THE TOILET.

(Specially from Paris.)

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Printed by Rogerson and Tuxford, 246, Strand, London.

THE COMMONER'S DAUGHTER.

By the Author of "A Few out of Thousands."

CHAP. IV.

times in signifying his whereabouts, for at first he had given agreat deal of trouble, being found Three months after my mother's death I sat once, after a whole day's search, ensconced one morning in the chamber that had been her in the back-kitchen oven, fortunately not that bedroom. I was deeply engaged in the pages of day in use. At another time he was up a bedroom a romance, with one of the terrific titles invented, chimney. Again he took refuge in one of the I fancy, by the Minerva school of fiction-"The men-servant's new boots, and being mistaken Black Pirate; or, the Dark Valley of the Dell, by our "Jeames" in his fright for a rat, only of Doona:" one of a series which I imagine Mr. escaped by the merest chance being knocked Castlebrook had bought at a sale of books, and on the head and finished on the spot. When which lay altogether in one corner of the book-time had corrected these vagaries of his kittenshelves, which dignified his sanctum with the hood, he settled down into an amiable, intelligent, name of library. While I read I was nursing coaxing mouser, and, saving the feathered tribe, a little black cat, my own exclusive property which formed a temptation he could never wholly and pet. I thought this animal no common overcome, he was honest and faithful - rare quadruped. When a kitten, he had been res- qualities in his kind. He was always in my cued by my mother, in the course of a morning's presence day and night, and slept at the foot of walk, from impending torture and ultimate death, my little white bed. The cat then, as usual, at the expense of sixpence and a lecture on was on my lap, and my whole heart and mind humanity. Some juvenile ruffians were testing were occupied by intense interest in the scene the poor little brute's powers of endurance by where the Black Pirate had imprisoned the pulling his legs to see if they would break be- heroine in a subterraneous cave of "The Dark fore they drowned him. They were just on the Valley of the Dell of Doona," and I had point of making a furious onslaught on his ears come to the part where she defies him and tail when we interfered, and although the lec-with a dagger she had worn concealed ture was not sufficiently powerful to obtain a ces- in her bosom, while her other hand disengaged sation of hostilities, yet the sixpence I was allowed threatened to fire a train of gunpowder, to offer as ransom, proving more effectual, the which by some unaccountable neglect the Black kitten was given up. He must have had all his Pirate had forgotten to notice or remove, when fabulous nine lives pretty nearly teazed out of at that exciting moment, I was startled by the him, for he was at his last gasp. I cried over entrance of Mrs. M'Logie, the housekeeper, the cat like a great baby, and begged that if he and, indeed, I may say the factotum-general of lived I might keep him for a pet. I cannot our household. This person was a most pardescribe my joy when my mother consented. ticularly disagreeable, ill-tempered and vindictive Without friends or companions of my own age, old Scotch woman, who having been my father's I was delighted to have this poor little kitten to nurse, and a dependent on him for many years, hug and caress. By dint of much training, took it upon herself to be as disrespectful and as careful feeding, and no end of petting and arrogant towards the uninfluential members of coaxing, he had become a much worthier the family as she chose. She was between sixty specimen of feline nature than most creatures and seventy years old, mostly attired in a rusty, of his kind with which I have had any ac- scanty black silk gown, and wore large white quaintance. The cat had no regular name. aprons with bibs, at which the smart young We were so long in fixing on one that was maids laughed. She had a hard cruel cold grey sufficiently to my fancy, that his designation eye, and took great quantities of high-dried snuff, had settled into Tootsy" and to no other which habit, indulged for long years, had imwould he answer, so he remained "Tootsy" all parted a dark shade over the upper lip, which the rest of his days. I decorated him with a resembled an incipient moustache, and was scarlet leathern collar hung with little brass anything but improving to the general contour bells, which, besides contrasting tastefully with of her countenance. This venerable servitor, his glossy black coat was extremely useful at who especially disliked me, now entered with

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such a grim and ill-subdued expression of gratified malice on her withered face, that knowing full well her chief happiness consisted in the miseries and vexations of her fellow creatures, I naturally forboded evil.

66

"Oh, an are ye there, Miss Isabella," she cried, peering into the room, and holding the door half-open with her hand; ay, idling with thae beuks I see, when ye suld be at yer saumpler. Jist pit yersel smooth, and gang ben the library, the maister's speering for ye, and ye maun gang till him wiout ony loss o' time."

"Very well, Mrs. M'Logie," said I, "I will go to papa directly."

