LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 155, 2 December 1874, Page 3

LITERATURE.

"DOLLY." A Story oe the Loxdon* "Sans-Souci." [From JJclgravia,] (Continued.") " My Dolly appears with a smile on her face." Charlotte Temple. And she begun to dress smarter, and rings came in her ears and on her lingers—poor little bits of brass and painted glass from the swectstuff-shop. Somehow we wasn't so much surprised when Mrs Forest told us that her Dolly was studyin' to be a tellygraphical female clerk, which there was talk of the Government going to buy them up, and so Dolly had a prospect of entering the Civil Service ! We thought that grand, I do assure you, sir; and we wouldn't have given thanks to any one who had counted down to Dolly Forest a hundred golden guineas to forego her expectation. So Mrs Forest and her daughter left the mews. Without that gel itgotdownrightmiserable, and no news come of them, an' we shifted our lodgings too, and so we never heerd talk of Dolly and her mother.

It must have been a matter of two year arter that, when I had a curious customer. He was a furriner—an Italian, I should say—pertickler for having nine-and-twenty yards of woollen comforter wound round his neck. It had been raining, that day ; and when we got to Her Majesty's, the water was pouring down the Haymarket under the columnade like a sewer; and my customer wouldn't get out—no fool, he ! It was dark, and the people had gone into the opera; but he hadn't come for that, for he was at the stage door. Under the lamp in the archway he wrote on a card and told me to take it in. «Go up to the garret ?' says I, not understanding his English. 'Tothe Jarrett—Mister Jarrett,'said he, spelling out the name, and making things less clear. It appears Mr Jarrett was the manager s name there. Well, I don't think there's anything more like playing at April fool than behind the scenes at a big theayter. The porter wouldn't leave his chair; he didn't know where Mr Jarrett was. Then the policeman had seen Mr Jarrett's secretary an hour before, as if that was any good tome. Then some one, coming out, thought I couldn't do better than go in ; and a sceneshifter offered to p'int me out a door on my Way. He passed me off on another carpenter, and he transferred me to another, and before long, like a conspiracy, there I was left by a pack of them, every one pointing in different directions to the manager's room. And there I stood, like a balky horse, in a badly-lighted, wind-whistling wooden passage, made of scenery, a-thinking that a trap would open at my feet, and I'd go into the wine-cellar in a name of blue fire. Thinks I, if my horse starts down to Charing cross with that furriner in the cab, I shall have a bitter night's work of it. Just then, I heerd a bust of laughter, and a cloud of white and pink sailed down upon me. It was a flock of them dancing girls, come from, going to, Lor' knows where ! I squeezed agin the wall, and hoped they would flout me by ; and they only clustered round and set to laughing worse than ever. And I felt just a bigger fool than before. 