False or True, and three other tales

Chapter I

It was dusk. The sombre grey shadows were creeping slowly but surely over a pretty picturesque-looking house situated in its own grounds. The last fading glance of a red July sun lit up with a ruddy glow the pale delicate flowers of a westeria, which crept in and out of two stone pillars supporting the piazza. Trail ing shrubs of all kinds were clinging to the walls, each seemingly ambitious of outdying sun left there, stole over her cheek. She stopped and listened. " Mignonette — Mignonette !" With a coquettish smile curling her red lips, and giving an inexpressible piquancy to the charming face, she went forward in the direction of the voice. At a small gate, half hidden by a drooping willow and a golden laburnum, was distin guishable the dark figure of a man. As she put aside the slender boughs of the willow, and peered through the branch of the yellow laburnum, an eager admiration was depicted on the handsome young face watching . her approach.

The sight of those red, pouting lips and saucy grey eyes, were evidently a very pleasant sight to him, for presently as she burst into a low peal of laughter, that sounded like the tinkling of fairy bells, he bent forward, a light in his deep brown eyes. Pre sently, her own bright orbs dancing, and still half rippling to herself, she burst out : " What on earth is Captain de Mirasset doing at this gate at this time of night ? What would mamma say if she knew of such audacity ! And I declare," scanning critically the gentleman's attire, " that you have been making acquaintance with a very dusty wall. Fie, fie, Captain de Mirasset, I thought only thieves and hirelings ever condescended to such means for effecting an entrance any where." " Tais ton badinage, petite," he replied, with amused defiance, " though I confess to your accusation.

May I be allowed to wish though that you would find some thing else to adorn your walls with than that wretched jagged glass. See what I have suffered in your cause, fair lady !" and he displayed a hand decidedly the worse for his exploit. " In my cause," retorted the girl saucily, "I like that. As if Mignonette Rainey would make rendezvous with a man with out her mother's knowledge. Come, Monsieur le Captaine " (more seriously), " tell me please what brings you here, instead of into our drawing-room like any ordinary person." " Because, Mignonette," and the dark face grew strangely earnest, " I have something to tell you. Come here close, child, and do not stand there like a saucy elf, bewildering one, out of those branches. You look like a sprite, a wood-nymph so, and I want to feel you are something tangible."

Thus adjured, the girl came forward, a pretty bewildering figure, all smiles, dimples and coquetry. " Your servant, sir," she said demurely, with a slight curtsey. " That remains to be proved," he answered, smiling in spite of himself. Seizing his opportunity as she approached, he caught one of her hands and drew her forward. " Mignonette, do try and be reasonable for one moment, and I will tell you why I am here, instead of in the presence of that cold, courtly mother of yours, and quiet, unsympathising sister. Mignonette, I am come to say good-bye. I am going away," and his dark eyes were bent anxiously and searchingly on hers to watch for the slightest change of expression in them. One moment she looked away, but whatever shadow may have crossed her face at his words was unseen. When she turned again it was only to ask lightly : " And what difference can the departure of Frank de Mirasset make to Mignonette Rainey ?"

A sharp pain contracted the young man's brow, and two strong white teeth met in his lip till the blood came. " Mignonette, I may be away one — two years," cried a voice deep and hoarse with hidden trouble. " Is it nothing to you that for all those months our hands may never meet together again ; our voices never gladden each other's ears. Answer me, Mignonette," and his eyes rested greedily and anxiously on the provoking beauty of her face. " First tell me the reason of this sudden departure," she answered, half shyly, half coquettishly. He bent forward till his moustache swept the small white ear. " Listen ! I have received a letter from my father, who desires me to return to France. It seems that a rich uncle of mine in Provence, has just lost his only child — a son, and he has mentioned a wish to see me.

My father imagines he intends making me his heir, and bids me throw up my commission and all on the chance. It is a risky thing to do, for there are others as near of kin as myself, but, Mignonette, if I thought you cared for my success," — his voice shook — " I will leave no stone un turned to win a way into the old man's affections. Perhaps then your mother, who thinks me now too penniless and with out prospects for her daughter, may be more amenable, and smile where she has only frowned. Petite! you know my love, how dear to me is every feature of your face, every turn of your head. My darling, tell me you return it just a little bit !" and the young man's lips quivered in their passionate entreaty. " Surely I have not been mistaken," he added, all the light leaving his face at her persistent silence.

