did.
'I jumped up, and screamed, and opened the door; but there they were growling in papa's dressing- room.'
'They, the lions? Oh, Rose, you must know that was impossible.'
'No, I did not see any lions, but I heard the growl, and Mr. Maddox coughed, and said, 'Here they come,' and growled again.'
'And you--?'
'I tumbled into bed again, and rolled up my head in the clothes, and prayed that it might be day, and it was at last!'
'Poor child! Indeed, Rose, I do not wonder at your terror, I never heard of a more barbarous trick.'
'Was it a trick?' said Rose, raising a wonderfully relieved and hopeful face.
'Did you never hear of writing in phosphorus, a substance that shines at night as the sea sometimes does?'
'Aunt Ailie has a book with a story about writing in fiery letters, but it frightened me so much that I never read to the end.'
'Bring it to me, and we will read it together, and then you will see that such a cruel use can be made of phosphorus.'
'It was unkind of them,' said Rose, sadly, 'I wonder if they did it for fun?'
'Where did you sleep?'
'I had a little room that opened into mamma's.'
'And where was all this growling?'
'In papa's room. The door was just opposite to mine, and was open. All the light was there, you know. Mamma's room was dark, but there was a candle in the dressing-room.'
'Did you see anything?'
'Only the light. It was such a moment. I don't think I saw Mr. Maddox, but I am quite certain I heard him, for he had an odd little cough.'
'Then, Rose, I have little doubt that all this cruelty to you, poor inoffensive little being, was to hide some plots against your father.'
She caught his meaning with the quickness of a mind precocious on some points though childish on others. 'Then if I had been brave and told the truth, he might never have hurt papa.'
'Mind, I do not know, and I never thought of blaming you, the chief sufferer! No, don't begin to cry again.'
'Ah! but I did tell a lie. And I never can confess it to mamma,' she said, recurring to the sad lament so long suppressed.
She found a kind comforter, who led her to the higher sources of consolation, feeling all the time the deep self-accusation with which the sight of sweet childish penitence must always inspire a grown person.
'And now you will not fear to tell your aunt,' he added, 'only it should be when you can mention it without such sad crying.'
'Telling you is almost as good as telling her,' said Rose, 'and I feel safe with you,' she added, caressingly drawing his arm round her. 'Please tell Aunt Ermine, for my crying does give her such a headache.'
'I will, then, and I think when we all know it, the terrors will leave you.'
'Not when I see Mr. Maddox. Oh, please now you know why, don't make me walk without you. I do know now that he could not do anything to me, but I can't help feeling the fright. And, oh! if he was to speak to me!'
'You have not seen him here before?'
'Yes I have, at least I think so. Once when Aunt Ermine sent me to the post-office, and another time on the esplanade. That is why I can't bear going out without you or Aunt Ailie. Indeed, it is not disliking Tibbie.'
'I see it is not, my dear, and we will say no more about it till you have conquered your alarm; but remember, that he is not likely to know you again. You must be more changed in these three years than he is.'
This consideration seemed to reassure Rose greatly, and her next inquiry was, 'Please, are my eyes very red for going home?'
'Somewhat mottled--something of the York and Lancaster rose. Shall I leave you under Tibbie's care till the maiden blush complexion returns, and come back and fetch you when you have had a grand exhibition of my Indian curiosities?'
'Have you Indian curiosities! I thought they were only for ladies?'
'Perhaps they are. Is Tibbie guard enough? You know there's an Irish sergeant in the house taller than I am, if you want a garrison?'
'Oh, I am not afraid, only these eyes.'
'I will tell her you have been frightened, and she shall take no notice.'
Tibbie was an admirer of Rose and gladly made her welcome, while the Colonel repaired to Ermine, and greatly startled her by the disclosure of the miseries that had been inflicted on the sensitive child.
It had indeed been known that there had been tyranny in the nursery, and to this cause the aunts imputed the startled wistful expression in Rose's eyes; but they had never questioned her, thinking that silence would best wear out the recollection. The only wonder was that her senses had not been permanently injured by that night of terror, which accounted for her unconquerable dread of sleeping in the dark; and a still more inexplicable horror of the Zoological Gardens, together with many a nervous misery that Ermine had found it vain to combat. The Colonel asked if the nurse's cruelty had been the cause of her dismissal?
'No, it was not discovered till after her departure. Her fate has always been a great grief to us, though we little thought her capable of using Rose in this way. She was one of the Hathertons. You must remember the name, and the pretty picturesque hovel on the Heath.'
'The squatters that were such a grievance to my uncle. Always suspected of poaching, and never caught.'
'Exactly. Most of the girls turned out ill, but this one, the youngest, was remarkably intelligent and attractive at school. I remember making an excuse for calling her into the garden for you to see and confess that English beauty exceeded Scottish, and you called her a gipsy and said we had no right to her.'
'So it was those big black eyes that had that fiendish malice in them!'
'Ah! if she fell into Maddox's hands, I wonder the less. She showed an amount of feeling about my illness that won Ailie's heart, and we had her for a little handmaid to help my nurse. Then, when we broke up from home, we still kept her, and every one used to be struck with her looks and manner. She went on as well as possible, and Lucy set her heart on having her in the nursery. And when the upper nurse went away, she had the whole care of Rose. We heard only of her praises till, to our horror, we found she had been sent away in disgrace at a moment's warning. Poor Lucy was young, and so much shocked as only to think of getting her out of the house, not of what was to become of her, and all we could learn was that she never went home.'
'How long was this before the crash?'
'It was only a few weeks before the going abroad, but they had been absent nearly a year. No doubt Maddox must have made her aid in his schemes. You say Rose saw him?'
'So she declares, and there is an accuracy of memory about her that I should trust to. Should you or Alison know him?'
'No, we used to think it a bad sign that Edward never showed him to us. I remember Alison being disappointed that he was not at the factory the only time she saw it.'
'I do not like going away while he may be lurking about. I could send a note to-night, explaining my absence.'
'No, no,' exclaimed Ermine, 'that would be making me as bad as poor little Rose. If he be here ever so much he has done his worst, and Edward is out of his reach. What could he do to us? The affairs were wound up long ago, and we have literally nothing to be bullied out of. No, I don't think he could make me believe in lions in any shape.'
'You strong-minded woman! You want to emulate the Rachel.'
'You have brought her,' laughed Ermine at the sound of the well-known knock, and Rachel entered bag in hand.
'I was in hopes of meeting you,' she said to the Colonel. 'I wanted to ask you to take charge of some of these;' and she produced a packet of prospectuses of a 'Journal of Female Industry,' an illustrated monthly