'Why, it's Mr Travers!' says one of the gels. Ting-a-ting, a-ting! rang a bell, and they all cut for it like the rats when the dog's dropped into the pit, and were out of sight before I could say ' Go !' That was Dolly ! If she had changed her voice, I hadn't nave known her. Prettier than ever! Me an' my missus was a long time gettin' over that. And when she went out she always asked after the Forests ; and one day she met somebody who knew them. The old woman was a-bed with her complaint, not to be up any more, and that little gel was working all day in some shop, and all night in the bally, and the rest of the time mtssing her mother. I was putting money by to own my own cab, the hoss being mine already, and things wasn't brisk ; but I turns to the missus, and I says, ' Harriett, old gal, jest reach me down the old macaboy jar, will yer! An' run into Douglas's, and see if he'll take out my cab to-day ; and put on your things when you come back, for ' She twigged what was in my mind ; and the first thing I was aweer on was her pair o' arms round my neck and my coat-collar shiny with tears. ' Bless you for a good man, Sam,' says she, beginning to cry like old boots, and pulling a shawl on at the same time ; ' I Avas going to think we'd oughter go sec Mrs Forest and Dolly, when you said, ' Give me the jar with the savin's !'' That's the sort she is ! Dolly and her mother lived near Red Lion square, where we was in an hour. Too late for one thing ! When we knocked at Mrs Forest's door, out o' breath with climbing the ricketty stairs, Dolly opened it. She was all alone in the room, and wearing black. That cut me hard, particklerly hard, I do assure you, sir, to see her with a black ribbon in her beautiful long hair, and a black frock on and black stockings, when as it might be the night afore she had laughed at me out of a heap of snowy muslin flounces and rosy ribbons. They was a set of stony-hearted brutes in that house, and had left that young gel to watch and nuss and bury her mother all alone, or next to it. To watch her mother at the last she neglected of her theayter duties, and what money she had to find was by selling their clothes and Dolly's little two-and sixpenny trinkets. If the doctor hadn't been good to 'em —an' most of them doctors is kind—and sent her things more r a the eating line than physic, that gel might have been laid of a broken heart or stCarved beside her mother. I don't believe there was the v?'ji ev 0 f a penny-piece in the place belonging to poor little Dolly—for the mourning-d j. esa 0 f ] aer3 was secondhand, and dear a+j sixpence at first. And sitting alone in a, haunted room, with no other employment than weeping of your eyes out, that aren't, profitable nohow you take it. Twelve pound goes a long way in my missus's hands. She !aad them things out of the pop-shop bang 1 She had tea, sugar, and bread in like a flash, and coals and a bit of bacon and a hegg or two. t While I was staring at Dolly, and wondering that so many teajs had not dulled her lovely eyes, Mrs Travers had the cloth laid—being a newspaper—and the table set, and we three was sitting down to a magnificent breakfast, as snug as the butcher's wife in the shop-parlor. When we was at the height of the bankwet, in walked a tall, good-looking, boldheaded young woman, with overmuch Lowther-arcade jewelry jingling about her to my taste. It appears she had been dancing at the opera with Dolly. She was wery plausible, and the way she said it did not make us then see what a sneak she was, when /she begun apologising for not seeing Dolly before and paying her back five shillings she had borrered, which she couldn't return now neither, because she was out of an engagement. 'AH right, my girl,' thought I, and the identical same idea struck Mrs T. ; ' if you'd let this poor girl starve for the want of money you took from her, while you are heavy with rings and brooches, the sooner she finds you another five shillings to keep away from her the better for her.'

