble, and experi- enced a sensation of profound iclief when the closing daylight screened him fr<-m farther observation. , Two or thice melancholy lamps were set to condoling with each other, by the biakeman, one of which glimmered till giimmeiing ceased to be a virtue, and then resignedly went out altogether, leav- ing the others to hold its dismal "wake" as best they might, amidst which ceremony Lisle fell asleep. The train stopped "twenty minutes for refreshments," as every one was informed by somebody, who, after making the announce- ment, close I the door again with a resounding slam that brought nil sleepers to waking consciousness, and grasping Lisle firmly by the hand, his uncle led him into a long dining hall cluse by the rail- way, where much scrambling and push ng for places seemed the principal i mployment in hand, and through which he at last found himself, he. hardly knew how, seated at table, where his uncle's voice, sounding very for away and exceedingly cloud-like, said some- thing to him about " ocean of time for all we find here oceans of THE HOUSE Eiii:;D X;J time ;" ami a waller fired down a litllc Vvlicy of plates with some- thing edible on them, and hurried off as if hit by his own shot. Next Lisle sat a fat, puffy-faced, round-eyed, restless -legged boy, who impatient for the arrival of his own supper, laid violent hands upon his, and forthwith commenced a vigorous .onslaught, much t,j the real proprietor's disgust and indignation. A sudden and re- taliatory plung from Lislc's fork, which he manipulated under tho table, r-vrested these proceedings, and while his adversary thok< <1 over a hugd mouthful which was surprised into going down ilij wrong way, he repossessed himself of his purloined supplies, i;u I went on with his meal as unconcernedly as possible. Having at last found voice, the roars of the fat boy woke the echoes of the room and the anthemas of his listeners. The old lady in chuigc of him shook him vigorously, and slapped his back to relieve his coughing, amid a storm of questions us to " whatever ailed him, and what did he mean by it ?" a subject upon which he did uc'. l'.:ink lit to enlighten her probably in remen>- Lrance of many a previous enforcement of the lesson, " It is a tin to steal a pin," or perhaps unwilling to confess how ingloriously he had been put to flight ; and no one having seemed to notice the aff.iir, or only caring to have the uproar quelled, no explanation was offer- ed, and the .ai rival of the fat boy's proper supplies restored peace for a ir.cmcrt. Then the fit boy again was heard, bawling in a nassul tone, "Gran'ma, give me all t'"> BBSS there is in the deesh; and tie mo up some o' this ere sweet-cake in your han'kercher agin I gel hun- gry. I won't be half full when the cars hoot.'' " Hush, sonny, be a little gentleman, liko that nice boy t'other side of you. lie don't make so much fuss at the table.'' " Oh, he's a sly one, he is !" retorted the fat boy, rolling his eyes and nodding his head sagaciously; jmd then leaning towards Lisle, id offensively, " I say, now, don't you think yourself a pimp ?" Declining to express his opinion of himself in such an assi-mUy , appeared not to have heard the invitation, and much to hi* joy his uncle said, "Come, Lisle, if you have finished eating, we'll go. Travellin ; cannibals have no regard for personal property in the way of seats. ' and again piloting him through the crowd that now sat scarcely le-g strongly in the other direction a sort of gustatory ebb and How of the human tide Mr. Fitzjames resto.ed him to his foimcr situation, 60 THE HOUSE BEHIXD THE POPLARS. near thf defunct lamp, once more resurrected and now emitting quite a glow of complacency. " Now toll me, Lisle," s ml his uncle, " what was the trouble be- tween you and that fat boy next you." " He stole my supper, sir." " And you ?" Lisle hung his head, unwilling to reply. The question was re- pented. " What did you do, that he pronounced you ' a sly one ?'" " I jabbed him with my fork, sir, under the table." ' Ju;t enough, my boy ; very just, only never do anything of that sort on the sly. When a fellow misuses you, just wring his nose publicly and openly, like a gentleman. Underhanded justice al- ways has a bad look remember that.'' " Feugh !" exclaimed an elderly female sitting near, who overheard these remarks. " A pretty fellow he is to bring up young boys ! This ' public nose wringing' don't do well in large families." Mr. Fitzj-\mes turned and politely bowed ! " It won't make any trouble in yours and mine, I conclude, mad- tm,'' nnd as she colored up indignantly, he said as if to himself 'knew she was an old maid, by the snap and snarl in her voice !" and after an interval of silence he said to Lisle, "It won't do you any harm to recollect if you remember judi- ciously that in this world, he who shows a talent for receiving kicks, gets favored with all there are going about unclaimed. Turn- ing the other side may do we'll enough iu Paradise, but it's poor policy in this world, and I wouldn't ad^i^e any one to try it." Not a little surprised by such teaching, Li?le looked upon his uncle with his admiration so plainly written in his face that the old gentleman smiled back in return, and a little chat grew up between them, in the midst of which he was surprised to find it nine o'clock, jm 1 quite delighted, when, laying his hand on his nephew's head the tld gentleman snid, "So, it seems you have a tongue as well as a head, after all ! "Well, put it to sleep, that it may run a little not too much to-morrow,'' :m I making a p ; llow of his extra coat, he gave it to him and bade him g<>od-night. Lisle obeyed the sugsre.-tinn with a happier heart titan he had ever felt, and thought that if banishment with fiich :\ man were a punishment, he could endr.re a griatdeal of it, and wita the rattling and rumbling of the train in h:s ears, he foil asleep, nor woke till they rolled noisily into the grand depo:. TliS HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 61 " GooJ-morning, Lisle ; slept well, did you ?'' said his uncle cheer- fully. "Now let's go and get some breakfast. There's plenty of time, as the boat doesn't leave till ten o'clock." As they stepped upon the platform, they met the fat, round-eyed boy and his granuaui is-uing from the adjoining car. The boy raised Lis fist, which he clenched suggestively at Lisle, and " remember- ing judiciously," Lisle slightly elevated his chin in a manner which said, "You'd better try it, once," and so each went his way, Lisle hoping it forever. What, then, was his annoyance, ns, breakfast over, they went on board the steamer, to see this awful boy perched upon a dry-goods l.ox from which he was dangling and swinging his legs with a vigor which brought his strong cowhide shoes with a resounding thump against the box end, while a huge piece of gingerbread absorbed his undivided attention, as ho bit from it endwise, lengthwise, corner- wise and across, in an impartial endeavor to treat it all alike, fixing his eyes upon it greedily after each attack, while he suulfed to avoid losing time by the use of his coat sleeve, which was quite glazed by previous efforts in that direction. Lisle's lip curled contemptuously ; but the superior charms of ginger-bread kept him unnoticed, and he watched the complete de- moiiiion of it, and the smacking and lip-licking operation which followed it, only leaving his post of observation when the sprawled digital members of the two cake-covered hands reached down and wiped themselves upon the gray pantaloons covering the fat legs, and the boy turned round to see what changes had taken place dur- ing his recent labors. Going up the saloon, Lisle there found the old grandam herself, in wofully pinched attire except as regarded her bonnet, which, to make amends, was three times as lart;e ns it should have been had it conducted itself with propriety. Sitting upon the extreme edge of the sofa, and quite as if she asked its pardon for taking even that liberty, she was explaining to the patronizing stewardess that she was "going down to Kentuck' to a married darter as lived at Louis- ville, bringing along a sweet little graii'son as was just left an orfing, and was to live now with Sally Ann." The warning whi>tle was given, and there was a general rush of those who were on the ieve* and meant to come on board, and those who, coming on board for last good-byes, wanted to get off. An- other whistle, soon followed by a sort of shudder through the steamer, and a line of water spread between it and the shore. Lisle looked 62 'HIE HOUSE UlilllXD THIi rOPIAHS. around for his uncle ; but he had not yet come up, and will) a sink- ing heart he queried what if he might have been left. The fat boy came up, licking his lingers after some farther delec- tation, and walking up to (he sola where Lisle sat, he stopped and looked him fully in the face a moment, before he taid, " t:o, my lark, you're going down Ihe river, too, are you ? See here now; you just >t!ck (hat ere fork o' yourninto me agin, and I'll swal- ler you whole, / will!'' "As you" did 'all the sass in the deesh.'hcy ; or that hunk of gin- gerbread, you ate down stairs, and never blowed your nose once th ) whole time!" " You sassy little skeleton, I'd whale you right now if yor bones wouldn't cut me. Let me ever cetch you snenkin' around my house down in Kenluck', and I'll have one o' my niggers chaw you into mince meat, I will !" Curling his lip contemptuously, Li-lc walked away in dignified silence, glad enough to see his uncle at lhat moment come up stairs, and joining him he avoided the round-eyed boy, and so overcame the temptation which tingled at his skillful finger lips. Mutually pleased, if silent, they read side by side, or enjoyed the beauty of the vine-covered hills, below which (hey passed, and Lisle's imagina- tion wande'-ed off to all the vineyard stork s he had ever read, among which romantic recollections time passed by unheeded till the din- ner gong aroused him. Begging his uncle to be sure and not place him near the awi'ul boy, due care was observed, and no unpleasant adventure happened to mar the satisfaction he felt with himself dc- f-pite his being twice enjoined not to pay ' : yes, sir " to the waiters. lite fear of his uncle was gone, and could he only have felt that he was wanted by him, instead of endured as a necessity, he would have been happy. He w;is unfeignedly sorry when the pleas-ant river journey ended, and they arrived at Louisville. Mr. Fitrjames resided on his pi m- t itioii, a few miles from the city, and a carriage was soon engaged to carry them out to it. A drizzling rain filled the air with. gloom, and the mud spattered upon the windows and dripped from the wheels in a manner indicative of many days previous frizzle. Tho whole sceueiy seemed painfully destitute of beauty compared with that he had seen on the liver, and, a victim to loneliness for (ho hour, Lisle looked out dismally. " You wish yourself back home ?" asked his uncle having watched, him through a five m'nutcs silence. THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAHS. 63 " No, sir, not unless you wish I was there." " And if I did what then ?" " I'll go away from you, sir, if you don't want me ; but I'll never go back there to live as ls-w. _ivir,g it a vigorous t right. Lisle thought tlm ncti< u the most mvst rious and ec one he :;acl iver behel 1. though he L-:irn-:d afterward, that he - always pe sisted i.i going away <-ither to the right or . the centre of gravity, and were never, by any Vitality, upright, pr p- ' ave d:e - ..aists. 'Mirii^sv. stand a-id? and don't stare at Master Sterling s ho all sirange like in the hous<- !'' called her mother, k ie upper slop which she had gained quite out of brc. : led ir. TVit'i a feeling of annoyance at encountering ? ; rls everywhere, who insulted hi: :. and vr, r3 so aggravate!-; "y prot-.-ctiag. 1 on and was shown into his room. i see. sir. your trunk nrd all's hire. Which it's a mere ; of a trunk, too, to carry all a ;'onng gentleman's c'othfs an i t v!th the brushes taking rp so much room, and the beirs ::\2 to g t broke. Supper's getting itself ready in half an hour, sir." with which announcement she left him, no 1 ss out of breath and quite as red in the face. Much a- Lisle had always wished to le ive his own home, desperate 05 w. re the resolutions he had many tinrs formed to do ? as he wa? to have come with his uncle it wa? with a f lilnic: that he too\- in all the strangenes- ofLi- room, from the dirni :> the white wash bowl and pitcher, with tho p ver them, and he rediy felt it quite awfu. to put a boy into a bedroom with such articles of state staring him in tl:< v himself upon his trunk, he curled his leet up under hii made a deliberate ti;rvt.-y f his new territory, at last dec; boy could sleep in such a room if he h .d never don-- which conclusion he felt belter in spiri\ " Brushes and ]j>. lie hud none : but a p:.ir of wooden pocket-comb- put his hair : i ton-ummation he wondered if he could find his TIT" norsE ST;HIXD TTIT: rnriAr;^. 67 way down such a very crooked staircase, and whether he should find the housekeeper's daughter still twisting herself on the step both of which results rewarding his efforts, he farther congratulated himself upon having passed her with an air of perfect unconscious- ness of her presence or existence, and rejoined his uncle in the par- lor. He was reading the newspaper but just arrived, and did not look up as Lisle came and took a seat near him. 'Humph 'mules steady' intelligible that, when a nun hasn't seen the market price in two months. Supposo I've quite a crop, or what do you call it, on hand now." He was speaking of "the mule business," Lisle felt sure, though ;i "crop "of them was no more intelligible t r > him than the who e "business," but as these comments were not addressed to him, he refrained from interruption. Mr. Fitzjames folded and laid up the paper. " Ha, ready for supper are you 1 Is your room comfortable V " Yes, sir, only too nice find grovm-up like I'm sure it's very nice." " Nothing sure about it unless Mrs. Drew looked after it herself. When one has to trust to nigger agency, nothing is sure but aggra- vation. Every arrangement for comfort is slept out of memory. Use the bell in your room liberally, for the house is full of servants; and I ?hall delegate you nn especial as soon as I get around to it. I smell hot coffee from the dining-room, let's see to it." Not only hot csffee, but an elegant supper, concluding with hot biscuits, and hefty, awaited them ; and Mrs. Drew presided over the whole, while her daughter was quite invisible ; and Lisle's content increased accordingly. The neat colored boy who served the table, looked bright, and displayed his shining ivory unceasingly, and the lamp threw its cheerful rays over the glittering service in a most inspiring fashion, causing Lisle involuntarily to compare all this with the noisy table at home, at which the children often quarreled and the baby always cried, and the odor of the guttering tallow- candle was anything but appetizing to one fastidious by nature and ill-health, as he was. This was positive luxury in comparison ! " A miserable night this. The corn-fields must be flooded already. Don't go into the blue?, Lile, things will brighten when this ra:n stops," said Mr. Fitzjames, shoving back his chair, and observing that Lisle had fallen into a reverie " Indeed, sir, I haven't thought of the blues ! I was just thinking how nice nil this is. I don't mind the rain at all." " Indeed, all the luckier for you. Now, sir, as I suppose you 68 THE HOUSE BEIIIXD THE rOPLAKSk don't smoke, just make yourself at home while I do so. The sooner you ivel yourself at home here, the better." Di awing a chair near the light, Lisle opened his still unfinished volume of " Nicholas Nickleby," and was soon lost to time and place, only deliciously enjoying- the perfect quietude to which he had hitherto been a stranger, and for which he had so often vainly longed. The large clock in the adjoining room struck ten, sending its voice through the stillness with a distinct utterance, that roused him through all his fascination over the life-like pages ; and looking around at his uncle, he fmndhim soundly sleeping in his arm-chair, with spectacles still on duty, and the newspaper spread before him ns it had been when slumber overtook him. The sound of the clock, and the malicious striking of Lisle's chair against the wall, which it perpetrated quite on its own responsibility, awoke him ; and rubbing his eyes, he said, "I suddenly discovered that sleep was bearing down upon me, but you seemed so much interested in your book, I didn't like to disturb you by proposing ' bed time,' and so I kept on with the paper, which, nevertheless, I see came over bottom end up at the last turn I gave it. Bolt your bed-room door when you go to bed." " Oh, I'm not afraid nights." " Bolt it, all the same. It's a plantation custom whose reason yon will learn soon enough without being told. Good-night." Wondering that such a caution should be given him in so quiet a house, he neverthele?s obeyed it, and soon ceased to think of any- thing connectedly, wandering pleasantly into the kingdom of dreams, which, once having ensnared him, transported him back to the mill-hou-e and renewed the old-time persecutions and misery, under which he remembered as a dream his domestication with his uncle, and the hope of better things it hud awakened in him, mak- ing the present life of trouble. doubly dark by contrast. The sound of the rising bell mingled first with his dreams, and then came distinctly out of them, rousing him to waking conscious- n"ss, and as he bounded out of bed an unspeakable relief possessed him. Here he was, after all, and better days were a fixed fact in his existence. The rain had quite ceased, and the sun was shining cheeiily and warm, ns if it had taken a contract on time of drying the pools of water everywhere smiling complacently, and sparkling saucily up at his beaming face. In the field, all afloat from the many days rain, a herd of mulei THE HOUSE EEHIXD THE POPLAES. 69 spattered and s'amped about fretfully, laying back tluir Luge e-irs in btrong disapproval of the stinging flies, whose appetites seemed enormously sharpened by their long baths, and from the various gtades and sizes thus fighting destiny in melancholy companionship, Lisle glt-amd his initiation into the mysterious "mule business." They werj raised for the market, and this was why his uncle had expressed his contempt for their being " steady." It was a very timple explanation of what had been so long a mystery, and he re- solved to enlighten Eddy at once. There was no one in the breakfast room yet, except Mrs. Drew, who was attending to the laying of the table ; and strolling out upon the s:de gallery, he watched a flock of birds which twittered and chirruped around the yard, evidently complaining that their break- i-:st w: 'S all soaked, and not a bug to be seen. A plate of bread sat upon the breakfast table, Lisle remembered ; and going back for a piece, he tossed it in crumbs among the hungry brood. Unaffrighted at his presence, they gathered them with many chir- ruping thanks. They were in the height of their enjoyment, when, with a sudden spring, a grey cat, lurking unseen around the corner, pounced upon a lovely sparrow whose courage in never fleeing from the descending crumbs had rendered him an especial favorite with Lisle, and with a cry of pain and terror it was borne off as lawful prize, while its comrades flew frightened away. With an expression of rage and sorrow, Lisle leaped the railing and gave chase to the cat, who, with her fluttering prey, had re- treated to the kitchen, where, totally unapprehensive of any im- pending vengeance, she was surpiised by a vigorous kick which doubled her up with a yell of disapprobation, after which she made the quickest cat time around the corner. The little bird lay in its last death flutter on the kitchen floor, and Lisle raised it pityingly, while a red drop trickled over its delicately tinted breast. " Lawsee, Master Sterling; what a chicken heart you's got under your han'some face ! " grinned the cook, raising her reeking face over the gridiron. 1 I'm not chicken-hearted at all, and I want that cat killed to-day ! Do you hear that ? " " Lawsee, sir, yes, but dat ar cat belong to Miss Melissa, an' she set a heap by him. No nigga on de place dare to kill he. Master Lisle, taint right, no way, to kill cats ! " " See here : do you know the look of a two shilling piece ?" " A what, sir ? " 70 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. " A two shilling piece," and lie hold up a quarter dollar. " Bl ss ye, ye means a two bi's ! Yes, I knows him." " Well take it, and if Melissa's ait don't come in sight again, re- colhct it's probably run away.'' " I undei stand?, young masser, and jes you mind, if de cat neber come round no more, old Phillis neber done heerd n tiffin bout her at nil, yah, yah." He met Melissa in the back hall as he went in. and thinking she .. might like the bird, he handed it to her, saving, "Keep it if you think it pretty, and I'll show you how to stuff him so he'll look almost alive. He's a pretty fellow." ' I knows how to stuff him without none of your showing,'' she replied, grinning; ami darting to the door, she called, "here, pu s. puss," and, before he had time to stop her, she had tossed the pretty creature to the cat who came round the corner mewing responeively. " 1 stuffi 'cm into the cat, I does," the said, putting her arms akimbo and spreading her hands over her hips as she wa'ched the result, and heard its little frame crr.ck under the old cat's cruel t-'Ctli. "What an angel you are, and no mistake ! v said Lisle ironically. "Lord, there h'au't no good along a dead truck like that! I h'an't no while-faced picaninny, I h'an't ! Lord, I brings that ere cat all the nests o' little young birds I finds She -likes Vin be-t ; they's got feathers on 'em, the y makes her breath sweet. She sleeps with me in the bed every night, puss does." " A. pretty pair of you ! I don't envy either of you your company," and turning scornfully, he obeyed the summons of the breakfast bell. Eeassured that he had at last met one girl who would neither pity nor protect him, nor anything else, he was not well pleased with his rara avis. His seriousness was not observed, however, as Mrs. Drew herself seemed quite in a flutter this morning, and after various hesitating commencements, at last summoned cour .ge and be into the subject which so disquieted her. ' ; I've something on my mind this day, Mr. Fitzjames, as is alto- gether upsetting to me, ;.nd dietful oncxpccted, which Lord knows ! and I don't know whethir or no you'll take kindly to it." " Ah ! then it concerns me, I suppose." "Which it does after a fashion, being as this Louse is yours, sir, jind not mine. I got a letter fiom my mother this morning, sir, which it was belated in not getting here two days ago, and the news which aie in it are quite upsetting to me, as I said before." THE HOUSE BEHIND TiiE TOPLAKS. 71 "Well?" said Mr. Fitzjames inquiringly, as she had stopped again. " If it please you, tir, and for that matter if it don't," she added after an instant's deliberation, " rny sister, which lived out West, ha= just gone home with fever, which, it was typhoid, leaving one child us is an orfing ; and being as there's no more relations left as belongs to it, more than me, and being as ils grandmother, which is nay own. Lies e i parent, is enable to do for it, as i-he's a tight squeak to do fur herself, she's a bringing of it to me, sir, winch is the truth." "Why isn't it taken home with its mother, if she is able to hire it nursed there. It need not be exposed in any way to the di-ea^e." "Which I was not speaking of any mort.d home, Mr. Fitzj'-iines, but of the home beyond." " Oh, she is dead ? Well " " Which being as I'm to bring the child into your house, if at all, and you mightn't hanker after any more children in it, sir, perhaps you'd wish me to leave." . " Not to be thought of for a moment, Mrs. Drew! I suppose you can keep it in the far end of the house if it's likely to howl all night and cut teeth all day ?'' " WFdch it. won't, tir, as, being as its eleven year and more, it's likely as ifs teeth is all over and done with." "Well, then put it to sleep with Melissa, in the enel room, and say no more about it." "But, sir, which it don't seem altogether proper, being o' the age it is " " Oh, it's a boy is it !" "Yes, sir, no doubt of it, ns he's gone eleven," replied Mrs. Drew, a little assertively s if this were the first time any one had presumed to question it, and quite unobserving the fact that "ii" gave no clue to sex. " Oh, bolher !" exclaimed Mr. Fitzjames in a tone of annoyance, "stow him away as you best can so that he won't be a nuisance which, if he is an eleven year old boy, I don't see how it is to be ac- complished," he added sotto voce as he left the room. The wet ground without confined Mr. Fitzjames and Lisle to th:; house that day, so that they witnessed the arrival of the old la ,y and her grandson, which took place towards noon. Lisle could noi altogether conceal a start of surprise and dislike as he thought th t\vo looked familiar to him, and a second glance settkd the convic- tion, which he expressed to his uncle. 72 THE noiV'E BEUI.VD THE rorLAUs. "It's tint aw Ail, round-eye 1, fat boy !" " Wliy, so it in! A graceless young cub. Whew ! this is worse tiian I thought!" In fact no boy could have been more unwelcome to both uncle and nephew, and Lisle's fists clenched themselves involuntarily inside Iris pockets, as he watched the fat legs clambering down the. wheel, guiltless of all knowledge that there were steps by which to descend. In his dirty hand was a large piece of something to eat, which he socnied to have divided impartially between his mouth, and his cars, i. .wards which prominent organs a discolored, lumpy streak extend- ed. Mis. Drew came o\it to meet them with more cordiality than Li^le had anticipated from the morning's conversation, and Melis-a blared irom the step, vainly striving to make her dress-waist stay twisted to the right, while it as perversely insisted upon "dressing ' Melis*y," called her mother, " let alone twisting of yourself and poking all the whalebones through which whalebones cuts dresses all out and come and kiss your relations. Ilere Ls your cousin Billy which you've never seen, and you nothing to say to him but a twist- ing yourself ! That's your cousin Melissy, Billy. Won't you let her kiss your" " Lord, ma," grinned the young lady, " I don't see no place to ki-s, unless its his weskit. He's smutticr'n a hog, he is 1" 'I don't care if I be; I shan't clean myself till I'm done my sweet- c.ike, nor then nither, for you," retorted the fat boy, reburying his lace; in the cake, and smacking his lips audibly. " Laws,'' snickered Melissa again. "What a little hog it is, and so mannerly !" Billy drew suddenly near, and for all reply plunged an avenging fist into the pit of her unsuspecting stomach, which caused her to double herself suggestively and retreat, while, whiping his fingers upon his pantaloons aiter the blow, and snuffing as usual, he cram- med another mouthful into his puffy face. Lisle looked on through the window, with a muttered "dog eat dog," and Mr. Fitzjames laughed, " An amiable pair, truly! No, I don't hanker after any more ' in the house, as Mrs. Drew suggested.'' For a few days no encounter took place between Lisle and the fit boy ; for, with ihe over-strained regime usual among females who re- solve to bring up a model boy, Mrs. Drew never suffered him from hur sight, but kept him sewing piece- for a bed-quilt, this having been the employment of her own juvenile hours, and having, as she THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 73 remarked more than once, " made an industrious, excellent woman of her." Whether or not Billy took kindly to his needle, Lisle had not yet seen him out of its company and that of the superintending Mrs. Drew, and began to hope he never should. But the old lady took her departure one day, and Mrs. Drew having driven her out to the city, Billy escaped from thraldom. Lisle was walking in the garden when he first saw Billy approach- ing in the same path, and scorning any appearance of intentional avoidance, he proceeded, and they met lace to face. " So," exclaimed Billy, "you're the chicken-hearted young chap Melitia tells so much about, are you ? Thought I knowd you, 'tother day, when I see you strutting out here by yerself. Ef it wasn't that you're the master's nevvy I'd ker-wallop you till you'd quit lording it around here ! I an't forgot, I an't, how you jabbed me with your fork at that ere grub-shop by the railroad, coming down here ! but ns gran'mam says, if I get turned out o' here I'll have to go to the alms-house, do you say ' friends,' or 'not friends ?' Jes say which.' 1 "You'd better go back to your patch-work. I don't make friends with such boys as you. Get out of the path.'' "Ef I han't as good as you be, what made you jab your fork into me ! If you didn't mean to make friends with me, you needn't a be- gun the acquaintance. Nobody axed you to." " I want to go past ; will you get out of the path ?" " No, I won't, as long as I've got fitts as will help me stay in it, alms-house or no ^vims-house. Come, now !" " Then I'll set you the example of a gentleman," said Lisle bowing composedly and stepping one side. " And you han't going to fight for it ?'' asked Billy wonderingly. "Not with a little animal like you. I don't fight with any but my equals," r.nd he walked away while the fat boy looked after him with eyes rounder than ever. " Ki yi," shouted Meiissa from the security of an upper window, " you clone cotched it that time, smart as you think yourself! Lord, don't ye look wamble cropped !" Billy sauntered off, feeling that he -was on strange ground with a boy who despised him too much to fight with him for even his rights, and soon was still farther cowed by coining full upon Mr. Fitzjames, wlio, unseen by both boys, had witnessed their encounter. He laid a heavy hand upon Billy's shoulder, and said sternly, " Now, see here, youngster, just understand, once for all, that I'll have none of your bullying here. When you meet Master Sterling, 74 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. . -*" ' no matter where, nor who else sees you, raise your hat to him, and treat him as a young gentleman and my nephew should be treated. Don't you let me hear of your forcing yourself upon him again in this manner, or I'll take you in hand, sir." Billy rubbed his eyes with his dirty fists, and began to whimper, and Melissa, who had listened to every word, suddenly conceived an immense respect for Master Lisle, whom Mr. Fitzjarnes must in- tend should become his heir, or he never would treat him in this Avay ; and forthwith she unplaited what remained of the frowzed out braids of her towey hair, bringing some lard from the kitchen, to aid the smoothing process, and excepting two snarls behind her ears, which wouldn't comb out, the whole was more neatly braided, and put dangling down her back afresh : and she twisted her outer girl before the glass, for a full half hour, in a last tearful effort to come straight, after which she sought many expedients to keep as much In his sight as possible. Had Lisle dreamed himself the object at which all this care was aimed, it is probable that some overt act of contempt would have aroused her enmity at once ; but he really thought nothing of it, nor ever seemed to notice her, however closely he was sometimes compelled to pass by her, and since the bird-stuffing scene, he had never once spoken to her. Strange as it was, this deportment only had raised him in her estimation, and though she shrewdly sus- pected that he might explain the sudden disappearance of her cat, and felt that her studies in the science of ornithology were hence- forth a dead letter, she held her peace under it, and only queried how she could conquer the contempt he had ever since exhibited towards her. THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLABS. 75 CHAPTER Viil. IN due time, the tutor spoken of by Mr. Fitzjames, arrived ; a plausible, self-possessed, rather too handsome young gentleman, Lisle thought ; but personal comeliness is a fault easily overlooked, circumstances being not extremely unpropitious ; and Louis Hartley soon quite captivated the hearts of the household. Indeed it proved that he was far advanced in its good graces long before thus having domesticated himself as tutor in it, and Mrs. Drew improv.ed the earliest occasion to put Lisle era fait in his history. "It mayn't be just proper that I should give you all the facts in the case," said that conscientious, but rather gossiping lady, " but' being as you are Mr. Fitzjames' blood relation, which Mr. Louis is not, being as he had a narrow escape of it, I don't see any harm in it, but to the contrm'ry. Which, then, Mr. Louis being a son of a before-time sweetheart of your uncle, and so being in a way your own cousin, which he might easily have been, he oughtn't to be strange like to you, ought he now ?" "I really don't understand, Mrs. Dre^v." " Which I'm going on to tell you, my dear, as Mr. Louis is tho oldest son of a lady as your uncle would surely hare married lawful, yes, he'd a dons it lawful and honorable if circumstances hadn't gone the wrong way, as they always does in matermonial cases. Which your uncle at that time being poor but gentlemanly, which gentlemanly he now is, but as to being poor is quite to the contrai- ry-wise, it wasn't to bo thought of by her parents ; the more so which she being at that time an engaged person, which'his name was, and is, Hartley, as is his son's likewise, it seemed not right she should recall her jrows and promises, but Lord, what is a wornaa's vows and promises ? and so Miss Mary thought, which her parents thought, Mr. Hartley was well to do, and probably a reckon- ing on her, and so the was obedient to them and married him, though it was no secret as she loved your uncle best, which well lie knowed it, poor man ! Your uncle danced at the wedding, and 76 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. kissed the bride, which he had often kissed before, and she not un- willing, but to the contrairy, and Mr. and Mrs. Hartley was reckoned a splendid pair of matermonials by them as looked only at the out- side.. But ill luck being his fortune, a year or two afterwards, which some of his steamers got snagged in the river, and one waa a-burned, Mr. Hartley took poor, and what with children coming on huii thick and plenty, and Mrs. Hartley being amost always com- plaining, though she never murmured, poor dear, the property went r to the dogs, and it's well beknowst as they had right smart help from your uncle, first and last ; which he had grown rich as they grew poor, and he went to her funeral at last as second mourner, which he ought to have beenj| first by good rights." " But if the lady was engaged before she knew my uncle ?" sug- gested Lisle inquiringly. " Which as I said before, what's a woman's vows and promises, matermonially speaking 1 Which the poor dears themselves never considers in the least binding on 'em when they've changed their minds for another, thank God ! Howsoever, Mrs. Hartley died, and dead she is ; and your uncle, of the goodness which is in him, sent Master Louis, as is the oldest chilil and which being born the first year less two months, is in a manner related to him more than them as came after, and when he had made up his mind that thus it was and thus it was to be to school for a right smart o' time, and then to college, ' to help him to make his way in life,' which he said, and being as Mr. Louis hankers after tutoring, tutor he is, and what more nateral than to Mr. Fitzj;imes own nevvy ?" "I wonder my uncle does not adopt him, instead." " Which he thinks it better the young gentleman should depend upon himself a little, being as them as lives on expectations of what is coming to them, is generally most ongrateful, if not quite ruinated, but who knows how much he'll have left to him, nevertheless ? Being, too, as Mr. Fit/james now has blood relations which he might a had all this time unbeknowst to me, dear knows it an't just likely he'll leave Mr. Louis all I once expected would go to him. I've my own ideas, of late ; but it an't my place to mention "em, leastways he mightn't like it of me, which maybe I've said too mucli already, though I only know what I know, and not along of him. Leastways I wouldn't like which he should know it, sir." "I shan't allude to it, of course; but I don't want to hear anything he wouldn't like me to know." " Laws, but you're different from your neighbors, then ! IIowso- THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 17 evt r, ns you are but young now, it's likely you'll think quite to the contrau-j as you grow up. Most people sets great store by all th( y learns as them as it concerns most wishes they shouldn't ever sus- pect, and I've known people which was most onbearable in all other ways you could mention, hold a high place in society as wouldn't in no other way seera to notice 'em, only tor the things they knew as they had no business to know. Howsoever, this as I've told you about your uncle is in no way injuresoine to him, but on the coutrairy quite to his credit, and it's much to be hoped as Mr. Louis will make out good in the world, which some way tutoring doesn't come up to Mr. Fitzjamcs' expectations of him, and no wonder!" Mrs. Drew breathed a long sigh and looked absently out the win- dow, and concluding that her narrative was now complete, Lisle left her. rilled with wonder that his uncle should have lived this roman- tic episode, and shrewdly conjecturing that it accounted for his re- maining a bachelor all these years. If he did not accept the laws of relationship quite as liberally as Mrs. Drew, he certainly did feel a more genial, hearty liking for his tutor, since learning how especial an object of his uncle's care he had always been, and resolutely closed his eyes to any short-comings or imperfections in that young gen- tleman's character, loth as he had been sometimes to f'aucy that some such existed. Mr. Louis might have his own reasons for an occa- sional moodiness and seeming lack of candor; doubtless he had, thus dependent upon another's generosity for even the means of earning his livelihood ; and Lisle felt that it was not for him to comment even mentally upon it, but rather to become his friend as well as pupiL 80 the first year passed very pleasantly, during which Lisle made rapid strides in the field of knowledge, and became more than ever his uncle's friend and companion. Lisle could not fail to see that young Hartley in many ways pained and disappointed his benefac- tor, and he was more pained than pleased tkat he himself was often turned to as one who in some way compensated for that other's de- ficiencies. Not that Hartley was markedly deficient in any overt way, nor openly at discord with anything around him, but a certain un- definable something wanting in his character, for which Mr. Fitz- james vainly hoped and waited, brought a shadow to his brow which was echoed in an audible sigh, when, at the close of this year Hartley suddenly departed without having asked leave or even ex- pressed the intention, and without any explanation save what was contained in a brief note left for Mr. Fitzjames, in which he stated 78 THE HOUSE BEHIND TUB POPLAitS. that a sudden emergency called him. Welcome as he was to any number of holidays lor which he might choose to ask, it was evident that he had thus claimed one to avoid any possible questions as to its cause, and while Mr. Fitzjanies would have asked none had tho opportunity been offered him, he ould not refrain from wondering at the reason for all this strategy. What was the secret thus im- pelling the child of his pattni-il care to distrust him ? What object could there be in the life of the boy he had reared almost as his own son, which he would not cheerfully advance by every means wi;hin Ms power ? The old gentleman was more grieved than offended ; but with a gentlemanly tolerance rare in one of his age, he received young Hartley upon his return as though he had departed with a duo ob- servance of all forms and courtesies, and waited patiently for tho time when the confidence he longed for might be voluntarily given him. However, two years more, which passed quickly away, brought neither this confidence, nor a repetition of the offence which had caused Mr. Fitzjames so much uneasiness, and, his own trust in Hartley thus restored, he concluded this one escapade was doubtlessly connected with the finale of sonic college embarrassment, probably a pecuniary one, and satisfied that if he had been so imprudent as to incur debts, he had improved the first legitimate opportunity to discharge them, Mr. Fitzj;imes made no comments which might em- barrass him, but meantime increased his salary to one which ho thought commensurate with any possible arrears. Determined to en- courage no feeling of dissatisfaction with Hartley, he easily persuaded himself that there existed no real cause for aBy,and silently rebuked his yearning for a more complete interchange of affection as the usual tyranny of the aged toward the young. Even now he was scarcely twenty-three years of age, and few were those among Mr. Fitzjames' acquaintances who were as irreproachably sedate and reliable. That he was so quiet beyond his years, had doubtless been the very rea- son his benefactor had expected too much of him, and he generously determined he would do so no more. Four years passed over Lisle's head, and he was now nearly nine- teen years of age. No pains had been spared by his uncle to improve him both physically and mentally, and he felt well repaid as he noted the result. The sickly, sensitive boy had given place to the spirited, energetic, self-possessed youth whose very features had changed in unison, and if not positively handsome, he possessed a fine, manly THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 7.9 figure, and a face whose intelligence and dignity of expression amply compensated for ;my irregularity of outline. Enough of his natural reserve still clung to him to render him usually silent unless ex- pressly drawn into conversation, and a tinge of the misanthropy inseparable from such a life as his, with its ever present shadow cloud- ing his heart, often colored his remarks even when most genial. Occasional letters from Mrs. Sterling to her brother, hnd duly inquired after the welfare of her " little boy," but neither of them had deemed it necessary to inform her that he was a Tittle boy no more, and nothing had ever been said relative to his return to the paternal roof. Mr. Fitzjames was a# heartily glad of this as wan Lisle himself, since it avoided the necessity for the one to prefer any request which might possibly be denied in pure malice, and the other from an open revolt against a government to which he had vowed never more to yield allegiance. Lisle was now at an age when his business occupation should be decided upon, and his uncte often essayed to surprise him into some expressed predilection upon which he might found His preparations'. But one thought kept him mute. The business he would have chosen, required capital, and how could he thus ask more where to much had already been done for him ! It was but slightly improv- ing upon it to request as a loan, that which, should he be unsuccess- ful, as many an earnest struggler always has been, he could not re- pay- Still, the impatience he felt to be doing something for himself, left no course open but one of plain speaking, and he frankly ex- plained his difficulty. The old gentleman smiled with pride and satisfaction. " I knew that something of this kind troubled you, and it is just what I should expect from your head and your heart, but as it seems you haven't a talent for wood-cutting, black-smithing, or any of those non-capital requiring professions, we must just choose another. I didn't bring you up to b&come that polite vagabond, a gentleman, with no business calling, and if you wont preach, or phi/sic, I can't hi any way be disappointed in you. Disputatious vagabonds are as bad as idle ones, if not worse, and preachers and physic givers aro death upon all creeds but their own. I've a mind to open a com- mission house in the city, and make you and Hartley my partners; I to advance the necessary capital, and you to do the work. I was speaking with him about it only the other day." "A mode of doing business which reminds inc howlused to pocket 80 Tllfi HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. my chestnut winnings ' when I was young,' '' laughed Lisle. " Ed ly used to represent the whole stock in trade, and I borrowed a certain, number of him with which to commence operations, a t-iege of ' odd and even ' usually yielding me the whole, out of which I conscien- tiously repaid him the loan." " Why, man alive, I don't propose to let you fleece me in that stylo, you know ! Our joint operations are to be directed towards out- siders. This is a game of ' odd and even ' in which notding is to bo tweaked out of me, and of course I expect to get my capital back, or I shouldn't advance it, would I ?" Lisle thought this a very doubtful proposition ; but Mr. Fitzjames preferred basing all his pecuniary kindnesses upon an appai ently selfish object, and shunned a " thank you " in every possible man- ner, thinking it, in all sincerity, an unjust penalty for a kindness conferred in pure benevolence. So the co-partnership was looked upon as a settled fact, and the household adjourned to a home in the city, over which Mrs. Drew presided as an indispensable adjunct, and Melissa and the lazy, overgrown Billy, were tolerated as nece - sary evils. In vain had the fat boy been variously located, and, Mr. Fitzjarnes hoped, disposed of, his chief accomplishment, an improved talent for getting into rows, kept him ever vibrating from place to place, diversified only by the calaboose ; till concluding that hia presence was preferable to the continual complaints of his employ- ers, Mr. Fitzjarnes resigned himself to his domiciling under his roof, and had no expectation of ever relieving himself of him except by willing and bequeathing him with the estate. The busy life which now surrounded them, had for the two young gentleman an irresistible charm ; and quite giving up the quietude and early hours so prized by most elderly gentlemen, Mr. Fitzjames accompanied them among the gay scenes by which they were so fascinated, introducing them to his large circle of acquaintance-, among whom they soon became popular, not less upon their own individual merits than the prestige they enjoyed as the probable heirs of a handsome fortune. "Well had it been had this gloss never worn off the fair f;ice of so- ciety ! But familiarity with it, in time taught Lisle, especially, how little sincerity lay beneath, and embittered by his own self-kuov, 1- edge, and the thought how differently this same t-uiiling society would treat him were it aware of all he knew of hiin.-e.f, the vein ot misanthropy underlying his character rose ofteuer to the suricx', aud his uncle observed, with pain, that he always seemed he:.. THE HOUSE BEHIND THE roriJVRS. 81 for some hidden motive in the conduct of thoee around him, which not unfrequently wounded sonic innocent object of his suspicion. From hating the world, a misanthrope soon comes to hate himself, if, indeed, that be not the first step ; and Mr. Fitzj imes did not over- estimate the effect of personal pride upon a man's worldly success. Every other essential to such success, Lisle certainly possessed, and his industry, and devotion to his business won him the confidence of business men, who are not averse to mere human machines if well kt-pt in order. Fathers pronounced him " a good reliable beau for the girls, though a little too severe and sarcastic to be very popu- lar," and brothers liked him when he was genial, and bore with and excused him when he was not. Young ladies pronounced him "an awfully provoking fellow," and were sensible that they were often entrapped into displaying their real characters and dispositions in- stead of the ones manufactured for the occasion, and himself in particular, but he was too eligible to be neglected, nevertheless, and so remained a favorite. So affairs glided smoothly and successfully on, till a sudden and peremptory call homeward, reached him. Dr. Kelley, feeling that his last illness was upon him, begged to see him once more ; and amid conflicting emotions he obeyed the summons. Had not Mr. Fit seines made it a rule of his life never to volunteer remarks upon subjects not particularly concerning him- self, he would have given some expression to the surprise with which he heard this announcement, a surprise equalled only by that with which he saw Lisle prepare to leave his business, just now un- usually active, without once seeming to question the possibility of offering any excuse in his own stead. During all Mr. Fitzjauus' acquaintance with him, this was the first exhibition of any unusually strong regard for him he had eve*- witnessed upon the part of any one, and least of all had he suspected its existence in the heart of Dr. Kelley, whose letters during Lisle's domestication with himself had been too unfrcquent to attract any attention as indicating a particular affection. It was not singuTir that this apparently late coming regard man- ifesting itself only in the death hour, shouk excite Mr. Fitzjames' surprise, but he did not in any way express it, and only prepared to himself fill his place during an absence which was indefinite. Hartley, upon the contrary, gave full vent to his curiosity, and a iked the same questions as many times over as they were skillfully evaded, till, su-p-cting what, he could not exnctry have defined 82 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. he kept a stealthy watch upon all Lisle's movements, which became too aggravating to be borne with inward complacency, though Lisle resolutely restrained the often sarcastic rebuke which rose to his lips. 'Til wager the fortune I expect to make, that you are anticipating a legacy, for all you look so humble and self-righteous ! Lord grant it may be a fat one !" had been Hartley's half laughing, half sincere ejaculation as he shook Lisle's hand at patting. A legacy ! Yes, one of shame and sorrow, bequeathed by no form- al " Will and Testament," which the world might acknowledge ; but a gift which h:id been his curse from the very threshold of life ; a legacy of a blighted existence who?e blossoms were distrust and misanthropy, whose fiuit was humiliation and bitter sorrow ! How it was thai he did not hate this man for all he had imposed upon him, why he did not curse him from liis embittered life, Lisle cou'.d not himself decide. Yet often as such feelings arose within him, they were calmed and conquered by the memory of his childhood's days when this man had been his only friend, his kind words and endearments the only ble.-sings of bis life. Recollections of his tome- times ineffable tenderness, under which his face softened and glowed with .an almost heavenly beauty of caressing arms which had pressed him to a breast audibly throbbing its love for him of the ever kind smile and protecting care when he had needed them all these crowded upon his memory, and pressed back the bitter thoughts iu very shame ! Despite art he had suffered, despite the apprehension with which he looked at the future, whose possible revelations might far exceed in humiliation anything he had yet en- dured, Lisle loved him unconquerably. Whatever wrongs he suffered had not been intentionally inflicted upon him by this man. at least, who, he felt assured, had suffered scarcely less than he, and though he did not forgive him as the author of his exist -.nee, he almost felt th'it even this was a boon compared to receiving it from the illiterate, narrow-minded, selfish man whom the world called and believed his f.ither. All these conflicting emotions bore him company upon his journey ; and people wondered at the reserve and silence thus hedging from all chance companionship so young a man, whose brow wns at mo- ments seamed with the lines of age. THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 83 rt- CHAPTER IX. IT was a raw spring day, and the twilight was spreading cold and gray when Lisle arrived in his native town, now a station upon one of the many railways intersecting the State ; and he looked a second time before quite recognizing his precise location. The old land- marks were soon found, howeveT, and a few moments brought him to Dr. Kelley's door. .His ring was answered by Mrs. Kclley her-self, who did not recognize the tall figure standing in the uncertain^ light, nor the voice which, to test her, inquired quietly for the doctor. Mrs. Kelley hesitated, looked again, and then asked, " What name, sir ? The dqctqr is so ill that he receives none but his most intimate friends." " Mrs. Kelley, is it possible you do not recognize me !" exclaimed Lisle stepping forward. " I must have changed much more than you have done." " Lisle Sterling, is >t possible 1" cried Mrs. Kelley, embracing him warmly, while he returned her cnress with the great*ful conscious- ness that absence and time had left her affection for him unimpaired. Had she only been his mother ! he mentally ejaculated as he kissed again the kind face beaming into his own. Hers had been the only maternal care he had ever received, hers the thoughtful affection that had thrown some rays of sunshine over even his thorny path, at such times as he could escape his swn miserable home and find refuge in hers. Every scheme the doctor had planned for his benefit had bcc'ii most fully seconded and carried out by her, and he knew that this friendship and care had been equally betowed upon Eddy, after his own departure. He had been duly apprised that he had become the doctor's pupil, and that from his purse were derived the funds which enabled him to attend the necessary course of lectures to fit him for a physician ; upon which subject Edward had poured out a torrent of wordy bitterness over his father's stinginess, in which he accused him of having brought him into a world in which he now begrudged him the means of making a liytng. Lislo had read hu g4 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLA11S. brother's indignant outpouring with feelings scarcely less strong, ami, later, had blushed for very shame when he learned that the doctor himself had added this charity to his other benefits. All this passed rapidly through Lisle's mind as he looked upon the levin"- face of his more than mother, thinking it the only one he had ever beheld whose every line was goodness. " And now," she said, at last recalled to the of cares the present, '' I must go and tell the doctor you are here. He has for some ica- son seemed very apprehensive that you would not come. Of course there can be but little here likely to prove pleasant to you from as- sociation, but thank Heaven those miserable days are gone forever. In this house, which you must make your home, I hope there linger no unhappy memories. I have always wished you were my own son, and I know the doctor wishes it no less. How glad, he will be to see you !" Lisle awaited her return, imagining how the announcement of his presence there would be received by the doctor, and feeling more than ever his anomalous position under that roof; but he had brief space for such meditations, as Mrs. Kelley returned almost immedi- ately, and showing him to the doctor's room, softly pushed him in and closed the door, ieeling instinctively that they-would prefer be- ing left alone. > No one interrupted the long interview that followed, nor were any remarks made upon it, Mrs. Kelley feeling more than contented that the doctor was calmer and happier after it, hanging upon Lisle's words with an all-absorbing devotion, and becoming restless if ho were ever absent, while Lisle repaid this affection by a thoughtful care and tenderness rivalling Mrs. Kelley's own, and shared her vigils unceasingly. As for the doctor, he felt that this was the one tribute of respect or affection he had ever received which did not stigmatize him as a hypocrite, and he prized and revelled in it accordingly. Had Mrs. Sterling been other than she was ; had she won her son's affection by performing even a mother's duty to him; had he for any reason loved her more, he must have loved the doctor less ; but since ho could remember anything, she had been harsh and unkind towards him, and all he had known of anything approaching parental care had been b< stowed upon him by, the doctor, who at least loved him as a father, if he could not claim the title. Feeling that the time had now arrived when common justice to himself impelled him to a plain, unvarnished history o.f his former relationship towards LydLi THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 85 Fitzjames, the doctor gave it ; and while noT; attempting to deny his own wrong doing, much appeared in extenuation of his fault. That he had been the too easy victim of a designing, conscienceless woman, was only too evident generously as he spoke of her when the story was ended, and plead her wifely duty so faithfully per- formed toward the uncongenial husband she had married in exten- uation of the errors of her unmarried life. But one torturing foreboding oppressed Lisle's thoughts by day, and haunted his pillow by night. Weakened in mind by his illness, and shrinking from carrying his secret uuconfessed to the grave, Dr. Keliey longed to express his penitence and remorse to Mr. Sterling, and seek his forgiveness for the part he had acted towards him. Time and again the subject was discussed between them, Li-le's forcible reasoning against it satisfying him only for the time. In vaiu he acknowledged the domestic misery it must inflict, perhaps even causing a separation between Mr. Sterling and his wife after these years, for which the world would demand the ex- cuse ; one day silenced by all this, the next it lost force; and the only restraining influence exercised over him was Lisle's sensitive shrinking from the position it would place him in towards an un- just world who would jeer at him to the very portals of the grave, as though he himself were guihy under the stain put upon him by the sin of others. The philosophy which had reconciled him to being the illegiti- mate son of a talented 'gentleman rather than the honorably-born boor of a vulgar, illiterate father, paled and died out under a pen- alty thus heavy. Such philosophy is attainable by a proud man only under the world's ignorance of the fact ; and Lisle plead this so forcibly that the doctor apparently yielded the point, and ho hoped all would yet be well. Even Mrs. Keliey remained in ignornnce of this secret which Imd so long lain buried in her husband's heart, and he shrank from telling it to her after all the.-e years of silence. Mo<-t men easily reconcile themselves to the idea that it is useless, if not cruel, to re- veal to their wives anything which they will not be the happier for knowing; and had the doctor's conscience been as much at rest toward his fellow-man, Lisle would have felt at ense. Several days elapse! before Lisle turned his steps homeward nlas ! a spot less homelike for him than any the wide world con- tained beside ; and only then in dread of gossiping tongues. Feel- ing, at length, tlmt it could be postpone 1 no longer, he summoned 8G THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. Edward to help him bear his- cro?s, zrad. the two sat out upon (he inevitable visit, scarcely le^s disrast-'Ril-/ to one than the other of them. It seemed a natural penalty that Mrs. Sterling should have forfeited and forever lost the affection of the one child whom sho idolized, by the very injustice she heaped upon the unloved one a penalty whose keenest sting was derived from her own knowledge that it was precisely thus she had incurred it. Despite the fond partiality she had openly displayed for Edward from his very cradle, he despised her for her very cruelty to his brother, even as that brother had declared his own open euruity ! Few ever confesi the justice of their punishments, and Mrs. Sterling cried out that slie was an injured mother. During his childhood, the scriptural bear story had failed to make any satisfactory impression upon his sensibilities, though often impressively related by his father ; and as he grew older, he with wilful perversity insisted that the prophet was more blame- deserving than the spirited children, and pronounced him " a wicked, malicious old hunks," much to his father's holy horror. Nor did any amount of clerical lecturing at all mitigate this opinion, he avowing in the very clergyman's teeth that a fellow who couldn't take a joke from a few brats was no man at all ! If not a prodigal, he was an undutiful son ; and he had heard it so many times de- clared, that he shunned the paternal roof persistently. It was perhaps the legitimate effect of so many years' separation, that a feeling of constraint tiad grown up between the brothers, loving each other as they always had done ; and each had seen and battled with ft but half successfully, as they mutually felt now that they were reunited. Not that there was any change noticeable to others far from it. But each felt that invisible barrier springing up between the closest friends during years of absence, and individual cares unshared by the other. Had Lisle retarned with the same physique, so demand- ing protection and championship, he would have seemed to Edward the very same brother, and his heart and fists would have been laid free offering before him ; but he smiled at the very idea of pro- tecting the dignified, handsome young mau at least a head taller than himself, whose very appearance was a sufficient insurancw against any insult or attempt at oppression.; and as if in continua- tion of the thought, he asked, as they rode toward the mill-house, ""\Yhat do you suppose tlje old lady will say o/ your rather im- posing appearance ' " THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 87 " It is a matter of indifference to me, I assure you. I was at this identical moment rejoicing that I'm now too large to be ' whipped out of my skin.' Almost as large as that marvellous 'Mount Tom' which looms up in so many old women's imaginations when about to perform a disagreeable duty with alacrity. ' I'd whip you if you were as big as Mount Tom ! ' Do you remember ? " "Remember? Yes, more than I wish I did. I declare it's haul when a fcilow can't drum up even a decent amount of regard for hi.; own parents, isn't it ? One ought to have at least a rag of filial re- spect; left him." " Those are very fortunate who have. I don't know though but its absence is a curse inflicted upon each new generation ; for I know our parents were in a very similar position towards their own. It's enough to make all men and some women vow themselves to celibacy, if only to escape becoming ' the old folks ' themselves." " Yes, one might look for something of the kind in men; but women, as they take it, were made for matrimony, instead of mat- rimony being invented for them a transposition of the affair like unto the Puritan idea of the Sabbath, but twice as fruitful of trouble. However, it's deuced lucky for them that take to it so kindly." " It may be lucky I dinna ken I only know that it's vastly dis- agreeable to a fellow when forced to understand that he is the in- tended victim of some matrimonially-inclined feminine taking kindly to it." " Really, now, Lisle, is that meant as an insinuation that yon often suffer in that way ? I'm thankful that I'm not fascinating." Lisle colored under the raillery, but made no reply ; and, repent- ing the insinuation conveyed in &, Edward said, apologetically, "Now, Lisle, don't imagine that I meant to dub you a puppy or an imaginary ' lady kifter;' but you are handsome and all thaf, and you must know it, so what's the use of making any bones about it. Any woman in a thoughtful humor, will confess that sho fancies a good-looking man, and is less apt to feel her own ' a con- genial spirit ' with that inhabiting an ugly man's carcass. I'd be jealous of you myself, were it not a shame to enter the lists against , my own brother ; and of course Juiie can't see plain, unpretending me behind your more imposing shadow." " Julie Kelh-y ?" *-.- "Yes, why not? Do you pretend to say that you haven't 88 THE HOUSE BEiUXD THE POPLARS. observed the admiration she looks, acts, and all but speaks, every time you come ne.ir liu : " Why, Julie is a mere child." " Something more than sixteen, wh : ch many a woman considers sufficiently aged for matrimonial speculations, as our grandmother could, testify.' 1 ' Yes, but age depends less upon the number of actual years than many people suppose; and Julie is a child, despite her sixteen of them. Not over-burdened with intellect, either, I imagine." ''Lisle,'' asked his brother, with some vexation, "do you never see anything praiseworthy in anything or any one ? " " Not much, I must confess, always excepting a very few." " Well ; if a young lady is pretty, docs it effectually prevent her being anything more." " Quite the contrary ; she is very apt to be artful in due propor- tion." " Then whit, in your estimation, may an ugly one become ?" "Spiteful and malicious, to a certainty, nine times in ten, nnd in the tenth one so unbearably sensitive about her personal plainness, that she is equally us uncomfortable for a companion." Ed vr;ird laughed, but Lble looked as though he wondered at what. ' Then do tell me, Lisle, since men must marry these imperfect creature-;, which would you advise him to endure? 1 ' " Neither, as long as he can avoid it. All fools marry, and now and then a wise man takes leave of his senses and comfort in the same way. My theiry i=. that if we did nothing in the premises, such of us ns are pre-doomcd to matrimony would in due time find a double hiiched to him, or perhaps take it in the natural way, like measle*, and whooping cough, or absorb it in his vaccination, which certainly would have this consolation that a man wasn't to blame for the misfortune.'' Again Edward laughed, this time a little provoked, but Lisle's face, so far from we iring a smile, looked actually bitter, and men- tul'y pronouncing him a strange fellow, El ward did not pursue the topic, and the mill-house soon was within sight, changing the cur- icnt of their thoughts. ' Dots it look natural r"' asked Edward with a faint sigh. " Painfully so. My very toes tingle now, in memory of the cold which ued to tweak them during those long slow rides up from town after t'ae Sunday sermons when it looked ungodly to drive fast, and my jacket itches again under the recollection of the flog- THE IIOUSE IJE1IIND THE POPLARS. 9 ging sure to succeed the dismal day, as the old lady's arm always pined for its customary exercise after such a season of inaction. Really, Ed, it's no shame to speak the truth at all timt-s Washing- ton did so I outrightly affirm that that old lady up there on the hill, has more of the very evil one under her silly exterior, than ten smarter women ever had ! Her very shallowness only makes a better cloak to screen his Satanic Majesty, never for one hour out of her. Did you ever see such a head as she has, really long, almost to de- formity ?" ''Did you ever see a gray-eyed person, male or female, who had not naturally the very spirit of evil in them ? A good person with gray eyes, must verily have triumphed over ' the world, the flesh, and the devil !' (Dashed if there isn't a little of my catechism ! I'd no idea any of it ever struck in!) It's the strangest tiling in life to me how father ever happened to marry any one above all, her. They're as antagonistic as possible. Can you account for it ?" " Most marriages defy all human calculation, and if human calcu- lation were ' a s iving grace,' few or none would be perpetrated. The iruth was in this case, though, that she wanted a home and didn't want to be an old maid, which she was near being, and he wanted some one to look after his crazy old mother. He married a house- keeper and maid of all work, and she married a liquidator of bills though, for that matter, few husbands contrive to pay fewer. I don't believe he ev^-r bought twenty dollars' worth of dry-goods for her in one year, since she took an altar contract to patch his old breeches !" " Do you recollect she always pronounced the Sterlings ' a race of skin-flints!' (I'd like to see that surgical operation performed), but, after all, if a woman can't be frank and confidential with her own husband, to whom shall she pour out her trustful revealings?" The two broth'ers indulged in a quiet laugh as they left the c-irri'igo at the gate, and casting a furtive glance toward the house, saw Mrs. Sterling at the window, as they anticipated, peeping at the new arrivals, and directly the sound of a hurrying broom, and farther audible evidence of stray articles tossed hither and thither and slammed out of sight by conveniently 'on duty' doors, proved that company was recognized as a forthcoming fact, one at least of whom was a stranger, for whom things should be put to rights. " Natural as lifo !" exclaimed Lisle in recollection of many similar scenes in which he had contributed his mite of assistance, and Eel- ward nodded and laughed. 90 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. * " Human nature, the workl over, ' puts the best foot foremost,' willing to pass, unblushingly, for a trifle more than circumstances warrant. By the way, who make all the proverbs ?" " Difficult to say, but the Chinese are credited with one which suits me : ' May I never appear in another life under the form of a woman or a jackall.' Now I think of it, this may be a prayer, but nobody here knowing any prayers,' as they say in the Legislature, the mistake doesn't need correction." As they advanced up the path, Mr. Sterling threw open the door, exclaiming, " Why, Edward, my son, is this you ?" "I'm not at all certain upon that point, but a wise mother knows her own son, I suppose." " Strange if she didn't !" ejaculated Mrs. Sterling. "How do you do, mother? 1 ' asked Lisle extending his hand not over cordially. " Why, Lisle Sterling, is tnat really you ?" exclaimed his mother looking at him more closely, and but half recognizing him yet. " Strange if she didn't !" retorted Edward laughingly, and thus reassured, she embraced him with much feigned affection, kissing, his cheek as she did so. Neither the embrace nor the kiss vjgrc re- turned, nor altogether endured with fortitude. Mrs. Sterling was quick to perceive this fact, politely as it was veiled ; but her dupli- city prevented her betraying that she did note it, and she continued reproachfully, " And never once to write us that you were coming to see us ! Well, such surprises are always pleasant, and I suppose you knew it." " The feet ia, that I intended nothing of the kind. I came sudden- ly, and to myself quite unexpectedly, as I was sent for." "I was in hopes you had come home to try and retrieve you-r credit. You know you didn't go away under the best of circum- stances, and it has always been my prayer that you might come to see the error of your ways, and repent. But I forgive you, even while your heart is unsoftened. I suppose Dr. Kelley sent for you. How long have you been here ?" " About five minutes, I should judge, and you haven't yet asked me to be seated, nor called your liege lord." " Why so I han't ! Do sit down, and I'll send at once. So it wn* Dr. Kelley that sent for you, was it? Just like him! ^R nlways took 'in interest in you." " That is what few others ever did, then. Is father at the mill ?" THE HOUSE BEHIND TUB POPLARS. 