The Senator's Favorite

Coolly facing angry little Ladybird, she exclaimed:

"You need not call ugly names, nor look so angry, Ladybird, for it is not my fault that you have been reported married. Papa had his own reasons, I suppose, for telling it, and for instructing me to say so. Of course he did not expect that any one would come to inquire after you, as your father left you a pauper on our hands."

No one was paying any attention to her words, for the hapless orphan girl had been in turn kissed and caressed by Mrs. Winans and her daughters while she was speaking.

"Oh, Ladybird, you must come home with us, and be my dear sister!" cried Precious tenderly.

"And my dear daughter," added her mother.

The burning tears rushed to Ladybird's eyes as she cried gratefully:

"Oh, how happy I shall be to go with you, for I am tired of being Mrs. Stanley's waiting-maid, with my dependence thrown up to me every hour."

Aura's face crimsoned with anger as she retorted:

"You could not expect papa to support you like a fine lady. You have no claim on him!"

The calm, refined Mrs. Winans turned to her and said courteously:

"What you have said is quite true, Miss Stanley. Ladybird has no claim on your father's care, but you will no doubt be glad to hear that she has claims on others. Her mother was my dearest friend, and as such I feel a maternal interest in her orphan daughter. Ladybird need not remain dependent on Mr. Stanley a moment longer. She shall return with me to my home at once, and take her place as my adopted daughter."

It seemed to Aura a wonder that she did not fall down dead of pure anger and chagrin at those tender words from the beautiful Mrs. Winans.

She gasped for breath and stood silent for a moment, furious with rage so wild that she would have liked to have struck pretty, triumphant Ladybird, nestling so close to the gentle lady who had been her mother's dear friend, and was now taking the daughter's part in this noble fashion.

What could she say, what could she do to circumvent their plans for her defeat?

She remained so quiet that Mrs. Winans added:

"We have already outstayed the limit of a first call, so get ready at once, dear, and come home with us."

Then Aura found voice:

"I beg your pardon, madam; but are you not overstepping the bounds of your authority? Miss Conway is my father's ward until she comes of age, and I do not believe he will permit any high-handed measures such as you propose in taking her from his guardianship. At present I represent my father in forbidding Ladybird to leave the house!"

She looked belligerent enough to defy them if necessary, and after a moment's thought Mrs. Winans quietly conceded her present authority. Kissing Ladybird tenderly she bade her be of good cheer, as she would send her husband at once to arrange matters with Mr. Stanley. Taking a frigid leave of Aura she withdrew with her daughters.

Senator Winans was quickly apprised of the startling denouement of the call on Miss Stanley.

"So our little Ladybird is not married at all! I always half-doubted that story, but there is something very strange in this prevarication and concealment," he said thoughtfully.

"Then, dearest, you will go at once to see Mr. Stanley, for I cannot rest until I have that poor, unhappy child under my protection," cried his wife, the tears breaking forth at memory of Ladybird's black dress and pathetic face.

"I shall go at once," he replied, and when he had kissed her and hurried away she sat down to write a letter to Earle, who was lingering in the South with a party of friends.

She knew intuitively that her boy's heart was very sore over the supposed marriage of Ladybird, and would not delay the glad tidings that his capricious little sweetheart was still free. What joy it would carry to him, and perhaps hasten his return!

But when the senator returned Mrs. Winans saw at once that his efforts had been in vain.

"I have failed," he said sadly.

"Failed! Oh, Paul!"

"Mr. Stanley refuses to give up Ladybird. By her father's will, he is her guardian until she marries or reaches the age of twenty. He has the law on his side, and we seem powerless. But do not sob so bitterly, my darling, for we will try to find some way to rescue our imprisoned bird."

CHAPTER XXXII.

THE NUN AT THE BAL MASQUE

"Is it true that many hands
Find that rosary a chain?
True that 'neath those snowy bands
Throbs full oft a restless brain?
True that simple robe of gray
Covers oft a troubled breast?
True that pain and passion's sway
Enters even in this rest?"

    —Mary Lowe Dickinson.

Mrs. Winans hoped great things from her letter to Earle.

She believed that his love for Ladybird would solve the problem of all difficulties that hedged the young girl's future.

Lawyer Stanley had told Senator Winans that his authority over his ward would cease at her marriage, or on her attaining the age of twenty. In the former clause there appeared the one possibility of escape from the clutches of her unkind guardian.

"If she and Earle could only make up their quarrel all might end well," she thought, with all the complacency of a match-making mamma.

Three days after her call on the Stanleys the post brought her a letter from Ladybird that she welcomed with delight, because she foresaw that it would make her plans easier in every way.

Ladybird had written in a burst of tenderness and penitence:

"They will not let me come to you, nor write to you, my kind, kind friend; but I have bribed a servant to mail this letter to you.

"You are too good and kind to me, dear Mrs. Winans, for you surely cannot know how dreadfully I behaved to your son, or you would not wish me to live under the same roof with him. You would despise me as much as he does if you knew how silly I am, and that I threw his love away just to show my power over a dozen grinning idiots that I disliked in my heart. I was a wicked little flirt, so happy and careless that I did not know how badly I was behaving until Earle's scorn stung me into a realization of the truth. Now I repent, but it is too late. I know he can never forgive me, so how could I dare become an inmate of your home? I know that the sight of me would be hateful to him, perhaps drive him from his home.

"I have thought it all over and decided that it is best to stay where I am, although these people are harsh and unloving. But, after all the past, it would not be right for me to come to you. Though I adore you all, I am rightly punished for my faults by being forced to remain here. So leave me to my fate, and trouble yourself no more over the misfortunes of unhappy

    Ladybird."

Perhaps it was treason to her impulsive young correspondent, but when Earle arrived the next day Mamma Winans lost no time in showing him the letter.

When she saw the glow of joy in his dark eyes she knew that her boy's love was still faithful to his willful little sweetheart, who had suffered so much for her girl's romance.

"You will forgive her, Earle?" she cried anxiously, and his smile answered her without word.

"Darling, I knew you would!" she cried joyously, running her slender fingers through his crown of dark curls and bending his head back against her arm to kiss the noble white brow. Then they talked together over the possibility of seeing Ladybird. They agreed that it must be done by strategy. There would be no use to write to her, for the jealous Aura would be sure to intercept the letter.