LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2702, 5 December 1882, Page 4

LITERATURE.

YIEGINIA; OR, FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH. *Heis a very strange mixture.’ ‘ I really do not think you ought to ask him to the house. An atheist, a man of disreputable life, a ’ * Come, come, my dear, don’t give him such a character, before Virginia.’ This fragment of dialogue takes place over a cheery breakfast table in a house not very far from Park lane. The first speaker is a pleasant looking man of between fifty and sixty, and his interlocutor is rather a prim lady, who appears older, but is, in reality, his junior by two years. They are Mr Hamilton Hayward and his sister Miss Susan. The party has a third member —the Virginia alluded to by Mi - Hayward. She is tall, handsome, bright-looking; evidently she possesses character, but with it the grace and charm of manner which prevents a woman of character from falling into that disagreeable being,astrong-minded woman. * What are Mr Vansittart s good points ?’ she says, smiling at her uncle. ‘He has the kindest heart in the world, Mr Hayward replies warmly, ‘ and he -would never do a shabby thing. One of the few men who really practise not letting their left hand know the good their right does. He certainly is a looseish fish ; but he does not parade his irregularities before the world—the world need not know anything about them if it does not insist in prying into his affairs. The greatest grudge women have against him is that he is mortally opposed to marriage, and carries on a crusade against it as though he were St. George, and matrimony the dragon. He says if you want to make two people hate each other who would otherwise be disposed to love—■’ * Hush ! my dear Hamilton,’ cries Miss Susan, horrified; * pray spare us a repetition of Mr Vansittart’s iniquitous opinions 1’ * I suppose,’ laughs Virginia, ‘ that women don’t insist on marrying him by force, do they, uncle ?’ * A great many would be very glad to have him,’ rejoins Mr Hamilton; ‘he is a tremendously taking fellow.’ * And you have really asked him to dinner ?’ interposes Miss Susan. * I have indeed, my dear, and I had a good deal of difficulty in persuading him to come. He persisted that he went so little into society—into ladies’ society.* Miss Susan gives a little snort. * He has no right to go into it at all with the views he holds; and, pray, whom is ho to take in to dinner ?’

‘ Mrs Ashton, I thought,’ answers Mr TTaTniltoTi ; * I am afraid he would bo bored ■with an unmarried lady.’ * When I was young,’ says Miss Susan, Bridling, ‘ married women were as modest and as particular in their conversation as unmarried ones.”

* Ah !’ observes her brother drily. ‘Uncle/ cries Virginia; ‘let him take me. If he is original, I shall bo sure to like him; and as I don’t intend to marry, lie need not be afraid of my having designs on him. I shall give him a hint ■whilst he is eating his soup that I have made a vow to remain always single/ ‘ Virginia !’ remonstrates Miss Susan ; ‘ and you know Sir Harry Hotspur is to take you/ ‘ No, no/ cries Virginia, ‘ he bores me to distraction. Besides,’ laughing, ‘he ‘ goes for married women/ Lot him have Mrs Ashton, and give me Mr Vansittart/ Miss Susan has one virtue, which is, that she is never quite so shocked as she pretends to be. Moreover, Virginia always gets her way with both uncle and aunt. So when the evening of the dinner party arrives, Mr Hayward brings Mr Vansittart up to his niece and introduces him. Whilst lie is uttering a few of those common places which must inevitably be the precursors of even the most interesting conversation between two strangers, Virginia Is taking an inventory of him. At the same moment he is saying to himself—

‘ What sort of woman is this, and what on earth shall I talk to her about ? I hope to heaven she isn’t a girl of the period. She doesn’t look like it—still less like a prude. How I hate society dinners. I suppose I shall be bored to death, as usual/

True to her promise, Virginia apprises him, whilst he is yet assimilating his soup, of her vow of celibacy. He turns to look at her, being just a shade surprised at receiving such a confidence so early in their acquaintance, and then he sees the archest smile curving in the corners of her mouth, and meets a glance from a pair of brown eyes that he now perceives to bo beautiful. Mr Vansittart has a quick intelligence—he understands in an instant the object of her remark. His eyes light up with a sudden gleam, and he murmurs quietly—- * Thanks, so much for putting mo at my ©aso.’

