Blanche A Story for Girls By Mrs Molesworth Illustrations by R. Barnes Published by W and R Chambers, Ltd, London and Edinburgh. Blanche, by Mrs Molesworth. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ BLANCHE, BY MRS MOLESWORTH. CHAPTER ONE. THE SUNNY SOUTH. About a quarter of a century ago, a young English girl--Anastasia Fenning by name--went to pay a visit of a few weeks to friends of her family, whose home was a comfortable old house in the pleasantest part of France. She had been somewhat delicate, and it was thought that the milder climate during a part of the winter might be advantageous to her. It proved so. A month or two saw her completely restored to her usual health and beauty, for she was a very pretty girl; and, strange to say, the visit of a few weeks ended in a sojourn of fully twenty years in what came to be her adopted country, without any return during that long stretch of time to her own home, or indeed to England at all. This was how it came about. The eldest son--or rather grandson of her hosts, for he was an orphan--Henry Derwent, fell in love with the pretty and attractive girl, and she returned his affection. There was no objection to the marriage, for the Derwents and Fennings were friends of more than a generation's standing. And Henry's prospects were good, as he was already second in command to old Mr Derwent himself, the head of the large and well-established firm of Derwent and Paulmier, wine merchants and vine-growers; and Anastasia, the only daughter of a widowed country parson of fair private means, would have a "dot" which the Derwents, even taking into account their semi-French ideas on such subjects, thought satisfactory. Mr Fenning gave his consent, more readily than his friends and his daughter had expected, for he was a devoted, almost an adoring father, and the separation from him was the one drawback in Anastasia's eyes. "I thought papa would have been broken-hearted at the thought of parting with me," she said half poutingly, for she was a trifle spoilt, when the anxiously looked for letter had been received and read. "He takes it very philosophically." "Very unselfishly, let us say," her _fiance_ replied, though in his secret heart the same thought had struck him. But the enigma was only too speedily explained. Within a day or two of the arrival of her father's almost perplexingly glad consent came a telegram to Mr Derwent, as speedily as possible followed by a letter written at his request by the friend and neighbour who had been with Mr Fenning at the last. For Anastasia's father was dead--had died after but an hour or two's acute illness, though he had known for long that in some such guise the end must come.