91 "Yes, I guess so. Kell, run to the mill and toil your father the boys have couie ; both oi'em.'' A shy young girl who had been making observations from behind the screen of a half open door, slipped out and darted swiftly away, and Mrs. Sterling, after a moments criticism of Lisle's appearance, eaid, : " Bless me, Lisle, how you have grown ; a fine gentleman with moustache and all ! You must be about as tall as your father now. Don't you think he's just about your father's size, Edward ?" " He's as big as ' Mount Tom,' now, isn't he, mother ? " " Edward, it's right ungrateful of you to twit me as you always do. I never whipped any of my children much, for I never did ap- prove of whipping, though I sometimes think now that it Blight have been better if I had." " Then thank the Lord you have sinned away your day of grace ! There never lived the woman who thought she had whipped her children much if they grew up with a whole inch of hide on their backs ! Lisle here can tell yon whether you used to set the stars dancing before his eyes every hour or so. It was five-and-twenty years ago, and I know his ears ring with it it yet. Confess, Lisle, that nothing of this is figurative language except the 'five-and- twenty years ago.' Subtract a few years, and answer." " Well, then, I frankly confess that I don't care to be ' superan- nuated down' for the purpose of re-living any of my juvenile ex- periences. The less said of them the better, for they are not pleas- ant reminiscences." Mrs. Sterling colored slightly, and restlessly pinned and unpinned her sleeve cuffs while making some unintelligible comment upon Mr. Sterling's slowness in coming in. He came at last, dressed in a suit of faded brown, so much re- sembling the patched garments of years ago that they seemed the very same ; and shuffling in with his usual heavy tread, he shook Lisle's hand frpin side to side, like the motion of the sieves in a fanning-mill for cleaning grain, while he contemplated the changes time had made in his appearance. " You've changed a good deal in seven years," said he, at la-t, slowly. "You don't look so much like my family as I thought you would. I don't see any of the Sterling feafers about you." "Don't you think, Mr. Sterling, he looks like his uncle Fifz- james ?" asked Mrs. Sterling, insinuatingly. " He is more like my family than he showed out when he was little. There's my sister, 92 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. Mrs. Deacon Hendry Lucy Fitzjames that was they're as much alike as two peas ! I wish he was a woman now, that you might see it as plain as I do." "Thank the Lord for small favors then 1 I wouldn't care to be a woman, even to resemble ' Lucy Fitzj:imes that was.' It is no doubt a most illustrious family ; but I should dislike being a twin ' pea' to any of them, always excepting uncle Warren," said Lisle, bitterly. " Yes, by the way, how is your uncle? Hale and hearty yet; looks as if he might live a good many years yet, don't he?" asked Mrs. Sterling, with a calculating expression upon her face which she meant should be expressive of affectionate interest. "Yes, I am happy to say his health is excellent He really looks younger than he did seven years ago when I first saw him." "Well, I'm glad of it," she replie I, looking absently throngh the window ; but her expression of features so belied her words, that Edward irreverently laughed outright, then said, cheerfully and en- couragingly, " That's right and proper, mother. Cultivate Christian patience. There's no chance of anything falling to you from the profits of ' the mule business,' for some time yet. There's money enough in the Fitzjames family, ' first and last ; ' but they all have such invet- eratoly childish habits, that sorry a penny falls to the eliildren of anybody else." An interruption occurred at this juncture, by the appearance of little Nell, who seemed the universal baby-tender, carrying a fat, bald-headed, toothless youngster of something less than ten months, eccentrically slung across one hip, from which he dangled down in a precarious, irregular manner with which he seemed perfectly famil- iar, as he offered no protest against it. Little Nell was evidently a poor calculator ; as, though she entered the doorway in perfect safety as far as she herself was concerned, the hip-slung baby was one too many, and his bald head came in collision with the post, in a manner suggestive of black and blue bumps to one or both of them. Mrs. Sterling boxed Nell's ears, and shook the now loudly- protesting baby, after which she shut both of them from the room, and returned to her chair just as Mr. Sterling said to Edward, re- provingly, " It's very wrong of you to speak to your mother in that way about her family. They were one of the very best families 'in the country, before they scattered off, like ; and have better blood in. THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAKS. 93 tluir veins than any other family here about. Even if they hadn't you shouldn't allow yourself to speak so disrespectful." Mrs. Sterling's usual weapon came to her aid, and raising her apron to her eyes, she sobbed, in an injured tone, " Oh, I'm used to it. I never did have any respect from my own children, and I never look to have any. Bat it's hard when I've worked so for 'cm all my days, not to get any credit for it now." " Bah ! " exclaimed Edward, impatiently ; for though he doubted the reality of her ostentatious grief, having witnessed its hypocriti- c.il display on many occasions, it was disagreeable to find himself the object at which it was aimed ; and as of all things he hated a family scene in which a crying woman acted a part, he walked off into the yard and deserted it entirely, satisfied that Lisle would prove waterproof. " How did you happen to come home so sudden, Lisle come to stay ? " asked Mr. Sterling, when quiet was restored. " I don't know how long, sir. The length of my stay depends entirely upon other persons. I want to return to Louisville as soon as possible." "Ahem! I suppose you are doing a good business there by this time. About three years ago, I should think, your uncle wrote me that if I was ever going to do anything for you, a little capital would be a seasonable olfer on my part. But I hadn't any to spare just then, and so I wrote him. It costs a good deal of money to set boys up in any of them town businesses, and I thought you'd better come home and go into the mill with me, It's a good safe business, and the most nateral one for you, you know. Did Mr. Fitzjames meutton it?" "Not to me, sir. This is the first I ever heard of it." "I said so!" exclaimed Mrs. Sterling, triumphantly. "I knew ffiy brother, with all his money out of twenty years at the mule bu- s'ness, never cxred the snap of his thumb for any Sterling capitnl. I knew, and I said so at the time, that it was just a way of feeling around to see what your father meant to do for you in the world ; and he's proved it by never telling you a word of it, and going and setting you up himself, in a business that suits his notions. Mr. Sterling thought, perhaps, he had taken offence at his refusal to give; but I'm proud to say no Fitzjames ever yet nsked a favor of anybody, and he no doubt had his calculations all made before he wrote that letter. I suppose he took your father's answer for a quit claim deed on you ; and no wonder ! None of my family was ever a 94 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. miller, thank heaven ! But you must have wheedled him some way, 1 can't see into ! I suppose you're looking to get all his money by- and-bye, and will set up for a. nabob on it ; but he ought to divide it." " I have never for one moment calculated upon receiving one dol- lar from my uncle at his death. He has done more for me already than any man could think of without feeling both gratitude, and a species of humiliation; and if he wills his property to an asylum, or I throws it into the sea, I shall never feel that it was any busiiress of mine, nor that I am in any way misused by it. Heaven forbid." " I suppose l*e has done a good deal for you. He isn't a man to do things by halves ; generosity is a real Fitzjames trait. But you'll never make me believe you han't an eye to the main chance, if you do preach it up to him. But this I do gay ; you ought to give your brother Edward half of it, if he don't." " For heaven's sake, mother, do wait, with a decent amount of patience, before you administer upon the estate. It isn't worth while to begin to grab for it btfowe he is done with it himself." "Oh, I don't expect any of it; but it's certainly natural that I should look out for one child who han't any show to look out for himself, when the other is having it all his own way. / never expect to be anything but cramped for money, as I always have been. You all of you know that your father is closer'n the bark to a tree ; it's in the Sterling blood, closeness is, and if my family could have seen how I was to be pinched and skimped with him, there'd have been other calculations made abont dividing the Fitzjames property, if not 'about my marriage." " There was only too much ' calculation ' in the marriage, it strikes me. Rather a calculating nffair, the whole of it !" exclaimed Lisle, stung by the whole tenor of her remarks, aud resenting the injustice heaped upon the old man who sat so meekly under the provocations he recognized, undreaming of the wrongs which lay farther back, in which this woman's calculation had made him the victim. She had little right to upbraid him for anything such a marriage might have imposed upon her, and it nHgered Lisle to be a witness of it. Rising, he buttoned his coat to go. Mrs. Sterling jealously remonstrated. " You don't mean to say you can't stop an hour longer under your parents' roof. It is a poor place, an't it ?'' " I promised to be back at the doctor's by noon, and I don't wish to disappoint him. Beside, I've a livery horse which is to be at the stable by twelve o'ck>ck to fill an engagement." THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 95 " Couldn't you liave walked up here just as well as to hire a horse ? Law ! but money is plenty in your pocket ! It is a-coming up in the world since I used to ' give it to you ' once an hour for ugliness and lying-. You was about the worst child I ever saw." " Your reminiscences may be very pleasant to you, mother, and if they are I am abundantly willing you should enjoy them; but I confess they are anything but gratifying to me, and the less you. refer to them, perhaps the better for us both. I am. willing in the future to grant you any measure of respect to which you can estab- lish any claim, but I tell you now that such references to the past are neither pleasurable nor profitable, and I should think you would hesitate to make them. If we were to compare recollections of the past, I might possibly recall some which you would be more sur- prised than gratified to hear ; so if you derive any pleasure from recalling the persecutions you used to inflict on me during my de- fenceless, miserable boyhood, just enjoy it silently, being assured that you will never again possess such power over me. Thank Heaven, I am beyond your reach forever !" " Lisle, Lisle," interrupted Mr. Sterling, " stop you are saying too much. Remember she is your mother, and you should respect if you do not love her ! She has been a careful mother, a good wife, and a hard-working woman always, and I want you to know that /respect her, if you don't." The old man looked really noble as ho thus defended his wife, laying his large, coarse hand protectingly upon her shoulder ; and, deeply touched by the scene, Lisle turned and went out, hardly knowing whether he most admired or pitied the trasting old man who thus raised his voice in testimony for the woman, half of whose life had been one gross deception toward him. She followed him to the door, and called after him. "Lisle, you'll come again, won't you? If you're above staying in your own old home, and dospise your mother, It ain't right of you to despise your father; and he feels it." " Stop right there, mother. For you I have nothing to say ; but I never for one moment de s pL s ed my father, and he should know it. Good-bye, father, and if I do not come as often as you think I ough- 1 -, do not construe my absence as a want of respect and regard for you. I wish the world were one-half as honest and true." Mr. Sterling walked with him to the gate, and said, kindly, " I am sorry this happened to-day, my son. Your mother is get- ting on hi years, and hain't the mind she used to have. I know she never loved you very well ; but I always did, my aon, and I do now. 9G THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. If it is wrong to love one child better than another, I confess I do wrong, and I don't feel ashamed of it, when I say you are more to me than all the others. Come into the mill when you want to see me, if you don't like coming to the house ; and, my son, let by-gones be by-goues as much as you can towards your mother. Won't you come again ? " " Yes, I will come to see you. I wish, too, that all this had not happened to-day ; but her taunts called up so much that was un- bearable, injustic, abuse, everything pertaining to those wretched years, of which you never knew the half! Good-bye, father, I'll sec you again in a few days." Edward came up from the mill when he saw the good-byes were being spoken, and making his own, briefly, the two brothers turned town ward, in a silence which neither felt inclined to break. " Whew ! " exclaimed Edward at last. "Our-- 3 a curious family 1" " I don't know ; most families might be pronounced ' curious,' for that matter. If most family history were known, the world would be startled and astonished. It is only a matter of curiosity, th:;t bad, weak women, manifestly their husband's inferiors, acquire such an amount of influence over them. It's only to be accounted for, that it grows up little by little, under a man's yielding point by point to avoid a row. What commences in righteous hypocrisy, grows into a settled habit." " My opinion is, that the sillier a feminine is, and the more un- bearably ' good? the worse she is to live with. Such women are the devil on husbands." "Most are, I suppose. The only safe way for a man, is to steer clear of them, and preserve his virtue and dignity. He's in the position of ' Dog Tray,' if he doesn't merit correction in the first instance, bad company will soon bring him to it. It was a great 111 >take to get out a supplementary edition to father Adam, an 1 tiio second error, like unto it, was having Mrs. Noah and her daughters- in-law survive their incarceration and family bickerings in the Ark. I don't envy Noah and the boys the time they must have had of it, Inwever the old lady and the girls were edified; my way would have been to leave Mrs. Noah at home." " Why, I've yet to learn that the old lady committed any farther mischief in the way of posterity. Better to have left the girls," laughed Edward. "Do tell me what makes you such a woman- hater, Lisle ? " THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 97 " Oil, I'm not, but I don't care to callous my knees in their ser- vice, need I ? " " We'll, I'll venture you never kne'jl very extensively. Some one has turned your vein of gallantry, into a circulator of pure aqua- fortis." " I don't see that it should be ' some one.' I never yet saw the woman I'd like to pin to the skirts of my robe of responsibility. I've pitied that poor old man up at the mill too many years, to wish myself possibly in the same position. Women, during the first twenty years of their existence, are rather ornamental than other- wise, but they make a fellow pay dearly for his admiration, when they come to spin off the next twenty. One doesn't require to have suffered in proper person, to know all this. ' He who hath eyes to see, let him see.' " Edward made no reply, and the doctor's gate was reached in si- lence. Mi s. Kelley was looking for their arrival. " There, at least, is a good woman," said Edward warmly. " Yes, she is ; and for her sake I accept Julie at your estimate of her. Such a mother cannot have a very unworthy daughter, and Julie certainly is as good as she is artless. If she hasn't too much will, all the better ; and so let us drop the subject.' 1 Dropped it was, so thoroughly, that it soon seemed forgotten, and Lisle sought her companionship during every leisure hour, with a persistency which led Edward to believe that he was " admiring the ornamental," without due regard for the future penalty, however wisely he had talked of it. 98 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. CHAPTER X. THE last days of May drew to their close, and Lisle sat in the doc- tor's library absently turning the leaves of a volume he had long ceased to read. The waning daylight lingered just sufficiently to cast gloomy shadows around the objects to which it was bidding farewell, and the chill in the lingering spring atmosphere added to the sense of discomfort which mocked his philosophy. A few faintly tinted flowers filled a vase upon the table, striving in vain to look as if any invigorating warmth had ever breathed upon them, and seem- ingly repressing t he shivering provoked by so many hours standing in cold water. Their evident struggle to keep up appearances was more depressing to witness than their entire absence ; and seizing the vase, he tossed its whole contents into the open grate. He was in a gloomy, not to say irritable humor, of which he was ashamed, without really possessing the power to banish it, and sensible that he was no congenial companion for others, he had shut himself up alone, ho; im: that in time a counter current would set in upon his menial channel. Evidently it was at low-water mark yet, as only the most gloomy and unh-ippy musings occupied him. "Yes. an interloper worse than that, a hypocrite" he thought impatiently, tossing aside the book with which ho h-ul been uncon- sciously toying. tl How long can I go on in this way, when every hour, did people rightly read it, gives some convincing proof that I am not what I seem, that I have no right under this roof no, nor any other and every proof of affection I receive from Mr?. Kelley is so much more in the balance against me. God pity a life dragged out under such a curse as mine ! Even to that poor old man up at the mill I am a hypocrite ! Every lime I cdl him ' father ' rny con- science rises up in protest, and hi^ openly declared preference for me beyond his own children, pierces me like a dagger. Yet I am tied, tied ! bound hand and loot. Good Heavens! what must my real father have suffered, sin thering this plague-spot in his hi art through all these years 1" THE nOUSE BBHIND THE POPLAES. 99 The question was not without some alleviating effect, as it turned Ms thoughts into a softer channel, and as compassion took the place of bitterness, his brow cleared and a tender melancholy beamed from his eyes. He did not hear the door so gently opened behind him, nor the footsteps which after a momentary hesitation advanced to his side, and it was only when a soft warm hand was pressed over his eyes, that he knew any one had entered. He was in no mood for play, and taking the hand whicli obscured his vision, he led its possessor to a seat beside him, and looked in her face with a serious, troubled gnze under which Julie looked up in wonder. " What ails you, Lisle ? You haven't been like yourself all day. What troubles you ?" " Nothing which you can help," he said with a sigh, and turned away his face that she might not read its troubled lines. His voice was sad, but not repelling, and stepping behind his chair she turned his face up toward her own and shook one raised finger at him warningly. " Now, Lisle, don't be gloomy ! You don't know how much we all love you, or you would be happy ; for doesn't love make happi- ness?" " I can't say. I have known too little of it to tell by experience." " Is it ' little? all this we all of us feel for you ? Don't you remem- ber how we loved each other when we were children at least I loved you, and you knew it, then, and didn't think it 'little.' And how good you were to me, never scolding me for anything except- ing niy maternal partiality," she added with a smile. " Do you recollect all that'r"' " I was a boy then, and you liked me because I protected your doll babies." " Now, Lisle, I won't endure that ! It isn't f iir. You are so hor- ridly suspicious and distrustful, that I wonder sometimes if you don't doubt the reality of your own existence." " Seriously, then, I sometimes really do; and I only wish the doubt would resolve itself into a certainty." " And, pray, Sir Misty, what and where are you when you don't exist exactly to your own satisfaction ? " " A pebble in a stream, a stone by the wayside, or a block of marble." " Always stone and cold. That at least is in character. ' But 100 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. what 'do you think of yourself as such, for of course you indulge in. reflections ? " i " I wonder why I give myself so much trouble and vexation about a world in which I am only an insensate bit of 'primary,' and why I am cursed with an idea that I ' live, move, and have a being ;' and then I hope, in a dreary way, that some revolution of nature will throw me out of my present sphere, and satisfactorily convince me that I am a stone, and thus forever set my doubts of even that' at rest." " This literally ' beats the Dutch!' I have heard and read some- thing of German philosophy, and mystification upon scientific prin- ciples ; but I never before saw a walking epitome of it all. Seri- ously, Lisle, what ails you ?" " Chronic morbidness." " But springing from what cause? You, of all others, seem to have so little to give you an hour's (rouble. Master of your own actions at an age when others are scarcely out of leading-strings, favorite nephew, if not heir, of an uncle who must love you or he wouldn't have done so much for you, well located in business ; and, not the least of all blessings, young, talented, and handsome. There!" " Julie, I am too much out of sorts to bow in acknowledgment, as I ought. I willingly admit that I am blessed in many of the re- spects you enumerate, nor am I sufficiently egotistical to imagine that I alone of all the world have troubles worthy the name ; but I only wish I could exchange with most any one long enough to get a breathing spell. If I could only get my burden off my brain for one blessed hour, I would try and trudge on with it cheerfully for- ever nfter." "I imagine you would plod on with any other life trouble pretty much as you do with your present especial. I'm not verse 1 in the matter, but I don't believe any one was ever yet convinced that his own was the easiest of all possible ones to bear." , " Very likely. But, Julie, I'm in no humor for a fair argument Ito-night, and I am too savage for any one's society but my own." " Are you savage toward me ?" "Yes, I'm afraid so. I don't feel myself a distinguisher of persons to-day ; and I don't wish in one bad hour to sacrifice all my pre- vious efforts to make you think me not quite a bear.'' 41 1 don't, and I shan't. Swear, now, if it will relieve you dou't THE HOUSE BEHIND THE TOPLAflS, 101 mind me, for I heard father once. If you once burst out, or break something, it will make you feel better directly." She looked perfectly in earnest with this advice, and quickly alive to anything approaching the ludicrous, he stopped and laughed. " There, that answers the same purpose, doesn't it ?" he asked, " and now that I'm ready to be entertained, how do you propose to do it $"' " As ladies usually entertain sick people tell you all the symp- toms of ' brother's last illness,' or how ' sister-in-law was laid out,' etc., or any other funeral-baked history calculated to cheer your spirits." " No, thank you. I'd rather hear all the little things that have been happening during these years of my absence. I haven't been ' talked up ' in them at all." " Well, then, I'll commence with myself. You left me crying at this very table, do you remember ? Well, I shall never cry for you again, nor for any one else; for the more people, especially the mas- culine half of them, are cried" for, the sooner they forget you. I recollect that when you never sent me any messages, I wanted to die, so that you should feel very sorry for your neglect ; and, failing iu the performance of that melancholy feat, I used to imagine it as hap- pening, and I breathed iny last with a reproachful message for you, and attended my funeral, and returned with the mourners to the desolate house, in a munuer very beautiful and affecting to myself to imagine. "Ed used to form plans how we two were to run away in sad companionship, from the scenes you had deserted ; but I didn't take as kindly to the scheme as he did, though I maintained the promised secrecy, till once he really did start off alone, long after I supposed he had given up the idea, and it was not till f.ither came home from there one day, and told how alarmed the Sterlings were at his dis- appearance, that I broke my promise. I was in screaming horror lest he might die by the wayside, and I recollect dancing up and down in a frenzy, at the slownsss of the boy who at last got father's horse nil harnessed, when away he went over the hills like mad. " Eddy hadn't many hours the start, and was overtaken trudging manfully along with a stick across his shoulder, at the end of which he had a few clothes tied up in an apron of his mother's, I suppose his little old* shirt-made handkerchiefs, were too small for his ward- robe, as veritable a ' tramp ' as qycr lived ! Father thought it 102 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. best not to.notice him at fiist, and drove past ; but Ed called out to him to ' give him a lift if he were going his way,' aud father took him in as innocently as needful, since Ed kept a sharp eye upon him. So they drove on awhile till they came to a road leading back toward home, which Ed didn't know, and as they came down it father got him to tell the story of his wrongs, which was that his mother was ' a nasty, mean woman, who didnt give him any com- fort, and had driven you away and got Pompey shot,' and his father was 'an old stingy, who nrido him go raggeder than ever, now,' and he had concluded to cut their acquaintance, and go out to Toledo and work on the can il, an idea that he seemed to have fallen heir to when you resigned it. Father always did feel sorry for you boys, you know, and he finally persuaded him that he had better come back and study with him, and by-and-bye come out an M. D., to which I. D. he cordially consented, and they drove home upon the best terms with each other. Ed made his own terms about remain- ing in his native town, and has lived with us nearly ever since." " Yes, and the doctor is helping him even to lectures. How much he has done for him, and your mother, too." " Oh, that's nothing ; but ma did get vexed with him sometimes, and no wonder. She noticed the old cat getting thinner and thinner, and so weak she could but just walk ; and she couldn't im- agine what ailed her, till she fairly caught him with the lancet in his fingers during a bleeding operation, after which he 'proceeded in the usual manner,' as he affirmed when ma demanded explana- tions. Of course there was a stop put upon this ; and then he went to practising upon the old rooster, relative to whose adipose tissue, tendons, and jugular veins, he delivered me a very learned lecture, which, as old 'Mahomet' was a pet of mine, I didn't duly appre- ciate, and our first real quarrel arose from my complaining about it to father ; and he said thus depriving him of much useful informa- t : on, for which humanity would some time inevitably suffer, whether because he lacked this information, or practised upon them to obtain it, I don't know ; but if people call a doctor, 1ft them take the consequences. Old ' Mahomet ' hadn't, and I rescued him." They were both laughing as they walked the floor, now socially arm in arm, unheeding the darkness setting in upon the long strug- gling twilight, when Mrs. Kelley opened the door, having vainly sought Lisle elsewhere in response to the doctor's frequent inquiries for him. ' How selfish I have been. I had no idea time had passed so THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 103 rapidly !" exclaimed Lisle, in self-reproach, hnstening at once to the doctor's room. Mrs. Kelley arrived suddenly at a conclusion ; and unquestioning ifs correctness, gave expression to it at once, as laying her gentle hand upon her daughter's head, she said, softly, " I think I understand, Julie, and it may be a pleasure for you to know that I have always hoped for this. Lisle was always my favorite, and from loving him as a son, I can very easily call him one:" And without wailing for a ivply, she passed on. . Left by herself, Julie first paused in astonishment, then the color spread over her neck and brow at her mother's suggestion. Till this moment it bad never occurred to her that Lisle regarded her in any other light than that of an old playmate and pleasant com- panion. Even now, nothing he had said confirmed the idea at this moment awakened, but his manner had he not sought her constant companionship of late, preferring it even to his brother's mani- fested a ceaseless interest in all her occupations and ambitions and even to-day implied a doubt of the truth and strength of her con- fessed affection for him through so many years, by accusing her of having liked him from interested motives as a child as if he ques- tioned whether she really liked him now from any. The more she thought upon it all, the stronger seemed the probability that her mother had been more clear-sighted than she herself; and she ac- knowledged it with a little fluttering of the heart which certainly did not spring from a spirit of indifference. A young lady of sixteen readily convinces herself that she loves in return whoever loves her ; and it makers little whether this affection is real or imaginary, so long as she believes in its existence. Julie be- lieved that it did exist, and her own sprang into bloom as if by magic. Lisle did not come down to tea, but Edward noted her heightened color and brilliant eyes, and did not fail to connect them with the twilight interview in the library, from which he drew his own con- clusions, as Mrs. Kelley had done. Nothing of this was suspected by Lisle himself, and though he observed a more confidential tenderness in Mrs. Kelley's manner toward him, he was far from understanding it, and attributed it only to her sympathy under his evident gloom, which no efforls that day had been able to conquer or conceal. Dr. Kelley passed a restless night, and having fallen asleep at last just as day dawned, Lisle stole out for rest and fresh air, just as Edward went into the office. He fancied that his brother's salutation 104 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. was cool, and, determined (o make a fin d efforl to break down the invisible ban ier between them, he followed him in, and drew a ch;iir near the table at which Edward moodily seated himself, lie looked anything but genial, and Lisle hesitated for a moment, uncer tain- how to approach him in his present humor, and for the instant he resolved to go away from him and let the estrangement, if such it really were, take its natural course. But second thought restrained him, and casting away all thought of diplomacy, he asked abruptly, " Edward, what is the in itter between us ?" "Nothing worth mentioning," replied Edward as abruptly. " Yes, there is something, and I want to know what it is. We have not been just as we should be, any of the tune since my return here, and if I am in any way responsible for it, I shall try to rcct fy it. I have too few friends in this worl I to be willing to lose the oldest and dearest among them without an effort to retain him." " I don't see that you are particul irly calculated to awaken confi- dence, or to retain it ; or why you should expect others to be more steadfast and unselfish than yourself," replied Edward in a tone that betrayed how much the unkind woids cost him, determined as he was to speak them. " Ed, I insist that you are unkind and unjust ! I know that I am not as winning as many, and that I make few friends; but this is my misfortune, and I have not deserved to be taunted with it by you, of all the world ! I am steadfast in my friendships where they once exist, and God knows I am incapable of being selfish toward yon, whatever you may think me towards others. There hss never been an hour in my life when I would not willingly have died for you, could such an act in any way benefit you." Edward turned suddenly in his chair, and faced him. "Lisle, I believe I am a brute ! My ' Fitzjaines temper' has al- ways been a curse to me, and it isn't in me to be gentle and sensitive like you. All my sensations are trubulent ones, I believe. I'm sure I don't know what it was that first rose up between us two ; I sup- pose it was only the result of our being separated and differently brought up. I didn't begin to see the extent of this wall of con- straint, till you came back; and then your changed and dignified appearance so different from what I had ever known you only made the matter worse, and I couldn't get near you. Your experi- ence in life has made you a polished gentlcimn, while I am the same country-bred boy ; you have the air of one who knows his own placo in the world, and is sensible of filling it creditably, while I am a THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 105 doctor's student, by the charity of one upon whom I have no earthly claim. You may think these consideiatious should have no effect between two brothers born into the hard luck we were, but if we could exchange places a minute, you'd feel it as I do. It all the time seemed to me that you might put affairs straight between us if you chose though just now I don't see how and I came to believe you rather fancied being looked upon as one afar off. But there is an- other cause for my feeling really unkindly towards you, and you must know it.'' , ' No, I do assure you I can't imagine it. Go on as plainly as you please. Don't stop to choose words." "I admit, to begin with, that I have no right to complain, nor do I of anything except that you did not deal frankly with me. Know- ing what you did, you owed me candor, at least. I don't ask now to be made a confidant in your love affair ; but when I recall the terms in which you spoke of Julie while expressing your opinion of her whole sex, I do think you were neither truthful nor honorable, since it isn't supposable that your feelings towards her have under- gone any extensive revolution. I thought then there was an un- derstanding between you, and now I know it ; but of course it's none of my business. Tm nobody's heir unless being the recipient of her father's charity makes me one and I can't expect to be no- ticed by her." "For heaven's sake, Edward, what do you mean ? Speak out !" " Just what I'm doing, I think. I can't well think of it without performing just that ceremony. If I abuse you, ' don't take any pride in what I say,' as boys caution one another upon like oc- casions.'' " Edward, if any woman the sun shines on stands between you and me, out with her ; but if it is little Julie Kelley for whom you are cherishing this delusion, do tell me how I have anything to do with it." " Do you mean to say that you don't wish to marry her yourse'f?" " I ! How utterly impossible ! Y#u don't know what you are tilking." His look of pain and surprise was too genuine to be doubted, rm 1 Edward felt so at once, as he exclaimed, impulsively, " I'm sure I don't. Do kick some common sense into me. I should feel the better for a good Christian kick or two from you just now. But, Lisle, if you knew how I have loved her all the^e years, and how I am forever hoping that some day I shall come to sonic- 106 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLA.BS. thing worth noticing, and be noticed by her ; for it hasn't come to marrying yet, und I don't suppose ever would. People may laugh about ' puppy love,' and I suppose you think I've got it. "Well, perhnps I have ; but it's hard, nevertheless, to see some one, par- ticularly a brother, carry her off any way. Money and position make you matrimonially eligible, while I, not two years younger, ani but a boy." " What ever gave you the idea that I wish to marry ? Heaven forbid 1" " I got it from pretty near the fountain head, I assure you, since it was from Mrs. Kelley herself, though she didn't intend to say anything, as you may be sure, knowing her as you do. I know she thinks so, and if Julie isn't entertaining the same delusion, I'm mis- taken. I don't see how you can avoid reading what stands out as clearly as print. How is it you didn't suspect it V " Because I never dreamed of the possibility of such a thing. Ifc is really dreadful !" Edward laughed. " I don't see it in that light. However, since you thus quake at the idea, I suppose I may rest in peace, notwith- standing the uncomplimentary phrase used in connection with the fair Julie." Lisle was in no humor for jesting, and after a moment of painful silence, he said, " Don't willully pervert my remarks, Edward, but understand me for all time, when I say that much as I like Julie upon farther acquaintance (I know I insinuated that she was silly, but I retract it now), she is the best living woman I should ever think of as other than a sister and nothing could so pain me, as that she should ever care for me beyond a mere brother. It would be the worst pos- sible misfortune that could befall her or me !" " Well, Lisle, I believe you, and I will do so ; though how any man not actually her brother, can r>re r er that position towards her, is more than I can understand. You always were a strange fellow, though ! Only tell me now, that you forgive all my hard words and injustice toward you, and I sh ill be happier than I've been since they crowded their company upon me." " I ctTtuin'y do. I am only too well satisfied with anything which may have led to this explanation between us. Do, once for all, put aside all these compnmons and unjust considerations, regarding any of my supposed advantages over yourself, and let us be once more Irothtrs. You speak so bitt rly of being an object of charity, what THE HOUSE BEHIND THE" POPLARS. 107 else have 1 been all these years ? Dr. Kell<-y has done no more for you than uncle has for me, I don't see in what I can possibly claim any advantage over you." "Bother! Yes you can, and so do others. However, one enu- meration is enough ; and you've established a claim upon another this hour. Had you, or any one else, ' let into me ' as I did to you ( this morning, I wouldn't have explained nor pardoned him, till tho crack of doom ! You deserve all the good luck you are heir to ; that's one consolation ! But Lisle, if you think I have seen more than exists, keep your own eyes open for awhile, and you'll see it, too. It's as plain as poverty on a debtor's face. I don't look out of green eyes, as you'll soon see." In obedience to the injunction, Lisle did observe Mrs. Kelley and Julie more closely than he had yet done, and either he had been most obtuse, or indications of their belief in the character of his at- tentions were more open and marked than they had been any time before. Julie manifested a tender consciousness under his every word and glance, which he had never seen in her manner till that day, natur.il expression as it was of her new conviction concerning him. Edward saw that it was noted by Lisle, with something like real pain; and as they strolled out together in the twilight, he looked up at him inquiringly. Not a word had been spoken upon the subject since the morning's conversation in the office, but Lisle knew the burden of that questioning glance, and answered to it frankly. " I believe your suspicions were correct, Ed, though it is the strangest fact ever forced upon me. There is just this consolation for us all, these sixteen years' old impressions are fleeting. It seems as though girls of that age are ready primed and loaded with sentimental epidemics, from ' eternal constancy,' down to ' early deaths !' Ther'e never was one free from the whole category." " It's all very well for you to ridicule it in general ; but this case, of all others, is anything but laughable to me. I was impatient enough for Julie's arrival from school, I can tell you, and when it was decided to send for her upon account of the doctor's illness, I hurried out to New York for her. The seminary was a regular young lady manufactory, it seemed to me, and my I didn't they each and all stare as if they didn't expect to see a young gentleman again till the end of the course, for it's a regular three years affair. Julie introduced me to several of her friends, pale, round-eyed young fcminines, with the usual eomp'aint of starvation become chronic. 108 THE HOUSE BEHIND TIIK POPLAJJS. That didn't matter so much, for young ladies always cat like turkry buzzards, it seems to me ; but they forgot even their stomachs when we got ready to leave, and the- way they cried was at once aggra- vating and gratifying. Julie was the only sensible one among them, and if 1 hadn't been in a bad enough way about her before, I should have been then. I brought her home just a week before you arrived, and this is the way I'm repaid for it all." " Will she go back to the seminary for the remaining two years ?" " Yes, I suppose so. The doctor intended her to have gone through the whole course, and I presume Mrs. Kelley will carry out his wishes, however much she may miss her if left alone. But for her father's illness we should not have seen her at all this year, as she was to have passed the summer vacation at Niagara, with the family of her fa- vorite schoolmate. I'd have fought against it if there had been any use in it, for I'm always fearing tome one may see her and speak before I can ; for of course I can't say a word till my position in life is assured. I only hope, now, that she will go ; for it's plain that till you are out of her head I can't hope to get into it. I wonder if it isn't unfortunate to have known a young lady too long? If we had been ns little acquainted since childhood as you and she have been, I should have twice the chance I now have of making any im- pression. However, two years are something, and if she gets her head full of everything else, to my utter exclusion, so much the bet- ter for me when she comes back. It will be a sort of fresh start, you know." He looked resolute and hopeful even under such a prospect ; and looking upon him, Lisle wondered how it is that aifection in this world so seldom directs itself into the proper channel, or bestows its treasures where they would be most highly priz d. It is a rule, and not its exception, that it is poured out upon some indifferent or un- worthy object, while one who would have prized it more than life, plods on in sorrow and neglect, or at best falls heir to but the sorry crumbs of so-called friendship. Something of the same tenor seemed to have occupied Edward's mu.-ings, for he said a little ironically, ;i It's well that married people can't read all the sentimental his- tories each of them has passed through. If all the disappointments, mid unrequited what-you-may-call-crns, were as well known to one as to the other of them, I don't imagine they would prove matri- m .r,y sweeteners. However, if there must be a dozen or so of tender iu each one's existence, he or she is the lucky one who comes THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 100 last, and I do suppose that if I know Julie to have fancied a round baker's dozen of admirers, I shall hail my turn, when it comes, with no less thankfulness." " I should hope so, certainly ! The world might well laugh should a man seek to make it believe that he was his wife's first love. No doubt such blessed beings do live ; but the world doesn't believe in them, and I'm sure I don't see why it should, nor why one should care to have it. When real life, and preaching no matter how pretty and fine can't get along together consistently, it's time that preaching, as the 'more artificial, should die out or be made over; and it's every one's duty to lend a hand toward its demolition. There Jire so many fine theories which every one admires for others 1 prac- tice ! Any one in this world who cares to be loved, is a fool indeed to cast the gift from him when offered, because another may have gloried in it first. It is curious that both the winner and the loser feel aggrieved ! Some day your ' turn,' as you style it, must and will como, if you continue to wish it, and I hope your present bitter- ness may then re-assert itself as sound sense ; as I've no doubt it will. Just cast away all care for the ' baker's dozen,' and be thankful if you are the last on the list." ' When I said I supposed I should, I meant that I have thoroughly resolved to, and I know I shall. Don't I prove the truth of it in your case? Well, I've no idea I shall be the next favored one, so there's an end to enumeration. And now what do you say to run- ning up to the mill to-morrow? I won't trust myself in the house, for I believe a careless fellow's words are, among a woman's sensi- bilities, what a bear is among the gimcracks in a china shop ; and the old lady has cultivated hers into so pugilistic a state that they rush out from the most unexpected corners in a perfectly rampant condition. Those poor youngsters at home are coming up just as we did, and as none of them 'take after the Fitzjamesie went with it, and he told me upon his return he had delivered "It got lost somewhere, for I never saw it. Did you, Lydia?" "Why, really; I remember all about it now. Yes, the boy brought it to the house, and never dreaming it was anything press- ing, I put it up in the clock to keep till you came in to dinner. It was a real busy day down in the mill, and you didn't stop for your din- ner till late in the afternoon, so that with one thing and another, I forgot all about. I'll give it to you as soon as we get back home." " It ain't much use now. I don't see how you could have forgot it at the time, when you knew the doctor wasn't expected to live many hours more. I thought you set more by your friends tliaa that." There was reproof, but not suspicion in his voice ; and involun- tarily Lisle turned a searching glance upon her. She became sliglit- r ly disconcerted under his scrutiny, resolutely as she endeavored not to betray it, and he could not resist throwing a certain meaning into his tone as he said, too low for any one but her to understand, "I am afraid that 'arnica' caused forgetfulness. Did you find it equally efficacious with bruises and buri.s ? You have much to thank it for, truly !" He regretted the words the moment they were uttered. His only THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAKS. 125 safe-gunrd now, against the revelation he dreaded, was in this woman's power to keep the secret, and he could illy afford to weaken one of its defences by suspicion. He was, then, relieved as well as rea-sured by the perfect simplicity of manner with which she com- posedly replied, in a tone audible to all, " It is very likely as you say. Any woman with a housefull of things to 'tend to, from children up to cooking and dish-washing, has enough to make her forgetful ! I wouldn't be afraid to make my oath that I'm the first Fitzjames that ever was so put to it to get along. It's only a wonder that I ever think of anything, let alone a miserable little note no larger than my two fingers." Sick at heart and disgusted at her consummate duplicity, faith- fully ns it served him even now, Lisle turned away and looked out among the crowd now rapidly assembling. He felt that he had little to lear as long as her mind remained subject to her will ; that the secret she had guarded half a lifetime would not escape her con- trol while reason retained its throne ; and mentally praying that this might be forever, he threw off the incubus upon his spirit, and fulfilled the duties devolving upon him through the day, with a calm exterior that spoke nothing of the secret torture within. The feelings with which Mrs. Sterling saw Dr. Kelley lowered to his la*t earthly home, were known only to herself. She made no pretension to inconsolable grief, nor was it probable that she felt any such, since she had never forgiven him for having married another, and the firm control he had never ceased to exercise over her since one well-remembered scene between them, increasing to outspoken authority wherever Lisle was involved, had stung and galled her since she had felt that as the wile of Miles Sterling she should be free from it. She had endured the continual consciousness that his eye was ever upon her so far as this boy was concerned, ;md every instance of his protecting affection for him had stung her to active malice where she could elude las observation. Any affection she might ever possibly have felt for him, was long since dead, and in- difference had succeeded to the hatred she had once really borne him and outrightly declared. It was Miles Sterling, the honest, unsuspecting friend of later years, who mourned him most sincerely of the two ; and but for the veil which concealed her face, his wife's contempt for this sincerity would have been plainly visible to all observers, despite the expres- sion of sorrow she had lorccd upon it. Poor, honest old man ! Lisle pitied him with his whole soul. The peculiarities and weak- 120 TUB HOUSE BEIIIND THE POPLARS. nesses which marred his character formed no bar against the sym- pathy excited by the unmerited wrongs he had suffered from the two persons whom he most trusted and esteemed his wife, and the ben- efactor of his son. For all his narrow-mindedness and parsimony, he was strictly just and honorable towards his feilow-men, not one of whom he would thus have betrayed, for life itself. It was an un-- merited insult which his wife now dealt him in her cwa heart, and Lisle felt it by that intuition which is as strong and unerring i'u bit- ter antipathy as under the nearest sympathy. Impatient as Lisle was to return to his own home, and thus bid adieu, happily if forever, to so much that was painful iu all respects amid his present surroundings, it seemed to him little short of heart- lessncss to leave Mrs. Kelley now, when she more than ever needed his aid and sympathy. Totally unfit to assume the necessary direc- tion of afiairs, she cluug to him with an affection intensified by the remembrance of how dear he had been to her husband, nnd relied upon him as entirely as only a woman can. It was worse than use- less to think of leaving, till affairs should be smoothly running in their new channel ; and to this consummation he bent every energy. Dr. Kelley, though too generous and uncalculating ever to have accumulated a fortune, had left enough property to secure to his family a comfortable maintenance, and a small legacy was willed to Edward for the purpose of completing the course of lectures already begun. Lisle thoroughly rejoiced that he was thus enabled to secure the advantages which his stubborn independence would never have allowed him to accept as even a brother's gift, and Edward's future thus fur provided for, he directed his own immediate attention to other matters. Dr. Kelley had, with the exception of this legacy, willed all his property to his wife in trust for their daughter, as- sociating Lisle as her guardian, by Mrs. Kelley's own request ; and in eonnection with this trust, she one evening sought him, and with more calmness than she had assumed since her husband's death, said kindly, " I know, Lisle, that you are anxious to return to your own pur- suits, and that the weary weeks you have spent here were a sacrifice, however cheerfully yielded. I am going to release you at once." He would have disclaimed the assertion, but she prevented him. " It was very kind of you to leave everything and come in response to a wish that must have seemed unreasonable, and wholly uu- siccountable, as so many years separation tells more upon the un- stable remembrance of childhood, thm upon such love as the THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 127 doctor always cherished for you. He always loved whatever ho protected, and your delicate, unhappy childhood affected him deeply. I think he had long designed naming you as Julie's guardian, and when I saw how noble tmd trustworthy you are, I, too, overlooked tiic objection of your youthfulness, and to spare him the evident em- barrassment under which he labored in naming a request which he feared I might think a singular if not unreasonable one, I requested him to associate you witli myself in her guardianship. You were painfully precocious as a child, and young as you yet are in years, mentally you are older than most men who have exceeded them by a third. I rely upon your judgment most implicitly, as I need not assure you. And now. Lisle, promise me that if Julie is ever left alone in the world, you will be a brother to her. I know that as guardian, you would be faithful and kind; but take her to your heart, and if you have one of your own your home, as a very sis- ter. At my death she will not have a relative in the wide world/' " Dear Mrs. Kelley, may that time lie far in the future ! I do promise, most faithfully, to be a true and loving brother to Julie, in all things ; and should she ever be left alone by your death, my uncle will be to her the father he has been to me. I can safely promise that she shall find a home with us." " She may require it sooner than you think. I am not gloomy or foreboding ; but I have long been far from well or strong, and with William's death I have lost the will to live which has thus far kept me up. Next month Julie returns to school to finish the course of study her father wished her to pursue; and I am certain that this farewell will be our last. I have not breathed th's to her; for, with youth, continual apprehension is more grievous to be endured than the bitterest sorrow falling unannounced. In the hour when this fills upon her, comfort her as you best can. If the love her father and I have always felt for you is thus reflected back upon our little daughter, we shall not have left her unprotected. You and I may i ever meet again ; but I shall die in firm reliance upon your prom- ise. I wish you were her brother in fact as well as in name." Lisle felt the flush that crept swiftly up to his very forehead, and bending his head, he reverently kissed the hand Mrs. Kelley had placed upon his arm, powerless to utter a word. "When he again looked up, she was gone. The next morning, Lisle commenced his preparations to return home at once, amid which he was interrupted by a startling event. Chancing to be near the door when the bell was hastily wrung, he 128 THE HOUSE BEIIIXD THE POPLABS. opened it him=elf, nnd received a telegram from the messenger, di- rected to his address, and with an intuitive sensation of alarm, ho tore it open and read. Jt wa^ from Mr. Fitzjarnes, and read as follows : " ' L. H.' decamped last night with all the available funds. Have written you full particulars." For a moment lie was stunned beyond all power of motion. Louis Hartley, the companion of seven years, during which not one sus- picion had arisen against his honor the protfye of that kind old gentleman who had been his constant Irieivl and protector whosu loving care had raised him to the very position which enabled him to strike such a dastardly blow! The black ingratitude of Louis' crime gave to it a tinge of posi- tive horror, undrr which Lisle stood as if spell-bound. Then his thoughts reverted to his uncle. How would he bear this utter dis- appointment in one upon whom he had bestowed an affection which made each benefit heaped upon him a real pleasure to the donor, this cowardly act of the son of the woman he had loved even beyond the grave, with a fervor and constancy whose light was reflected upon her boy ! Lis'e knew not the extent of the business injury thus inflicted thought not of the possible ruin involving himself as well as his uncle. His one desire was to go to the poor old gentleman at once, and give him such consolation as he could impart; but deeming it only prudence to await the arrival ot the letter which might contain something important for him to learn at once, he forced himself to do so with outward calmness. Long as the hours seemed in the:r progress, the final one was reached, and Mr. Fitzjames' letter was received; a kind, though sorrowful one, in which he merely r - peated the announcement contained in the telegram, and remarked that Louis had seemed moody and preoccupied for days before his flight, and was impatient under every effort to win from him the cause ot his evident trouble ; that on the night he decamped, ho hnd excused himself at an early hour, contesting that he was ill and wretched ; and Mr. Fitzjames reproached himself that he had not then made one more effort to gain his confidence, as he was aln assured that something weighed upon his mind which might ev. n then have been explained, and so averted the commission of ths deed. But he had suffered him to depart with a mere good-night, and in the morning he was found not to have occupied his bed at all, while evidence oi hasty packing implied that he had gone in THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 129 accordance with some pre-arranged plan which his early retiring wa-i designed to aid. The office key was found upon his table; but the safe had been relieved of a considerable sum, in addition to which he was discov- ered to have borrowed a few hundred dollars for which he had given the obligation of the firm. The missing amounts, in all, made about ten thousand dollars, and the only wonder was that he had not trebled the sum, as he so easily could have done. Throughout the whole letter there breathed a spirit of patient for- bearance which put Lisle's wrath to shame ; but the request with which it closed, was more incredible than all that had preceded it. He asked as a personal favor, tliat no pursuit should be made after the abscouder, no publicity given to the affair in official quarters, and that Lisle himself should bear as little ill-will against the of fender as possible ; and he added that he had always intended to be- queath to Louis a sum not less than the amount to which he had now helped himself, and that doubtlessly his affairs were desperate and pressing, and he himself was not blameless if he had kept so poor a watch and guard over his necessities. He added that he had already repaid the sums borrowed upon the credit of the firm, that it might stand proud and honorable before the world, and that, after all, ten thousand dollars was not an amount of sufficient importance to cause any great consternation at its loss; it was better to consider it au unfortunate investment, and so let it drop. Lisle refolded his uncle's letter, with a more genuine respect for him than he had ever experienced, much as he had loved and hon- ored him. Not one reproach had he uttered against the ingrate who thus wounded him ; not one regret for the care he had bestowed so unceasingly from his very cradle ! Only a self-reproach for his own failure to learn the wants and weaknesses of the nature his fostering .affection had nurtured. Any other man so suffering, would have mourned the ingratitude that thus could rob a benefactor ; he only mourned his own short-coming in having rendered it possible for his fo.ster-son thus to betray him! As if his hand had held the tempta- tion up before him ! Lisle remembered, if he did not, that Louis had never been frank and open in his deportment, and that during those days of his tutorship, this want of candor and manliness had given his benefactor's he;irt many a stab of cruel pain and disap- pointment. Lisle had striven to like him, with only partial success at best, and many a time had argued against the constantly recur- ring presentiment that this man was destined to work him some 130 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. deep wrong. Instinctively he had recognized him as an enemy; and he recalled this, now, with a keen appreciation of the mysterious iu- ward monitor whose voice he had temporarily strangled under what he deemed the force of reason. It was, then, with no kind feeling towards Louis Hartley, that he made his adieus, and started upon his return home. Mr. Fitzjaraes received him with more than his usual demonstra- tion of affection, and assumed a cheerfulness of deportment which it was plainly to be seen he was far from feeling in his heart. Do- spite his effort to keep up appearances, he looked more worn and old than he would have done in ten ordinary years. That he was cut to the he:irt by the disgrace Louis had brought upon himself, as well as wrung by his ingratitude towards him, Lisle could well un- derstand. He had hoped so much for him, believed so entirely in his honor and rectitude of purpose, even when most disappointed by that manifest lack of ambition to assume a desirable position in life, which others had commented upon since he left college. This radical want in his character, Mr. Fitzjames ha.i obviated by himself establishing him in a position where with anything like attention to business, he could not fail of success. All his hopes were shattered by this fell blow, and in his old age he was doomed to see his years of loving care brought to worse than nothing, his foster son a repro- bate. It was no wonder that his kind face grew suddenly aged, and his frame bent as though under the weight of additional years. Lisle's eyes grew misty as he looked upon him and realized all he must be suffering so uncomplainingly ; but no allusion to it ever passed his lips, and only in the unprecedented tenderness of his man- ner, did he evidence that the subject had attracted an hour's thought. Day by day the old gentleman leaned more heavily upon his cane, and from having led a life of unusual activity for one of his years, he now seldom went out at all, but, seated in his easy chair at home, bent his eyes for hours upon the unturned page in his book, ever and anon taking off his spectacles, which were unaccountably blurred and dimmed, and wiping them with a slow indecision very different from his former briskness of manner. In vain Lisle strove to re- nwake his interest in outside affairs. The old gentleman shook his head wo;irily, as he strove to smile. " 1 never felt any sympathy with the dying war horse that pricks up its ears at the sound of tho combat. When nature says ' lie still, you have done your job sleek aud clean,'! don't believe in brushing around like a distracted comet ! I Invo lost my ambition in accord- THE HOUSE I5EUIXD THE POrLARS. 131 ance witli some plan of higher origin than my own will, and if my part in the programme is merely to doze in the chimney corner, it certainly involves no great risk to life or limb, and I'll e'en try it. I believe Bill is making love in a fat;y way to ' Militia,' as he calls her, and Fin getting to be quite useful as the receptacle for Mrs. Drew's maternal trouble in consequence. I suppose Bill diurnally over-eats, and imagines his suffering in consequence, to be the pangs of love. I'm at no loss for amusement in my quiet corner here." It was a cheerful evasion of Lisle's argument, but left him no course save that of submission to the new order of things ; and ho yielded it, only condensing his business into the briefest possible space of time each day, and spending every leisure hour by the old gentleman's side. Thus sitting together one evening, they received their letters by a belated post ; and fully occupied by his own, Lisle did not iook up till a g.isp from his uncle caused him to do so in alarm. In his trembling-hand he held a letter of which Lisle only noticed that the caligraphy was fine and clear, like a lady's ; and large tears coursed down his furrowed cheeks as he regarded the inanimate sheet in a sad, pitying manner affecting to witness. Rising, Lisle laid his hand tenderly on the old gentleman's head, and for a moment neither ut- tered a word. Then softly smoothing with his hand the page upon which his ey<-s yet lingered, as if it some way were sensible of the caress, he said sorrowfully, re ; igning it to Lis'e, " There, my boy, burn this, here before my eyes, that nothing may ever bare it to the scrutiny of others. It is a sad, sad world, Lisle. and when one has staggered under as many blows as I have, a light one ove; conies, at last. I'm a weak old man now. Ah, me !" Lisle took the proffered letter, and lighting it at the gas flame, held it till it burned to cinder, and to sed the charred sheet into the yard. His uncle watched it with pitying eyes, and when all was consumed, fell back in his chair, while a spasm of p-un swept over his face, followed by a cold rigidity, and his hands groped aiml ssly about him. Lislo raised him in his arms and bore him to a sola Unclosing his eyes the old gentleman murmured something of '' pity and protection," couple I with a name Lisle did not catch. Some unconquerable difficulty obstructed his utterance, for otten as he es- sayed to explain, the words refuse 1 obedience to his will, an I only a confused murmur succeeded to the effort. Lisle realized then that a paralyse attack had overpowered the poor old man, and that tho 132 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. story he strove to tell might never be related by the lips which no lunger yiejded their allegiance to his will. Thus he lingered for days, intelligent as before this misfortune, but utterly powerless physically, and it was grievous to watch the eager expression in his eyes so filled with a sad longing ; to realize, at every moment, his useless efforts to relieve his mind of the burden upon it. In such strength of mind and body as he had yet, to have expected he would not, even to Lisle, have wished to reveal the burden of that fatal letter; his wish that it should be burned, was sufficient evidence of his desire to bury it in his own breast ; but with the hand of death upon him, his inability to make known his wishes was a torture, whose expression was promptly lined upon his fuce. So he lingered for a few weary days, and death took him, at last, with the mental burden unrelieved life's closing page a sealed mys- tery. So Louis Hartley's crime hd done its work upon his benefactor. Whatever had been the final blow, his had weakened and under- mined the strength that otherwise had been sufficient to have met it: and Lisle regarded him as his uncle's murderer. His debt to him was increasing, and he vowed to repay it if ever they crossed each others path. That they should yet do so, he felt an absolute faith. Even though pursuit might not. even now, be fruitless, Lisle yielded his wishes to his uncle's, and firmly resolved never to seek him ; but if there were any magnetism in hate, that could lure him within his reach, he would repay at least the last half of his debt of vengeance. The man who could commit such a deed as he had been guilty of, would incur the penalty of the law for others ; and in fate's good time he should have him at his mercy. For that hour he would watch and wait. Wait with an ever accumulating hatred " toward him and his," intensified by the utter isolation of heart and sympathy imposed upon him by the death of this one friend and companion, whose love was wholly unmixed with pain, whose kind- :i I protection had been a free-will offering uninfluenced by a s ne of duty. Lisle pressed his hat over his corrugated brow as he turned from his uncle's grave, and returning to his desolate home, he gave full sway to the torrent of grief and misanthropy which overwhelmed him. Nature was at last avenging herself for the weeks of stern control that had checked and concealed so many varying emotions ; and, THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 133 completely unmanned, he lay silently upon the sofa where he had thrown himself, neither answering nor hearing Mrs. Drew's repeated appeals to him, from the threshold of the inexorable door he had locked between himself and the outer world. 134 TTT^ TTorSK BEHIND THE POPLARS. CHAPTER Xlll. " MISTER Sterling, I take it right ongratcful of you to fly in tlio face of Providence in this w;iy, which it is likewise ouaccountaltle to man or woman, and Lord only knows why you're bent on emigrating yourself off to the fur South, where, what with its yalkr fevers, and its break-bone f^veis, an I its fever and agues as is born there, is enough to make ones h.-.ir stand on end ! What can you be looking to find down th re, asuie o( these, that you haven't in tenfold lure ?'' observed Mrs. Drew, pulling nervously at her cap strings, from her position behind the coffee urn at which she presided during Lisle' s now solitary meals. " I shall provide for you, Mr*. Drew," he replied laconically. Mrs. Drew resented the insinuation, and replied with feminine spirit, " It isn't myself which I have in my mind's eye, Mister Sterling, for all you are beset to think that if any one speak*, it must be for him- self or herself, as the c&s^e may be. Thank foitune, as a respectable woman as knows her duties and is yet young enough to perform 'em let alone matcrniouy itself needn't be an object for 'providing,' to any gentleman, if he have just stepped into a propeity !" " I beg your j ardon, Mrs. Drew. I only meant to s-ay that I shall not sell this house, and that I shall be obliged if you will remain in it till a suitable tenant c.m be found, when I will see that you are comfort ibly located either here or elsewhere. Sometime, and some- vrhere, I shall have a home of my own, and I shall rely upon you to preside over it as you have done over my uncle's so many ye >rs. Will you come to me, then, despite fevers, and other unnauiable horrors ?" " Which I most certainly will ! I'll shake with chills and fever, in your cause, with pleasure and heartiness; and why not, being as I ve been a sort of lowly mother to you these many years. I was only bemoaning as you should be toOk with restlessness as you should go running your head into you know nothing whats r ever how many THE HOUSE BEIIIND THE POPLARS. 135 dangers as is vexing, and may have right smart of ill luck. Why, bless us, with your handsome fortune and good looks, what couldn't- you marry in the shape of a fine, showy wife, as would make you as lovely a pair of matermonials as eyes ever looked on; and you wouldn't know your own house and home, it would be such a" " Pandemonium," interrupted Lisle. "For all the world!" ejaculated Mrs. Drew; but she uttered tho apparent suggestion in quite a different spirit from the one borne upon the face of it, 'surprise, not unmixed with indignation, having betrayed her into a favorite expression. '' Yes, that's just i'," Lisle replied, provoldngly pretending to mis- interpret the spirit of her remark. "It is bad enough to be turned nock and heels out of the mastery of ones own premises, into which if one henceforth ventures to bring an unexpected friend they both suffer the pricks of figurative pins and needier, with an explosion every moment threatening ; but that the world should thus come in for a matrimonial share of discomfort, isn't a ' soothing reflection,' ns the immortal Pecksniff would have it." " Whatever is it sets people's brains into such a whirl of contrari- ness ! Far am I from meaning this which you understand ! That I, being a woman which has a daughter as is matermoninlly sought howsoever troublesome and onsatisfactory to myself should so go t? testify against the marriage state, which I ought, conrirywise to praise, which I do. Oh. Mr. Sterling, I'm afraid you belong to that inisfortunatc class as is naturally unmatermonial !" " I think I do. But to return to the original subject. I do not leave, this place in any spirit of restlessness. It is simply impossible for me to remain in it, changed as everything is to me since uncle's death, and I shall sooner rally to a real interest in life, if I am n- tirely away from associations which every hour oppress me with unavailing regrets. This IK. use, this whole city, weigh like an incubus upon me, and I can better bear my loneliness anywheie el*e." Mrs. Drew was a naturally kind-hearted woman whose sympathies were always keen enough when aroused ; though a life of homely duties and narrow experiences had rendered her a little obtuse where the cnse was not a marked one. She had been sincerely at- tached to Mr. Fitzjames during the many years she had served him, and from his boyhood Lisle h id been a favorite with her, despite tho oftentimes sarcastic manner under which he rendered her illy at ease ; so she wiped away a few real tears that gathered in her eyes 136 THE DOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAK9. and maintained a little silence before broaching a topic which lay near her heart. " You know, Mr. Sterling, which though I was your uncle's house- keeper for many years, I am not yet an elderly person ; very far from it, being that my Melissy was born when I was in my seventeenth year, which she is not yet twenty. Being that you nre such a young gentleman, I will tell you in confidence, begging you won't mention lit, I am in my seven-and-thirtieth year, which you wouldn't think it, would you ? The widowed state is a very oncomfortable state for an enterprising woman to submit to, and being that I've sup- ported it for many years, I'm now an engaged person. It is only right you should know it, so I tell you I'm an engaged person." " Indeed ! "Who is the chosen individual ?" "Being as it is one as is unbeknownst to you, I tell you that he is named Joseph Perkins, which, though somewhat young to be a father to my Melissy, is of no account, being as she is determined to cling to Billy, useless as he is ! Poor girl ; my heart aches me as I think how her li(e will be just cooked and stewed out of her, along of his stomic as is never satisfied. I've never seen him filled up yet, though many is the time I've tried to do it. The hoe-cake, and the gumbo, and tho sweet-potatoe pudding that Billy will cram into himself is enough to bust an elephant!" In her excitement Mrs. Drew fanned herself into complete obliv- iousne.-s of anything but Billy and his internal capacities, and Lisle recalled her attention to her own prospects. " Which sure enough I hadn't gone on to tell you ; and no wonder, what with the st;ite of wonderment that Billy puts me iti to. His internal improvements must be made of cast-iron, or they'd certainly give out on him ! Such wear and tear would be death on mere huinao organs 1 About my Joseph, which I'm coming to him. I don't know but we shall be married right away, and 1 hope as you won't object to take him likewise into your service, with me. He is as en- terprising a young man as you'll bee, and has many a year good work in him, being that he is now just one-aud-twenty years old." " Suppose you were to adopt him as a son, instead of accepting so young a man for your husband ? It seems to me this would be more fauitable in a matron of your years," suggested Lisle. " And remain in a widowed state fifteen years more ? No. He will make me a very serviceable husband against my old age, being that I can't always work as I do now, and a young partner is better than two which are old and broken down. Adopting and marry- THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. -137 ing are two different things, which my desire is for matermo y. You'll keep a place open for my Joseph, Mr. Sterling ?" "Yes, but if Bill and Melissa marry, I want it distinctly nncV-i-- stood that I have no house-room for them. Bill will come to no good, and I don't want him around. Besides, your husband should have none but good examples before him, and Bill would be a bad asso- ciate. Perhaps, if you are to be married, you would prefer remain- ing here altogether, instead of accepting any other situation till I am ready for you. I will instruct my agent so to arrange for you, if you wish." " I make bold enough to say I do wish. As for Bill and Melissy, I don't care how soon you set them adrift, as it don't seem fitting which my Joseph should be father-in-lawing them as is so near hia own age. Me and Joseph'll be better off without 'em, and if it is to be matermony between 'em, why matermony let it be ! I've struggled a many years to keep her and her dresses straight, which crooked both of them still are, and crooked they'll go on ; which I can do no more !" " Permit me to wish you all a very happy honeymoon, Mrs. Drew," and with a rather ironical bow, he took his hat and went out. Lisle had, as this conversation implied, decided to dissolve his business connection with the city of Louisville, and sc4k a residence farther South. Of too restless a temperament to be content with a life of inaction, which his fortune as his uncle's heir by bequest now enabled him to pursue, had he so chosen, he had arranged a co-part- nership with a friend, under the style of Sterling & Bertram, and the new house was to be opened immediately in the chosen location. The farewell calls were punctiliously made, the customary, sometimes sincere expressions of regret received with the degree of acknowl- edgment to which he considered them entitled, and Lisle was abont to depart from the scene of so many happy hours, the home more desolate, now, from the very remembrance of all it had been to him during his uncle's life. Painful as it was to him to remain in it, this departure was scarcely less so, and he abbreviated it as much as pos- sible. Already his trunk was on the carriage at the door, and he was gathering the last few articles in a valise, when a rather osten- tatious sobbing at the door caused him to turn toward it. There stood Melissa with her apron to her eyes, her low necked dress-waist as usual twisted far under one arm, with a protruding whale-bone threatening her chin, and hair guiltless of comb or brush 138 TIIE HOUSE BEII1XD THE POPLJLK3. for an indefinite period. She had never been a favorite with Lisle, who^e first impression of her had proved durable, as first impressions usually are, and annoyed by her proximity he said curtly, ' I have no desire to cut short one snivel which you consider proper under the circumstxnces, but you will oblige me by airing them out on the gallery. If you want anything, say so." Melissa assumed an air of injured virtue as she replied, still with her apron before her eyes, but administering a surreptitious push to the pugulistic whalebone. " You never did give me credit for any decent feelings, and you've never treated me like a human ; but I always liked you, and so did Billy, for all you've never quit snubbing him with might and nvtin.'' " Oh. I see,'' Lisle interrupted. " You and the fat boy are going to make a biilliant match, and you want me to give it my protec- tion. Once for all, I will have nothing to do with it. If you mar ;y him despite your mother's good advice, you must accept the conse- quences. I dare not trust him around the office, and I would not have him under my roof in any capacity. If he loses the place I se- cured for him when I assumed coatrol here, he will have no one to depend upon in future but himself. You had batter listen to your mother, and so avoid trouble ; lor you will be miserable if you marry the graceless scamp." " ' Listen to mother !' A pretty one sJif is to listen to, with her he id full of Joe Perkins ! I an't going to be father-in-lawe 1 around by him, and no more au't Billy. You'd better talk to her about be- ing miserable with a ' graceless scamp.' I'd rather be the missis of a scamp than a lout, any day ; and a lout Joe Perkins is, as you 11 see. If Billy ever does take to bad ways, I only hope you won't blame yourself for it a turning of him off after all those years he's done for your uncle as is dead and gone!" " Thank you, I never shall. Be good enough to carry down this valise, and here's a good-bye for you. Don't lay it out upon Billy's 'internal improvements,' but buy yourself a gown witu it your wedding one if you will.'" Seeing that nothing more was to be gained, Melissa accepted tr.e gift with a sulky courtesy, and watched the carriage as it rolled aw.iy with Lisle sitting sadly upon the cushions by the closed win- dow. Thoughts of his first ride through these streets filled his mind. Then, a timid, feeble boy, he had felt that his very pr. in that city was due to a species of banishment from his horn ta.it lie had nothing to hope for beyond his uncle's good will, or THE HOUSE UiinXL) THE POI'LARS. 139 possibly friendship, and that he was to be a useless dependent all his lifetime. Now he was a solf-ussured man, whose position ren- dered him an object of envy to some, of social in ichinations to many. Fair laides would accept his name in consideration of his fortune, whatever they might have thought of his individual merits without this assistance into their good graces ; and, what was far more to him, the business world now accorded him a respect and confidence based as much upon his well-known probity as upon the tangible funds that supported it. He had gained all to which he could have aspired, yet he was far from happy. Scarcely less lonely and mis- erable was the little boy who year? before had looked out through the dreary rain and spatteiing mud upon these same streets over- looking the river. What was it which gave other men an object in life something to hope, to toil, to scheme for \ Often as he had queried of himself, the question was no nearer answered. Was every man a hypocrite to his own heart, and to the world, or were there a favored few whose outward deportment was a reflection of the con- tentment within? Would that man ever be found who had the frankness and fortitude to make a full confession as to how much was real and what was but seeming ! Lisle himself would not havo done so, and he judged others by himself. The steamer was ready to leave the levee as he stepped on board, and Mr. and Mrs. Bertram were impatiently awaiting him. Mr. Bertram, Lisle's co-partner, was a reserved gentleman some years his senior, and, anything but a gallant husband, his pretty little wife levied sometimes severe contributions upon her male friends. Lisle liked her truthfulness and freedom from affectation, and as she was attached to many gayeties for which her older and more sedate hus- band entertained a decided dislike, Lisle had gradually become her reliable escort, much to the satisfaction of both husband and wife. They greeted him, now, as belated fellow-travellers are usually re- ceived at the last moment, and Mrs Bertram had soon made him the repository of her travelling-bag, a heavy shawl, a novel, a para- sol, and a few more of those outer defences for feminine travelling, inseparable from the institution. Mrs. Bertram breathed a little sigh, as she said, 'Dear old Louisville : my heart quite aches at leaving it !" " Then perhaps it sympathizes with my arms," said Lisle patheti- cally, looking down upon the burden they supported. " I must look up^some able-bodied darkey who will take the contract to carry all these indispensables ; for, really, my constitution is delicate!" 140 TUB HOUSE BEHIND THE POPUAJIS. Mrs. Bertram received the sally with a laugh; Wut her h&baritb protested with real impatience, " Really, Mattie, it is shameful the way in which you ladies impose upon gentleman who are not in a condition to remonstrate against it ! A man feels like an idiot, sweating under a load ol feminine traps as high as his chin ! I'd rather be whipped than to travel with a lady, anyway, but as though forty trunks and baud-boxes were not enough, there must always be a miscellaneous collection ol small am_ munition, like this. To make a ma>i a complete fool, you ought al- ways to make him carry a bouquet. I've pitched them into the gut- ter so many times that I've quite worked myself off duty ; but Ster- ling would probably submit indefinitely. Sterling, rise up, once rbr all time, and dump that load into the river." Mrs. Bertram directly placed her fan upon the top of the collec- tion in Lisle's custody, and turning toward her husband, playfully retorted, " That is just the way with you Benedicts. No sooner do you throw off the lingering remains of your gallantry, than you fly to emancipate all your much enduring brothers. I know my rights and privileges, and I don't intend to resign them till I'm thirty at least. I know Sterling is incorruptible even by your b.id example.' 1 " Well, if you resign at thirty, Sterling has but one year more of servitude. Doubtlessly he will endure that." "What a malicious observation," Mrs Bertram exclaimed with some real as well as simulated spirif, ior though good-natured, she was a woman. " You know I'm not yet twenty-five ; though it may be that matrimonial cares and vexations are prematurely fading me. One thing is very certain, I haven't sunk under the burden of politeness." "Nonsense, Mattie, be as good as you are beautiful, and relievo Sterling of that ridiculous trumpery. The truth is, Sterling, shu meant to have put all that into her trunks ; but the hinges began to creak, and she had to call John off the cover ; but thank fortune, you've a state-room, Mattie, in which all this out-ide matter can be safely put to bed." " Mrs. Bertram, shall I have the felicity of escorting you to your room?'' asked Lisle, bowing profoundly as he added a shawl and valise near to the articles ho knew were hers, and prepared to carry them all. An old lady sitting near, made a nervous clutch at her personal effects as Lisle thus levied upon them ; but without having seen it Mrs. Bertram interposed, HOUSE BEUItfi) TUB POPLARS. 14 1 " For pily's sake don't add insult to injury. Those are not mine, Here, make over my accoutrements, and let ine set you an example in bearing the burdens of life." Lisle bore them to her state-room door, from which she soon after- ward emerged serenely, with no encumbrance excepting the novel, to which she addressed herself without rejoining her persecutors. She was very piquant and pretty, and her husband evidently thought so, despite the abruptness of his manner towards her, and her ani- mation and spirit were quite refreshing compared with the Inzy gentility so many pretty women affect. Lisle liked her beyond any woman he had ever met ; so, having watched her till the air of in- difference with which she opened the book had given place to one of real interest, he approached and interrupted her. If there is ever a time when one's best friend is de trop, it is when one is absorbed in an interesting book ; and, knowing this as well as most people, Lisle fully expected some intimation of it, whose very naturalness would amuse him. She did not look iip even when he seated himself near her; but determined to interrupt her, he said, "I have come to be amused. Your lord is deeply absorbed in some business discussion out there, and I must offer my condolences to his neglected wife." She looked up a little impatiently, as she replied, " You won't get me to indulge in any heroics upon the score of neglect. Upon the contrary, I will pardon similar conduct upon your part, just now, as this book renders me very forgiving." " Thank you,' 1 said Lisle rising and bowing over his hat ; " that is r.s much as to say, that, having nothing for me to do, you prefer my absence. You should never tolerate any one near you unless you intend to render him useful. If you should chance to want me to swim ashore with your trunks, in case of collision, fire, or snag, do me the honor to command me." " There : don't go away. How provoking you masculines are ! You never consider anything, but put on your little airs at a word. rVho tells you that ladies never mind any interruption ? You won't deny that you never lose an opportunity to tease me, and that while 1 remain young and comparatively well-looking you never will lo ; e one ! I have borne and forborne, lor two all-sufficient reasons : first because you are a good beau who finds favor ia my husband's sight, while all the young ladies are as jealous and envious of me as any woman could desire; and secondly, I like you despite your imper- fections, which are more numerous than you think. Yes, really ; 142 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. but if I didn't like you I -would c^ase to cultivate patience towards you ; for I'm quite in earnest when I declare that I wouldn't excuse in Bertram one half which I do in you." '' That is the penalty one pays for being your husband. There ! isn't that rather pretty, for me ? Though, to be frank, I would rather be the never- so useful friend of any lady, than her husband." " Ah, but you will come to misfortune yet ! Somewhere in this , fabled South, matrimony will swoop down upon you, and thus avenge the wrongs of my long enduring sex." " Yes, you do endure a long time ; truly said. One woman will worry a regular series of husbands out of existence. But do prom- ise me that when these evil days come upon me, and I am locked out for not being in by ' early candle lu>ht,' or doomed dinnerless to the attic, you will give me a hospitable loaf and a lodging corner. I shall need friends." "I don't imagine that even your wife would ever venture to take such, liberties with you, nor indeed any others," Mrs. Bertram replied very seriously. Lisle laughed, " I wish I thought so too ; but, unfortunately, wives are no respecters of (their husbands' 1 ) persons, and I've no doubt that the wife of 'the Father of his Country' gloried in the remembrance of many a curtain scene in which she had ' done him justice,' (isn't that the term?) Am I greater than he, greater than Socrates, that I should escape ?" " Horrible fellow ! ' Justice ' will be a fearful work in your case !" " No doubt. But it is a woman's besetting sin to take a man at a disadvantage, and then glorify over it. Who hasn't heard old ladies exclaim over some rising genius who was making a noise in the world, ' Law ! I've taken him across my knee no end of times !' Every one knows what taking across one's knee means ' gentle warmings, 1 &c. Is that it ?" " Lisle Sterling, where did you pick up your ideas of women ! Have you no mother or sisters ?" Mrs. Bertram asked, reprovingly. A tinge passed electrically over him, and he replied, gravely, "I have both ; I might add unfortunately ! But must one culti- vate no ideas save those that sprout at the domestic hearth ? I dare say, now, that in that modest shade you were meek and lowly, and never indulged in such sharp words as you keep for me. Who knows but you even fancied yourself imperfect !" "And now? ah yes; thank you.'' " Do you know, Mrs. Bertram, that you are really magnanimous ? THE HOUSE BEU1X1) Till;, I'OrLAUS. 113 I wouldn't tense you if there were any one else near me worth that trouble. I will devote some rainy day to finding a substitute, by- and-bye. Go on with your ' Desrues the Poisoner,' or whatever it may be there. There's no amusement since you won't get angry," and taking his hat he sauntered off and left her to the perusal of the interrupted pages. Th,e journey was completed without his aquatic services being re- quired for the protection of Mrs. Bertram's trunks, and that lady herself entered with her customary zeal into the various amusements by which the passengers enlivened the trip. Mr. Bertram pnssed the time either serenely dozing, or discussing business topics with a congenial circle on the guards, and Lisle divided his attentions be- tween the two parties, with very little toleration for either. The brain that never relaxes its tension, is but little superior to the one- that is never strung up to the pitch of ambition ; and thoroughly energetic as Lisle was during business hours, he locked this business into his office at night, anil left it behind him when he journeyed. If the reflections which filled its place were not altogether pleasura- ble or profitable, he felt himself more a man and less a machine for giving leisure to them, and people queried how it was, that, equally well informed upon many subject^, be seemed engrossed by none. He was in all respects mentally as far in advance of his years as he physically appeared, and no one among those who knew him tho most intimately, would have correctly estimated his real age by at least ten years ; so true is it that the traces which anxiety and men- tal torture leave upon the features, are far more strongly marked than any left by the mere flight of time. The residence of the Bertrams had been prepared in advance for their reception, and for the present Lisle was to be domesticated with them. There Avas something, which every one has experienced, indescribably grateful in the occupancy of large, fresh apartments, and thi ir luxurious solitude, after the crowding and ceaseless chat- ter of steam-boat existence ; and, having completed his toilet, Lisle folded away the inside shutters opening upon the street, and lean- ing upon the window-sill, gazed idly down.upon the passing pedes- trians, with that indifference common to strangers in a strange place. An impatient tapping upon his door roused him from, his careless pastime, and opening i*-, he met Mrs. Bertram at the threshold. " Are you never coming down to the parlor ?" she asked impatient- ly. " Bertram sallied out as soon as he had inducted himself into his best suit, and I've been moping alone these two hours. Do come 114 THE HOUSE BEHIND TIII; rortAUS. down and put me out of patience, or pique ine into sonietliing like lifo." '' Now you see, Mrs. Bertram, that were I to cease teazing you, it wouldn't be a week before you would upbraid me for barbarous neglect. Whatever ladies may say of their own amiability, they like to display ' temper ' upon every excusable occasion.'' Together they descended to the parlor, where in due time dftiner WAS announced, and delayed nearly an hour for the dilatory lord of the house, much to his wife's irritation. But he arrived, at 1-ist, as husbands for whom dinner is kept waiting sometimes will, much as everything indicate* to the contrary ; and Mrs. Bertram assailed him with a storm of questions. " It is useless to declare you were detained by business, this time. You have undisputably been sight-seeing; so what sort of a place is this ?" " It seems a most extraordinary city. It has streets, some of which are numbered, and some named. I am sure I observed such uncom- mon names as Canal, and Chestnut, among others. It has public squares, an,d stecpled churches, and horse cars. I didn't observe anything rise out of the usual course." ' Bertram, why can't you give a satisfactory answer to an intel- ligible question ? ' asked his wife in some annoyance. " I beg your pardon, my dear ; I didn't so consider yours. But I'll tell you whom I saw. You remember Jim Venard, who married Em Wilkins, of Louisville, a few years ago ?" " Yes ; and kept her on the regular boarding-school allowance of opera two evenings each month all through the very seaon of their marriage ; and she so much admired, too, with beaux by the dozen around her although she was married !" " Well ; Yenard survived even this, astonishing as it may seem, and avenging justice hasn't annihilated him, despite his cruelty to the lady of the multitudinous admirers ; for I met him just now, and he tells me they are near neighbors of ours. He mentioned too, that they are afflicted with a five or six years old boy, though he worded it a little differently, evidently possessing an affinity for small boys." " Poor Em 1 I suppose she looks quite the matron and mother, now. She used to be the most dashing, independent, girl in .the city, before her marriage, and everybody liked her. 'A five or six year old boy : * just the age to be most provoking ?" " That seems to me a most indefinite period of life, as I haven't THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLABS. 145 survived it yet, neither has Sterling, by your own account. Ven- ard says that if Sterling insists upon organizing a bachelor estab- lishment, he knows just the place for him, fine house, splendid grounds, and all that, ' to be sold for no fault,' excepting that of its owner's bankruptcy. What do you say. Sterling ?" "That I am much obliged, and that I will look at it to-morrow.'' "And Jsay it is all nonsense to think of such a thing," exclaim- e 1 Mrs. Bertram, warmly. " Why can't you be contented with a suit of rooms here? I'm sure the house is large enough for us all, and you wont have the fuss and trouble of housekeeping, which I can. till you is unbearable." "I have engaged my housekeeper, thank you, and have no idea of leavening the dumplings, and beating pie-crust, in proper per- son." " ' Leavening dumplings and beating pie-crust !' And yet you gen- tlemen are always preaching about a lady ' being able to direct household affairs.' You had much better spare yourself impend- ing humiliation, and remain with us. We need you. Bertram is the very best of society with a third person to draw him out; but like most husbands, he is the very essence of stupidity with one le- gally bound to endure it. The difficulty is, people don't marry each olher till they have worn every interesting topic quite threadbare. I'd be willing to make an affidavit that neither Bertram nor I have advanced a new idea to the other, for the last three years. Make him stay with us, Bertram, do." " Yes, I'll have an iron grating put around him, at once ; and in the meantime, just look up your Natural History, and see what caged animals are dieted upon. How you women do tease a man when you set about it. It seems as though you look upon a poor masculine as a sort of pack-horse and victim in general, and as long as his polite- ness endures, you peg away at him. If Sterling chooses to stay with us, he knows this house is as free to him as it is to me, and quite as much at his service; but if he prefers one of his own, I don't see why he shouldn't be indulged. By the way, I nearly for- got to tell you that Venard wants us all to take seats in his opera- box to-night: I have the tickets somewhere box 25, no 52 here it is. I knew there was a 2 and a 5 in it somewhere. I can't sub- mit to it, Sterling. The scraping of the fiddles , and the screeching of the victims to popular want-of -taste, raises the deuce with a bu- siness man's calculations. I hope you'll escort Mattie, as I've prom- 146 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLABS. iscd Venard as much. She likes it, for the same reason all ladies do, it is expensive. *' My dear, you converse well upon many topics," said hia wife good-naturedly ; " confine yourself to them, and you will receive it for much good sense, and possibly some taste." THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAKS. 147 CHAPTER XIV. A LITTLE time elapsed, during which Lisle purchased and took possession of his new home under the faithful supervision of Mrs. Drew now Mrs. Perkins who, with her Joseph, lost no time in obeying his summons. Lisle was not altogether pleased with the "serviceable husband" his housekeeper had taken unto herself, whose unprepossessing appearance formed a topic for much playful banter from Mrs. Bertram, who never lost an opportunity for making a partial payment of the many debts she owed him, relentlessly as Lisle ever persecuted her upon all subjects in which he knew her vulnerable. There is no surer index to the refinement and gentility of a family, than the appearance made by its domestic retinue ; and fastidious as he was in this respect, he regrrded Joseph Perkins with anything but satisfaction when that individual made his advent into his es- tablishment. Tall and lanky in figure, his thin, Ion?, carrotty locks clung in a weak, dejected way, around his sunken cheeks, unwhole- somely yellow as if in sympathy, and his short-waisted coat, with its long tails dangling round a pair of consumptive pantaloons, led one's observation by discouraging degrees down to his feet, where his personal misfortunes seemed to culminate in a halo of con'es- ponding glory. These members seemed quite to have vacated the front premises of his boots, and to have taken up lodgings in the area, so that while the abandoned territory extended indefinitely in n, withered, weakly kind of irregular point, the opposite extremity projected far over the boot-heel, in a swollen condition painful to contemplate. Lisle looked ruefully upon the apparition, while Mrs. Bertram, who chanced upon the scene, laughed outright. " I have heard of shoes being ' picked before they got ripe,' and I'm sure poor Joe's must have met with a like calamity," laughed Mrs. Bertram when Joseph had been dismissed from inspection. " If you would like me to make a poultice for them, just say so.'' c " It's useless," Lisle replied pathetically. " If I had a dozen poul- 148 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. tices, I shouldn't know where to apply them. They might draw his foot out into his boot-toe?, or quite out of the wh>>le thing ; accord- ing to application. There's nothing for it but to make him over en- tirely. If you insist upon rendering yourself useful, however, you may put some ' drawing ' application near his mustache th:it will disperse it. The fellow is quite running to tops. He'd prove a good useful fellow in a crow country, though, wouldn't he T' li I think you had better prevail upon the Infant to ' write a bill of divorcement and put it in his hand,' according to the scriptural directions fur husbands who wish to relieve themselves of unneces- sary wives. Cupid played her a sorry caper this time." " Upon account of her youth and inexperience ; yes. All said, though, Mrs Bertram, it isn't lair to name her ' the infant ' save in all due reverence. All feminities are mentally young upon matri- monial subjects ; and Mrs. Drew served my uncle many faithful years. If Joseph Perkins proves to be the rascal he certainly looks, I shall be truly sorry for her. There's no knowing, though, what decent clothes may do lor him. Aiiy man looks a vagabond when he is shabby.** " Ah, yes, I think you fancy that a snub ; and I'm not sure but it is. Matihuony might develop considerable snubbing talent in you ! I'll go, now, and tell Bertram you are coming round and may yet equal him, though no man need hope to excel him. Let us know how you get on nvtnufacturing servants out of the raw material." Itce:t tinly looked ahope!e>s bisk, but mentally hoping for success, he resolved to make a faithful trial, assured t:iat could he but render him pr< scntnble, Mrs. Perkins would not sutler him to be dishonest, at least toward himself, without revealing it. She would see that he was well served, and knowing that he could confide all things to her honesty, he lost no time in supei vising Joseph's outer man, and hoped for the best. Thus far no compLdnts had reached him, and though he some- times saw that his housekeeper was flurried and anxious, all the married people he knew, of whatever condition in life, were the same, and if she was tolerably contented with her lanky Joe, he as yet saw no reason why he should not be BO. After all, he could prove no worse than BJ1, who, now the husband of "Militia,"' was left behind to eat his way through life under other auspices than his; and thus at last relieved of two disagreeable burdens, it would be a sorry bargain indeed which could prove a worse one. "Witli his new home and surroundings Lisle became daily more THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAKS. 149 satisfied. The balmy Southern air seemed insensibly to penetrate his spirit, softening what had been stern and misanthropic, and at- tuning him to harmony with the peace and beauty around him, and for the first time in his whole existence, he felt that life oilers some atoning hours for the many burdens it imposes, even to the most care-worn of earth's children Sitting in a dreamy languor upon his flower-crowned balcony, while the fragrance of his cigar was wafted round him in eddying coils by the scarcely whispering zephyrs, he watched the twilight as it wrapped its fleecy veil over the scene, and its tender brooding hushed him into peace and quietude as a lullaby soothes a restless child. The old anxiety op- pressed him less and less frequently, and the sensitive shrinking from companionship, that had rendered him half a hermit in tiio midst of society, had vanished. Without one effort upon his part to banish the past from his re- collection, it had ceased to taunt and reproach him, and the stain upon his birth was as if wiped away, with the absence of all that heretofore had made it an ever present p:iin and bitterness. Deep as had been his regard for Dr. Kelley, each letter received from him had been a probe applied to his proud and sensitive spirit, and each expression of affection they contained seemed a proclama- tion of the tie that existed between them. He did not admit to him- self that their cessation wag a relief, but the effect was manifest. It was as if some obliterating hand had wiped out all that was humil- iating to his spirit, and levelled the wall of shame that had separ- ated him from the world of his fellows. Into that world he now en- tered upon equal terms, and it acknowledged and bowed to his posi- tion. Mrs. Bertram depended upon him as an escort among the gay scenes she frequented, for she was an inveterate pleasure seeker, while her husband had neither patience nor respect for any world outside his business; and her chattiness diverted many an hour which he would otherwise have spent in loneliness at his own home. It was fortunate for each that they were near neighbors, since both were exacting in their demands, and though he would have protest- ed, had she avowed to him that she was teaching him toleration if not admiration for her whole sex, it was in a measure true. Lisle entered the Bertram residence one disengaged evening, to perceive an unusual excitement in Mrs. Bertram's manner. She dis- play d a tiny envelope to his gaze as he closed the parlor door upon his entrance, whose mission was plainly written upon its very ex- terior, and tapping with it the cheek of her meditating husband, she 150 THE HOUSE BEIIIWD THE POPLARS. exclaimed, " There, gentlemen, I must liavc both of you upon this occa&ion. Mr. and Mrs. Venard are to be ceremoniously and hand- somely ' at homo ' to-morrow evening, and I've promised Em that you shall both of you enter an appearance, Now, Bertram, you really must, this once. I've kept the card all this time, till Sterling should come, and. so add his commands to mine." " Humph ! He won't be under as good subjection when he's been a ' legally responsible ' as long as I have. However, he needn't obey this time, as I told Venard, to-day, I'd go if it upset the board of trade. That's the inconvenience of having friends ; you can't say no." " Tres bien. and let those return thanks who owe them. Of course you will go, Sterling, and I've a reward of merit to announce you. Ein has at last prevailed upon that inexplicable Miss Wakefield to render herself visible. So strangely pretty as she is, it is strange she will forever shut herself up and utterly refuse to know anybody, despite all Em's protests ! I don't believe it is all from pure sensi- tiveness regarding her position as a governess, for she is too proud for any position to humiliate her. She'd queen it, and that too, successfully, were she a nursery-maid instead of an accomplished pianist. I don't suppose you have seen her, Sterling t" ' No, I believe not." " ' Believe not ;' you may be certain if you ever had, you wouldn't be in any doubt upon the subject." . " Oh, then she is something uncommon, eh ? ' stunning ' as the English fast ones say." "Nonsense; that isn't the word for it, and I don't know any that is. .She fascinates one from the very first, and then she grows and grows upon one, till" " She must be quite enormous then, I should say. Like ' Captain Murderer ' in the old story, she must ' reach from floor to ceiling, and from wall to wall,' if she makes many acquaintances. I hope f-he won't go off in a catastrophe, as the ' bride-pie ' eating captain did ' when he had picked the bones of the dark twin.' '' " Oh, Sterling, you are the most provoking ! I'd like to see yon thoroughly in earnest once, if such a thing is possible !" " Why, I'm so this moment. How upon earth a young lady can ' grow and grow ' without coming to something wonderful in some \v:iy, surpasses my comprehension ! Well, proceed ; what is she like now ?" Mrs. Bertram looked rebellious and flushed, and maintained a mo- THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAB8. 151 ment's obstinate silence, but seeing that Lisle was amusing himself at her expense, while even her husband smiled, she said with an effort which only rendered her words more piquant, " She is like nothing you ever saw or dreamed of. She's made of flesh and blood, and as some people say, ' she's got a nice head on her, and a pretty eye in it, and she's a good figured person ;' and to tell the truth," she said, suddenly brightening into good humor as she proceeded, "she is marvellously pretty; handsome, isn't the word for her. Her eyes are very dark. and soft; I suppose sentimental people would describe them as gazelle-like, but I confess I never saw a gazelle's eyes. And she has the strangest way not of blushing, nor anything like it but rather flashing up the most exquisite color when anything moves her." " Well, go on ; I'm all attention," said Lisle gravely. " She is neither tall nor short, but most exquisitely formed, and she has the mo^t peculiar arch in her neck just where it joins her perfect little head quite loaded with purplish hair." " Now let me see if I should recognize her by your description. A schoolmistress with not very large bones in her anatomy ; has a way of turning red in the face, at pleasure (holds her breath !) has one eye, if not two, of some dark color has a neck with a curve in it, like a crane's, and patronizes 'switches;' isn't that what you call false back hair r" " There isn't a switch about it. It is all her own hair, and as soft and glossy as I can't compare it." " Whipped lard scented with bergamot ; half a dollar per bottle." " Well, have it so if you will. I shall be revenged when you see her." Mr. Bertram raised his eyes wonderingly. " Really Mattie," said he, " I don't see why you are so smitten with Miss Wakefield. I saw her once, and she seemed to me a rather agreeable young lady, but nothing wonderful. I should never dream of calling her a beauty, though Venard and his wife do." " Oh, you don't know a pretty woman when you see one. No body expects you to testify," retorted his wife. " The truth is, men and women never do agree in their ideas of beauty. It is singular that Venard admires her, for Em thinks her wondrous. Aside from her beauty, she is an actual prodigy." " Heaven spare us !" ejaculated Lisle in all sincerity. " Fi done ! You ought to be more reasonable; you so handsome 152 TUB HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAHS. and well grown a lad ! But she isn't a lecturcss, nor a literary prodigy ; her taient is mu-ic, and such music !" t{ And a musical prodigy, of all others ! She eats well, and sleeps immensely, doesn't she ? Has a face decidedly running to lower jaw, a wide or at least a full mouth, and is sadly fearful of becoming too stout. Isn't it so V" " Marvellous guess-work !" exclaimed Mrs. Bertram, sarcastically. " Oh, not at all ; most musicians are the same. Music is decidedly an animal instinct." "Witness, a pig under a gate, or a calf at his matins." " Well, theu, to speak more correctly, the love of music is an ani- mal instinct, and the talent for expressing it depends upon the ani- mal organization, to such an extent that the very grossest persons I ever saw have been the very best singers. Look at the world of fine musicians, and contradict the shocking assertion if you can. It is all well enough, but I don't imagine that I should ever be fascinated with them in any sense save a musical one." Well, be satisfied, Miss Wakefield is not an artiste; she is simply an exceedingly fine amateur performer, and apparently wholly un- conscious of the effect she produces upon her hearers. I have no doubt she would be hissed off the stage, and she will be glad she never practised her profession on it, when she learns that to this fact she is indebted for a lack of jaw and superabundant adipose tissue. She is delicate and spirititelle." " You surprise me more and more ! I've seen many ladies' beau- ties, and I never saw one who was not more indebted to flesh and muscle for her popularity than to anything else. Fat men and women are disgusting to me, and I never pardon them for being so unless they are sorry for it themselves ; and even then, nine times in ten they might have avoided it had they cultivated their heads in- stead of their stomachs." "Dear me, 'I never yet heard that people are to blame for their own noses.' Who made constitutions, pray? and if we all had. our choice in the matter, who knows if they'd turn out as warranted ! I'm heartily glad you are satisfied with your own, and certainly I never saw any one more so. Lisle Sterling, you ought to be snubbed !" "Well, I don't know any one who would take the job more will- ingly than you. But I'll wait a little, while you tell me more about your new-found goddess. You've told me wJiat she is ; now tell mo who." "Ah, that's jnst the mystery. Nobody knows. She came to tho THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POl'LAUS. .. 153 Venards from Judge "Wheeler's family, where she had been employ- id as music-mistress to the young ladiis. They knew nothing uf lier antecedents, as she brought no letters of reference, nor any- thing, but was engaged solely upon her evident merit. They were all quite fascinated with, her ft\>ni the first, and finding her a true lady, they made her a friend and companion, treating her in all re- spects as one of themselves." " And then," suggested Lisle, growing interested. " She remained with them some time, they liking her more and mor->, till suddenly, I don't think, Sterling, that I ought to tell yon, as Em told me quite in confidence. " " All the better : I've quite a feminine capacity for secrets. Go on." " You mustn't mention it, then. Suddenly she disappeared with- out a word, and they saw her no more for two whole weeks. At the end of that time she reappeared one morning just as though noth- ing had happened, and when the Judge demanded an explanation of such mysterious conduct, she refused to give any. In vain Mrs. Wheeler and the young ladies wept and besought her ; she refused, while admitting that the demand was just and reasonable. They 'gave her warning, as the phrase goes, and she was weeping and wringing her little hands when Em Venard happened in. Em hail taken a great fancy to her, before, and when she learned the cause of all this trouble, she stepped forward at once and championed her, taking her directly to her own house, ostensibly as governess for little Charley, but in reality as her own protegee and friend. Miss Wakeh'eld confirmed every word the Wheelers had said of her, and Em says, quite pathetically avowed that she was not her own mistress in that respect, and might commit the same offence rgain. Em neither asked nor wished for any promises nor confess- ions, sensibly declaring that the poor child knew her own business l.cst, and Venard, who is equally independent in his disposition, thought the sime, and outrightly told her so. She has been with t;ie*in now several months, and they both love and respect her. But F!IC never takes either of them into her confidence, and just plods along with that little cub, Charley, who cares no more for ' gamut ' and ' perspective, ' than for the blue-laws and catechism ! The Wheelers had the grace to keep silence over the escapade, though ihat is too harsh a name for it, and she is nearly always invited out with Em and Venard, as she was with the Judge's family ; but she wont often go. Sometimes she does, and then everybody is 154 THE HOUSE nEnrxD THE POPLARS. smitten with her, for which she doesn't in the least seem to care. This is all any one knows about her, and more than any but us could tell." " A most mysterious young lady, truly ! And she makes no more startling disappearances ? " " No : and what is tha most curious of all things connected with her, she hasn't a correspondent in the world, as far as any one can find out : never was known to receive but one letter, and as that one came the very day of her sudden disappearance from the "Wheelers, it increased the mystery." " But did the post-mark afford no clue as to the probable place of her visit ? Singular that one lady should receive a mysterious let- ter which half a dozen couldn't learn all about !" " Of course we all asked everything about it that we could possi- bly tliink of; but the mark was so blurred it was illegible, and even the date -couldn't be distinguished. There'd have been some com- fort in knowing how long it took it to come." " Poor Miss Wakefield ! I wonder if she knows how many pangs of curiosity her affairs have excited. I'd advise her kind friends to tea-kettle nose, or coffee-pot spout, the next one. Better that one letter should suffer, than that the whole sex perish ! Why icill wo- men forever fag and bully each other ?'.' " Some won't, and Em Venard is one of them. She expressed some pretty vigorous sentiments to the Wheelers upon the subject, for which they like her no better to-day." " If Mrs. Venard ever becomes a widow, she shall have the felicity of refusing me ! A woman who scorns an unfair advantage, is en- titled to every legitimate triumph of her sex. And the mysterious young lady will be visible to-morrow evening?" ' Yes, she told me so to-day ; and we are determined to make her sing, too. Everybody is crazy to hear her. You may make up your mind that when you see and hear Leonore Wakefield, you arc for once going to acknowledge my good t:iste and judgment. IJjc- liL-ve Bertram is really sound asleep. What a bl s-ing it is that man has nn amiable wife!'' Li-le bade her good night, and hastened homeward, more inter- ested in the evening topic of conversation than he would have cared to own. Superior as lie believed himself to the petty curiosity of human nature, he did not affect to be beyond its interests ; and this partial insight into a delicate woman's history affected him as no mere recital ever had done before. It might be that the mystery in THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 155 her life which she guarded so faithfully even to the jeopardy of friendship and reputation excited his sympathy more thoroughly than any openly confessed trouble would have done, recalling, as it did, to his mind, the weary years he had borne his own miserable secret which he would have suffered death itself rather than reveal. Here was another life made wretched by a kindred burden, and that life a tender woman's, bound even by her dependent position to sub- mit to prying curiosity, and to yield to, or openly defy, demands for explanation. A man could answer such demands as they deserved ; but a woman, more than that, a young and beautiful one, could offer nothing but tears and protestations, and stagger on amid averted looks or illy-eoncealed sneers, 'as best she might. All that was chivalrous in his soul rose up under this injustice, and he made his way through Mrs. Venard's crowded rooms the follow- ing evening, with a heart throbbing with pity and compassion for one whom he had resolved to befriend by every means within his power. Sufficiently interested in Leonore Wakefield to wish to see her before a formal presentation, he looked round for her. There were a number of new faces present, but not one answering to her description had yet met his gaze, and interrupted as he was at each step of his progress by the greetings of his friends, he was about giving up the search in despair, when Mrs. Bertram touched his arm. "How late you are, Sterling! Can't you be trusted to go any- where at a seasonable hour if left to yourself? One moment more and you would have been too late to hear Miss Wakcfield sing. There is the prelude already. Come." , " I will if you leave a coat on my shoulders to appear in. Don't pinch so ; my arm will be quite black-and-blue to-morrow ; and it isn't polite to crowd one's neighbors so." " Don't spare your neighbors, for they won't spare you. Don't you see you won't get near the piano if you dally along in this way ? There ! Some one has taken the place I had particularly selected for you." "I'm not deaf, I don't know why any 'deacon's bench ' should ba reserved for me. Let us stop here." " Why upon earth didn't you come earlier, so you could have seen her before she is quite monoplized ?'' " Because, oh mortal infirmity I couldn't get my boot on, ! I about concluded I should have to come, at last, like Mother Goose's sou Johu, with a slight difference; one boot off and one boot on, 156 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAR3. &c. They are what you ladies call 'a capital fit,' which means you know what." " Were any one else to heir that, they'd know at once how vain you are. I fancied you had a sanctimonious look to-night, for some reason." " Don't compliment my extremities at the expense of my head, I beg you. If you think me pretty, say so, but don't accuse me of be ng vain." ' You are neither one nor the other. There. Just hear her !" Leaning ngainst the door-case, Lisle commanded a fair view of the la ly at the piano. Prepared as he was to find her beautiful, he had never imagined such grace and swee'tness united with that beauty. lie had expected something rather in the "dashing" style; an air of aplomb, with possibly a tinge of self-satisfaction, despite which he had resolved to like her, knowing that bem ath it all she concealed some sorrow that merited the sympathy of every heart that had like- wise suffered in secret and alone. But the ruling characteristic of Miss Wakefield's beauty was gentleness ; not the insipid, appealing air usually recognized by that term when applied to a pretty womnn, but an indescribable grace detracting nothing from the dignity of her deportment, while it softened the rather striking style of her beauty of face and figure. The face, of the clearest oval contour, aud pale in its complexion, excepting when some ment-il emotion tinged it with a brighter tint, was quite illumined by the large, almond- shaped eyes, dark and soft, and wondrously expressive : and the symmetrical head, adorned only by the waving coils of that magnifi- cent hair, purplish in its very blackness, which Mrs. Bertram had apostrophised, was borne with an air of pride as instinctive aud free from affectation as it was royally beautiful. "Isn't it lovely!" exclaimed Mrs. Bertram as the music ceased. " Yes, she is, exquisitely so," Lisle replied with a sigh. Mrs. Bertram laughed. " Oh, she of course is so. I told you tint before you came. I spoke of her singing, then. Did you hear it, or were you as absent as you yet seem? ' ' I heard it, of course ; but I'll set you an example of frankness. and declare, at once, th;\t I was not thinking of it as much as of her- self. I shall never again fear Jove's thunderbolts, since one of them failed to do duty when I last evening enumerated the charms of the schoolmistress ! I feel as though I ought to ask pardon for it, but I don't know of whom. How insufferable I must be at times !'' THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 157 "Of course; don't I tell you so? And you didn't 'think of tlie singing ' just now, when everybody else was spell-bound ! Her voice is an audible tear ; it is so clear, bright, and liquid ! Yet, I would be willing to give bond^, that if you over hoar her sing a glee with corresponding expression, you'll refer to the pathos just now dis- played, and impatiently assert that it was all acting that musical tones, like popular morals, are assumed ior the occasion, and have no connection with the real character." "Why, yes, I make that assertion in this- moment. He only is th ; true philosopher, who is entertained without being deluded. If one only acts well and in good taste, 'no one should complain, though since it is manifestly but an offering to his gratification. No ono acts the hypocrite for his own satisfaction. Do you see that Miss "VVakeficld has again drawn on her gloves, as a signal that she is now to be entertained ? I wish you would present me." {i l will, though I'm quite uncertain whether she will be enter- tained by you." And seeing that she was, by good fortune, disen- gaged, Mrs. Bertram introduced him with a blended cordiality and playfulness warranted by their mutual intimacy. Lisle smiled at the air with which she complied with his request, while he secretly rejoiced that it was not a formal presentation, placing him socially de combat with one for whom he entertained so much sympathy and admiration. Miss W;ikefield raised her eyes mechanically to his face for an instant, and then bowed formally, without the faintest aifectation of a smile. ' A most serious young lady, upon my word !" thought Lisle a little chagrined at her coolness, as if, in some way, she owed him more cordiality for the many kind thoughts he had bestowed upon her ; but he offered her his arm for a promenade, with as much gen- tlemanly assurance as he could summon under this mental shower- bath, and they moved away amid a throng that were seeking the galleries. A lady by a miss-step tore Miss Wakeh'eld's trailing dress, and as she apologized and passed on, Lisle said laughingly, "You ladies seem to be each others predestined enemies. 'See what a rent the envious lady made,' if you will permit the para- phrase." " I think you judge rather harshly," she replied gently. " Pretty little creature, but not at all brilliant," was Lisle's mental comment ; and he proceeded with laudable perseverance iu his 158 TUB HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAHS. efforts to amuse and interest her, till, quite discouraged by the brevity of her replies, he asked bantering! j, " Have you a gift for silence, Miss Waketield ?" "No, I believe not. I will be unnecessarily frank, and tell you that though not insensible of your efforts in my behalf, I was per- versely and inexcusably preoccupied. Language is not always at one's command." She smiled as she made this unique confession, a sad yet tender smile, that fell upon him like an inspiration; and now quite at case, he said with mock regret, " And all the wisdom I have been uttering his fallen upon unlis- tening ears. Ah me ! Well, I pardon you, unasked. I'm magnani- mous." " Yes, I know you are," she replied earnestly. "Thank you. I am equally pleased and surprised that I have friends who thus recommend me to your favor. I supposed that if you had heard anything regarding me, it had led you to fancy me an ogre." " No ; it is impossible for me to commit such an error. I know you far bettor than you imagine." Lisle bowed, and his eyes asked the question politeness forbade to his lips. She answered it as though he had really spokeu, and with a silvery laugh. " Oh, one cannot express the sentiments you so universally utter, without acquiring some notoriety ; and it might be asserted as a a truth, that the most direct road to a lady's interest, is that of sys- tematic detraction of her sex. Very few of us are superior to the weakness of seeking to make converts particularly of so-called ' women-haters." "But I am not a woman-hater. I believe, in all sincerity, that thiTe are few living beings who more truly sympathize with a woman's existence, cramped and unsatisfactory as it is, than I do. die has a right to laugh at human peccadillos, however manifested ; and if I appear most amused by feminine ones, it is because they are more innocent than those of my own sex. .You are amusing, while we are guilty ; and it is a perverse heart indeed that laughs at guilt. Are you a believer in the philosophy of affinity, Miss Wakefieid?" " Are you quizzing m n , Mr. Sterling ?" "Not in the least ; because I confess 1 am a convert to that science, or instinct for it is both one and the other. I never came in con- tact with a mental antagonist, without receiving a sort of psycho- THE HOUSE BEHIND TIJE POPLARS. 159 logical telegram announcing it, and I never suffered it to pass un- heeded without regretting it. I suppose every one experiences the fame to some extent ; but, unfortunately, the dread of ridicule pre- vents the confession of many singular premonitions which fall little short of the miraculous. Do I seem to you tinctured with German- ism ?'' " Not at all. I suppose no one accepts or rejects acquaintance- ship except in obedience to this law, however unconfessed, or un- recognized even by one's self. But what led you to make such a re- mark just now." " I will tell you when we become better acquainted, if you allow me that privilege." She bowed, and smiled assent, and he added more earnestly, "Please remember that I shall avail myself of your permission. I ask, in good faith, that you will allow me to strive for your friend- ship and good will." - - "It is but a slight gift for the fortunate Mr. Lisle Sterling to chim," she replied with a courtesy whose very pride was a reminder of the difference in their positions in life. He closed his lips more firmly, and offered his arm again to escort her to the parlors; for, tired of the ceaseless promenade, they had lingered by the balustrade. She thought he was offended, and as she placed her hand upon hia arm, she said more gently, " If you indeed care to pursue this acquaintance, I shall be only too happy. " I certainly do ' care,' " he replied, with a lingering pressure of the hand she offered him at parting, as he resigned her to fulfill an engagement with a waiting partner. He lingered some time, but seeing her continually surrounded, and having suddenly discovered that he was tired of remaining, he made his adieux and departed. Mrs. Bertram shook a warning finger at him as he passed her, hat in hanrl, but with a bow of laughing defiance, he passed on. Mr-. Bertram reserved her comments for her husband's ear, and a^ they sat by their own fire while he smoked his good-night cigar, she said : " Sterling seemed quite interested in Miss Wakefield this evening. Did you notice it ? I never saw him so manifestly ' smit- ten,' and it is plain to me that his heart isn't so obdurate for all h's uttered heresies about women. If he has enough talent to fall in love with any woman, it certainly will be Leonore. Wakefield, and I hope it will." " Nonsense, Mattie ! Can't a man admire a pretty woman with- 160 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. out t iking leave of his good sense at once and forever ? I've yet to learn that running away from a party in the middle of the eve- ning, as lie did, is a proof of having been particularly fascinated by some one present. I hope that your good sense will effectually prevent you from any effort at match-m.iking; particularly in this in- stance, where nothing but trouble could ensue from it. Any man who marries Miss Wakefield, with that mystery in her life uncun- fessecl, will be miserable, depend upon it." " And why should it ba unconfessed, as you seem to suppose ? Every woman who loves any man, is only too willing to give him unlimited confidence. That is what makes half the trouble between them. A wife who goes to her husband with every petty difficulty, keeps him in continual hot water, and it is strange if amid his writhings she doesn't get liberally bespattered herself. But don't be uneasy lest I over-exert myself upon Sterling's and Miss Wake- field's account. He is the latt man in Christendom I should ever presume to tamper with, and she is as proud and reserved as she is beautiful. I don't believe she would marry him were he to ask her, for the very reason that the world would say she had ' made a good match.' " " Humph ! I 'd advise him not to risk it. It would prove a sorry day for him and very probably for her, too. I don't know what her story may be.but I've a suspicion that it is one that she will never confess to him, nor to any one else. She has an undisputed right to a secret, or a husband ; they don't go well together, as she'd soon discover." THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 161 CHAPTER XV. I THE next evening Lisle started " to call upon the Venards," as ho stated in reply to Mrs. Bertram's inquiries as to what took him from her house at so early an hour ; for as usual he had called in passing. She at once invited herself to accompany him, insisting that a lady friend was invaluable for filling the chinks and crannies in conver- sation, with some chatty nothing that keeps the whole smooth and complete. He had expected that she would thus volunteer, and he was glad that by doing so she had spared him the necessity for ask- ing her, as, much as he wished for her company, he -did not like to incur the banter he knew she would inflict upon him for insinuating it. She knew, as well as he did, that "the Venards" was only a convenient term including the real attraction that led him thither ; but she considerately refrained from any such insinuation, and only as they stood at the gate while waiting for the bell to be answered, did she mention Miss "Wakefield's name. " Of course Miss Wakefield is included in this call, Sterling. I don't know that she'll come down to the parlors, but she ought, alter having so ungraciously received you last evening ! I felt as though she had dashed cold water on me, when she acknowledged the presentation I had so informally made. What did she say to you, afterward, by way of amendment ?" "I can't recall anything worth repeating. She said nothing but ' yes ' and ' no ' for a while, I remember ; and she seemed so com- pletely abstracted, or pre-occupied, that I was afraid she would for- get even that. Yet I know she can talk, and that very well, if she chooses. It -is a pity such a woman should be a formalist. It seems to me the whole feminine race are on a strife to defeat every- thing nature tries to do for them ! They seem determined to equal- ize matters in some way, so that ugly or pretty, intelligent or vapid, there's little choice between thrin. If Miss Wakefield would really utter one half she looks, she would be irresistible. One lady can always unseal another's lips, and I rely upon you to make your 162 THE HOU81 TTEHIND THE 4 prodigy ' establish somo claim upon all your encomiums. You \vill hardly like to admit that you have mistaken mere stupidity for ' queenly pride,' and all that." " I don't intend to make any such admission. You masculines are reasonable creatures, really ! If a lady doesn't tell you all she knows in five minutes, she is ' stupid ;' if she does, she is ' a shallow cli fitter-box !' You never seem to think there may be any difficulty in knowing just how to address you. Everybody has seen talented women chattering all sorts of nonsense to some man who would have appreciated her natural sound seme, whereas she the next moment squanders that upon some simpleton who is mentally pronouncing her a blue-stocking. If a lady with two atoms of tact, doesn't en- tertain each of you according to his own style, I don't see why she should bear off the palm for ' stupidity.' Who tells you to assume an impervious exterior, and often enough one exactly the opposite of your real selves ?" " Mrs. Bertram, I have at this moment fallen heir to an idea ! Thank you." " Then ring that bell again. Ten to one the old darkey who keeps the key, can't be found. Whoever invented this provocation for gnashing of teeth oufside the gates, ought to be indicted ! I declare, I often start out for a little visit in this way, feeling good- natured and animated to the most liberal extent ; but while waiting, and waiting to be admitted, my spirits sink and die out till I am at last let in in a most depressed and irritable condition, and if I were unmarried, so that I dared not exhibit my ill-temper, I should really turn and fly, in defence of my reputation for amiability." " I never heard that you had any ! It is strange how long one's most intimate friends often remain in ignorance of one's merits and celebrity ! Here comes pur Cerberus in ebony ; so don't make your cntrle this time in a mentally dilapidated condition. I rely upon you to banish the formality of which I feel a dismal foreboding ; for I meekly confess that Miss Wakefield extinguishes all my self-assur- ance and modest originality.' 1 '' " So ; it seems we are two sufferers ! I never suspected 'that you had a'ny' of the last named commodity ! Now do let us be polite be- fore people, or they will begin to think we've no respect for each others mental machinery." Any fears which Lisle might honestly have entertained of a formal visit, were quite put to flight by his first view of the social aspect of the drawing-room, occupied by a full family party of which even THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAKS. 163 Master Charley formed an integral portion. Mr. Venard's father and sister had that day arrived upon a visit from the country, and after the usual presentations, Lisle found himself without any special effort toward that satisfactory consummation, seated upon the sofa occupied by Miss "Wakefield, with only Master Charley sandwiched between them, whose curly little head offered no obstruction in the way of observation or sociability, and she herself, so far from exhibiting any- thing like constraint, or pre-occupation, was cordial and animated, and her usually rather pale face was now flushed upon either cheek with a delicate color that rendered her more perfectly beautiful. Lisle had admired her before; he yielded his undivided homnge now, and was really annoyed when their tete-A-tete was broken in upon by Miss Phebe Venarcl, who drew up her chair with a mani- fest intention of becoming a permanent addition, as she said with a directness characteristic of her, " Now, Mr. Sterling, do say something to gratify my curiosity con- cerning you. They say you are very peculiar in your ideas upon must subjects, and strikingly original and independent in your ex- pression of them. I dp so admire originality and independence ! don't you ?'' Lisle bowed with as much gravity as politeness demanded, nnd Miss Wakefield turned upon him a glance full of suppressed mirth, under which his usual quickness and tact quite deserted him. ' To whom am I indebted for so favorable a judgment ?" he asked with a feeling of secret satisfaction that so far as one brief sentence could impeach the veracity of the testimony, he had succeeded in doing so, since ninety-nine persons in a hundred would have uttered the same to all effect. " Oh, everybody, for that matter, including Miss Wakefield her- self." Lisle returned the glance he had but the previous instant re- ceived, accompanying it with a salutation of mock reverence, under which she colored visibly, despite the frankness with which she turned toward Miss Venarcl. " Now, Miss Phebe, do confess that whatever you might have un- derstood me as meaning to express, I did not say just that." " Oh, of course one is not expected to repeat such things just lit- erally, but I recollect you quite agreed with sister Em when she said something like it, and that you added that 'he is magnanimous as ' something, I forget what as you are so particular about the ex- act words. Don't you remember that Em asked you how upon 164 THE HOUSE BEniXD TIIE POPLARS. earth you made such a discovery in one short evening, when she thought him an absolute cynic after all the time she bad known him?" Master Charley had manifested a growing uneasiness under his own conversational inaction, which here defied ail farther restraint ; and suddenly elevating himself to a more satisfactory position, he said sturdily, with a warning finger raised towards his young aunt, " Come, now, aunt Phcbe ; if you're to tell_tales on everybody eke, just tell what you said. Don't shirk it oft", now !'' " Hush. Charley. ' Little boys should be seen and not heard.' It is bad enough that they should have ears ; but they never must have tongues," and Miss Phebe threw into a warning g'ance the irritabili- ty she contrived to banish from her tone. Charley caught it, and hesitated. Lisle extended a shining " quarter," and patting his curly head, said encouragingly, t; Here, Charley, if it is worth more, just name your price. Let us have Miss Phebe's remark with the rest." Charley pressed the quarter with a cordial palm, and stimulated by its comforting contact, braved the gathering displeasure. " She said she was just out of an engagement, au.l you were exact- ly the style of man she wanted for the next one, because, she sai 1, it was so nice to just wind around her finger a man everybody else was afraid of, and so nice to marry rich ! Yes, you did, aunt Phebe ; I heard you." " I'm your debtor for another quarter, Charley. That is too cheap at one." Miss Venard flushed up angrily, and after an instant's unsuccessful struggle to get the better of it. she gave expression to her choler. "Well, I must say, Mr. Sterling, that you are ' peculiar' enough, if your idea of politeness is consistent with hiring little boys to tell tales out of the family. If I couldn't find out what people said and thought about me without stooping to that, I'd remain in blissful ignorance. You are as vain as you are malicious. Th> " I believe I am : thank you. Does your vacation occur so early in the season, and if so. will you remain here long enough to allow me to retrieve myself in your estimation ?'' " Thank you : I'm not just from school, though you choose to in- sinuate it," and she wheeled back her chair and walked away i nantly. Amused though disapproving, Miss T7akefield toyed with her THE HOUSE BEHIND TUB POPLARS. 165 watch chain without once lifting her eyes. A moment's silence suc- ceeded Miss Phebe's retreat, and then Lisle said deprecatingly, " You think me a savage, Miss Wakefleld, I have no doubt- Granted, but with the addenda that I know better, if I don't always practise it. But do tell me what one is to do when one is offered the actual premium for successful torment which Miss Venard holds out. Besides, you will admit that she received as much consideration and mercy as she bestowed upon others." " If none of us ever received more than we bestow, this would be a most uncharitable world. We are all of us too apt to choose the lesser blessing of receiving; particularly where charity and loving kindness are involved." " One has the ' inward and spiritual grace ' to extend loving kind- ness only to a certain class of unpretty doers." She made no reply save what was involuntarily written on her softly serious face ; and, really wishing her to speak it, Lisle said so. " Thank you. I have no gift for lecturing," she replied with a smihj. " In which very assertion, permit me to say. you utter the strongest proof to the contrary. One who distrusts his own talent in any par- ticular field, is little apt to overdo the matter, which is the one error to be avoided in this species of lecturing. I rather pride myself upon my candor ; so I will admit that enjoying another's discomfiture h a most abominable revelation of character and disposition. I haven't even sprouted for a saint ; and I don't repent and sin no more, from a deadly fear that I should be a loser by 'the exchange. Before one turns from the errors of his ways, if he has a turn for calculation, he will seriously question whether he derives more hap- piness from his sins than he could do from the contemplated virtues. Being good must have its rewards, or so many sensible people wouldn't be so ; but in a business point of view, it isn't well to sac- riiice a known advantage to a problematical gain. Did you really pronounce me ' magnanimous,' and if so, may I ask upon what you based such a supposition ?" " Oh fie, to beg for a sugar-plum after such a naughty speech as that ! Did I not know that you are not one-half as bad as your declarations would stamp you, I would not admit that I did say so, and add, as I do, that it is not a mere ' supposition.' 1 " " I must then believe that you are an equal believer with myself" in the correctness of impressions. You may recollect that we were speaking upon them last evening. Sometime, not yet, I am going 106 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. to accuse you of having conceived a most unflattering one of me when I received the honor of a presentation to you." " I deny the accusation at once and forever." " Indifference, if not dislike, spoke in your every gesture." " Oh, Mr. Sterling ! how unjustly we comment upon the actions of others ! I had long before last night received my impressions of you, and I tell you, truly, that if I appeared taciturn and frigid, it was the sincerest compliment I could have bestowed upon you." ''Thank you; but don't punish me with any more of a similar kind. I'm not equal to a just appreciation of that school of flattery. 1 shall value all manifestations of your good opinion of me more highly than I can express." " Do not flatter me, Mr. Sterling, I beg. One expects such lan- guage from so-called ' ladies' men ;' but one hopes for other things from those whose honest opinions and sentiments are more highly prized than any fictitious ones could be." There was an unmistakable air of frankness and sincerity in tho utterance of these words, that placed them far above the category of mere compliment ; and Lisle bowed for once in sincere acknowl- edgment. Miss Venard again approached them, having conquered her former indignation, and feeling that she owed an apology for the hasty words she had spoken under its influence. She was not so really ill-tempered as she was hasty; and with a good-humored laugh she addressed her late adversary, " I excuse your insinuation that I am a mere ill-bred school-girl, without asking you to offer any apology for having provoked me into such an exhibition of temper ; but weren't you taught to make suitable amends without waiting for them to be demanded ? Don't they teach magnanimity at college ?'' " I don't know ; J never was in college. My mental training was received from a private tutor whose ruling characteristic was not of the brotherly-love and golden-rule school. I believe I owe you an apology, and I'd make it, forthwith, were I not morally certain I should have to repeat the process indefinitely. When one is so well aware of one's short comings, it is dangerous and inconvenient to es- tablish a precedent to which one is forever after expected to adhere. Don't look so serious, Miss Wakefield. Do I speak too lightly of such very weighty matters ?'' The unexpected address roused her with a little start from a brief but absorbing reverie, and, slightly confused, she said, THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAK3. 167 "I beg your pardon, Mr. Sterling. Were you again nominating me to your evidently vacant censorship ?" " Yes, if you thus choose to define it." " I beg leave to decline it. I have no ambition to 4 set up in life ' as an ogress. If, as I believe, Miss Venard makes you sincere over- tures of peace, I do not see how you can well refuse to accept them; but if there really exists any insuperable objections, my advice would be as ineffectual as misplaced." " Oh, I have accepted them ; that is not the question as issue. You have evidently repeated the style of compliment I begged to be excused from receiving henceforth. The query is, do I owe Miss Venard an apology." " Decidedly yes, or you will win no laurels for generosity." "Please consider it made, Miss Venard. Charley, isn't Miss Wakefield very strict and cross, generally ?" " Yes, she scolds me like everthing sometimes. I wish you could hear her once!" " I wish I could, but as young ladies never scold in the presence of gentlemen, just tell me how she does it. What does she say when she is cross ?" " Oh, she puts her hands up to her temples, so, and draws down her mouth as if it was cram-full of miseries, and kind of whines out 4 Oh, Charley, do be good and pay attention now ! I'm so miserable, and I want to get these lessons out of the way ;' and then when I dig into 'em and get all through, she just leads me out and then locks the door behind me for ever so long, and won't come down to dinner nor anything, and sometimes I hear her just cry and cry ! she's BO mad about something." The relation was not as amusing as it promised to have been, and Miss Wakefield's face paled and flushed as she nervously clutched Charley's little hand with her own trembling one, in a mute appeal for silence. Pained by the revelation of stiffering his bantering had evoked, Lisle cast one pitying glance upon her half-averted face, and hailed as a god-send Miss Venard's next question, which she had been deliberating in perfect unconsciousness of this little scene and its embarrassing dknmiement. 44 Mr. Sterling, what is the cost of a good, comfortable coffin ? Not something handsome, like that a gentleman gets for his first wife ; but a plain one say a mother's-in law, for instance." 4 * It depends very much upon circumstances. Demand and supply would have something to do with the question ; and the 168 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. place in which it was ordered ; in fact, many things render youi question difficult to answer." " Now that's just like a man's answer ; always so wrapped up in generalities or exceptions, that there's no satisfaction to be gotten fruin it. It is important that I should know, for a reason which I may sometime tell you. I don't want to over-estimate the reasona : ble cost of the article, as it is to be bought upon subscription, and it wouldn't look well to seem grasping and ambitious." | " It takes no more time to ask for a pound than a penny, and from a certain class one is even more apt to receive it. I will sub- scribe very cheerfully, if it is an object of such interest to you." " Oh, you don't understand, of course ; so in return for your kind offer, I'll take you into confidence at once. I'm writing a book ; and my hero, who is very poor, is obliged to bury his own dead mother by contribution. It will tell well if the details are nicely setfo:th." " Accept my best wishes for your success. May I ask when you intend to publish ?" said Lisle, with most becoming gravity. " I can't exactly say. I am already in correspondence upon the subject ; but it seems to be a trick with publishers to decline, and decline, till an author is so discouraged and broken-spirited that he will sell his copyright for most anything, and thank Heaven he has at last received an offer for it. Don't you think genius and talent are very poorly rewarded, Mr. Sterling ?'' "I believe that is the individual complaint of at least one-half the wotld. Your opinion is doubtlessly quite correct ; but allow me to hope that your own may prove an exception to the general rule." " Thank you. You can render yourself quite agreeable when you choose, I perceive,' 1 said Miss Phebe, entirely mollified by his seem- ing courtesy. Miss Wakefteld raised her eyes with a deprecating expression; for her tender henrt shrank from anything like practising upon an- other's credulity, however flattering might be the manner that con- cealed it from its victim. She knew that Lisle had no respect for Miss Venard's shallow intellect, that he was no believer in the genius she assumed to possess; and she could not attribute solely to a spirit of kindness the flattering remarks which had afforded their recipi- ent such entire satisfaction. Again Lisle met her reproving glance ; and, inconsistent as he knew it to be, it increased his admiration and respect for her. He had resolved to win her confidence so far as doing so would enable TUB HOUSJi BEHIND THE POPLARS. 169 him more fully to befriend her in her need of protection and trust- ing kindness under any and all emergencies ; he had felt that he was the stronger and more fortunate of the two, but already the spirit in which he had made this resolve was changed. It no longer depended for its vitality upon a sentiment of un- mixed compassion for all who suffered under a heavy if invisible bur- den of woe ; but a thorough respect, mingled with a more tender and intense pity for one so gentle and wom-mly, who yet struggled under a burden doubly heavy from its attendant humiliations, forced upon him the consciousness that henceforth his" mission of mercy and sympathy could claim no credft for personal disinterestedness. It was Leonore Wukefield he would serve not merely the suffering woman. Thus far, as if by common consent, they had been left almost un- interrupted in their tete-d-tete, Miss Venard being the only one who had disturbed it ; but Miss Wakefield was now urged to the piano, and yielding to his own consciousness of propriety under the cir- cumstances, Lisle made no move to accompany her, leaving the office of page turner to whoever might choose to fill it, while he drew near that little circle by the fire. Mrs. Venard and Mrs. Bertram were holding a confidential conversation in a tone too low to disturb those who listened more attentively to the music ; and Lisle, who was nearest them, caught only now and then a word. They were speaking of Miss Wakefield, for Mrs. Bertram exclaimed, sotto voce, " How magnificently she does play ! Do you suppose it possible that she is some prima donna, incognito ?" " Impossible. She hasn't the manner. It is more probable that she is some once fine lady, reduced to support herself by turning her accomplishments to a practical account ; but she never utters one sentence upon which to base any tangible suspicion, and it would be a strange person who could presume to ask her a direct question upon the subject. Even Phebe will hardly venture that. It is seldom one sees so much gentleness blended with such perfect eelf-reliance and reticence. Charley hangs around her unceasingly, and very few young ladies would feel the interest in him she does. She seems fond of children, yet is as judicious with him as any mother could be." " Don't you fancy Sterling is not a little captivated ?" "I don't know. He is such a Mephistopheles, and no ladies' man." " That is just tho point upon which I base my suspicions." Were 170 THE HOUSE BEB1UD THE TOPLAUS. he a ladies' man, a manifest interest would be significant of noth- ing ; and as to MephLstophelisin, a good wife would soon cure him of all that." " Well, this would be a good match, certainly, in all that goes to constitute really good matches, whatever the world might say of it. However, it 13 all nonsense to discuss it, as only this morning she said very seriou?ly that she should never many ; that she had &een so many unhappy marriages that nothing could induce her to run the risk of adding another to the list." " Wait till she falls in love with some one. No young lady in such a mental state ever thought that she could be running any ^uch risk. I dou't wish any one any evil ; but if they two ever will marry any one, I hope it will be each other. Does your husband administer you a matrimonial 'snub' when you canvass matrimonial possibilities '?" "I don't remember that I ever did so in his hearing. There are some things that should never be mentioned in the presence of any masculine, and this is undeniably the chief unmentionable among them. Is Sterling fastidious in such matters 1" " Not a d >ubt of it. He entertains some strange ideas connected with it, though. For instance, he declares that had he a wife who would under any circumstances deceive him, even in a trifle, he should lose his respect for her, even if he brought himself ever to for- give her. " The music had ceased while Mrs. Bercrain was speaking, and the sentence that would otherwise hnve been inaudible to any one save hiT to whom it was addressed, was overheard byalL Mrs. Bertram laughed. ' Yes. Sterling, I admit that I am detected in the very impolite net of diseasing my friends in their very presence my only excuse being that I fe;t assured they would never know it. But since I am thus far humiliated, do confers that what I accused you of is every w>>rd true." 1 Most willingly, and I hereby reassert that very harsh declara- tion. Women can never understand the perfect dread men have of domestic intrigue in any degree." " And men can never understand the impracticability, if not utter impossibility, of the implicit confidence they ex-'ct as an ir.alien-tblo right ; while, to make mutters still worse, they are painfully prono to see mountains in the veriest molehills upon the domestic territory. A natural desire to spare him annoyance a little feeling of pride THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS; 171 which leads one to shrink from making some humiliating revelation perfectly unimportant in itself these and many kindred reasons for silence are quite ignored, and we are expected to make sacrifices that not one man among you all, could or would offer towards this beautiful so called ' confidence.' " " With all due respect for your creed, allow me to suggest that much which passes in this world for reason, is only sophistry a sort of soothing balm for an unwilling mind and the mountains to which you allude, are lcs.i frequently evoked from the metaphorical molehills themselves, than from the screen by which you attempt to conceal their existence. If a husband feels that his own wife stoops to petty trickery against him, where under Heaven is lie to expect faith and companionship ?" Miss Wakefield looked up as if surprised at Ms earnestness, as in. deed were all, little suspecting the bitter school in which he had so early learned to hate nn I despise woman's treachery. How cou.d they know that his own mother had, for him, cast over her whole sex a pall of aching doubt and suspicion, which had never yet been lifted, perhaps never could be torn wholly away. Miss Vcnard petu- lantly exclaimed, "Bless us and save us ! how many wives must you have had, that you seem to have suffered the whole catalogue of misery ?" "Probably the whole number destined for me," he replied cour- teously. Mrs. Venard said, more seriously, " If you every do marry, your wife will be a most perfect, or moit miserable woman. Very few could every attain your standard." " Any wife I may ever have, will be fully apprised of my peculiar theory if it is peculiar after which I shall be hers as she shall ds- cLlc. I could overlook almost any secret in the past, even if uncon- fcs5ed ; but one existing in the very present, necessitating daily trickery and deception bordering upon actual falsehood, shutting in the best part of life by an ever visible barrier against which a hus- band's heart an 1 brain beat themselves to death, purgatory itself can offer nothing equal to it !" - Mr. Venard came to the rescue of the ladies, who were silenced by Lislc's exhibition of feeling. "Don't be unreasonable in your de- mands upon the sex, Sterling. We all know that a man's brain, wracked with business cares, and preoccupied to positive surliness, ia not a gracious receptacle for a woman's ' confidences,' usually necessitated by her own errors in judgment, as she knows well 172 THE IIOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. enough, before we so assure her. When we have committed an, error, we go to work to rectify it as silently as may be ; and when we have succeeded, not the least part of our satisfaction arises from the Jact that no one else knew anything of it. I don't think that husbands, as a class, at all over-rate their wives' soundness of judg- ment, and they are excusable for believing that next not to having done an ill-judged thing, is its happy concealment. Marry a good, f sensible woman, Sterling, and you'll soon be more liberal in your creed. The happiest couple I ever knew was one in which the wegre'.ting that they had followed in the maternal wake, even while resols'ing anew to endure no farther molestation from them, Lisle dismissed them from his thoughts, and gradually becoming interested in the play, f^-lt his spirits revive correspondingly. Determined that nothing should occur to disturb the pleasant condition of mind in which he found himself at the close of the per- formance, he went directly home and to sleep, unheeding the pat- tering rain that still beat its tattoo monotonously. But one busy day intervened before the evening when Miss "NVakefield had sig- ninVd that his visit would be received; and, as it drew near, he w; s more curious to know the re-ison for his temporary banishment, than eiger for any chnrm the visit might contain in itself. It was useless to ascribe it to any affectation, since she was utterly free from anything at all resembling it; and satisfied that she was really presen' under the Venards' roof, which he h:id at first doubted, he repaired th: re at the time appointed, resolved to cl dm an explana- tion, which might very possibly reveal some unpleasant circum- stances within his power to remove, as it might be his duty. He was shown at once into the parlor, and M,-s "Wnkefield ad- vanced to receive him. lie had hoped, and some way fully ex- pected, to meet her al<~>nc, knowing as she must that her singular conduct demnnde 1 at least a p pn-svnr, with every iiviicition of intending to remain so, while Charley dM not once resign ids station at her side. Both Lisle and Miss AVakefield were too well-bred to di>pl:iy the restraint each felt, and totally unconscious of the mental atmosphere by which she was surrounded, Miss Phebe di-couri> d in her usual strain, quite mo- THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 179 nopolizing the conversation. Her usual absorbing topic soon ban- ished all others, and she asked, abruptly, "What is a good business for a genteel young man, Mr. Sterling ?" "Ten thousand dollars a year net proceeds, according to my esti- mation, though the never satisfied might demand more." " No, I don't mean in that sense ; I mean as an occupation in life." " Being an official on the raging canal. I recollect that was my first ambition in life. Say an officer in the cavalry department of it ; duties easy, only to follow the tow-path." "But that is horribly vulgar; a canal driver! I should be ashamed to put such a hero in my book ; I want for him some busi- ness in which he will come in contact with good society that shall refine and elevate him ; for, being poor, he is to be a self-made man." 