LITERATURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 3595, 18 October 1879, Page 3

LITERATURE.

A WILFUL WOMAN.

"If you don't tako compassion on such a devoted lover, and one who is so good and worthy of you as Mr Crichton, all I can say is this," said Mrs Hinxman, with much emphasis, aa if she were leading up to a crushing crisis, " I shall have no patience with you, and Bhall think you aro acting very foolishly."

'The person addressed gave a little laugh, which sounded unconvinced, although for tho last half-hour sho had been assailed by arguments on the above subject, somo a good deal off tho lino of application, others undeniably true.

" Yos, you may laugh," said Mrs Hinxman, resuming tho charge after a moment's pause, " but I can toll you one thing ; this life you are leading is by no means improving ; Ido not say it has hurt you yet, although goodness knows the heads of many would have been turned by all the admiration and running after you have had ; but what is to become of it all ? that is what I look to ; it cannot last for ever, and it will bo a wonder if you are not spoilt for a married life, or a singlo one either, soon ; now, as Mr Crichton's wife "

"It has not been proved yet that Mr Crichton dotircs at all to have me in thnt capacity," said Mi?s Graham with another little laugh ; " and if it wore, my own inclination goes for something in tho matter, I suppose." " Your own inclination ought to be for what is good for you," said Mrs Hinxman, sentontiously.

" Saraaparilla ; brimstone and treacle ; what is it you give your children in tho spring, Emily, especially the naughty ones V " " Yes, that is just what you aro like — a very naughty child, and you ought to know better at your age ; and so 1 hopo you will," concluded Mrß Hinxman, shaking her head at her friend, as she roso from her writingtable.

Friends tried and true they were, Bince their schoolfellow days some dozen years ago ; Mrs Hinxman had soon married and settled down to household cares and periodical babies; Alberta Graham, beautiful, clever, and attractive in all ways, had, on the contrary, taken her full pleasure out of life, and now at 30 was better looking than she had been at 20, and, what was to be expected, considerably more wilful ; like the Lady of the Lea, she bad objected to the thraldom of marriage, although, like that ill-fated dame, she had had almost unnumbered suitors. Whot her her heart had been alwayß as untouched aB had appeared it would be impertinent here to inquire, Bince the matter has nothing to do with the present history. I£ one might hazard a conjecture, it probably had not, being warm by nature, however much kept in check by strength of will. About a month ago she had come on a visit to her fiiend Emily Hinxman, who lived in a pretty country house in the -heart of rural solitudes in the West of England. Mr Hinxman was not a particularly rich man, but ho hunted, shot, fished, coursed, and farmed at their, various . seasons, and was calmly contented with his good little wife and pretty children ; and what can a country gentleman want more? In good truth, he envied no man living, and, if he did not rave at his good fortuno, did perhaps a wiser thing in enjoying "it practically, without too inuoh endangering thought as

(0 its- component parts. For Fidus Achates he had a near neighbour, no other than the Mr Crichton bo much recommended to Miss Graham by ber friend Emily; Mr Crichton's house was larger than Mr Hinrman's, his property more extensive, and his income more desirable • and Mrs Hinxman had not been wrong in praising him, or in taking his intentions for granted ; her only error in the matter lay in suppoiing that nature, who never mistakes our capabilities, had intended her for a matchmaker; moreover, her warm little heart being much interested in the result, she was now a good deal heated and discomfited that Alberta could not be brought to own the right ainouLt of interest in the much-praisod Mr Crichton; alas, it was with this very much-praised Mrs Hinxman hod defeated her own ends; happily, however, it had not shaken the friends in their affection for each otherj as Mrs Hinxman prepared to leave the room she said, "There, I shall leave you now to meditate on my good advice," and Miss Graham, rising too, opened a glass door leading out on to a balcony. The morning sun had kissed nnd warmed it, leaving it htopy for the day, although steeped in shadow ; and Alberta, looking out from it into the fair sunshine dappling all the country- side spread wide before her eyes, took in the blent perfume of aromatic leaf and sweet flower with half-unconscious appreciation ; Mr Crichton had walked over to breakfast with them on the plea of a matter to talk over with Mr Hinxa-an, wl ich would have kept a month without injury to any living mortal, aud now the pair were together in some of their usual haunts about the place. Alberta sat down in the balcony, doing for once exactly as her friend had advised her— thinking over her advice. There had been some truth in it, beyond a doubt. Conscience, on being appealed to, replied to Alberta that it was possible even sbo was getting a little spoilt by the life she was leading— a little too dependent on the homage and flattery, what though she might laugh at them ; a little 100 confident of her conquests, a little too callous towards the hearts she made to suffer. Then this quiet, settled life, so full of its own calm duties, giving leisure to cultivate the best and noblest part of the natures alike of men and women, had grown upon Alberta more the she had been prepared for. The very mountains on the horizon bad become dear, and the country had something of briery wildness and sweet freedom about it that her own home, situated in ono of the trim flower garden counties, seemed to lack. But did she care for Mr Crichton ? That was tho very thing she had been asking herself for days without getting any settled answer.

