AN AUSTRALIAN NOVEL.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Issue 9, 1 December 1877, Page 4

AN AUSTRALIAN NOVEL.

(From the " Literary World") (Continued from our last issue.) TnF. intimacy with the Hays, the desire to keep up appearances until the marriage takes place, and the wish to give her daughter a suitable " trousseau," have combined to sink Airs. Carey still deeper in her financial slough. On the morning after Fanny Careys marriage a lawyer's letter is received by her mother, demanding the immediate payment of a large amount. The state of affairs can be no longer concealed from Frank, and a miserable scene takes place between him and Mrs. Carey, in which she urges him to save her from exposure by lending her the money from the bank, without the knowledge of the directors, as in three months, by the help of her daughter, it can be repaid. The depicting of this snare, thus spread for the young manager by his owe mother, and the escape from it, forms the most powerfullywritten chapter in the story.

FRANK CABBY'S TEMPTATION. " It seems that you will not understand, mother. I have no " " It seems that ' you ' will not understand, Frank. The means are in your own hands ; you do it every day ; why are your own people to be the only ones the hauk cannot " Frank started as if he had received a Mow. " Good God I do you know what you are saying ?" and he rushed from the room. "He felt giddy and sick ; the floor seemed to move beneath his feet, and he was obliged to support himself by the railing as he left the house. After a while, the cool night air revived him, though the power of thought seemed gone, and lie stood helplessly, a target for varying emotions.

Presently his eye caught the light in the bank window ; he had left it when hurrying to the post, and had since forgotten all about it. Now opening the door of his private room, he passes from it into the bank, carrying some papers, which he had intended earlier in the evening to deposit in the safe. Unlocking it, he lays the documents in their place. A pile of sovereigns catches the ray from the lamp on the desk behind Frank. They glitter and sparkle, seeming to move and multiply before him. Surely they are living things, powerful, almighty ? They can spare him and his the mortification of asking help from the Hays ; they can give him back credit, position, hope; they can save the family honor. Surely they are omnipotent, and he is their master. As his mother had said, he lent them every day at far less cost than he would give as a borrower now. Who would be injured ? No one need ever know, and he would repay the loan a

hundred-fold in energy and in service. Rapidly such thoughts pass through Frank's mind as he gazes on the tempting heap. " Duty," some demon whispers, " has various aspects. The strong man forces circumstances—is not forced by them." The glittering lever of circumstances looked stronger and brighter than ever. Frank's hand closes on the heap as he withdraws it from the safe. The metallic coldness, increased by contact with his burning palm, sends a shiver through him, and the sensation associates itself with Helen's word's, heard long ago. What had she said ? "It is the touch of the gold that make men thieves ? " "A thief I" The word rings in Frank's ears , as if echoed by a thousand thunders. He drops the sovereigns; they all fall to the floor, a fiery shower hissing the opprobrious epithet from corner and cranny as they roll. The horrid brand is written in blazing characters before his eyes ; it resounds in the air above him, and issues in reproachful whispers from the ground beneath.

In great cries humanity instinctively invokes the sacred Name. For the second time that night the cry of Frank's soul went upwards—" God help me I God help me I and, laying his head on the desk, his strong frame shook beneath the violence of the sobs which burst from his overwrought heart. It wali Nature's outlet. I think, if it had not come, he would have last his reason. For awhile the young man wept more bitter tears than the boy had shed by the Ride of his father's cold form, as it lay in its last strange bed. By-and-by the sobs came more gently, and Frank looked up. He steadied himself a moment; tlien, with bowed head, covered his face with his hands. There Was more of thankfulness than of remorse in his boul's appeal. A shadow as of some great terror clung about him, though he was very calm, and his firmlyclosed lip indicated fixed resolve. He collected the scattered gold, compared it with some -memoranda, counted it carefully, closed and locked the safe methodically, extinguished the light, and went to his private room. Here he wrote two letters, sorted out some papers, including ■those his mother had given him, placed ouu letter on his desk, and went oat, securing the door, and taking tho key "with him." Having thus overcome a terrible temptation, IFrfcnk went down immediately to Melbourne, and confided in his old and tried friend Mr. Maync, who lent him enough to extricate his mother from her difficulties. At the same time he handed to Mr. Mnyne his resignation of the managership, resolving never again to expose himself to a similar temptation. The bank wanting nn agent just then to go to Western Australia to