" I think you are very presumptuous," came at last from those rich red lips. " In fact you would mean to insinuate that I have encouraged you," with a delicious pout, which had entangled many a heart besides Frank de Mirasset's. " You men are all the same, ready to construe a kind glance, a friendly pressure of the hand, into anything you wish." " Then I am to understand you have been trifling with me all this time, Miss Rainey," replied the young man, drawing himself up and looking white and stern ; " that the look that bade me welcome when mother and sister showed marked disap proval, the frequent escort, the allowing me to call you by your Christian name when alone, the half-implied assent when ventur ing on even more delicate ground, is only on a par with your usual style of behaviour.

Mignonette," as he caught the dimples coming and going in her cheek just a little more flushed than ordinary, "Mignonette," seizing her hand roughly, " this is no time for jesting. Tell me, do you love me, or do you not ?" The small head drooped first on one shoulder then on to the other, and two great eyes peered curiously under their thick lashes, at her lover's disturbed countenance. " Answer me, Mignonette. Do you care one jot about me ?" " No — o," came slowly from the young lady's parted lips, and she opened those starry orbs of hers to their widest with an arch questioning glance that would once have driven him wild, but now was only the signal of his doom. He tossed her hand away from him passionately. " God forgive you !" he muttered between his teeth as he averted his head, so that she might not see the wild white pain in his face.

One bitter struggle for composure and he turned round and lifted his hat. " Good-bye, then, Miss Rainey," very quietly, " I am sorry I have mistaken your manner, but another time when a man, lured on as I have been, tells you of his love, try at least to be more sympathising. Do not let him feel you are laughing at him and scorning him for his weakness all the while." With this parting shot, be strode away through the orchard, crushing recklessly under his feet the golden carpet of butter cups, interspersed with white daisies, and many coloured orchids. One moment the girl waited, as if expect ing him to return ; another, and with a sudden change of countenance, she had slipped through the gate and was following him with quick, nimble steps. He turned as he heard those light foot steps. " Miss Rainey " (with icy composure), " to what am I indebted for this — ahem — espionage ?"

It was her turn to be discomposed now. The crimson mounted to her brow. "I — I was going to show you another — another way out of — of the grounds," she stammered hurriedly. " Thank — you " (ironically), " I can dis pense with your assistance. The way I came in at does well enough for me. The glass does not hurt half as much as some things one meets with," and he walked on a little quicker. The girl stopped and watched him. He had just reached the wall, one vault and he would be over. Mignonette's hands clasped and unclasped each other nervously. Just as he had his foot in the act to spring, she overcame her hesitation and bounded forward. Another instant and her hand was on his arm. "Frank! don't be a goose" (half laughing, half crying), " I will say any thing you like, if you will only wait a minute."

The young man turned and looked at her, surprise, doubt, joy, following each other rapidly in his speaking countenance. Then, as he read the truth in the downcast face, from which all trace of coquetry had vanished, with a low, glad laugh, he drew her into his arms, and with his heart in his eyes, contemplated the tell-tale colour flowing and ebbing in her cheeks. " So you were coquetting with me all the time, ma MignonneV he whispered joyously ; " while in your heart you were all mine. O, you women !" and he folded her closer to his breast and planted a first eager, lingering kiss on the ripe and now tremulous lips. "If you had not been blind, you might have seen it," she answered half petulantly ; " and I might have been spared the humili ation of running after you, to undeceive you," and the hot ashamed colour again made riot in the downy cheek, and she struggled to free herself from his embrace.

But he only took the little restless hands and planted them round his neck, encircling the slender waist tighter with his strong arms. " Petite," he murmured seriously, " do not regret what you did. If you only knew what a devil flew out of my breast, when I realised you were mine after all. Child, it was too cruel, that coquetry, and raised a storm of passions I dread to think of now. I was even making a bitter vow, that woman should be only my plaything henceforward, never more the recipient of my love and adoration." " I am so sorry," she said under her breath, half awed at the sombre fire with which he spoke. " I will not do it again," (penitently). He brightened up instantly and burst into a happy laugh as he realised her utter surrender. Mignonette again tried to escape from his caress.

" No ! no, petite '. you do not get away so easily this time. Not till you have told me with those wicked perjured lips, ' I love you, Frank.' " "Then you must wait till doomsday," she retorted wilfully. "I have made concessions enough for once." " Say it !" he answered imperatively. " Never !" and she looked up with frank, saucy, defiant eyes. He laughed again. " Then take your punishment, deso beissante," and he took the charming flower-like face in his two hands and pressed kiss after kiss on its fresh piquante beauty, till with a little sobbing cry she rent herself away. " Frank, you are cruel," and the pretty mouth had a downward droop, like that of an offended babe, and the great starry eyes swam in a hazy mist. "Forgive me, my own," he answered, touched by that naive grief. " Forgive me !

