"THE STORY OF OUR LIVES FROM TEAR TO TEAR,"—SHAKBSPEAEE. ALL THE TEAR ROUND. A WEEKLY JOUENAL. CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKENS. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED HOUSEHOLD WORDS. N°- 166.] SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 1862. [PRICE 2d. to Prank—"my congratulations, and my apo­ m MME. logies. When I caught you kissing Mr. Prancis BT THE AUTHOR OF " THE WOMAN IN WHrTE," &C, Clare in the summer-house, I had no idea you • were engaged in carrying out the intentions of CHAPTER X, your parents. I offer no opinion on the subject. ON retummg to the house, Magdalen felt her I merely regret my own accidental appearance in shoulder suddenly touched from behind, as she the character of an Obstacle to the course of true crossed the hall. She tumed, and confronted love—which appears to run smooth in summer- her sister. Before she could ask any qu^tions, houses, whatever Shakespeare may say to the Norah confusedly addressed her, in these words : contrary. Consider me for the future, if you "I beg your pardon; I beg you to forgive please, as an Obstacle removed. May you be win " happy!" Miss Grarth's lips closed on that last me. sentence like a trap; and Miss Garth's eyes Magdalen looked at her sister in astonishment. looked ominously prophetic into the matrimonial All memory, on her side, of the sharp words which future. had passed between them in the shrubbery, was lost in the new interests that now absorbed her ; If Magdalen's anxieties had not been far too losiT as completely as if the angry interview had serious to allow her the customary free use of her never taken place. "Forgiveyou!" she repeated, tongue, she would have been ready, on the in­ amazedly, " what for ?" stant, with an appropriately satirical answer. As " I have heard of your new prospects," pur­ it was. Miss Garth simply irritated her. " Pooh!" sued Norah, speaking with a mechanical submis- she said—and ran up-stairs to her sister's room. siveness of manner which seemed almost ungra­ She knocked at the door, and there was no cious ; "I wished to set things right between us; answer. She tried the door, and it resisted her I wished to say I was sorry for what happened. from the inside. The sullen, unmanageable Will you forget it ? Will you forget and forgive Norah was locked in. what happened in the shrubbery ?" She tried to Under other circumstances, Magdalen would proceed; but her inveterate reserve—or, perhaps, not have been satisfied with knocking—she would her obstinate reliance on her own opinions— have called through the door loudly and more silenced her at those last words. Her face loudly, till the house was disturbed, and she had clouded over on a sudden. Before her sister carried her point. But the doubts and fears of could answer her, she turned aWay abruptly and the moming had unnerved her already. She ran up stairs. went down stairs again softly, and took her hat The door of the library opened, before Mag­ from the stand in the hall. " He told me to put dalen could follow her; and Miss Garth ad­ my hat on," she said to herself, with a meek vanced to express the sentiments proper to the filial docility which was totally out of her cha­ occasion. racter. They were not the mecWnically-submissive She went into the garden, on the shmbbery sentiments which Magdalen had just heard. side; and waited there to catch the first sight Norah had struggled against her rooted distrust of her father on his return. Half an hour passed; of Prank, in deference to the unanswerable de­ forty minutes passed—and then his voice reached cision of both her parents in his favour; and had her from among the distant trees. " Come in to suppressed the open expression of her antipathy, heel!" she heard him call out loudly to the dog. though the feehng itself remained unconquered. Her face tumed pale, " He's angry with Snap!" Miss Garth had made no such concession to the she exclaimed to herself, in a whisper. The next master and mistress of the house. She had minute he appeared in view; walking rapidly, hitherto held the position of a high authority on with his head down, and Snap at his heels in all domestic questions; and she flatly declined to disgrace. The sudden excess of her alarm as she get off her pedestal in deference to any change in observed those ominous signs of something the family circumstances, no matter how amazing wrong, rallied her natural energy, and determined or how unexpected that change might be. her desperately on