"An jist take wi ye a few hints for yer behaviour, my fine-spoken young leddy. Mr. De Trevor Castlebrook's no in the sweetest o' moods the day. Dinna fash him mair by ca'ing him yer pawpa.'

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Why," said I, my temper rising at her tone of sarcasm, my cheeks flushing, and my eyes beginning to glisten, "he is my father, I suppose."

"Hoot toot, I suppose sae; but vera much agin his gude will I'm thinking," answered the old woman with a sneer. "No, Miss, gang yer ways. Ye'll hear news maybe; I hope 'twill content ye, it will me, fine."

As she spoke she took a huge pinch of snuff, a "sneeshin" she called it, and fixing her grey eye on me, it bore such an expression of malignity that I was glad to rid myself of such a presence, even by obeying her injunctions. I caught up the cat in my arms, for her malice was most especially directed towards him, and prepared to quit the room, first doubling down a leaf of "The Black Pirate," regarding whose fate I was compelled to remain in suspense, and wondering what delinquency had summoned me to the library, too well aware my father never required my presence except to reprove. As I reached the door Mrs. M'Logie called to me.

are shrewd and deep observers. I had seen too
often in the lifetime of my poor mother, how
much more the servants were regarded than the
mistress, and I too bitterly felt that in my
father's house I was of much less account than the
lowest menial who ministered to his wants and
pleasures. As I laid my hand on the handle
of the library-door, my forebodings again arose
as to what could possibly form the present
grounds for reproach. Was it about the
abstraction of "The Black Pirate" from the
book-shelves? I had never been precisely
forbidden to read novels.
Indeed no one
cared now sufficiently for my welfare to re-
strain my reading, but certainly I had indulged
in a very extensive course of fiction, so I con-
cluded, that being the weightiest matter on my
conscience, that "The Black Pirate" must be
the cause of this unpleasant summons.

My father was scated in a luxurious easy chair, and his eyes were fixed so intently on the fire, that at first he did not appear to notice my presence, thus I had a few minutes in which I could contemplate Mr. De Trevor Castlebrook. In the heat and fervour of my romantic fancy I identified myself with my latest cherished heroine, and imagined myself standing in the presence of the redoubtable Black Pirate himself, though now I have so little recollection of the author's description of that hero, that I cannot say how far my father's personal appearance coincided with his.

Mr. Castlebrook was a tall, strongly-built man, with large, not unhandsome features, and thick dark brows, which when knitted gave him a look more repulsive than nature originally intended. Many, I believe, designated him a “fine man,” and he was at this period in the very prime of life, for, as I have before told, he had married young. When angry or excited, his face flushed more than was conformable with strict elegance, his mouth was large, with full and prominent lips, and his eyes of an uncertain

Raising those eyes, while I was constructing a romance in the recesses of my brain, Mr. De Trevor Castlebrook espied me standing at the further end of the large writing-table.

"For ony sake, Miss Isabel, pit down that beastie. Ye wouldna surely gang in'tye fey-shifting colour. ther's presence hugging that varment. Jistlet me catch him stealing the cream on my teatray again, an I'll hang him as high as the doorpost, or drown him in the Serpentine. Ay, ring awa," as Tootsy shook his bells violently; "ring awa, my bonnie beast, yer mistress will sune hae something better to employ her time wi', I'm guessin, than nursing a wee cat, an readin novels a' the lang day."

My hasty temper was soon irritated, and I haughtily told the housekeeper to show a little more respect to her master's daughter. Being the weaker of the two, in power at least, I had best have kept silence. A storm of vindictive anger, in the broadest Scottish dialect, came down on my head, causing me to run to the library as fast as I could, to escape the abuse showered on me.

Out of Scylla into Charybdis !-I was indeed only too certain that if I ventured to complain of Mrs. M'Logie's unpleasant manners, and still more unpleasant language, I should meet with no redress. Lonely, companionless children

Tootsy had escaped from my arms, and was occupied in making an inspection of the furniture, which was new to him, and exceedingly

strange.

This was my parent's salute: "Oh, it's you, is it? Well!"

The thought came across me that he might well raise a question of whether I was myself, seeing that his personal supervisions were so few; however I merely answered, "Did you want me, papa?"

"Want you"-bitterly-" No, I do not want you; I am never likely to want you. You grow by heaven! more and more like your

He had the grace to stop his speech. My face flushed. I knew instinctively that he intended some disrespectful allusion to the mother whose memory I so dearly loved; there was a slight