Margie's venture

by Mary E. Ropes

HALF-SISTERS.

MARGIE had letters from home regularly every week, and was eager for the news as any schoolgirl, and of late there had been several matters of more importance than usual.

At Monkston Manor there had been a very gay time indeed, for the house had been full of staying company, and all sorts of parties were given by way of entertainment. To these parties, of course, the Graylings were all and always invited, and Fay especially wrote in raptures of the "lovely time" they were having.

Lettie wrote too, and she mentioned something that Fay had carefully omitted, namely, that Howard Logan, a nephew of Sir Peter, a very good-looking but reckless and headstrong young fellow of about three-and-twenty, was apparently much smitten with Fay's youthful charms, and was paying her a good deal of attention, which flattered the young lady not a little.

"There's no harm in having a little fun if one is engaged," Fay was reported to have said. Harry was far away. It could not hurt him, and she would only just amuse herself a wee bit. Untrue to Harry of course she could never, near be; but she would seem silly, indeed, to shut herself up and have no pleasures just because she was engaged to be married. Harry surely could not be so exacting as to wish it.

So she amused herself very well with Howard Logan; so well, indeed, that her engagement to him was commonly reported. It was not true, of course, but there was little doubt in Margie's mind that her young sister had behaved very wrongly towards both men who loved her; and for Harry's sake especially—good, true-hearted, dear Harry—she felt indignant, and wrote Fay a warm letter of protest, receiving in reply a note which briefly told her to mind her own business and not meddle.

As for Mattie, she was in her element at Monkston Manor. Her talent for organising and managing, for arranging and entertaining, made her an ideal housekeeper, and the handsome salary Sir Peter gave her, enabled her to dress as became the lady hostess. Indeed, Lettie wrote that when Mattie was dressed for the evening, and had a nice colour in her cheeks, she was almost handsome.

Margie was glad to think that her old suitor, Sir Peter, had become, at last, aware of the hopelessness of his wishes to obtain her (Margie) for his bride; and she hoped that, seeing how remarkably well Mattie did the honours of his home, how reliable and high-principled she was, and how she seemed to have fallen, quite naturally and easily, into her position of lady of the house, Sir Peter would transfer his affections to the elder sister, who was more suited to him in years, and who really would make in many ways as good a wife to an old man as he could desire.

Altogether, home affairs seemed to be in a satisfactory condition, except as regarded Fay, and Fay would allow nobody to say a word to her, and showed herself in a new character—one which hitherto had been quite unsuspected by any one. Margie had always told herself that she loved Harry Mayne as a dear brother, and she felt that she was well within her duties and privileges as sister, if she strongly resented his being badly treated by any one. She felt as if somehow she were responsible for Fay's good faith, and she was bitterly ashamed that the girl whom Harry loved, and who had confessed her love for him in return, should be suspected—with more or less reason—of disloyalty to one so whole-hearted and true as Harry.

Poor Margie's heart, very full of grief and indignation for Harry's sake, must have shown itself in her face one day when she took a message from Mrs. Beach to the invalid, Clara Raye, between whom and herself a warm friendship had sprung up.