"And if I lovod him I should not be in doubt," said Alberta to herself.

What she did know was that she did not want to love him. It would be so ridiculou", such a timo ending to a enroer that had renlly had brilliancy and prestige about it — a bucolic wooing! lovo among the buttercups ! Why, her father had snid to her almost with his parting kiss—

" Now, of course, tlint neighbour of Hinxman's will fall in love with you, und I daresay we shall have you settling down after all as an Arcadian shepherdess ! " And she wou'd so like to go back and cay to him —

"Here I am! no Arcadian shepherdess after nil— only your own old torment baok again ! "

Then Emily had, of course, shown overy card in her hand tho very first ovening of Alberta's arrival, and Mr Crichton, although really unconscious of the plot, had followed her lead from tho beginning. It would bo so dreadfully prosaic to fall in like a raw schoolgirl to such palpable Bcheming, and Eav a ready "Yes " to tlio first " Will you? " 'Alberta felt inclined to bo a 9 provokingly impracticable as the horee that stands still until the groom is close to him, only to show him, at the Just momont, a clean pair of heels as ho puts tho field again between them.

Well, if she did not love him, that was the easy course to pursuo aud disappoint tliom nil. If, on the other hand, she did love him, she could quite fancy, like one who finds freodoin in restraint and liberty in law, how tho tamo ending might unfold a piquancy and grace passing the romance of novel-writer or poet. She sat dreaming of it for a few moments, looking at tho May wilderness before her with a strange feeling at her heart, and then she thought, whnt if she ever came to deem those mountain barriers prison walls ? If tho quiet country life became commonplace and dull ? And if she had not enough love for Mr Orichton to sustain her through the 3G5 breakfasts to bo faced together yearly, which some ono warns us to bear in mind in our ideal views of matrimony ? The glass door suddenly opened, and Mr Crichton himself, with his mission written on his faeo, asked permission to join her on tho balcony. If Mr Crichton'B face betrayed his mission, ho had come there quite prepared to follow up the mute appeal by word of mouth.

" Emily has sent him on purpose," thought Alberta, but she was wrong, for he had himself espied her from afar and closed with the opportunity there and then. They were quiet and undeniably alone, all except a doll left by ono of tho childron in a corner of tho balcony, who stared at them in unblinldngastonishment. He went to tho point aNaage with a directness that made Alberta's fencing Bomowliat difficult, and with the eloquence which n manly naturo thoroughly in earnest seldom fails to find. Ho was some ten years older than Alboita, and nothing very wonderful perhaps — neither tall as a dragoon, handsome as Apollo, nor witty as Horatius FlncCU3. But any physiognomist would hnvo said at a glanco his face was a good one, tho cyo and emile mo9t notably so, and ono might well bolievo that to the woman who loved him ho would be, in life or death, worthy of her devotion. Something of this was in Alberta's mind, but was she tho woman to whom Mr Crichton would bo all in all ? It was very important to bo sure of that.

