The Rhos Herald

[ALL BIGHTS RESZSRSOJ. Cherry BY HELEN MATHERS, Author of Comin* Thro' the Rye," My Lady Gi'eervsleeves," &t.. And what would yqn be pleaaed to take for dinner, sir?" The girl had lovely Black eye* that danced with devilry and mischief under her smart white cap, cherry-red lips, and the merriest, most maddening limples, playing at hole and 2corner in her «;„ ek3v that ever a distracted man fell into. If you look S?1-. m stgstm like that, I'll kiss you, Cherry, said Hugh Gavan, and took a determined step towards her, where- upon she boxed his ears iastautlj, and the world spun round with him, Good God I" he said to himself, redder with shame than pain, aa he turned away, and I came here to court the miatress- what a hound, what a) beastly cad I am- well, this ends everything." Cherry stole a malicious look at him as she deftly cleared the breakfast table, and put- ting the things on a tray,, carried it towards the door, which laappetved to be aiiut; and looking round as a matter of course tor Mr. Gavan to open it, he fomd Jimisdi' perform- ing that feat with analacrit,. that surprise;! himself, and she thanked him sweetly as she passed out—her voice was delicious. Cherry set the tray down on a table out- side, and was shaking with inward laughter with a smile on her humorous face, when an elderly woman1 approached and carried it away. Traversing a short paswafje, the girl entered a comfortable den, where a hand- some, middle-at,-ed man waa reading, and smoking his pipe. "Well, RaBcarr he fand. "Dad," she cried, breathless!?, "you must go away—really, I mcanrwt pretend to—as you are doing; uow--or Y-(IU'U spoil the thow." And leave you here alone? Likely I" One day he will open the wrong door— he has a right to open any door in his own house—or smell your tobacco—-or hear you 4coiigh or sneeze-and then th? game will be up. You see, Bad, I nnsst study him—I want to bring every scrap oi wickedness in him to the top—he'd be1 on- his best behaviour with the mistress—he &> off it with the maid. 0!" said Cherry, aticf put ene slander lin- ger to that roguish pitflil in her t-hrek into which Hugh had already tumbled, "think of it—the humiliation—to be trotted out as part of the furniture of the bouse—to be taken or left as the new heir decides! 1 should die of it-or show off so many of my bad tricks that he would simply run away from me!" Sir Roger laughedr He would be the tirt man who ever did," he said, and smoked contentedly. She perched herself on the arm of his chair, and put onu wlúte arm coaxingly round his neck. H There's Johnny Langton simply praying you to go and fish with him for a few days," she remarked, so I shall send you' off by the eleven o'clock train. Hugh Gavan writes letters in the cherry orchard and reads from ten to twelvf thurty—he'U be too far off to either see or theajr ypn," It's out bf the question, declared Sir Roger, roundly. "1 have foolishly allowed you to do a pa rtieularly silly and undigni- fied thing—and I must stand by you when you have to take the probably unpleasant consequences." O! they'll be more unpleasant to Mr. Gavan than to me!" said Cherry, tapping a remarkably pretty foot on the polished floor. "And Sarah is a regular ilragon-îf J require one. Don't you sea that having made the mistake—if it is one—we must play the game —see 'the thing through properly ? Tho moment he discovers it, good-bye to my get- ting any proper light on his real character!" "My dear girl, to Conquer' business is played out. If he doesn't fall in love with you as the maid, is, he likely to do so as the mistress? Or again, if he falls in love with you as the maid—how will he square matters with the fastidious mistress?" "Well, you know, Dad, it was a silly idea QI Giles, telling the boy that if he and I could fix it up between us here, it would make him sort of comfortable up there—or wherever he is." "Now Cherry, Cherry," said her father, warningly, for he was very orthodox. "But, Dad, it's just as difficult to think of ourselves without a bod". as with one in » future state. I thiuk people waste a lot of time speculating about the next world, to the serious neglect of their business in this, don't you?" Sir Roger choked a little, then said Upberly, "Yea, my dear; bttt don't let the clergy hear you." "Well, the