I would not offend my little love for anything, but petite, you provoke me so horribly," and he drew her again to him, very gently this time, and smoothed the rich hair athwart his shoulder, with a touch her own father might have used. "Mignonette — Mignonette — Mignonette." How different were those tones to the first which had fallen on her ear, so cold, so distinct were these, with a faint sharp ness in them. The girl started. " Frank, I must go," she whispered ; " is it really true that this is our last chance of meeting before you go abroad?" and her eyes, devoid of all coquetry, all defiance, now, looked into his for the first time that night, full of a mute grief that told its own tale. " I am afraid so, my darling," and he pressed her to his heart with a sudden o anguish, " for I leave to-night.

O ! my beloved, promise me that you will never swerve in truth and love from me. Promise that no man shall ever have the right to touch your lips but me. Swear that you will wait at least two years before you dream of deserting me. If I am alive, I shall be here to claim you. I am determined to win you, if you will only remain true and patient. Child ! promise me this and I shall rest satisfied !" and the handsome young head was bowed on hers, and the strong voice husky and broken in its passionate entreaty. " Frank !" and the luminous grey eyes were lifted in solemn assurance to his, " I promise and look upon myself from this night as yours and yours alone. Only the knowledge of your falsehood shall ever change me. See these lilies," and she drew some from her breast and pressed them to her lips.

" Frank, I give them FAME OR TRUE. 19 you, and let them be a mute pledge of our betrothal, and let the sight of them always keep you in mind of Mignonette Rainey. Are you satisfied ?" For all answer, he took the delicate drooping flowers and hid them carefully in his bosom, and then pressed the girl to him in one long, silent embrace. " Mignonette," he said at last, " will you not give me one kiss of your own free will." This was no time for feminine bashful ness. Simply and quietly she drew his head down with her white hands and pressed her sweet lips to his forehead. " Frank, I love you," she murmured softly, as she did so. A sudden light sprang into his face like a flash of lightning in the dark of a storm. " God bless you ;" he said brokenly, " my lily, my pet, my flower !" 2—2 One more long, close embrace, and then Mignonette drew back, and gathering up her skirts, fled homewards, never once looking back.

The young man watched her till the last flutter of her dress disap peared in the distance. Then with a sad smile he turned and vaulted over the wall. Another instant and he was pursuing the road to his rooms. Such is life. One moment a great crisis, another and we are going on in the monotonous groove of daily routine. As Mignonette retraced her steps, her bright young heart dull and hopeless for the first time in her life, she heard the same voice still calling out her name. Hurrying forward, a lady dressed in even ing toilette met her on the steps. / " Really, Mignonette, I wish you would answer when you are called. For the last five minutes have I been exerting my lungs for your benefit, and your sister is searching for you in the garden. Such a foolish habit that of strolling out of ear shot just at dinner-time."

Mrs. Rainey spoke in a very injured tone. " And pray what have you been doing all the time," she added, her quick eye discovering the absence of flowers, generally the fruit of these ramblings. " Oh, wandering about," answered the girl, but in unusually subdued tones. "Alone, I hope?" enquired her mother, rather sharply, and feeling suspicious of that quiet manner. As she spoke she drew the girl into the sitting-room, and looked at her searchingly. Mignonette crimsoned under her gaze, but lifted her head and answered proudly : " Your suspicions are correct for once in a way, mamma, I was with Captain de Mirasset." " After my express commands too, that this foolish flirtation was to be given up," replied Mrs. Rainey sternly. "Really, Mignonette, if my orders are not better attended to, I shall have to confine you to the house.

You know my horror of your entering into any understanding with this young man, who has not a penny to his name nor likely to have." " You are too late, mamma," she answered quietly. " Frank de Mirasset is leaving for France to-night, and on his return I have promised to be his wife." " Mignonette ! how dared you ?" and her mother's voice trembled with suppressed anger. " A charming young man he must be too, to win you, without once having consulted your parent's wishes." " Mamma, you know that would you have listened to him, he would have come forward long ago, but you showed too plainly how utterly you scouted him as a suitor. Under such circumstances were both our hearts to be broken, because you did not care if they were ?" She spoke warmly. " Fiddlesticks," answered Mrs. Rainey ; " broken, indeed! and you have not known him more than six weeks.

