LITERATURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 3899, 15 October 1880, Page 4

LITERATURE.

OLOSE QUARTERS : HARBOURING A REBEL. (Concluded). The colonel walked to the front door with his visitor, and came back into tho sittingroom. I know he was thinking, " There ia no way of exit from this room but by the door that I came in by or the closet ; she has the man in there." "These l>c:>l politicians are both low-bred and impertinent," he said as he came back to her ; " there would not be a man with a good coat on his buck at large in Baltimore, if all their denunciations were listened to ; Fanny, he thinkß ill of you ; he thinks yon would compromise your husband ; he says thero is a policeman watching our front door." " