A Shepherd at Court, Chapter VII [pp. 113-127]

THE
OVEkLAND MONTH A.
DEVO~ ED TO
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTRY.
VOL III. (SECOND SERIEs.)-FEBRUARY, 1884.-NO. 2.
A SHEPHERD AT COURT.
CHAPTER VII. "I don't understand it," said Mrs. Rivers,
throwing down the letter half read, "but I
Miss Oulton read this characteristic epis- understand THIS. You don't half appreciate
tle twice over, and then stood looking down it," she compl~ined. "Why, there are stones
at her newly acquired possessions a long enough for two or three sets of jewelry.
time. Her scrap of talk with Gurney had What a pity to waste them in a thing you
put ner mind into a receptive attitude, and can't show anywhere. Do, for pity's sake,
she determined to accept his present in the keep it locked up, else the servants will steal
same broad spirit in which it was proffered. it, or the children will kill themselves with it.
Her fingers wandered over the delicate And such a box! How lovely for laces."
frostwork of the casket as though they could "For my laces?" queried Helen, her motrace therein a hidden thought, blind-man bile lips curving ominously. "It's too small,
fashion, and she was still pursuing this Cousin Althea. I'll use it for my jewels,"
elusive message when her cousin burst in and she tossed the glittering knife in careupon her and swept away her abstraction with lessly, and closed and locked the lid.
a whirlwind of question and comment. It "He must he enormously rich," said Mrs.
was one of Helen's thorns that she was nev- Rivers, serenely indifferent to the girl's imer alone in the fullest sense of the word. patience. "I'm sure 7~'C couldn't indulge
There are people that would have you lay ourselves in such expelisive freaks," it being
bare every artery-throb and muscle-strain for her pleasure to imagine that they were living
their inspection, and Mrs. Rivers was one of "down to the bone," in the matter of econothese. Because s/ic liked "to talk over my, and that generosity was a luxury as far
things" and to dissect her own daily life, it beyond their reach as the Papal chair.
was hard to reach her with a difference of "It's a very astonishing thing to give a
opinion on that ground. She looked curious- young lady, anyhow," she rambled, "but Mr.
ly at the envelope in Helen's hand, and the Gurney's so very queer. Don't you think
latter handed it to her with a little smile, sometimes that he aXecis eccentricity? Well,
knowing that perfect frankness was her own perhaps it is natural. At any rate, he must
best weapon. mean something special by such a present."
VOL. III. — 8.