Come, Mignonette, I insist on your writing at once and breaking off this match. It shall never take place with my con sent." " It is no use," returned the girl calmly, " for he has not left me his address. We knew too well we should not be allowed to correspond in any way. Come, mamma, there is plenty of time before a union you seem to hold in such abhorrence can take place. Two whole years, perhaps ! If at the end of that time he is in a position to win me, you will allow him to come for ward with your consent !" and Mignonette drew nearer to her mother, entreaty in her eyes and voice. " No ! I will not !" returned Mrs. Rainey decidedly. "Do you not know, do you not understand ? I hate all French people, and he is more than half French. My daughter shall never marry out of her own nation.

You have the same hankerings as your father, and I will not allow it. How long did you say you had been given to make up your mind ?" " Not make up my mind," corrected her daughter. " That is made up already; but to wait ! two years !" "O !" An involuntary sigh of relief broke from the lady. It was certainly a long re spite. What might not happen in two years ? Such a match must never take place. What ! give her bright, joyous daughter, the belle of the town, courted by men of the best families and undoubted means, to a French adventurer ? And as she thought, a look of determination came into her face that boded ill for her daughter's peace. " Go now, Mignonette," she said more quietly, " and find May. Dinner must be getting quite cold." As the girl left the room, Mrs. Rainey turned and stood near the window.

Where were her thoughts ? They had gone back to a week before her wedding, when her husband, then her acknowledged suitor, but no lover, was speaking to her. " Mary !" he had said ; " our friends think the best thing we can do is to marry, so to please them we have agreed to join hands together ; my dear, you know how my heart has been buried in France all these years, in the grave of one of its daughters, so you must forgive me if I seem sometimes cold and distant. I know people think I am not half lover-like, but I told you all months ago, and you said you would overlook it, and if I was kind and true you would be content. Once more I ask you, before it is too late, if you would like to retract. I fancied I had seen a frown on your brow more than once when I was near you. Answer me ! Are you still willing to take me as I am?"

And she had said, " Yes." Again her thoughts took her to the birth of her second child. A boy had been wished for, but when it was only another little girl, Mrs. Rainey had asked her husband to choose a name for it. Hosv well she remembered the look in his eyes as he bent over her and whispered : " Let it be ' Mignonette.' " What a strange jealous thrill had seized her and she had consented coldly, reluctantly, for her heart felt sore that still that French love was remembered, and had not yet lost the power to stir his heart so strangely. Ah ! Mary Rainey, if you could have put aside that cold icy manner, tinged with a sense of injury at such a request, and instead, with a glad loving smile have laid your cheek to his, and murmured your pleasure at so being able to please him, your husband would have been won to you nearer henceforward.

But you let it slip, like many another ; you even showed your vexation by neglecting the child who bore the obnoxious name ! What wonder if you drifted further apart, and he died with the name of Mignonette on his lips, the attendants thinking it was his child who was his last thought, but you — you knew better, and ever since have felt an undying hatred for anything French, anything that reminded you of a hateful country which had stolen your husband's heart from you, and prevented his returning the love you really felt for him. All this was what passed before Mrs. Rainey as she stood there, tall, cold, hand some, waiting for her daughter's entrance. Let us lift the filmy lace that covers that full white breast, firm as marble 'and as cold, and read the consequences of such musings. " Mignonette shall never marry Francois de Mirasset, had he the wealth even of California.

Strive to coerce her I cannot ; she will never be driven. I will remain quiet, tacitly consenting, but when a good English suitor whom I approve appears on the scene, I will play my cards so as to insure success. All's fair in love and war, so Mignonette, my dear, daughter of your father, beware !" Poor little Mignonette, innocent and trusting, shall you be a match for your worldly, calculating mother ? We leave you to the care of heaven and your own true heart. The girls now entering, mother and daughters proceeded to the dining-room, and here we leave them to enjoy their somewhat spoiled repast, to say a few words as to who Frank de Mirasset was, his general status in the world, his qualities, etc. Captain Francois Louis de Mirasset (let us give him his name in full) was the only son of Baron Oscar de Mirasset, of noble lineage.

But alas ! preux chevalier as he was, the baron was addicted to one fault — that of gambling. Married to a beautiful, wealthy Englishwoman, the temptation to risk large sums at those terrible green tables was too great to resist, and by degrees the Baroness de Mirasset saw her once noble fortune melting away like wax exposed to the fire. As she saw the crash coming, she entreated her husband to let her son be sent home and brought up in England, dreading lest his father's example might not prove a snare to the son. The baron, after some difficulties, consented, and at the age of five years, the boy was sent home to his maternal relatives, and except for occasional visits to his parents, he rarely left them. When about ten years old, his French ties were greatly severed by the death of his mother, and the father, perhaps to lull his conscience which became rather obstreperous at this time, plunged deeper than ever in the insane infatuation of the gambling-table, till without a sou left, his own estate heavily mortgaged, he was obliged to accept the bare means of subsistence offered him by the rich brother to whom he had sent his son.

