ONE CARLYON, OF LONDON.

Observer, Volume XIV, Issue 795, 24 March 1894, Page 12

ONE CARLYON, OF LONDON.

(By Harry B. VoGELin the N.Z. Mail)

I met. Carlyon three or four years before our journey in the same ship to the Old Country. I never liked him. He was tall and handsome and had been a London Bwell. In the rough slab whare, or out among the sheep in the rude little sheep yard, nay, wherever he went, he carried with him just a breath of the London air. In spits of his beard, his old felt wide-awake, his patched trousers and his heavy mud-stained boots, it was easy, somehow, to fancy him, as society had once known him. It was, as it were, Piccadilly in the back bush.

1 do not know what brought him to New Zealand— the same thing perhaps that brings many such others. And having arrived he drifted until, at length he Lad become a Government leaseholder and the owner of a few sheep rnnning on Maori land, and the husband of a Maori girl. Kaita was rich, as Maories go, and was a * regular Maori' — excp.pt that she insisted upon oeing married ' pakeha fashion.' * Some d d parson put her up to it,' Carlyon.said afterwards. But it was not a matter of much importance then or worth bothering about. The going to Napier was the chief trouble, it meant two days ride. However, he wanted her, and her land, and if she hankered after a ' marriage ceremony ' well— let her have it.

Had he known that death was going to play the wild frolic it did in the elder branch of the family, and that chance, fortune or fate woald turn him from a pakeha-Maori to an English peer, he would never have taken that trip to Napier. But he did take it, and for years lived the life that settlers in the wild up-country spots do live. He was not unkind to the girl, no one with a heart could have been, for she was a good woman, and the little lad and the little lass that came to them were right bonnie mites.

ihen tt letter reached him. A letter from over the seas, from a place that Ifcaita had never seen and had but a dim conception of. From a place that Carlyon felt, as he watched her cooking, he could never jtake her to— not as his wife. He thought of her amidst the folks he had mixed with at home and who were now waiting Ms return, and he shuddered. She was his wife until that letter came, and the little ones were hia children. Wow she was only a Maori woman, and the youngsters were — well — daubed with the tar brush. And Le shuddered again and put away the letter, and made up his mind. Made up his mind to go back to his old life for always and to wipe away a part of his existence as though it had never been. He never told Baita that, but then he never told her anything except that she was to return for a while to her own people. I always thought he was a handsome manj but I never Teally knew it until I saw him on the steamer. The beard was gone and he was faultlessly dressed. He travelled first-class and 1 only second. As a matter-of-fact I was unaware of his being on board until we were at sea. We never met to speak, but I watched him, after a while. I could not help it knowing all that I knew, for his handsome face and soft tongue had fascinated ' my girl/ as 1 used to call her to myself.

I had no idea who she was. 1 saw her for the first time as I walked up the ship's gangway just before we btarted. She was standing talking to someone and chanced to look towards me as I passed. She was not beautiful, but she was pretty ; a real, jolly', unaffected girl, with eyes as blue as the bluest you have ever seen. The face, especially those deep blue eyes, came with me as I found my way to the second class. I never lost that memory — I never will perhaps. I discovered her name, it doesn't matter what it was, and that she was rich. He too had found that out, and I knew him for the scroundrel he was.

Bat what could Ido P I was a secondclass; passenger and could only sit day by day abaft the tunnel or lounge about the engine-room Bkylight, with a great gap, bridged by a narrow gangway, between me and the trouble I was yearning to end. Speak to the Captain ? And create a scandal? Interveiw the mother? But which of the several white haired ladies was she ? March across to where Carlyon and the girl sat, just forward of mizzenmastj in the soft bright moonlight and — ? Do what ? Bah ! The business was his and hers, and I was only a second-class passenger, and the cosiest spot in the cold weather was by the tunnel, and I had undisputed possession of it. What more could I want ? It was all most interesting too, for I could always tsee them from the funnel when they walked, ■band if they sat where they generally sat ■■gyiad only to shift a few feet to BH^Hj^the lee of the starboard lifeboat. HHH|n^hy should I ? It— it made the H^^^Bnj^H^"^ was amusing, and yet — . H^B^^HSHBL. the bright laughing blue HH^HB^^BttL to me and I thought of |^HBB^^^^9Hfeen> and the pity, the be to Bee them H^^B^BBBHl^M^youd the possibiH^^^NE^B^B^^^H^Htip&r as once they

had sparkled. And somehow, too, a brown brown face came to. my. memory. Not a beautiful face, only a Maori woman's face, but none the less an honest one, and true and good. I had seen Kaita but a few days before I left and I knew she was in ignorance of the voyage her husband was taking. She was utterly trustful too, so, that never a thought would have come to her of — of the after hurricane deck of an English -bound mail steamer and the play that was being played upon it No. Apart from the brown face— that was perhaps the better rid of a scoundrel— l could not bear to think of those blue eyes for ever soulless, and I resolved that the girl should know.

My opportunity came. It was a rough day, not a wet one nor a cold, but the great white waves were tossing and tumbling the huge ship as though she were a chip of cork. I saw Curlyon and the girl come across the narrow gangway and, pausing for a minute to look down into the engine room, they walked forward to the head of the deck just under the bridge. They did not notice me, but I did them, aad stood watching as they held on to the railings and gazed across the wild waste of ocean, he with his hand upon her shoulder to steady her.

Presently they turned and came aft. They stopped for a moment near the funnel, he being the nearer to me. * Hullo Jack i' I said, for when we had met last we had known each other thus. 1 Hullo Jack, I wondered when you were going to pay me a visit.' 'Eh ! "What ? Didn't know you were on board,' was the reply, and as the ship steadied the blue eyes stepped from their refuge near the lifeboat and the three of us were for a, moment in a bunch. It was my chance— and the girl's. £A, * I was quite surprised to see you. By-the-bye, I saw your wife at the kainga just before I came down country and ■" ' I gave him some kind message Eaita would have sent had she known I was to meet him, and I told him of his little boy and girl.

There is no need to tell you what was said then — after the silence, which he broke. It was only a few words, but he showed himself by his talk the hound that he was— and she realised. I know that, for I Baw as I helped her across the gangway—l took her back, not he— that the soft light, which was a new light, lit since he had come aboard, and the bright light which was the old light, had both gone and the eyes were only blue— a misty blue. It was the. breaking of a heart I think. Just that - and he was whistling when I returned, and broke into a laugh. Then he cursed me.