NOT LOST.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 2037, 17 September 1874, Page 3

NOT LOST.

■v + - (Concluded.) "Yon have killed him," said the physician angrily, and at the worst, Hester, with a moan, dropped down insensible. Not dead! Bat when after weeks and months of psiof ul interest, he faced the world again, be looked like a shadow out of the past. Bat bent and aged, with scarred forehead and whitened locks, the wreck of his body was not the greatest evil tbat had befallen him ; for of the brilliant genius of other days no vestige waß left. Saddest of all, the miserable ghost of his lost hopes haunted him, and in the ruined chambers of his darkened intellect he was for ever groping, trying to gather up tbe mystic chords pf tuneful thought which no longer vibrated to his magic touch. The lost manuscript music had never, been recovered, and though his feeble mind failed to take in the greatness of his loss, the shadow of some- : thing beautiful which was to have been, bat, somehow, failed to be, lay on him, and gave his face a wistful look, which was sadder far in its mate endurance than any wail of speech could have been. Music was to him how something akin td the sound of " sweet bells jingltd, out of tnne and harsh." One day in early spring he went to the church for the first time, leaning on Hester's arm. The old, familiar look of the place struck him forcibly and roused his dormant wits. He sat down to the organ and glided his hands over the' keys j a few jangling discordant chords followed, wandering and disconnected ; then his face changed, and with a terrible cry he flung hie head down on his armsk " Ob, Hester, tell me what is it I have lost? Sometimes I almost reach it—it is in my mind ; something beautiful which I almost grasp, and then it eludes me and fades away. I have lost it now. Hester, Hester, take me home !" She kissed him and soothed him with sweet womanly words, and when he was more composed she led him away. Soon after that tbey were married. In vain Hester's friends threatened and oppressed her. She was quietly determined. " He loved me when friends and fortune smiled on him," she answered them; •• and he would have given me every great gift which the world was ready to bestow on him for love of his beautiful genius, and shall I desert him now when misfortune has overtaken him ? Perhaps— oh, perhaps some time God may restore to him his lost mind." Tears filled her lovely, soft, pathetic eyes. "If I darei to hope it— oh, I'd give my life to have it so." The day before her wedding she received a visit front Conrad Charteris. « It shall not be ! " he cried ont vehemently ; "do yon realize what yon are doing ? Why, you had better far die at once, for Robert Field is but little lesa than an idiot." " And if be jf ere, an idiot," retained Hester, bravely hiding her hurt at the brutal words, " even then would I marry him. I love bim, and if not one vestige of his glorious intellect remained I would be Robert Field's wife— and a proud one, too !" " And, by God, I believe you would," answered Conrad, looking with a fond, mad longing into the small' pale face, lifted so undauntedly to his dark gaze ; " Hester, yon will drive me mad. I would to Heaven Robert Field were dead. Why did he not die tbat night last winter ?" and he struck his hand furiously on-the table in a blind frenzy of despair. ; " God knows it was from no lack of purpose in you that he did not die," retorted Hester, spiritedly v ■ She spoke at' random, but Conrad shrank away with a white face. The idle words evidently hit bim hard. They cut close and sharp as steel in their unexpected descent, and wheeling abruptly about he left her, and " did not seek her again. They were married quietly, and after that, ih the tender security of her modest home, under the fond and cherishing care of bis ..wife, health and strength came slowly back to the shattered frame of Robert Jfitld. i Slowly, too, out Of the darkness he began to ! wrench, one by one, the secrets of his prisoned mind. Old melodies began to shape,, themselves . under his touch, discordant aud fragmentary at first, but gradually assuming, symetery and power. " Not quite a week!" be would sigh, wistfully ; " some day some good genii will unlock my prison door and" set me fre." In tbe child tbat was born to them, a beautiful boy, who sang. sweet music in every tone of his childish voice, his pride waa, great. He talked of him^listened to him,

watched him, and dreamed of him, predicting a future of which Bertrand was to be the perfect flower, the very golden rose of joy. So the years passed, and sweet Hester Field's fair face grew heavenly beautiful to ace, with its tired look of patient waiting. God only knows how her heart failed her now at times, or with what fierce power she wrestled with her growing doubts, and prayed for strength fco help her to bear this cross whose shadow fell even darker and deeper ou her young life. Had her love, then, been a sacrifice in vain ? Bufc one day the answer came. . . Returning one afternoon from a long walk, Robert Field stopped in the ball, spell-bound by the triumphant strains of some new and beautiful melody floating through the rooms. His worn face flashed with the old light of inspired thought ; his eyes dilated ; his whole form shook wifch a mysterious emotion. " What is it ? what is it ?" he asked of bis wife, who came to meet him. ".Bertrand's music, answered the preud mother H» ster ; "he has been engaged with it a long time. He meant it to be a surprise for you.'" R bert Field threw up his arms with a joyful cry. "It is mine '—mine 1 My lost music!— the music I played for you thafc long -forgotten day ! Hark, Hester 1 do you not recognise it how ? Ok 1 to think that ifc has Blepfc so long and aow comes back Co me so fresh and fa ! r. This is what; I have missed oat of my life ? This is my treasure which was lost; to me and now is returned to me after many years. Brought back by a little child ! Oar child. Hester ! Oh, thank God for that I" Rushing into the parlour he swept Bertrand from the stool, and, seating himself afc the organ, with one powerful sweep of his hands over the keys he summoned his Godgiven genius from the tomb of his youth and bade it stand resurrectionised in new life before him. On and on the music swept ; not a note waß lost ; net a chord dropped out of the splendid work. Shoutingly, exultantly tbe tones leaped forth, and their name was called Wonderful." On lon 1 Up and up 1 At last, from sheer exhaustion, tbe musician dropped to the floor, and lying there at Hester's feet he wept tears which were no shame to him. "It is the very same !" he cried ; " Bertrand has written it out note for note, a counterpart of my own work. Is it not an awful thing to think of ! My own work, and yet his ! Who but God can explain it. And oh, Hester 1 The darkness is all gone now i Let me thank God for that." Then, wrapping his arms about her, Robert Field kissed his wife's pale face, and kissed her tender mouth, her wavy hair, and her slim, pale faithful hands. "My wife ! my wife 1 Oh, what if your love had failed you, Hester ? If, in those terrible first hours of my misfortune, your true heart had been one whit less true, then I Bhould have been lying in my grave to-day, a broken and forgotten man 1" So fame and success in the later days of bis life came, not unwelcomely, to Robert Field. The world welcomed his famous piece with none the less acclaim for its long delay, and for the strange story which accompanied it. One truth only concerning that fatal night Robert withheld— known alone to his faithful wife. Bat Conrad Charfceris had long ago disappeared from the town, and vraa seen no more among them. So he and Heßter biried the secret in their hearts, contented thafc it should be so — fer God is his own avenger. They had been taught a wonder* foi lesion, too, by One who, having lived on earth, knew what the full fruition of earthly life must be, and who gave, ere he passed away from among men, the crowning blessing of his wisdom in « last, new commandment : " Love ye one another I "