'Oh, I see. Well, I should think the profession of street boot- blacking would be about it; brings its professor into the very closest contact with the very elite of business society, where he may at any moment be elevated for an unlucky rap on a sensitive member. Not much capital required only blacking and a brush, and a pair of willing elbows." " Of all the hateful, provoking specimens of masculinity that I ever saw !" began the young lady indignantly ; and fired by a sud- den remembrance, Master Charley exclaimed, " There you go again, Aunt Phebe ! and it was only the other day grandpa gave you a good one about your temper. He says he'll give fifty thousand dollars to any man that will marry and live with you, for he's tired out, and pa says " Whatever revelation of paternal sentiment might have been made, was prevented by the irate descent made upon him, and his being borne off in a gale, with Mi?s Phebe at the helm. " Thank Heaven for all blessings ! I thought she'd never leave 1" ejaculated Lisle as the door closed upon her exit ; and moving his chair so that he faced h ; s companion, he said abruptly, " Now, Miss WakefieM, in the name of our compact I demand an explanation of my temporary bandishment. I flattered myself that I had found one woman above the caprices of her sex ; yet one? happy evening she enters into a compact of friendship with me, and having authorized my visits, upon the very next occasion absents herself without word or sign. Magnanimously assuming one-half the blame, I call again, inquiring for her alone, and being refused, resolve to avoid all chance of mistake, and so write, that my sentence of banishment may proceed from hrr own lips if no other answer be 180 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. vouchsafed. I receive 1 it, but marvel of marvels coupled with a promised restoration to her grace, in time, which I await, and am at last once more permitted to approach her, secure behind such forti- fications as she can erect around her from the material of a small boy with capacious ears, and his attention-absorbing aunt! In the name of all that is reasonable, you owe me an explanation !" " Do you think so ?" she asked pensively. The tone, or manner in which she asked the question, jarred upon a sensitive nerve, and he replied bitterly, " It is most unreasonable that I should ' think so,' no doubt. I should know, as well as another, that friendship, however true and sublime, is too worthless a bauble for one to stoop to gather up in the rush of life ! What matters it though one offers as a free gift all that he feels is truest and best within his soul ! Souls are at best but problematical, doubtlessly mere myths, and if a man who should know better, goes into heroics over such an offering, it is right enough that his altar should perish and bury all beneath its ruins ! I have not often thus egotistically erred, Miss Wakefield, nor shall I soon again." " Stop, Mr. Sterling ; for Heaven's sake, stop ! You are unjust and ungenerous!" " Do you really think so ? Well, then I obey. But at least, you owe me frankness. Whatever may be the unwelcome truth, you will never know any one who will face it so unshrinkingly. I will speak it for you. You think that you entered into our league with- out due deliberation ; that in the sympathy of the moment, you ad- mitted to a too intimate relationship one of whom you know too little one who seems to you, in cooler moments, cynical, if not wholly given over to all unamiable heresies. I do confess that I am unfortunate in the phraseolgy which seems to indicate my nal character ; and it was this very knowledge that gave me so sincere a pleasure in our friendship, since I, too, sometimes dream of one kindred spirit that will not always misunderstand and judge I ho inner spirit by the surface indications. I am not all harsh and colil, though God only knows how I have escaped becoming so. I know that 1 have a heart as true and generous as ever beat, and that one w!>A bdicvcii in and relied upon it would find it faithful unto cloath. L'.'onore Wakefield, you are throwing away a better, truer friend than you ever had or will have in this selfish world!" " No, uo, you arc wrong, all wrong ! It is not yon whom I baa* ish from me, but myself whom I would if I could withdraw from THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 181 you. Yon do not know, you never can know, what your friendship is to me ; and if I voluntarily resign it, it is the most unselfish act of my life. What your regard would be to me, mine never could be to you, and the more sincere you were, the more you would suffer. My miserable life casts its shadow upon all who care for me, and I have no right or with to suffer it to lull upon you of all the world- You I would preserve from it ; and from the world, I have no right to expect anything." " Why no right ?" " Because I cannot or, if you choose will not accept it. The world is one's very good friend, when fortune smiles ; one's phari- saicul exhorter under temporary affliction, but one's tormentor when it fancies itself entitled to explanations and apologies. If I owe it nothing, I shall never feel humbled at any inability to pay." i( You speak in enigmas, Miss Wakefield. Pardon me if I ask how my own private regards are linked with the caprices and self-inter- cs's of the world at large. Will you make a personal application of your remarks, since I confess that I have neither consideration nor i espect for the code of the world in general." " Yes. I mean that one person has no right to accept the tender regard of another except in an equal spirit of confidence and frank- ness. I will accept nothing under false pretences, and I tell you again, that ours would be a compact in which you had everything to bestow and nothing to receive. Even as my most cherished friend I could not give you that confidence to which the name would entitle you, and you would, mentally, if not audibly, taunt me with having given you only the shadow where you had a right lo expect the substance/' " And you really believe that my friendship might become a thraldom from which you would pine to escape ; a source of annoy- ance unbearable ? Oh Leonore Wakefield !'* "Yes, though it is too harshly worded. I tell you there is inter- woven with my very life a humiliating secret with which I will suf- fer no one to become acquainted while I have power to prevent it. It is not a tale of crime, not a story of horror to make young eyes dilate with fear; better could I tell it if it were, since there are tilings too humiliating to speak of one's self! This much I confess. to you ; more I never can." " Then, Leonore, let me tell you that because I knew something of this, I first felt that my friendship mi'^ht be a not unwelcome offering. I know that you need friends who will naver doubt nor question you, 182 THE HOUSE BEHIND 1H3 TOPL.'. V.3. and were I not assured that such a friendship I can offer you, I never should have breathed it, since I am not prone to make such offering?. Had I the power, as I have the wish to shield and protect you, I should not for on - moment admit your right to cast mo off; but do not, in the name of justice, dread me as a persecutor." "What, and how much, do you know of me V "Too little to be worth repeating, merely what is known to a fow in your immediate circle ; but I, like them, know that whatever may- be the blight upon your life, it is linked with no unworthincss in you, and that however inexplicable to others your conduct may f omc- times appear, it springs from some all-sufficient reason of which you alone should be the ju'lge. Do you still distrust and reject me? "What can I say more than that I believe in you implicity, t mt I e?- teem you above all the women I have ever met, and that, come what may, I will never fail you if you once honor me with your friend- ship. Command me in all things. I will obey you blindly if thus I ain permitted to serve you !" He extended his hand toward her in earnest of his proffer. She clasped it in both her own, and bent her forehead upon it to conceal the tears that filled her eyes under his generosity and earnestness, and if, as she had said, lie of all others should not be admitted to tho companionship he asked, she was powerless to refuse him longer. The barrier she had interp sed between them w:is broken down by the deep feeling his words aroused, and Lisle felt that this new com. pact was thus sealed forever. Once having yielded, whether in accordance with, or against her own judgment, Miss Wakefield affected no reserve ; claimed his services whenever she found them convenient, received him with a frankness and cordiality of manner at which others marvelled silently even while they rejoiced, and rarely refused to join in any amusement of which he was the projector. She brightened into new life and animation under this change in her life, and her former pensiveness gave place to a piquancy and sparkling vivs city of manner of which she herself seemed quite unconscious, as well as of the surprise it awakened in those around her to whom she had heretofore seemed a cold, incomprehensible being, in whom every natural impulse had been prematurely strangled to death. If friends bring happiness, happiness certainly brings apparent friends ; and many who before had indifferently pronounced her " a splendid woman," now discovered her to be a very attraciive one. Lisle had given her his friendship and vowed himself to her service in a spirit THE HOUSE BEIIIXD TUB POPLARS. 183 of pure disinterestedness ; but lie soon, discovered that lie was the one chiefly benefited, since her presence supplied the attraction heretofore lacking in his social life, and added a zest to each arnu^e- mcnt in which she particip ited. It might have been but a just re- ward ; but he felt that it made him a debtor where he had aspired to something nobler, and that he admired where he had only wished 10 protect. Meanwhile, the visit of Mr. Venarcl and Miss Phebe, extended lar beyond the original intention, drew to a close, and Miss Phel e packed up her still unfinished manuscript, with few thanks for th : many suggestions with which Lisle had favored her, though sh : made a visible effort to leave in pe ice, which included even him. "You have be, n as provoking as po-sible, you know you have!'' she asserted, in extenuation of her nvmy outbreaks upon him ; " but I want you to understand that'/am magnanimous enough to be for- giving. When I become a famous authoress, you'll wish you had helped me when you might have done so as well as not ; but I shall send you a copy of my book, to let you see that I succeeded with- out you. I suppose you will be married by that time ; and I'm sure I wish you all happiness. Miss Waketield isn't such a frump as I used to think her, after all ; and though she hasn't as much money as I have or shall have, it's all the same I suppose she will make you just as good a wife." " You are quite mistaken in supposing that I am matrimonia'ly inclined, nor have I the least idea that Miss Wakefield would many me if I asked her to do so, which, thank Hearen, I am too sincerely her friend to be guilty of." " Nonsense ! Everybody knows how such friendships end. If a young gentleman were to ask me to be his friend, I'd say yes, or no, at oiiee, feeling that I was answering the real question under cover ; nothing more or less. Talk about Miss Wakerield not marrying you; she'd doit quickly enough, I know. Every woman loves to make a good match; and much as she is inclined to ' queen it ' over ordinary mortals, she doesn't try it over you. I wish you would tul of you come up to Niagara next summer. I'm going to stay there all summer, and it will be strange enough if my fifty thousan I dollars don't help me to a nice husband ! I wish I'd some one there to tell people I'm to have that amount. It doesn't sound well from one's sol*." ! "Thank you; but if I can't serve you in that way, just put np some posters, which will do as well. I've no doubt you will be sue* 184 THE HOUSE BEHIND TIIE POPLARS. cessful, for there are more men in this age who want money even with a wile, than those who want a wife without money." 'Do you really think so? Well, that's encouraging, anyway, thank you ; so ju-t try and forgive my sometimes rather vigorous expressions of sentiment towards you, won't you ?" " With all my heart, s-ince I always enjoyed the blessed conscious- ness tk;it they were deserved ; but Miss Phebe, take my advice and novcr allow yourself to be provoked by any man till you are fairly] married to him. Natural exhibitions of temper are getting to be a. perfect drug in tlie matrimonial market." " ' Matrimonial market !' " " Certainly. Doesn't every young lady take herself to market just as unmistakably as those old women you can see any morning driving their snub-nosed horses into town, take their loads of veg- etables ? The only difference lies iu their wares, and in the style of vehicle. Go to market with a sweet temper, and some money, and you'll be bargained for at once. Let me know what price you bring; and good-bye," and they parted with more good will than might have been anticipated from their many skirmishes. Occasional letters from old Mr. Sterling kept Lisle informed of (he fetv changes taking place in his native town; but as " postage came very dear," according to the old man's complaint, these un- scholarly, but kindly written epi~tles, appeared only at long inter- vals, always ending in a sorb of addeua written in Mrs. Sterling's cramped and wiry-looking chirography, consisting of that curious j irgon of parrot-phrased piety and exhortation so common in the messages of the old to the young, and from which Lisle turned with a thrill of disgust. This woman, who had never addivssed him one word of real kindness, never bestowed any attention upon his "per- ishable body," except in the way of blows and puni-hmcnts, now as-ured him that he had been " the child of many prayers and sac- rifices," and exhorted him till it seemed as if she must fancy that the sins of the parent would be visited upon the child, in accord- since with the old ortho iox creed not in this world alone but in the one to come. Lisle felt that in this world lie had already ex- pert need the curse, and had she meant it in this sens?, he would have received it as it merited. Mr. Sterling wrote that her health seemed failing, and that she was "flighty like in h: r mind, often talking strange and onaccountable ;" andLisl) shrunk Uh a, real dread from what she might thus at any hour roveal. 7 shameful THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAKS. ' 185 secret concealed from all suspicion for so many years, might even yet escape her, and hunt him to his grave with that unjust and cruel stigma which attaches to such unfortunates as he ! The half-laid shadows of the past sprang into life again under the sudden fe ir, and his life seemed a nightmare of evil forebodings never to be stilled. He paced the floor in bitterness of soul as he thought of the wretched past, the uncertain present. Was his whole life to be but one long curse for the sins of another ? Could he have felt that he was the offspring of an ill-starred love, pity for his mother's suffer- ings would have deadened the sting of his own ; but too well he knew that selfish calculation stood sponsor at his birth, and that both he and his dead father had been hated as only a baffled, un- principled woman can hate with a malice whose very pettiness rendered it the more fiendish ! There was not one redeeming fea- ture iu the wholo miserable story, to render it pardonable ! Supposing that all should be reavealed by her own lips, would it be credited ? Here at least was one foundation upon which to build a hope. Doctor Kelley's venerated name might prove invulnerable against a half-demented old woman's babbling ; and she herself had been so well respected, that her own words might not be taken in evidence against herself. It vs a hope that had never dawned upon his mind before, and Lisle clung to it till it gained sufficient force to banish the dread that had seized upon him with renewed vitality. At all events, if worse came to worst, the world was large. Should a too well founded rumor reach him here, he could leave, and no one would suffer but himself. The hope that the evil might pass by him, had already made him strong to face its possible coming ; and banishing the shadows from his mind, he burned the disturbing letter, and resolved no more to endure the pains of apprehension, often more severe than any which the reality erer inflicts. 186 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. CHAPTER XVH. LISLE had left the office earlier than usual one day, resolving to dine early, and spend a long social evening with the Venard?, at whose house be was now a daily visitor upon one pretence or an- other. Having made known his wish to M; s. Perkins, whom he in- attentively observed to be in some evident trouble, as she usually wai since her marriage with the unprofitable Joe, be stayed for no ex- planations regarding the present calamity und.r which she was laboring, but went at once to bis room to prepare for dinner. Su 1- denly over-riding his soft whistling as he proceeded with his toilet, he hcurd Mrs. Bertram's voice impatiently calling to him from the stair ase. " "What will your ladyship ?" he asked opening the door, :hrough who^e crack the sound of an industrFous brush reached her ears. " Do come down, Sterling. Be quick ; I've something to tell you." "I shall be at your service in three seconds, ma'am, if you can survive that length of time with something on your mind." It proved a long three seconds, and he saw that she thought so, when at last he descended to the parlor which she was excitedly pacing to and fro. "What is it, Mrs. Bertram? has cook run away with the spoons, or coachee hitched the near horse on the off side, or " "Do hush! I tell you it is no laughing matter! Oh, it is too bad, just as we were all so hopeful it might not happen again ! The- truth is" " Bless us, there are murdered chickens in the last purchase of ' new laid eggs !' I was afraid of it, so late in the spring ! Cruel !*' " Sterling, Leonore "Wakefk-ld is mis?ing !" "Since when is she astray or stolen? 1 ' " How can you laugh ? Since last night, I suppose, though she was not missed till this morning. Not appearing at breakfast, a servant was sent to her door, and receiving no answer, opened it. THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 187 The room was vacant, the bed had not been Decupled through the night ; in short, she was gone, without a word left for any one, unless you were so favored, which your manner leads me to believe." "No. This is the first intimation I have received that Miss Wakefield lias seen fit to act upon her own discretion, without sub- mitting the affair to a grand jury of her friends and acquaintance ! Unexampled temerity ! Shocking manifestation of independence !" "But you must know such conduct has a very mysterious ap- pearance !" 11 Were I to leave upon equally brief that is to say, no notice would you fear my little instinct was to be eternally lost, in conse- quence ?" " But you are a man. The case would be entirely different. She will be talked about, and that not gently." " And is it so very awful to be ' talked about ?' I thought ladies liked it, since they one and all aim at making a sensation. I never once dreamed that ' modest violet ' was their role !" " You might have been married for years, by the way you thrust and parry with such spiteful weapons ; yet had you a wife, your very liberal creed for women would soon come down to the every day code, and you too, would cry 'a woman's reputation is her life!"' The world fancies itself entitled to an explanation of every step a woman takes ; and to ignore that claim, false as it may be, is to incur its frowns and severest censure. At most any other time this freak of hers might be concealed by a little polite fibbing, &c. ; but Em's cards are already half out for Wednesday evening's social, and no amount of conscience racking could cover her non-appearance." " Do, with your usual and very lovely frankness, confess that your deep regard for public opinion upon this momentous occasion is much intensified by wounded amour propre, and that both you and Mrs. Venard think you should have been taken into Miss Wakefield's confidence, however uncommunicative she chose to be towards others." " Something like it I do confess, though not in so mean a spirit. 1 said that she might have mentioned to one of us that she was go- ing away for as long a time as she purposed, that we might be en- abled to say when she was to return, in case we were questioned with politely phrased curiosity; and Em replied 'nonsense; we'll tell them, at once, that it is nobody's business,' which I've no doubt she would, as she is one of those peculiar few who can say such things and feel the better for it. 1 ' 188 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPI.ARS. " Bare type of womanhood ! But what, then, was her qualifying " Of course there was one, sneerer ; but it was a more charitable one than you would ever imagine. Em said she felt sure that Miss Wakefiekl has magnified some unpleasant trifle into a real evil that will kill her if she goes on in this way ; but if there is any real necessity for her presence anywhere, she ought, injustice to herself and her friends, and to you, to surround herself with such defences as she can by letting it seem that she makes no effort at secrecy. Em has an idea that one who could surprise Miss Wakefield by a knowl- edge of her secret, would prove an invaluable friend to her, as she might gladly avail herself of some assistance not involving any ex- planations upon her part ; and I fancy she thinks she has found some clue to it, already." " Of all varieties of so called friendship, officious friendship is the least endurable ! As though any one were ever gratified by another's discove*y of what one strove to conceal ! I gave Mi s. Venard credit for better judgment, and I shall tell her so. No man would suffer such interference with his own private affairs, and would be very- liable to administer a good dose of kicks to whoever thus merited it. I would like to know who fiist discovered that men and women were so differently constituted that what is unbearable by the one should be rather agreeable t j the other ! It is not beautifully con- sistent with the creed that women are delicate and sensitive in the proportion of six to one. All thanks to a merciful Creator who made me not a woman '" " Lisle Sterling, you talk beautifully now. But tell me ; if Leo- nore Wakefield were your wife, what would you do under circum- stances like the present." " Thrash into his senses any man who dared to look his commiser- ation for me, or his curiosity relative to her." " Then marry her and do so. There will be ample opportunity, if she cannot be prevailed upon to change such mysterious deport- ment. What can be answered when she is missed and inquired for Wednesday evening ?" "Any answer will do if it be promptly given. Hesitate, and you kill her. Go to Mrs. Yenard and agree upon something no matter what and then teil it boldly. Should she return before then, as she very probably will, you will be spared one stretch of conscience, which it is to be hoped will be put down to your credit when your Great Book account is balanced." THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 189 " How quickly your mind does work ! Why, of course the first thing Em and I decided upon, was a story to fit the necessity. You stop just where we began." " Very naturally. The first thing a woman exclaims, is ' what Avill people say !' while every man knows that the world lias many topics of more engrossing interest than some poor woman's merits and demerits. Let me assure you that the great world has some- thing to do besides to wait on a corner with its hands in if s pockets, hazarding conjectures on the passers-by. 'Jog along, keep moving,' is the real ' psalm of life ;' and when many a rascal goes unwhipped because justice is too busy to attend to him, the feminine fraternity have little to fear outside their own class and clique. Pity they don't know it !" " I insist that three-quarters of all the gossip is kept alive by your LCX." " Who is in the advance, goading us on with whip and spur ? Wives and sisters, and, worse yet than they mothers ! Forever comes the feminine taunt, ' suppose it were me ! Your sympathy is all for others,' till a man is frantic enough to cry out anything de- sired of him. You are nearer perfection than most of your sex ; yefc you won't deny that you lay awake nights to think up new persecu- tions for that dashing Mrs. Poineroy, of whom you were so jealous last winter." " ' Jealous !" No I wasn't ! but no woman is delighted to see an. other practising humbug over her husband. Mrs. Pomeroy, having been relieved of her own husband by a wisely discriminating provi- dence, had no other occupation than making raids upon other peo- ple's, which she did in accordance with a woman's tactics, looking out the weak points in the matrimonial constitution, and then as- suming to be so perfect just where the wife fails ! Women read that trick in each other quickly enough, and it doesn't tend to promote sisterly love. Bertram is snubby enough around home, you know ; yet he played the gallant to that woman all winter long, in a manner that would have made him a household delight, had lie let his light so shine ; and she seemed to know it all, as well as I could tell her I couldn't endure her that's the whole of it." Lisle laughed as he applauded her eloquence ; and as the percep- tion dawned upon her that he had called out her tirade for his own amusement, she colored, but joined in the laugh as she said with up- lifted finger, < " Wait till you catch some masculine practising his fascinations 190 TUE HOUSE BEHIND TUB POPLARS. against your peace of mind ! You'll find tlicn, that it is an inspiring topic. I'm going home now ; your dinner is ready, and the Infant's face is one red catalogue of domestic calamity. Adi"U." And Mrs. Bertram returned home considerably relieved in her own mind by the equanimity with which Lisle had received her startling announcement, while he, far more pained and surprised than he had allowed himself to appear, went mechanically out to dinner, hi a fit of abstraction through which he noted nothing [around him till Mrs. Perkins' voice arrested his steps as he was leaving the room. "If you plea?e, Mr. Sterling, being a; I'm thit troubled in my mind as is dbcoinfor table and hard to be borne, would you be kind enough to a.lvise a lone woman which has no one else to depend on 1 Being as I've taken a partner which is unprofitable to him- self, which likewise he is to me, please Go-1 ; which his advice is rather a damage than anything better to them which take it, I make so bold as to trouble you. Which the fact is, Melissy is come a hankering arouud me, and Billy likewise, a threatening to take to no end of evil ways if something is not done to encourage them ; which it's scant enough of encouragement I have to offer to anybody, being that I'm that put to it in my own mind, what with an un- profitable partner and all !'' ' Where are they, and what doing 1 Has Bill any work V " Nothing more than of stuffing himself, which it is likely even that will soon see an end for lack of supplies, being as the'r money is all run out, and the landlord of the Dolphin which it is there they stop has pounced down on their luggage and given them notice to quit; and at this blessed minute Melissy i-s a-crying of herself out on the back gallery and begging you'll give her a word of advice, sir." " I made her such a donation somj3 time ago. But what do the miserable couple want 1 Work V " Strange if they do. I never knew either of them to have such a hankering." " Well; to live they must work. I will have neither of them around me, but I will secure employment for Bill once more, for your comfort, after which he must procee-1 upon his own responsi- bility, and I advise you to let him and Joseph see as little of each other as possible. You will pardon me for saying that I fear Joseph is not incorruptible." Mrs. Perkins leant back in her chair and fanned herself excitedly, THE HOUSE BEHIXD THE POPLAIIS. 191 for a moment, while making an effort to restrain her complaint, which at last escaped her, despite the struggle. " He's vexatious indeed, is Joseph ! What with filching every- thing he can touch finger to, what with never making his accounts come straight if he but buy a picayune's worth which I can't send him to buy a paper of needles but he gets it divided so as he can make a speculation of half the cost, an 1 likewise pins the same and what with being beknownst to his hugging the cook behind the pantry door, I'm a sorrowful and beworried woman! Drew wasn't an angel by any manner of means, which I told him maybo oftener than was just good for him but his very badnesses were far better than Joseph's virtues, which if he has any I don't know it, but quite to the contrairywise. It's a grievous dose of matermony to come upon a respectable woman as has done her duty so many years to them as is dead and them as is likewise living !" " I am seriously of the opinion, Mrs. Perkins, that most people find matrimony a prefty ; grievous dose,' whether or not they con- fess it, and the wonder is that the warning is not more effectual! I see no way in which I can afford you any relief, unless indeed I turn, off cook and supply her place with an ugly old woman, or a mascu- line." " Which I shall take it very kind of you, and thank you too.'' L14o smiled his comment, as Joseph Perkins' ungainly figure rose mentally before him, but sincerely compassionating his Jaithful housekeeper's troubles, he gave her money to redeem the effects seized upon by the young people's landlord, renewing his promise to secure employment for Bill, and if possible for Melissa, and gave the rather pretty cook warning at once. The little incident had temporarily banished his own anxiety; but it returned with renewed force as he went out for the first moment alone tincd the startling intelligence had been given him. Perfectly as he was aware of these events in Leouore Wakefield's life, frankly as she had warned him that she could not explain her conduct to him nor to anyone, this singular deportment exercised upon him all the effect of an un- pleasant surprise ; and, quite losing the social enthusiasm which had led him to plan the evening's entertainment, he betook himself' to the upper gallery in a most unenviable stato of mind. The next dny passed without any intelligence ol the missing one; and culling upon the Venards in the evening Lisle found them in a state of mingled anxiety and vexation, which Mrs. Venard made no effort to conceal from him, protesting that at any other time it would 192 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. have been no one's business, nor should she for one monvnt havo considered it hers ; but the next evening was the one appointed for her grand party, and committed by the invitations issued before Leonore's departure, she could by no possibility postpone it, nor re- sent the inquiries so natural under the circumstances. " Leonore would become the object of remark among all their circle, and those detestable Wheelers would triumph over her so provokingly ! They had played the Pharisee toward the poor child for much less than this, since they were in no condition to suffer annoyance upon her account, and at that time she was too little known to become the subject of much remark under any circumstances. Now it was very different, 1 ' Mrs. Yenard declared; "nor could she imagine how Miss Wakefield's affairs could in any way be connected with such a vaga- bond." "What vagabond?" Lisle asked. " Oh, don't you know about it ? Then I may as well tell the whole story, since you are her friend no less than we. It was during the twilight, Monday evening, when we were all sauntering around the yard, that, speaking to Miss Wakefleld under the impression that she was close beside me, and receiving no reply, I turned to look for her. She could not long have left me; for I saw her just as she reached the gate where a letter was handed her which she slipped hastily into her pocket, not without glancing over her shoulder to see if she were observed. There was nothing mysterious in the mere fact of her receiving a letter outside of the ordinary channel, nor should I have given it a second thought, but for the appearance of the man who brought it. He was a coarse, rough looking fellow, in a battered wool hat, which may sometime have been white and presentable, but was certainly quite the reverse then ; and his gray clothes were not only dirty, but ragged. I don't know whether she hurried him off, or he had the sense to go, himself; but he did not stop a second, in all, and was away so soon that I really stopped and questioned whether I had seen any one at the gate excepting Miss Wakefield herself, who remained there for fully five minutes, looking out as if into the street. Of course I avoided every appearance of having seen anything which it was intended I should not see, and after An interval she went up to her own room. I suppose I must have looked the indescribable things I felt; for Vetiard laughed Avhen I joined him by the steps, and exclaimed, 'well, what of it!' which is just what I should like to know. He had seen the same performance I witnessed, though he conducted himself with equal THE HOUSE BEHIND THB POPLARS. 193 propriety, which I rather wonder at, as, usual'y when he \vishes to sec anything, he looks at it, and that with sufficient directness." "Of course. Where's the sense in playing hypocrite and pretend- ing you don't see things, when you do and mean to ! The poor girl was embarrassed, however she strove to conceal it ; and having seen all there was to be seen, I had no call to seem to triumph in it," ex- plained Mr. Vennrd in self-defence. r fn>in the firmament. " What if she should never come back ?'' What indeed I And if she were to came what then ? Lisle stopped and looked his own life in the face. What right had he to love any woman, with one thought of mak- ing her l.is wife ! He wh.> had not even a name to give her, upon whose very life the upliitud threatening hand of relentless fate might at any hour descend, crushing to dust the last remnant of his man- hood's pride and dignity. While his mother lived, he had not one moment's security against an exposure that he felt would crush him doubly were another involved in the disgrace, and that other a woman whom he pitted as sincerely as he loved. Leonore Wake- field had in her own life as great a trouble as she could bear, with- ou: assuming any portion of .-i nother s, nor could he even appeal to her generosity to do so ! Dishonorable as he felt it would be to ask her to become his wife with such a story unrevealed to her, confess it he never could to mortal ear. He could die as he was doomed to live in solitary isolation from all that makes life beautiful or even endurable, with a wealth of tenderest L>ve and pily forever s alcd up in the heart a misjudging world would condemn as cold and mis- anthropic. Was not everything surrounding him unreal a stupen- dous fraud upon society? The very fortune for which many bowed down and courted him, was like the iest. a mistake. The "Lisle Sterling " named in his uncle's will, h-xd no exiitt-nce, while in his place stood a Lisle Kettey whom nobody knew, as was most fortu- nate for him ! Supposing that, thus accursed, he should stifle the voice of honor, and win the woman he loved for his wife. Would not his whole future life pay the penalty, as with shrinking dread he received each cardess word as a bar' cd arrow of reproach ? Would not his days and nights be haunted by the ceaseless dread of this shameful revel- ation he \v;;s too weak because too proud to make ? He shivered at the mint-il question ; but having definitely decided it, the fact rc- I ubsti.ui'.e against his will, persistently tugging at his heart s: rings: better than life better than, his own honor he lored Leo-ore Wakefield ! THE IIOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 195 He did not argue that she was mysterious and unknown, to him as to all others cared not a rush that the bu*y world might criti- ci e her as it would be madness to a proud, man that wife of his sh >uld be criticised asked not if it were pride or necessity that scaled her lips and placed a guard over every action. It was into his own life and soul he looked, of himself alone that he asked one question how much short of positive crime would it be for him to man y this woman could he win her ? if, indeed, she had not gone from him forever even now ! Perhaps in this very way chance had decided the question, and the fierce content he waged against him- self was as vain as the efforts he mule to still it. It seemed to him but little less than mockery to join in the fes- tivity at Mrs. Venard's while such a pall hung heavily over his heart; but social duty, joined with a feverish restlessness and im- patience, urged him forward, and he entered the well-filled parlor scarcely later than he was accustomed to appear elsewhere upon similar occasions. Almost the first words which fell upon his ear as he awaited his turn to pay his addresses to h : s hostess, were those which inquired for Miss Wakefield, whose absence had thus far been easily concealed ; and he watched Mrs. Venard with a latent mis- giving which the next instant proved groundless, as she turned very composedly toward the inquirer and replied, " I regret your disappointment, and my own is equally sincere. Miss Wakefield was suddenly summoned, several days since, to the bedside of a sick mother, and it is uncertain when she may return, if at all." If those who overheard this reply mentally commented that this was the first time they had ever heard that Miss Wakefield had a mother, politeness re-strained any exhibition of surprise, and, as Lisle had prophesied, no one appeared to think that anything un- usual had occurred. Mrs. Wheeler indeed, turned a curious glance upon Mrs. Vennrd when the intelligence reached her ; but that lady's iinpurtability under it, revealed nothing not even her im- patience under the silent taunt which thus repaid the indignant words she had uttered when she took Miss Wakefield to her own hoa.-e. The ktest guest had at length been duly received, and, fatigued by so long and arduous a ceremony, Mrs. Venard had taken a seat m ar the door, when a message was whispered her by a servant ; and rising she immediately left the room. Lisle, who watched her covertly with an expectancy for which he felt that he h:id very little 196 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. reason at this late hour, saw her ascend the stairs, but so calmly that he based no new hope upon the action, nor gave it a second thought. Having passed from the sight of her guests, Mrs. Venard's tranquillity gave place to the intensest eagerness, and flyiug along the upper hall she reached Leouore Wakefiold's door, upon which she first impatiently rapped, and then opened it and rushed in un- ceremoniously. " Leonore Wakefield !" " Mrs. Venard." She stood in the centre of the room, wrapped in her cloak, and with her bonnet unremoved from her head which was deprecatingly bowed, though she oifered no word in her own defence. Mrs. Venard seized upon her wrappings with a hasty hand and tossed them in a pile upon the bed. as she exclaimed, " For pity's sake don't stand there, since you have come only at the eleventh hour ! make Justine dress you as quickly as possible, and hurry down stairs. Everybody is asking for you," and as she spoke Mrs. Venard pulled the bell-cord vigorously. Leonore made one step forward, then stopped, and asked with tearful eyes, " Do you truly thus welcome me back ?" "Why not, you foolish child ! Did you think me a second Mrs. Wheeler ? In the name of justice and common sense, what right have I or any one else to assume to be your keeper ? Leonore Wake- field, do see and feel that I am your friend." Leonore threw her arms impetuously around Mrs. Venard, and kissed her again and again, while her own eyes were streaming with tears of love and gratitude. " God bless you, dear Mrs. Vcnard ! You must feel and know that I am not the graceless creature I seem. Would to heaven that I could explain all to you ! but my pride is greater than my strength, and I cannot, connot ! I am unfortunate, miserable, but nothing woise, God knows ! : ' " Poor child ! There, be still. Bathe your face till you banish its flush, and call back its smile?. You will need all your self posses- sion, despite what I can do to aid you. Here is Justine, in whose hands I shall leave you. Come in, Justine ; your young mistress has returned. Help her to dress as quickly as possible; do you hear'r" When Mrs. Venaid re-entered the purler, Lisle chanced to be standing near the door; and as she passed him she whispered quickly, THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 197 ' Leonore has corae." He felt actually giddy from the surge of blood which the suddenly bounding heart forced into his brain, and the glad surprise held him for an instant spell-bound. Turning towards him as she gained the opposite end of the room, Mrs. Venard marked the effect of this intelligence, and like a flash the whole truth dawned upon her. There was no time, now, to pass even a mental comment upon the fact as it stood revealed to her. The first duty was quietly to circulate the fact of Miss Wakefield's return, and announce her forthcoming appearance ; and this she did at once. In their own circle Miss Wakefield was known only as a lady and a rare musician ; and as " Mis. Venard's friend," the fact that she maintained herself by the exercise of her wondrous musical genius, was a matter of no importance even to the most exclusive, while this very accomplishment secured her the fullest amount of admiration and appreciation. She entered the rooms, at last, beautiful and calm as ever, with- out one trace of her late emotion visible upon the fair, pale face, or in the lustrous dark eyes, which, like her lips, smiled her acknowl- edgment of the many congratulations she received. Only one passed belle ventured a politely concealed "thrust as Miss Wakefield greeted her. " May I inquire where you left your mother, Miss Wakefield ?' "Oh, horrors!" exclaimed Mrs. Venard mentally. "I never thought to tell Miss Wakefield what excuse we made for her ab-' sence !" She was, then, intensely relieved by the perfect self-pos- session with which Leonore replied without one trace of anything like surprise at the unexpected question, whose cause she at once divined instinctively. "Certainly, thank you. She is once more around her room, though I fear she will for some time be confined to it," and, with a bow, she passed on, serene and undisturbed as ever. Lisle approached and offered her his arm, and as she placed her little gloved hand upon it and passed on with him, he pressed it im- pulsively upon his heart as one who thus claimed what he had re- solved to possess. She raised her eyes to his face, and the glance that answered her own told her as plainly as words could have done, all that she had become to him. A spasm of actual pain crossed her face a laint index of the aching heart whose every beat was unmixed agony ! " You are distraite, fair Leonore," ho said bantcringly, as an abso- 193 THE TTOUSE BEIIIXD THE POPLARS. lute silence rcigtied between them after that brief glance. "May T ask an explanation of this dire-presaging silence ?" ' Yes, some other time. Are you going to reproach me as a false, unsatisfactory sort of friend, as I prophesied?" " No, I cannot, for I have ceased to think of you as my friend. Oh, Leonore, Leonore, give me some right to tell you what I must and will. If you do not speak it I shall assume it, though in pen- ance; you banish me from your sight foivvcr after.'' " Beware of appropriating what does not belong to you 1" she cautioned him with an effort towards playfulness, which the per- ceptible paling of her ever clear cheek painfully exposed. " That was a lesson of my early youth, which, among others, I nm resolved to forget. It would be well for some of us could we rub out the entire page of these early lessons, even though some good thus perish with much evil. In my youth I learned to dis- trust everything and everybody. I have unlearned that lesson, Leonore." They had wandered out upon the veranda, and stood now near a trellised vine, through which tlie starlight fell upon them dimly. She could not read the expression of his face, but there was a new tone in his voice which emphasized his words strangely, and, at a loss for a reply, she stood silently awaiting what was to follow. " Leonore, is it possible for a woman to be faithful and true ? I am dreaming it for the fir^t time the very first." " Be my friend as you have been, and you shall see. Only remain my friend" It was perhaps only fancy that imparted a deeper meaning to these words ; but they fell as the knell of hope upon his heart, and before he recovered from them, voices were heard demanding Miss Wakefield, whose musical ovations were solicited. They went for- ward, and Lisle resigned her, while her last words still rang in his ears and afterward haunted his sleepless hours. How could he for one moment have fancied any barrier should separate them, save that of her own will ? he asked himself in contempt for his own former arguments. Had not every living being a right to seek hap- piness, and win it if possible ? '' Let those who have wilfully in- curred disgrace, bow their necks to the yoke of merited punishment. I have not, and I will not suffer voluntary penance for the sins of others, so help me heaven !" A new resolve had strengthened in his soul, born of that sense of innate justice implanted in every human breast THE TIOTTSK ?.TCTTTXT> TH's r^T'T.ATtR. 109 CHAPTER XVIH. IF the hours succeeding immediately upon Leonore Wakefield's r. - turn were passed by Lisle in unabated mental conflict, they were fraught with agony to her; and, unlike him, she was far from con- quering a peace. The sleepless, tortured night, left her ill and mis- erable ; and when, shutting out the morning light by which falling curtains, she paced her chamber to and fro, her hands fiercely clasped behind her, and her head bent upon her breast over thick floated dark and heavy the masses of her disheveled hair, it was evident in her whole appearance, as well as in the impatient manner with which from time to time she dashed aside the scalding tears from her flushed face, that she was racked by one of those fierce rebellious which at times convulse every suffering soul ; rebellions in which the stung and tortured spirit turns and looks its author in the face, upbraiding him ior the cruel curse of its creation. To endure, to suffer brief words for such an eternity of aching misery ! a fearful lease of that lifo whose every hour is a history of suffering and decay uncheered by one real joy worth the having lived to experience ! one linked chain of pain and mental torture, over which pride wreaths the concealing lips, and which actual false- hood scarce cloaks from prying eyes! Who or whatever possessed the right to inflict existence at such a price ! The flimsy veil of orthodox sophistry is rent to atoms and trodden in the dust, iu these fearful convulsions through which the writhing soul will be heard. Gentle and yielding as Leonore "Wakefield peculiarly was, by na- ture, in this tempestuous hour she seemed transformed into a tortured Pythoness. . Calling back the course of years which formed her lifo, each one of them rose before her wrapped in its own peculiar bitterness an vnloved childhood, an unguided youth, an isolated womanhood! Such was the retrospect that led her to the miserable present. A generor.s, fruitful harvest of wrongs and mi fortunes oppressing her like actual sins, was all these weary years seemed to have yielded her. 200 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. How long was all this to endure ? Was a brighter day never to dawn upon her ? Did not the power that called her into being owe her some atonement for the merciless act? or in thiatlife of suffering, would the maddened soul at last lose its claim even to eternal peace when its earthly race was doae ! Torn and wrung till many a blas- phemous seam marred its beauty, would it perhaps be refused a mooring when this tempest-sought haven at last lay fair and balmy before its longing gaze ? Fitting, if fearful end, to such a career as human life ! Contemptuous, withering whispers, that left their impress in the swelling veins that rose and fell with every bitter heart-throb, and Bpoke again in the deafening surge that beat upon her brain ! She heard a rap upon her door, but gave no answer, nor for a mo- ment stayed her steps. It was repeated, and then Mrs. Venard's voice called in alarm, " Leonore Wakefield, what is the matter ? For pity's sake, let me in." " Wait one moment,'' she replied ; and, schooled by long self-dis- cipline, Leonore forced the quivering features into peace, pressed back the angry lit'etide from her swollen temples, and standing mute one instant as if imposing the power of her will over the weak phys- ical frame, she turned the key and admitted Mrs. Veiiard, who looked upon her for one instant in a startled silence, and then wldle tears welled up into her usually keen and penetrating eyes, asked tenderly, " Leonore, dear child, is there nothing I can do for you ?*' " Nothing at all, thank you ; unless, indeed, you will accommodate me with about six feet of eartli and a green covering." "Leonore, you are miserable, wretched ! Do not add bitterness to that. Why won't you let me be your friend and comforter !" " Do not distress yourself, my kindest, my best of friends. Let me work out my retribut.on in my own way, should such a thing be in the keeping of time. Were I to accept a comforter at the price it would cost me, 1 should wither and die ! In utter silence lies my only strength. Leave me that, and so prove yourself my friend. My burdens would not be lightened by imposing them upon you, or any one ; but quite the reverse." " I know one who would give much for the right to alleviate them. I refused to have this card sent up to you, declaring that you had remained invisible to all since last night; but I could not resist tho pleading eyes with which he still extended it, and as I would not have you intruded upon by a servant, I brought it myself." THE HOUSE BEHIND TIIE POPLARS. 201 Leonore received the card, though it needed no glance to assure her Hint " Lisle Sterling" was the name engraved upon it. " I am not fit to see any one to-day. Will you be kind enough to tell him ' ' Impossible write it," interrupted Mrs. Venard. *' No. I have changed my mind. I will see him," and she rang f>r Justine while hastily gathering up her hair to be bound in its usual classic style. \ Mrs. Venard lui't her, and sensibly leaving the drawing-room when she had announced the success of her mission, she soou afterward heard Leonore enter it and close the door. Lisle stood gazing out of the window, with his arms folded be- hind him, but ha turned as Leonore entered, and, reading at a glance that she had passed through some storm which yet was scarcely stilled, he clasped both her hands within his own and bent a searching yet unutterably tender look upon her face. She did not turn it from him, but her eyes drooped while a steady flush crept by degrees up to her very forehead ; and filled with tenderest compassion, he led her to a sofa and seated himself beside her. Still clasping her hands, he raised them to his lips in a man- ner more pitying than loverlike, then said softly, " Leonore, you seem even more unhappy than I am. Is it so ?" ' "I am more utterly and completely wretched than you can be ! You are not bowed to tho very dust by a burden you can no more cast off than you can look up under. 1 have no right even to friend- ship, since I cannot openly and frankly receive it, feeling that I am upon equal terms with those who offer it." " Nor can I, Leonore. Your right in this respect is equal to my own. Here, at leust, we can sympathize with and understand each other." "You?" she asked wonderingly. "It seems to me that if any mortal ever was truly blessed and fortunate, you are so.'' ' You know how little one can judge from externals. Leonore, I nm not accustomed to enlarge upon my own private affairs, you will bear me witness; but I came to you to-day expressly to egotize, and I now frankly and truthfully confess to you that I am a species of vagabond in the polite and fastidious world ; that I am an impostor, though God knows a guiltless one that a cloud hangs over my life from whose shadow I may never escape ; and which for year* ren- dered ino misanthropical and distrustful towards all living beings. My first lesson in life was one of suspicion and distrust, and I have, 202 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. perhaps, no right to offer a heart thus early warped and distorted, to any woman whom the sun shines on. More than this, I can never explain to you or any one. Were you fortunate and happy, as you deserve to be, I should not say to you what I now do ; but, situated a> you are, rny love cannot prove a misfortune to you, since I can and will protect you from much which now oppresses you, and whatever I cannot offer you, I can and do offer tne sincerest and entire affec- tion of a heart that never before beat one throb the faster for any living woman. We have each a sorrow which we claim the right to preserve inviolate. Respect mine, as I most faithfully will respect yours ; and give me the right to shield and protect, as I love you. Leonore, can you, will you accept as a husband such a man as you now know me to be ?" "I cannot, I cannot. You do not know what you ask, you would not ask it if you did." "Do you. then, pronounce me quite unworthy ?" " No, no. It is I who am unworthy. Were I to become your wife, you would hate me irhould you ever know all which I know !'' " Then may I never learn it. Enough for me that I know you pure and good, that I trust you as I never dreamed I could trust any one, that without you my life is worthless ! Whatever may be the sorrow you conceal from me, if I ever so far forget my manhood as to persecute you upon account of it, remind me that I now and here assumed the full and entire responsibility of its concealment, and shame me for practising toward another the injustice I would not endure myself. Take me upon your own terms, Leonore. I consent to any.'' " Do not torture me. This ia utterly impossible, and you must not, for your own sake, urge it." ' Tell me, then, that you do not love me ; and I cease forever." lae wi.s silent, and the hands she had withdrawn from his clasp trembled visibly. " Leonore !" She turned impulsively toward him, and exclaimed, " I do love you ! I will not deny it." " Then why do you banish me ?" " Your own lips pronounced that sentence months ago." " Mine ? Then they spoke what my heart and soul protest against." "Were any other than you to sp >ak those words, if I loved him I f-hould yield. But to you, of all the world, I cannot. As my friend, you will remain unchanged by any revelations; I believe it. But as N THE HOUSE BEHIND TUB POPLARS. 203 my husbind, were I to marry you against the voice of my own con- science, you might one day reproach me in a way that would over- whelm me with shame and despair. The very presence of a secret between us would embitter your life, and your faith and trust in me would suffer ceaseless martyrdom. If it is ever to be, it cannot ba now." " Then you do give me a hope that in time you will revoke thia morning's decision ?" " Perhaps. It is possible, but most improbable." " Then upon that possibility I anchor my hope. Meantime that I patiently wait, promise me that if you in any way need the services or protection of one who only asks to bestow them, you will claim them of me as you would were you in reality my wife. Promise me this, sacredly." " I do. I will." " One thing more, dear Leonore. If the time ever comes when you feel, that, despite this day's decision, you will be happier as my wife, freer under my roof than another's, tell me so without one mo- ment's false delicacy. Will you ?" She raised her eyes filled with tears, but smiling through them, .and Lisle clasped her impetuously to his breast. " There, Leonore, you are the firt woman I have ever kissed save filially, nn 1 you shall be the last." She raised her hands towards him as she said fervently, "If to be your wife in thi-5 world incurred purgatory in the next, I would cheerfully suffer it !" He reimpiisoned them as he answered smiling and hopefully, "My wif- you certainly will be ; it is only a question of time ; and my effort shall be that you suffer not purgatory here, as well as in the future ! It were extortion to impose double rates.' 1 " Oh do not speak so confidently ; you make me fear I have done wrongly to offer any hope for the future. Remember I have prom- ised nothing all is dark and uncertain. Remember it may never be !" " Did you fancy I could forget ? Much as there is which I long to h ar you say, what you have spoken, despite its attendant discour- agements, has marie me happy, and in this I may rejoice, even while I remember that there are more people who love and never marry each other, than tho-e who, marrying, do so because they love. In this world where so many affairs go perversely wrong, lie only is a philosopher, who, from the least wrong extracts the most enjoy- COi TUB HOUSE BEHIND THE TOPI-AUS. lilt 'lit. My life has not been so overflowing with happiness that I tan throw away what is vouchsafed me, because it is all too meagre lo satisfy my demands. Come, Leonore; let us emulatt; Macbeth, and throw care to the dogs. Care makes men mad and women old." An hour after, as Mrs. Venard met Leonore upon the way to her room, the changed aspect of her face and demeanor prompted her to extend her hand with a smile of congratulation. Leonore raised her own in deprecation, and while the old expres- sion came back over her features, she said in a voice of self-reproach, " Of all the weak acts I ever committed, I have to-day done the very worst, since I have, under an irresistible impulse, held out a hope which I can never realize never /" and without waiting for a reply, she passed quickly up to her room and closed the door. In the evening Lisle called to attend Mrs. Bertram to the play, as usual, when she wished to attend ; and to his surprise she herself ad- mitted him into the hall, llis surprise at her unusual punctuality was quickly dissipated, as with a meaning smile she said, " Yes, for once I am ready. You see I would not lose one mo- ment before offering my felicitations, and I hope you will for once admit that my promptness is not ill timed." " I never thought you so malicious !" " What upon earth do you mean ! ' Malicious ' I ?" " Sarcastic, then, if the word please you better. Yours is a novel reception of ' a rejected.' Many such would quite overwhelm me." " ' Eejected !' Do you mean to tell me that Leonore Wakefield has refused you ?" " She displayed exactly that good sense." " Astonishing !" " The only thing astonishing to me is, how you became so well- informed upon the subject as you were. You shall tell me as we go, as there is no time to lose before the curtain rises." Once in the carriage, Mrs. Bertram laughed. "You wonder how I gained my information, do you ? Well, I had half of it last night, as I saw you when you met Leonore, and on your whole face was written ' 111 certainly propose before another sun go^s down !' and if I hadn't seen that, I should have known it all as you passed my house this morning on your way to the Venaids. There was a whole Solomon's song in the very tie of your cravat. ' I charge you, oh, daughters, &c., if you see my beloved,' &c., and so on. Thero THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 205 never was a plainer shadow of forthcoming events cast over any mortal man's face !" "Not to mention that Mrs. Venard dropped in to see you in a neighborly way as early as practicable, eh ?" Mrs. Bertram laughed a confession of such an event, and then added with a little manifest pique, "It is a singular sort of affair, I must admit, that thus leads both Em and me to such false conclusions. One might have known that you couldn't and wouldn't do anything like other people ; and the only hope is, that in Leonore Wakefield you've found your match." " I wish she would think so I" said he lugubriously. "I'm not punning. If you will stickle for perfect elegance of ex- pression despite one's righteous indignation under such provoking circumstances, correct the sentence, and admit that in Miss Wake- field you have found some one as eccentric and utterly unaccounta- ble ns yourself. What upon earth could have led her to refuse you y " I don't exactly know ; but I'm shrewdly suspicious that sho didn't wish to marry me /" " Provoking fellow ; I really thought you were going to say something ! but as you didn't, I will. I think that any woman who ever married any man who could jest over her having refused him, would come to untimely grief!" " Make a memorandum for your own future guidance. Bertram is looking rather poorly of late !" " Sterling, you meant to disturb my amiable temper by that sage remark ; but upon the contrary, it soothed my ruffled feelings, and in proof of it, I'm going to announce to you, in strict confidence, that any women who has a sufficient quantity of ' treasures upon earth ' to support her in comfort, had better defy ' rust and moths,' and trust in oxalic acid and camphor-gum, instead of marrying any man ! Matrimony, for a woman who has nothing in her own right, is a sort of genteel, licensed beggary ; and one who has enough, is better off without it. Were my husband's wife to peram- bulate the streets of this fastidious city as she walks through his house, she would be arrested as a vagrant. ' No visible means of support' isn't put down against a marital pensioner; that's the only difference." " ' Soothing reflection !' to be Pecksniffian in my remark. Let me tell you it is something to possess an acknowledged license to beg and pirate. Now don't spoil your amiable expression of counte- 206 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE FOFJ-ALiS. nance just as we are at the door. The rage for ; spirited women ' has gone by." The curtaiu had just risen as they entered, and Mrs. Bertram forgot her trifling vexation till at the end of the first act it returned with an accession, and turning toward Lisle she said, " I'm getting disgusted with plays. The most popular ones seem revised editions and imitations of ' Taming the Shrew,' and one grows as much disgusted with the masculine applause which at- tends this wonderful exhibition of married authority and household snubbing in general, as with the unnatural feminine meekness ex- hibited on the stage only .'" " Poor creature ! losing all the bright illusions of youth, and a positive monomaniac upon the subject of snubbing! ' S:c a wife as Wille had,' &c. I'm afraid Bertram will never look less poorly !'' " Oh, do hush ! Do you suppose one is never serious? I'm cross as a bear now, and I forbid you to speak again tj-night." Quite forgetting this injunction, she turned again to ask some question after a long silence had restored her good nature ; but im- plicitly obeying her comman 1, Lisle would not unseal his lips, and at the close of the play escorted her home in the same unbroken si- lence. Bowing her in at her own door, he received a parting thrust. "You are a most unbearably provoking fellow, and I give you fair warning that another time I won't be made a scapegoat for your ill humor ! If you must abuse some one's wife, I'm sorry it can't be your own, I'm sure ; but I won't be made to suffer in her stead." Lisle laughed unrestrainedly; but really feeling that for his own amusement he carried the affair too far, he offered a sincere apology which she interrupted by a curt " good night," and passed along the hall. There was a light in her room, by which her husband lay read- ing ; and she interrupted him at once. "What do you think ! Leonore Wakefield has refused to marry Lisle Sterling. 1 ' Mr. Bertram laid aside his book and deliberately lighted a cigar, having achieved which, he made an eloquent remark. ''Humph /" " No ' humph ' about it. She has done a most surprising thing, and a foolish one, as it seems to me. Sterling isn't a domestic angel, I grant, as I've sufficient reason to know ; but he is a good match, and she ought to know it. However else is she to get out of her half governess sort of life for which she 13 about as well fitted by nature as Queen Titania." THE HOUSE BEHIND THE TOFLABS. . 207 ' Mr. Bertram puffed bis cigar in silence, and she continued, " Now I suppose we are at the end of our pleasant little gather- ings. No more cozy family ' at homes ' with Leonore's pretty lace mid delicious music as an attraction, and ten to one Sterling will leave the city, or at least stop visiting at the Venards." " If he does either, he isn't the nvm I think him,'' Mr. Bertram re- plied, deliberately and carefully closing one eye against the little edily of smoke curling up towards it. "Why upon earth an able- bodied man should show the white feather, and run, just because a woman happens to say no instead of yes to a foolish requett, is moru than I ever co'ild see. " ' Happens to say no !' " " Yes ; it's all a whim, either way; and if a man receives a lucky answer, he had better not risk anything by repeating the same ques- tion five minutes afterward. If a poor fellow had any instinct of self-preservation under such circumstances which, unfortunately, he hasn't he would feel that the time to rim was when she said yes- Some sense in it, then." "Bertram, what under heaven induced you ever to marry?" " Oh bother, Mattie ! don't go off on that tack, I beg of you. You are a wonderfully decent wife, as wives go ; but it's hard to expect a man to be gallantly devoted when his seven weekly nights are ren- dered inquisitorial by gouging curl papers, and his days anxious by too much complexion unrubbed in. Vanity, Mattie, vanity ought to be your stand by !" " It is all snubbed out of me, as it is out of most wives ! It is strange that husbands never seem to think why their wives permit some silken little masculine to play the respectfully devoted ! It i*n't pleasant to be quite upon the retired list, every woman knows!" " Oh bother ! Why don't some genius invent a love-making, compliment-paying machine, for the benefit of the two years married 1 Think of my making love to you, Mattie! Fie! go to bed, little woman 1" Mr. Bertram's estimate of Lisle, however based upon a misappre- hension ot the immediate affairs under discussion, proved correct. He neither ceasel visiting at the Venards, nor added one element of unpleasantness to the usual little coteries by any manifestation of constraint towards the lady by whom he had avowed himself re- jected. Upon the contrary, the two had never seemed upon moru 203 THE IIO'JSK BEill.MJ I'll IS rOI>J,AHS. kindly terms, or more content under* the relation-hip existing be- tween them ; and, rejoiced as she wai under such a state of atl'airs, Mrs. Bertram silently confirmed the judgment she had at first ren- dered tliat the whole matter was altogether strange and unaccount- able! THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 209 CHAPTER XIX. THE summer vacation of Seminary was most enthusiastically welcomed by the young ladies within its monotonous walls, and by none more so than by Julie Kelley, and her friend, Rose Sandford, who were to pass the entire season at Niagara, in accordance with the arrangement made for the preceding summer when Julie had been summoned home by the illness of her father. Young, beautiful, and naturally of a gay disposition, it was not unnatural that she welcomed such a sojourn with delight, as it is only at a more mature age that one reflects how seldom one's bright anticipations are realized. Stopping at the Clifton House, the very noise and bustle of hotel life during the fashionable season had its charm for the two young girls, just released from the quiet routine of school life, and each in- tensified the enjoyment of the other by the manifestation of her own. Despite the sombru hue of the garments she still wore in memory of her father, it would have seemed a want of hai rnony in one so piquant and pretty not to have joineel in the gayety around her ; and she did enter into it with all the zest natural to her age and temperament, while Mrs. Saudford rejoiced that she was the chape- rone of two young ladies so gay and attractive as her daughter and her friend. Mr. Sandford, although a business man in the strictest accepta- tion of the term, was a most genial specttttor of the usual watering- place life when he was present; but this was only at stated intervals, and while lie was absent superintending his business affairs, his wife remained sole guaidian of the two young ladies. Had any one in- sinuated to Mrs. Sandford that she was not the most judicious guar- dian possible, she would have resented it as warmly and conscien- tiously as would Mr. Sandford himself, to whom such an idea had never occurred. Although" no longer young, the natural romance of her character warped her judgment in one essential particular, and that the most unfortunate for those committed to her care. 210 THE HOUSE EEHTXD THE POPLAHS. Easily approached unclrr any formality of etiquette, introductions (o her were attainable by any and all who solicited them, and in each masculine acquaintance she saw one more candidate f<.r the favor of her protege?, or appreciator of her own sickly sentimentali- ty and rather faded charms. Had not Rose possessed more good sense and discretion thnn her mother, they would very soon have become the centre of a circle of such adventurers as always frequent these places of fashionable resort ; ar.d as it was, Mrs. Sandford's circle was anything but exclusive. Shrewd as Mr. Sandf >rd was in business affiirs, he had no per- ception of this weakness in Ids wife's character; but, the rather, seeing her always surrounded by people of the most fastidious gen- tility, and the two girls well supplied with partners, he gave her credit for the greatest amount of tact and good management in so- cial matters, amid which he was totally at sea. If it ever occurred to him during his visits when he at each time noted the extension of her ci clc, that nine in ten of these gallant young gentlemen were not the most flesh-able companions for the young ladies, he baaished the fastidious idea, relying upon the good sense of his daughter and her friend, and reflecting that, after all, these were but watering-place acquaintances, very unlikely ever to be nv.-t again, and no serious consequences would occur from a few evenings waltzing with them, if they were not exactly mental New- tons. If among them all one should by bare possibility seek a more lasting companionship, it would be time enough then to canvass his merit 7 , social an 1 moral; and meantime no one should expect or wish Rose and Julie to remain mere wall-flowers in such an assem- blage. " School life must be irksome enough to such bright and lively young things as they ; let them make the mo-t of their holidays,'' the kind hearted old gentleman said to himself when these ideas now and then obtruded themselves upon his mind ; and he gave no utterance to them. Among the numerous gallnnts thus admitted into their circle, was one who attracted particular attention by his handsome exterior and polished manners, and who, judging from all appearance?, was an espechl fivorite with Mrs. Sanclford, if not with the pretty Julie to whom he paid most devotod attention upon all occasions. This gentleman was no longer in the first flush of youth, as was Julie herself; at the first glance one would have pronounced him thirty at least, though in reality he was something less; and 1m THE HOUSE BEHIND Hit; POPLARS. 211 most striking characteristic was a dignified yet half defiant hauteur, which in one loss thoroughly well-bred and self-possessed would have seemed a sort of recklessness, if not positive impudence. Tall in stature, and possessing a figure of perfect elegance, there was a ceitain ir of assurance accompanying his most trivial actions, that carried with it that social passport inseparable from people of the highest birlh and position, which whether false or true, served the purpose for which it was exercised, and what in another might at once have been pronounced intrusion, was from him accepted as a condescension which secured him a welcome into the coteries he chose to favor with his presence. Thus, though he was upon terms of polite intercourse with most eligible circles in the drawing-room, none could definitely have ex- plained how he became so, nor upon just whose responsibility he was thus received among them ; and thus easily admitted into more exclusive circles, it was not surprising that he had gained the entree to Mrs. Sandford's room soon after that lady established herself in the house, where, from the very first, he allowed it to be seen that Julie Kelley was the object which attracted him and kept him a fixture forever near her. A younger, less worldly-experienced admirer would delicately have attempted to shield this penchant from the gossiping tongues around them ; and Julie's sensitive modesty led her more than once to pro- test against this too publicly offered devotion. But, young and yielding, as is every woman where her heart is interested, she ceased her protests under his earnestly offered excuses plead with that per- suasive eloquence natural to such circumstances ; and Mrs. Sandford followed it up with encomiums upon his honest, frank manliness of deportment in pursuing so unmistakable a course, till she was con- vinced that she was most unreasonable in wishing for anything more delicate and in consonance w:th her own ideas and predilections. Naturally somewhat coquettish, as is every pretty woman in her early youth, Julie never thought of practising upon the self-assured Leonard Horton the teasing arts and wiles to which she would have subjected a younger and less imposing admirer, but treated him with a tender respect and trusting confidence of manner all the more dangerous for the species of veneration she felt toward him as one so far her superior in worldly tact and experience, and that undufin- able fascination he had from the first exercised over her. There certainly was a nameless so. nothing magnetism perhaps in the soft black eyes that possessed such a wondrous power of speech, 212 THK HOUSE BEI11ND TllK 1'OI'LAKS. mofe forcible and persuasive than any eloquence of audible words ; and Julie yielded tender allegiance to their commands, while each approving ray from their luminous depths made her heart throb quicker, and the rosy color sprang into her cheek of purest blonde and most exquisite contour. Vivacious and sprightly as she \vas, this soft obedience to his caprice possessed an irresistible charm for Leonard Horton, and calm as he affected to be under it, he thrilled with exultation and gratified self-love as he noted the change that came over her when he approached her in her most vivacious mo- ments, and how intuitively others felt themselves de trap, and drop- ped away from his all conquering presence. Not one warning whisper cautioned her against thus admitting into her heart one so utterly unknown ; for, exultant at thus having secured " a settlement " in prospective for her temporary protegee, Mrs. Sandford did not, herself, once question its perfect desirability, and enjoyed in anticipation the felicitations to which she deemed such chaperoneship entitled her. Of course, should Julie's mother and guardians be foolishly exigent upon matters of which society takes little or no cognizance, they must satisfy themselves relative to his moral qualifications. Her agency extended no farther than in bringing affairs on to this denouement, and she prided herself upon the rapidity with which it had been accomplished. In her estima- tion, Leonard Horton was by far the most eligible parti she had met handsome, accomplished, and reported wealthy r and it had been the desire of her heart to secure him for her daughter. But Rose was refractory, and pronounced him disagreeable, utterly refusing to make one effort to attract him ; and as he himself had preferred to bestow his attentions upon Julie, it only remained to glory in this as the next desirable consummation. Plainly perceiving these mental self-congratulations, Leonard Horton skillfully pandered to the spirit that conceived them, till, from having iavored the marriage, she openly encouraged it ; and her opinion was not without its in- fluence over Julie, pre-disposed as she was to suspend her judgment and listen only to feeling. Thus satisfactory to ail parties interested, were affairs progress- ing, when a disturbing element appeared upon the scene, in the form of Miss Phebe Vennrd, who, with a party of her southern friends, arrived to spend the fashionable season at the Falls. Di- rectly it became noised about that this not too personally attractive young lady was an heiress, rumor increasing and exaggerating the sum of her possessions, as rumor is famous for doing, till it reached THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 213 a mo^. fabulous amount. Under this prestige, Miss Phebe's rather siout, short figure, appeared only desirably "plump," her foolish t\vaddle was only "naivett" and her frequent outbreaks of ill-tem- per were only "spirited and refreshing;" as all her satellites de- clared. From her own confessions, people soon learned that she was an authore-s, and as she modestly refused naming and enumer- ating her literary productions, curiosity became vividly excited, and all the assembled anonymous novels were industriously read and in- terchanged, in the hope of stumbling upon something that should identify them as hers. An heiress and an authoress, Miss Phebe's notoriety was established at once, and she reigued triumphant. Admirers gathered around her, ceaseless ovations were offered up to her. For the first time Leonard Horton's attentions were divided be- tween Julie and another, and he, too, followed the new star. Too proud to manifest the uneasiness and misery it caused her, Julie smiled upon others in his absence, and the immediate accession to the number of aspirants for his favor, evidenced how significant Mr. Horton's heretofore exclusive addresses had been considered. One evening soon after Miss Phebe's arrival, Rose Sandford watched her opportunity and whispered to Julie. "I hare been presented to the heiress. ' Beauty, talent, and money,' you must make her acquaintance." There was a mirthful glitter in Rose's eyes, that uttered its own c jinnicnt, and with a smile Julie shook her head. Rose expostu- la'evl more earnestly, " Oh, I don't see how you are to avoid it. Mr. Ilorfon has promised to introduce you since I was condemned to go through the operation. It is ' Beauty's request of the Beast,' whom I suppose &he feels guilty for appropriating, or perhaps she wants to snap your head off and so make a clean job of it. She has a temper of her own, I can tell you." "Memorandum make her exhibit it upon the first mal-apropos occasion. Tell me something more," laughed Juli'-. " Hush, here comes Mr. Horton. Don't be overwhelmed, now, by the brilliant scintillations of this renowned damsel's wit. My opin- ion is th\t her gold is the only bright thing about her, and I don't believe there's too much of that to be scoured every day by what she calls her ' niggers.' " Mr. Horton approached with Mrs. Sandford simpering upon his arm, and with bland courtesy addressed Julie. ' I want to present you to Miss Venartl, Julie. I am about to in- 214 THE HOUSE BEEIXD THE POPLARS. troduce Mrs. Sandford, as she particularly wishes to know you all. She asserts, Julie, that you bear an actual resemblance to a very dear fiiend of hers in the South, to whom she insists you must be related." "Oh, don't take me relation hunting, I beg of you ' I should be quite frightened at the very idea, did I not know that beside my dear mother I have not a relative in existence. Please tell her so, and spare me the trouble. 