^oldies lonxl iloi£iaei oiatl 3Piciorii«l BBEonie i^oaijioirtiojn. 
“ That is grand,” said Yirginie, “ it is like the confessors and martyrs 
of old; and living true to one's best self may be harder than dying 
for the faith; but why,” she added, looking straight at her companion, 
‘•do you treat him so unkindly? Why do you mock as if you be¬ 
lieved nothing?” 
“There is but little that I do believe,” returned Winnie, with a 
careless laugh. “ My father has taught me to doubt, and there is a 
delight in tormenting some people I cannot resist. But don’t view 
me with such horror, Mousie, as if I were a monster of iniquity. If 
I have given Edgar wounds, perhaps I can pour in oil and wine. 
Nothing would make him so hapjjy as an independent church, with 
an assured support, where he could preach without fear or favor. I 
have thought of giving him this. I could do it when I come of age, 
and get control of the fortune my grandfather left me.” 
” O, you are a noble creature I” exclaimed Yirginie. 
u In spite of all my unpardonable sins, and the contradictions of my 
nature. Do you know what I think you were made for, Mousie?” 
Yirginie shook her head. 
“For a clergyman’s wife. Think of what a comfort you would be 
to the old women and children, and young mammas. How sweet 
and perfect a life you would lead in that calm repose that would 
drive me raving, distracted, and make me break all the command¬ 
ments at one and the same moment.” 
A violent rush of color came over Yirginie’s fair ffice, and her 
hands trembled so that the flowers dropped out of them. “Do not 
try to order my life for me,” she said, in a low, pained voice. “It 
would be better that I should drift away, far away, among strangers, 
I know not where.” 
Before Winnie could answer this half-suppressed outburst of pas¬ 
sion and sorrow, so unusual in the gentle girl before her, Mr. Edgar 
Swayne presented himself on the vine-clad porch, and bowed gravely 
to the young ladies. 
“ Miss Braithwaite, your father requests that you will wait upon 
him in his study,” 
“ Now I am in for a lecture,” said Winnie, with a careless laugh. 
“ Mr. Swayne, wont you take my seat here on the stool. I have been 
adoring Yirginie. You know every fair saint ought to have a wor¬ 
shiper.” 
“We are forbidden to fix our eyes on earthly idols,” returned 
Edgar, and he looked searchingly at Winnie. 
She colored a little on her dark cheek, in spite of herself, as she 
brushed past him, giving a slight impatient twist to her shoulders, 
which was habitual. 
He sat down rather awkwardly on the stool, as he hadbeen”ordered, 
but Yirginie was ill at ease, and pushed her chair nervously back 
from the little stand, with its glowing flower vases, and made Hector, 
the hound, yelp with pain, as the rocker grazed his paw. 
“ Don't let me embarrass you, Madamoiselle Duval,” said he in a 
low voice, picking up some flower stalks that had fallen on the floor, 
“ but I have a favor to ask of you. There seems to be a bond of 
union between us, a kind of kinship in misfortune, for we are both 
very singularly situated in this house.” 
Yirginie gave another little hitch to her chair; she dreaded to 
enter upon confidences with Monsieur Edgar, for her nerves were 
still vibrating from the effect of Winnie’s thoughtless words. But 
Edgar was too thoroughly engrossed in his own emotions to remark 
her manner. 
“We find ourselves very singularly placed here,” he repeated, 
“ and I want to ask you if you think Miss Braithwaite desires to have 
me remain ? I should have gone away long before had not the idea 
suggested itself that under circumstances not unlikely to arise, I 
might assist her in carrying out her plans, or in some manner be of 
service to her. Her father’s state of health seems to me very pre¬ 
carious. He is failing much faster than his family seem to realize, 
and should he die suddenly, she would be helpless and almost alone.” 
“Miss Braithwaite would never be helpless.” said Virginie, in a low 
voice, evading the question she was determined not to answer. 
“ You mean that she has a great deal of latent force of character; 
that she would develop a strength of will, firmness of purpose, and 
clearness of vision, no one now gives her the credit of possessing, I 
understand all that as no one else can. But tell me, do you think she 
would wish to have me remain here?” and he looked fixedly in 
her face. 