boy needn't have come miles. he liked-it wasn't in the will-and it was rather nice of him to hurry up so. Shows he isn't married already, or engaged, doesn't tit" "Yes," said Sir Roger, liis eyes twinkling, but Cherry now, with both arias round his neck, and her cheek pressed against the side of his dear, grey head, was too close to see. "He looks as if he'd got a mind of his own," said Sir Roger. "Of course, I've not seen him really, only in snapshots," he added, with some disgust in his tone. And I'm rather old to begin the role of Peeping Tom!" "He wants a lot of taking down," she said, "but to do him justice his eye is net an auto- matic register of his property here. O! Pad," her voice changed, "how 1 shall hats to part with all the dear household gods to part with all the dear household gods rye lived among ever since I was born! "Thanks to Giles's generosity*?' he said, gently. "You see, this boy, as, you call him, is ten years older than you are ,be had been adopted by Giles for nearly ten beidfce yoa were born or we ever ciiiiie here. If they hadn't practically lived out of Etogiaad all I this time, in the nature of things they would have lived here. Instead of grumbling at turning out, we ought to thank God we've en- joyed Greyfriara in peace and comfort so long." Y-e-s," she said thoughtfully. And, of course, I can make our new. home look all right—such heaps of things here are ours- but not the garden and the trees, and the dear, old-fasnionod, oak-panelled rooms!" she added, with tears in her voice. The door opposite them opened ismartly- closed almost, as quickly with -a muttered japologv in a man's voice, and Cherry sat up straight, and flew in a rage. j "There! Didn't I toll you so? Now, don't ¡ you see how impossible you are here? He'll think I'm carrying on with some dear, beau- tiful creature I'm hel-piijg shut up oiii of sight." "An old man like myself," said Sir Roger, incredulously, and 'whistled in amazement when Cherry earnestly kikwi&veiir kau tkat bid •• men were much, much worse, than young ones 0 "By Jove!" he said, and wiped his fore- head. "I wish your mother had lived, my dear," he added, sadly. "Dear little Mother!" said the girl, very low and very tenderly. "But she brought me up the right way, father—and there isn't a man alive who can knock sparks out of me; This is Tuesday-you will have three long days for fishing, and on Saturday return here by the last train. On Sunday morning we will all three go to church together-the heir, the girl who should be heiress, and isn't, but dressed as if she were, and my dear old Dadt looking what he is-a finer and nobler gentleman than all the silly little jumped-up heirs in the world!" "Six feet one in his stockings, and broad in proportion," grinned Sir Roger. "Well, my dear, I have obeyed you for the last five years—to be exact, since your mother died. I took orders from no one else while she was .dive-and it is as much as my place is worth to disobey you now. So if you will ascertain the whereabouts of that young man, I will go upstairs and pack my bag, and perhaps you'll order the dogcart to come round to the kitchen door for me ? "Darling!" she said, and took his face in her two hands and kissed him, brow, and eyes and mouth, and Hugh Gavan, exploring the terra incognita of the unfreijueuted gar- den side of the house, passing the window at that moment, saw, and annoyed as he already was, at seeming to play the' spy in the house, departed in real disgust to the chair and table ready set out for him in his favou- rite cherry orchard. "And I thought that girl as straight as a die," he said to himself, as he fiat down. "She only boxed my ears because I happened to be the wrong man—and a young one I Same grey-haired butler or family servant visiting her on the sly, probably. Sir Rogei ought to be told lie opened hia volume of Batirie, fuming. Presently the sound of carriage wheels, rapidly retreating from the house, made Hugh Gavan conclude that Cherry's grey- haired beau was departing, and it was not long after when, looking up, Hugh saw the original, surely, of a wine merchant's chro- molithograph advertisement approaching hisn in the form of Cherry, who earned a small tray, on which was set a tumbler and a bottle elaborately dressed as to its upper part in