Prom that moment they are perfectly at home with each other, and fall to animated talk. He does not air his theories about ■marriage, nor is religion discussed between them, but there are plenty of other topics, and they become aware of a dozen feelings and sympathies in common. Virginia is as bright and witty as she is modest and pure-minded; there is nothing in the -world that Mr Vansittart detests so much as a coarse or immodest lady. So charmed is he with Virginia that he remains close to her side the whole evening, to the surprise of everyone else. No one ever saw him devote himself to a girl before. He stays until the very last. As he walks away from the door, after lighting his cigar, he reflects to himself—- ‘ If any earthly power could induce me to marry, it would be a girl like that. But, resolutely, ‘nothing could.’ As Virginia wends her way upstairs to bed, she says to herself with a heavy sigh —•* Why should he abuse marriage ?. How happy he might make some woman !’ Virginia'is the daughter of a clergyman. Father and mother are both dead. She bias -a brother in the army, and a sister married to a country rector. Her uncle, Mr Hayward, has adopted her. She is clever and accomplished. She has both passion and imagination. Some of her ideas are original, she hates commonplaceness ; but she is also imbued with the attribute possessed by every charming ■woman, the love of approbation. This prevents her doing or saying anything ■voire or unconventional; this .makes her careful of her appearance and fond of fair apparel; this makes the evidence of admiration from the other sex exceedingly agreeable to .her ; this causes her to adopt a manner towards them that induces jealous women to call her a coquette. She has had several offers of marriage, but she entertains peculiar ideas about the strength of paraion and the sympathy of thought a man and woman .ought to feel lor each ■other before they decide to spend a lifetime together. She does not think a man who has a good income, and who is simply not repulsive or abhorrent to her a sufficient inducement. The days wear on. Virginia does not forget Mr Vansittart any more than he forgets her, but he weighs more on her heart than she does on his, for, happy man ! he is perpetually occupied, being a barrister with a considerable practice, -whilst she is an idle woman, as the well-to-do of her sex mostly are. If she goes to balls or dances, she is .always contrasting every man with whom she talks or dances ■with him ; if she works at her embroidery, her thoughts are intention him ; if she reads, a hero of her own ousts the hero of the novel from her brain ; if sho sings, her voice is moved to strong pathos j her eyes become drowned by that strange passion which consumes her. Days and weeks pass by; and she does not catch a glimpse of him; does not even hoar his name. She secs it frequently in the “ Times.” One Sunday afternoon she and her uncle strolling in the park met him. Ho lifts bm hat, and is about to pass, when something that her eyes have communicated to •hia heart stops him suddenly. He turns and joins them. It is a delicious summer '■ •'moon ; they—take chairs under the big Mch shadet is cool green spot. - a crony joins Mr Hayward—--ir are deep in the cause Virginia and Mr Van‘■Hat other people - of their conbut it is

from them that a subtle delight steals through their veins. What they hoed is the language of each other’s eyes. His say —‘ You fulfil my idea of perfect -womanhood. I could love you with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength. I respect you with my purest feelings; I love you with my strongest passions ; I would to God I could shake off my doubts about marriage. But I know that if I married you, inexorable Destiny would no longer let us love one another.’

And her eyes reiterated one little sentence, — ‘ You are my lord, my master, and I am your slave.’ It was one of the very strongest cases of love at first sight. Such cases are more common, however, than people affect to think.

‘ Come homo and dine with us,’ says Mr Hayward, ‘as a distant clock strikes seven. ‘l’m afraid I have not time to dress,’ answers Phillip Vansittart, ‘ that is if you dine at half-past seven, as 1 have heard you say you do.’ ‘Never mind about dress,’ replies Mr Hayward ; ‘I won’t dress either.’ He has no design on his guest, but he is a good-natured gentleman, and ho sees that these two are attracted towards each other. Miss Susan is at church. If her brother will dine at his usual hour on Sunday, she cannot help it, but she will not countenance him by her presence. Philip Vansittart thinks he has never spent such a divinely happy evening as this. Virginia sings to him ; her voice thrills to his very soul.

Mr Hamilton is asleep in the next room. As for Virginia, when she is alone, she first smiles a happy, triumphant smile, because she knows he loves her, and then she bursts into a passion pf tears, and sobs until her whole frame is convulsed. If his mind is really sot against marriage, what will become of her ! She feels as though life without him must bo one long night of despair. Phillip Vansittart paces his room until the small hours, thinking of this charming lovable creature who inspires stronger, deeper sensations in him than he has ever felt before. He tolls himself, without vanity or self-deception, that what he feels for her, with that difference which governs the loves of men and of women, she feels for him —heart has gone to heart, nay, they are “ twain halves of a perfect heart.’ It is but for him to stretch out his hand to her, and she will come. Ay ! but how can he stretch out his hand ? In the society in which they both move there is but one way in which she can be his—the way sanctioned by society, bleqsed by the church. Society and the church will bless and smile upon any union; the decrepit old man with the blooming child; the drunkard and adulterer with the pure young girl; the avaricious youth with the doting old woman. Marriage purifies, sanctifies, hallows sensuality, greed, any, every base motive. To love as God made you free to love, unfettered, and with a true heart, is a crime ; to live together full of hatred, loathing, and revolt, is to perform a sacred duty once you have tied yourself up in church. This was Vansittart’s theory. Marriage to him was another word for satiety, weariness, restraint, tyranny. He had never seen what he called a happy marriage, though he had observed many which the world crowned with that adjective, and he had sworn a thousand oaths that he would never subject himself to the miserable awakening which inevitably follows the temporary sleep of mind and reason, and the short dream of passion which makes a man bind himself with shackles.

Philip paced his room for hours, fighting the hardest battle he had ever fought. It was the first time he had ever been tempted to marry—tempted beyond endurance. And, at last, ashen pale, in the wan morning light, and with set teeth, he took his final oath and resolve. He would save himself years of wretchedness by a month’s anguish ; he would not go near her, nor see her again. He was not entirely selfish; he did not forget that she might, nay would, suffer, but he said, with a sigh, ‘lt will be best for her as for me. * * * * To be continued.