Kate Danton, or, Captain Danton"s Daughters.
by May Agnes Fleming.
CHAPTER I.
GRACE DANTON.
A low room, oblong in shape, three high narrow windows admitting the light through small, old-fashioned panes. Just at present there was not much to admit, for it was raining hard, and the afternoon was wearing on to dusk; but even the wet half-light showed you solid mahogany furniture, old-fashioned as the windows themselves, black and shining with age and polish; a carpet soft and thick, but its once rich hues dim and faded; oil paintings of taste and merit, some of them portraits, on the papered walls, the red glow of a large coal fire glinting pleasantly on their broad gilded frames.
At one of the windows, looking out at the ceaseless rain, a young lady sat--a young lady, tall, rather stout than slender, and not pretty. Her complexion was too sallow; her features too irregular; her dark hair too scant, and dry and thin at the parting; but her eyes were fine, large, brown and clear; her manner, self-possessed and lady-like. She was very simply but very tastefully dressed, and looked every day of her age--twenty six.
The rainy afternoon was deepening into dismal twilight; and with her cheek resting on her hand, the young lady sat with a thoughtful face.
A long avenue, shaded by towering tamaracks, led down to stately entrance-gates; beyond, a winding road, leading to a village, not to be seen from the window. Swelling meadows, bare and bleak now, spread away to the right and left of the thickly-wooded grounds; and beyond all, through the trees, there were glimpses of the great St. Lawrence, turbid and swollen, rushing down to the stormy Gulf.
For nearly half an hour the young lady sat by the window, her solitude undisturbed; no sign of life within or without the silent house. Then came the gallop of horse"s hoofs, and a lad rode up the avenue and disappeared round the angle of the building.
Ten minutes after there was a tap at the door, followed by the entrance of a servant, with a dark Canadian face.
"A letter, Miss Grace," said the girl, in French.
"Bring in some more coal, Babette," said Miss Grace, also in French, taking the letter. "Where is Miss Eeny?"
"Practising in the parlour, Ma"moiselle."
"Very well. Bring in the coal."
Babette disappeared, and the young lady opened her letter. It was very short.
"Montreal, November, 5, 18--.
"My Dear Grace--Kate arrived in this city a week ago, and I have remained here since to show her the sights, and let her recruit after her voyage. Ogden tells me the house is quite ready for us, so you may expect us almost as soon as you receive this. We will be down by the 7th, for certain. Ogden says that Rose is absent. Write to her to return.
"Yours sincerely, Henry Danton."
"P. S.--Did Ogden tell you we were to have a visitor--an invalid gentleman--a Mr. Richards? Have the suite of rooms on the west side prepared for him. H. D."
The young lady refolded her note thoughtfully, and walking to the fire, stood looking with grave eyes into the glowing coals.
"So soon," she thought; "so soon; everything to be changed. What is Captain Danton"s eldest daughter like, I wonder? What is the Captain like himself, and who can this invalid, Mr. Richards, be? I don"t like change."
Babette came in with the coal, and Miss Grace roused herself from her reverie.
"Babette, tell Ledru to have dinner at seven. I think your master and his daughter will be here to-night."
"Mon Dieu, Mademoiselle! The young lady from England?"
"Yes; and see that there are fires in all the rooms upstairs."
"Yes, Miss Grace."
"Is Miss Eeny still in the parlour?"
"Yes, Miss Grace."
Miss Grace walked out of the dining-room, along a carved and pictured corridor, up a broad flight of shining oaken stairs, and tapped at the first door.
"Come in, Grace," called a pleasant voice, and Grace went in.
It was a much more elegant apartment than the dining-room, with flowers, and books, and birds, and pictures, and an open piano with music scattered about.
Half buried in a great carved and gilded chair, lay the only occupant of the room--a youthful angel of fifteen, fragile in form, fair and delicate of face, with light hair and blue eyes. A novel lying open in her lap showed what her occupation had been.
"I thought you were practising your music, Eeny," said Grace.
"So I was, until I got tired. But what"s that you"ve got? A letter?"
Grace put it in her hand.
"From papa!" cried the girl, vividly interested at once. "Oh, Grace!
Kate has come!"
"Yes."
The young lady laid down the letter and looked at her.
"How oddly you said that! Are you sorry?"
"Sorry! Oh, no."
"You looked as if you were. How strange it seems to think that this sister of mine, of whom I have heard so much and have never seen, should be coming here for good! And papa--he is almost a stranger, too, Grace.
I suppose everything will be very different now."
"Very, very different," Grace said, with her quiet eyes fixed on the fire. "The old life will soon be a thing of the past. And we have been very happy here; have we not, Eeny?"
"Very happy," answered Eeny; "and will be still, I hope. Papa and Kate, and Mr. Richards--I wonder who Mr. Richards is?--shall not make us miserable."
"I suppose, Eeny," said Grace, "I shall be quite forgotten when this handsome Sister Kate comes. She ought to be very handsome."
She looked up at an oval picture about the marble mantel, in a rich frame--the photograph of a lovely girl about Eeny"s age. The bright young face looked at you with a radiant smile, the exuberant golden hair fell in sunlight ripples over the plump white shoulders, and the blue eyes and rosebud lips smiled on you together. A lovely face, full of the serene promise of yet greater loveliness to come. Eeny"s eyes followed those of Grace.
"You know better than that, Cousin Grace. Miss Kate Danton may be an angel incarnate, but she can never drive you quite out of my heart.
Grace, how old is Kate?"
"Twenty years old."
"And Harry was three years older?"