THE REFINER'S FIRE.

Evening Star, Issue 11452, 21 January 1901, Page 2

THE REFINER'S FIRE.

Bt Harold Child, Author pf ' Caught in the Toils,' ' The Beautiful Rohilla,'etc.,

WILL BE COMMENCED IN OUR COLUMNS ON WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23. A SKETCH OF THE STORY. A young man named Jocelyn has been ordered by his doctor to take a complete rest " far from the madding crowd." He bicycles into the country, and chance—and a punctured tyre—caused him to put up in a tiny out-of-the-way village named Ditchway. Jocelyn is a popular violinist, accustomed to the applause of the multitude and the gaiety of the cities, ro that he soon finds himself very, very bored in this dead-and-alive place where there are no attractions but the beauty of Nature. Yet somehow or other'the conviction seizes him that Fate has brought him to this place for some special purpose, though he is at a loss to discover what. One day he walks into the country and meets the village carrier, whoso horse and cart have broken down. The carrier has a parcel for Jocelyn, and asks him whether he will carry it home himself, thus saving him the journey. Jocelyn agrees, and finds that it is his violin which has been sent down by his man contrary to orders. With this new burden he continues his walk, and finds himself in a narrow lane leading up to a house surrounded with a high wall. Suddenly into the still ovening air comes the sound of singing. It is a woman's voice, magnificent in quality and full of an inexpressible pathos. She is singing an old and well-known song, the ' Braga Serenata,' but Jocelyn, who had heard all the prima donnas in Europe, knows that none of them could sing it like this. Only one thing is wanted, and that is a violin obligate With quick fingers he undoes his case, takes out. his violin, and strikes into the melody. There is a sudden pause in the singing and a cry, but then the song is taken up "again and delivered to the end. Jocelyn is "excited, and when the singing has ceased he plays a solo upon his.instrument, hoping for sume sign or acknowledgment from the house. But none comes, and he returns to his lodging disappointed and perplexed. He is impressed with the icfea that the voice belonged to an old fellow-student of his in the years gone by—a girl named Margaret Chesney, whom he" had lost sight of for'a long period. This idea is now strongly impresed upon him by a dream that night in which this Margaret Chesney seems to come to him and beckon him. The next morning he makes inquiries from his landladies—two maiden sisters—as to the occupants of the lonely house at-the end of the lane, but his questions are received by terrified words and looks. It appears that a murder had taken place in this house three years before, and since then it was supposed to be haunted by a Demon with a lovely voice. Nothing daunted by this information Jocelyn, who has a keen taste for adventure, proceeds to the house three nights running and sere-hades it with his violin in the most exquisite melodv of Which he is a master. On the third night a tall, grim-looking woman comes to him. and by sundry signs (for she appears to be deaf and dumb) make's him enter the house. She drags him up the stairs, flight after flight, and show him into a darkened room. Here he finds himself in the presence of a lady whom he presumes to be Margaret Chesney, but who denies that name, and demands to know the reason why he should plague her with his fiddling. In spite of her denial he is convinced that the girl before him is Margaret CheShey, and he tells her of his dreams in which she has appealed to him three times and implored his fiid. The lady is Btartled, but makes him promise to respect her privacy and to leave Ditchway the next day. This Jocelyn agrees to on condition that if the lady has any occasion for his services she will write to him.

A few days after his return to town he. receives a note in a woman's hand asking his help and signed " Braga Serenata." In great excitement Jocelyn hurries down to Ditchway, and goes once more to thejonely home. Here he again hears the lonely but melancholy singing of tile old tune, "but when he enters the house he is startled to'find the deaf and dumb woman prostrate- and unconscious in the passage. He tlieh ascends the stairs to the room from wliicn the lovely sounds of the ' Braga SeranatA' proceed, and he is furiously attacked by the singer, in whom he recognises his old acquaintance, Margaret Chesneys who is now a raving lunatic.

To tell mbfe of the plot would be unfair to tie story,, but the mystery icfeases in intensity and excitement, and the reader is held breathless utitit it is unravelled by the eager effort* 6i Jocelytt aftd the silent'working of Fate. It is a powerful story that grips one's interest from tart to finish.