1 want to dance this next polka." "I hope, Julie, you d) not refuse to receive an introduction I ex- I pressly wish you to grant, and have even promised in your name," lie said reproachfully. She colored slightly, but made no gesture of compliance ; and extending her hand Mrs. Sandford said with mild authority, " Of course she does not refuse. That would be unpardonable under the circumstances, and quite ill-advised. Besides, it is always well to know people who are distingue. It gives one social import- ance. Come, my dear." Thus adjured, Julie arose, and in some pique accepted Mr. Hor- ton's disengaged arm. Miss Phebe was impatiently awaiting them. Mrs. Sandford graced her presentation with one of her set compli- mentary speeches, which Miss Phebe received with a stare of blank amazement, and then turned abruptly to Julie. " Do tell me, Miss Kelley, are you any way related to Lhb Sterling, formerly of Louisville ? You look enough like him to be his sister. 7 ' "He is my guardian, but I had no idea there existed any resem- blance between us, till Mr. Horton informed me that you had dis- covered one." " I didn't say anything of the sort to him. I never once mentioned Lisle Sterling's name, did I Mr. Horton ? I merely said you looked Uke a ' friend.' " " ' A very dear fiend,' corrected Mr. Horton with a visible effort to appear careless and only playfully interested. Julie observed his changing color, and attributed it to a real uneasiness at Miss Venar.l having thus familiarly spoken of one who might possibly be a rival in the young lady's interest; and the same thought occurred to Miss Phebe heraelf, very evidently; for playfully tapping his arm with her fan she said, " How you gentlemen all do love each other ! A lady can't speak to one of you about another, without pitting you against each other at once." " Dear me, what else can be expected," simpered Mi s. Sandford sentimentally. " I recollect how poor dear Mr. Sandford, the most THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 215 amiable man that ever lived, used to frown and make himself look ugly if I so much as smiled upon any other gentlemen ; and if I went so far as to waltz with one, dear me how he would go on ! They are all alike, Miss Venard, and all quite tyrannical before marriage, whatever they may become afterward. To be sure, you arc- not Mr. Ilorton's financee ; so he has no occasion to be jealous of your ' very dear' gentlemen friends." Mr. Horton turned toward Julie whose impatience was manifest. "I think you told me you intended to dance this polka. Shall I take you to your partner ? Miss Venard will excuse us." " I have no partner; it was a mere excuse," she rather curtly ex- plained as they moved away ; but without heeding the assertion he said, " So this Mr. Lisle Sterling, of whom Miss Venard speaks, is your guardian? I fancied you the ward of Mrs. Sandford." "Oh, no. She was kind enough to ask me to accompany Rose here this summer ; that is all. We were to have come last year, but poor pa's sickness and death prevented me, and I feel quite guilty now, when I think how 1 nely ma must be without me, and Edward with her but little of the time." " And who is ' Edward ?' Your brother ?" " In a manner, as he has lived with us for years. He is my guar- dian's brother, Edward Sterling, and both brothers were great fa- vorites of pa's." " And do you really resemble this Lisle Sterling, as Miss Venard "Nonsense. Descriptions of all persons with dark blue eyes, chfsinut hair, &c., sound So nearly alike, that it is nothing strange if the owners of them now and then look not unlike. I fancy the lady's only apology for so astonishing a discovery, was her wish to render you uneasy about her 'very de>ir' acquaintance." " Julie, I don't think you care to dance, in such a humor. Shall we go out upon the veranda?'' he asked, seeing that she was really pique.l. She assented, and as they passed near Miss Venard she caught a glance from that young lady, for which she was prepared, as she had marked a rising frown upon her face when she and Mr. Horton had turned away. "I think Miss Venard would like a partner," she said, calling hi3 attention to that lady's manifest displeasure, and not unwilling to show her own indifference to his society at that moment. He laughed. -'G THE DOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. "I think I should not like to be that partner for a round dance. She weighs too much by a cool fifty." " How hypocritical gentlemen are. I dare say you have compli- mcated her forty times upon the possession of that same ' cool fifty !' " " Julie, you are piqued may I even say jealous, I wonder !" " I see nothing for you to wonder at. I never professed to be anything more or less than human," she replied with a total lack of that tender veneration she had ever before manifested toward him. He was both surprised and amused at the change, as a touch of feminine spirit was not distasteful to him ; and he bent his eyes ad- miringly upon her, to the evident heightening of her color. But both her shame of herself, and her resentment against him, were soou lost to him under a stronger emotion which found expression in a query whose troubled tone aroused her. " This guardian of yours, Julie, will he conic here this summer during your stay, perhaps carry you off with him where you will be lost to familiar eyes at least mine forever ?" " Hardly possible. He is so complete a Southerner that I doubt if he will ever come north again. He made such a vow, and fre- quently repeated it the last time he was here; and certainly his own borne is too uncongenial to attract him. None of his letters indi- cate that he has changed his mind upon the subject. As for my going to him, guardian as he is, the idea is preposterous, unless, in- deed, he should marry, which is quite improbable." " I don't know that. These cynical, affected woman-haters, nro even more liable to be entrapped by most any woman with tact enough to seem a rara avis among her sex. Who knows but that may be you, Julie?" The memory of her own delusion upon this point lent a convinc- ing earnestness to the tone in "which she replied, ' Xo, quite impossible. We have always been more like brother and tister, and always must be. But who told you he is a woman- hater." " To tell you the truth, years ago I knew him ; and I don't sup- pose he has very mu^h changed. He is not one of the kind who do change." "You knew him? Where?" She asked the question with sur- prise as well as curiosity, and he could not conceal that it troubled him. However, sooner or later she must know the whole ; self-in- terest demanded it ; and he resolved not to lose so good an oppor- THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAB8. 217 tunity. Throwing into his voice and whole manner a soft melan- choly well calculated to excite compassion in a heart that loved him, he sighed, " It is a piteous story, little Julie. I dare not tell it even to you, lest you too, turn against me." " Never,'' she uttered earnestly with a closer clasp of the arm upon which she leaned as they slowly promenaded the veranda. He looked in her face with feigned incredulity. "Not even though that tale affix its share of blame and folly upon me a blame not so deep as it at first appears, a folly of which I re- pent as sincerely as ineffectually ? Oh, impossible ! This world has no forgiving pity for the unfortunate who brings his own suffering upon himself, however goaded hy circumstances. A life of sorrowing repentance cannot wipe out an error committed in a misguided mo- meut ; not even gentle hearts like yours ever excuse his error, despite all the atonement he can offer ! Oh, Julie, pity me, for I need all your sweet compassion." "It is yours, dear Leonard, be assured. But trust me with this sorrowful story, will you not ? I do not ask it in mere curiosity, as you must know." " Do you then love me a little miserable that I am ? Uudei brighter circumstances would you have been, perhaps, my wife? Tell me this, Julie." "Not 'under brighter circumstances,' Leonard, but under any, all." He pressed her hand with rapturous fervor, as he exclaimed, " Dear little comforter ! But first let me tell this sad story a confession, as it is, which I never could humiliate myself enough to make to any mortal but yourself. Oh, Julie listen two words will tell it all I am not ' Leonard Horton ' but " "But who?" she asked in breathless eagerness. " Louis Hartley." She stopped, aghast at the revelation, and he continued bitterly, " Yes, he whom you have heard denounced as a swindler, an in- grate, a thief who fled at night from the coffer he had robbed ! I can imagine all the vituperations heaped upon my head. Lisle Sterling never failed to mete out justice according to his own idea of it, and Christian charity isn't a weakness of his !" " Oh, unjust, cruel to yourself! I never heard him utter one such bitter word of you ! He left us immediately upon the receipt of his uncle's letter detailing the affair, and your name scarcely passed his 218 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAES. lips. Even Mr. Fitzjamcs forgave you, and in his will, made about that time, bequeathed you the amount you had appropriated that so the matter might be forever sot at rest. I suppose you know this and that Lisle was made heir to all the rest of his uncle's property ? J believe it was established that you had acquired possession." " Oh yes. All due formalities were observed as I said, Sterling always administers justice according to his idea of it. I did not care to 'enter an appearance' in ac ordance with the published citation, and so submit myself to the chances of a prosecution to gratify the defrauded heir's private malice. I needed the sum thus ensured to me, and I kept it ; but I always intended to refund his half of that which I had appropriated from the profits of our co-partnership, and I still do so intend. More than ever, now that I know he is your guardian, I will leave him no reason to complain of me. I shall re- pay as a loan that of which the whole might have been as much mine as his, had a formal settlement been made between us. After all, the whole capital belonged to Mr. Fitzjamcs. since neither Ster- ling nor I had a dollar to invest; but as he is left sole heir, I have no doubt he looks upon the bequest left me as so much taken from himself, and I will keep only my business share of it." '' But since it is really yours by bequest " I tell you no. I know just what proportion of it is mine by the terms of that co-partnership existing when I took it, and the rest shall be returned to him. I should have restored it ere this, but one hope after another has mocked niy efforts, and I am still his debtor. Now tell me, Julie ; when I shall have made this atonement, will you forgive the weakness of which I was guilty under a temptation too strong to be resisted ?" " That temptation what can it have been !" " Do not ask me that. You can never know. There are events in my life that I cannot tell even you. I have confessed my wrong doing, and avowed my penitence. Is not that enough ? Forgive me all. Julie." " I have nothing to forgive. Heaven forbid that I should judge you." " And your love, Julie can you tell me that it still is mine, that you will under these circumstances become my wife, as you were ready to promise so short a time since." " Y.es. I will. I do believe that you are truly repentant, that you wish to make a most generous atonement for your error, and th:itfc you deserve not only pardon for it, but =ymvnthy for the suffering i THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 219 lias caused you. How could you fear that I might be ungenerous worse, unjust toward you!" " Disappointment has been my lot all through my life. It is enough that I dare hope for anything, to make it fail me. So will you, yet, Julie, despite your present thought. The very idea that you are the t\\Qfiance of one who dare not claim his own name lest public dis- grace befall him, will weary and harass you; yet I must endure this burden, and inflict it upon you, till all danger of prosecution from Lisle Sterling is over. I must trust to you to soften his heart toward me, for I am powerless. He never liked me, from the very first, and it was our mutual rivalry for Mr. Fitzjames' favor, that made me fear to trust the old gentleman with the trouble that goaded me on to the deed by which I lost it forever. Sterling has triumphed over me; he stands to day in the place I should have occupied but for him and his scheming ; and for that very thing he will be relentless toward me. Suppose, J*tte, that as your guardian he forbids our marriage !" She did not immediately reply, and he made a gesture of impa- tience as he said bitterly, " So, wavering already ! You will sacrifice yourself and me to the ' duty ' of blind obedience ; or, hearing me unceasingly denounced by those whom it is more natural that you should trust, you will tell me that you were ' mistaken in your sentiments, did not know your own heart,' and all the rest of the feminine excuses for broken faith. I prophesy it all." " I never break faith. My promise once given is sacred forever," she answered quietly and with dignified reproach for his taunting words. "Forever, come what may. Shall nothing cause you to violate it?'' " How little you trust and believe in me ?" " But, Julie, swear it. Swear it and I shall trust hi you to the cle .ith !" " Well, I swear it. Foolish doubter, be content !" " I am, I am ! Oh, Julie, lov^ makes me a skeptic, bear with mej But if your guardian oppose us '' " I will give him no opportunity, if he remain unjust and relent- less toward you, after you have made him every reparation possible. What you propose is more than justice towards him, it is magna- nimity ; and if, after that, he continues obdurate, as you prophesy, I will fulfill my promise though I walk through fire to accomplish it. 220 THE HOUSE BEHLND THE POPLARS. Nothing short of crime shall separate us. Do you see that it is fixed ?" " Oh, Julie, what can I say to you ? "Wait patiently, dear girl, till I can make this restoration as the starting point to win his approba- tion. Give me time." " Ah, indeed ; if I were rich, now, like Miss Venard ! She would never miss so small a sum, while it would more than swallow uiy worldly possessions were I even yet mistress of them. Five thou- f sand dollars ! I have not so much in the world ! Ob, if Lisle only will forgive and understand you !" "He never will, I tell you. My heart sank when I heard you speak his name." Mrs. Sandford appeared upon the veranda in search of them. " Oh, Mr. Horto;i, you thoughtless man, to keep this dear child out so long, after dancing ! You will have her in a consumption at this rate," "I will take her directly in, Mrs. Sandford. She has just given me a right to watch over and protect her. Give me your congratu- lations." They were rapturously uttered ; and when he left them for the night he said exultingly, " So far, so good ! Eventually she must have known it all, and there is everything in a first hearing. Henceforth any denunciations Lisle Sterling may utter against me, will seem so much persecution. Strange that he is her guardian !" TUB HOUSE BBTTIXD THE POPLARS. 221 CHAPTER XX. ' " I DECLARE, Julia, if I were you I'd put a stop to Leonard Horton's flirtation with Miss Venard," exclaimed Rose Sandford resentfully, as the two were seated one morning tete a tete over their embroid- ery. " I never liked him, at best, with his fine and mighty assump- tion of superiority, and lord knows what not of ' little story ' stamped all over him ; but if he is going to turn gay Lothario, he will be more unendurable than ever. He neglects you most shame- fully for her benefit, and you are a goose to suffer it. Everybody can see that she is perfectly befooled after him, and if I were you I'd know why ! " " Oh, Rose, don't speak so hastily about what you don't under- stand. See how easy it is to misjudge one's most generous ac- tion?. Since he learned that your father and mother are not my legal guardians, ns he first very naturally supposed, he feels that it would be very wrong to compromise me by such public and exclu- sive attentions as he had offered me when he supposed their saction was sufficient to authorize it." "So he fancies that he betters it by leading every one to think that he has deserted you, and that for a silly heiress with not so much brains as my thimble ! She kept me in a rage all last evening by her ostentatious assumption of triumph over you, aud the mali- cious glances of exultation she kept turning upon you where you were pining in a most romantic, and to me vexatious style. What did possess you 1 Every one remarked it all." " I didn't feel like dancing, and I wouldn't ; that is all. I care very little what these people say of us so long as we feel that we are doing right. " ' We feel ! ' say rather that Norton prefers a certain line of deport- ment, and that you obediently assent. The truth is, that now he thinks he has you all safe under the keeping of an 'engagement,' he wants a chance at the heiress; and you meekly walk into the trap. It may all be very amusing to him, but for my life I can't seo 222 THE HOUSE BEHIND 1IIE POPLARS. where your share of the sport comes iii. How upon earth any girl ns sensible as you are upon most subjects, can be such a simpleton where he is concerned, is a mystery ! If he but looks a sovereign command, you obey, while his airs would set every drop of blood in my veins tingling with rebellion; but this last concession, just as you have the right to interfere, strikes me dumb." " I think, rather, it unlocks your native eloquence. If this is a fair specimen of your dumbness, fate forbid you should burst into speech !" Julie retorted laughingly. " Confess now, are you perfectly contented under this state of af- fairs r She did not immediately reply, but it was evident from her look and manner, that however loth she might be to admit it, she was learning the truth that however a woman may feel constrained to assent to the wisdom or policy of her lover confining his attentions within the strict bounds of workUy prudence, she is never pleased to see him bestow any portion of them upon her rival, or one who may by uny possibility become so. Eose saw that her words had struck a sensitive cord ; and added more gently, u It wouldn't so much matter, if he hadn't been so distressingly demonstrative up to the present, that every one formed the only natural conclusion ; but as he can't rub out this conclusion by es- tablishing one of a later date, it wou'd be better to go consistently and quietly on. A fiddlestick for all these fine points of so called honor, and the rest of the clap trap ! If you are positively in love with each other as I suppose you are or you wouldn't be engaged what do you care for the ' sanction ' of all the guardians you could cram between here and the south sea islands ! Nobody ever stops for that, if they once really make up their minds, however they may properly affect to. Besides, it would be a short-sighted guardian who would advise such proceedings as these under the present cir- cumstances, whether or not he intended to ' give his consent ' in the future. Nobody feels either compassion or respect for ' a deserted.' Do show some independence, Julie !" "I hit nd to when the proper time comes." " Oh, of coarse you'll conic out a ttir'ar when you are really mar- ried; that's expected, always ! But what I mean is, tell Horton you've a decided objec'ion to being made to ' wear the willow ' in everybody's estimation, and that if he is tired of playing the devoted THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 223 to you, he shan't play it to any one else, at least in your very pres- ence. That's what l\l do !" Julie laughed. " Well, Rose, you never will have to reproach yourself with having preached ' obedience ' and the rest of it. It is no match of your making." " No ; it is a specimen of ma's talent in that direction. Someway she has settled in her own mind that this Leonard Hortonis a great catch, and she's preached it to pa, till he, dear man, has come to be- lieve it too. But even poor ma has the sense to see that Ihis sudden ' falling off' isn't the proper thing, and she has told everybody she knows, that it is only a ruse to cover an engagement which you don't wish to have suspected." " Oh, Rose ; how could she ! Why won't she allow us to manage our own affairs." " Vou never have, poor child ! Ma made the match from the be- ginning, ane you have only been walking lady through the whole programme, though you are now and then indulged by being al- lowed to believe that he consults your wishes ; that is, he tells you his, and you fancy that the same." For the first time Julie became angry, and she exclaimed with spirit, " Rose, hush ! I won't endure it. Why don't you call me an idiot, and so have done with it! That is the whole tenor of it, and you'd better out with it." Rose caught her in her arms, and returned good humoredly, " I know you are not an idiot, much as you act like one sometimes. I suppose this is the natural consequence of being in love, as every- body I've seen so, cuts up in about the same fashion. But you must know I am your real guardian here ; not ma, who needs a mentor herself; and if you become unmanageable, I shall be in ill-luck. I'm sure this is your first real lover you take it so very seriously !" " And you, madame Mentor. Do you relate your experience," said Julie, laughing again at what seemed a ludicrous assumption of maturity and consequent authority. A shade of vexation dark- ened Rose's face as she answered, "Mere school girl as I am, this is the third season I've been put up, like a turkey at a raffle, for whoever chose to take a chance for ma's favor, and should ere this have been ' madam ' had I not proved that 1 had some voice in the matter. It is all very well to appreciate the pretty things said to you, but to turn ' spooney ' under it, and go off in a fit of matrimony, is a sorry consequence, from which I 224 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAKS. pray to be delivered ! I wouldn't marry the King of the C;mnibal Islands, even to be Queen and dine off baby roast every day ! I'm sick of the very word 'matrimony' for which let all men give thanks! Dear ine, there's some one at the door, and late as it is, I'm not dressed !" It was only a letter for Julie; but warned by the. alarm, Rose com- menced rapidly to make her toilet, and did not look around till a sob from Julie, who was reading her letter, arrested her. " Oh, Rose, Rose. My mother is dead dead and buried ! And no one sent for me, or even \vrote me she was sick,!" Surprised and startled by the abrupt intelligence, Rose stood with- out the power to offer one word of sympathy or consolation, and Julie wept on convulsively. At length a feeling of anger checked her grief, and springing to her feet she tore Edward's letter in piecea and threw them upon the floor, as she exclaimed, " Cruel, heartless ! to leave me here in ignorance that my own mother was dying before his eyes. I never will forgive him, never !' " Oh, Julie, don't be unjust; there may have been some good rea- son for it." " Yes, a beautiful reason ; that she had been ailing for more than a year not to have told me even this till now and so felt no alarm when she became worse, and would not allow my enjoyment to be destroyed by it. Edward, who is a sprouting doctor, must have known how very ill she was, though he says not. Here is his letter ; read it for yourself. I'll fit the pieces." Rose read the letter thus torn and fragmentary as it was; and deeply as she felt for Julie in her sorrow, she saw nothing in it but the most tender consideration. Edward tenderly spoke of Mrs. Kelley's last illness, which no one but herself had considered danger- ous till the very last, and even then, when he would have summoned Julie, she had forbidden him to do so, urging that the blow would be more easily endured at a distanc ', and enjoining that the harrow- ing details of a funeral should also be spared her. It was a only proof of the most tender and protecting love for tho poor child, who in witnessing a parent's suffering would have been all powerless to save ; and Mrs. Kelley had sacrificed her own desite to see her, for Julia's own peace. Edward added that he should immediately follow his letter, to be of any service to her that she might command, as his one wish was to aid and console her in their mutual sorrow. Rose gently folded the fragments of the letter, and handed them THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAU9. 225 back in silence. Julie looked up for some manifestation of her own. resentment, but met only a glance of pity mingled with reproof. ' Would you have wished your mother's last request to have been unheeded ? " she asked gently ; and then left Julie to a silence during which she was sure the voice of reason would be heard. Utterly at a loss what to do under her present circumstances, Julie waited for Edward to arrive, before even attempting to decide. Her one overpowering desire was to leave this place, whose gayety j-irred upon her very heartstrings ; but where could she go? Not back to the desolate home, all hushed and silent with a loneliness that would be insupportable in all the newness of her bereavement, not to her guardian, whose wifeless home offered her no asylum which the critical in matters of social propriety might not cavil at, young as they both were, for, even to herself, that secret tie of relationship was a sealed and unsuspected mystery. In all the wide world nothing like a home seemed open to her, and a feeling of utter desolation took possession of her. The very loneliness of her posi- tion made her anger against Edward forgotten the moment he appeared, and she turned to him as the one hope and reliance left Ler. For him, fur as he was from mistaking the nature of her emotions and sentiments toward him, this was a blissful foretaste of that future to which he trustingly looked forward, resolved to be discouraged at nothing however threatening to his hopes ; and he took her, unresisting, under his protection. He had lost no time in writing to Lisle of this fresh bereavement, and had briefly called his attention to Julie's desolate position with- out so much as a living relative to offer her the consolation and sub- stantial comfort she so much required ; and he felt assured that he would at once enter upon the discharge of his duties as her guar- dian, heretofore only a nominal title. Mrs. Kolley had told him of the solemn promise Lisle had given her to do by her a< by a sister, and the one ray of comfort he gave to Julie for the future, was the hope that a new home would be provided for her far from the scenes to which she felt she could not return. Totally unfitted for study as she was, it was worse than useless to rl urn to school ; nor would Mrs. Sandford consent to Hose's propo- sition to take her at once to their own home. Fortifying her posi- tion toward Julie with the reflection that she had done her < uty by IKT as chaperone, Mrs. Sandford reminded her daughter that her own settlement had yet to bo secured, and indulged in so many re- 226 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. proachea against her refractoriness in refusing to allow the affair to be arranged, that Rose in very indignation became silent. The one thing that remained was to take Julie to his own pater- nal home, where at least she could remain in quiet tii! Lisle should be heard from ; and, she assenting to this as to all other proposi- tions advanced by him. they commenced preparations to leave at once. The last evening of her stay was spent with her fiancee, who was :t once inconsolable and resentful uuder her departure, and urged their immediate marriage ;is most judiciors, and excusable by cir- cumstances. She refused, and when he insisted with more than due authority, told him as firmly as gently, that until he was reinstated as a man of honor who dared bear his own name in any place the EUU shone on, and in every presence, even lisle's, her promise coukl never be ratified ; that when his atonement had been fully made, should her guardian refuse to accept it. and still persecute him with unmerited prejudice, then, indeed, the whole affair would be merely a matter of personal feeling, in which her own was entitled to as much consideration as any other. Louis Hartley really loved Julie with the one ardent passion of his life ; and as he realized the severe test her affection must sustain, if, living under L : sle's roof, she should daily hear the adverse opinion he knew Lisle entertained toward him, expressed with that force and emphasis for which he was so remarkable, he suffered perhaps the severest penalty possible for his wrong d iu_r. It seemed impos- sible that her affection for him could survive such a test, linked to Lisle as she was by every tie of old companionship and affection, added to that relationship of guardian and ward which should ren- der his opinions of even more weight and importance to her. The very knowledge of his own unworthiness forbade him a hope that Lisle would ever accord him the hand-gra-p of fellowship, still loss approve his suit to his ward ; and his heart fainted within him ns he saw that Julie, heretofore so flexible and yielding, was upon this point immovable. The fine sentiment he had expres-ed relative to reparation and atonement, which had dawned upon his mind only in the moment lie hail uttered it.-was then a fixed fact to be literally accomplished, without which he could hope nothing even from Julie herself, who di-played so unexpected a distinction between words and deeds. How was he to accomplish that which it ha 1 cost him nothing to declare, while lie exulted in the feeling of conscious honor such no- 'THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 227 bility of purpose imparted, assumed only for a purpose, as it was. As the problem occurred to him, he cast resentfully aside the little hand lie had clasped in his pleading, and said bitterly, " Like all your sex, you are cruel and pitiless ! If, under one im- pulse, you with, seeming generosity cast a word of mercy to a poor wretch who humbles himself to supplicate for it, it is only that in t!;e rebound it may crush him completely. There is always some impossi- bility to be accomplished, as a passport to your favor." " You are cruel and unjust." "In which I trespass upon your exclusive prerogative ! See now what a hope you offer me for the future, what encouragement to humble myself before a proud interloper who came between me and a fortune, and skillfully supplanted me in the favor of one who was my benefactor and friend long before he ever became his. He tricked me out of all this, and now I am to cringe to him lest he also deprive me of you." His injustice banished from her the tender veneration which had been so marked a feature in her regard for him. He was tearing away the veil which had heretofore concealed his real self from hoi- eyes; and she looked up at him with her proud spirit flashing in her eyes. " You forget, sir, to whom you are speaking, when you utter such words of Lis!e Sterling ! Understand once for all time, that I never offered you any inducement to seek to retrieve your fair name, never named any reward for a course of conduct which honor should in- spire, as I believed it did. I would not turn one glance upon a man whom I \\&A persuaded to act honorably.' 11 "Oh, Julie, Julie, have mercy upon me! You torture me till I am not master of myself. I am teaching you to despise me Lisle Sterling will finish what I have begun. If you go to him I shall lose you forever. Kill me, then, at once ; and not by aching inches." He sank down beside her with an air of such complete dejection and despair, that her heart was torn with tenderest pity, and iaying her hand upon his bowed hi ad, she said, " Do not let us add to our unhappiness by unkind words. If I am firm upon this one subject where you are concerned, it is that I will Lave the man i call husband deserve the respect of the world, as well as my own, and merit, whether or not he receive, the good will of those whom in a misguided moment he wronged. When you shall have effected this, I will not stop to think whose personal pique may still be unallayed, even if Lisle himself may be unjust 228 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. enough to cherish one, which I cannot anlic : pate. Beside nothing binds me to wait upon his consent to niy marriage ; it is only my wish to do so. which proper circumstances could quite change. When I am satisfied with you, I will fulfill my promise : rely upon this." " Ah, Julie, you think so now, but gradually you will grow in- different and cold. I shall forget ::11 else to follow you, and so rush headlong into ruin. Your guardian will assume authority to ban'sh me, I am impulsive and violent, who knows what may ensue?" "You nnbt not follow me; I tbibid it most emphatically. If under any circumstances I can grow ' indifferent and cold,' accept it as a proof of my utter wortblessncss, and leave me to my fate." " Oh, ye?, and mine, you do not think of that when you speak BO slightingly of your own There is a bare hope that you may not go where I am looked upon in such a hateful light, and to it I will dinar. But if you go, and sometimes find me near you, in mercy think what leads me there, and do not annihilate me for having disobeyed so relentless a command. Swear to me once more, that if in what even you must pronounce a reasonable time, and after all I can do in my own behalf. Lisle remains inflexible, you will never- theless ratify the engagement you have made." " Determined miteralle, once more I swear !'' she smilingly returned, and then rising, she added, " And now I must say good-night. Ed- . ward will be looking for me, as he is quite alone." She held out her hand to him, but pushing it aside, he caught her in his arms, and as he rained his farewell kisses upon cheek, brow, and neck, he murmured passionately, "Oh, Julie, Julie if need be, crime itself shall help to make you mine I Nothing shall separate us nothing !" Turning to leave him,she opened the door just as El ward reach, d it in search of her, having vainly looked everywhere elsv, and at last been apprised by Mrs. Sandford that she was in their private parlor. He drew back a step as he saw how neatly he had intruded upon " a scene," and said apologetically, "I was told that I should find you here, but I thought you nlone." 1 " She woul i have been, hi one moment I am just taking leave," Hartley replied bowing over his hat. The two had been presented by Mrs. Sandford the preceding day, and had several tim .s passed each other with only such polite ac- knowledgment as is usually displayed by gentlemen quite indiffer- ent to each other. But in this moment each intuitively recognized THE 1IOUSK BEHIND THE POPLARS. 219 in the other a rival, and after one brief but expressive glance, Hartley made a second bow not altogether humble, ns his triumphant smile testified, and returning it with grave politeness, Edward closed the door upon his exit. Julie stood in some embarrassment near the threshold, waiting for Edward to break the silence. " So," he soliloquized as he turned away. " The list increases ! Verily my name will have a goodly number of predecessors, if even at lust it be granted a place upon the list !" Before he had conquered his impatience, he heard the door open and c!o;e. Julie had left; him without a word ! and audibly pro- nouncing himself " a fool,'' he too left the room. The next morning they started homeward, and after a weary journey arrived at the familiar mill-house, where Mrs. Sterling was expecting them. She came out to the gate to receive them, serene in a new bobinet cap and black silk apron ; and as it was a sort of state occasion, Mr. Sterling foMowed, not quite at ease in his best coat, -donned in their honor, but to which he had quite failed, after many efforts, to add a hat yet in its pristine newness, and so wore in its stead his battered old " beaver," only half bereft of the flour which from long occupation had assumed the right to resist his most vigorous efforts at banishment. " A perfect Sterling to the lust ! " exclaimed his wife contemptu- ously, as she ca->t one last glance over his ungainly figure and unique dress, and then, determined to exhibit theFitzjames native superior- ity, hastened out to offer her greetings first, leaving him to follow at his own pace. " I do declare, my son, this is a bright day on which you have come home quite of your own accord," exclaimed Mrs. Sterling as she reached out her hand to Edward. " I was sure you'd bring Julie, too ; and she's as welcome as can be, though she'll lind it hard to put up with our plain ways. IL.-re's Mr. Sterling will tell you how welcome the daughter of his rid friend is. Here, Mr. Sterling ; this is Dr. Kelley's daughter Juiie. You remember little Julie Kclley?" "Ahem, why of course Lydia t and I'm sure she is welcome. Your father and me was old friends, Julie, old and kind friends for many a year, and a good man he was ! How do you do, Edward ?" Mrs. Sterling turned again to Julie, whom she surveyed with a, critical eye. " You are a wonderfully grown girl now, I suppose I ought to say young lady, as you come from a Seminary, and the Falls, and what not. Dr. Kelley had mighty grand notions of his 230 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. own and your mother wasn't a whit better ; but you're young yet, and you'll come down to common folk's life, I'll warrant." Julie conquered her indignation at this implied criticism of her dead parents, but Mr. Sterling uttered his mild protest against the remark. "You don't mean just what it sounds as if you did, Lydia. It is well known sis Dr. Kelley was forehanded in the world, ami able to live as he thought be^t, and his wife WHS a mild-tempered, slim little creetur whose equal couldn't be found for kind-heartedness. I never have forgot how she nursed up Lisle that winter he was so ailing just as if he was her own child ! I'm glad to do by you what your father and mother have done by my boys, Julie, and I will as far as I'm able. Edward will be a brother to you, and so will Lisle, too, I'm sure." " Who says Lisle is her brother ?'' exclaimed the old lady, fiercely timing upon him as he uttered the last words. li There, Lydia, there," said the old gentleman laying his hand upon her shoulder soothingly. She shook it off resentfully. " Don't paw me over after such a speech as that ! Always twit- ting, twitting, about something or other !" Julie heard in astonishment ; and taking her arm Edward led her forward to the house, as he said apologetically, " Poor old lady, she is quite losing her mind, and talks much of the very wildest nonsense. She never had much mind, as you know ; but it was enough to 'make its wreck lamentable. To notice what she says, only makes her worse. I hope you will soon have a pleas- anter home." Wiien Mrs. Sterling reached the door, she seemed quite to have forgotten her ebullition of temper, and insisted upon showing Jul e to the room assigned her, though she would much have preferred being left alone to remove her travel-stained apparel. Mis. Sterling showed no intention, of leaving her, but lifting the bonnet Julie removed from her aching head, turned it round anil round upon the hand she inserted in its crown, to observe its shape and style. " I don't suppose you've bought your mourning tilings yet. Young people mostly put it off longer'n is decent. But now you're left to your own property, like, for support, you'll find mourning costs less than most anything else that's as elegant, berause you won't need so many changes of it. It's true you are in half mourning all this time ; but of course you'll have to go into bombazine and crape again. THE HOUSE BEIIIND THE POPLARS. 231 Thei e's your mother's crape things, every bit as good as new, can be made over for } ou. Lucky, ain't it. only one year's ( areful wear out of them! I'm famous at managing all my family was the same !" Julie struggled against her rising sobs, and when she could find voice to speak, s dd faintly, " Please be kind enough to leave ma alone for awhile. I am tire;!, and half sick ; and not fit to see any one." "Hoity toity; turns me out of my own rooms! But I won't bcm- malice. I'll go right down and make you some bonese tea k r your head. Nobody shall say I bore malice towards Mrs. Kelloy's daughter !" and she left her, much to Julie's relief. Julie soou discovered that nothing like the worldless quiet for which she longed could be found under Mrs. Stei ling's rof, un- ceasingly as Edward strove to secure it; and both waited impa- tiently for the arrival of Lisle's letter, now daily expected. Edward himself not unfrequeutly fell a victim to his mother's displeasure for some fancied slight or innuendo of which he was wholly guiltless. A chance word, a misinterpreted look, awoke her ire and suspicion, and with patient meekness Mr. Sterling bent his energies upon the task oi soothing and quieting her, in a way that was really affecting to witness. Edward's patient devotion of his time and talents to Julie's com- fort met with some species of reward in the continually recurring amusing remembrances awakened by surroundings familiar to his own and Lislu's boyhood, incidents not particularly amusing at the time, but borrowing a ludicrous tint from the light of the pre- sent ; and as he laughingly recalled them in family conclave, .Mr. Sterling's grim visage even relaxed, though he never had been heard to laugh. Usually Mrs. Sterling quite exulted in these rem- iiii.-cences, illustrative as many of them were of that talent for m in-igement, and a faculty for securing whatever was desirable, which she boasted was handed down to them from their Fritzjam s prog nitors ; but upon one unlucky day the conversation took a turn that came more nearly causing a rupture be! ween the old couple, than anything that had heretofore occurred. Coming late to his dinner, Edward offered his apology to thu family. " I have been looking over a collection of old-time treasures stored aw \y and seemingly forgotten ; and the old fa ciuatiou they 232 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAKS. had for rne, qnite came back again. Father, do you remember that old buffalo robe L : slc and I so used to covet ? " " Yes, I hid it a \ ay, ns I never believed iu leading any one in'o temptation, and there's scripter against covetousnes-i. I recollect you were bent on trading it off; and it was worth moie to throw over the wagon seat." " Well, I will confess, now, that we hunted it up, and really should have sold it one day to an itinerant dealer in pelts, had wo not come to an unfortunate impediment in the shape of the last six- pence necessary to close the bargain, which he wouldn't give, and we wouldn't throw off ; and priding ourselves upon our uncompro- mising firmness, we put it back where we found it, and consoled our- selves with the idea of our sharpness, in place of the money we hoped to have gained. Lisle and I were hard pressed for money iu those days, and quite envied the maternal privilege of picking off guard pockets." Mrs. Sterling bridled up indignantly, and said in severe re- proof "Edward, confess as many of your and Lisle's dishonest tricks as you please ; but don't drag me into the catalogue. / pick your fa- ther's pockets ! I think I see myself at such a caper P "Very likely, with memory's eye. But you had a right to do it; so you needn't wish to forget nor deny it. No one would dispute your right to ' one third,' even if you did take it a little in ad- vance of the calamity for which the law offers that consolation. If it required strategy to get at it, that was your misfortune,'' Edward returned good-humore !ly. " Now tell the truth. EJward. Did you ever see me take one cent of your fathers money, without his knowledge ?" " Did not I ? "Why, don't you remember how you used to tug away at the heavy weights father used to pile upon the chest where he kept his money bag, by way of lock and key ? and how you called Lisle, one day, to have him show you how th it strange knot was tied in the siring that served as a patent seal for the little can- vas bag itself. He had seen it dime so many times that he had learned it, and he tieJ it for you exactly as it was before, so tkit no tales were told." Mr. Sterling lai 1 down h's knife and fork, looked hard at his wife who struggled to appear undisturbed ; and then rising with an air of alarm, he went to the chest alluded to, opened it with trem- bling hands, and evolving the identical canvas bag, wei i:ed it with THE HOUSE BEHIND THE TOPLAKS. 233 a reverent oscillation, first in one band and then in the other, Sus- piciously, as though even yet it might disclose some ancient depic- tion, or effect of more recent depredation ; and at last putting it deep in his capacious pocket, he buttoned it carefully in, slapping it a time or two afterward to assure himself that it was really there, and then returned to his unfiuished dinner with an increased gravi- ty of manner through which he took no farther notice of anything around him. Mrs. Sterling sobbed theatrically, and as she swayed to and fro she exclniined, " Oh dear, oh dear ! If it has come to this after all these years, I'd better leave a house where I'm looked on as a thief! I've put up with a good deal in my time, but th : s beats all. I'll leave to- morrow, if I have to go to the county poor-house.'* Mr. Sterling made no reply to the threat, and with an abrupt change of manner fhe ceased sobbing, and said contemptuously, " Thank fortune none of my family were skinflints ! Among all the Fitzjameses and their name was legion there never was a stingy one known ! It's hard enough being wife and mother to a race of mean-spirited Sterlings, without being called a thief! You were a real Fitzjames when you were little, Edward, and I did think there'd be one decent one among the snarl. Dear me, Lisle is all Kelley, and you are all Kelley too !" " The effect of early training, mother. The doctor took us young, and treated us like a real f ither." " He wasn't your father !" retorted Mrs. Sterling curtly, the one idea forever haunting her and called up by a word, No reply was offered ; and as Mr. Sterling left the table, his wife fixed her eyes with a half vacant stare upon Julie's face, muttering to herself, " They are something like something like and both of them all Kelley !'' and still muttering, she slowly shoved back her chair and left the room. ' How strangely she does act !" Julie exclaimed half in horror. " Yes, she is becoming quite demented. She doesn't seem to .. know what she says half the time. You ought to feel quite flattered, 'little Kelley, for your name is forever on her lips. Poor old mother !" 234 TTrr. CHAPTER XXI Poun months had elapsed since Lisle Sterling plead his suit with Leonore Wakefield with only such success as was embodied in the indefinite hope vouchsafed him for the future four months of unin- terrupted harmony in the friendly relationship established between them, which no engagement, however definite, could have increased when Edward's letter announcing Mrs. Kelley's death, was 19- ceived. This intelligence did not cause him the shock of surprise it had occasioned to others who loved her? for he had never ceased to re- member her own forebodings, so freely expressed to him upon the occasion of their last confidential interview, in which she had begged him when they should be fulfilled to be not only a guardian, but a brother, to the daughter thus bereft of her last relative. He had given her this promise, and he would sacredly fulfill it. Susceptible as was he himself to mental suffering, it needed no enumeration of Julie's woes and perplexities, to spur him to im- mediate action. She was, in truth, his half sister, however little the fact might be suspected by others, and his home was her proper asylum ; but the world, so virtuously proper in its requirements of others, would stickle for the decorum of a female companion, even if it forbore to animadvert upon the circumstance of so young a gentleman being the leo-al guardian of so engaging a creature as Julie, and he at once sat about the task of providing for her a suitable companion. Here again difficulties beset him. Old ladies were generally dis- aoreeable companions a young one would scarcely improve matter?, unless, indeed, she were his wife and armed with this apology for again pressing a suit that might be rejected, he bent his steps to the little parlor where he knew Leonore was to be found. He had always believed that her former rejection, or what was virtually such, was based upon some over-sensitiveness which, if crit- ically examined would vanUh, and resolved to convince her how THE HOUSE BEHIND THiS POl'LABS. 235 lightly he regarded such an obstacle, and how little he cared to in- vestigate its cause, ho felt one of those premonitions of success which seldom betrayed him. Leonore was sitting quite alone in the luxurious twilight which even upon this glowing August morning rendered cool the pretty parlor shaded by the broad banana leaves, with their varied tints of green spread broadly to the sun, or broken into fringe by the fresh breeze, that, sweeping in at the open window, played fantastic capers with the fleecy curtains, and coquetted with the light morning robe in which she was arrayed, ever and anon revealing, by a fi eAer eddy, one tiny slippered foot, and lifting little tresses from her forhead with a jaunty freedom which imparted a new charm to her usually rather severe and classic style of beauty. She beckoned Lisle to an ottoman beside her, and with the un- constraint of intimate friendship, continued the light, ormental employment with which she was busy when he was shown in. In her whole demeanor there was something so indescribably gentle and tender, despite its airy piquancy and half careless abandon, that Lisle was fascinated anew, and forgetting the earnest arguments he had resolved to urge with all the formal logic of which he was master, he poured out the torrent of feeling that rushed and surged through his heart, with a simple, natural eloquence that swept all resistance before it. She looked into his face for one whole moment without offering one word in reply ; but the changing lights and shadows upon her own face, rendered that silence eloquent, a speechless revelation of the struggle going on within both brain and heart, no less engrossing than the undivided passion he had plead. At length the troubled expression of her glance gave way to one more softly serene, and folding both her hands upon his shoulder, she said with some vague air of indecision in her whole manner, to which she was still reluctant to give rein, " Now Lisle, rehearse to me without one softening clause or fas- tidious choice of expression, the whole case as it stands between us. I want to hear, in plain words, all that is translatable of a matter over which I have thought and thought, forever arguing against my own inclinations, till I have lost the very power to see it iu an un- biassed light. Recite." " In very truth, I comprehend it too little to do so ! I only know that you refuse to grant my prayer forever offered in one form or an- other, because you sav you cannot, must not, and that for my own 236 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. sake, and you affirm that my lips uttered such a decision heaven knows how or when ! If they ever did utter it, I retract it ;i thou- sand times." "Yes. Go on, I want to hear more." " There is no more. The rest, if more there be despite my con- victions, lies somewhere in the unexplored region between your heart and lips, and I have no mental compass to guide my investi- gations. Keep it i o yourself, Leonore, guard as jealously as you will this something that thus far has rendered you inexorable ; I do not ask to know it, I never will. All I ask is that you will no longer sac- rifice our happiness to it. Be merciful to me, if you are relentless toward yourself." She did not speak or move ; but her eyes turned from his, and fixed themselves upon the floor unrevealingly. A sudden fear darted into his heart, and convulsively grasping the hands still folded upon his shoulder, he asked, " Leonore, is there any legal impediment to our marriage are you, perhaps, already married ?" She turned a glance of reproach upon him which her words did not belie, proudly as they were spoken. " There exists no legal impediment. Were I the wife of another, do you think I would thus listen to you ? I am legally free to wed whomsoever I will. It is only against yourself that even a moral objection exists a mere conscientious scruple." " Forgive ine, Leonore ; but banish this scruple. I will absolve you." " You do not know how I am tempted to do so I You do not imagine the price it costs me to remain true to my own sense of honor and right." " Then forget ' honor and right ' toward me. I plead rather for happiness, and grant you an unlimited dispensation to sin against me. If I choose to endure it, no one else has the right to protest or object. Dismiss this chimera that separates us ! Oh, Leonore, you will, you will ; but speak it." She uttered not a word, but a soft flush of unspeakable love suf- fused her face and brow, and her lips smiled the welcome reply. Lisle caught her to his breast, ecstatically murmuring, " At last, at last ! my Leonore ! God bless you 1" After one moment's unresisting surrender to the happiness that possessed her, she raised her face, and said with earnest tenderness, " Lisle, Lisle, if the hour ever come when you are tempted to re- THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAKS. 237 proach mo for this weakness, remember how I loved you, and in mercy restrain the words. I am sacrificing my sense of honor to- ward you, to our mutual happiness. God grant it may ensure it !" At length the little feminine task was brokenly r-sumecl, and Lisle, seated quietly near her, with a look of intensest happiness upon his usually grave face which quite transformed it, toyed as one who now possessed the right, with the silken tresses tossed more liberally by the breeze to the threatened peril of the whole mnss being decoyed away in kindred dancing streamers. Edward's letter had remained quite forgotten till now, when it suddenly recurred to memory, and taking it from his memorandum book, he spread it upon Leonore's lap, as he said, smiling, " See, Leonore. Here is a letter upon which I had based more moving arguments than I could have uttered in a day ; not one of which was pressed into service, after all my mental labor ! Most well-merited fate of all argument, where only feeling should reign supreme ! Will you listen while I read, and afterward give me your sovereign decision. I am, as it were, a family man already, and, as you will see, am called upon to fulfill an urgent duty !" and he read her the letter, explaining as he proceeded. She looked up in smiling amazement when he concluded. " You the guardian of a young lady quite of marriageable age ! How did you establish a claim to sufficient wisdom and most sage decorum, to tempt Doctor Kelley thus to endow you with the honors of age and experience ? Six whole years her senior, and not yet quite gray !" " I never was young, Leonore, and Doctor Kelley, better than any one else, knew this. His daughter is like a sister to me, as well she may be, reared up together as we were ! The doctor loved me as his own child, and was more than a father to Edward ,who owes him all he is or ever will be. The story of my childhood ia a sad one, Leo- nore ; one that I never can bear to repeat, or even remember." His f ice clouded, and his voice was at once both sad and bitter. She hastened to divert his thoughts from such disturbing remin- iscences, and succeeded. " Poor fittle Julie, how utterly alone she is. She will come to you at oace, Lisle ?" " She will come to us, if you consent. I should have sent for her ut once had you proved relentless this morning ; how much more, t u 11, sinco I can offer her a companion and a sister." " Oh, Lisle, stop. Don't say ' a sister.' All that I can do to make 238 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. her happy, I will do with a cheerful heart. But I h \ve no right to 4 a sister,' still less one who is such to you. If I won her love, I should, in pure generosity, regret it. It is enough that I should ac- cept yours !" " Most humble little saint ; you shall be canonized in time, be pa- tient yi't a little ! But don't, like Lady Macbeth, say a word about ' perfumes of Arabia,' for the Arabian trade isn't wh.it it was." " I forewarn you, jeerer, that I sha 1 levy heavy contributions upon [your purse. Firstly, my salary as housekeeper,'' she suggested with an evident effort to appear as playfully at ease as her words indicated. "Oh, no, Mrs. Perkins is all sufficient in that capacity," he answered lightly. " Well, then, some sinecure for which I shall receive, in current coin of the republic, not less than I now receive for professional services." " Do you in fancy endow me with the talent of stinginess, that you thus seek to drive a bargain with me ? Not a dime ! You must rely upon my generosity, an unknown quantity, I confess. So pretty and so calculating ! Fie, Leonore !" She became grave at once, and there was an audible tremulousness in the voice with which she replied, "I must have a sum of my own, free from any questioning as to how I expend it. As your wife you will not wish me to earn it by my own exertions, as now ; but I must, if you refuse me." He realized that she was painfully in earnest, and wishing to divert even while lie gratified her, he took out his pencil and formally began, despite the laughing tone he assumed, "Memorandum, not to ' forget to remember? that one of the terms of the bargain this day mide, is as follows : A good fat salary monthly paid in hani, in current funds, to be the unquestioned property of Leonore Sterling, and to be by the said L. S. expended in whatever manner she may decide ; marital grumbling quite for- bidden, and sky blue wigs tolerated and admired, should the lady so enjoin ! So, Leonore, are these terms sufficiently liberal ?" " Yes, if you offer them in good faith," she answered seriously. " Mercenary wretch, will you turn tyrant, too ? Suppose I am remiss in making payments will yon ' bone ' me for the cash ?" " Yes, probably." " Will you, whenever you presume to desire anything under the sun, compel me to pronounce absolution and forgiveness for such temerity ?" THE HOUSE BEHIND TUE POPI.A.RS. 239 " Possibly." " Well, if I'm to go upon my knees everythne I wish you to ac- cept ' a little pecuniary aid' outside this wonderful salary, I'll be- speak a buckskin suit at once. I decidedly object to perambulate the streets looking like a dissenting clergyman alter a severe season of ' revival.' I don't know, either, how much of such wear and tear my physical constitution can eiidine; and so I advocate a community of property as far a* we two are concerned. When I say ' with all my worldly goods I thee endow,' I shan't mean the legally under- stood dower of the use of one-third after my demise the usual mat- rimonial rendering of the phrase, if one may judge by appearances.'' Her smiles returned under his good humor and characteristic sar- casm ; and the point for which she had stipulated thus playfully set- tled to her satisfaction, no farther allusion was made to it, nor did Li^le himself mentally comment upon its strangeness, excepting to wonder if she really had believed him possibly penurious, and so wished to avoid future inconvenience. It was not a nattering infer- ence, but happiness soon banished its sting from his mind. Once having won Leonore's promise to become his wife, patient waiting with no definite purpose was not in his nature. At this season of the year most of their social circle were absent from the city, and those who remained felt no ambition for merry-making. Lisle heartily rejoiced at this, averse to wedding parties as he was, where the principal actors are at best but self constituted spectacles, to be scanned and criticised as never b fore, by those for whose gratification the whole proceeding is endured. Altogether wrong as such a prejudice may have been, Leonore herself shared it, and despite the remonstrances of Mrs. Venard and Mrs. Bertram, who asserted that it looked like a deliberate social swindle, a quiet wed- ding was arranged to take place at once. " Only to think how venerably Venard would have given away the bride in the presence of an admiring assemblage," laughed Mrs. Bertram. " No thanks for his liberality with what would not have been his own to give," Lisle retorted. " I wonder when people will become sensible enough to do away with that antediluvian farce, even if they will keep the rest of the absurd rigmarole ! The idea of 'giving the bride' as one would make over the kitchen candlesticks, or any other article of household stuff! I'm only surprised thafc those who fancy it, don't insist upon the ' rod of correction ' that 240 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAE3. used to accompany it, and still does in some countries. Who shall say that we have no need of missionaries. 1 ' " Oh, it's only mere form ; like the 'obey ' and the rest of it. No- body ever intends quite to bid adieu to their senses," said Mrs. Ber- tram. " Yes ; the whole affair is too much ' mere form,' married to-day, divorced to morrow, and ten to one re-married to a new candidate for earthly purgatory, long before the real wife or husband is de- cently dead and buried." " ' Real wife or husband!' Mrs. Bertram exclaimed dissentingly. " Of course the real one is she or he whom the law BO recognizes." " Blessed are they who so feel and believe, if it chance to be their position ! As for me, had I married the veriest vixen the sun shines on, I should feel and consider that she was indissolubly my wife ; and were I to marry another by any permission of ' the law,' I should deserve arrest as a bigamist/' Lisle replied with some warmth. " Oh, we have all he;ird your sentiments upon the subject, be- fore," retorted Mrs. Bertram. "This is the one hobby of your otherwise quite sensible and steady-going mentality. ' The law is powerful to bind, but not to unloose !' strange creed, for which, if you received your just deserts, you'd be incontinently gobbled up ' by some grass-widow ! If you were to be so, and tried to get the marriage set aside upon that score, you'd soon find whether the law were on your side of the question, and what is received as law, might as well be so for all practical purposes in life." Lisle turned to Leonore and made her a salutation of mock reverence. " Deign, fair lady, to accept your humble servant's most grateful thanks. Inflict, oh gracious deity, whatever of matrimonial pains and penalties thou may'st see fit, and thou shalt find me thankful, to the last, that even thus I escape so horrible a 'gobbling up,' all innocent and unoffending as I am. All hail, thou, who savest a virtuous citizen from the fangs of the grass-widow!" The others received this invocation merrily ; but, pale and grave, Leonore struggled briefly with some strong emotion before replying, " Thank me for nothing, Lisle, till you see whether or not I merit thanks. ' Matrimonial pains and penalties ' may prove more griev- ous than you think ; but God knows my^first wish is to make you happy." Beproachiug himself for so thoughtfully ^having struck upon THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. '241 wliat ho knew was a sensitive nerve, LLle drew her arm within his own, and led her out upon the gallery, away from the glancea <5f involuntary astonishment bent upon her. " There, dear child, you see how often I shall thoughtlessly give you pain if you do not conquer this morbid sensitiveness ! What can I do in expiration of my sins ?" " Release me from this engagement I ought never to have made." " Leonore !" ." Not for my sake, but for your own." " So help me heaven, I never will ! Nor will I be condemned to fight this b.-ittle over and over again. Receive now, my just sentence for such a demand. At this hour to-morrow, you at once aud forever resign the power to speak such words to me. You (alked of 'a week ' and I was foolish enough to assent. Not two days, dear Leonore ! You force me to be tyrannical, but pleadingly, you know." " Oh, Lisle, I cnnnot, must not become your wife. I will tell you all my shameful story, though I perish for it, a^ I shall." " No, I will not henr it. It is at best a loss of lime, nnd it is flying. When you are really and irrevocably mine, I will listen to whatever you choose to teU, and shrive you after. But not now." *' Now or ne\ er, Li^le." " Then never, and a thousand times never ! I tell you, Leonore, that nothing shall come between us ! I cannot, will not suffer it ! The very recounting those once conquered obstacles, would re'in- vigorate them ; and I cannot endure these struggles for more than life. Oh, Leonore, you do not know what it is to fix one's life Lope upon a coveted object, and see it forever just beyond one's reach ! Sick, sorrowing, and humiliated, I have struggled into manhood to catch one first glimpse of possible happiness, and I will attain it. Hourly, waking and sleeping alike, I am tortured with the fear and dread of losing you, you, the one object I have ever cherished or desired ; and I cannot resign you even at your own bidding. Without you I am lo-t, annihilated, with you, whatever may betide, I cannot sufFor more. Keep your revelation, and give me yourself, yourself ! I cnnnot give you up." " Then you shall not. Oh, Lisle, such passion frightens me!" " Well, it is frightful, it frightens me, too ; but I cannot conquer it. I tried to, long ago, and it conquered me, and holds me." "Lisle, you will never forget thnt in this hour I tried -to tell you that which I must henceforth forever conceal, and that you would 242 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAUS. not listen to it. Promise me this, for the time may come when I shall remind you of it, in very seli-d<:fenc." " Against whom ?" " Yourself, and the withering justice you will pour out upon me." " Never, never ! Since I know that all this is but a mere ' moral obstacle,' 'a scruple of conscience,' as your lips declared one blessed hour ; I have no care for anything more. I rn;ike any promise tint le.ivcs you mine, bind myself to anything you desire, so th.-it I do not lose you !" " Oh, Lisle, if to lose what you love is thus unendurable to you, proud, fortunate, blessed as you are, what must it be to me, who in all this world have only you to turn to. I love you worship you ; and you do not know the struggle each word of renunciation costs me !" He looked at her one eloquent moment as the tears brimmed up in her eyes and threatened to overflow, and then seizing her hand impetuously, led her back to the parlor they had quitted, where the two ladies still discussed the ruling topic. "If you have plans all laid, unlay them now, or change. To-mor- row I claim Leonore for my wife, however you may wail ; and lest she herself turn traitor to the project, lock her into her room at twi- light, and bar the window against all escape. It is my sovereign will am! pleasure," he said imperatively though laughing. Mrs. Venard raised her hands in deprecation. : "But the wedding-dress, and ' the bride's loaf!' Impossible !" "The dress she has on is clean and whole that's nough; and as (or biide's-loaf, bread and butter is far more wholesome if one must eat anything which I don't see." "And won't see in my house, and I don't know how you'll manage such a ceremony without. "Was ever, ever, such an unreasonable man ! Leonore, assert your own will upon this occasion, or forever after don't expect to be allowed any !" " It is useless. I have been most summarily silenced." "You've learned the whole duty of woman, in one easy lesson, eh? Well, get yourselves married at once, then, and as shabbily as you please. There's no bread in the house, and won't be ; but it is nobody's business, thank fortune !" aud half vexed, despite her laughing philosophy, Mrs. Venard locked her arm through Mrs. Bertram's and led her away for a secret council. Tortured as Lisle was by the ceaseless fear that something would- preyeut this marriage even at the 1 -st hour, it was with an audiblo TIES HOUSE BEHIND TUB POPLAK8. 243 sigh of relief that he clasped Leonore's hand more closely at the conclusion of the ceremony which made her irrevocably his, and the sweetest words he had ever heard were those which addressed her as " Mrs. Sterling." Each repetition of that name sent a thrill to his heart, audible confirmation, as it was, of a happiness which even yet seemed unreal and illusory. But for the merriment of the little circle around them, the wedding would have been a solemn affair indeed, deeply moved as were both Lisle and Leonore by secret emotions but half confessed by either ; hers, at least, bordering closely upon the tragical, by the very circumstances she had defied in thus becoming his wife against what she had declared her own sense of honor, while his own felicity was disturbed by the thought that thus he had brought her under the shadow of the curse over- hanging his life, wholly unconscious of it as she was. By some enchantment a wedding-dress had been evoked, and even the bride's lo:if entered a beautiful appearance at the proper time, in utter refutation of Mrs. Venard's seeming inhospitality in exulting that there was "no bread ' with which to honor ihe occa- sion. It seems a sort of righteous vengeance upon the lords of crea- tion for so universally eschewing cake and comfits, that they are po- litely compelled to do honor to them upon their wedding-day, and Lisle was more liberally helped, for the vivid remembrance that he had expressed a preference for bread and butter upon ;hi=s occasion. Only Mr. Bertram, by his taciturn deportment, seemed to regard the occasion as anything but a family merry-making ; and for his unpopular reproof, silent as it was, he was compelled to suffer penance, and even to be wrapped in a winding-sheet as a fitting ac- companiment to his " graveyard face," as it was irrevently termed. " He always would look, upon wedding occasions, as though he were beholding a second Daniel called to judgment, or, more properly, cast into a lion's den," his wife declaied ; and thus com- pelled in very self-defence to put a better face upon the matter, ho reserved his serious one to grace the comments in which he indulged in the privacy of his hearthstone. "'When a man marries, he sees the end of his troubles, but one doesn't say which end,' " he quoted with proper emphasis and expression to his wife, who, not captivated by the quotation already worn quite threadbare by former applications, oflered no reply, and he continued more seriously but with equal emphasis. " Lisle Sterling has this day entered into a contract for the making and enduring of more misery than often falls to the lot of two inclivid- 244 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLABS. uals, married or single. Mark my words, Mattie Bertram ! He will kill Leonore by ceaseless suspicion if not downright injustice, and she will crag his life and pride out of him by torturing inches! Of all the marriages I ever was doomed to witness, this is the most positively fearful. I really wished, for both their svkes, that the winding-sheet in which you thought it such sport to wrap me, had been needed for them ; and as surely as you live, one or both of them will sigh for it before three years pass over their heads." " Oh, Bertram; what a kind of evil omen you do make yourself! You will fall into the clutches of some ornithologist, yet, and I thall live to see you stuffed and put up in a museum. 1 Said I to the man what conducted the show, Is this the individual called ' " Before the " William Barlow " could be added, her husband checked her by an exclamation not amiably uttered. " Are women possessed by the very demon of malice, or what is it sets every mother's daughter among them quite demente 1 at the very name of a wedding ! No matter how selfish she may have been all her life she will sacrifice the last rag off her back and go petti- coatless to bed. if 'the bride" 1 has need of it! You ought to have more sense, admiration-struck as you have always been with Leonore, and friend, as you profess to be, to Lisle himself! 