tinfoil. "Champagne?" he said, "and at this hour of the morning?" **Sparkling cider, sir." She looked so pro- vokinglv fresh and sweet in the May sun- shirw, that he stared at her without speaking, as if he saw her now for the first time. The pink cotton frock,' the exquisitely rosy aliiu, struck exactly the right note of colour in the curiously (,t,!I)'¡du,g, leafless dazzle of the cherry bloom above and around her; but, it was her air of having had ,Ie vary best of everything ever since she was born that staggered him most. I.t.o Uutk She tray out of her "hands with an odd feeling that there should be two glasses, and he should he helping her before himself, and poured a little of the foaming, creamy liquid out. t, h1.¡, Charlotte likes eider," said Cherry, meditativelv, when he h¡(r pronounced it to be better than ehim vv^to, "but it makes her irritable. She laughs the first day, cries the nest, gets into ..a '.cfjilpctf on the.tin.d, and goes back to her .wr>e on the fourth!" "Gets into a' temper!" said Hugh, frown- ing as iM- Ifoked at the girl, who with arms crossed lightly behind her back, see-ed, so much more at ease than he was. Cherry nodded meaningly. "When she is in a rnga she throws every- thing on the ground," sue said. "Temper? My word she relied up her eyes to the cherry blossotns overhead as if they were wit- nesses. assembled in tir-ir ),t!! it I i,' iis to cor- roborate her. "She fluves up just like a kettle boiling over—and ih-.ve you are!" "You've no to speak of your mistress like that," he said, siiai ply and angrily, "it's I shockingly bad taste — and to a stranger, too." "Oli, I know her inside out," said Cherry contemptuously, "and she's a deceitful jade -plotting to deceive you even at this nk,oistojit-bad tempered extravagant a boris ffirt," Cherry ticked off the damning epithets on her lingers—"and up to every move and trick under the sun "1 have heard quite differently," lie said, quietlv, fact, only the most, delightful things of her ever since she Was a tiny mite. Honest, truthful, of a most lovely disposi- tion, if intensely huisian-is by all accounts she is--tito desire to see her, to make her ac- quaintance, was the sole inducement that has brought me to Greyfriars." "Have you seen her photograph?" said Cherry abruptly, and he noticed that her "Sir*" had gone by tho board altogether—it begun to dawn on him that she was a lady- help—probably took her meals with the family, when it was at home. "Not since filil, was a child—and a very lovely one." "Well—she isn't lovely now! Else she'd be engaged, wouldn't she? She's black-I don't think black people ever look quite elean-do you?" He looked at Cherry, at the snow of her skin and throat—vivid against her ebon eyes and hair, and said in stupefaction: "You mean her skin is black?" "No--of course not—only that her hair and eyas are as black as mine!" "But that's not very black!" "it is r "It isn't!" ISach took a step forward, and faced each other with flashing eyes, then Gavan shrugged his shoulders, and said "There's temper! And you dare to talk of your mistress "They're much the same. We were brought srp by the name mother He started—but that, ..didn't account for the look of breeding, of distinction, that hereon- »er»ati«n in no way matched. "So yon are Miss Nugent's foster-sister, "So yon are Miss Nugent's foster-sister, and gmifoably her constant companion?" he said, abandoning the lady-help theory, as Cherry tossed her head, "that accounts for much." 'SI ha\& been given precisely the same ad- vantages as she has—and I've availed myself of tham no better said Cherry. I "So I perceive," he said drily, "or rather, ii MMs Nugent hasn't availed herself bett-er of hers than you have of yours-—" he shrugged hi» shoulders again, and yet, do what be would, he could not keep his eyes from that inxoiejii girl, who had pulled down a, branch of cherry blossom that framed her £ aee, and out of which she looked at him with eye* that would have tempted a saint— 110 did not wonder now that cherry blossom wtut OW off She few beautiful things men limnl in the Bible. H<A he next moment the bough swung hack,. *nd wtlli » whisk of petticoats that showed UMP tfcgatest of ankles. Cherry had de- 1 parted, and, "left alone, looked appeal- mgly up to Heaven, possibly in seai-eh of the e e I sweet little cherub ;h:it wateiias over the af- fairs of poor bachelors whe.