THE NOVELIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 1425, 15 March 1879, Page 21

THE NOVELIST.

A COLONIAL STORY. By Fabian Beil, Author of " Stella," the " Big Nugget," &c. (Written for the Otago Witness.) Chapter lll— "Her Brother." Maurice Stretton sauntered up and down the pretty well-kept garden. He was restless and ill at ea?e ; for one thing his conscience pricked him becauae he had deputed to his brother an unpleasant task that ought properly to have lain on his own shoulders ; but he had spoken on the impulse of the moment, out of his own natural shrinking from all that was painful, or before he could analyse his motives — the deed was done and he could not alter it. He heard the murmur of voices in the room he had left, for the doors and windows were all open, but even had he chosen to listen he could not have heard more than indistinct sounds. He walked slowly among the flowers, plucking off dead blossoms, and putting back the boughs of syringa and lilac that overhung the paths, yet he did these things mechanically, thinking all the time of the change which the last twenty-four hours had wrought in his life. Not that the change was in reality so sudden, for he had never possessed that which he thought lay in his hand. Still, to him, the transition from comparative wealth to absolute penury seemed to have come like a volcanic shock, and he could not believe that he had been standing all his life on the thin crust of the crater. Add to this the destruction of hia ideal, for he had loved and trusted his father with an admiring reverence very rare in these days when the relation between parent and child ia too often an undignified struggle, in which each strives to claim the most and yield the least, and we shall be able to understand something of this young man's state of mind. The destruction of his ideal ! in that lay the sting of his pain. It was bad to be poor, it wa3 worse to feel disgraced ; but it was torture indescribable to know that this poverty was caused, this disgrace incurred, by one in whom he had felt perfect love and trust ; this was a refinement of misery which increased rather than lessened as the hours went on and he realised it more fully. Maurice wa3 no business man. The trifling words and actions that had convinced Noel that something was wrong had been utterly unobserved by him, and as he had had no previous suspicion of the real state of his father's affairs, he waa utterly unprepared for the blow. To some of us such an experience as this comes at least once in our lives, and in some form or another, we discover the clay feet of our golden idol. There are few that cannot recall the suffering of that time. Maurice thought : and his thoughts went round and round in circles like birds who try their flight previous to a long migration, he could not shake himßelf free from the brooding pain of last night's discovery, or trace out any distinct course for himself in the future that had grown bo hazy and uncertain ; so he sauntered aimlessly among the flowers, and finally seated himself on a comfortable bench of wood and iron, and lighted a cigar. A shadow fell across him, and he looked quickly up. John Paasmore grasped his hand firmly, and sat down beside him, and Maurice expsrienced a sudden sense of relief in the mere presence of his friend. John Paasmore was, in every sense of the word, a strong man, hia stature was almost gigantic, his square rugged brow crowned with iron-grey locks, overhanging a pair of deep- set bright eyes ;no hair disguised his well- cut chin and mouth slightly depressed at the corners ; his hands were largo and sinewy, hard from the manual labour of his youth but well formed and carefully attended to. The hands were a type of the man. Sprung from the people, lie had spent the first half of hia life in the iron foundries at Sheffield, where hia gigantic physical