1 ' " Don't croak any more to-night, there's a good f How ! I'm de- cidedly in good spirits, and would like to go to sleep so, just for the curiosity of the thing. Variety is a spice of which I see so little in this respect ; and it is said to be excellent," returned his wife good humoredly. " Humph !" rejoined Mr. Bertram with his usual brief eloquence ; but she did not rally at the sound, battle cry as it was, and actually laughed in her sleep, after it ! THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLABS. 245 CHAPTER XXII. " WELL, mother, Lisle is married," announced Edward as he and Julie returned from their drive to the post-office, with the expected letter. " What ! Lisle married ?" ejaculated the old lady placing her spectacles high upon her forehead and fixing her eyes upon Ed- ward incredulously. " I don't wonder you are unbelieving such a woman-hater 'as he was by instinct excuse me, Julie ; I mean by nature. Many is the time I have seen him climb the fence and mike a detour through the bushes to avoid meeting in the road a well-behaved, inoffensive sunbonnei ! I thought he'd go into fits once when he got hung by his little breeches to a rail, and couldn't get down till the old fem- inine was fairly upon him, a decent old party who merely ejaculated ' ma-^sy sakes !' as the sound of ripping and tearing saluted her ears in Lisk's last desperate struggle to get a clearance. He seemed to think old women perambulated the country, upon spanking tours ; and the girls shamed him by making him play light infantry parts, long after he was too large to be carried 'visiting' and have his gums felt of relatively to ' teething.' Thus he owed a grudge to the whole sex." " He was the merest sneak of a child ; that's true ;'' affirmed Mrs. Sterling scornfully; " a perfect girl-baby that all (he boys despised, and no wonder. Nobo ly knows the cross he was to me ! Precious little Fitzjames there is ; n him !" " Why, mother, the last time he was here you insisted that he was the living image of some feminine Fitzjames now invisible to mortal ken ! I roally fancied you were going to take him into favor for his foresight and ^ elf-providence in the matter." "I never said he was like, for I never thought it," asserted Mrs. Sterling stoutly. " He is his father all over again, as I knew ha would be." " Well, he certainly is as gifted in personal resemblances as a c.it 246 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLABS. is said to be in lives. Father will be glad to know he's all ' Ster- ling,' at last though only yesterday you said he was 'all Kelley,' as you often do." " Well, I say so now, don't I ? And he's married, is he ?" " Yes, and I'm to be adopted into his family. He writes me that he has it all arranged, and will liave it so ; and I'm very sure he will encounter no opposition from me. I never did fancy being a ruero pilUpeddler in a country town." "What, Edward! go away, and your uncle Jonathan's whole family down with the measles P' sai 1 Mrs. Sterling with surprised reproof. " Yes, it is an extensive practice, I know ; but I'm not sure I should earn either fortune or fame out of it, if I remained. There's a very good boil and rheumatism run of custom, too, that I'll make over, gratis, to whoever will take my place here." " But you've got all Doctor Kelley's old practice, I'm sure." "No, mother, I've put most of it under ground, and it doesn't eeem to sprout up again. Someway modern practice doesn't seem to agree with ancient constitutions. It is like putting new wine into old bottles, and, as father would say, ' there's scripter against it.' I must seek a new field where constitutions are less cranky and set in their way." " Who on earth ever would marry Lisle ? She can't be much," said tlie old lady abruptly returning to the subject. " That a mother-in-law's welcome, I'm sure," laughed Edward, vexed as he was by her life-long detraction of Lisle for whom she had never shown anything like maternal affection. " I'll take the news to father, who will give it a warmer welcome." "What is it to him ?" demanded the old lady irately. " A new daughter at least, if not that perpetuity of the family name, so dear to most old people. Mr. and Mrs. Lisle Sterling ought at once to be introduced to the second page of the family record in the big Bible still guiltless of anything better than a suggestive arrays of blanks after the important babel 'married.' Father will record it before he eats his dinner." " What did you say her name is, Edward ?" " Leonore Wakefield ' that teas,' as old ladies have it, is Leonore Sterling." "Leonore Wakefield, that is to say Leouore Kelley wi!e of Wil- liam Kelley, deceased and Julie his half sister," murmured llr.. Sterling incoherently, as the vacant look so familiar to her face, THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 247 came over it again ; and having swayed herself to and fro in mo- mentary silence, she sj.rang up exclaiming angrily, " It's all a lie, a base lie, I don't caro who says it. The doctor was a hypocrite, but he's still looke I on as a saint. Who'll believe it ?" She looked upon her auditors in angry questioning ; but no reply being given to so strange a salutation, she turned and walked abruptly away. Julie turned a half terrified glance toward Edward, who said with something like grim satisfaction, " Ob, Lord, thy judgments are just ! It verily seems like a retri- bution upon her, that all her mental trouble is suffered for Lisle's sake. Do you remark that it is only when his name is mentioned that these freaks come over her ? One would really think .that the sound of it is a maddening reproach which she cannot endure. She has hated him from his birth, but he is avenged." " Oh, Edward, I am so glad you will go away with me! Every thing here is so dreary and horrible ; while you and Lisle will be so happy together again." " I don't know ; he is married now, and matrimony changes every one, however unconsciou-ly to himself. I could feel jealous of his wife for coining between us, did I not know how unreasonable it would be." " Lisle is married, and you may be. When you find some one who cares for you more than a brother ever could, you will make the ex- change with full as little compunction, without asking if you are wronging him." "Do you think that is possible, Julie? Would Iny one care that much for me, even if I had hung their doll-babies and bled their old 'Mahomets' in my less well-behaved days ?" She colored under the peculiar look he bent upon her as he asked the laughing question, and the suspicion seized her that a deeper meaning lay beneath a thought for which she the next instant re- proved herself. Over one year ago she had made the same mistake in regard to Lisle, she would never be so foolish again. It was still loss probably that Edward regarded her as anything dearer than a friend and companion, reared together as they had been, often enough seriously at variance when she resented his boyish cruelty to her pets. She was only the well-grown " dummy " of his child- hood, whom Punch and Judy had cea-e! to amuse, and toward whom he was merely ' varying his treatment," as he doubtlessly mentally commented. The long and repeated separations between 248 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. them hal quite destroyed (he old time tie of brother and ?i!er. ns she felt while blaming hei self for being obliged ! o confess: a ul ilu-ir mutual relationship w<:s altogether free from the careless freedom of fraternal intercourse. Edward noted the fact before she furly admitted it to herself, and he secretly rejoiced nt it, first step in his progress as it wa-. i for him that she should regard him with utttr indifference, than that she should love him only as a brother and so m >ek him with a species of affection he could not tolerate from her. He h.-id now ns much in his favor as any stranger ; he would win or lose in a f iir field ; and his heart gave one exulting bound as he marked the blush his words had called up. It was the first gleain of real en- couragement that had dawned upon him ; and he tre sured it ac- cordingly. Unhesitatingly, joyfully adopting Lis'e's project for his change of residence, he sat about it at once, despit - his father's weak-minded opposition. Mr. Sterling had always considered a city as the very sink of iniquity, and its people utterly given over to ungo lliness and evil-doing ; and the idea of his sons thus being given over to the pow.r of the tempter, was a horrible one. Tlie awful <-tory of Sodom and Gomorrah v.a^ hourly repea'ed as a warning agni: cities, and when it was disregarded, he proceeded to personal pro- test, "I never approved of Lisle's deserting his own country and off to the southern one to live ; but he was out from under my guar- dianship, as he had so long looked only to his uncle, fle always was a proud boy, and not enough like the Sterlings to heed any warning or advice when he'd got his mind set on a thing. Don't you rush headlong into destruction by flying agninst the wishes of them that are placed over you by an all-wi;e and merciful Provi- dence/' ' I don't know whether my being ' let down ' at the mill ho-: grandmother used to have it. is altogether a striking proof of wisdom and mercy. I used even to doubt it, ;;s you nvy remember, ever you may call it, I'm sure I can improve upon the idea, and I claim the privilege.'' " ' Honor your father and your mother, that your days nny be long in the land,'" said the old gentleman impres-ive y. "In m children were respectful to ti cir parents. I never thought of - up my will against that of my lather, nor of my mother wh: kept her reason." THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 249 Mrs. Sterling took up the reply. Whatever her wishes might have been, uninfluenced by her husband's opinion, his disapproba- tion of any project was always sufficient reason for her advocating it; and she came to Edward's defence with her usual system of tactics. " And who are you, or your parents, that you should set yourself up to judge a real Fit zjanies like Edward? You Sterlings always were a siow thinking, bat like lot, a hundred years behind the times ; and the old woman, crazy as she was, had more seuse left iu her than all the rest of you put together ever had. Ton know how much that was. You ought to know that them that has plenty of spirit, and an ambition to get to be something in the world, can't go inaudling through life like you Sterlings." Mr. Sterling looked up meekly, yet with some honest pride, as he answered, "I know, Lydia, we ain't so brilliant as some, and never were; but we are honest, hard-working, God-fearing people, and I never knew any one of the name to do a mean or low thing. We deserve respect, at least." " Well, for my part I don't know what's meaner and lower than stinginess," resorted his wife bitterly. " It mayn't take a man to the gallows, but it ought to. Lisle may have hitched a decent reputation to the name, and Edward is right to go where he'll have the benefit of it." The old man moved uneasily in his chair, and rubbed his large red knuckles with the palm of each hand alternately, as if fancying that, like the Wonderful Lamp of Aladdin, they were capable of vast resources under judicious friction, but no satisfactory logic having been derived from the process, he deposited them in a heap upon his knee, and said in a cowed manner, " I ain't finding fault with our boys, Lydia. They are good boys, and I'm thankful they are smarter than their father; but it's nateral, nnd it's right, for parents* to want to keep their children at home." " ' Children !' One of 'em is married, and the other old enough to be. You'll never realize it till you see a snail of grand children nr amd under foot." Silenced but uot convinced, he said no more, only shaking his lioad seriously from time to time rts preparations for the departure were completed. Separation usually opens wide the heart before closing it forever, and Mrs. Sterling grew quite corditl towaid Julie, in its bare contemplation, making a last effort even at com- liin< nt. 250 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. " I expect the next I hear of you, will be that you are a marrieJ lady ever so fine and gay ! There ain't many any prettier than you are. The Kelleys must have been a handsome race, for your father was something wonderful here among these common people. Common folks will look common, and you can't beat it out of 'em !" Edward laughed. " That's a clencher, mother, for you know what ' can't be beaten out,' won't come out at all. There's nothing like maternal experience !" " One thing I wish could be beaten into you, even yet. You've no more gallantry in you than an off ox! I don't believe you ever said boo to a girl, or ever will." " The fact is, when I was young enough to have used so persua- sive a word of endearment as ' boo,' I was so ragged or bepatched that the girls wouldn't listen to me. The idea of a fellow being iu love with a patch on his breeches ! Julie, were you ever in love ?" She looked embarrassed and self-conscious, but gayly replied, " Why, to be sure ! Didn't half my candy money go for senti- mental cards, which, as everybody who ever had an attack of 'first affection,' knows are most indispensable accompaniments ! As long ago, too, as I can remember, some youngster whose viry name I have forgotten, gave me a gold washed ring with an. emblematical heart on it, which I verily thought, for ever so long, was a flat iron ! and as I remember it now, it certainly did more resemble one ! ' "If you don't go through anything more serious than that, you'll never know what trouble is," ejaculated Mrs. Sterling oracularly. " Think if you should git rnaniedto find yourself tied to a skiuflint ! That's trouble." Mr. Sterling raised his head with something like spirit. " Seems to me you are talking awful foolish. The troubles as come through courting and buch nonsense, are all imagination ; nothing else. Wait till the potatoes get the rot in spite of a merciful Provi- dence, and the very hoive you drive to meeting eats himself up twice over every year, what with the high prico of feed, and you'll begin to see facts instead of imagination. I shan't have anything to leave you, Edward, and it's right you should be told it in time to calcu- late according." "I thought it would bring up in money," sneered Mr. Sterling; " but it w. s going a long way round to tell you, Edward, that he never intends to give you a cent after you go away." " I never did h-.ivc so many that I shall miss them. I don't want any, father." THE HOUSE BEHIND TliE POPLAIIS. 251 Mrs. Sterling pulled her son by the sleeve, and whispered, " Your father is richer than you think, and I'll see that you get your share when he's done with it. Lisle shan't walk off with all this, as I've no doubt your father would like ; he ain't entitled to a dollar of it, and he shan't have it. You are the only one of my children I ever cared for, and I'll look out for you see if I don't. When will you come to see me ?" " Whenever you want me, if I can. I'm not going to the Pole, mother.' 1 They were ready for a start, at last, and leaving his wifo sobbing iu the door, Mr. Sterling followed them to the carriage. "Don't lay up anything against your mother, Edward, neither on your own account or Lisle's. She's had a hard, dull life of it, and is failing fast in her mind. I never was the kind of husband she ought to have married, and I've often wondered how she come to take up with me. I ain't in any way her equal, and it's maybe nateral she should kind of despise me. I don't mind it of her. She's always been a good wife to me ; I'll say that." There was a mistiness in his eyes, and he spoke the last words kindly, even tenderly for him. Edward shook the hand his father extended him in parting, and, little reverent as he was by nature, a something that was more than admiration of the patient, laithi'ulold man, blended with the compassion he felt for him. What would have been his emotions toward him, had he known, as did Lisle, that this to him incomprehensible marriage in which the poor victim felt himself so honored, was a shameful story begin- ning in dishonor and en'ding in contempt, heaped upon him by the unscrupulous woman in whose praise he always testified, and to whose children he appealed to judge her tenderly? Edward might do so; but Lisle never could find one pleading voice for her hi the heart she had outraged from the timo of its earliest throb. Mora than suspecting that he knew the miserable secret of his birth, she had watched him with a jealous eye from the hour that made it known to him, and, callous against the contempt she knew he must feel toward her, she gloried in the consciousness that he must suffer every pang a spirit so proud could suffer under such a load of shame. Young as he had learned it, pride and natural reserve had prevented him from lisping one word, as she knew it would. Mr. Sterling still clung to him with that partiality over his other chil- dren that had followed him from his childhood, and his wife was too calculating and ungenerous to see that in very pity Lisle returned 252 TUB HOUSE BEHIXD THE POPLAU3. him an affection and tender respect that ho might never othe: wise have conceived for him. They were separated now, it was true, and her own f.-.vorite would soon be far from her sight. Let the old man doat on his false son whom he doubtless meant to make his heir ; she would, if necessary, defy Lisle to accept such a benefaction from one upon whom he had no claim, or to share one dollar of the est ite left by the old man who owed it to his children. It never occurred to her that L : sle himself would adopt such a view of the affair : judging him by herself, as she did, he "would take all that was offered him, and feel a real triumph over her that he had secured it; and ? :c planned and schemed in her busy brain over the old man's de ith, with a malice that increasing years had done nothing to deaden. It was as if the whole strength of her nature found expression in three sentiments ; affection for her second born, hatred of Lisle, a;-.d con- tempt for her husband. It was not so much the voice of conscience, as this ever present hatred and contempt, that kept her seciet forever on her lips and caused her so nearly to reveal it In the clays of her strength, she had kept it under by force of will; but her strength and her will were leaving her now, and she never seemed to realize the danger that menaced her from her own lips and deportment, protected as she was only by tha unsuspecting minds around her } which attributed her words to a disordered intellect, rather than recognized them as the revelations of a weakened one. After Edward's and Julie's departure, the lipple their presence had created upon the monotonous surface of life at the mill-house g ive place once more to the old time dreariness. The very mirrors, unpretending and amb tionless as they were. urL-w we:iry of the un- varying reflections to which they were condemned, while the old eight-day clock seemed to grow taller and narrower, day by <_1 its shadowed niche where it swung a ponderous pendulum in air with a never ceasing " tick-tack " whose com plaining voice di chronicled the hours as they went dragging by. Loveless and cheerless as the old place ever had been, Edward turned hopefully to the new life that beckoned him on, stro;i ' in will to do, and joyful in heart that tins he was to be reunite-! to thu brother whose exile years before had snapped the last natural fibre that bound his heart to their boyhood's home. ' "What limb of the evil one is that who serves you as gardener, Lisle V asked Edward the morning after his arrival, as he C..HK- in from THE nOTTSTS BEHIND THE POPLARS. 253 a (our of the grounds whose beauty had attracted him from his pil- low long before the household was astir. "With imperturbable grav- ity, Lisle replied. "That is the 'unprofitable partner ' of my worthy housekeeper ; and he rejoicis in the name of Joseph commonly styled Joe." " Well, it is a shame to obscure his brilliant talents under so humble a calling'. He would make a splendid politician; he has every requisite for that protean and devious calling." " Yes, I flatter myself that he has talents of a rather uncommon order. Has he already revealed them to your admiration ?'' " I may say lie has dimly foreshadowed them, though ho would doubtlessly do himself and. your choice more credit under more favorable auspices. He was hampered by a limited field for opera- tions.'' "Been 'speculating,' as he calls it, I presume. Were you so unsophisticated as to entrust him with money ?" "Not much. I sent him for some cigars, as he was seemingly overburdened, with leisure. The doz^n turned, out only ten, and the change was as short as it well could be and be any. I didn't accuse him. for he looked so sanctimonious I really couldn't ; but I admire his talent." " And his assurance, you will add when you have seen it. We'll have him in when breakfast is over. He is a cool genius." When breakfast was served and dispatched, Lisle touched the bell, and the dismissed waiter reappeared. "Send Jo-eph to me," he said briefly; and Leonore raised the morning paper, that she might at least seemingly be interested in its contents, and so avoid the appealing looks she knew Joseph would turn upon her if he were severely quizzed ; or even justly reproved. After a brief interval his lagging footsteps were heard approaching, and in due time he appeared in the doorway, bowing subduedly over his rather mature hat into whose crown his eyes remained devoutly bent. "Did you buy some cigars this morning for Doctor Sterling ?" " Yes, sir. It wasn't, strictly speaking, my business, but I did it che; rfully." " I've no doubt ; but you brought only ten instead of twelve. How is this ?' Joseph moved uneasily from one foot to the o her, and lifted a glance of profound reproach to Edward's f ice, before replying in a melancholy tone, "I was obleeged to give back two, because t,;e 254 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE TOPLAUS. boy couM n't make even change for a dozen. Small change is getting tremendous scarce, sir." " Just so the doctor thought this morning Now, Joseph, make up the account." With another reproachful glance around him which no one re- sponded to, he with a sigh of wordless complaint slowly turneil one of h s pockets inside out, and evolved from its deepest corner a pica- yune which he placed ne ir Edward's cup. "Well, go on," said Lisle encouragingly, as Joseph hesitated. Another profound sigh accompanied a similar experiment upon (he other pocket, and a dime reluctantly appeared and was laid be- side the picayune. "Goon, Joseph; be honest, for once, if it takes a limb!" Lisle again exhorted ; and too much depressed even to sigh, Josepli pulled forward one of his coat-tails, from whicli he dragged forth a quarter, bent on it a most affectionate gaze, and retained it in his not fastidi- ous palm. " Well, proceed. You improve with every effort." Throwing back the coat-tail he had ret-iined between his thtimb nnd finger, Joseph tapped his reversed hat upon the crown, shook his coat by the collar and his pantaloons by the logs, then raised his cm;,ty hands in testimony that nothing more was to be found. Tho comically serious expression of his lantern-jawed face effected Ed- ward's risibles, and Julie echoed the laugh. Lisle looked still in- credulou , and reading the injurious doubt of his innocence, Joseph raised his eyes and hands toward the ceiling in solemn attestation, as he dolefully exclaimed, " In the name of my mother and my unknown father, Tve stole only one little, sad, miserable picayune! It's little enough, lord kr.ows 1" " So it is," laughed Edward, " and since you confess that you did steal it, nothing more is necessary. Accept my blessing, oh, Joseph, and the quarter with it ; and may the reward of a virtuous con- science go with you." With a gesture of virtuous resignation, Joseph placed upon tho table the coin he had heretofore been unable to release, say ng with an air of \ lous dignity, "No, sir, I couldn't bring myself to keep what is plain enough be- grudged mo. That as I isn't welcome to, I couldn't take from ar.y body. There is them as nin't dead set agin a poor fellow making a little something by way of speculation ; but from them as is, I rdiality and em- pressement. Fully appreciating the influencing cause for this change in their deportment, Leonore herself remained perfectly unchanged toward all, with a calm disdain of owing anything to an eligible marriage, which would not have been accorded her upon her individual mer- i's ; and though gracefully courteous to a 1, she dignifiedly repressed this newly conceived cordiality, by seeming utterly unconscious that it had sprung into existence. Lisle watched her with silent but ap- proviug admiration, for, like most who assume the prerogative of thinking for themselves, he had little sympathy for those who bow only to position, and discover merit only when joined with eclat. As for Julie, naturally refined and graceful as she was piquant and pretty, the c'rcle by which she was surrounded, while it cheered and enlivened her, imparted to her manner that indescribable clvirm and polish acquired only by familiar intimacy with the highest society ; and Lisle regirded with excusable pride the; wile and ward who THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 263 formed an unfailing attraction to any vicinity or circle they chanced to be in. Despite Mr. Bertram's repeated prophecies and forebodings, not a cloud was as yet visible in their domestic horizon ; and if Mrs. Bertram indeed had in any way lent her assistance at match- making, as he had accused her from the first, she was not yet threatened with a matchmaker's remorse, nor did she feel any premonition of the reproaches usually visited upon this dubious class of friends. Upon tlie contrary, the mutual friendship existing between herself and Leonore was invigorated and brightened by the familiarity which had been established between them since Mrs. Sterling felt that she was giving as much as she received in a social point of view, and she no longer complained of the unapproachable- ness which had before continually chilled her in their intercourse. Leonore appeared, as she wa?, unfeignedly happy ; and if the old familiar shadows still lowered above her, they were invisible even to the penetrating eyes of Mrs. Venard, who, better than any other, knew that they were banished only for the time. Leonore'a struggles against the love that had conquered her at last, proved that the troubles surrounding and oppressing her were not thus easily surmountable. What these troubles were, remained an unrevealed mystery, the past as much unguessed as what the future h Id in store ; and Mrs. Venard looked upon the smiling 1 resent with eyes that forever dreaded the approach of evil, she knew not in what form to appear. It seemed to her that Leonore herself luxuriated in her present happiness as one who feared that at any moment it might be snatched away, that at times she shrank with a visible shudder from a s-pectral hand that threatened her, with what? She queried in vain, not in idle curiosity, but from tint real and lasting affection which had never wavered since she first clasped Leonore's hand protectingly. She saw without one sensitive feeling, that now, during these hours in which she seemed determined to be happy, Leonore avoided her ever tenderly watchful eyes, and seemed more thorough- Iv at ease with Mrs. Bertram, whose unsuspecting cheerfulness and chatty gayety reassured her ; for she knew that should real trouble ngain darken her life, her own would be the heart to which Leonoro would turn for aid and comfort, could such be afforded her. Whatever may be the skeptical creed of the world relative to "society friendships," that such friendship does exist, pure, gon- crous, and devoted, among the many " summer-day " profession?' 20 1 TIIE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAttS. of if, is a holy truth. Strange, indeed, should the influences which soften and brighten lifu itself, render the heart cold and calculat- ing ! Jt is experience with the harsh, bitter side of life, not its sunny one, that makes us cold and selfish, and misanthropical. Scarcely a day passed without that interchange of courtesy and companionship which so brighten the links of the most casual friendship, between the little coterie that was almost rx family one from its long and close intimacy ; and Mrs. Bertram's unceremoni- ous entrance into the Sterling parlor upon one particular morning, awoke no surprise in its two lady occupants, nor did the character- istic explosion to whicii she treated them aw.-ike more than a smile, us, tossing her hat into the farthest corner, she exclaimed, " This is one of my bad days at home ; so I have come visiting, in search of a cure for ' spells.' Not that like Mrs. Gumnudge I'm ' thinking of the old ' un ;' it is pure wilful depravity, a bona fide ' spell ' of the most aggravating variety. Do you ever have them ?" Leon ore smiled as she wheeled forward a chair for her friend. " How can you ask such a question, when to answer it involves either a fib or a humiliating confession ? But to be frank, I fancy that ] re:illy possess capabilities that way, that might, under evoking circum- stances, yield me considerable notoriety. Ask Julie. She has had enough experience with me in more than three months, to judge.' 1 " Well, if I am desired to answer truthfully, I must say that I thought you decidedly gifted in that way the day after my arrival. Do you remember how unceremoniously you treated me to a mental shower-bath? 1 ' "It was amply excusable! Be careful not to deserve another now, as you will if you enter into particulars," Leouore replied, with u finger raised warningly. Julie hastened to make amends, and said earnestly, "Oh, that is the one time, Leonore, that I have ever had reason to think you hasty or inconsiderate. But I was so muc i interested in the subject that day discussed, and the right arguments wouldn't, come to me; while Lisle was so unmerciful that I wanted your help." " It was not a case for argument. None would have helped the afiair." Mrs. Bertram smiled approvingly. " Sensible woinnn, to have learned that a cause had better be left to stand on its own merits, than, to be afflicted with a tottering argument. So few ever learn THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAKt 2tH) this, that it ought to be taught with one's alphabet, that the only excuse there is for talking at all, is that one has something either forcible or original to say. It really seems as if originality were se- cured to a favored few by patent right, or something equally unin- fringable." Julie smiled. " That re nark savors of aspiring authorship. II really quite reminds me, by affinity, of a lady aspirant for literary honors whom I met last sumrmr at Niagara, and who, now I think of it, may be some relative of these Venards, as that was her name. I make my bow to you for the insinuation, Mrs. Bertram, but this young lady of who-n you reminded me, is more direct than always polite or flattering in her remarks. She spoke of knowing youi liege lord, Leonore." " Miss Phebe, by all that is probable !'" exclaimed Mrs. Bertram, " So that wonderful book is out, is it ?" " I never heard what one, but she passed for an authoress, as well as an heiress. Is she either, or both ?" " Oh, yes, to a certain extent. She writes love stories, if that is ta be an 'authoress' a huge name for a small business nncl she ha? some property in her own right, by her mother, and will have mon as a reward for getting married, when she thus lets her father out o< purgatory." " Such young ladies are more to be pitied than ridiculed," said Leonore gently. " Miss Phebe was not overburdened with sound sense, and she was too little of a hypocrite to conceal of defi iences. But she was not bad-hearted, or she never would have forgiven Lisle for his merciless quizzing. I used often to feel sorry for her." "By the way," asked Mrs. Bertram, " didn't we hear that she was married, some time last summer ?" " Yes, but I quite forget the name of the happy man. It was no one I ever heard of before, and I doubt if Mrs. Venard, herself, could tell it now without referring to the letter. A Mr. somebody, whom she met at the Falls, 1 believe. Have you any idea who it was, Julie ?" "Not the least. She had quite nn assortment of beaux, of all stylos and description ; but no one seemed especially favored when I left. She had not the best reputation for amiability among those who care for that old-fashioned virtue.' "Oh, she is abundantly equipped with the side arms of matri- mony temper and a good will of her own ! She'll never die from being over-snubbed," laughed Mrs. Bertram. 266 THB HOUSE BEHIND Tflfe POPLAB8. Leonore gave an arch glance at her friend, as she said with play- ful railery, " Julie, let me tell you that one of Mrs. Bertram's striking pecu- liarities is keeping a keen look-out for what sh ; styles ' snub.-,' or 'snubbing,' a production of social and domestic life, -which, as I understand it, yields more fruit th in flowers. Deal gently with her monomania." " Oh, it's very well to style it monomania ! You and Lisle haven't been married long enough yet for him to be anything but perfec- tion ; but he'll come to it in time. Julie, if you wish to retain a fa- vorable opJnion of yourself, don't mnrry." " I won't tliis year, thank you." The three ladies laughed ; but Mrs. Bertram piq^antly rejoined, " He who ha^ never been snubbed, has a sensation in reserve, and I'd advise him to keep it in an anticipatory condit. on as long as pos- sible. Make the most of your last year of grace, Julie, if you are really bent upon a ' love match,' as at your precious age I suppose you are." "I don't know. Lisle's theory is that love and good sense seldom go together that is, they don't ' hunt in pairs;' and I am prosaieal enough to prefer more sense, even at the cost of less love.~ " Well, don't look for too much, which is equally to be dreaded. A husband with some sense is inclined to give his wife credit for possessing a little : but one with too much, can never be brought to belive that she his any ! Unfortunately, sense and egotism go hand in hand, paradoxical a? it seems." Leonore pressed her hands laughingly upon her temples, as she exclaimed, *' Ah me! Poor Mrs. "Wragg's unfor:unat. j , head was never in such a whirl, with her omelette, as is mine wi:h your matrimonial ethics ! People never did marry by rule, and they never will ; so where is the use of trying to make them ]" " There is none at all ; so, to change the subject, how is the In- fant r" " I regret to tell you that the Infant is in a melancholv condition. Her son-in-law, who:ii Lisle styles 'the fat boy,' last night regaied himself with the luxury of a lodging in the ' lock up.' It m iy Le a comfortable haven of rest, but it isn't aristocratic, and Mrs. Per- kins bemoans it accordingly. Moreov_r, Melissa his wife, has an heir, who is to be measled, and whooping-coughed, and have his or her teeth umbrella knobed into existence, under the auspices ol tho THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 267 old lady herself, as babies don't seem to flourish upon nothing, to which thh one is heir. I daren't tell Lisle the afflictions of his household, nor that I this hour paid the vagrant's fine, to enable him to go home and make the acquaintance of his family." " I wonder if it was the persuasive Joe who moved you to that act of compassion," said Julie. " He must be most eloquent in his frequent appeals to your generosity, if one can judge by tbeir suc- cess." "Yes, I'm most tender hearted; and Joseph has had the penetra- tion to perceive, and the talent to avail himself of the fact." The reply was laughingly made, but there was a spasmodic move- ment of the hand lying idly upon her lap, that belied the lightness of her manner. As if the very allusion to him were sufficient to invoke his pres- ence, at that instant Joseph himself appeared in the doorway, and mutely beckoned Leonore toward him. Wondering what could be his mission, she approached him, and with an air of sanctimonious astuteness he placed a tiny envelope in her hand half concealed among the folds of her dress. Raising her hand with an impulsive movement, she read the inscription, and then asked in surprise, "Why do you deliver to others the messages not intended for them ? Did you not see that this letter is for Miss Julie ?" " Oh, ma'm, it's all right then, is it ? The thing looked strange like, being as the cove what give it to me told me over and over again to ' give it into Miss Kelley's own hand ;' so says I to myself, don't you do it, Joe ; don't you do no such thing. Just you give it to the madam, instead ;' and then says I, ' that's what I will ;' and if you'll take my advice, you'll read it. It couldn't do no harm, you know." "Joseph, you are incorrigible. Keep your lips closed, and in future do exactly aach me. I THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 2G9 trust your letter was a pleasant one, Julie. It was an example of Joseph's usual stupidity, bringing it to me.'' It was not a pleasant letter, nor had it been gladly received. But for the presence of Mrs. Bertram, Julie would have told her so. As it was, she said nothing beyond a mere word of thanks for the interest displayed ; but the affectionate glance which accom- panied it restored Leonore's serenity, and gradually the shadows cleared from her face. Whatever had been the source of her dis- comfort and alarm, she had reasoned against it successfully, and re- sumed her part in the conversation with her customary spirit long before Lisle's btep in the hall reminded them how the hours were passing. (""Our liege lords have come home for dinner!" exclaimed Mrs. Bertram, hastily scrambling her worsteds together preparatory for flight. " You needn't be frightened at my husband. He is always amia- ble," said Leonore, amused by Mrs. Bertram's precipitation. At that moment Lisle threw open the door and entered. He was flushed and excited, evidently not pleasantly ; for at the first glimpse of his face, Mrs. Bertram exclaimed, " ' Amiable !' A fond wife's delusion ! May I never see a thunder- cloud !" Scarcely acknowledging the satirical salutation, Lisle handed his wife a latter already unfoldel for perusal, and said imperatively, " Read that, Leonore ; read it aloud." She took it mechanically; but whether his manner had startled her, or sudden illness overwhelmed her, the page swam before her eyes, and when she would have spoken, her lips were mutely white and trembling. Seeing her agitation, Julie reached forward and took the letter from her, together with a folded enclosure which had fallen from it. " Let me read it, Leonore. My eyes are younger than yours, if you won't resent the assertion." Her smile gave place to a look of surprise and attention as the first words caught her eye ; a glad surprise, a pleased interest ; and in a voice which no effort could quite render firm, she said, " LISLE STERLING, Esq., SIR, Enclosed please find a draft on the Bank of Commerce, for the amount of which you have doubtless considered yourself robbed, since I had an imperative necessity for it which brooked no demy nor ceremony. Although a portion of this sum is justly mine, a* a share of the profits of our co-partnership which atthat time exi.-tcu, 270 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. I refund the whole amount taken, with interest to date ; that, so far from having any just cause of complaint again&t me, you may be satisfied that your money was profitably invested. I believe, sir, that I am no longer under obligation to you ; and should we meet, ns very probably we often may. I shall consider myself entitled to that courtesy from you which one gentleman ex- tends to another. My misfcntune ; -fault, if you please proved your gam, since by it you enjoy a fortune of which one-half would otherwise have betn mine ; in consideration of which, you may well sacrifice personal enmity if you yet cherish it, and allow me to sub- scribe myself, Yours most obliged, Louis HARTLEY." A profound silence succeeded to the last word, during which Julie absently toyed with the draft she had not unfolded. A strange smile wreathed Leouore's lips, as, extending her hand, she took the paper and ran her glance over it. "Do you imagine this is genuine that it is collectable?" she asked. " I did not till I tested it, but it is good aa the gold itself." His lips were compressed, and he paced the floor as if struggling to suppress his excitement. " That is the only surprising part of it," Leonore rejoined, tossing the scrap upon the carpet with a disdainful gesture. il How did you receive it ?" Julie asked, prompted by an unre- btrainable curiosity to know if Lisle and Hartley had met. " Froniiny Post Office box ; dropped, as you see by the envelope. The rascal must be in the city, or his emissaries are near. I would give half my life to encounter him !'' " For what, Lisle ?" " To see if he has the physical capacity to swallow both the draft and his insulting letter! By Heaven, he shall do it !" " Lisle, Lisle, in the name of justice, stop !" Julie exclaimed. "Who speaks of justice and that man? 'Justice!' It would hang him higher than Hainan 1 Julie, Louis Hartley murdered my old uncle ! do you understand ? Murdered him ! ' Both Julie and Leonore were struck speechless; and pitying the emotion exhibited by all, Mrs. Bertram ventured an expostulation. " Don't be unreasonable in your anger, Lisle. Mr. Fitzjames was an old gentleman, already feeble and quite broken. How can you say that Hartley's crime, with all its stinging ingratitude, hastened his death by an hour ? It is only your supposition." " Whatever it be, whether fact or supposition, I hold him respon- sible ; and what the law in its technicalities, will never give me, my THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 271 right arm shall exact of him. There are wrongs for which the law offers no redress. Who, then, should be judge and jury ?" "What would you do ?" aske.l Julie, pale and trembling. " 'Do ?' Horsewhip him to begin with, a3 a dog who had bitten me and after well, words are meaningless." ' % Lisle, you are crufil and unjust. What are you made of that you are so implacable ? What reparation would you have ?'' " I don't know what I would have ! I never asked myself upon what terms I would forgive him. I hate him ; that is all ! He can make no reparation satisfactory to such a feeling." "Lisle, Lisle, you were always stern and bitter ! You never were like others, even as a child. From disliking and distrusting the world, you have come to hate it. Is there no mercy in your nature \ Leonore, dear Leonore, speak to him, you who are so gentle and full of pity." "Don't appeal to me ; I have neither gentleness nor pity for this contemptible wretch," she replied with an expression of real loath- ing. Lisle softly stroked her hair. " Your sympathy is most welcome, Leonore. I believe you are that rare treasure among women, ' a good hater.' Thank you, dear." Mrs. Bertram arose and drew her mantle around her. " Don't go, Mrs. Bertram," said Lisle cordially. " We have not been entertaining, I confess. See now how amicably we will adjust affairs. Here, Laonore. I endow you with this draft to do with it just whatever you may decide. I never will touch it again, nor wilt I accept one dollar from the coward, by what ever name he calls it ; restitution, reparation, or peace offering ! Take it, Leonore." "Not for anything under heaven ! I would starve or beg first." " Here, then, Julie ; some one may as well have the benefit of it. No ? Then expend it in charity." "Not that either, Lisle. Place one-half of this amount to Louis Hartley's credit, since, as he says, it is justly bis. With the other half I'll buy me a wedding trouseau and a husband, thank you." " ' What comes over the devil's back,' eh, you remember the adage, Julie?" Lisle said warn ngly. ' Don't begin to croak now, Lisle. You will have to be very amiable to drive away the impression you have created. Poor Lronore looks quite worn out." So she did, with the hectic flush of excitement in her usually ;J7 % 2 THE UOUSB BEU1XD THE POPLAK3. colorless cheeks; and there was more of languor tl&an of affection in the poi-e of her head as it rested against her husband s shoulder, where he had drawn it with a caressing hand. The announcement of dinner was welcome to all, and utterly re- fusing to remain, Mrs. Bertram departed with the laughing asser- tion tb.it she expected to be dischaiged by her cook for having de- layed the hour of that ceremony in her own establishment. Edward intuitively felt that something had disturbed the serenity with which the family sat dewn to dine, and as he took his place opposite Julie, he bent an inquiring g,ance upon her. Why was it that her color would so provokingly rise whenever she most wished to seem at ease ! the could have smitten her telU tale face in vexation as she asked herself the question. However, no suspicion could be so embarrassing as the truth, and hardly car- ing what he might fancy, she hastened what was but the bare cere- mony of dining, and shut herself iuto her own room. It was rcaly the first moment she had had in which calmly to think over the po- sition in which she was placed. "So, she had acted rightly in granting Louis an interview ! He had the right to claim it since he had made the only reparation within his power for that error which Lisle so implacably refused to forgive. Suppose he never were to forgive it, should refuse his consent to their marriage ? Was she to bow to his decision and forego the fulfillment of her promise feo solemnly uiad~? Was not he alone to blame Jor the undignified secrecy of the interview she had ai ranged lor this very evening? It was foreign to her wishes, foreign to her nature thus to cover with the veil of secrecy any act which she might commit, and her spirit rose iu rebellion against the circumstances which influenced her. It was then no longer with a timid shrinking that she descended to the garden and carefully assured herself that as usual the side gate was yet unlocked, and that Joseph, whose peculiar care it was. yet remained invisible. Satisfied that she was unobserved, she went directly to the summerhouse, and seated herself to await Louis's coming. The eve- ning was cold and gray, and the rising wind h- raided a wintry storm ; but scarcely feeling the chili in she air, she waited with a breat impatience which made every moment seem an hour. She i.- the nearest city clock strike eight, and started up impatient pose she w.re to bj miss.-d. sought for! She had already waited here a quarter of hour, as impatience had led her out before tin hour the herself had named, she would remain no longer, but u THE HOUSE BEHIND XUE POPLARS. 273 the threatened danger. She turned to put the resolution into effect, but Louis himself arrested her steps in the doorway. His presence revived her courage, and with an exclamation of joy she threw her- self into his outstretched arms. The moments flew unheeded, now. Had time really stopped in its flight, it \vould not have been more unquestioned. Where now were all the reproaches she had pre- pared for him for having thus pursued her despite her prohibition? Forgotten in the joy of his presence, as contentedly she listened to his voice, and felt the happiness of being beloved. Only when tb.3 morning's events were rehearsed in answer to his queries, did that voice lose its sweetness, and jar upon her ear. " So ;" said he contemptuously, " this immaculate and all-perfect Lisle Sterling assumes the right to sit in judgment upon me even yet. What more does he demand ? Wh. t more can he w.sh of me?" "Nothing, oh nothing ! He himself admits that you can do noth- ing more. Time will lead him to realize his injustice ; he must relent and soften toward you !" " Never, Julie. He always suspected and disliked me, he is in- capable of anything soft or merciful. He was, as a boy, cold, calcu- lating, and distrustful ; thus will he be to the end of his life. Hia vaiu.ted affection for old Mr. Fitzjames was only another example of his calculation a mo^t politic and profitable one, as it proved. You speak of his wife, so I suppose some woman has been found with enough hardihood to mirry him for his fortune I imagine, since I do not see what other attraction he possesses." " No, skeptic. It was a love-match. She doesn't care for his for- tune ; I believe she would prefer him without it ; and if ever hus- b.tnd idolized a wife, he idolizes Leonore." " Leonore who?" " Why his wife, of course a Miss Leonore Wakefield, I believe, before, she eonsente.l to become Mrs. Sterling." " Leonore Wtikefield ; of what plice ?" " I don't- know that, if indeed any one does. Lisle married her here, where she was well known and much admired, I believe.'' " 1 onc knew a Miss Leonore Waketiehl a beauty so called, but too much upon the statuesque order for my fancy. Is she young ?" " Not one year Lisle's junior, and certainly a beauty." " And they quite idolize each other, eh ? ' Two souls with but a single thought, two hearts that beat as one.' Is that the idea ?" " How can you speak in that contemptuouo tone, Louis ? If you loved me, you couldn't." 274 THE HOUSE BEHIJSD THE POPLABS. " Pardon me, Julie. Other people's love affairs seem very different from one's own. I'm ture I wish Mr. and Mrs. Sterling much hap- piness, which is more than they will ever wish me. When will you make me entitled to it, Julie?" " Oh, not yet, Louis. I do not wish to marry without Lisle's con- sent, and it ib useless to expect it yet. He will change in time ; and after all, there is no occasion for haste. We are young, we can wait." " How coolly you say that ! I am not young, I cannot wait, and such a probation, stealing into corners, like a thief, for the bare privilege of seeing you ! I will not endure it, Julie. If I a'n not to meet you upon equal terms with your most indifferent acquaintance, I will claim you at once ; and if Lisle Sterling inter- feres, the consequences shall rest upon his own head." Julie shuddered at the thought of such a collision. Lisle wished for this meeting, was even now doubtlessly looking the city over for him. He was her promised hu-baud, he must not suffer for her. In distress of mind she clasped, his arm beseechingly. " Oh, Louis, go away. Leave the city for awhile at least." "Not till you give me some definite and s j tisi'actory answer, Julie. I ask you definitely, when will you become my wife ?" " At the end of one year, Louis. Give me this one year in which to win my guardian's consent to our marriage. Were I not to make every effort to gain it, I should reproach myself forever after. Think of all he has been to me, and say if I can uselessly give him pain." "Let him suffer, if he has that human capability! Others do so. Am I less to you than he, that you thus sacrifice my to a caprL e !" " It is not a caprice. But call it what you will. I am r, solved." "Julie, you do not iove me. It is as I prophesied. You have heard me reviled by Sterling and his wife, till your love has quite faded out, and, for all I know, the irresistible Edward is pressing his suit not unsuccessfully. It would seem so." ' How unreasonable and unjust you are ! ' "Tell me truly, then. Is Edward only as a brother to you ? Ah, you cannot answer! I knew it. Yet you ask me to 'go away' trom you, to ' wait.' Like all women, you are a hypocrite !'' " Then you cannot wish me for your wife," she answered coldly. " ' Wish!" 1 Good heavens, Julie ! I don't know what I wish, whut I say! I am frantic; and you stand there so coldly ! Oh, it is a simple thing for you to banish me, and that indefinitely !" THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 275 The clock struck ten. In alarm Julie sprang fiom his detaining hand. " Oh, Louis, go ! in mercy's name go. It is teu o'clock! I am dying with fright I" " When may I come again ? You will not thus say adieu for a year !" " Come Friday evening, then, at the same hour as to-night. I dare not till you to come sooner. Two evenings in succession would excite curiosity, as I am never out alone. But do be pru- dent " " Never fear. Every man in love is either a sneak or a syco- phant ! It is a part of the experience." Julie's eyes flashed resentfully. But there was no time for protest, and hastily leading him to the garden gate, she would have let him. out with hasty hand. It was locked. Joseph had carried away the key for the night ! Louis laughed. 'Oh, Louis, how can you ? Do you realize that there is no way to get through this gate ?" " I realize that there is a way to get over it. Kiss me good-bye, dearest, and you shall see how easily I defy locks and bars." He kissed her, and was gone, lightly scaling the garden paling in his egress ; and not till she turned up the pathway alone, did her alarm subside. Half way between the gate and the house she met Joseph, who, in the dark, was making a tour of the grounds with unusual watclifulness. He nodded familiarly to her as he mada way for her to pass, and said suspiciously, " It's a oncommon sort o' night for a young thing like you to be out in. Seems as it' you was belated like in your walk." " I don't see, sir, that you are called upon to make any comments," she replied with cool dignity. Joseph tu; ned and looked after her as she ascended the steps and went in ; then settling his hat more upon one side of his head, ho said with a cunning leer, " There is them as seems to think Joe Perkins is a fool." 276 1HK UOISE BEHIND iUK POPLARS. CHAPTER XXIV. THE hours succeeding to that stolen interview, were filled with eeasele.-s alarm and Apprehension to Julie, who started each time she was unexpectedly addressed, and quite trembled whenever she heard Lisle's footsteps. Had he met Louis? did he know that he had vis- ited her under his very root ? Reassured once, her fears continually returned, and she at each instant feared to hear the name, which us yet remained unmentioned, bince the day when it had caused such varied emotions. Struggling as she was between inclination and duty, she would have ventured everything guize 1 the tones of a voice not unfamiliar to her ear, and for one instant she was power, less even to move. Then rousing he self, &he pushed him from her with a movement of loathing and disgust, as sha exclaimed, " Louis Hartley, what brings you here V Seizing her arm with a grasp more eager than polite, he drew THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 283 her into the moonlight, and gazed into her face, with a mocking smile upon his lips, till, apparently satisfied, he made her a saluta- tion of mock reverence, and said, gallantly kissing her hand, " Fair Leonore, you honor me. I had not anticipated the pleas- ure of this interview." Her face actually convulsed with the Hitter scorn that rendered her speechless, and contemplating the hand he had kissed, she struck it with all her force against the lattice, and turned abruptly to leave him. Stepping before her, he barred her way. Her lips quivered with anger, and raising her hand she would have struck him had he not prevented her. She wrenched her arm from his grasp, and forcing voice she demanded, "Why are you here, Louis Hartley, and what under heaven do you want of me ?" " I want very little of you, amiable lady. I am here to see Julie.' 1 " What, have you dared to write her ? I recognized your writing in a letter addressed to her two days ago." "If you saw the letter, you doubtlessly know what it contained. You owe me no thanks, though, for my silence in regard to you, for at that time I had no suspicion whom Lisle Sterling called his wife. That knowledge came later ; but even then I was silent. Not a word or hint has passed my lips." "Incredible!" she exclaimed, fixing upon him a piercing glance. "Not at all, when you know the secret of it. I intend 10 make Julie Kelley my wife, and I can't afford to indulge in revelations." His mocking manner made her skeptical, and she replied, "Julie become the wife of such a creature as you ! Impossible." " You are not complimentary, fair lady ; but let me remind you that even ' such a creature ' has been highly favored in the past. I am not afraid to test the truth by Julie's own reply, and I hope inoinently, that, she may come to gi\e it." " She is out; gone to the opera. She will not come to-night." " Then she must have left some message. Let us search." Leonore stoo.l and silently watched him as he began a starch in whose sincerity she did not even yet believe. As she doubted ami queried, an ejaculation of delight fell upon her ear. There whcro they had sat among the shadows when he had- visited her before, lay the litt.e souvenir he sought, find he waved it aloft triumphantly, before reading it aloud. " Dear Louis, I am compelled to go out this evening, despite my engagement with you. I am more disappointed than I can express, 284 THE HOUSE BEHIND IHE POPLARS. for this suspense and ceaseless alarm are terrible. Don't fail to come to-morrow night, at the same hour as heretofore. If I live I will not then disappoint you." He had told the truth then. Julie loved this man who to her was to utterly hateful and abhorrent! Leonore stood speechless, con- vinced. Louis approached her with, more gentleness, saying per- suasively, " Now, Leonore, secret for secret. I have yours, you have mine, or rather Julie's, since she in any event would be the only real suf- ferer. You cannot take her from me, but you cau make her misera- ble. She has vowed to marry me, and she will keep the promise, whatever you do." " She will not, she shall not. If I cannot prevent her, I will tell nil to my husband who assuredly can and will." " No you won't, Leonore. You will keep silence." " How dare you, sir ?" she exclaimed, resenting his tone and man- ner. " I repeat that you will tell him nothing. You dare not defy me at the price I will make it cost you. I have not known you all these years to need the assurance now, that you have not revealed the past to him as I could reveal it yes, and prove it, too ! and I know him well enough to know he never would have married you had you been truthful enough to do so. He may love you very devotedly, Leouore you have a gift of inspiring devotion when you choose but he ia not angelic in his disposition, and I hate him sufficiently to drive him to the madness I can inflict upon him. You had better be pru- dent, Leonore. You know how much reason I have to shield you. n " And because you hate me, you would wreak vengeance upon my husband ?" " Ah, fair lady, that is the second time that word has fallen so sweetly from your lips ! To think that I should once have plead in vain for that enviable title ! ' Husband ' or not, I hate Lisle Ster- ling for his own sweet sak, as he knows. Strange that yoa two, of ail the world, should have married each other ! Ah, sweet creature, do yon remember how \ou hurled me from your door, iu one of your angelic tempers long ago ?" "I remember too much which I would give my life to forget ! 15ut of what use is all this reminiscence. Say what you really have to say, and begone. The very air you infest is hateful to me !" 'Then let me assure you of this. As I love vengeance, if you utter to Lisle Sterling one word concerning me or my alla.rs, 01 .11 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 285 any way arouse his suspicion relative to a matter which I do not at present wish, him to know for reasons of my own, I will just so surely tell him what I know of your little life history, and reveal to him that part which you would so gladly wash out by tears of blood could they efface it. You have your choice, Leonore. If you select the path of wisdom and prudence, you have nothing to fear from me, but if you decide for war, you shall have it to the bitter end. We may as well understand each other, Leonore." "Who will believe the words of a felon, arrested as you will be the moment Lisle encounters you ?" " Passsion roba you of sense, Lronore. I need not be encounter- ed,' to carry my threat into effect. Ink and paper speak at any dis- tance, and even did they not, the law is powerless Against me here, save by an amount of circumlocution which Lisle himself would not invoke in so doubtful a case as mine. I shall have ample time and oppoitunity for any scheme I may design. How have you silenced Joseph Perkins, gossip lovers as all servants are ? What have you done with " She raised her hand in mute entreaty for forbearance, and a cold tremor shook her as she sank against the latticework for support. Her anger had subsided, and in its place reigned a dull despair and utter humiliation of spirit. She buried her face in her hands, un- heeding the gaze Louis fixed steadily upon her. Some little g earn of compassion dawned within him, for gently enough forcing her to be seated, he said more calmly, " Why will you inflict all this upon yourself, Leonore ? Heaven is my witness that I never intended to have molested you. You were as one actually dead, to me, and accident alone has thrown us once more together. Even now we need not be enemies. Leave me in peace, and upon my honor as a gentleman I will do the same by you. I know how much you have at stake, and I do not wonder that the sight of me is hateful to you. But be comforted. When I accomplish what I came here to do, I shall go away, and it is for you alone to decide whether you will remain as I found you." She raised her face and looked at him. " Tell me, then, what you require of me. If I am to aid you, even silently, tell me what'is you propose." " Why I hav : told you already. I propose to marry Julie Kellcy with her own consent, though possibly without her guardian's. Her little fortune is her own independent of any caprice of his, and with what I have I can support her as is due to her, and I will ta.ke 286 7!HE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLA.KS. her away, perhaps to Europe, where the sight of us shall afflict no one. I shall marry her because I love her, and, though you may doubt it, I shaH make her a good husband." "Louis Hartley, you never loved any one but yourself. If Julie becomes you wife she will repent it in suffering and humiliation." "Then congratulate yourself that you are not responsible. How- ever you may believe in your own prophecy, you have now to choose between her humiliation and your own, or more justly Lisle's. Is |it then se very difficult to keep silence about what, after all, does not concern you ? Julie has as much judgment to guide her as most young ladies who are suffered to exercise it ; and remember, the very worst you could tell her of me, little favor as you bear me, would not have the weight with her which it has with you. You cannot risk so much to gain so little, Leonore, believe me." She rose slowly and turned away without a word. He caught her dress in a detaining clasp. " Your promise. Leonore. I cannot let you go without that." " Do you not see that you have it ? What choice have I ?" "None, in very truth. Let me advise you, Leonore, to remove thos^ blood stains from your dress, and to make some healing appli- cation to that hand which seems determined to tell its own story.'' It was true; the blood which had oozed from her wounded hand had left its stain upon the light silk of her robe. She looked down upon it indifferently, and upon the hand itself, purple and some- what swollen; then dragging the veil from her head with an apathetic force that brought down the whole mass of her hair with it, she wrapped it round, and walking slowly past him without one word of adieu. Standing as she ha-1 left him, Louis watched her as she passed under the drooping branches and at last disappeared. One final glimpse he caught of her standing cold and white on the moonlit gallery, her hair hanging heavily down her neck and bust, her whole attitude one of utter dejection and misery. A suppressed chuckle fell upon his ear from among the shrubbery near, and Louis saw the ungainly figure of Joseph Perkins creep out into the light. With one step he approached him, and laid his hand heavily on his shoulder. Joseph raised his hat with a salute of recognition, and, obeying a mute command, followed him out into the street, and the tvo weut away together. 287 CHAPTEE XXV. THE morning sun streamed broadly into the family parlor where Leonore's favorite seat was unoccupied ; the fire, laid more for bright- ness than for warmth, smouldered and smoked in the grate as if loth to throw out its brightness with no one to admire it, and the bright plumaged bird, tired of having chirruped in v;dn for a familiar face, now sc reamed in a fretful tone that added to the general desolate- ness and discomfort of the room. It was with a moody and troubled brow that Lisle glanced in upon hh way to the breakfast room whither the bell had summoned h m, and where Edward awaited his coming, consoling himself with the morning paper for the delayed breakfast. Julie entered late, as young ladies generally do, and she laughed blithely at the two sombre faces which met her view. Scarcely a word had been interchanged between the brothers, Lisle being in no humor for conversation, and Edward feeling that he was so. His eyes were swollen for want of sleep, and his face was pale. Julie saw this as he looked up in answer to her salutation, and asked hastily, " What is the matter, Lisle, and where is Leonore ? Isn't she coming to breakfast ?" " I am tired and ill. Leonore is not in her room, and it is problem, atical when she will breakfast with us again." " What do you mean, Lisle ?" she demanded in surprise. Lisle hesitated a moment as if at alcss how to explain, then said with an evident effort at serenity, " I may as well tell you once for all, Julie, that when I married, Lronore, I promised to leave her in the fullest possession of her in- dependence, and never to attempt to interpose my will in place of her own. I knew that she was singular in many respects, quite un- accountably so in some. In short, I knew, for she told me, that there is in her life some history which she chooses to rove il to no one, and I certainly claim no right to question her concerning it. 188 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. This absence, so unexpected to us, to me as to you, is connected with that history, and for this reason I trust you will allow it to pass with- out comment. If her absence is suspected by her ' dear five hundred friends,' you will be subject to every variety of social prying per- missible in the polite world, and I make you this explanation, that you may know how to receive it." Too much- surprised to reply, Julie bowed in silence, and, seeing that he had quite finished, Edward broached some indifferent topic, and the breakfast proceeded as usual. As Lisle went out into the hall, he met Mrs.Perkins, who said mysteriously, and with a sympathetic face which she thought proper under the circumstances, little as she understood them, "If you please, sir, the coachman is waiting on the back gallery; which he wants a word with you." Turning, Lisle went back to the door, where James awaited him. " Please, sir, the madam's saddle pony is missing," he said inqxiir- incly. " Since when ?" " Well, sir, I don't just know. I'm sure he was in the stable when we went out to the opera last night ; but the truth is, I took a drink too much while I was waiting, and I can't swear whether he was in or no when I stabled the carriage horses afterwards." " Did no one saddle him last night or this morning. Mrs. Ster- ling has gone into the country for a day or two, and probably took him with her. Where is Joseph ? He may know something about it" " No, sir ; he don't seem to know anything about it. That's what's st ange about it all. I don't reckon the madam would saddle him herself, would she, sir ?" " Perhaps so. Many ladies do such things, I believe. It is all right, James, I've no doubt. Nothing else is missing, is there ?" " No, sir. It's all straight as a string touching everything el c e." " Very well." Lisle turned away with seeming indifference, and as he passed down the path he saw Joseph trimming the shrubbery. The doubt in his own mind was speedily settled; for calling Joseph, who came shambling forward, he said, " Are you sure, Joseph, that you saddled Mrs. Sterling's pony sc- turely? I feel uneasy about it, as it is not your usual business." 1 'an't saddled no pony for the madam nor nobody else. She mu*t have done it herself, if Jim didn't, as he says ; for the old girl fiwears she didn't, and I'll swear she couldn't, and she knowing no THE HOT73B BEHIND TEE POPLARS. 289 more about a martingale than the Pope of Egypt's grand carriage ! She wouldn't know the bit from the crupper, nor which went tother- m<>st. There was queer doings in this here premises last night, Mister Sterling; mighty queer doings. I'll swenr I made the gates all fast 'ast night; yet this morning the side gate was a-swinging wide open, and nary a key to be found to it." " Some of you servants went out early this morning, probably, and naving carelessly left the key in the lock, it has been stolen. I should think you had been reproved sufficiently for that already." u I think, sir, the madam rode out that way, and wasn't able to fasten the gate a horseback. I see plenty of tracks that way, not to mention as the verbena border is quite ruinated. I'll swear the Ir.icks is Selim's own hoofs." "Very likely," and seeing the carriage drive round, Lisle went out, smoking his cigar serenely. Once alone in the carriage, he tossed away the cigar impatiently, and his heart swelled in bitler protest against what seemed Leonore's wanton cruelty. If she wished to go anywhere, why could she not liavo gone openly, in broad day light, and witli due regard for all the proprieties. What need had she to demean herself by perform- ing the duty of hostler, to steal out of her own grounds like a thief in the i ight, and thus to cause gossipping comments in the servants' luili ! Gladly as he would have gratified her every caprice, he felt wronged and indignant under such conduct. He asked of her 110 confidence which she did not wish to give, no restraint of her own free will ; but he protested against this evident duplicity, and want of dignity toward herself and him. He was displeased with his very coachman for not having come first to him with his inquiries conceining Selim. Had he done so, one word would have hushed the matter so far, as, however much his pride might revolt, a silent- ly offered douceur would have taught the intelligent fellow what he was desired to testily. Leonore had nothing of the 'Die Vernon ' in her, and if with her own hands she had groomed her horse, it was with the one objoct of escaping unobserved. Of whom and what was she afraid? Vain queiy with which he puzzled his brain a.3 he rode down to the office, where he must resume his hypocriti- cal manner and seem at ease, suffer as he might. Edward and Julie were lingering on the balcony when the car- riage returned, and in surprise he looked at his watch. "Ten o'clock ! See, Julie, for how much you are responsible ! I had an appointment at half-past nine, from which you have wilfully be- 290 THJ3 HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. gulled me. You don't seem to realize that I have become a mo^t inveterate pill-roller and adruinisterer of hideous compounds in gen- eral!" u Well, some one is under obligations to me for one less mon- strosity than you intended, then. You won't recall half-past nine by lamenting it. Tell mo what made you fancy that Leonore was unhappy, and contemplated something desperate, as you said." 'Many small things inquisitress. For more than a week past, she has been actually suffering, and Lisle himself would have been the first to perceive it had she not carefully concealed it from him above all others. I really believe she fears him, why, Heaven only knows I I never shall iorget how she looked as we drove away last night. The very shadow of death was on her face." " Oh, Edward, what an imagination ! I am sure she loves him too much to fear him, and it would be a mortal terror which should overshadow her face." " Of course it was not terror ; it was only dread and self-conscious- ness. Every one knows that when a woman fears a man, she merely hoodwinks him. Leonore not only loves Lis'e, but she is in love with him, which is more. I believe she would have &uffercd deith rather than to leave him as she did last night, had the choice been left her." "How strange it is that he knows so much and yet so little of all this !" " Yes, proud as he is, and worshipping her as he does, it must be a living death to him ! If they were politely indifferent to each other, like most married couples, it wouldn't so much matter. Were it in my case, I should prefer dying by wholesale, to a small retail business like this." " How can you jest !" "Julie, what upon earth are you two ladies made of, that you don't get into each other's confidence, if ever so little ? She is lovely and lovable as possible, and you know what I think of you. Yet you live on together like two polite automatons, when she, at least, yearns for your affection, who. her or not you care for hers." Julie laughed. "Many men, and som? women, might fall in love with the lady Leonore ; but hhe chills me heart and soul. Why, Ed- ward, she is as cold and puUeless as marble." 'How you women always misjudge each other! She i- nei'licr proud nor cold, and were you faintly to conceive (he fiiv aivl <*as-; on. she veils by pure force of will, you would wouder how she ever a>> THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAUS. 291 quired such outward gentleness and dignity. You blush, and stam- mer, and carry each, thought upon your little pink and white face; so people give you credit for sensibility. She is c-.ilm, and proud in one way, i. e., she is self reliant, and would stand at the stake with a well-bred smile upon her lips ; so people say she has no heart. Some clay they will see it bleed, and then I suppose they will be convinced she has one. It is you who have no heart, Julie. In proof of it, you hear that poor bird cry, without one effort to comfort him." " I never cared for a bird in my life. I don't know how. Do you fed him chicken and curry ?" ' I will give you a percription before I go. Here it is. 1 oz. mixed seed (to be replenished when exhausted) ; 1 leaf lettuce, endive or chickweed. Gravel and cuttle-bone at discretion ; 2 oz 5 ". pure C'Jd water (you see it's all pure English), 1-2 pt. or so topid ditto ibr bath. Poor Cardinal! One would think you were nursed by expectant heirs ! Julie, if I pour calomel down the wrong pa- tient to-day, or order some one's stomach extracted instead of Miss Jones' neuralgiac tooth, you are responsible for having detained me; till I've forgotten my calculations. 1 ' Seizing his hat he rushed down the steps, waving her a good-bye from the gate, and she went back to the lonely parlor to while away the day as best she might. It passed uneventfully save for a visit from Mrs. Venard, whom Lisle himself received, as he had come home earlier than usual, hoping against hope itself that Leonore might at any moment return. In answer to Mrs. Venard's inquiry for his wife, he told her frankly and unaffectedly of her absence, and s-he who unJerstcod all, uttered no c 'inmcnt save what was int' rpre'ed in the glance she bent upon him a glance which saw nothing but the calm confidence and faith in Leonore which he had always exhibited. The hand-grasp which accompanied her good-bye might have been more cordial than usual, f,nd his eyes certainly moistened under it; but the whole would have pa-sed unobserved by a stranger, and scarcely attracted Julie's at- tention, absorbed as she w;is in her plans for the evening. It s 'eineJ to poor little Julie that her trouble and suspense with regard to Louis were never to reach an end. This was the second time she found herself unaMe to keep her appointment with him ; for, restless and. impatient", Lisle wandered ceaselessly about, now in one part of the grounds, now in another,' yet ever returning to the parlor from which she would be missed during the first moment of absence. Edward, too, lingered closely beside her, with that con- 292 TUB HOUSE BEH1XD THE FOPLAB3. tented air which bespoke a whole evening's leisure; and seeing that there was no hope, she took a hook upon her knee and iu it \vro e a note, with as much outward carelessness as she could assume. She begge 1 Louis to go away imine Hately. as u red him tha: to meet him was impossible, but pledged her word to become his wife at the end of the year upon which she had decided at their last meeting. It was now about Christ mas: at next Christmas time he might, whatever befell, cl-iim the fuinl'.ment of her promise ; but meantime he must c :ase to molest her. nor make one eftort so see her unless circumstances should accidentally throw th^m together. Her letter seirned even to hersi-lf cold an ; harsh; but she found nothing else to say, no kinder words in which to say it ; an 1 sted- ing unobserved to the sum me -house, she plac.d it where he hvJ found the one of the preceding evening, aud hurried away. She met Lisle just entering the summer-house, and scarce y know- ing what she did in her alarm, she put her hand rpou his aim and drew him hastily away. bent an astonished look upon her, and she exclaimed, " Oh, Lisle, don't go in there. The shadows are invested by hob- goblins ! Come back the parlor, and I will sing to you." '* I am in no mood for music, Julie. I m fit company only f ^r hobg .bl;n*. Let us rather come in and keep them company. Why Julie, how restless you are. Were you nally frightened in there?" " Oh. no. Don't suppose it. Certainly \ve will go in :f you wih ; Lut it seems to me the wind is b owing up cold," she replied with an effort. " So it is. Julie, and you will take a coM. Let us go back to the house. I am ns'iess r.s a condemned soul, to-night." They entered the parlor together, and having opened the pinno l-->r luT, Lisle t:;rew him elf at full length u ( ,on a so.'a, and, gradu .lly calmed by her >weet voice as she sang song after song, sank | i ;t > a s\v et an 1 restful sleep. So the evenincr parsed away, and with ahenrt at rest, nnd mind iva-sured by the decision she had foun 1 ate to Julie fe'.t ; happier than she had dm;- for <1 >ys despite the disappointment of not; m.-etincr hi'.n once more belore so long a separa'ion. She doub:ed not that the fiat she had thu> pronounced woul 1 be received with more displeasure than resign .tion : mentally querying if engagement bj not the vanishing point to all r .->;;! happiness in cou:t>hip, she enjoyed the S'.