-i assailed by uai- exp-eted and maddening provocations. "And yet women uiarne" :s :e:ihe said aloud, and opened a b.oei; only to see a lovely picture stamped on the page, fair and delicate in all the hues of spring. "And as spiteful as you make 'em," he added. Was it true that Charlotte Nugent was all her foster-sister declared? If <1°, Greyfriars would be an ill house to live in, I and she a handful to live with—but he was not going to judge her on mere hearsay—Satur- day would soon be here-meanwhil(3 he must keep that impudent Cherry at a distance, and throwing down his book he went straight in to look for her. Greyfriars was not a large house, or ttir-e women could never have done the work of u, nor Sir Roger, with his small rnears, have kept it up, but it was quaint and old, with nuillioned windows, and a great deal of old oak panelling, many queer recesses, and china cupboards, and the Nugents had grown into and made the whole place a nest of com- fort and good taste. Thus Hugh Gavan wandered through the rooms, and keeping his ears pricked for the least sign of Cherry's whereabouts, found it impossible to believe that Charlotte C,),[! I be such a woman as Cherry d,,ser; deceitful, wasteful, and bhi-k. He hated a dark skin in a womrt;i-~he TI thought with Cherry, that it never looked quite clean. If it were true, what a contrast she must be to her foster-sister—he would never get her out. r f his head as she stood that morning, ti- lines of her tall, lissom shape backed b • herry blossoms. And then tile, devil-I)I,f was sure it was a good devil at botlo-u that looked at times out of her ey«*s-—what, a limb she would be if she married a man she did not love—yet she could look so sweet and humble on occasion. Well, he had come to the age of twenty- eight without ever once falling in love, know- ing always that when he did, it would be madly, recklessly, vich no counting of the cost-it is the one weakness in a strong man that a woman love..i-Aiid perhaps Cherry had already gauged his capacity in that direc- tion, while the general trend of his character was not unknown to her. For Sir Roger and Giles Gavan had cor- responded regularly, and many side-lights had fallen on Hugh's disposition and personal traits in those letters of wlÜch he w:elltireJy ignorant. Perhaps Cherry, too, had her illu- mination from her father, but it was only when Giles was dying that he divulged the dearest wish of his heart, which was a mar- riage between his adopted son and Charlotte Nugent. It was in accordance with this wis1- that Hugh had come to Greyfriars, only find both his host and young hostess absent, summoned (so said Cherry) to the bedside ct a distant sick relation, and they had taken two maidservants with them. Perhaps that was why Cherry had waited on him. What an imbroglio it was—supposing that after all the mistress was more attractive than the maid— the maid herself a mere common intriguer, laying a trap to spoil his chances with her mistress, bitten .with a taste for his money inspired by a vulgar desire to cut out the young lady, who by right of birth had so many advantages over herself—a sort of Becky Sharp, in fact—though had Becky* ever that lovely youth and wonderful colouring? A light step came down the staircase, and be advanced to see Cherry descending the shallow oak staircase, a basket full of fresh liaan carried in both hands befora her. Sha looked » little pre-occupied as with house- hold matters, but smilea at sight of him. "Would you like to see the kitchens and dairy?" she said, resisting his efforts to take one handle of the basket, so he held open the swing-door for her, and they came to that roomy, pleasant part of the house which looked out on its own garden, where a great profusion of old-world flowers came up in due season, cheek by jowl, with vegetables and herbs. The middle-aged cook greeted him respect- fully as he entered the wide, cool kitchen, never relaxing her close, but unobtrusive, study of him while he remained, and Cherry, forgetting tho dairy, turned out the lavender- forgetting the dairy, turned out the lavender- scented 3heetm and table cloths iu a heap on the kitchen table, grumbling as she did so. } IOMOY want a lot. of