After Long Fears.

Otago Witness, Issue 1427, 29 March 1879, Page 21

After Long Fears.

A COLONIAL STORY.

By Fabian Bell, Author of "Stella," the "BigNngget," &c.

(Written for the Otago Witness.)

Chapter VII. 11 Good bye, Sweetheart, Good bje." The merriment of the evening was at an end. Most of the girla who remained at the villa declared themselvesfrightened, and huddled together for safety in on© corner of the room, and when the braver spirits hastily put on their hats and departed, a few guests still lingered, hoping that the storm would pass over quickly. "Oh Eva," these cried, "pray have the windows shut and the curtains drawn, and let the fender and fire-irons be covered up and the mirrors. Oh, I wish we had gone home an hour ago." Vain wish. Flash succeeded flash in quick succession, and the "artillery of heaven" rolled and pealed with loud reverberation. It proved only the commencement of one of the longest and most violent storms that had been experienced for years, and one which lasted far on into the night. Brave as Eveline was she could not but tremble as the wild white light lit up the room withabrillianoy before which gas and candles paled, and then was followed by the terrible, rattling, crashing, rending sound of thunder just over- head. One of the lady guests had made a virtue of necessity and run home ; others, who lived at a greater distance, or elsa more frightened, had accepted her hospitality and remained. Of these, one had cried herself into hysterics, and was being soothed, and petted, and put to bed by a kind old servant ; and another lay on the sofa, covered closely with a oouvre pied and velvet tablecloth, her eyes tightly shut and her fingers in her ears, refusing to be comforted, to speak, or to be spoken to. Two others again found a melan* choly pleasure in comparing their experience of former storms, and relating all the accidents which they could remember to have been caused by the eccentric behaviour of what they called thunder-bolts. Finding them so well employed, Eveline stole away to the front door. The heat was still intense, for no rain had yet fallen, and she opened the door softly and stood in the deep porch. A black abyss was before her, a darkness that could be felt, and then in a moment it was all lighted up with an unearthly blue glare, and in that instant she saw the tossing waves of the distant sea, and two small vessels making for the port. She could not see the anxious faces of the fisher crews, but it needed no great stretch of the imagination to picture the Btraining of each muscle, the intent watch to leeward, the brave man's preparation for the elemental war which he cannot escape or flee from. As yet the air was still, but wind and rain lay in the luiid western clouds, and the fishermen knew how to read the signs. The flash passed, and Eveline shrank away from the rattling peal that followed closely. Another flash and the boats were again visible, and nearly in the same position, for oars availed little against the ebbing tide, and sails would have been worse than useless. The light faded, and the little vessels were lost in the heavy darkness, but Eveline watched for their reappearance. In her own anxiety and pain she felt sudden passionate sympathy for the unknown sailors who were watching and waiting for the storm to burst. Perhaps some among them were married and others were engaged. She thought of the palefaced anxious women against whose hearts the tempest was beating, and her own throbbed wildly. And all in a moment the gale was upon her. The wind rushing and howling like a thousand fiends tore over the restless sea, tossing and twisting the white crests of the waves and lashing them into sudden fury. Then it struck the sandy hillocks and sent a blinding cloud of dust over the pretty gardens of New Brighton, and then it struck the houses, windows rattled, Venetians flapped, doors slammed and banged in all directions, and the heavy house door behind her shut to, and Eveline was left standing without in the darkness and the storm. And now came the rain, not in drops but in sheets, hissing and rattling on the dry ground, the gravelled paths, the slated roof. The sea was churned up into a white mass of "cruel hungry waves," amid which the little fishing boats had disappeared. In her anxiety to catch sight of them again, Eveline leaned forward unconscious of the rain which beat upon her bare head. Another flash showed her standing there in her white dress against the black ground of the dark porch. " Eveline ! good heavens ! what brings you here in the darkness and ihe storm V " Maurice ! I thought you would come." " Come ! of course I should come ; did I not promise you, and besides do you think I could go away, 'it may be for years and it may be for ever,' as the song says, without coming to wish you goodbye." " Is the dinner over ?" "No indeed. I left them singing and speechifying and stole away to see you j but I ha 4no idea the storm was any-

