A ROADSIDE EPISODE

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1687, 29 June 1904, Page 73 (Supplement)

A ROADSIDE EPISODE

In Mrs Craigie's (John Oliver Hobbes) brilliant but pessimistic novel, “The Vineyard/' there is a slightly perilous passage between Gerald Federan, handsome, fickle, of easy principles, and Jennie Sussex, a girl sound at heart, whose Beauty is a provocation to him. The pair were on their way to a ball:

“They had driven together in a hooded gig from Miss Leddle's to the Town-hall a journey *of three miles by brilliant moonlight. In passing the grounds of Pranton Manor they had noticed the peacocks, with their tails hanging down like dusky banners, asleep in the trees, and Federan had said he would sooner walk in the woods than go to the greatest ball ever given. FOr a moment—so strong was the spell of the June night, and so Reductive the call from the green soli' tude, that they had almost decided to alight, tie the horse to a gate-post, and wander under the elms.

“ <We shan't be missed/ Federan had said, persuasively; TVs such a chance to enjoy the earth in peace.* '‘/Can't we go. there some other evenff'Noj other nights we should meet a lot of yokels and their lasses/ He had often wandered thexe himself with the pretty daughter of a dairyman, and 1 the recollection -of that chapter in hie career made his face glow unoomfortably. ‘Besides, how codyou get away from the Tredegars? Afc* .come! It is our last chance. You're not afraid, are you? Besides, where's the harm? “ 'There's p,® harm. And I have always wanted to walk through a wood atnightas gobse/girls-do in fairy stones and lose my way and find a diamond crown.

“‘Then come with me!' , . , , “He pulled up the horse, and looked ardently into the girl’s sparkling eyes. The road in front of them was deserted, but they heard the rumble of wheels behind them. , _ . , 'Drive on! drive on! snid sncldenly, afraid of her own recklessness. ‘Dkl you think I meant to do anything so mad? Drive on! Don't let those people pass us/ . , , ~ “She herself, as she spoke, jerked the reins, and, leaning past Federan, seized the whip, .which, in her agitation, she used so sharply on the animal's hack that he broke into a gallop. “ 'That is mad if you like/ exclaimed Federan; 'don't you know that we are on the top of a hill?' , , , “The horse was a young colt, who had been out twice only before in harness, and, thorughly terrified by the unfamiliar touch on the reins and the unexpected sting of the cord, he rushed at full speed down the most dangerous bit of road m the country. , . ~ , , “Jennie closed her eyes, held her breatn, and thought, ‘We shall die together.. “ ‘lf you had been with any other driver, mv lady/ said Federan, presently there would have been no more dancing for yon in this world. 5 , „ “Then she saw that his face was as grey “ ‘l'm very sorry,' she said, pulling his sleeve lightly. “Thev did not speak after that, and, although" they had entered the ballroom together, no further word was uttered from

the time of the wild gallop down the hill till they had ended the first waltz. During the dance each had been conscious that the feeling of anger between them had added a savage, almost cruel, joy to the familiarity of spinning together in a conventional embrace round a crowded ballroom while the band played. He had! never been so close to her before, and he had never before touched her waist. An idea —or was it a sensation? —came to him. while they were dancing, that it would be good to go round and round that way with Jennie for an eternity, till they reached the height of some bottomless abyss, and then to sink and sink ioi another eternity, never kn6wmg whether the passion urging him on was too wild a love or too vehement a hate. The knowledge that, in order to win her, he would have to do violence to the habits of indolence and selfishness, which he had heretofore unscrupulously indulged made him resent her power, oven whilo ho yielded to it.