Yirginie’s heart was beating tumultuously. Of all things on earth, 
at that moment, she did desire that he should leave Halcourt Hall, 
for she felt, in a vague, half-terrified way, that destiny was entangling 
the threads of their lives, and against such a chance her whole nature 
revolted. She could not truthfully deny that Edgar Swayne, the 
eloquent ex preacher and poor amanuensis, did enter into her friend’s 
plans for the future, but now she looked at him with a face paler than 
he had ever before seen her wear, and said slowly: “Do you know. 
Monsieur, that Madamoiselle is betrothed to her cousin, Bradley 
Halcourt? Would not he be her natural helper and protector in a 
time of trial ?” 
Edgar returned her gaze with a fixed pallor and rigidity, as it 
incapable of replying. “ I have heard.” said he at last, with an effort, 
“some rumor of again uniting the old family name and estates, but it 
is a matter that must surely be left to her free choice. This Bradley 
as I am told, is a mere idler, a dilettante, a man of no moral earn¬ 
estness.” 
“I know not what you mean,” said Yirginie, interrupting and flash¬ 
ing out upon him. *• Monsieur Bradley is the noblest man I have 
ever known.” 
Edgar looked at her without comprehending what she had said. 
The emotions set throbbing within him seemed to cause a humming 
mechanically took two or three steps, and then turned back and stood 
before Yirginie, with an almost abject air of pleading. “Tell me,” 
said he, in tones of entreaty, “ does she love this—this cousin ?” 
Virginie wondered at the hardness of her heart. She answered in 
a clear, calm voice, “ Do nv/t the maidens in this country marry for 
love? It is in I ranee that marriages of convenience are made.” 
Edgar turned again with a pale, miserable face, and went down the 
steps, and walked slowly away into the shrubbery. 
Winnie was up in the judge’s study, kneeling by the old man’s 
arm-chair, where he sat well wrapped and swathed, although the day 
was sultry. His feet were thrust into a pair of old fur-lined carriage 1 gangrene of all rich, old families that are dyin 
shoes, a rug was folded and tucked over his knees, and a worsted ' " ’ * 
comforter encircled his throat, above which his face rose gray, 
pinched, and almost corpse-like. All the life in his body seemed 
concentrated in those wonderful eyes, that glittered and glared, and 
roved with ceaseless activity about the room. 
You are very ill,” said Winnie, tenderly, with real alarm in her 
voice, as she chafed the chilly, numb old hands, that felt like a 
bundle of bones and parchment. 
“ Nothing serious,” returned the old man, in a querulous, high- 
pitched growl; “I have been worse than this, and got up again, to the 
intense disgust and disappointment of those who wanted me to die, 
your mother especially. This time it’s nothing but a chill, brought 
on by the excitement of having that cursed priest in the house. I 
haven't been warm since that day, and I suppose he would say I 
never would be, until the great burning.” 
“ O, don’t, papa,” pleaded Winnie, with a shudder. “ You are very 
ill, and ought to let me send for a doctor.” 
“ Doctor I” screeched the old man as well as he could in the midst 
of a severe coughing fit, “ I would as soon have a rattlesnake near me 
as a doctor. Next to the priestly tribe, I hate the men of pill-box 
and lancet. I have probed down to the depths of one profession, and 
I judge of the futility of the others by my own. They are all shal¬ 
low, ignorant, grasping pretenders and hypocrites. I have found at 
the centre of the things I nave searched, nothing but a pinch of 
dust. Who knows that there is anything more at the centre of the 
universe? It is all I shall be when I lie in the coffin. A pinch of 
dust—this brain has been called the acutest on the bench. When 
the spark goes out, nothing but a pinch of dust.” 
His voice had sunk to a gasping whisper, but now he roused him¬ 
self, and added in his usual peevish tones, “ But I am not going to 
die yet awhile. I wont die yet. Life is as : tubborn as death when 
it hangs on to spite those that long to put us under gravel.” 
“ O, this is dreadful,” cried Winnie, as she hid her face against the 
arm of the chair. 
