Punch (44.1863)

MOKEANNA;

©r, Efje OTfjtte OTttrtrss.

LONDON: FEBRUARY 28, 1863.

[the white witness back-hairs the lady bettina.]

MOKEANNA;

OR, THE WHITE WITNESS.

A TALE OF THE TIMES.

Dramatically divided into Parts, by tbe Author of
“ Matringa, ” “'Ollow ’Arts,” “ Geronimo the
Gipsy,” “ The Dark Girl,” “ Dustman of Destiny,”

&c. &c.

PART IV.—THE DRESS CIRCLE.

(The First Tear.)

CHAP. I.

“ The Secret! Ha !

The Secret ! Ho ! "

N. O. More.

An old old house was Galton Grange, built in
the palmy days of Gothic Architecture by Sir
Christopher Wren, by whom it was presented'to
Henry the Eighth, and its present owner, Sir
Lionel Fitz Martin, boasted that it had been for
sixteen centuries in the possession of the Barons of
Galton.

Luxuriant poplars swept the avenue, leading up
to the house, with their trailing branches.

Sir Lionel’s carriage was at the door.

“ Farewell, mia Bettina,” he said, pressing his
wife to his heart. “ I shall come back when I
return.”

“ 1 doubt thee not, Lionel,” was his weeping
lady’s reply, and the coachman, having fervently
embraced the calm but emotional butler, ascended
to his seat in the rumble, and the vehicle was soou
lost to view.

The clock struck eleven.

“ One hour to midnight,” she said to herself.

Two girlish figures, each dressed in a cul de sac,
approached.

“ Mamma,” they cried, “ Will you not trust us
now ? ”

“ I will,” replied Lady Bettina. “ Come, Agne-
sia; come, Evelina.” They entered the Brown
Study.

“ Listen,” said the Lady Bettina, “ to my Secret.
Before I married Sir Lionel, I was young and
lovely.”

The lid of Agnesia’s lovely eye trembled as she
looked towards her sister. Evelina, a proficient in the
French tongue, murmured “gammong” iuher ear.

Without noticing their emotion, their mother
proceeded.

“ I wedded one William Barlow, a man beneath
my station in life. Seized with an original idea
that my rich brother did not need his money, I
induced' Barlow to—to— ” she faltered.

Agnesia quickly passed her delicate hand from
one lobe of her exquisitely moulded ear to the other.

“ Yes,” continued Lad}' Bettina, reassured by
her offspring’s sympathy. “The property became
mine. William Barlow, however, was obliged to
fly the country. A warrant was out against him,
and in his absence, he was arraigned, prosecuted,
found guilty—”

“Sentenced?” inquired Evelina, leaning for-
ward.

“ Aye, and such is the vaunted Justice of
English Law—Executed !” *

* The reader, though accurately acquainted with the
intricate subtleties of Legal proceedings, will perhaps
question this assertion of her ladyship. The authoi
would remind such an one that the speech is put into
the mouth of a lady of rank, who could not be aufait

A groan of horror hurst from their pale lips, and
Lady Bettina hid her face in a variegated bandanna.

“ Sometime after this,” Lady Bettina went on,
“I married Sir Lionel, who yesterday informed me
that his wife was still living. He lias gone away
to seek her. I hope soon to have tidings of her
decease.”

“Mamma,” said Agnesia, “we too have some-
what to confide to you. Are you strong enough co
bear it ? ”

Lady Bettina filled up a silver goblet with spark-
ling eau de vie, and drank it off' at one draught.

“ I am ready.”

“ We,” began Agnesia, “are—”

“ Break it gently,” remonstrated Lady Evelina.

“ I will,” returned her sister. “ Mamma, we
are not your daughters'’

“ I suspected as much,” murmured the Countess.

The two children slowly left the room, and
restraining their feelings, sought their respective
and very downy couches.

CHAP. II.

“ A Light ! a Light! ”

Burns.

Slowly from beneath the oaken table, covered
with elegant clievaux de frise, rose a tall form sur-
mounted by a white crest.

The Lady Bettina started.

“ Dear me l”

He removed the chapeau blanc from his head.

“It is-”

at the puzzling technicalities of Law, and who is sup-
posed to repeat only what she has heard, as will be seen
by the sequel.