LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 133, 3 November 1874, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE PITY OF IT. {From Temple Bar.) |" Concluded.] ' It was never my way to resist temptation, you knew. But, thank God! I was man enough to wrestle -with and overcome this devil-begotten one. ' Breaking the silence which had decided the issue of a fateful conflict, she said, in that thrilling voice of hers, ' Algy, you had better go and look for a night's lodging at the farmhouse over the way, and I shall make good my quarters here.' ' I rose, and at once said a short and cold ' Good-night.' When we met next morning, the cheery light disposed us to smile [over the misadventure of yesterday. But all such smiling was quenched soon enough; for when Millicent arrived at her home, she found that her father also had arrived unexpectedly the night before. ' In is [sternest voice he called J her into the library. ' Wretched girl !' he commenced. ' ' Father, hear me;' ' ]S T o, the hard old brute refused to listen. ''You left this house yesterday to join Captain Seyton ; you have been away all night with liim.' 'She shuddered, and again essayed to speak. '' Do not attempt to deny it!' he thundered, in his rage. ' You were recognised at Richmond by a friend of my own. Millicent Delorme ! I forbid you to remain another hour under my roof. Go back to the lover for whom you have disgraced name and fame !' " She needed no second bidding ; her blood boiled with the sense of injustice done her. She might no longer order the carriage, but she, with her maid and her other belongings, very speedily drove off in a cab to Lady Brabazon's. Of course Lady B. believed the poor girl's tale of innocent misadventure; as who would not, looking into eyes too proud to lie? But the fieriest part of the ordeal was to come. ' Two days after Miss Delorme found a shelter with Lady Brabazon came the Duchess of 's garden-party. On the best-to-brave-it-out principle, Lady Brabazon insisted on Millicent accompanying her to the fete. She went. Every woman of note there cut her dead, Most of them had long owed her a grudge for her youth and wit and beauty, and now they revenged themselves, as is the way of the sex; but, Avorst of all, the men treated her with an odious familiarity which was gall and wormwood to her soul. Poor girl! running the gauntlet was nothing to it. From that day she steadfastly refused to enter society. 'And what became of me all this time? you ask. Well, when I got back to town thajfc eventful day, I found the affair was already club-talk. The best men seemed to avoid me ; on all sides I heard mutterings of D d shame !' —Pleasant, very ! 'Oh ! if 1 could but have laid hands on the sneaking rascal who had blown on us. By God ! I'd have murdered him ? 'Shortly after this old Delorme died suddenly, but not before he had taken his daughter back to his trust and affection. And Milly took up her abode, en permanence, with Lady Brabazon. ' By a clause in the General's will, Miss Delorme forfeited every farthing of her portion in the event of her marrying me. And for an utterly impecunious wretch like Algernon Seyton to enter the bonds of holy matrimony would only double misery. I could rough it anyhow, but to ask a deli-cately-nutured woman to cast in her lot with my wretched one was not to be thought of. At last—at last! we had overtaken the dark future we refused to look at in our hour of sunshine. ' Nothing was left me but to say farewell, and go. I saw Lady Brabazon, who told me much that I have told you, but I could not trust myself to see Milly again. That never-to-be-forgotten day at Richmond was my last glimpse of paradise. ' I sold out and went abroad, and have been roving ever since. I have gone in for all sorts of excitement—reckless play, heavy wines, steeplechasing, and all the |rest of it —but for her sake my lips have remained sacred to the memory of the last pure kiss she laid on them. No alien kisses have overlaid that one to sully it. And now, Brooke, that I have come almost to the extreme edge of my reckless wasted life (for which God forgive me !), I ask you to give this locket into her own hands, after my death, and tell her I have been as loyal and true to the memory of our love as she has been—God bless her ?' I promised to obey his behest. My reflections over this episode in the life of the woman I loved, but who did not love me, were not untinged with bitterness. For what was this man that Millicent Delorme had, after the manner of women, exalted on a pedestal, as a god to worship? What but a mere white-handed sybarite, who, rather than encounter increased and perhaps imaginary hardships in a battle for two, had fled from his love. And yet, even while he forsook her, I believe she loved him still. Who can read the riddle of a woman's heart? My watch by Seyton was not Ion". When the year was but young he died, t saw the

poor fellow laid in his last resting-place, and set sail for England. On my arrival in London I presented myself at Lady Brabazon's. Both ladies greeted me sufficiently cordially. After looking at me steadily for a second or two, Miss Delorme said, ' You have bad news, Mr Brooke?' 1 silently placed the locket in her hand. 'Algernon Seyton,' she said, 'gone!— dead?' I bowed my head. With an anguishwrung face she passed from the room. Clod help her! ' Poor Algy !' said Lady Brabazon, much moved; 'he was the most loveable, the most beautiful, the most recklessly impulsive man I ever came across, and he spoilt two lives—he spoilt two lives !' I took my leave, and wrote Miss Delorme a detailed account of Algy's last days. The man who renews his suit when he is certain of being rejected is a fool. I never renewed'mine. But, after much wandering, I determined to fulfil my obligations as a lord of the soil, the which I do to the satisfaction of my conscience and the county. No woman holds, or ever will hold, the reins of domestic government at Brookcotes. lam content to let well alone.