knowing thC worst. "Pray accept.my congratulations," said Miss She walked straight forward to meet her Garth, bristling all over with imphed objections father. ^ VOL, vn. 150 122 [AprU19,1862,j ALL THE YEAR ROUND, iCCondnctedby " Your face tells your news," she said, faintly, her husband. " My old friend has justified my "Mr, Clare has been.as heartless as usual—Mr,, opinion of him." Clare has said. Nop" ' "Thank God!" said Mrs. Vanstone, fervently. Her father tumed on Iher with ;a «udden " Did you feel it, love ?" she asfced, as her has. severity, so entirely unparalleled in her experi­ band an-anged the sofa pillows—" did you feel ence of him, that she started back in downright it as painfully as I feared you would P" terror. " I had a duty to do, my dear—and I did it." "Magdalen!" he said, "whenever you speak After replymg in those terms, he hesitated. of my old friend and neighbour again, bear this Apparently, he had somethmg more to say- in mind. Mr. Clare has just laid me under an something, perhaps, on the subject of that pass­ obligation which I shall remember gratefully to ing uneasiness of mind, wliich had been produced the end of my Mfe." by his interview with Mr, Clare, and which Mag- He stopped suddenly, after saying those re­ dalen's questions had obliged him to acknow- markable words. Seeing that he had startled ledge, A look at his wife decided his doubts in her, his natural kindness prompted hun instantly the negative. He only asked if she felt com­ to soften the reproof, and to end the suspense fortable; and then tumed away to leave the from which she was plainly suffering. " Give me room. a kiss, my love," he resumed; "and I'E tell you " Must you go ?" she asked. in return that Mr. Clare has said—^YES." " I have a letter to write, my dear." Slie attempted to thank him; but the sudden " Anythmg about Prank ?" luxury of relief was too much for her. She could " No: to-morrow will do for that. A letter only chng round his neck in silence. He felt her to Mr. Pendril; I want him here immediately." trembling from head to foot, and said a few words " Business, I suppose?" to calm her. At the altered tones of his master's " Yes, my dear—business." voice. Snap's meek tail reappeared fiercely from He went out, and shut himself into the little between his legs; and Snap's lungs modestly front room, close to the haU-door, which was tested his position with a brief experimental called his study. By nature and habit the most bark. The dog's quaintly appropriate assertion procrastinating of letter-writers, he now incon­ of himself on his old footing, was the interruption sistently opened his desk and took up the pen of all others which was best fitted to restore without a moment's delay. His letter was. long Magdalen to herself. She caught the shaggy enough to occupy three pages of note-paper; it little terrier up in her arms, and kissed him next. was written with a readiness of expression and a "You darlit^," she exclaimed, "you're almost as rapidity of hand which seldom characterised his glad as I am!" She turned again to her father, proceedings when engaged over his orduiary cor­ with a look of tender reproach. " You frightened respondence. He wrote the address as foUows, me, papa," she said. " You were so unlike your- "Immediate: — William Pendril Esq,, Searle- seK." street, Lincoln's Inn, London"—then pushed the " I shall be right again, to-morrow, my dear. letter away from him, and sat at the table, draw­ I am a little upset to-day." ing lines on the blotting-paper with his pen, lost *'Not by me?" in thought. " No," he said to himself; "I can " No, no." do nothing more till Pendril comes." He rose; "By something you have heard at Mr. his face brightened as he put the stamp on the Clare's?" envelope. The writing of the letter had sensibly "Yes—nothing you need alarm yourself about; relieved him, and his whole bearing showed it as nothing that won't wear off by to-morrow. Let he left the room. me go now, my dear, I have a letter to write; On the door-step, he found Norah and Miss and I want to speak to your mother." Garth, setting forth together for a walk. He left her, and went on to the house. Mag­ "Which way are you going?" he asked. dalen lingered a little on the lawn, to feel aU the "Anywhere near the post-officeP I wish you happuaess of her new sensations—then tumed would post this letter for me, Norah. It is very away towards the shrabbery, to enjoy the higher important—so important, that I hardly like to luxury of communicating them.