“ I don’t mean you, child,” with a slight softening in his tones, and 
he put his hand out towards her, and groped about as if a sudden 
blindness had siezed him. “You are the only being that loves me, 
and the only creature I love. You are a part of myself. We lcve 
ourselves in loving our children. Love is only another name for 
selfishness. It is the sole principle that binds human beings together. 
I have tried to keep your mind free from superstition and prejudice, 
and you will see I have trusted you. It is what I have done to few. 
Distrust of human nature is one of the secrets of power, my child; 
distrust of human nature, and a knowledge of how to turn its weak¬ 
nesses to account. But I know you have got the brain of a man, 
a clear head, and cool judgment. They call me miserly, but you will 
be no spendthrift. You will come to love money too, my girl, be¬ 
cause it will insure the objects of your ambition. 0,-I know you, 
I know you all through and through.” 
The hollow cough seized him again and nearly bent him double; 
he sank back in his chair exhausted and panting, and when he had 
slowly come to life again., Winnie said: “I am glad you trust me, 
papa; that thought makes me very happy.” 
“I trust you,” returned the judge, shrilling out his words, “because 
you are a Braithwaite clear through, with enough of the Halcourt 
strain to give you that pride and distinction that never justly belong 
to plebeians. If the blood of the robodies had not replenished the 
veins of the rich aristocrats, they would have perished of inanity. I 
made myself by the force of intellect, and seized the prize; and I 
have saved and planned all these years for you, Winnie. I wonder 
now I have been so fond of you, my girl. It is a weakness I cannot 
understand. Your grandfather left you a good slice of the estate, 
that you will inherit when you come of age. It includes Halcourt 
Hall, and the mining property, and three farms in Dingley Hollow; 
and it has been gaining and making more all these years. I don’t 
suppose you will drive your old father out of the house when you 
come to be your own mistress?” 
“You are very cruel, papa,” said Winnie, with tears in her 
eyes. 
“ There, don’t cry, my girl. Your eyes were not made for tears. I 
reach beyond the grave. Your mother must be controlled. She is 
not fit to guide herself, and never has been. And. 'Winnie, there is 
one thing more.” 
“Yes, papa.” 
“ Would you object to marrying your cousin Bradley?” 
“Not if you wish it.” 
I do wish it. That is, it is the best arrangement that can be made 
under existing circumstances.” 
“ 1 thought you did not approve of Bradley.” 
•Nor do I. He has got the cursed taint of the Halcourts, the 
of slow decay. He 
is an agreeable cipher, a man in whom the will power has run down; 
but there is something X must confess to you, my girl.” 
u Don’t do it now,” pleaded Winnie, as she observed a flush of 
agitation in Ins manner, for his hands had grown hot, and were 
shaking as they unloosed the muffler from his neck. “ I have perfect 
confidence in you, papa. Your slightest wish shall be my law. Don’t 
excite yourself needlessly to-day, and you know it is not. seemly that 
a father should confess to liis child.” 
The old man choked and coughed violently for some minutes, with 
spasms and contortions that seemed to wrench the life out of his 
enfeebled frame, and then, after many gasps and throes, he resumed 
the thread of his discourse. 
“ I must speak now to clear away any apparent contradiction in my 
views respecting Bradley. Not that I think I did wrong. I have no 
superstition about conscience; it is a priestly device to enslave the 
minds of men, for the world is governed by self-interest. I don’t 
mention scruples, I haven’t any; but I wish you to understand how 
affairs are related in this family. T on are the only woman I could 
trust with such knowledge, the only one that would comprehend, for 
I have taught you to think with my brain, to see with my eyes. I 
once did what the hypocritical, canting world would have condemned 
in words, while practising all manner of deceit and knavery in secret. 
I influenced your grandfather’s will, and was the means of securing 
your fortune, but I don’t demand any gratitude on that account. I 
had gained an ascendency over the old man, who was weak and half 
imbecile. His affairs were all in my hands. He had quarrelled with 
his son Harold, Bradley’s father, your mother’s half brother, a more 
idler and spendthrift. He said a hundred times with violence, almost, 
with imprecations, that he would cut him off with a shilling. I knew 
it was for the best. Harold had married a rich wife, whose money was 
settled upon herself; she kept him on an allowance like a pet animal. 