110 was saying, " This cannot bo a Burprife to you, for 1 have let you see my intontions plainly, and Mrs Hinxman too." " I do not soy it is wholly a surpriso," said Alberta, who had boon zigzagging, so to speak, in her replies ; so soon as she neared one dangerous oxtremo rushing off in tho opposite direction, and then da capo. : A word of contradiction even from tho doll, if it could have Bpokon, might have niado acceptance eaßy and attractive ; without it, it was fiat and tame ; besides, was she not in doubt whether she loved him ? Sho grew pstulant from her uncertainty. " Then surely you can givo mo an answer," said ho ; " there can bo no difficulty in that." " None of course," replied Alberta hastily, " and one thing it is my right to eay~l will not be bothered and worried and persecuted about a thing that is entirely my own conoorn."

" Nevor by me," Enid Mr Clirichton, tho tho smile of a moment ago changing to suddon gravity, "if I am to understand that you look upon my attentions in that light. I love you far too well to give you a moment's pnin. Do you mean that that is your answer ? " Now Alborta's petulance had been, in reality, against Emily and hor own indecision, but, like a pawn at chess, she could not go back. Since, with a mnn's dense stupidity, he had chosen to suggest her answer, lie should even have ib fo. " Yes, that is mv nnswer," said Alberta, with unnecessary vehemence, " and I particularly beg I may hear no more upon tho subject." " That you shall not, bo sure. God help me tj bear tlm as best I may." There was something so simple and manly in the words, so earnest in the tone and look he gave her, that the coldest heart might have been stirred. At this joyful moment tho luncheon- bell clanged out, and Mrs Hinxman, opening the glass door, exclaimed, " Oh, here you are still. Como along if you are ready." Thereby giving fresh evidence of her fitness for matchmaking The governess and children, with Mr Hinxman, awaited thorn in the dining-room, and the meal was got through with the usual amount of conversation. Not that Alberta helped it mucli — a dangerous inclination to cry seemed to threaten her accustomed Eelf-posEession, but she had nothing to complain of in Mr Crichton. Ho covered hor silence, and brought the childron to the surface of the talk, an infallibly successful ruso where parents are concerned. Then, with an easy transition from the subject of toys, " That's right," said he, "you have spoken just in time — tambourine, gun, doll, drum, and toffy. lam going up to London this very afternoon. Has any one else got any commissions for me ? " An exclamation of surprise from Mr Hinx* man, who kept discreetly out of plot » and domestic asides ; a reproachful glance from Emily tb'Alberta. But Mr- Orichton was equal, to the occasion, and had reasons' ready made for change of plans, or aught besides, Ocly, at

he held the door open for the ladies to pass out, in wishing good-bye to Alberta, lie laid a certain grave emphasis on the parting word, that conveyed to her ear, as it was intended, something more than what is usually meant. Emily followed the schoolroom party to give some afternoon orders, and Alberta strayed back to her balcony alouo. The doll wns fltill seated in the corner with his arms straight down and. head thrown back, smiling insanely, probably at at her own good fortune is being a doll, and not a suffering mortal. Alberta sat down, looking at the calm boauty of lawn and field, at the ruggod inountaiu range, and at the Bmoke rising above the troos from the chimneys of Oriohton Court. Its park boundary came close to the Hinxmans 1 lawn, across whioh an oft-trodden patli wound from the house down to a ha-ha, and from the road concealed therein you entered Mr Oriohton's grounds. Nothing could be more peacefully Fair than the scene, and nothing broke the stillness of it except the bees among flower* beds below, and the more distant cries of the lambs playing in frolicsome companies upon the lower lawn. If she did not lovo him, she could remember it all as a picture of idyllic beauty, where a Corydon and Phyllis might well make lovo and woo, and wed, and where Mr Crichton would doubtless soon forget the dissappointment of to-day. If, on the other hand, she 3id love him, that scene might riso up and haunt her some day. Presently Mr Crichton appeared, making his way through the walks past the flower beds and croquet ground to that path across the lawn. He walked on steadily, not once looking back to the house ho had left, with head erect, but with a slower step, for all that, than when ho had come that way in the morning. Alberta looked after him spell-bound. The lawn eloped ; he would soon be out of sight; the ha-ha was reached, and the master of Oriohton Court turned off and vanished from view as he returned to his solitarj homo. And then she was quite sure that she loved him. (To be continued.)