darning," she said viciously. "Miss Charlotte always did neg- lect the mending." "She's the beautifullest darner I ever saw in my life!" snapped Sarah. "Yee, when she takes the trouble, but i she's lazy, lasy." Cherry held up a table- j cloth that in one place was wearing thin to the light, and spitefully poked her finger j through it. A model house-mistress and manager. If ( there were more like her the world would be a better place," grunted Sarah, while the blood rose to Hugh's brow. What a position, j and what a cad he was. to be here in the kitchen with two servants who were discuss- ing their absent mistress! His face was proud and angry as he turned to go. "Stop!" cried Cherry unceremoniously, "what's your hurry! [', a great mind," she added, thoughtfully, "to bring.my sewing out to the cherry orchard, if I Slun t be disturb- ing you, sir?" she added, with a griat air of meekness. "The meadow is Sir Roger's as long as he remains here," he said shortly, as he passed out, a sound of smothered feminine laughter following him as he went. He was now thoroughly disgusted, both with himself and her, and when Cherry pre- sently appeared wiili a fold-up chair, linen, and workbox, establishing herself at a con- siderable distance jrorn nim, Hugh read steadily on, by sheer force keeping his glanca from wanderiug in her direction. "Bold-faced hussy! he said to himself, and thought of the handsome, grey-haired man—strong in his virtue just so long as he kept his eyes away. But presently —how do these things liappei Ifotiiid himself watch- ing her needle, in which she had become so absorbed that she was just herself, the real sense and sweetness of her face showing clearly. He thought he had never seen any- one look more truly good and womanly than she looked then. Nor could he have told afterwards of how presently—did he speak first?—they fell into talk of books, of Nature, of the hundred and one things interesting to those whose plea- sures are not to be bought by money, and gradually, as the girl's true personality un- folded itself before him, quite unconsciously folded itself before him, quite unconsciously us it were as .she set her delicate stitches in the linen, a feeling of intense joy stole over Hugh. Here was a tine mind in a i;air body- it was incredible how she came to occupy her present position in Sir Roger's house, and more incredible still that she should have assumed the smart, cheap, soubretti airs she had done. while the vindictiveneas with which she had attacked her mistress some- how seemed utterly foreign to her true _0 ] nature. Neither then, nor after, did he ever hear her sav an nnkird word of anyone else. When Sarah came presently to say that his ('luncheon was served 'he yor,;ig- p.-i r came un- willingly hack from the beautiful world into which they had wandered; he thought she had the beat of it wnen he leit her sitting there., still sewing, with the boughs throwing patterns on her ebon head and moving hands, and ho was glad that she would not wait on him at table. <When do you expect Sir Roger and MIaN Nugent back?" he asked Sarah, as she was I finally leaving the room. "Qxr Saturday, air, about five o'clock." "Three whole days, nearly four," he mut- tered half aloud, and Sarah, who had hated the I young heir wfaj was to turn them all out of the old house in which they had been so happy, availed to herself as she closed the door. And Sit ring those three days, where Cherry was, there was Hugh—usually in the And ditring those three days, where Cherry was, there was Hugh—usually in the orchard, Sot they had this luck. that it was glorious weather, and to her he confided hia ambitions (no ignoble ones), his hopes of a future career, for his life as caretaker abroad of Giles Gavan had chafed him sorely, duty sometimes spelt futility, and Cherry listened eagerly—she liked men who did things, and Hugh would do a great many yet, or she was much mistaken. Given youth, and brains, and money, and a strong will, what may not a man accomplish, indeed, nowadays? SwepC off her feet by the most commanding yet lovable personality she had ever known, Cherry cow tried to retreat, was shy, diffi- cult, and if most adorable, perverse and dis- appointing in one particular, that she had not a good word for Charlotte Nugent, but persisted in