manage an estate, the appointment wits given to Frank. It tfloided liim the eitanga his overstrung system wanted. And whilst there the welcome news came that a small investment of his in a quartz mine, affected some time before, had turned oat so successful that he was comparatively, a rich man. The way was now clear for him to Veturn to Lakcville and ask Helen South to be his wife. Frank afterwards went to the Bar, ami rose ultimately to the position of a member of the Legislative Assembly. For the sake of our sentimental readers, if we have any, we close our extracts with Frank's love-making.

" I did not notice the path," she said ; " we shall strike it by crossing this bit of bush;" and she turned back in the direction indicated.

" Don't go home just yet; do come to the hill. Indulge me this onto ; you can't know how often I have thought of our walks there ," urged Frank. Then, gathering courage —" I want to speak to you. Indeed, you must hear me.' " Another time. Let us go home now," she interrupted, frightened at his vehemence, and trembling she scarcely knew why. Now that the assurance she had yearned for was coining, she shrank back and would have escaped it. But Frank was too much in earnest. lie took her hand and drew it within his arm. pressing it close against his throbbing breast; he looked into her downcast face and found words.

" I have come to my own fate. Surely you have read my secret, guard it as I would ? A thousand signs must have betrayed the strong love 1 bear you." Helen was rilent, but she did not draw away from him. " Quick, quick, my darling ! the waiting has been long. 1 suffer—you do not know how i suffer ! " And Helen never knew how it came about that she found herself on Frank's breast, fast clasped within his arms. "My darling, my darling, say you love mc ! Let me hear you say it this once. Oh, Helen, I used to think I might go on loving you secretly all my life, not asking return ; but now hope has come, < I know I cannot do without your love." " 1 thought I could do without, too," she murmured. " But you couldn't, dearest ! you know you couldn't! Say you love roe, Helen," he whispered, pressing her to him. She released herself from his arms, looking up saucily. " I havn't heard you say it yet yourself," she said. " I love you, I love you, sweetheart '. I seem always to have loved you. The dumb cry of my soul went out to you, I

believe, before I saw you; even now that I may speak, it can't be put into words. The devotion of my life will be hut a feeble expression of it, darlingest." Frank became ungrainmatical and incoherent, as many a wise man has became before him, and many more will after him ; for the old human story is still a mighty mover, although science has reduced the affections to a mere arrangement of the nervous fluid, and good breeding ostracizes strong emotion, and money cpuestions come to the front in these days of social competition. Our luvers were happily oblivious of such pit-falls. Helen, however, thought it time to check Frank's foolish raptures. " It's getting late." " But you havn't said it," persisted he, detaining her. " This is my day ; I am master now. You must give me my own way on this day of days. Do you know, dearest, I once dreamt that I heard you say it. I've never forgotten the ecstacy of that sweet dream. Make it a reality. Say, ' I love you Frank;'" and lie bent over in gentle entreaty. When Frank was very much in earnest the intense pathos of his Voice was touching. Helen could not resist it.

She looked up, saying in a low tone, " I love you, Frank," and voluntarily placet! her free hand on his, which imprisoned the other. The action was significant. He folded both her hands in his, pressed them to his lips, then lifted his hat reverently, and said, " Thank God for my precious wife."

They set out on their homeward walk in silence. Soon, however, Frank began to talk of the past, telling of his early feelings, his resolutions, and failures in keeping them ; questioning with the lover's pertinacity, and ingeniously calling forth delightful repetitions, never weary of repeating and listening to thesame sweet follies.