-nse of fieedom . he;- for one whole year in prospective, resolving to let the futuro THIS HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. look out for itself. She refused to admit to herself that her engn^c- ment no 1 ;nger afforded her the happiness it had done at first, and attributed her want of conten 1 incut solely to the circumstances which surrounded her. She was not one who closely analyzed every p:is> ing emotion which affected her; indeed, she never thought of it ;it all when she could avoid it ; and, pre-occupied as she was by the present situation of the little f unily, she devoted herself to making Lisle forget the trouble that oppressed him, and to making his home as pLasant as possible in the absence of his wife. Thus passed three days daring which not one word was heard of Leonore, and Lisle's brow grew gloomier and more stern with every passing hour. Whereas at first heh-id seemed merely grieved and anxious, he was now growing angry, not with that violent passion, which soon burns itself out, or dies by explosion, but a deeper, more enduring feeling of real wrong undeservedly endured, against which the very soul rebels in bitter protest. The fourth day of tlrs mysierious absence dawned, and silent and gloomy as he was under it now, Lisle left his room at the usual breakfast hour, till which signal lie was always invisible. Face to face on the upper landing he met Leonore, who, calm and serene in her morning wrapper, was descending to join the family at table. She advanced toward him with a bright smile and open arms ; but coolly bidding her " good morning," he bowed and stepped aside to allow her to descend before him. The color fled from her very lips, and she grasped the balustrade for support under the giddiness that overwhelmed her. As she did so, Edward's dor>r opened upon them. Besolutely conquering her emotion, she turned and extended her hand toward him. He clasped it warmly, and involuntarily pressed it to his lips. Her own quivered under the affectionate caress, and tears rushed to her eyes as she followed Lisle down the stair-case. All that was chivalrous and sympathetic in Edward's heart rose to the surface; and a? he passed Lisle in the doorway he said with mingled anger and sorrow, " Lisle, for God's sake don't be a brute !" He seemed less than om in anything like human sympathy, as without raising his eyes to his wife's plaintive face, he with cold dignity drew back her chair, and seated her at her accustome I place, with a courtesy that was stinging in its very indifference. She pressed her hand to her eyes, but instantaneously withdrew it aa if determined to betray not.ring more of the pain she endured ; 29-i TIIE HOUS3 BEUI.VD TUB POPLARS. and as if most opportunely impressed, Julie at that moment came quickly into the room, tying the t issels of her wrapper as sue ad- vanced, in a m;inifcst effort to appear " on time," as she did during Leonore's absence. She was h:ilf-way across the room, before look- ing up, she saw Leonore, who with apprehensive air waited for her greeting. "With one bound she was beside her, and throwing her arms around her neck she kissed her again and again amid broken ejaculations of joy at her return. The distance whicli had heretofore separated them, was spanned at a breath under this joyful surprise, and happy despite the pain she felt under Lisle's displeasure, Leonore's eyes beamed softly upon the pretty blonde, who, at last seated with due decorum, chatted most volubly despite the lowering clouds which kept Lisla cold and silent. Provoked with him at last she exclaimed impulsively, " I declare Lisle ! Your welcome must quite enrapture your wife. I never saw so perfect a picture of gladness and content !" Lisle dismissed the attendant, and then without replying to Julie's taunt, he asked Leonore, " At what hour did you arrive ?" " It was about daylight, Lisle." " How did you get in without ringing ? I have heard no bell, and I was awake lon^ before then." "I have a key of my own, as you have," she replied quietly. "I wish, then, that you would make a better use of it than leav- ing the gates open all night wlien they are supposed to be shut. You furnished entertainment for a line flock of go. its the night you left the garden gate swinging, as your ruined borders can testify." "But my key unlocks the front gate. I never leitthe other open, for I never go near it." " At least Selim did, for I saw the print of his hoofs, myself. Don't stoop to so shallow an evasion." " ' Evasion,' Lisle ! what do you mean ? "What have Sclira'a hoofi to do with the open gate, or I with either ? Explain your- self.'' " Thank you, I think that would be quite unnecessary, even had I finished my breakfast. I shall hear next th:it you never rule a hoise called Seliin; that you haven't been outside the yard for a month ; and various other surprising items. Surprises arc not good for the digestion, and I decline them." Edward pressed his lips firmly together, and turned upon Lislo as if to addresa him reproachfully ; but a supplicating look from THE HOUSB BEHIND THE POPLAiW. 295 Ueonore arrested him, and deferentially bowing, he lighted his cigar and went out. Julie sat one moment in mute surprise at Lisle'shumor, and then rising, she said in a distress that was half 'comical, despite its sincerity, " Oh, dear, I can't stand this ! Do scold, quarrel, or anything elsa quite satisfactory to yourselves and each other, so that you quickly end it all." Left to themselves, the two remained in perfect silence, which Lisle, at least, showed no intention to break. Upon the contrary, he walked out into the hall, and reaching his hat Iron the rack. prepared to go out. Leonore felt that she cou'd not thus see him leave her for the day, and following him she laid her haud upon his arm, and said very gently, 'Lislf, won't you come up to our room a littlo while before you go out ?" " Certain!/, whenever you feel inclined to make the explanation which you must feel is due me. Perhaps you had better wait till you recover from your fatigue." " Lisle, how can I rest while this cruel coldness kills me !" /'Very well," andhe followed her up stairs with the same unyield- ing manner. Once in the privacy of their own room, the restraint she had im- posed upon heiself gave way, and throwing herself impulsively upon his breast, she sobbed, '' Oh, Lisle,' Lisle, what have I done, that you treat me so coldly !" Involuntarily he pressed her head more closely upon his breast ; but his voice war? cool and reproving a? he said, " That is a strange question, Leonore !" " I do not think so. As I am now and must continue to be, you married me, in spits of my warnings. Nothing new has come be- tween u a . Of your own free will you guaranteed me the perfect lib- erty of action which is my only cause of offence now. I told you that you would rind yourself unable to endure it." " No, I am not. 1 am as far, now, from wishing to restrain you, ai I ever was. But, as your husband, I have the right to protest against your needlessly humiliating me and giving occasion for gossip that might be so easily avoided. Ask yourself if the manner in which you left your homo and one who would die to serve you, was kind and co^iderate, not to say dignified. Not content with leaving without one word of a lieu, nor so mucr as a wr.tten line to reassuro 290 THE HOUSE BElIIXi) X1IE POPLAU3. me, you carefully oonccaled your intentions till such an hour as you could, unseen, ste;il into the filthy stablea and with your own ded- cate hands perform the service of a common hostler! I thought, late that night, that I heard the footsteps of a horse along the walk ; but I dismissed the idea, for how could I believe that my wife thus lurked around in darkness, waiting till that mysterious hour to leave a home of which she is undisputed mistress ? Oh, Leonore, that is the severest sting of all !" Sho raised her face and looked into his own in a mute surprise quite powerless to check his words which flowed on dispassionately. "I can understand, Leonore, that not wishing me to know tho precise hour of your departure, you led me to think that it had taken place win e I was at the opera which you declined to attend upon tho score of illness, and that having thus deceived me, you would leave no clue to the real truth, and so saddled Selim and departed as secretly as possible. Grieved as I was at your cruel lack of consid- eration for me then, what do you think my feelings would havu been could I have realized the whole truth as I knew it afterwards 1'' *'Oh, Lisle, is it possible that you accuse me of all this?'' "I do not accuse, I simply recount.'' " Oh, you are wrong, all wrong. I am not so guilty. "I can well believe, Leonore, that all this sounds fir more hars'ity in -the cool narration, than it seemed to you while acting under what I know was strong excitement. See, now, how easily all might hive been arranged as you wished. Had you but told me tint you wished to go upon this errand, whatever it was,you could have gone equally as well in broad daylight, and my knowledge and sanction of it would have redeemed it of even eccentricity. Your air of mystery, and shallow effort at concealment, are the worst features in tho whole programme, and yoj cannot wonder that I am both wounded and offended. Believe me, Leonore, it was an insult I do not de- serve, and cannot forget." She had found words now, iu which to set hers >lf right, and with an indignant gesture she closed his lips, and commenced, "Of all human injustice, this is the worst! Tried, convicted and sentenced, as I am, I will protest against it. I did not lurk around in darkness, as you cho )se to express it, after having led you to sup- pose I had already gone. I did not go to the stable for Sclim, n.i i had no occasioa for him, and eccentric as I may be I did not pr ji r a night in the saddle to a few hours journey by rail. All your tau ii ' * of swinging gates and ruined borders are as undcscrve 1 ns tr' vi ; THE Uo^oU BKiii:;D THE POPLARS. 297 for I walked to the depot to meet , he ten o'clock train, going out by the front gate which I locked after me. Even then I was not alone ; so no impropriety was committed which coulJ shock even your fas- tidious taste !" " Who went witli you, Leonore ?" She did not reply, and the color deepened and deepened in Jier cheek, under the injustice she resented. " Leonore, Avho went with yon even so far as the depot ? I want to know upon whom my wife bestows the confidence she denies to me." "You have no right to ask me, but as you may wish witnesses to my truthfulness, I tell you. My maid Margiret accompanied me, and returned when the train left. I imagine that she enjoys little confidence you would care to possess." He looked at her in utter confusion. He could not disbelieve her. " What, then, have you done with Selim?" he asked. "I? Nothing. What should I have done with him, though he was my own it anything belonging to a wife be truly her own." A sudd n suspicion entered his mind ; a suspicion more unjust and humiliating to her than any that had preceded it. It might have been aroused by the bitter, taunting manner that so changed her from all he had ever known her ; but he gave it cxpressio.i at once. "Leonore, do you receive less money than you need ? If so, tell me. Name any amount yearly or quarterly. It is yours unques- tioned." " No, my salary is quite enough. You pay it very punctually, and are mare than generous beside. You are liberal with your money, Lisle; I give you due credit for that." "So I am ' liberal ' with you, am I? 'Liberal' and ' generous ;' strange words for a wife to speak to her husband! Henceforth, Leonore, you shall have a bank account of your own. When my wife accepts money from me as an offering of generosity, and liber- fil'ty, she must feel herself a pensioner indeed! I see now how it is ; you h ive need: d more than your pride permitted you to ask of my generosity, Sclim was your own, you had a right to make the sacrifice, and you sold him. The next time you wish to dispose of any of your personal property, let me be the purchaser. I wilt be as liberal in my deal with you, as you esteem me in my benefactions." She had resented his injustice, but his sarcasm overpowered her. 298 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAR8. and sinking upon a chair she covered her face with her hands, only ejaculating, " I have done nothing of the kind 1 I tell you I know nothing whatever of Selim, and I care less." '' Is thia true ? Have you no clue to his disappearance, which dati-s from the night of your own temporary "absence ?*' "I see, what you begin to, Lisle. Since it was not I who carried him off, some one else has done so. He is lost, stolen." " I never thought of this," he said, coming behind her nnd smooth ng her head with a gentle touch. She looked up earnestly. " I tell you some one has stolen him 1 Did you not tell me that you heard his footsteps late at night along the path, that you saw his tracks next morning near the gate, found wide open ? Through that gateway Selim was ridden out by some one who ingeniously cho-e that opportunity, that he might be well gotten away before you should learn that he was not with me." "Then that some one must have been either a^ conjurer or ppy. Leonore, I am much mistaken it Jo3eph doesn't know more of this than you or I. It he is guilty he sh ill pay the penalty, and I warn you not to attempt to shield him, as you often do. He is a rascal born and bred, and your interest in him is something that pas eg my comprehension." As he spoke he rang the bell, and Margaret, whose especial duty it was to answer it, immediately appeared. " Send Joseph here directly," was the brief command Lisle gave as he paced the floor thoughtfully Avithout raising his eyes. Leonore's heart beat suffocatingly as she realized all that might develop itself in this interview. She knew who ha 1 been in the grounds that eventful evening, and it \vas quite possible that Joseph knew as well, prying and curious as he was. Might he not, if sorely pressed, thus screen himself under the mantle of another, and part cularly of that other who could utter no defence, while naturally an object of suspicion and dislike to Lisle, who little dreamed that interest could have brought him there. Involuntarily she glanced down at the hand she had in her anger bruised against the lattice, and with a gesture of loathing she buried it from sight among the folds of her dress. THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 299 CHAPTER XXVI. SOME time elapsed before Joseph obeyed the summons, and Lisle was about to repeat it, when he appeared in the door-way, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand upon which remained sundry fragments of the breakfast he had waited to finish quite at his leisure. In one hand he carried the battered hat of playful angles, without which he was never fully equipped, and he looked unusually shabby from his faded coat to his self-styled " tropical boots," from which, with their customary eccentricity, his feet had gradually retreated and taken up lodgings in the area, to the utter desertion and preju- dice of the wrinkled front. They were twin brothers to divers pairs which had preceded them, and doomed to the same humiliating end. Lislp's provocation against him increased as he inventoried all this at silent leisure, during which Joseph seemed quite uncon- scious of anything except the battered chapeau which he turned and twisted into fantastic shapes fi om which it emerged more mellow and dejected than before. Lisle's voice aroused him. " Joseph, have you uo be f ter clothes than these, that you are so shabby ?" " Well, yes, sir. There's my Sunday-go-to-meeting ones as is bet- ter, though nothing to brag on." " Put them on, and give these to the beggars, if you can find ono who won't feel insulted by the donation. You are not fit to bo seen as the servant of a gentleman." " I was a-asking of myself only this morning, if it was possiblo these here duds was a quite done over; but says I to myself, 'Joe, you're a poor cuss of a feller, and don't you say anything is done over, till you're toM it. There's them whose business it is to notica it, and they'll tell you.' I han't no sort of gift for knowing when things is a worn out. I'm oblecged to you for telling me," and ho turned to go, as if satisfied that the colloquy was at an end. " Stay, Joseph ; it was not for this that I sent for you. Do you 300 THE HOUSE BIIIXD THE POPLARS. remember the evening Mrs. Sterling went away upon the visit from vhich she has just returned ?" " Yes, sir ; it was on a Friday. I can tell that by two or three thing I made a note on at the time." " What were they ?" "Well, you all went to the opry, and left -the madam at home all alone. It was a warm night though the wind blowed fresh, and I see her all a-fluttering in the gate where she stood to see you drive off, as white as a sheet." " Well, whit happened after that ?" "I had took a note that for a good smart of time the madam had been in a queer way, and I had said to the old girl, said I, ' old lady, things is a-working. The madam has something on her mind ' " " Why do you harp upon ' the madam ' so persistently ? I want to know what lock place around the grounds that night; whether you noticed any one lurking near, whether you locked the gates as usual, and who went out or came in aft .r the usual hour." " I locked all up earlier 'n usual that night, cause I wanted to go out ; but I didn't go, and about nine o'clock I thought I heered. something out in the garden, and out I went to look after it. I made sure I see some one go into the summer-house, and I just put softly along after it." " Who was it, Joseph ? Goon." " Yes, sir, being as you tell me to. It wa3 only the madam her- self, then, looking as white as a ghost, and just as she got to the door she gave a little screech like she'd met a twin ghost." Lisle looked at Leonore, who sat motionless, as white and still as the dead. In alarm he laid his hand upon her shoulder, and feeling the shudder which stole over her, he recalled at once the alarm Julie had manifested the succeeding evening when she had avowed that the place was infested with goblins. Curious and inteiested, he asked with a half incre lulous smile, " What did you see, Leonore ? Was it really a ghost ?" She made au effort to r^ply, but the white lips only trem! led, and were silent ; and fearing that her secret woul 1 escape her and thus rob him of his importance as its sole possessor, Joseph hastened to reply for her. " It wasn't no ghost at all, sir. The wind made queer shadows, and tossed the vines about, and one of 'eni struck her in the face. I THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 301 seen it all, nnd being as it wasn't my business to say a word, I didn't and kinder shambled off out of sight." " I hope you showed your good sense by leaving entirely." " Why, no, I may say I didn't. I felt such a hankering to know what possessed the madam, that I couldn't leave my absence behind me, and I kept an eye on her from that time out. Says I, there's no harm in finding out all a feller can in this world, and so I sot down under the bushes and fell a-thinkin^.'' ''You deserve a caning for you impertinence, sir. Who employs you to watch and spy upon your mistress." " Not you, sir ; I says that, and I says it honest. I didn't make very smart for all my watching, though, for after maybe a hour, maybe less, I only sue the madam come out and stalk along to the house right through the wet grass, and as bareheaded as she was born, with all her hair a-dangling down her back, and the bushes a- catching at it like mad ! I sot a wondering what it all meant, when after a bit I see her come out onto the gallery along with maid Margeret, and away they went together, the madun locking the gate after 'em with a key of her own ; a.\d I was that astonished at it all, that I went into the house, and says I to the old girl, * old lady, things as was a-working is worked.' All I see after that, was maid Margaret come back and rung at the side gate like nothing ha I happened only a female run out. When I went up to bed, I Leered her a-snoring like mad, and says I, it's all right with tho madam wherever she is, or maid Margaret couldn't fetch such a s tore as that." . " And you heard nothing during the night ; you have no suspicion of how Seiim was gotten away, nor who took him?" "Not I, sir, though I mostly has my eyes open. The next morn- ing the madam was gone, and Selim was gone, and you said she'd likely saddled him herself and took him into the country. I couldn't swear she didn't, though I didn't see anything of it; for when people begin to act queer, they go on doing no end of queer things." ''Joseph, it you think this long, wordy harangue has impfaed upon m , you are mistaken. I am more than ever convinced tnat you know wh it has become of Selim, and I've a mind to have you un-ested upon suspicion, without farther parley. 1 give you just thr>:6 days to return him, ' and no questions askeJ,' or to take the chance of your being proved the thief." " And won't you offer a reward, sir? something handsome, being as it was the madam's saddle horse by which she sot a store/' 302 THE HOUSE BEHIXD i'SE ' Xot a dollar's rewa; d, to you, sir. I -won't offer you a premium for rascality. Now go, and remember what I tell you. Three days" Lis'e paced the floor slpwly and gravely wheu Joseph went out, and at leng h snid with some bitterness, " You see now, Leonore, how you incur the criticism, and p:que the curiosity of your own servants ! The m >inent a woman ready has a mystery in her life, she sets herself to call everybody's atten- tion to the fact. She is like a weak-minded old hen, who. having carefully hidden her nL'st, makes such a cackling over it every time she drops an a klitional egg, that one can find it in the dark ! ' . The uncomplimentary comparison fell dead upon her ear. She was abstracted, lost, in the realization that she was more than ever in Joseph's power by his knowledge of th-it fatal encounter upon the very night of Selim's abduction. Should Lis e attempt to prosecute him, he would threaten her at once with a revelation of what he had as yet concealed, and den mncs Louis as the thief. She would not , for a thousand Seliins have Louis' presence in the grounds suspect- ed, even could he establish his innocence of the charge. Lisle woul< I never believe that their interview wns purely accidental, should the revelations she dreaded be made. The whole truth would kill her, less than that compromise her forever. All depended upon Joseph's silence, which she inu~t purchase at any price. She had endured too much to see a!l imperilled now; anything was preferable to thi% Lihingthe loosened tresses from how forehead, he looked down upon it tenderly, as he said, " Bemember, Leouore, I ask no sacrifice of you. Go where and when you will; so .hat I go with you to shield and protect, I caro not where it is." " I will go no more, Lisle. My pilgrimage* are done ; there is no inducement strong enough t o take me from my home, our home." This was more than he had hoped. It was a new lease of life and happiness. He had no more to dread the comments of a cen- sorious wi.rld, no longer a secret at his hearthstone. For the past he cared nothing, for the future he was assured. L >onore was awestruck at the intensity of feeling he displayed. She, who knew him better than all others, had often thought him coll and cynical, always believed him too self contained to suffer deeply upon any account, to become enthusiastic under any ciicum- stanci'S. A pang ot self-reproach and fear darted to her breast, a^ she mutely ejaculated, " Should he ever learn all I conceal from him, he will go mad 1 Go I help and forgive me !" The next morning, bright anel early, Selim made his appearance, and in her dressing gown Leonore ran down to biel him welcome. He n'ave a little whinny when led up to the balcony for her caress, as if testifying that his little jaunt had agreed with him, and indeed was sleek and glossy as if he had not been outside the aristocratic precincts of his own proper territory. Lisle looked at him closely, and more than evjr convinced that no one but Joseph had ever thus cared for him, ordered him to the stables, and awaiteel the return of the shambling figure who soon afterwarel reappeaieel chuckling with much self-satisfaction. As he came round the corner, Lisle collared him with no gentle grasp. " You are a conscienceless knave, sir, and deserve a caning before 310 THE HOUS BEHIND THE POPLAB3. leaving my service. From this hour you leave it, and never do you d irken my door again." Joseph looked around bewildered, but exclaimed with an injured air, " I thought you said, ' bring him back and no questions asked. 1 " " I've asked none. I only tell you to begone. Not a word, sir 1" He skulked around to the kitchen for the double purpose of claiming his reward and taking a marital farewell, and for days [Mrs. Perkins was transformed into a well-fed Niobe with a swollen nasal organ which spoke much for her sensibility, if it did not improve her comeliness. Altogether Joseph's absence was a relief to all ; and having shed some natural and wifely tears, Mrs. Perkins lound consolation in philosophy, and thus expressed herself in confidential soliloquy, " There is few husbands as is worth the having, after all ; and she as gets quit of one without lending a hand, is blessed beyond women in general ! Joseph is an unprofitable partner, which it can't be denied. I do wonder, though, how he came to be paid all that money. It's along of some rascality, as I'd be put up to tes- tify 1" CHAPTEE XXVII. AN interval of profound peace and quiet happiness succeeded this first domestic storm; a peace so hushed and serene, a happiness so evidently perfect, that no one could believe it ever ruffled or threat- ened by one disturbing element. Even Mrs. Venard dismissed tha apprehensions that had assailed her, born as they were of her very love for Leonore, whom she cherished as one woman does now and then cherish ano' her, despite the jibes of scoffer and skeptic. Mr.. Bertram alone luxuriated in his chronic grumbling, excusing his foreboding under so serene a prospect by the assertion that " Bedlam Uself must now and then be quiet while remustering forces for a fresh row.' 1 Lisle, more jovial and universally companionable than he had ever IK en, bestowed upon his wife the most devoted attentions, while she, usually so calm and undemonstrative, met his glance with radiant eyes, and a soft flushing of the cheek that was the very roseaie reflection of the love nestling in her heart. Relieved of her anxiety for Julie by hei evident content under Louis Hartley's ab- THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 311 senae and it was unmistakable that lie was absent she hourly con- firmed in herself the conviction that Julie's good sense and discrim- ination had led her to dismiss him and refuse his proffered devo- tion, convin ced as she must be that it was utterly impossible that her friends, and Lisle especially, would ever consent to a marriage between them, even were her regard for him unchanged. It was more than probable that she had changed toward him. Observing day by day all that passed before her in connection with Julio f tr whom her anxiety had been so torturing, she believed that a new love had already supplanted the old. It was impossible she should not see the deep affection manifested in Edward's every act toward her, natural that she should appreciate it, and she was less than, woman if she did not in some measure return it. He must indeed be unlovable, or have appealed to a deeply preoccupied heart, whose devotion reaps not some tithe of the reward he would claim for it. Ju!ie was too truthful and honorable to give even tacit en- couragement to a love she did not reciprocate, even did she not in a thousand ways evidence that she did so, as was now the case. A conscientious, true hearted woman ever feels herself as fully com- mitted by the silent encouragement she gives to such a hope, as though she had verbally sanctioned it ; and either Julie was at war with her own heart, or all danger from her regard for Louis Hartley was over. Thus Leonore reasoned, and was content. Edward himself was not the least satisfied member of the little family, happy even by imperceptible degrees to approach that one consummation in whose pursuit ha had never wavered. Already possessing a fine practice, he was winning at once celebrity and a competence, playfully as he derided his own skill, when, as some- tunes happened, congratulations and compliments became weari- some. He had " the real Fitzjames family modesty," he declared in family conclave, "and after a wholesale massacre of the innocents by mistaking measles for scarletina, and teething for cholera infantum, a f How feels that there is less than a shade difference between ex- treme polUenass and sarcasm." The surest evidence of his skill lay in the fact that his remarks upon it did not weaken other people's faith in it. His instinctive jealousy of Hartley had faded out, aa nothing occurred to keep it alive ; and indeed his very existence sc'.:ui';d forgotten, so completely unmentioned was his name. Li.sle himself no more alluded to him as heretofore, and if hia avoidance was studied, nothing manifested it. His name had proved a disturbing cause sufficient reason it should rest unmeui oncd. SI 2 TUB 110U3K BKHIKD THE POPLAE3. Happy in the sunny tranquillity of his home, Li*le gradually for- sook the busine. s routine which had before absorbed so much of his time, and quitj surrendered himse.f to the delights of that lover'a paradise which exists so rarely in married life, even when mutual reg-\rd is most lasting and sincere. So the wintry days glided by, and the bright spring-time came with its wealth of color and per- fume, like a natural harmony set to the ''love life" of the happy family. All day long the birds sang hi the blooming shrubbery which made the capacious grounds a bird paradise, and conclaves were held to discuss the propriety of nesting in the live oaks that bordered the carriage drive out tj the street debates settled at last by the more ad enturous actu ;lly commencing their labors, with a family gravity most edifying to behold by those who idly watched them from the windows. The galleries were strewn with treasures dear to the heart of the feathered brood, who, exulting over the building ma- terial thus provided, and tempted by the choice selection of comm s- sary stores, went and came with a rollicking familiarity that won for them the title of "little friends." lu vain the tidy housekeeper remonstrated against whit she termed "an unwholesome litter." "The little friends "' remained triumphant, and ^Irs. Parkins retired in disgust at "the idle, upsetting ways, which were like anything, more than like any quality w lys she ever saw before." Great was her relief when a new direction was i_iven to their thoughts by pre- parations for a summer flitting to tiie s aside wate; ing-places, Lisle himself displaying an unusual interest in what he had ever before ridicule! if not disliked. Edward alone remained proof against the epidemic raging through their entire socia' circle, quite refusing to desert hispitienta for an euti:e summer, but promising the delights of his society by each Saturday's boat, and even Julie's appealing glances won from Li:n only the laughing assertion thnt " there is a charm in chronic rheumatism, and the dear delights of whooping cough, not to be rivelled even by watering-place gossip and tk? snares of bear. ' I vron't hor.e that you may be afflicted with both for your pre- ference ; for I am charitable, little as you may think it," she laugh- ingly retorted ; but after a moment's serious pause she added softly, " I cannot express to you how much your absence will de-tract from my pleasure. I had calculated so certainly that you woald be with -3 :> THE HOUSE BEHIND THii POPLARS. 313 Possessing himself of her little hand, he pressed it fondly, as he asked, looking into her eyvs now veiled and downcast, " Is this verily true, Julie ? Am I just a little necessary to your happiness ? Thank you J'or the assurance." She hesitated before she replied with a flushing brow, " It is true, Edward, though I perish for confessing it. I have no right to speak such words to you. Forget them it' you will." " Ah, Julie ! If you knew how impossible it is for me to forget the slightest words you ever spoke to me in kindness ! It' you kucw all I have dared to dream of, what I now dare hope " He drew her head to his breast, and tenderly kissed her fair hair. She felt that she should forbid the caress, that strict honor bade her then and there forever crush the hope he avowed. But she liul not the resolution, if indeed she had the wish to do so, and she compromised by saying sof.ly, " Sometime, Edward, not now, I shall tell you something which I f el it is right you should know." " I do not wish to hear it now, little one. Keep it for some leisure hour when I visit you at your seaside resort." " So, you still intend only to visit us ?" "Julie, I would sacrifice far more to go with you than you would to have me. Think how lonely my life will be here without you. I simply cannot get away, but shall pass my hours among the sick, Avhile you, amid dancing, merry-making, and flirtation, will hardly count, the hours that separate us." "I thall not flirt at all. Of that you mny be sure. I only wish I hnd nothing mo e serious to trouble me. Edward, I ana a wretch ; just a conscienceless, miserable! little wretch !" " Yes ; but I :im in love with such wickedness. Don't protest now. Tc 1 mo all about it another time." Shaking both the little hands he had imprisoned, he lightly kissed them, and smiling brightly he turned away. It was a large and merry circle, that, flitting in company, took possession of the rooms awaiting them at the chosen resort, wheie rolling waves dashed upon tha beach, and the white spray looked ever fresh and cool despite the burning sun that beat down upon it during the noontide heats when the most inveterate pleasure seekers were fain to remain indoors. Here, fanned by breezes that swept the gicen waters for many a league befo e cooling their grateful brows, chosen coterie? loitered on the galleries, with many a jest, or mo:e seriously converged in accordance with the caprice of the hour. 314 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. Delicious strolls after sunset, boating and fishing excursions, all tho amusements which occupy the passing hours, lured eich to his chosen rlivcr.-ion, and care was a thing apparently forgotten. Master Charley Venard fancied himself seriously enamored with Julie, and favored her with an amount of devotion which was sufli- ticutly fimusing to others, however serious to himself, and that young lady showed him a flattering preference over all her gallants, that brought down upon him many a mental anathema from thoso who would gladly have filled his place, had she permitted. Certainly she flirted with no one if not with Master Charley, and Edward himself must have been satisfied had he known. Like lovers of a larger growth, Charley's devotion was fervent while it endured, and if his vows of eternal fidelity were to be accepted with a mental reservation, it was only carrying out the resemblance. This playing at love was very amusing to Julie, and she rewarded him with bright smiles, and most constant companionship. " The child must learn it at some time," she laughingly declared ; and she corrected and tutored him in a way that was keenest sarcasm upon his ciders, when she choose to inflict'it. For one wole month Lisle endured the customary round of water- ing-place life ; and then his gradually waning patience failed entirely. The tedious amount of dressing, the idle chatter, the weiry round of sleepless hours filled up with an amount of labor that rightly applied might have moved mountains instead of merely defining the lines of qu idrille and waltz, and, worse than all, the loitering round his parlor of idle ladies whose chit-chat was always the same and never ending, quite depriving him of anything like the society and companionship of his own wife, all this became unbearable, and his old forcibleness of expression came back upon him, banished as it had been under the happy life preceding this migration. ' Feminine tongues must be made of the very tangible essence of restlessness! and if there were some legal interdiction against all originality they couldn't more carmlly refrain from it. I've heard the same things so many times over, that I always know just what the next sentence will be, no matter who utters the first. Aren't you homesick, Leonore ?" She only smiled and shook her head. "Haven't sported all your dresses yet, or you would be. IIo-,v long before you will have paraded the very last one? I'd like !o have some limit named to my martyrdom. Ah, me, who's th i. ai THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POrLAftS. 315 the door ? ' Better dwell ir. the midst of alarms than reign in this horrible place !' Come in, Mrs. Bertram. I'm glad it is you." " Since it must be some one, eh ? Well, as I've no husband of my own to growl here, I'm glad to liear some one's else. What upon earth did you come with us for ?'' " I wanted to maintain something like social intimacy with my fiinil/; but I've been s-idly disappionted. See now; here comes at ha t halt' :i dozen more ladies, and a fashion nrtgtzine to b; dis- cussed !" So indeed there did; and feeling much in the humor of 'Mrs. Pardigle's ' bricklayer, he might have asked 'are there any more of yoTi,' had not p^l.teness triumphed over human nature. Mrs. Bertram fixed a pair of laughing eyes upon him. " You are crying to go back home, I'll wager my last treasure in crochet. Do you cry like the poor starling, 'I can't get out?'" "With a difference; the spirit is the same. What is the latest thint: in bonnets, ladies? for I'm srre all that commotion is due to the all-powerful bonnet, and nothing les^." " 1' i 1 e glad to know what could be less, for that has come to be just nothing at all,'' replied some lady unnoticing the quiet sarcasm of his manner. "Ah, me; if I were but a member of Legislature now ?" " I'd. ask what if you were, if I were not sure you'vj an imperti- nence to put forth," retorted Mr.-'. Bertram. " Don'c ask ; I'll tell you without. I want to legislate up.--n a mat- ter tint has caused me many sle:>p!ess hours; namely, walking mon- umenis of folly." " Ah, that's wrong. Never tu- n tr-dtor to your own sex t" The bevy of ladies received the repartee with much merrim< nt. But maintaining his gravity, he implied, " Not lor my own sex would I btoop to politic*. I rise to such a height of magnanimity only for yours. I'd like to see an act passed setting aside about thiee ladies in every hundred in a community, who should perpetuate the ' gone out ' fashions. When the majority prove false to their last 'loves of bonnets' and the re-t of tho paraphenalia of the same da'e, L-t three remain faithful and not leave the old one for the new. I confess I should compassionate tho victim-, but it would ba a sorry comment upon the taste anl judg- ment which so universally cry 'lovely,' 'splendid,' beautiful,' at each new deformity pro munced an fait by fashion makers." " Don't we hear enough sinh philosophy as it is? I've yet to k-arn that any man ever admired his wife the more for looking a dov.-Jy 316 THE IIOUSB BiiUIND THH POPLARS. Dowcl:n?3s may be one of the cardinal virtues, but Iius.bar.cl3 will prefer ladies less perfect in that respect. Isn't it so, Mrs. Sterling?" "I know I would not put uiy husband's regard to i-uch a test; and he's a model husband too. You'd belter beat a retreat, Lisle. You will find no sympathizers here," Mrs. Sterling replied. It was evident that he represented a minority composed of one; and he leaned back on the sofa in silence ''Thirteen ruffles of graduated width," read she of the magazine des modfs ; and Lisle paraphrased sotto voce, "Thirteen devils of various shades of aggravation! Mrs. .Ber- tr'.m, wave your handkerchief out ihe window when this cabal breaks up. I'm compelled to desert my home." " Hush, and be ci^'il. They won't stay 1 >ng. They never do when you are hero, if it consoles you to hear it." "If every one had a generous husband, like you, Mrs Sterling .'" was the next ejaculation that caught his attention. "I haven't nskccl for a new dress in six mo.iths without being treated to a long array of what Henry styles ' facts and figures,' and I'm sure I detest them !" " So do I," chimed in another. " I never yet saw a wife too well informed upon her husband's business matters, who was not worn out, anxious, and prematurely old." Lisle laughed his cynical laugh, and took up the retort despite his wife's appealing glance. " Oh, woman ! ' tliou help-meet in hours of trouble, thou cousok r of our sorrows and divider of our burdens; most southing compan- ion of the weary hear* and toil-worn brain !' I w< 11 dor who inven*- ed all that ? It couldn't have been a woman, for such an idea never occurred to on -. It was probably some imaginative bachel r !" There was consternation if not displeasure among the coterie who received this moral bombshell, nnd though she drew a quick breath of surprise ami alarm, Mrs. Bertram replied with a sally, " Lisle Sterling you can't expect to have such entiments tolerated in this community. Take them back to the shad w of your domestic roof. Go b.ck to the Infant and the invaluable Joseph, nnd leave us in peaee !'' " Alas, Joseph ' has gone, he hns left me, I shall see no more' the fcatir.es that always seemed to me to have been gathered rp by handiuls and flung at him. He has gone, tropic d b-n>ts anel all ! I don't know how Leon >re will exist without hi'u, for he was her fac- totum. ' THE HOUSE BE!Ii::i> THiS POPLAU3. 317 Leonore looked so troubled and apprehensive under tliis banter, which her n'jw acquaintances were at an evident loss how to receive, that Mrs. Venaid, who was one of the circle, rose to disperse the as- sembly, saying as she set the example of going, "I would candidly advise you to banish that husband of yours, Mrs. Sterling. People will say, next, that he has been embittered against our whole sex by his unhappiiKSs with his wife. The more unjust a slander is, the wider it seems to c'rculate." Ti;C ladies left, some o( them evidently piqued ; and Leonore sighed audibly. Women are so quick to catch at anything that can by any possibility be construed as a reflection against another woman, that the sarcastic apostrophe Lisle had uttered would ceriainly recoil upon herself should she by any chance lose her popularity among them. She did not utter the reproach she felt, but he read it as he did most that she thought. " Dear little coward, why should you care whether or cot they fancy you a -model wife, so long as I nm satisfied ?" " Ah, you admit ihen that you haven't given the very highest tes- timony in my praise!'' she said smiling fnin'ly. " I didn't think of that till this moment. I have no patience with wives who arc ceaselessly complaining of niggardliness in their hus- bands, yet obstinately refuse to recognize his pecuniary position. The marital 'Henry ' is my debtor for a lecture, whatever his wife may think of it ! But I'll leave to-morrow, Leonore. I don't think this sort of life improves me, and I'll confine myself to weekly visits, like E.hvard." Julie entered the room in time to catch the last assertion, and she br'ghtoned under it most unflatteringly. Lisle turned upon ha- with characteristic reproach. " Glad of i', are you ? And why, pray ?" "Oh, husbands are often capital fellows, but it's comfortable to have them out of the way when one loves the wife the better." *' And pray who may be the mysterious ' ne ' who loves my wife ? I don't know that I thank him for the compliment." " Blue Beard, it is I who d ire commit such blasphemy! I don't see enough of Leonore to consider that we are intimate associates, now." " Nor I. It is for just this reason that I am going. If you gain by it any opportunity to confide to her your wonderful little secreis, you will be more fortunate than I have been in remaining." Julie liughed. "Mrs. Bertram would retort that people who nra in love with c. ch other ought not to go into society together; but 318 '-US HOL'Sii BEHIND Tllli POPLAUS. one c 'uldn't expect you to turn recluse for life. Don't coax LeonorO off With you, for she can't be spared." "So she thinks. Keep her, and may she bean ogress in her guardianship of you. Hello ! there comes the tteamer, and of course Edward. 1 ' Seizing his hat he rushed out to meet his brother, and the two ladies were left together. Regularly as Edward had made his promised visits, the hour to which Julie's revelation had been postponed iiad not yet arrived, and week by week she was more loth to tell him of her engagcmi-nt to another. Unsuspecting the existence of such >m obstacle to his happiness, Edward was content in her manifest affection for him, little dreaming of the many sleepless hoars during which she looked her destiny in the face, querying if it were indeed inevitable. Not one real thought of breaking her engagement with Louis Hartley had been entertained by her. Never had she Leen false to her p 1 edged word, she would have shrunk from being so now. But her weak woman's heart clung to the happiness this new lovo created in her life, even as it shrank from inflicting a pain which might in some now unknown way be avoided. Thus has many a woman compromised with strict honor in battling against a fate which she prays may be averted by other power than hers. Who shall say that much of what the world terms heartlessuesa, is but the living essence of divine tenderness and mercy; that many a one who is stigmatized as a conscienceless coquette, is uufortunante only in being endowued with more heart than judgment. Despite the sentimental teaching, love may change its object; and who shall say that one only is sincere and genuine, or both a counterfeit ? CHAPTER XXVHL THE departing steamer upon Monday, found Lisle on board, faithful to his word, and Leonore and Julie remained without him. On the very day suc:ccding his departure, Louis Hartley, still under his nom de guerre, appeared at the ho el, and his was the first ligure that greeted the eyes of the two ladies as they entered the breikfast room. He looked up and bowed profoundly as they took their places at a table near him. Leouore's head remained uncom- promisingly erect, her face unrevea'.ingly calm despite the quick t'.irobbing of her l.eart, and Julie alone returned his salutation, with au increase of color which she could not control. THE HOU B1SUIND TUB POPLAilS, 31 Either by accid ut or design, he was seated so near them, and so exactly opposite, that it was impossible to avoid meeting his eyea each time t!iey raised their own, and the triumphant half-smile that fixed itself upon his face proved tint he realized the full effect of his unwelcome presence. Forcing herself to maintain, the same outward imperturbability, Leonore proceeded to breakfast silently, and Julie was equally Ab- sorbed. Master Chailey had habitually sat at their table when Edward did not monopolize the fourth sea', and Mrs. Venard this morning joined tlu-m, though rather late. "I don't li..e this vacant chair to repro c!i me for the advice I guvo you to banish its lawful, if sometimes lawles?, occupant, so I will till it myself. Do you already begin to feel forsaken ?" Leonore made an effort to reply in her usual tone ; but it was a said failure, and Mrs. Venard noticed it. " You have taken cold upon that windy gallery, Leonore. You are hoarse, and looking far fh>m well." She was spared an evasion by an exclamation of Master Charley, who with his customary interest was inventorying the new arrival-. Suddenly his eyes had flashed, and touching Julie's hand to attract her attention, he said with precocious jealousy, " There sits that fellow we met on the beach the other day ! I wonder what he's here for. He is just horrid, with his eternal grin." Mrs. Vena id cast a reproving glance upon him, as she said, "Hush, my son, you will be overheard. Haven't you been taught never to make remarks upon people in their presence ?" " I don't care ]f he does hear me. He's a jackanapes,'' was the rather unfilial reply, but in a lower tone. Mrs. Venard glanced at the gentleman thus apostrophized, and so chanced to meet a most peculiar look bent upon herself. It ceased directly that she so en- countered it, but it left an indelible impression, one of those thrills of antagonism which very sensitive people often experience when brought in contact with those who are mentally repulsive to them, though even unknown ; and heedless of her recent reproof to Chailey bhe exclaimed involuntarily, " What a disagreeable man!" " So you don't think he's so mighty handsome, ma?" Charley sug- gested. " Oh, yes, he certainly would be called handsome, by many. Who is he? 1 ' Julie bent a telegraphic glance upon the boy, who too uiagnani- 320 THE HOUSE BEUtXD T:ir. fo reply when lie knew she dcs'rcd him to bj ti! nt. hung U"* head. while she herself said careksjly, '' He is a Mr. Horton whom I met i:i the Nrtli z^mn tune ago. If Charley knew how littlo interest I feel in his presence here, lus wo .Idu't be jealous, as he evidently is." "And why not, when he kissed your hand, and jabbered all t!io tune in French so I couldn't understand a word. I don't believe any man would stand that peaceably." ' Oh. you ri liculous boy !"-exclaimed his mother laughing. " Mi-s .Tu ie will regret all her condescension toward you if you make suc'i a return for it ;is this. It is bad enough when grown-up boys turn tyrant in response to over appreciation, but worse in small ones. Recollect people are tolerated only during good behavior." " I shall discard Master Charley from this hour," said Julie lay- ing down her napkin and gravely ris : ng to go. The subject of this conversation had meantime departed, much to Leonore's relief. Glad as she was that Mrs. Venard's attention had b en directed from herself, it was scarcely be:ter that she was troubled upon Julie's account, seeing, as she had, that there AVIS more beneath this chance encounter than met the eye. Faithful to the instinct of boyho d, Charley had laid a train that he could not render harmless an i tl:ere was so much real displeasure in Julie's mind against him, that he passed but a sorry day amid-t ineffjctua! rep ntancv and unabated jealousy. Leonore followed Julie to their priv.te parlor, an 1 effectua'.lv bolting out intruders, seized her impetuously b}' the arm and drew her to a seat beside her, as she exclaimed abruptly, "Julie, do, you must, give me your confidence. What i* th-it wretch to you ?" u How do you know he is a wretch ? Wh itdo you know of hi:;i ? ' she asked in surprise. " Don't que-tion me, Julie, unless indeed you will give me confi- dence for confidence. Will you do this ?" tShe shook her head. "It is useless dear Leonore. All I cou! 1 tell you would be powerless to charge what is inevitable." " O >. Julie, have I then so entirely failed to w n your affection ? If I have so filled, Heavn forgive me, since it was only becau-o I i'elt that I had no right to receive it. I will win that right by any self-humiliation, if through it I can serve and save you."- Julie kissed her very gently as she replied, "I do love you, dear Leonore. Of this be assured. Eat you cnn- THE JTOTTSF. EEIIIXT) THE TOPLAUS. 321 not { sei've or save' mo. No ono can do that. I never know, before, what it was to wish for any one's de:th ! God forgive me !" " Then you do not love h'm, Julr. Thank Heaven for that. Do you know who he really and truly is ?'' " Yes. Do you ?" "Too well, too well ! IIow fortuna f e Lisle had gone before he c ime here !" " He has been near here day after day, Leonore, and you may be sir. e he had by some means apprised himself of Lisle departure, before he so boldly appeared. I did not tell him of it, you may rest Hssured. Why should I ?" "Oh, Julie, ha i we only been the sist TS we should have been all this time ! How could I know that I might aid you, when I so little thought you interested in him ! Why does he pursue you if you care nothing for him ? Why do you submit to bo persecuted by his presence, since it must be you alone who have attracted him here ?" " Ask me nothing, Leonore. I cannot explain." " You are not already married to him ? Tell me, in pity, that you are not." "No indeed. Don't excite yourself, Leonore. What is all this to you ?" " So much that I would give my life to know it. Oh, Julie, now indeed do I regret the conscientious scruples that prevented me long since from winning your love and confidence! You cannot undcr- rtand why I have ever restrained my own affection f-r you; but lot me tell you that my own life was so cold and da-k and unlovely, rave for the brightness Lisle sheds upon it, that my t'utur : is .^o unassured, so involved in possible misfortune if not shame and sor- row, that I dared not inflict upon you the possible suffering our clos3 affection mijrht entail. The day may come when Lisle will icproach me for accepting his pi offered love, for presuming to link my destiny with his. If such an hour should come, enough that he should upbraid me upon his own account, without accusing me of do.iling dishonorably and selfishly with you, whom hs loves as an own sis* or !" And this was the woman whom Julie had pronounced destitute of heart or impulse! She reproached herself with the memory of the words, and answered earnestly, " Could I but have read your generous heart ! How could I know that you needed my sisterly love and sympathy? you i o calm and proud, evidently so happy. I was but a guest in the house of which 322 TUB HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. you were mistress, but a ward of him who is your husband. I think I should never have presumed to kiss you, had not a joyful surprise impelled me. Do you remember the time ?" " Peifectly ! Now let me tell you, Julie ; calm and proud as you think me, I am neither. Happy I am, despite the most dire forc- I odings that ever tortured mortal. But of the house of which I am the acknowledged mistress, I feel less real proprietorship than any being in it. Were Lisle to bid me leave it to-morrow, without a penny, I should go feeling that I had no right to complain. In short, nothing is mine save on sufferance !" " You will tell me next that Lisle himself is not your husband,' 1 Julie interposed stopping her lips with one hand. "No, not that, thank God ! He is mine, by every tie human and divine. But what would even this avail me were his love to cease?" She stopped by an effort, and then resumed in a changed tone. " But don't let us talk of mys- If. It is of you and you alone I want to think now. Tell me where you met that man !'' " Leonard Horton, for so he called himself, was introduced to mo the summer I was at Niagara with the Sandforcb. I need not tell you that had I at first known who he really was, I never would have received him as an acquaintance. But I did not. He was well re- ceived in other circles, Mrs. Sandford approved of his attentions, he certainly was agreeable, and we became very intimate. He told me the truth, afterward, and certainly there is much to mitigate the enormity of his crime, even had he not since made a restitution qui;e Quixotic in its generosity." " Which he well knew would cost him nothing, a^ Lisle never would have received it, even had not the amount been willed him by Mr. Fitzjames. It was returned to him through the same mys- terious channel by which it was received, so tint he lu s won his lau- rels cheaply." "Nevertheless, he made the reparation in good faith, and I exon- erate h'un. 1 ' " Who knows even how he obtained that money ? I have known him to steal I believe he would murder !'' " Leonore ! You so good and gentle; how can you say such things? He is nothing to y^u ; yju might be generous, or at lea^t just, toward him." ' I tell you, Julie, he is an adder who ghoul i be crushed ; a villain un whipped of justice, but who will assuredly yet c une to retribution. Years ago I knew him well, better than you know him now, and I teH you I hate him with till the strength of my soul !" THE HOUSE BEHIND XHK POPLA11S. o2J " Sec, then, how prejudiced a judge you must be. Do you consider, too, that what one person thinks a positive crimu, is to another only a venial error ?" Leoiiore groaned aloud as she realized, how futile were her efforts. As yi t Julie had not acknowledged her engagement. How could slie account for her own knowledge of its existence without exciting suspicions which even now might be uselessly aroused in Julie's mind aga'nst her. Louis' threats rang in her ears menacingly. Suppose, too. she were but to sacrifice herself, and accomplish nothing ; since J ulie's generosity seemed wide enough to cover all things. Despite her efforts, bordering even upon imprudence toward herself, she had gained at best but a divided confidence, since Julie did not even confers those interviews in the summer-house. There remained but one appeal, and she staked her hope upon it. " And poor Edward what of him ?" Her lips trembled but made no reply, and Leoiiore continued, ''You will not sacrifice him, however you may throw away your own chances of linppiness. What will he s ty if you ever become tho wife of Louis Hartley ? What must he think of one who would vol- untarily sacrifice him to one so every way his inlerior. You cannot, Julie, you will not." '' Suppose I had promised, long since before Edward was any- thing to me or I to him. Can I be false to avow voluntarily given f> " Will you be false to your word, or to your heart? How would Hartley himself receive your marriage vows at such a price? 1 ' The words raised the first dawn of hope. If indeed he were to break the engagement himself when he knew all ! She had changed , fche loved him no more. She had sworn to him that she would abide by her promise to him ; but if he flung it back upon her inconstant: heart, she at least was guiltless of perjuring herself to the letter of her vow, and certainly nothing more remained. Leonore saw that her thoughts were running in the channel she to much desired, and did not interrupt them by a woid. Jiuio herself broke the silence with a sarcastic little laugh. "Things have come to a sad pass when right and wrong are so confused that one can't decide which is the right ! I suppose I may console myself, that, if there be any truth in Lisle's preaching, as a woman, I haven't to sustain any great reputation for either constancy, honesty, or conscience ! You don't know, Leonore, how I have al- ways despised those silly, capricious women who never know their ' own minds two hours in succession ; arul now to become one of them !" ' I have known peop e to break their hearts for a principle ; but I 324 THE UOCSK uEinxn THE POPLARS. have yet to learn that the sacrifice proved to their lasting happiness when at best the principle was quest onable. I think that it one is true to one's owusulf, one cm hardly be f:ilse to any real principle worthy the name. When the li t of so called ' martyrs ' com ^9 to be read over in the grand summing up, many a one will be found to have been only a bigot or a f inatic." Julie was not in a rein to appreciate philosophy in the abstract, and she broke in upon it wi'h an abrupt query, " But, suppos ;, after all, Louis should hold me to niy word ?" <: He is quite capable of doing so should he be influenced by pique. It only remains for you then to sacrilic ! a principle of ac- tion to a real moral right; for what irhall be taid in judgment upon a woman who marries without affection, who makes a solemn vow to love, honor, and cherish, where she does not even respect 1 Rather than see you fall to low as this, I will make any sacrifice, even of myself. I will trust everything to your honor, Julie, every- thing." Julie answered the earnest appeal with a sisterly caress. "Let us talk no more of it, dear Leonore. Shake-peire tells of ' keeping the word of promise to the ear, and breaking it to the hope.' I cannot believe that any one would deliberately choose to be so dealt with by another, and I will hope for the b. st. The most immediate perplexity is how to receive Louis, since he is really here and certainly will seek to renew old acquaintance. I do not ask you anything of your acquaintar.ee with him, except, was it su-h that you can again meet him without pain ?" ''Certainly. I dislike him, but there is no reason why I should shun him. He will assuredly assume the right to visit you, and I have no authority to forbid him." Later in the day the expected card WP.S received, and Julie de- scended formally !o the parlor. He awaite 1 her, hat in hand, as though anticipating a summons to the private purl -r, and when he rea.i/.e 1 that it was not accorded to him, he said with sarcastic humor, "I am very happy to be so confident! >lly received, Miss Julie. I felt assured of a warm welcome, as indeed why not?'' " I regret that you aro dissatisfied with your reception. It would, perhap>, have been better to have remained away until you were in- vited to come?' "That remark is Very like you of late. Thank you." " Louis, if you re dly desire^a quarrel, I will oblige you. Why do you ceaselessly reproach me without reflecting tha.t YOU aro in the THE HOUSE BEHIXL) THE TOPLAR3. 325 wiong? Why do you. meet me witli taunrs in place of kindness? why do you ceaselessly disobey my known wishes, an I insist upon forcing yourself upon me when I do not choose to receive you ? There was a time when you were gentle, kind, and lovable, and theu you were always welcome." " I can hardly rec.ul such a time. It was long ago." " Have I not m<:t you day alter day despite my fear of our meet- ings being observed and commented upon ?" "I remember you did Siem oveij >yed thj first time I joined you on the boaoh," lie said bitterly. 'I admit ihat I was not. The surprise was even painful, from attendant circumstances, as will it might be. But this is the first time I ever heaid that the way to woman's love and confidence was by ceaseless fault-finding and reproach." "Admitted; what then? Is a man to endure all tilings in si- lence ? Do you pretend to tell me that you are unchanged since we parted one ye ir ago at Niagara ?'' " No. I confess that I am changed. Does it follow that up- braiding will accomplish anything." " Oh, Julie, I told you this would follow our separation ! Why were \ve not married when you loved me, or professed to do so." '' Because we had not my guardian's consent, and for one certain reason could not expect it then." " And now ? What can I do that I have not already done ?'' "Nothing, as far r.s he is concerned. The responsibility now lies wi'h me. 1 ha\e not told you that I will not fulfill my promise to you at the time I named. I meant to do so when I told you I would, and my heait was with my words. But tell me, Lou : s, how dl i you think to keep my affection for you bright and warm during the long months of unbroken silence you observed toward ine hi pique for my failure to keep the last appointment I named in tha snminer-hou-e, and which you told nu recently you believed I inten- tionally broke? You could have written me one word had you so chi.sen; I expected this, and sho ild have replied." ''Yet you consoled yourself very happily for my neglect. The iiewlove sped all the faster for the lack of interruption from the old." *' Yes, you dared to place a spy upon my actions, maintained with that spy a correspondence you did not attempt with me. It was through this Joseph Perkins that you learned of my very presence here, where you su Idenly met me with recriminations, and where 323 T1IE HOUSE BEHIND TlIE POPLAU3. you remain despite my protests and the constant embarrassments you subject uie to. What, do you expect to g.dii by remaining ?" " The charm of your society, fair Julb, if not that of the most amiable Mrs. Sterling, who may possible aid me in my suit." " You need not think it. She is the Leonore Wake-field whom you once knew, and she has not forgotten you.'' " Did she te.l you so '?" "Yes, and much more." "I am not afraid of anything she can tell, and that it was very little your manner convinces me. Julie, of what tue is all this sparring ? : ' He took her hand as she spoke more kindly, but she withdrew it with a darted glance around the parlor, which chanced to be quite deserted at tiie moment, the little party who had occupied it having gone out upon the gallery, unobserved by her. Louis re ented the action, and murmured bitterly, " So. Not even your hand, pledged to ine as it is. Banished fi oiu your society, forbidden even such favors as you would extend to your indifierent acquaintances, you bid me be satisfied and content ! Julie, you forget that I am mortal and that I love you !" " You proved it by employing a spy to watch me." " You will insist upon this, Julie ?'' "I insist because I know it. I knew Joseph was watching me, ceaselessly, and I was foolish enough to think it from idle curiosity, till your intimate knowledge of my movements taught me better, 1 never will forgive it, never ! It was adding insult to neglect." lie saw that he should gain nothing by discussing the subject and he said with pait.ut resignation, '' Assume what you will, since you delight in being unjust to me. Oaly tell me what you wish, and see if I can accomplish it." " I want but one thing ; to be released from our engagement. 1 cannot ratify it, I have no moral right to do so. Release me and I will be grateful to you forever." ' Julie, has it in.leed come to this ? You no longer love me !'' She looked her affirmation of the doubt, and for awhile both were silent. Then he said gently, " Is it that you merely love tne no more, or has another taken my place in your heart ':''' ' What does it matter, since I do not wish to marry you ? I ain here not to be questioned, but to ask cne last favor, the greatest; you can grant me. Give me back niy free Join, and I will be your friend forever." THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 327 "Edward Sterling is very gallant and hind ome. I prophesied that his suit would not be in vain. But Julie, I will not resign my claim, to any living being. I cannot do it. It is too much to ask !" She started and her face flushed angrily as she asked, " You will not ?" "Yes if you insist upon the repetition; I nover will release you from year vow, and you dare not break it." "Do not be too sure of that. I may deem it the I'-sser wrong of two." " Nover, Jali ". You are c ipricious and fickle, like all your sex. But you will not bieak a solemn pledge given to one who trusts you implicitly, who believes in your honor if he doubts your love." It was a direct appeal to the creed that governed her, an echo of the argument ceaselessly urged by conscience, and she was silent un- der it. Was it not enough that she should be false at heart, without adding real perjury. His words had their efi'ect even while she re- sented the tyranny that prompted them ; and at last she replied coldly, "You know that your appeal to my honor and truthfulness is enough. You may thus compel me to fulfill my promise so far as the strict letter of it is concerned, but I tell you its spirit is dead. I can neither love nor respect you as a wife should do, and I leave you to imagine what our home will be without this. It' you will b : a jailor for life, go learn a turnkey's duties. There is ample time for you to perfect yourself in them, as six months of comparative freedom yet remain to me.'' " Be as bitter as you choose, Julie. I endure it now, satisfied that some day you will beg me for pardon. It is not in a spirit of tyranny that I claim the fulfillment of your vow, since I am sure that you will love mo again as you did when you made it. As your hu band I will distance all rivals, even Edward himself. How many wives have you known, in lifl'erent upon thi ir marriage day to the hus- bands they accepted, yet learning after to idolize them:' That is a tale which repeats itself week after week, and year afier year." " I congratulate you upon the self- improvement you must medi- t ,te." " You are pleased to be ironical. Very well, if you were to tell me that you hate me, as I have little doubt you do at times, my re- solution would remain the same. You have told me that nothing should prevent our marriage, and I repeat it ; nothing shall." '* Very well. But- since you so firmly announce your resolution, hear mine. During this half ye ir that yet remains to me, I will not 0-8 THE HOUSE CR1IIXU THE be persecuted by you. You shall leave me to seek happiness in any way I may choose, ci as : to annoy me by attentions that are disagree- able to me. an I above all, our engagement shall remain a profound secret. I will not be toitured by arguments and rcmons f ranees from my best friends which I am powerless to answer or yield to." " To so much I consent. I will not press my attentions upon you in public, I will ass -rt no claim upon you. But I will not go away from you and leave Edward Sterling to fill my place, however much you desire it. I shall remain as near you as po.-sible, I will know all that interests you, though I will be silent unless you force me to protest. But lememb jr I will endure no flirtations !" " I never flirted in my life !" " Well, I ndmit that where real love exists flirtation does not. 1 will amend my protest, and avow that I will submit to no lovemak- ing." " Ugh ! What a detestable wretch !" she exclaimed with a shrug of her pretty shoulders, and a contemptuous look." Louis laughed. " You are quite bewitching when you are angry j Julie. Blondes are apt to look in-ipid For that very reason one y when some little a tentiou more mark- ed than ordinary, was offered by him. A casual introduction, scarcely to be avoided, had placed him upon speaking terms with Leonore, who till then had not once rcc- ogniz d him, but she did not present him to her immediate circle, although bantered to do so by some of the younger ladies who were attracted by his handsome faca and figure, and his courtly manners. Mrs. Vcnard had not ceased to observe him critically, and, entrap- ped into the presentation despite her resolution to the contrary, Julie 1 ad introduced, them. A sudden memory had flashed across the. lady's m'.iid a? she acknowledged his salute, and &he said ab- ruptly, " ' Horton.' That is the name of Phebe's husband ; don't you re- member, Miss Julie?" "I never heard it. I knew merely that she was married. Per- haps Mr. Horton himself may enlighten us. I remember he was one ot Miss Venard's favorites last year, at Niagara." He bowed profoundly, as he smilingly replied, " I am one of a numerous though not illustrious family, and it is not impossible that some relative may have received the honor to which I dared not aspire. I should be happy indeed to know it, for I admired Miss Phebe, vastly." The int nded taunt was powerless now ; it was a malter of utter in cliff, rence to Julie whom he admired in the past and present, and her look expressed it. Bowing his adieu, Louis joined Leonore at the piano where she was about to play in obedience to the usual re- quest. She was thinking of him, even as he approached her, won- dering if he would remain and meet Lisle upon his arrival the nest 330 THE HOUSE BEHIND TUB POPLARS. day. As Louis bent over her to arrange her music on the piano rack, she said quickly tmd low, "Lisle will bo here to-morrow evening.'' r than usual, will he ? When will he leave you ?" " By Monday's steamer." Not another word passed between them till the music ceased, and then he politely brought her a chair, and left her with her friends. She looked after h.iu as he walked carel s4y down the room, strange throbbing moved her heart. It was a singular effect of his presence, that rebellious as she was against his power over her, defiantly as she commenced- each conversation with him, he quieted an 1 subdued her at last, and bent her to his will as he would havo bent a pliant reed in his white hand. Menacing, i" suiting as he was, his gentler tones awoke strange echoes in her heait, and she felt that she was less conquered than yielding. In her most bilker momenta she would ha'vo dared even the ruin with which he "THE 110 VSE BE111NI) TUB POi'LARS. 331 threatened her, and she scorned the idea of owing anything to his generosity. Out of the mesmeric power of his presence this was her ruling instinct. Yet when witli him, this generosity was not hateful to her, and she supplicated for it. CHAPTER XXIX. LISLE and Edward came together by the next day's boat, and the quiet Sabbath succeeding was one of unmixed happiness to Lisle and Leonore, who met more like lovers than like a married pair who had sedately walked the path of life together for a whole year. "Have you missed me very much, little fellow?" Lisle asked smoothing her hair with a touch more affectionate than artistic. She looked up with an assuring smile despite her retort. " Cruel boy, to ask such a question after having deserted ine ! Have you missed me 1 and how are they all at home ?" " Wonderfully, and wonderfully well ; to answer both your ques- tions in one breath. Selim sent you a respectful whinny of regard, and the Infant, ' which likewise is well, begged to be remembered,' if I may presume to imitate her own phraseology. The virtuous Joseph is petitioning me to receive him back into our service. You'll be glad to know his affection is thus unaltered.'' "If he ' is petitioning,' 1 L conclude you haven't yet yielded." "I told him I would leave you to decide; at which his elation was evident. It isn't every man who relies upon a feminine to such an extent as he docs in you. Truth to confess, the Infant came at me first with her woman's weapons of tears and protests. ' He is her husband, it is her duty to follow him, she borrows '.rouble about him,' and all that. Why is it that however wretched a man and his wife may be together, they are more miserably wretched under a separation ?" " Don't ask me. Haven't you been a victim to matrimony as long as I have ? What dU you learn of Bill and Melissa ?" " More than enough. They are quite worrying the old dame's life out. Bill is more than suspected of knowing too much about certain missing portable property belonging to various citizens, and Joseph spends too much time in the charming society of his step- daughter, to please either the Infant or the marital stepson-in-law a double and twisted relationship that, but it's one of Joseph's own inventing. You see why poor Mrs. Perkins wants him back under surveillance." 332 THE EorSE BEUIXD THE FOFLAttS. " You won't take him back, Lisle?" "Yes, I think so, ns your e pecial valet de place. You see one is morally responsible for the vagabonds one makes, an. I as no oue else will have him around, I must." " Lisle, I will not have him back agai i." " Oh. indeed, if it conies to that " " It has come to that. I never was more in earnest" It was an unprecedented assertion of her will, and he yielded to it at once. " I'll crush his hopes the instant I return. I will tell him you have censed to protect him, and tbat I ani to obey your commands or leave the premises." She did not so much as smile, and seeing that the topic was dis- tas eful to her, lie abruptly changed it. ' Have your fine lady friends forgiven my apostrophe to the sex?" I d.^n't know ; I fancy not. It seems to me some of them are ceaselessly on the watch to discover the secret sins in my chaructei which have so embittered my husband." ; What a guilty conscience you must have, Loonore. Fie, for shame ! However, if you are convinced that this is anything more th ni imaginary, let them work away.'' - I don't fancy it. I assure you ! It isn't pleasant to be considered a persecutor of one's husband." X Misense. If they ever realize their hopes they will all have husbanus of their own, and then they'll know that cM wives are persecutors. I don't want you annoyed, but if they muke this an unpleasant abiding place, perhaps you will come back home. I couldn't live here all summer to s ve my life. 1 ' I've a mind to tell you what Mrs. Bertram said of your hronic restlessness w:>en she found you had really left us." 1 it of course. I've quite a respect for that lady's opinions, irreverent as they sometimes .are towards those who demand :ice.'' said, 'if Lisle Sterling had been the script ural Prod igal Son, it would have been a useless job to kill that fatted calf, for he would l.ave changed his mind :md run away a_rain before it could be dished 'Very likely. I never liked veal, at b?st. But hovr long cau you cont.