Btrength had brought him into notice, and the still greater moral strength which had enabled him to withstand all the special temptations of his class to remain ever sober, steady, and induatrious, had led him to climb with firm step the ladder of social progress, and now in middle life he was an honoured partner in one of the most esteemed firms of iron-masters in south Lancashire. An energetic far-see-ing business man, and withal a man of spotless honour and probity, against whose fair fame no breath of scandal had ever been uttered. Hard perhaps, and stern, and, to a certain extent, pitiless, and yet a good man and true, a fviend to rely on in the hour of trial. Maurice felt strengthened by his mere presence. " It is good of you to come and see us, John." " I should have come before, but that factotum of yours, old Thomas, would not let me in. It was very sudden, Maurice." "Very," the young man's head bent lower, and he added, "It was a great shock." "It was a shock to all of us. What shall you do, Maurice 1 Noel has been telling me that you will not be so well off as we had expected ; " (what more had Noel told him ! how much, or how little of the painful truth Maurice longed yet dreaded to know) " but you must not let that discourage you, my boy, it is no great hardship to work for one's own bread and cheese, as I can assure you from my own experience, no meal iB sweeter than that which a man earns by the sweat of his brow. " " I daresay you are right, John, in the main ; but in this special instance there are unusual difficulties. The question is what am I fit for 'I I know no trade, honest or dishonest ; I cannot dig, to beg I am ashamed." " Of course you are," assented the other literally, and in the midst of all his trouble Maurice Stretton conld scarcely repress a smile. " Of course you are, you have been well educated, you — " " Might be an usher in a sixth-rate provincial school," broke in Maurice bitterly. " No, John, lam not well educated ; but that is my fault, my poor father did the best he could for me in that way, he sent me to Cheltenham, and would have sent me to Oxford had I cared to go, but I had no genius for sapping, I just did enough to pull through, and that's about all, I could not teach even the smallest children, the big ones would certainly pnt me to shame. As I told Noel last night, I can ride and shoot, and that's about all I can do, and thoße qualifications would fit me to be a groom or a gamekeeper ; if we were likely to go to war I would enlist, but there is no chance of promotion for a poor devil in these 'piping times of peace.' No, there is only one thing for me, emigration.' " You might do worse," said John Passmore. " I believe there is still money to be made in the Colonies. But idle gentlemen area drug in the market everywhere. You will have to work." " Oh, I'll.do that ; don't think me worse than 1 am, John. Hitherto I have been an idle good-for-nothing fellow, but that was because [ had no idea that I should ever need to work for my living, I thought I should always have plenty, and I had no desire for^more. Now all this is changed, I am a poor man, I cannot do much head-work ; but I can and will use ray hands, and henceforth no man shall have reason to reproach me as an idler." As Maurice spoke, he lifted his head, and a bright flush and colour came into his cheek ; he looked every inch a man and a gentleman. " That is well. lam glad to see that you have so much of the right spirit in you, be sure of this that honest work degrades no man. And now, Maurice, this encourages me to make you a proposition. Would you like to come into our foundry, as a clerk I mean, not of course as an artisan. I know that you are ignorant of accounts, book-keeping, &c, but you would soon pick those things up, and I think we should rub along together very well." The young man started and looked fixedly in his companion's face, trying to read there the nature aud extent of Noel's revelation ; but the manufacturer's features were well under control, they betrayed no emotion of any kind, and Maurice felt convinced that Noel had said nothing of his passion for Eveline or else her brother would not have made him this offer ; for a moment he felt tempted to close with it and secure to himself the power of seeing her often and strengthening the hold that he believed he had already gained on her affections. Then, with a sudden revulsion of feeling, he said :—: — "You are very good, John, butyl know that you are making this opening on purpose for me, and I do not think that I could do justice to the work or to you. I believe that it would be in every way better for me to go away, at any rate for a time." John Pasamore breathed what sounded very like a Bigh of relief. He had determined to make the offer, and coute gui coute he had done it, but he was in every way glad that the young man had decided against it, especially on Eveline's account ; he did not think that she cared for Maurice, but there was no accounting for girls' fancies, and the handsome penniless young fellow would be a dangerous acquaintance for her ; still, for the sake of old friendship, he had thought it a duty to tender his assistance, and he urged Maurice to re-consider his decision. " No," said the other more firmly, " I know that lam right. I will go to the antipodes and try my luck there for a year or two ; I have pften thought that

T should like to visit Australia and Kevr Zealand, ' the Britain of the South,' and I shall begin to collect all the information I can upon the subject. You will help me?" *Of course I will. We have a correspondent in Melbourne, I will give you a packet of his letters to read, and a heap of books and pamphlets on Colonial subjects. You know Amphlett 1 he is quite an authority on New Z9aland." " I don't know him, but I will get you to introduce me to-morrow. And now I suppose we must go in. Here comes Thomas to call us to dinner. All right, Thomas, we are coming directly. By the way, John, is Eveline at home ? I think I shall go round and call upori her this evening." " Go if you like, Maurice, she will be pleased to see you, but remember your position. Noel has told me all. I think none the worse of you, none. Your father's sins shall never stand between you and Eveline, if you are in a position to support a wife, but at the present time there is little chance of that ; you are both young, too young to know your own minds. Eveline, especially, only looks upon you as a friend, and change and absence may have a great effect upon your own feeiings. I have a horror of long engagements, they seldom end well, one party or the other tires of the bargain and the contract is a weariness and pain, I put it to your honour as a man and gentleman to leave my sister free." " Believe me I had no other thought. I do not wish to bind her ; but for my part my feelings for her will never change." The elder man sighed. " We all think so, but time and chance happeneth to all." Time will not change me," said Maurice, confidently, v and if in the years to come, I return and claim her from you ?" "Then, if she is willing, I shall not withhold my consent, provided you are able to support a wife ; but note, you mußt leave her free to choose for herself." "I will do so." Half involuntarily Maurice extended his hand, John Pasamore clasped it in hia own, and so the treaty wag ratified.