Frank himself learnt all this by degrees, and it is not to be wondered at if father and son were separated through the knowledge. The young man felt bitterly the fact, that heir as he might have been to a good estate and great wealth, through his father's improvidence he had been done out of it. It was to his English relatives that he was indebted for even his commission in the Buffs, and altogether his heart lay more in England than it did in France, and his love for Mignonette Rainey, whom he had met at a ball given by his regiment, wound his mother's country still more round it ; so though after all his destiny might settle him in France, Mrs. Rainey need not have feared a French bridegroom for her daughter. French he was in his courtesy, in his gentleness, in his chivalry, but there it ceased ; «his heart was English to the smallest particle, English in his true love, his strong, sturdy, independent nature, and above all, in his steady principles, for which alas ! his countrymen are not very famous.

Tall, strongly made, with a dark handsome beauty of his own, and a pleasant, friendly smile for every one ; he was much admired and liked by his fellow-officers, and many a girl envied Mignonette her admirer, penniless though they knew him to be. Such was the man to whom our heroine had given her heart. It remains to be seenwhether the trust was worthily fulfilled.

Chapter II

The scene opens in the very same villa our eyes last dwelt upon. The month is the same, the flowers are in the old luxuriant abundance, and the creepers and lichens seem thicker and more aspiring than ever. The only difference is that two years have passed, and that instead of grey evening shadows, enriched by a mellow sun-set, the sun is streaming down in all its morning glory into the little library at the back of the house. Sitting there at the open window, some delicate embroidery in her hands, but great starry eyes wandering away into the silent garden, is our little Mignonette, sweet, bonnie and winsome as ever, only there is an older, sadder look in the bright young face. The gay laugh, so constantly the harbinger of her approach, comes more rarely now, and the once restless, active young form so exuberant with life and health, is now more subdued and regulated in its movements.

Poor child, the last two years have been a constant trial. Not once has she heard directly or indirectly of Frank de Mirasset all that time, and yet her heart is as blindly trustful as the night when she let him take her to his heart and whisper of his love. There she sits in the little morning room, sweet with the scent of heliotrope and roses, which the soft south wind brings in on his wings from the hot tranquil garden, alive only with the pleasant hum of the golden-coated wasps and blue-crested bees. Presently down goes that pretence of work, and, the brilliant little face poised on her hand, she gazes out, a wistful expression stealing into her eyes — far past the smooth lawn with its radiant and fanciful parterres — past that great copper beech stretching its branches towards her — past the scented acacia, dropping white, honied blossoms at every gentle breath of wind — till they rest finally on the place where the amber branches of the laburnum mingle with the pale green of the willow.

A smile half parts the rich delicate lips. She has gone back to that night, nearly two years ago, when first Frank told of his love. A happy pensive light steals into the young face. Her dreams are evidently very sweet, very bright. Suddenly they are interrupted. " Mignonette here ! Why you were in your room I thought an instant ago. Bless 3—2 the child ! Mamma has been looking for you everywhere !" and May Rainey's voice had a slight asperity in it. Mignonette turned wearily towards her sister and half rose. " Does mamma want me, May ?" she asked quietly. "The old, old subject, I suppose ?" " Yes, of course, and if you were not such a little goose, everything might have been arranged happily long ago. I some times wonder," and the young lady con fronted her sister curiously, " I sometimes wonder whether you are more knave or fool !"

" Thank you," answered Mignonette shortly, " I trust I am neither." May shrugged her shoulders. " Well, when a girl can have riches, position, love showered at her feet and turns her back on all, one cannot but wonder O ! here's mamma," and that lady entered, calm, cold, handsome, as of yore, arrayed in an elegant morning wrapper, and her still luxuriant hair braided neatly under the very acme of Paris fashion in the way of a cap (by-the-bye, Mrs. Rainey had no objection to French modistes and French taste). Very stately and attractive did she look ; it was the state of a man-of war — the attractiveness of a floating ice berg. " I wish to speak to you, Mignonette. My dear," turning to her eldest delight, " would you object to leaving us for a while?" " " O, certainly not, mamma !" and that young lady sailed out of the room, tall, cold, handsome as her mother — but evidently a little reluctantly.