I wish I had said it; but she smirked and winked over her teacup at mo so smartly, and handled my name so pat, that I fidgeted in my caair like Freacii 'tatera over the fire.

And when we proposed to take Dolly along home with us, and never dreamed of an objection—and none did come from the orphan—blest if that new girl didn't put a stopper on it! How ever did she make it seem best for Dolly to go share her room and halve her rent —leastways, we was to find the money till Dolly got some't to do—l don't know, and my wife is in the same fog. But she conwinced us, though I don't remember her argyments. That's a remarkable fact, sir ; whenever an honest man conwinces yer, you don't forget the grounds he went on ; but when it's a ' sharp' who twists your opinion, you never know how he tricked yer. So we let ourselves be persuaded, and Dolly, with all her debts paid like a little princess, and a kipple o' sufferin's in her little puss, and a promise to come see us for more if wanted, was left with that other gel. She never come to see us, sir. Next time I set eyes on her it was this way. A match-boy called me to the Sans-Souci Palace stage-door. You know what the Sans-Souci used to be, sir? The cellybratedest music-hall in the world—the ornyment of Cafe-square. With a million gaslights, shoals of women in silks and satins, beautiful bands, and a thousand dancinggirls. It ain't what it used to be, Ido assure you, sir. No sooner had I got round than in popped a gent and a young lady—one of the dancers, I know'd, for such was her 'urry to get away, she hadn't unrigged her hair properly for the street. Jest as I was gathering up the reins, another man on the kerb leant over and shoved something into my hand, and whispers quick : ' For the lady, unbeknownt.' I twigged, that not bein' anything new. And when we were fairly out of the ruck, I took a squint at the paper. It was an envelope doubled round a sovereign, and something hard and holler, like a ring inside. The direction was plain on it; but—now perhaps the same thing has happened to you, sir ? I saw the letters plain, and yet never did the idea strike me that was naterally coupled with that writing. We wasn't long before we stopped in Soho. All the blinds drawn, and two pianners a-goin' it like mad in the droring-room and parlours of that house. I jumped down like a boy, and while the gentleman knocked at the door, I handed the stranger's message to the lady. The moment she seed my face by the gaslight she opened her mouth with a little screech. 'Lor,' Mr Travers, 'what a start you give me !' says she. The letter said, ' Miss Forest;' and I hadn't known it was her ! There wasn't time for a word. It isn't to reason that, with a swell beside her, I'd 'a' shamed her by letting on we were old acquaintances,—is it, sir ? She went in ; but in the doorway she turned with a look ; and if there was a creature that night that went through that accursed door with a heavier heart, heaven be good to her ! I didn't tell the missis of that—l couldn't; and though that give me a sick'ner for crawling round Cafe square, ten to one that's where I was night after night. Well, time drove on. Going on Christmas, the Sans-Souci tried! a new dodge—the last fancy-dress ball tliat 1 know of. They took the opera-house, not to interfere with their own place. I had two short fares from the Sans-Souci that night, and twelve was striking from the French church when I come back ; for the ballet, girls were all going to the ball after their performance ; so we cabs were in plenty in that dirty little slushy back alley bv the stage-door. As luck took its fancy that night, my cab was drew up for two awful swells and Dolly —Dolly to get in. I hardly kr iew her, she was dressed that stunning— a lady in the land finer— and jewels thick « upon her. There was a sparkle of diamond?, the real article —down to the very br ac 'ki e s j n h er little shoes. She was a pirj ur > i I stared like a stuck horse with the staggers. She saw me, and mils t have taken my look for a bitter reprop jC h ; for her jaw dropped, and then her fac, turned pale and red through the white on lier cheeks ; not that she had any need of paint and flour—so young and fair ! that -was naturally rosy white. To "be continued.

T'ne safety of the members of the Austrian A\ctic Expedition, with one exception only, nas occasioned great joy. In passing through Norway, Sweden, and Hamburg, they were welcomed back by enthusiastic crowds, by fireworks, and illuminations. At Hamburg, after feting Captain Weisprecht, he gave a detailed account of the expedition, at the sitting of the Geographic Society. Passing on to Vienna, the explorers had a cordial reception from all classes, who vied in doing them honor. The two leaders have been decorated by the Emperor. They have dis] covered a remarkable region, and prepara tions are already commenced to send a fresh expedition next summer, to ascertain whether the newly discovered land is a continent or an island. "A few items of news," says the Pall Mall Gazette of September 18th, "have come to hand from Ashantee and the West Coast of Africa. There was a rumor that King Coffee would be deposed. His mother, it is stated, had turned against him. Lees had not returned from his mission to Coomassie, and no definite time was r aen . tioned for his return. The health of Cape Coast is reported to be good, and that of Accra improving. On the 14th of August a great fire broke out in the'nati- ?e town 0 f Bonny, and destroyed about ha' the place the houses of Oko Jumbo and o t}ier native' chiefs narrowly escaping. Tyhen morning broke a few smoking einbe r 8 were all that was left of the most cro <SV(ied half of t he town." The AtJienmum of Oct' ober 3rd has the fol . lowing :—« Ever sine . its appearance there have been numexoor j rep orts afloat as to the authorship of the anonymous work called Supernatural! tim g { im . Many people at first said the writer- r /aa Dr Thirlwall ; but one or two oleugyw en> w jth that readiness that the clergy uar -ally display to help a bishop, rushed, at oar 6| into prmt in the columns of the QwmMe >h and denied the imputation, we, ouirseiT /eSj were i e d t 0 believe, on what seemed vac , st excellent authority, that Dr Mmr ma deserted the safe paths of Sanskrit for the thorny ways of heresy. A correspond' however, now assures us that he aut Qor 0 f tk e redoubtable volumes is Dr Yanc,f . g m ith,"