declaring Hugh had erected a false ideal. Mo girl could possibly be as nice and altogether charming as he expected Charlotte to be—she dwelt on this with an al- most pathetic insistence, begging him not to be disappointed when he saw her,-for if sho loved this masterful, strong, clever man al- most as passionately as he loved her, she feared him too, for having learned one thing in particular about him—that he hated de- ceit, and could the- more readily forgive her unkind speeches about her mistress because she spoke them with honest intention, thaw I that she should pretend to what she did not feel-and what had she done but deceive him grossly all the way through? Meanwhile, Saturday was racing on them I as hard as it could pelt—was here, and still I Hugh had not been able to wring from Cherry a promise that she would marry him, of even win a kiss from her lips. Wait till I you have seen Miss Charlotte," was her cry, then choose between us, and it was perhaps a relief to him when one of the maids, who had returned that morning, came quickly into the cherry orchard about five o'clock, with a message from Sarah to say the dog- oart had been sent for Sir Roger, and was momentarily expected. For Sir Roger?" said lIngh, when the girl had gone away. ,it. meant for Sir I Roger and Miss Nagrat!" Go in," cried Cherry, pushing him gently t forward, but he saw that she was trembling, and white as the cherry bloom orchard. "My dear little girl," he said, "what is there to be frightened at? Probably Miss Nugent would never have looked at me—and we have more than enough to live on with out this place, which I shall it." i eo.'ately mako, over to Sir Roger, in trust for aer." (fgo." she cried, and he went, at last, rehietantly. At the turning to the house, looking back, he saw that she was weeping bitterly. I "How do you do, Sir Roger?" Hugh's voice was cordial, as was the grasp of the hand- some man who bore a strong resemblance to someone. Hugh knew intimately—who could it be? His gaze went past Sir Roger to the dog-cart that was being led away, then he said, "Miss Nugent?" Miss Nugent, sir," said a maid, stepping forward officiously, H is still in the cherry orchard, where you left her." Hugh ran as he had never run before, and Cherry, seeing him approach hot-foot, turned her back, covering her face with her hands, but Hugh gently, bnt resolutely, drew them down. So* this is the bad tempered. extravagant, deceitful Charlotte," he i began, sternly, and she shrank away, then looking in his eyes, smiled at what she found there. And she was a little beaat till you came," she said, confidentially, but if you prefer her to Cherry, ypu-you may kiss me as Charlotte." And he did—bat be kissed her first for Cherry.

Sponges should always be kept in a wirs or wicker basket. Th(y should always be placed I in the air so that they dry thoroughly. After using a sponge, it is best to rinse it in clean water, and do not fail to squenxs it dry. When a sponge requires washing, it should be j put into hot water to which a little salt haa been added and then rinsed. í All housekeepers do not yet understand that what goes on in the kitchen on washing days affects the condition of the clothes if, as "often happens, laundry work and kitchea work must be done in the same room. lbs smell of broiled or fried fish, or even broilad steak, or those odours which come from strong vegetables wbilo cooking—such as anions, cabbage, and the liko cliag to the clothes with great pertiwscitjr *"<« after they 1 ars ironed and sent upstairs. This is esps- f ciallv true if the smells are absorbed during the "sprinkling of the clothes, and when the I latter are quickly rolled fl." tight, and are opened to have the odours inmed into them. j jt I Two F ..teTS YO. COOIKSu. One m that stewiag and aiildmonng a" not syno-aymous terms for boiling. Boiling point is not ireacited under 212 dn- Fahrenheit, wlterea* aiinmerijig requires only 180 de- grees. Meat, one* it has bson cooked, should never, no matter bow heated again, ba allowed to reach boiling pointy Fact the second ia that frying means boiling in fat in- stead of water. To fry anything, it should i be covered with boiling laid, which must be kept at boiling poiiit. This la not extrava- i gant, for the same fat -7 be used many times ovex.