You can do the same, child, when you marry Bradley. He is that 
cultivated booby called a man of taste. You will find him expensive, 
but not so much so as if lie had taken to gaming or other fashionable 
excesses.” 
“But grandfather’s will, ’ said Winnie, who had risen now and was 
standing before the old man’s chair. 
“Yes, yes,” said the judge, in a weaker and more peevish tone. 
“I have told you how it all came about; will not that suffice ? He was 
bitter enough against Harold when he was well and strong, hut when 
he got into his dotage, lie would drivel and snivel over the vagabond 
an hour at a time. If X had not been on guard Harold would have 
been sent for, and the whole thing upset, that I had labored so hard 
and waited so long to accomplish. You have me alone to thank for 
being an heiress in your own right and title. Your mother’s po lion 
was mine of course. The old man knew a wife’s interests could be 
safely trusted in the hands of an affectionate husband.” A cynical 
smile drew and wrinkled the parchment skin around the old man’s 
sunken mouth in a manner peculiarly ghastly. 
Winnie was pale, as she stood inflexibly before him, with her cold 
hands clasped nervously together. “Do you mean, father,” said she, 
with slow emphasis, “that you deliberately planned to keep my 
uncle Harold out of what justly belonged to him ?” 
” I don t put it in that way,” piped the old man, with a startled 
look at her face. “ What I did was perfectly justifiable. The prop¬ 
erty would have all gone to the dogs long before this time, if it had 
fallen into Harold Ilalcourt’s hands. I made you a great heiress, and 
you have it in your power to more than compensate your cousin for 
all that he lost. You can make it up to him if anything has gone 
amiss; and there yon stand, you ungrateful girl, accusing me.” 
“No, no, papa,” cried Winnie, in an agony of dread, but still with 
a firm, pale face; “I do not accuse'you; but if there was nothing 
wrong about the will, why should I marry my cousin Bradley to set 
it right ?” 
“You do accuse me,” shrieked the old man, seizing his stick with 
his trembling bands as if he would strike her. His eyes glared, his 
whole frame was shaking convulsively, and a ghastly, livid hue over¬ 
spread his face. “You are an ingrate, a viper that I have warmed in 
my bosom. You stand there as if I were a prisoner at the bar, and 
you the judge passing sentence of death. It was all a mistake that I 
like to see you assert yourself, and walk like a queen, and put your- saved, and made, and schemed, that yon might be the richest woman 
self on people’s necks. Don’t turn into a meek, submissive sniveller, in tbe country. But there is time, yet, and I will strip yon of every 
I am going to tell you what yon will have one day in your own right, penny. I will leave it all to found an asylum for invalid cats and 
and it might turn a stronger head than you have got on your shoul- dogs. I will live long enough to take revenge for yonr thanklessness.” 
ders. You will be one of the richest girls in the eountrv; for what , Every word came by gasps and spasms, and writhings of the old man’s 
yonr grandfather left yon is only a drop in the bucket compared with ! frame, Winnie had sunk on her knees, and with sobs and the dumb 
the fortune you will inherit from me. You will be my sole heir. I pleading of outstretched hands, was entreating his forgiveness. But 
have turned everything to the best advantage. I have made a crown though his jaw partly dropped, and his eyes seemed to roll up in his 
a pound, as the old song says, and you will have it all, after your 
mother’s dower is dedneted. And, Winnie, promise me that you 
wont let those whining, beggarly priests come sneaking around tbe 
place, when I am gone. I wont have them canting over my body 
when it is in the coffin. I have got it all down in writing, and you 
must sign the paper. This old house shan’t be turned into a papis- 
head in a fit, he feebly pushed out at her with his stick. 
“Go away, go away,” he muttered in thick tones, “I wont have 
you in the room; the sight of you has become hateful.” 
Winnie sprang to her feet with a cry, and ran shrieking down the 
back passage. 
“Nanna! Nanna! I have killed papa!" 
[To be continued .] 