£hing like this. By Jove, I am almost Wet through, and — ah ! what a flash. Are you not frightened, Eva ?" "I do not like it ; but lam not greatly frightened." She trembled a little, and with a natural instinct of protection he drew Hearer to her side and put his arm round her waist. She did not draw back. The hot blood came and went on her cheeks, but he did not see it. " How wet you are, come in and dry yourself." She put out her hand to ring the bell, but he took it in' hia own and held it firmly. " When the next storm comes, Eva, I shall be far away from you on the wild Bea. Will you think of me as the wind and rain beat upon your casement, and the waves roar on the beach below ?" Her lips were dry, and her eyes burned with unshed tears. Tho fishermen in the two little boats were fighting with the sea inch by inch, rising and falling in the trough of the waves, undaunted, though well nigh hopeless ; but she saw them not. " Eva, my darling ! say that you will not forget me." " Maurice ! Maurice !" What was he thinking of? Had he forgotten his promise? The excitement of the evening, the warm praise that had been showered upon him, the enthusiasm, the generous wine ? All these had set his pulses dancing and beating, and the blood in his veins flowed swiftly. The girl he loved was by his side, his arm was round her, her hand in his, her soft hair touched his cheek, her tremulous voice spoke his name. On the impulse of the moment, Bcarce'y conscious what he did, he clasped her to his heart and kissed her lips. A blinding flash of lightning, a peal of thunder that, seemed as near as if the very vault of heaven was crashing in upon them, caused the two lovers to start asunder, and in the same moment Maurice's conscience awoke, and he knew that he had been guilty of a base unmanly action. He groaned at his weakness and folly. Eveline had shrunk away from him into the darkest, corner of the porch, and when he repossessed himself of her hands ahe felt, that his touch was cold and nervous. "Eva, my darling! I am a villain. Hush ! do not interrupt me. I promised John that I would not say a word of love to you, that I would go away and leave you free. He thinks, and so do I, that you, ought not to bind yourself to a poor devil like me, who is going into unknown lands and may never be in a position to support himself, much less a wife. So I intended to go away without a word and leave you free." " Too late for that," murmured Eveline below her breath, cowering before the wild wind that swept remorselessly over them, and feeling bitterly in her inmost heart , that all these explanations and excuses came too late. That if Maurice Shelton. intended to leave her free he should have left her long before. ■ She had seen too much or too little of him. She could never again be as she had.been, " fancy, free." She knew in her heart of hearts that whatever the future might have in store for her, the keenest pang, the greatest bliss must come through him who stood by her side. She had fulfilled her destiny ; for good or for evil her soul had gone out to meet the soul of this man, and she felt like the first woman as if God had made her for him, to be his companion and help-meet for ever. The individual changes, but the type remains. The lightning played around'them, and lilt up the whole sky with its glare. Though the flashing rain the fisher boats struggled on, every wave swept them from stem to stern. Once they disappeared altogether, hidden by a huge green sea. Eveline saw the danger and uttered a low cry of fear. But Maurice did not hear it. He was intent on his own explanation and selfjustification. "And now the temptation has proved too much for ma, and I must tell you how much I love you. But I will take no promise from you, you must be free. If I am at all successful I will return in two years and ask you for your answer. In the meantime you will not forget me, Eva?" "No Maurice ! I shall not forget you. We will do as John wishes. But I shall not forget you. Good-bye." Still he lingered, , " Eva, for old acquaintance sake, and because we have been friends so long, give me one farewell kiss." She hesitated and trembled, and then lifted her face towards his. He started as the chill lips met his own. "My darling ! how cold you are. What a wretch I am to have kept you out here all this time. You will catch your death. Go in at once, and go to bed and to sleep. Remember you are quite free, but some day or other I shall come back and put a question to you which will require an answer ; and now good night and good-bye. He rang the bell, waiteJ. until the door was opened, made some excuse to the servant, watched Eveline disappear in the lighted hall, and then turned away, murmuring to himself, "now 1 will return to the dinner, I should have been ) wiser had I never left it. What fools, we men are when a pretty girl is in the case. I wish I had kept my promise better. However, I got out of it tolerably well considering, and she at least is free." ' , Eva, iv her own room knelt and prayed j

and thanked God for his last best gift, and felt that the kiss she and Maurice had exchanged had been a sacramental act of solemn betrothal, to the truth of which no pledge in words was needed. _ , Outside in the storm the two fishing boats battled long and bravely. In the early dawn one came safe to shore, but of the other no tidings could be obtained. A few bits oi plank, a broken mast, a corpse on the shining sand, and that was all. # > The storm passed over the land, but it left its traces on more than one bleeding heart, and it was only after long years that the two who had parted in the storm and the darkness met again', to go through lower depths and more passionate struggles, before tho hour came in which to ask and answer Maurice Stretton's unspoken question .