-nt yourself here ?" " As long as Ju'.ie so much enioys rem lining. The close, doll cry is no place for her during these stifling months.'' " I can imagine something how the parents of grown-up daughters THli HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLA.US. 333 feel, compelled to suffer all sorts of inconveniences fill some inexpe- i it-need fellow can be entrapped into marrying Eliza Jane who t quints, or Sarah Ann who has a pug nose ! Since the day ' tender- eyed Leah's' governor schemed to get her off his hands, fathers hive diligently practised the same trade, and mothers model their tactics after those of an old hen, who is forever pecking her half- grown chickens on the head, to drive them off." ' Oh, Lisle, that's a slander !" " I wish I thought so; but I tell you this world contains more 'Becky Sharp* ' than pretty women ever dre..m of. Of course the pretty ones never become a drug even in the matrimonial market; but the ugly ones, whether or not they have mothers to help them off, are like POOL- 'Becky' who so complained, 'compelled to scheme for themselves.' As for Julie, she can't do better than to marry Ed, for whom half the young ladies are doing their prettiest, and it is strange she doesn't realize it. By the way, she is looking melancholy. What ails her?" " Imagination again, Lisle. She is as blithe and merry as possi- ble. She is the life of the drawing-room, and universally popular." " 1 suppose, then, she has only formed a sentimental attachment for some one. This so-called ' lovu happiness ' always seems to me a most sorry and lugubiious sort. Love is a disease, Leouore." "Most sage conclusion, and consoling for a wife to hear from her husband's lips. I should judge the very announcement wo Ad prove a panacea," she replied, a little hurt. He laughed as he reassured her. " Oh, I don't 1111 an the tender regard a husband has for his wife, which leads him to pay her shoe bills without \' rumbling, and chivalrously to conceal the fact that half her back hair and several of her t. eth are false, and to love and cherish her through all these infirmities. I mean the grand heroic sentimental idiosyncrasy, which prompts one man to worship at the slippers of another man's wife to the prejudice of his own, or is even more liable to attack the very young of both sexes. It is the last of a line of ailments of which measles and chicken-pox are the predecessors." Pew women approve of treating the subject in such irreveieut fashion, and Leonore's serious reception of it proved her no excep- tion to the general rule ; and feeling that his philosophy was unap- preciated, Lisle put himself upon his best behavior for the remain- der of the day, though laughingly protesting that it was hard when a man's o\vn wife couldn't follow the highest flights of his genius and fa-icy. They were left quite to themselves as if by mutual con- 334 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAB3. sent, even Edward and Julie leaving them undisturbed, and wliiling away the day as best they might. At sunset they wandered out upon the beach together, and silently watche I the fadinu out of the lust rose colored and purple reflections from the water which lay uiirippled as far as the eye could reach. Despite the reign of peace and harmony around them, neither face reflected the light of happiness,- and the sigh breathed by Julie, was responded to only by a sudden and vigorous launching far out upon [ the water, of the bright pebble Edward had been c irele-sly tossing and catching as they strolled along. The ac ion seemed to have re- awakened his power of speech, for he said a little impatiently, " I must confess that I can't understand the fine points to which you attach such importance. You confess wh'at your manner long since led me to believe. Yet in the same breath that you make the sweet admission, you bid me hope no more, tell me that even this must cease. I will apply for canonization, as a martyr to feminine caprice." "It is not caprice, Edward. I have told you that I am engaged to another. I have been frank and truthful with you now, as I ought to have been long since." " And I repeat that were you twenty times engaged, I would not lose hope nor cease to love you. You cannot forbid this, and I don't see why you should protest. You cannot love us both, and I believe every word you ever uttered to me." " Oh, Edward, I tell you the blessed truth. I love you unto death ! Yet the fact remains that I am bound to the fulfillment of a promise from which I have vainly sought a release. Nothing but death can free me ; of that I feel assured." " I'd pray for a second flood if I thought it would sweep him out of existence. But it wouldn't, Julie. The children of this nine- teenth century would ogtwit the deluge itself, and every one be s lV ed very likely patent the invention, after." She smiled despite her seriousness, but he was grave and even contemptuous. ' The Fitzjnrnes spirit ' in which his mother had de- lighted, was uppermost, and he was in no humor to kiss the rod. ' Who is this all conqueror, Julie ? You haven't told me that. Since I know so much, tell me all." "She hesitated, and then asked, flushing under the evasion, ' Do you remember a gentleman whom you met at Niagara last summer, a Mr. Horton, to whom you were introduced ?" " I thought so then ! It was plain to me thnt he was your favored lover, but I fancied distance and absence had lent forgetfulness." THE HOUSK BEHIND THE POPLARS. 335 " Edward, I must be truthful wit'i you. I am goin^ to tell you something more, if you assure me that you will keep my confidence sacredly.'' " Well, I promise you. I have a holy shrinking from all things resembling duty." " This Mr. Horton is the Louis Hartley of whom you have heard so much." He raised hig eyebrows and give a little whistle of consternation. ' You are surprised, and very naturally," she said quietly. " No, not surprised at anything connected with a love affair. The evil one himself has his admirers, and were he dressed in broad- cloth, would be a most successful gallant, I've no doubt." " Perhaps so," replied she with patient resignation. "Horton. or Hartley, he is a very handsome gentleman, and beauty goes far towards gaining favor in this world. I make no comments upbn his alias, as I suppose we both know his reason for assuming it. I always believed him an unmitigated rascal ; bat he must have redeeming virtues of which I know nothing, or you never would have loved him. She slipped her hand into his and softly thanked him for all reply. Hs bent along look upon her of blended curiosity, quizzical- ne : s and doubt, then he said dispassionately, " I wonder how much of your verdict and acquittal were based upon a dispassionate analysis of his character ns revealed to you, and how much is due to sweet words and a pleasing exterior. His influence over you must be strong, or the sentiments you hear expressed of him so continually, would awaken real doubts in your mind, and they do not seem to have done so. What has kept you f lithlul to him during this whole year of adverse influences?" " ' Faithful ' is a word most undeserved. But in so far as I am not quile faithless, I reply in one word, Conscience." "Well it is the first time I ever heard of a young lady's loving with ' conscience.' Give him that as long as you choose, Julie. Only leave me the heart, and I will take the chances of winning over the head. I expected, little Julie, that you would be wooed and won a score of times before you would dreim of the mischievous boy who had hung your doll-babies, and practised amateur surgery upon your pets in bygone years. I know now, that I loved you even then, and I can't remember the day when the hope of making you my wife was not ever present." " Oh, Edward, Edward ! I am as wretched as I can live 1" THE JiOUsa BIUXD XUK POPLAE3. "Two lovers always make a woman wretched I Toll the other to K ave.'' " I have, and lie won't go. But I'll worry his life out if I marry him I" " Do. and Til marry his widow. Seriously, Julie, do you think it less than a positive sin to marry in this way ? I ask you most unself- ishly/' ' It is a worse sin to break a promise given as solemnly as mine was. It would be very easy t; reap the reward of uiy own fickleness, and cry out that all else is wrong ! I can't do that, Edward." lie hesitated to ask the next question, but after a pause did so. "Juii'-, i> any time named for your marriage?" " Yes, in December. I promised that, six months ago." " I cannot remain to see it. I shall visit my old home then, where I ought to have gone this summer, but could not. Father writes that mother will hardly live till another spring, and is con- stantly begging that I will go back to her. I believe I am the only one of all her children whom she really loves, and I ought to go if it will give her any happiness. Meantime, Julie, let us go on as we have done. If I am to give you up at last, there is no need to ha." ten the hour of sacrifice. We are happy together, why should I be banished ?" "You sh ill not be. If you are content, I am a thousand times so." ' Tiu-n let us not so much as allude to your engagement. We shall not be likely to forget its existence, but I don't want to hear it mentioned. I have your love, if I am not to possess yourself; and I would rather have it without yourself, th:in to many you without having that. I candidly think, little Julie, that if a man is throughly conivncc that he possesses, entirely, a good woman's love, he may be content without asking one boon beyond." " I can't ba so philosophical. It is dreadful to be completely wrapped up in one and to belong to another !" She shivered as she spoke the words. "Do you suppose Lisle's consent can be won to this marriage, JulU "No ; it is useless to expect it, and he will be spared the trouble of refusing. I don't intend to consult him about it. It is simply in- sulting to ask one's advice when the solicitor doesn't intend to re- spect it." The gathering darkness warned them in at last, but not til hap- pier themes had banished the discomfort growing out of the confess : on bhehad at last summoned courage to make. Arm in arm they strolled THE HOUSE BEHIND THB POPLABS. 337 back to the hotel, and from their happy faces no one would have dreamed of the scene that had passed. Even yet Edward did not resign the hope of years. While she was free, he would not, and she realized it joyfully. The few happy months that yet remained ;o them, were like a new lease of lile ; and tliat happy intoxication of heart and brain which is inseparable from an nrdent and mutual affection, possessed them both. The door of Leonore's parlor stood hospitably open :is the two passed by it upon their way along the hail, and she called them in. " Come, Julie ; add your persuasions to mine, and let U3 see if we can't keep our truants a day or two longer. Won't you be persuaded, Edward ? Why need you hurry back ?" Julie bent her softly radiant eyes upon him, but he resisted their mute appeal. ' It is utterly impossible, pretty sister. Keep your husband if you will. He's of no use anywhere else; but I can't stay. I ought not to have lefc my patieats for even this visit." Lconore looked disappointed at the reply, but remonstrance was us-jics 7 . Lisle had a complaint to make, and he advanced it. " Wnat do you think of a wile who utterly refuses to write to her lord during absence ? Leonore outrightly refuses to do so, in pun- ishment for my declining to remain and do penance here. I want you to put her upon a strict regime of bread and water, till she re- lents and consents to do her duty, Julie." ' Wouldn't bread and honey do as weli?' Julie asked demurely. Edward nodded Ids approval of the suggestion. " There a e scientific reasons for preferring the latter. You see, Lisle, that upon the sanitary condition of the stomach depends the nervous vigor and healthy condition ot the m.nd, and " " Hold on there, doctor. That simcks decidedly of the days when you exer ised your budding genius upon poor pussy and chanti- cleer. It is but one advance beyond ' circulation ' and ' adipose tis- sue,' and not half as intelligible. Besides, I don't want a letter in- spired from Leonore's stomach, and nervous paraphernalia. They are no doubt excellent articles to have about one ; but as I have never yet h id one letter from her, it should coma from the heart, like all tir^t love letters.'' '' I was eluc.itedto think the initiative belonged to the gentle- man in mat ers pertaining to the tender passion. Hew many letters have you ever written to ine ?" Leonore said banteriugly. " 1 11 write you one this moment, if you promise to answer it Tues- day." 338 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. She shook her head, and with some display of pique he exclaimed, " I declare, Lsonore, I never knew you had so much obstinacy." She bent her head upon his shoulder with a caressing gesture that softened him at once, and bending hU cheek down upon it, he said, ' What a strange little puss it is. So good and gentle, yet so re- lentless! You will repent when I am gone, and the white winged little messenger will come to tell me so." She did not reply, and he left, believing that her silence was a tacit consent. Left once more to themselves, the ladies " took up the burden of life I'gain," just where they had laid it down the preceding Satur- day. Louis Hartley reappeared at the hotel punctually Monday morning, and his presence awoke the same longing wish in the hearts of both, to return to that peaceful home where he dared not intrude. Julie knew herself the sole object of his persecution, and detested him accordingly. But Leonore wavered between two opinions, sometimes fancying that his sole wish was to annoy and harass her- self, sometimes believing that he remained only in the hope of rein- stating himself in Julie's favor, and only cared to make her of some service in attaining his object. As yet his attentions had not been sufficiently marked toward either, to arouse that spirit of gossip ever dominant in such an assemblage of idle people as thronged the hotel. But during this second week of Hartley's sojourn, it was whispered among ihe censorious that he was far too devoted to the beautiful Mrs. Sterling, who had refu-ed to go back home with her husband despite his solicitations, and that her affectation of c >id- ness towards her handsome admirer was only a veil to screen the flirtation, if indeed it were not something more serious. With consummate tact. Hartley had managed to ingratiate him- self with nil sorts of people there present, and man-iging in mini is angled for him upon the mere .-trength of his own assumptions. Julie looked on while the manceuvers proceeded, fervently praying that he might be entiapped by some fair damsel, whom she would have blessed as her benefactress. Little by little it began to be said that he wns rather too fond of play; but brothers laughed to sci rn th< ir istcrs' consternation, ;>nd mothers declared it a mere fashionable folly of which matrim ny would cure him. Leonore heard the*e whispers of him, and they did not increase her pleasure a: being the now unmis'akable object of his attentions. Yet scheme as she would, she could not prevent them, his seeming complete uncousciousm-ss of her coldness leaving THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 339 lier no choice between them and an open rupture, which she dared not make. Julie was for from making any such concession 3 . She knew that he attached himself to Leonore for the sole purpose of being one of her own party and carrying out his thivat of protesting should she accept too exclusive attentions from any other. So the time parsed on, cheered for Leonore only by the arrival of th j promised letter from Lisle. It was in reality the first he had cvc r wi .tten her, and verified hi- assertion that as tuch it came from the li art. Saturday came at last, nnd with it he returned, accompan ; ed by several Benedicts. Mr. Venard and Mr. Bertram were among the number, and while Mast -r Charley entertained his papa with boyish loquarity, Mr. Bertram smoked, and aired his heels upon the bal- cony railing, while his wife flitted and chattered around him as it resolved to extract something resembling conversation from the at- mosphere around and above him, through which she now and then caught a gliinpsa of him. " What upon earth ails you, Mattic !'' he exclaimed at length be- tween two voluminous puffs of cigar-smoke. " You are like a face- bewithched fly, with your continual buzzing and setting at one! One would think you hadn't had a chance to talk for a whole month." e ? If I lessen the number of these even by one, it is better than idling here. Will you keep Charley with you, and so leave me quite at liberty ?'' " Certain y, unl( ss you will take me with you iis your assistant." "That I will not. Stay with your husband, for f shall have no time to nurse raw recruits, nor power to heal broken hearts shoul I yo i make one by your imprudent zeal. Mrs. Bertram has orders to remain with you marital injunctions which she will gladly obey, so you may have quite a merry party yet. I am glad yon have forme, I the sensible conclusion to stay with your wife, Mr. Sterling. Sho has but a lonely time of it without you." l ' Not to mention that gossip-mongers find her name attractive," he rejoined. " Ah ! I hoped she did not know that. You will some day con- 348 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. elude to profess some admiration for the sex, if only upon your wife's account. Unfortunately, people don't all know what a harmless cynic you are." " I will reform, I promise you. Foolish people; do they imagine that when one really suffers the evils he pretends to lament, tiiat they are thus proclaimed from the housetop ? A man keeps real grief in his own heart, and guards it jealously." " This is not a reflecting world, and it has a truly feminine talent f JT jumping at conclusions." " Yes. A man may proclaim his felicity till his lungs are sore, and nobo ly believes him; but let him drop a bint of ' secret trrief and family trouble,' and it flies trumpet-tongued. Don't go, Mrs. Venard.'' " I really must. I have all my packing yet to do. I hope, dear Sirs. Sterling, that you may pass a most pleasant summer. If your lord needs any more lectures, let me know. It is such a pleasure to serve him I" " Your generosity is well known, fair and gracious lady," said Lisle with a profound bow. "I'd li'.ce to kno-.v wh;n you two or three ladies made this conspiracy to join forces against me. Well may Leonorc be a turtle dove of meekness and resignation, when she knows that you and Mrs. Bertram are ever ready to do battle for her !" Going out, Mrs. Venard met Julie in the hall, and drew her toward her nxin with her, as she said kindly but with light warning, " I am to leave you to morrow, little Julie, and I must caution you not to lose your heart to this fascinating Leander of the melan- choly eyes and insinuating minne:s, whom you call Mr. Horton. I can't like him, and were I to use a homely term, I should s iy he is a humbug. I have written Phebe, asking her if he is one of her new relatives; for I know that he is laying a desperate siege, and my symp.thies are for Dr. Edward. Don't surrender, Julie, till you know what is said of him by those who know him best." Julie made some mocking reply, and tripped away, mentally glad that MMJ. Vomrd had shown the good judgment to speak to her nl--iie instead of in Lisle's presence, for she feared each moment to he:ir that name, which she knewvould arouse his curiosity at onci-. 1: \va- fiom Mrs. Bertram, after all, that the danger was to be fe red. nu.l later it came, as that thoughtless lady exclaimed, "I wonder if the gallant and devoted Mr. Horlon will follow us to our new stopping place ! You dou't know, Lisle, what a devoted THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 349 cavalier your charges have gain d here, nor how he is bcsnubbe.l by all but me." " No, I am still in ignorance of such an important affair. Ba- snubbed, is he ? yet everlastingly adoring. Who is the Adonis ?" "Oh, do make a clean breast of it at once," Julie exclaimed before Mrs: Bertram could reply. "Just own up that he is a favored escort of yours upon whom you have pounced as a successor to Mr. Bertram if he ever does the handsome thing by you and leaves y.m a you ig widow ! Mr. Horton will find no other defender here, for Leonoie detests and I hate him. How dull and inopy we nil are. Why don't we play and sing ?" ' Upon my word, Julie, your anxiety to change the subject makes me think there's something in it. 1 must investigate yours ;nid Leonore's doings in my absence." Lisle laughed as he made the assertion, but it was not echoed by either of the ladies most interested, uneasy as they were least the idle gossip that had been uttered should reach his ears. It was, then, with a feeling of profound relief, that, all arrange- ments complete, the little party took their flight early in the follow- ing week fur the fairy cottage of which Lisle had talked, and most delightful it proved. Julie resigned herself as best she could to this lengthened absence from the home to which she longed to return, not a little braced to its endurance by her resentment at Edward's refusal to accompany them, which she had termed "real obstinacy ;" and so it seemed in her ignorance of his utter inability to do so. There was an intense satisfaction in the thought tha 1 ^ at worst she had defeated Louis Hartley's plans for the season, tince he would not, for his own sake, intrude upon them while Lisle was their protector. Mrs. Bertram and Julie, accompanied by Master Charley, made long jaunts and tours of discovery around the adjacent territory, while, left to undisturbed felicity, Lisle and Leonore lingered to- gether upon the balcony that looked far out over the rolling waters, one reading softly to the other while the fresh breeze fanned their laces, lit up with the very spirit of content. Then when the moon ro-e bright and clou I less, arm in aim they wandered down the beech upon whose Ivinl and beaten sands the waves broke in rolls of molten silver. Thus peacefully and sweetly passed the remainder of that long hot summer, while in the city they had left, pestilence held carnival. Not till the cold blasts of Oc.ober swept down upon it from the North, did its saturnalia cease. TUeu familiar faces 350 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAR3. once ir.ore came thronging on the &tn et-, and among the first w re Lisle's and those of his cottage brood. The Venards, though weary and worn with ceaseless ministerings, were in good health and spirits, and Edward had parsed unscathed through all the danger round him. Julie wept in very joy at the realization of so many blessings, and humbly begged his pardon lor ail her petulant protests against the "obiliaa^y" she forgave and respected since she knew its cause. " Could you re illy think that I remained away from you so long just of my own free choice ?'' he asked reproachfully. " I am not one of tho^e who take up a cross for the nivre sake of bearing it. How much time we have lo^t, little Julie ! Ah, should it only have pleased Providence to have called him home from this wicked world ! It has been a sickly summer everywh.re!'' " Don't hope it. People whose life is valueless, never die. He'll live till I worry him to death, you may be sure." "May his constitution prove feeble, and his power of long-suffer- ing much less marvellous than that of most Benedicts.'' Meantime LLle and Leonore wandered out into the pale golden sunlight of the cool October morning. From garden to summer- house, from flower-borders to the sombre shade cast by the live oaks. Everything seemed to give them an audible welcome, to which Leonore responded gratefully, * Oh, I am so happy ! This is what it is to have a home .'" " You are glad, then, after all, that you married me and thus made it ' a home 'to me as well as you ? for it was not so before," re- sponded Lisle. ' Glad ?' Yes, a thousand times ! If I die fir it, I have at least known heaven first ! Conscience itself has ceased to reproach me." " I knew you were merely over-sensitive. See now, how weak I should have been to allow such a very myth to interpose between us and happiness ! You feared I should tyrannize over you. Ah, Le- onore !" "So you would have done and gained les - had you not been the most generous and noble-hearted man who ever lived.'' "I'm af.aid you have not an exalted opinion of men in general, and husbands in especial," he replied, smiling. They were strolling along again, now, and Lisle said, pointing to a dead vine that clung to the trellis, " See, child. Y(.ur climbing rose is quite dead. Things don't flourish in Joseph's absence. He is a gool gardener." As if the mention of his n-inie invoked his presence, Joseph him THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 351 self came suddenly upon them as they turned among the shrub- bery. " Well, Joseph, what now ?" Lisle asked, seeing that he waited to be addressed. " I just come round to find out what you'd concluded about taking me back. Says I to myself, Joe, if you could get to see the madam herseU, and have a talk with ber, she'd hear to reason; so I came. I know'cl, for you told me, as how she'd refused, but she'll think better on't." She turned \vit!;out :my reply, and picked a bud or two from a blooming branch nenr her. Joseph's lank face assumed an expres. s;o;i of defiance and bull-dog tenacity, as he said a little louder, " We was old Mends, the madam and me was, and I ceunts on it- She an't going to say good-bye to th,- prist in that way " Lisle raised his eyebrows quizzica'ly as this "ol 1 friendship" was alluded to, but supposing it was merely a reference to the protection he himself had often rallied her upon, when Joseph had been in their service, he said with a shade of sarcasm, "Oh yes; I know she treated you with most distinguished con- sideration. It breaks hei heart to refuse you, but she is compered to do so." " Such friends as we might be, too !" Joseph pleaded with a glance at her. he maintained the same silence, and Lisle who again replied, "Mrs. Sterling has serious objections against employing her 'friends' 1 in any menial capacity, and decides to employ less distin- guished people." " Mrs. Sterling says so, does she 1 Mrs. Sterling. He, hel Well, now!" She turned upon him as the taunting words reached her, and holding back the hand Lisle had raised, she stopped the descending blow so well merited for his insolence, and with utter defiance writ- ten in every line of her pale face, she said, pointing toward the street "There lies your way, sir. Go ! Into my service you never enter again, come what may !" Lisle looked upon her in surprise at the anger she displayed. Never before had he seen her so aroused. Joseph, too, stood one moment spell-bound by i , and it was with marked respect and hu- mility that he spoke the next words. " I begs your p,ir,":on. ma'am. I don't want to be one of thr the dosing he give me inside, and the mustard pickling he did to my outside, but he wouldn't touch it. The old lady's fond of me, Mr. Sterling, and maybe for her sake you'd t ike me back ? ' " You are too fond of horseflesh, and your turn for speculation i.-n't appreciated. Tue fact is you are a great rascal Joseph," said Lisle confidentially. " I've quit all that,. ST. That yaller job is a rouser to the cm- science, and I had a mind, then, to make a clean breast of two or thiee things; but said I to myself, 'Joe, don't you do that, for if you get up of this, you'll be persecuted for it and had up afore the lawyers." " I will try and do something for you in a day or two," said Lisle kindly, his passing anger quite forgotten in Joseph's humility. Without so much as a look toward Leonore, Joseph made his bow, and left. Leonore looked at her husband with compressed lips, and he saw that his relenting humor found no response in her heart. ' He is but a clown, at best, and doesn't mean to be impudent as he sometimes seems," Lisle said excusingly. She turned and faced him resolutely, "Do you intend to take him back despite my prohibition? Is this the ' tyrannical rule ' you wish me to exercise in our house ? ' He laughed in real amusement at her anger, but he hastened to reassure her. " I did not say I would do so, Leonore, nor do I so in' end. I will pa e him elsewhere, as I ea-ily can. It would be a pity to nip in the bud such a sprouting saint, for want of a little encouragement. Leonore, may I ask you a question ?" "Certainly." '' Did you know Joseph before you found him in my service ?" " Y< s." ' Then it must have been in Louisville, for I don't thiak he ever was outside the place till he came here." THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAR3. i553 " I never was in Louisville," she answered briefly. " I thought he was Louisville born. Then indeed, Leonore " " Why must you talk of him ? He and all things connected witn him ;ire hateful to rne. He destroyed my peace in our own house, dear Lisle, and I cannot consent to have him here. That is all." The pleasure they were enjoying in their ramble was destroyed, and by tacit agreement they walked thoughtfully back to the house. Lisle's philosophy soon banished the passing cloud from his spirit, but Leonore's buoyancy did not return at will, and day by day the weight upon her heart seemed increasing, mysterious as was its cause. No less attentive and devoted in her every action toward him, she was pensive, melancholy, and the efforts he made to'chcer and enliven her. were oftener rewarded with rising tears than by the smiles he invoked. All his tender questioning failed to elic't- the cause, and he was compelled to resign himself to this sudden change in her, in utter ignorance of what caused it. She seemed at times even to wish to avoid him, and humoring the caprice whic'.i he pretended not to sefi, he often watched her pacing to and fro the winding walk that led from the unllery out to the street, her figure now lost, now reappearing through the shrubbery. Thus sitting and watching her one evening at dusk, while he smoked his cigar, an unus'ial solicitude prompted him to offer one protest. The dew was falling heavily and chill, and he stepped in for a veil to cover her head from its penetrating dampness. Part way down the walk his steps were suddenly arrested by a sight that met him at the gate beyond. The figure of a man was lurking by the entrance. He saw Leouore approach him, linger for one ins! ant as if in collo- quy, and then they hurriedly separated, the figure of the man going up the street, and Leonore at first hastening her steps, then resum- ing her accustomed pace up the walk she had been promenading. Unobserved by her, Lisle returned to the gallery and resumed the seat he had occupied when last she approached it. Leonore came near again, hesitated, as if intending to join him, then turned and went away one? more. An impulse of bitterness sealed his lips when he would have called to her in that undecided moment. " If she would thus expose her health, and sacrifice her own inclinations, for the purpose of more thoroughly deceiving him as to the real ob- ject of those twilight promenades which he had heretofore attrib- uted to mere restlessness, let her accept the consequences. If she was chilled and weary he was not responsible! Who was this other for whom she thus toiled and waited ?" The next instant h" re- proached himself for these thought', and conquering his rebel '.0113 354 THE 110 USE BKUItfD XII tt. POPLARS. impulse, he sprang down the steps and overtook her. C.isting the veil over her head, he said gently, " The dew is very heavy to-night, Leouore ; are you not chilly ?" She thanked him fur the act, and said something about 'going in directly, 1 which he did not catch. He took her hand and drew it tluough his arm, saying lighlly, "Are you really forsaking your own roof and turning into a sort' of elegant ' tramp ?' Five-aud fifty times you have paced up and down this path to-night. I wonder if you have peas in your shoes, like a real penitent ?" " I shouldn't feel them if I had." " Oh, the peas are in your conscience then ! Well, Leonore, ono of the pilgrim.:, thus condemned, lolled his peas before he commenced the expiatory journey. There is an example for you." Eesolvcd not to annoy her by any seeming observation of her movements, from that evening he went out upon the other balcony to smoke his cigar when he taw her ready for her solitary stroll- Evening by evening she returned more composed and serene, and satisfied with anything th \i made her so, Lisle said nothing of the scene he had witnessed, and she was far from suspecting it. Thus affairs stood when a river excursion was planned by an ever restless party of pleasure seekers, who insisted that the. Sterling family should accompany them. As usual Lisle declined the invitation for himself, but urged its acceptance upon Leonore and Julie, who were compelled to assent, though Leouore's reluctance was evident. But one day intervened before the anticipated excursion, and tlr.it, till late into the evening, was monopolized by guests never done with important phns and suggestions relative to it. Restless and nervous, Leonora's eyes turned ever toward the theatre of her evening walk, and Lisle pitied her while powerless to relieve. It was tc-n o'clock when the last enthusiastic chatterer left, and with a heavy sigh, Leonore went up to her room. The excursion day dawned bright and cheery, early November aa it was. Leonore lo iked wearily out upon the waving treetops in o the distance, hazy with the delicious purple glow of autumn. Julie accosted her gayly as she entered the breakfast rocm, asserting t.'iat manied people were never good playfellows. She had no spir.t to reply, and Edward changed the subject by an announce- ment quite unexpected by all but Julie herself. " Next month I intend to make an excursion compared to which this is but a babe in arms. Do you know, Lisle, I'm really going to visit the old peop'.e ?" X1IE UOUSi. liEHIND TUB POPLAB.3. S55 " In midwinter ? I wish you joy of the tempting excursion. I hope you don't style it pleasure excursion." " No. Duty excursion would be moro literal. You know I am mother's Benjamin, and my presence must be urgent to her, when father has really expended twelve cents in postage to tell me so, as he has done in the last few weeks." " Hush, Ed. You won't give Leonora an exalted opinion of our family, if you go on. I haven't told her its peculiarities." " Never told her that you are the grandson of a poetess ? You can't have forgotten ' Poor lady, poor lady, you're always undone,' and the rest of it. But you know mother used to affirm that the old 1 dy had more sense than all the rest of the Sterlings put together, crazy as she was." "' Crazy T repeated Leonore bending forward breathlessly. ' C: azy !' " "Yes, and I'm sadly afraid it may prove hereditary," Edward re- plied gravely. " Insanity crops out so unexpectedly, when it runs in families this way almost certain to reappear in the third genera- tion, with the least disturbing cause. Any great grief or disappoint- ment, being crossed in love, or having a troublesome wife Why what's the matter, Leonore ?'' Pale and breathless she leaned forward upon the table, never rais- ing her eyes from Lisle's face. " You have frightened her to death with your crazy stories ! Come, Leonore. Don't think of what he says. It is pure nonsense." As he spoke Lisle raised her and led her to a sofa. " Lisle, Lisle, if I drive you into insanity oh, good heavens !" she exclaimed in terror. GLAD in heart at the evident change for the better in Leonore's spirits, Lisle soon dismissed from his mind the anxious queries that had harassed it, and believing that once more the ever recurring clouds were bauHied for an indefinite period, he was satisfied ami content. Convinced that he possessed her entire and undivided af- fection, why should he complain that there was in her inmost soul one little recess into which she could not suffer even him to enter ? Had he, who had maintained toward her a tihnce upon one im- portant topic, which seemed even to himself bordering upon dis- 356 THE HOUSE BEHIJTD THE POPLARS. i honorable, of all others, the right to complain of want of perfect confidence? Lisle was just, even where he felt most strongly. He had asked himself the question before he ever made her his wife, he had no occasion to answer it differently now. And content with the measure of happiness bestowed upon him, he sauntered out with his cigar, upon this, the first evening of his temporary desertion, r.nd made a leisurely tour of the grounds which were of remarkable beauty. It was quite dark when he at last turned to go back to the house, and he quickened his steps as he approached the main pathway up and down which Leonore had pursued her restless promenades. Their recollection caused him to turn toward the gate where he had once surprised her in a stolen interview. As if invoked by the act, there, where it had stood then, stood now the figure of a man, as if waiting for some one who now came not; for in his im- patience he moved ever and anon as if hesitating yet wishing to enter the gateway. For some moments Lisle stood still and watched him. It was im- possible to examine him in detail at such a distance, and with as much caution as possible Lisle approached him. Simultaneously, wearying of his watch, or feeling that he might be observed, the figure glided away. Hastily Lisle reached the gate an 1 stopped to listen. A light, fleet step fell upon his ear. Wh:\t gentleman would thus lurk around another's house, what common man could have any errand which rendered such caution necessary ? This mysteri- ous being, whoever he was, could be none other than Leonore's un- known visitant ; he was ignorant of her absence from home, of ! which she had had no means of informing him. and doubtlessly this was the subject of her restless anxiety during the company be-tor- tured evening preceding, when it had been impossible for her to steal out to her tryst. The conviction was not a pleasant one to Lisle, despite his philosophy. Lis^ lighted another cigar as he resumed his favorite seat on the balcony; but his serenity was ruffle 1, and nothing pi ased him. The air was chilly, and he shrank from, it; the cigar its If seemed nf another brand, and he threw it away in disgust. The figure at t. e gale came between him and all peace, and under the sudden im- pulse he sent for the servant who filled Joseph's old place in tho grounds. " James, see that you keep the gates well locked while the family are away. This shrubbery furnishes too good a lurking place lor thieves and vagabonds." , THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 357 " Yes, sir. I kept them always locked when I first came, but the madam told me not." lt The madam is gone now, and there are too many prowlers around." " Yes, sir, I was watching one myself these two days, and he left here only a bit ago." " What was he like?" " A regular rough, sir. That's what I'd call him. Anyway, he's a poor man, and poor people an't safe to have around unless they've business."' Not stopping to analyze if his own prejudice were not about as il- liberal as James' philosophy, Lisle intrenched himself behind his plea of "common prudence," and at length reasoned himself back into something like philosophy. Resolved to avoid a similar annoy- ance the succeeding evening, he went out directly after dinner, and having spent the whole evening a way, returned late, and went to sleep in serene unconsciousness of a letter awaiting him upon th < dressing table. It was the first thing he saw when he arose next morning, and as he leisurely dressed he thought idly of the strange address scrawled upon its face. "For L. Sterling," and hardly curious as to it, he left it till quite rer'y to descend to breakfast. "For L. Sterling," he said half audibly as he at last raised it and broke the seal, and read, " I a~ks pardon For writin' to yu at All, but bein' that f >r 2 dais i hev watcd FTopin' to se yu, and To-day likewise wated Hopiu' in vane lil Pitchdark, I cum this mornin' to ask for yu, an the Poarter driv me off; i wan to tell yu as him as was sic is dangeruser agen, an' yu'd bes cum out lur a day or to, cs ther's no Kno\v,in' what may luipen', lice is al the Time askin' fur yu, an' won't rest Easy til yu cum. With mutch resoec, tho Wilt very poor, this is From your Faethful Torn." Lisle read this half illegible scrawl the second time, unable to make anything of it, before the idea flashed across him that it was not intended for himself. " L. Sterling " was an address no less applicable to Leonore, and strange as it seemed, it was but in keep- ing with the letter itself manifestly written by an unready pen. 1 low came the letter here at all ? Some one about him knew, probably James, whose business it was to answer the bell. He was busy at the moment upon the gallery, and stepping out Lisle raised the letter before him. "James, dl.l you take in this letter yesterday ?'' " No, sir, Mrs. Perkins took it herself, as the man who brought it wouldn't give it to anybody less." "Who brought it!" 358 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLAR3. "That fellow who's been hanging round here for a day or two." " So, this man was but an emissary between her and another," Lis'e said to himself as he went in to breakfast. Mrs. Perkins w \s waiting to do the honors of the table, according to the old familiar style which she remembered in Fitzjames' time, and during Lisle'? young bachelor days, and she looked up in surprise as he entered with more of his old time misanthropy expressed on his face than ; she had seen since his marriage. " I found a letter in my room, this | morning, addressed in a rather peculiar fashion. Did you put it there, and do you know who brought it :"" "Take the letter I did, but as to knowing who he was which brought it, I'm glad to say I don't. I'm an honest, respectable woman, and always have been, as you, which have known me so long, can tfstify. Him that brought it may bo honest, too, but he w.isu't wholesome company for the likes of you or me. What he'd wanted a-prowiinir round the house these two days, Lord knows ! which it's my opinion he brought tha letter at last just for an excuse, though he made such a fuss about who he'd give it to, and who he wouldn't, making me promise over and over to give it just according to the directions as was on it.'' <; And didn't he ask to see me at all V "Laws, no, sir, being as it wasn't you he wanted to see, if any- body. The way of it all was this. D.iy before yesterday when cook went to the garden for the salad, she saw this man a-hanging round the yard like as if he was looking for somebody. Cook thought it strange, but being as she is a modest, quiet-spoken young woman, she didn't let on about it. Afterwards, James, he saw him, too, walking around on all sides of he house and looking up at the windows anxious-like. Two or three hours he s!^!d a-qucptioning of the h-use a> never answered him back a word, and James got worried like and came out en him of a sudden. All he said back, -. that he was waiting to see the madam, and when he was told she w is gon-i off a pleasuring and wouldn't be back under three or four day?, he went away, nnd James thought tint was the last of him. But no, back he came again yesterday, and no'hing would do but he must see me. So 1 s'eeked mv hair and put on my new cap, nnd o-.it I went to the gate, for he didn't want to come in, then. Says he, ' You are the housekeeper, Mrs. Perkins, be you ? though, how he knowed my n-;ine I don't know and says I, 'yes, of course, who else 1 which Mrs. Drew was once my name, and as Drew and Pci kins I've been Mr. Sterling's housekeeper many a year, young -AS I look.' Then said he, I don't care uothin' about that. I only THE HOUSE BEHIND THE rorLARS. 359 want to know if you are true and fait'iful to the madam, and can be trusted !' I said, ' I'm a Baptist Christian which does my duty by the madam as is as sweet a lady as you'd wish to know.' He Deemed kind of touched when he found I was a Baptist and spoke a kind word for the lady, and said he, 'so she is sweet, ain't she.' Then he showed me the letter, and sa} r s he, ' Here's a letter as I've writ for her, and though its writ too poor for her to look on, she ought to get it the minute she comes home;' and ?ay he, ' will you see she gets it all safe, madam V He gave me the letter when I said I would, and sure enough the directions on it was her's. So then he went away for good, and I put the le'ter on the dressing-table to wait for her coming home. That's the whole story." '' Very well, Mrs. Perkins, but in future when letters are handed you for any one, keep them yourself till you give them into the very hand of the one to whom they are written. This letter was directed merely ' For L. Sterling,' and I mig'it have read it by mistake." " Which it's little Mrs. Sterling would mind if you had, the sweet lady as loves you ten times better than herself!" Not caring to prolong the conversation, Lisle went out, feeling that no farther light could be thrown upon the subject, which never- theless tormented him during the succeeding days. Who was it whose illness had caused her so much anxiety 1 this invalid who was pronounced " dangerouser " by the writer of the letter so evidently in her confidence. Who demanded her presence and could not be comforted without her \ With whom should she remain for " a day or two," forsaking him, her husband, and their mutual home? Having learned FO much of her secret, what might remain for him to learn ? For the first moment his brain reeled at a wild, terrible suspicion that crossed it. Impossible, she could not be faithless to him, could not abuse his unlimited trust and confidence in her, by wronging him under the very armor of security such faith gave her ! Yet impossible as-he pronounced it, the doubt remained. It was with mingled emotions that he received Lsonore, when at the close of the week she returned with the gay party of which she w s at once the leader and the delight, and with the announcement that it lacked but half an hour of dinner-time, he left her to make her toilet, sure that the waiting letter would consume a portion of the time. That it had done so, was evident when she descended in clemi- dress, her face haggard and anxious, and traces of tears in her eyes. The furtive glance Lisle turned upon her awoke his pity. Gentle, tender, loving as she was, she could not be the guilty thing he had 360 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. dared to think her. Oh, why would she not tmst and confide in him ! how could he win her to do so ! All that was possible to morfcil, he would do for her would she but permit him ; but if she thus sealed her lips and would not confide in him, what could he do? Would she obey this summons and add one more to her sev- eral mysterious departures ? What now would become of the promise she had voluntarily given to leave him thus no more? Could he, if he would, restore it to her, without awaking her sus- picions that lie knew more than he wished her to believe ? Did generosity itself require that he should be thus tender of her feelings vhih his own were lacerated? But one conclusion was arrived at jf she desired his generosity in any way, she knew she had but to claim it. He would w:iit for her to do so ; and day by day he of- fered her every tacit encouragement to ask it. But she remained sili nt, pensive, SOUK times serious. She would keep her promise to him ; that was evident, if she really felt any desire to recall or violate it; and LislcV heart beat reassuringly. It was Edward's departure that became a daily topic now, and while others wondered that he should have chosen the dreariest time of the year for a visit he could pay at any time, Julie kept her own counsel, and if she sometimes wore a serious, troubled air, not habitual to her, none thought anything of it. The tender relation- ship between herself and E iward received the natural construction, and while each knew it, neither cared, only wishing that for once public rumors were true. Hartley's name was unspoken by all, Leonore herself at ease about him so far as Julie was concerned, and Li:-le quite unsuspicious. In such a position were affairs, when Lisle was suddenly sum- moned to Louisville on important business. Loth as he was at all times to leave home, he was doubly so now. He felt instinctively that some impending calamity threatened him, yet reason urged him to resist the presentiment. Despite his efforts, the foreboding remained, and he made an effort to induce Leonore to accompany him. She shook her head and smiled as she spoke the negative he anticipated. He urged the question, and she burst into tears. Pained beyond expression, he took her in his arms and soothed her as one soothes a child, and said tenderly, " You can well understand that I dread to leave you in such a state of mind as this. Is there any place you would rather stay than in this great, lonely house, it indeed you will not go with me?" She shook her head and strove to recall her smiles. "Think again, Leonore. I will take you to any spit this side THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 361 the grave blindfold if you wish me to be so or you shall go alone, and when you send me word that you have arrived in safety, I will slart upon my journey with a lighter heart." " Where should I wish to stay except here in the only home I have ever known here \vhere all the happiness of my life is cen- tred ? Lonely I certainly shall be, but not more unhappy than I mu-^t be anywhere." " So you admit that you are unhappy ? Oh, Leonore, why won't you trust me ? You have not so true a friend in this wide world, nor one who would believe in, and trust you so implicitly, however circumstances might seem to condemn you." She bent her face in her hands and murmured brokenly, " Oh, stop, stop. Leave me to my fate ; I am not worth one heart throb !" ' Yet God knows every throb of my heart is yours, every tear you Bhed is wrung from its core. Oli, Lcouore, I too suffer, but only through you. You do not know what storms you set raging in my Foul, what battles I fight with my own terrible fancies!" "I will weep no more, dear Lisle. I am, as you said, nervous and ill, and if I am silent when you would have me speak, it is oaly because nothing I could ask or you can grant, would make me any happier. I tell you, Lisle, I a:n paying the penalty of a mistaken past, and it is as heavy as I can bear in silence. To speak it would kill me. Bear with me, dear Lisle, and above all love and trust me.' 1 He did, supremely, as he folded her to his breast, and his heart rcpro ichedhim for the base suspicions he had harbored against her. The few days that intervened before his departure were passed as usual, all seeming cheerful and happy. " What arc we to bring the ladies on our return, Lisle?'' Edward asked upon the last moming they breakfasted together. " I believe tLat since the days of 'Beauty and the Beast,' he who departs is expected to return with welcome gifts. I've no idea what is-certain to be acceptable to a lady, except a box of gloves. What is Leoiioi e's number r" " I believe she wears sixes now, though before she was married she revelled in five and three-quarters. Ila'cyon days, those ' before I was married,' of "every woman's memory! The fatest one who walks abroad, could be spanned round the waist by one's two hands, and the foot which now aspires beyond No. fives, was at ease in one and a half, a':l ' before I was married,' if one is to credit the self-inade statement. One is inclined to believe that matrimony 362 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. must have most prodigious effecK What did you -wear in tLa glove department, Leonore ? Fives, wasn't it ?" "For shame, Lisle. I wear now just what I always did. Plain sixes." " Wondrous development you must have had as an infant, as you say ' always.' " 'Thank you, I didn't cut teeth in 'Alexander's best,'" she said smiling. The morning flew rapidly by, and the hour of parting came all loo soon. " Be ns happy as you can, Leonore, and be assured I shall return to you at the curliest p ssible moment !" Lisle said chceringly as ho clnsped her in his arms at parting. Edward awaited him on the gallery, having spoken his adieus, and Julie was nowhere to be seen But a handkerchief waved from her window as they drove down the street, evidenced that she was not unmindful of the departure she could not summon enough courage to face. Left thus to the silence and loneliness of the great house, its very space and grandeur possessed a sort of terror for Leonore in the nervous, unstrung state of mind she was in. Creeping shadows seemed to lurk in each obscure corner, and every noise from without startled her like a dreaded presence. For the first time she realized how much there was around her to tempt the avarice of thieves and burglars, who of late had perpetrated many acts of unprecedented boldness, and escaped unharmed. While Lisle was with her she had turned a careless car to these reports ; bntnow each casual creaking of a staircase, every swinging door, alarmecl her, and at least a hundred times during that first try- ing night she sprang up in terror at the images her fancy had raised. The morning found her pale and weary, and disinclined to rise ; and Julie took her breakfast alone with no one to remark her own [ a'o face andswollen eyelids. Leonore came down to the parlors towards noon, somewhat re- freshed by her morning sleep, but painfully nervous, and st u ting yiolently at every unexpected address. Soon after she came down, James sought her^hnt in hand, ruul dressed as if to go out. He had received word that his .only child was dying, and asked permission to go it. She had never tho-ight, before, whether or not he had a family, and the ap.jeal s'ruck no\r upon a tender cord. '-Your child is dying- dying 1 Yes, go at once, poor man ! Can I do anything for you 2" THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 363 "No, ma'am, thank you, unless you'd be kind enough to let me stay and comfort my poor woman for a day or two. There's Joseph Perkins, the housekeeper's husband, will be glad to ta'ke my place while I'm gone. He's just lost his List place." < ; Oh, yes, let him take ir. lie will do well enough for a day or two." How could he think of such homely details while his little child was dying ? Her morning indolence had perhaps robbed him of the li tie thing's last smile of recognition and love! The self-re- proach tortured her as no words could have done, and it was well for her that coming gu- sts f >rced her thoughts into another chan- nel, and as the day went by her spirits rallied, and as she and Julie mounted the staircase together upon their way to their rooms late in the evening, they were chatting once more naturally. The two sleeping-rooms were contiguous, and leaving open the door between them, they talked for a long time after each had retired, mutually feeling the comfort of such companionship. Sleep overpowered them by inperoeptible degrees, and at last all w;>s silent, while the low burning gas threw a dim light over the rooms, just relieving (hem of total darkness. Leonore could not have told how long she had slept, it seemed not many minute?, when a faint noise in her room aroused her. Tho floor creaked under a cautious tread, then all was still, next followei tint indescribable rustling felt rather than heard, so startling to one whom it awakens to a real sen e of some strange presence near. She si rove to rise, but a deadly weakness enthralled her ; she would! have called aloud in cha'lenge, but the same deadly nightmare hushed her voice beyond her own control. Physically powerless as she was, mentally she was as self-possessed as ever, and with a des- perate courage she watched and waited for what was next to come. Reassured by the breathless hush around him, the intruder moved toward Julie's bed, and cuitiously peered through the curtain 3 . Evi- dently she was quite unconscious of everything, sleeping softly and profoundly ; for Leonore saw the intruder's hand s'eal under the pil- low and withdraw the tiny watch nightly placed there, and with hia clumsy fingers he pushed and crowded its dangling chain and little " charms " into hh pocket. Not a motion escaped her as she lay watching him, and even before he turned toward the flickering light, she knew that the ungainly figure and unagile, if stealthy movements, were tho-e of Joseph Perkins. Even as he thus turned, the strange spell thafc h-d bound her was dissolved, and with one bound she was upon, her feet in the centre 364 THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. '^ of the room. Not a cry broke from her lips, though as she thus sprang up a quick hand had turned the gas quite off and an inky darkness veiled everything. A firm hand seized her neck in threat- cued strangulation, and a voice that certainly was not Joseph's, said warningly, " You'd best be quiet now. If you don't screech out, nothing an't going to happen to you. Tell a feller whore's your money and your little traps, and we'll clear out respectable when we've took 'em." Her only reply was a sudden spring from the detaining clutch, and a screim that rang out cl'-ar and piercing. Julie echoed it na she sprang up in terror, but the door was quickly shut and securely bolted b t\vcen them, and while his comrade uttered maledictions, Joseph said to Leonore, " Yon mind now what Joe Perkins tells you. If you've seen what you'd no business to see, keep mum about it, or it'll be the worse for you. If you peach on me, I'll peach on you ; and you know you can't stand the damage, or you'd have screamed when you fir.-t see me here ! Slide down the gallery pillars, Bill ; you'll be caught if yon don't." " You're a pretty feller to be speaking out names, on such a trip as this ere!'' was the surly retort as the injunction was obeyed. At that instant voices were heard in the hall, and Mrs. Perkins ejaculated, " Lord bless us and save us '" Leonore sprang to the door leading into the hall, and opened it wide, as she called hur- riedly, " This way, this way ! Look to the man who is on the gallery." There was no one to be seen, but a shouting on tho str.-et was hcml, and a policeman's voice called distinctly, "I've got him, I've got him," while on all sides the sounding of t';e policemen's alarn rattle proved that they were on the alert. There w.is no chance of escape for Joseph, now nrngling with the exnt ;d household, if in- deed he meant to have attempted one; and Mr-. Perkins plucked him anxiously by the sleeve, as she asked suspicion ly, " How did you come to be on hand so quick '< which its slow enough you are in general, and you not in bed this bles-ed night !" "Why you sesthe way of it is this. I'd been out on a bit of a 'tear,' to tell just the truth, old girl; and just as T let myself into the house, I heard somebody a-moving up in the hall. I made sure it was you a-waiting up for in?, a-id says I to mys If, Joe, you're in for it now, suro, and so I stood a-thinkiug what I'd best say tj save a-p-oing over, for you're a strong one on going over, old lady, and then all of a m Hen I h^ercd a screech in the madam's room, and a THE HOUSE BEHIND THK POPLARS. 3oJ screech in Miss Julia's as was worse, and I made straight bolt, up here. It was as dark as pitch, and the doors was all bolted so I couldn't get in to see what was up, and him as was up to mi chief bolted over the gallery and off, and the police has got him now, and serves him right !" Leonore deigned no reply. She had hastily wrapped herself in a dressing-gown, and reassured Julie who understood nothing that had occurred, and she calmly dispersed the little assembly to talk it over among themselves, Mrs. Perkins starting at once upon a tour of tho house to see what depredation had been committed. As might have been anticipated under such circumstances, nothing was missing beside some valuable articles of jewelry, the principal object of the marauders having been to gain possession of these, which Joseph well knew were kept in tin rooms Avhere he had been surprised. Most of this wa^ found upon Bill's person when arrested, and having been duly identified, was restored, Leonore by some means having added tho watch in Joseph's keeping, to the other articles returned. Bill was fully committed for trial, and Joseph, unsuspected by all save Leonore herself, who had her own reasons for protecting him, remained at large, though strictly forbidden the premises. Learning what had occurred, the faithful James returned at once to his posf, and quiet was restored. As if her nervous terror had only warned her of this one attempted vio- lence, Leonore's courage and calmness returned, and she resumed her usual avocations serenely. And : ow again she commence 1 her restless walks at dusk along the pathway to the gate, and again the waiting messenger delivered his intelligence and mysteriously departed, though now with less danger of observation than when Lisle's attentive eyes followed her every moment. CHAPTER XXXII.' ONE night during the second week of Lisle's absence, Leonore came at a late hour to Julie's bedside, and bent over her. The action woke her from a sound sleep, and she started in surprise. Leonore placed her hand gently on her shoulder and s-dd, " Don't be frightened, Julie. It is only I." Very ghost-like she looked in her white robes, and, but half reas- sured, Julie exclaimed, 306 THfc HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. "What is the matter, Leonore ?'' She bent her face upon the pillow beside Julie's own, and iup- pressing a sob, said low anJ earnestly, " A great sorrow is slowly falling upon me greater, heavier than I can bear, as I have tried to bear it, silently. Julie, Julie, my very heart is breaking hour by hour. I can stay here and suffer it no longer I must leave you for a time " " For what, Leonore ? Where will you go ?" " Where duty and affection call me. Ask me nothing. I have violat d every instinct of my heart till I can do so no more. I must go, but I shall return in a few days at most. I shall lose iny reason if I am compelled to stay." " Then go at once. Don't think of me." Leonore silently kissed her in reply, and after a little time said, " I hope to return before Lisle ; but if he should come first, give him the letter I have already written for him and which you will find upon my t.ble. I shall leave before you are awake. And, Julie, if Lisle is very angry, very bitter against me, very doubtful of all he ever believed good in me, be to me the sister I shall so much need. I don't know what may happen I dare not think of it. I only know that I have no choice that I cannot longer support the exist- ence I am leading !" " Hush, Leonore ; don't talk of dying in that bitter way. Only tell me that you forgive me for all my errors past, present, and to come ; for I am treating you like a hypocrite, Leonore !" - "Not so, Julie. You are lovable and good as I would be had I the power. Only let us promise to love and cling to each other whatever may happen us. Do you promise this, Julie ?" " It is I who should ask that were I like you. ' Promise?' Yes, forever." With a last embrace, Leonore left her as noislessly as she had came, and through the remainder of the night busied herself with the prep- arations for her departure. Later in the morning Julie unclosed her eyes, heavy from want of sleep. It was one year this day since Lonis Hartley had made her that visit in the summer-house, dining which she had named the limit for his patient waiting, and two letters had lately reached her, reminding her of her promise. He would come to claim its fulfi.l- meiit, of that she had been assured. There was not a hope left ; and wearily she ro=e and descended to the deserted parlor.-. She was not even surprised when she received a tiny envelope in his well-known direction. In response she briefly named an hour for an THE HOUSE BEIIIXD THE POPLARS. 367 interview, and for the first time Louis Hartley crossed Lisle Sterling's threshold. The interview was but brief, and at its close Julie threw her mantle around her and hurriedly sought Mrs. Bertram. She would not leave the house quite soliiary at Lisle's arrival, should he reach it before Leonore's return, and Leonore's letter to him must bo left in trusty hands, and her wishes obeyed by one who would do all in her power to soften the double blow thus inflicted upon him. A. few forcible words mude Mrs. Bertram acquainted with the whole condition of affairs, and Julie would not suffer her to protest. '"Wait till Lisle ut least returns?' I can't. It would only make matters worse, and they are bad enough already. I won't insult him by being married under his roof. I suppose people will call it an elopement ; but I don't care. I'm only glad Leonore, too, is absent. Since it is enevitable, all has happened as smoothly as possible. A liitle ride to the regular city 'Gretna Gi'een,' ryou know where that is, a clergyman in want of a fee, and that L the last of ine! ' Mr-. Bertram took her by the arm. " Julie Kelley, I've a splendid dark closet, just made to receive bad children ! I've a mind to shut you in it till your senses return." '' I never h id any. If I had I shouldn't be in my present posi- tion." "Julie, do you remember Phebe Venard, who married nobody knows who, despite the remonstrances of her friends ? She is a poor deserted woman, her fortune already squandered, and hourly ex- pected back here to claim the protection of her brother, her father being dead.'' " I am sorry, but I can't weep over trouble in general when I've BO much in pnrticular. I'll risk my husband squandering my for- tune, for it is too small to be noticeable ; and if he deserts me, all well/' " What a crazy creature !" "There is s-o much method in my madness, that I shall send you Bay valedictory address to Lisle, whom I never expect to forgive me. Leonore will, and I shall write her when all is over. Now say good- bye, for I must be off. Go to Lisle the hour he comes back, and do what you can to make him hear to reason " She was gone with no more formal leavetaking than this. Plainly she expected neither sympathy nor forgiveness for herself. An hour later a carriage stopped at the gate, and Julie was helped into it by a gentleman who raised his hat in mock salutation to ihs house as they wcie driven away. James noticed it and thought tho SG3 THE HOUSE BKHIND THIS POPLARS. action strange, and the maid, Margaret, upon entering Julie's room found her trunks packed and labelled " to be delivered according to orders when given. 1 ' But either said a word of it, and there was nothing suspicious in the mere fact that she had gone out for a drive. If Margaret stood aghast one moment ;it lier discovery, and was fully five minutes recalliug her imperturbability, no one knew it. Scarcely had she succeeded in doing so when the gat lei was rung violently, and Mrs. Bertram rushed in, inquiring eargerly for }lLs Julie. James was about to carry her a note which Juiie had instructed him to deliver, and he handed it to her for all reply. The enclosure to herself contained but the one word, "good-bye," the other was for Lisle. Mrs. Bertram threw up her hands with a little gesture of con- sternation and despair, and then rushed out as rapidly as she h id entered. James saw her hasten down the street toward the Venards, and then wonueringly relocked the gate. But it seemed the bell would never cease ringing to-day, as just at dusk it pealed forth another summons, this time for the master of the house himself. "How are you, James ?" was the cheerful salute he received as Lisle hurried up the path to the house. Bursting open the door rather than swinging it b ick, he came full against Margaret, who lell pule and breathless against the wall. What a series of calamities was here the mistress absent on one of her mysterious journeys, the young miss gone no one knew where ! Margaret felt herself unequal to the emergency, and uttered not a word. Lisle threw open the parlor door. "Shut up, of course!" he soliloquized, and turning, ran up stairs. His wife's room was solitary and deserted also, and opening the doors, he called her name. Still no reply, and with a sinking heart he rapped on Julie's door, then opened it. Still no one! He rang the bell, and Margaret summoned courage and ap- peared. ' Where aie t'ue]ladies, M .rgarot ? Where is my wife ?" " Not in, six. Shall I see if she is at Mrs. Bertram's ?" for Mar _a- ret hud a woman's talent for putting another in the breach, and felt instinctively that Mrs. Bertram must know more oi this household flitting than any other. Reassured by the evasion he did not re- mark, Lisle dismissed her upon her errand, and awaited her return. She came, and silently handing him a sealed envelope, left him. Ho broke the seal impatiently, and read. It was from his wife. " Lisle, dear Lisle, forgive me, however you may at first bluue me for what must seem strange if not heartless in my conduct ; 1 am, called away from our home, dear Lisle, and I must go. I c in THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 369 refuse no longer, I can no longer ttifle the voice of my own heart. When you so generously offered to take me to any place where I might prefer to pass the weary hours of your absence, I told you, truly, that I w;is better iu my own home and preferred to remain in it. But other circumstances now exist, and / must go. Do not say that I thus break my solemn promise to you. Were you here now you would restore it to me, as you tacitly did when you told me to go anywhere this side the grave, that I might choose. Believe me, my ever beloved husband, wherever I may be, and whatever I do, I am yours most entirely and devotedly. You see I would not leave you this time in the 'utter silence' of which you once complained, I would not go at all could I refuse without being an unworthy, heartless wretch ! Yours with an aching but loving heart, LliONORE." At first he was not even surprised. Her affectionate adieu, that " first letter " for which he had vainly plead was his at last, and he regarded it again with loving interes'. A sudden cloud darkened his brow, and hastily tearing open his wallet he drew forth that long- preserved envelope addressed to his uncle, Mr. Fitzj imes, which he had once produced for family inspection, declaring it would yet give him a clue to the writer. Laying it upon the letter just received, he compared the chirography of the two. It was one and the same there was not the shadow of a doubt. His heart beat suffocatingly as he re.vlized the fact. This was why she had never dared to write him one word, despite his pleadings! What was the reason f;r ail this mystery ? What could she have had in common with Mr. Fitz- james whom she professed never to have known, and how was it that after so much duplicity she should have betrayed herself at last ? What was the secret in her life so continually interposing its hateful presence between them? If she was indeed the innocent creature he had believed her, why was she not frank with him, and just both toward herself and him, instead of thus wringing his futh in her ? He did not hear the bell ring, and he we;.t down mechanically when told Mrs. Bertram was waiting to speak with him. She sprang forward, seized his hand, tried to speak, but burst into tears. Ho saw that she was terribly agitated, and controlling his own emotion he led her to a sofa and sat down opposite her. ''What's the matter, Mrs. Bertram? Do not distre.s yourself, I know all." " No, no. I kept back the wors', hoping to spare you the knowl- edge. I have another letter which I had not the courage to send you with Leonore's. It is better you should learn all from Julie her- self, than to hear it from others. Read." She handed him the biief letter Julie had left for hjnjj 370 THE HOTJ8B BEHIND THE POPLARS. la the fewest possible words Julie told him that she was going away from his house to become Louis Hartley's wife, confessed her long engagement and her reasons for having concealed it. She asked no forgiveness, for she felt that she deserved none, and so bade him a last farewell. The letter dropped from his nerveless fingers, and he uttered nn audible groan. It was incredible, even though she herself had written it ; and he begged Mr?. Bertram to tell him all she knew of it. She did so, but it WHS little bejoud what he him- self knew. He only learned that under his nom de plume of ' Leonard Horton ' he had followed Julie in her wanderings, carefully keeping out of his way. As for Mrs. Bertram, when she learned of him that this Mr. ' Horton ' was the Louis Hartley of whom she had heard so much, but never known, her surprise was unbounded. Julie had not hinted this. Had Leonore known it, and was this the secret of hir dislike toward him when they were all at the seaside together? She asked Lisle the question, but he shook his hear). There was a pause, and then she resumed, " I told you there was a bare hope that this marriage might be frustrated. Shall I tell you all ?" " Yes ; though let me tell you in advance, that I am hopeless." 'There is an impediment to this marriage that will invalidate it even if consummated. Mr. Venard knows it, and he went in pursuit of them within an ho;ir of their departure." He was so utterly without hope, or power of connected thought, that he hardly heard her words asked no explanations; and seeing it was so, she lift him to him (If. He threw himself into an arm ch-tir by the fire, and refusing to have the gas lighted, gazed into the glowing embers wit'.i his brain on fire. Thus sitting in darkness by his solitary hearthstone, ha looked the past and the present in the ftce. Th clock chimed el ven, sending its metallic ring out upon the wintry air with a clear resonance that roused him from his reverie. "With an involuntary slnver he rose and looked around him. There wa> scarcely enough light in the room to illuminate its objects, but the out'.ine of a human form, heavily draped in black, was leaning against the ha'f-open door which it hadju-t entered noiselessly and secretly as the shadow it seemed. With a chill as though he had seen an apparition, Lisle hastily turned up the gas jet and looked \gain. Pale and cold as the apparition she ha I seeme I, Leonore stood still and waited for him io speak. She ha 1 returned home at this late hour, and letting herself in with her private keys, was ignorant that he had returned before her, brief a? had been her ab-ence, and coming suddenly upon THE HOUSE BEHIND THE POPLARS. 371 him Ihus sitting like a reproachful shadow at his deserted hearth, s e stood in mute alarm, not knowing if it wire indeed his living self that met her eyes. Lisle's face was more cold and unpifying than she had ever seen it, and with a little cry she raised her hands imploringly. Ho only took them both in one of his, an r l leading her forward to the lire, for she was shivering with cold and (atiguc, slid calmly, " I am not going to reproach you. I have perhaps no right to do so, certainly no wish. There is too much between us now for mere protests to avail anything. First of all, I have two questions to ask you. Did you write this, and this?" and he held before her the letter she had written him, and the ill-starrtd envelope of yeara before. " Yes," she gasped rather t^ian said. " So you confess it ?'' She summoned dignity under the tone, and replied firmiy, " I admit it, Lisle. ' Confess ' is not the word." " A distinction without a difference, under existing circumstances." " Lisle, if I had not resolved to tell you all, at my cost, I never should have been thus seemingly entrapped. What could it matter whether you suspected something of what I had resolved so soon to tell you ? I can endure my tortured existence no longer. Better go forth into the wilderness, like Hagar of old." She struggled suf- focatingly to undo her wrappings, and with the gallantry natural to him, though without one impulse of affection, he removed them for her and cast them aside. He noticed then that every article of her attire was of the deepest black, and he marked the shuddering gasp with which she hciself looked down upon the robe that hung pall-like around her. " Do you know what has become of the orphan girl commited to our care, the little sister for whom you and I are responsible, strive as we may to ignore it ?" he demanded. She lo >ked up bewildered, iind he resumed, " I will tell you, Leonore Sterling. Faithful, conscientious guardians that we are ! She is, ere this, the wife of Louis Hartley I" Leonore uttered an ejaculation of surprise and horror, and leaned back trembling among the cushions. Unmoved by her anguish, Lisle continued, " She has become the wife of a scoundrel whom I would have whipped, a thief whom I would have spurned from my threshold had he dared to cross it. A living curse on the f ice of the earth, I hate liiin aucl all who ever called him theirs |" oTJ THE HOUSE BEHIXD THE POPLARS. ' Stop, Lisle, for God's sike stop. You are cursing me! Go I pity me, / M>OS once his icir'f /'' Lisle stood as transfixed by those incredible words. H^ had r.o rower even to utter au exclamation, and he turned fairly gi-ldy where he stood staring down upon her. Shrinking and shudder- ing she had buried hi rself among the sofi-pillows till only the out- line of her figure was visible. For a space, not so much as a breath broke the dead hush in the room. Lisle was the first to move, and iu a voice hoarse with emotion he spoke her name. " Leonore !" She did not look up, or seem to hear him, and again he called her. " Leonore, look up at me, and let me see your face. Is it indeed your very self ?'' Bending over her, he lifted her head with gentle hands and turned her fair face toward him. Then indeed he realized tliat she had fainted. Her face, which had grown s idly thin and sharpened of late, was as hueless and"~fixed as marble. A divin-3 pity swelle 1 his heart as he looked down upon her, so forlorn and helpless iu her wondrous loveliness, and lifting her tenderly hi his arms, he bore her to the window and threw open the shutter. The cold air revived her ; and opening her eyes she gazed round her, bewildered. Recollection came back to her with a sudden pang, and burying her face in his breast she shivered from head to foot. Caressingly he laid her back among the cushions, and knelt beside her. The pitying eye of Heaven only marked the storm raging in his soul. Not one woi d, not a gesture revealed it. Was he indeed wifeless ? Yes, by the creed in which he believed. He who had ever denied the legality of divorce, could not profit by it now. This was that obstacle in the way of their union which she had not po-sessed the strength to confess to him, often as she had essayed it. He saw it all, now, and minor troubles were forgotten in the one annihilating feeling that she was his no more, that he must g ve her up forever ! Every selfish passion faded and died out before this one bitter, overwhelming grie Half frantic with grief and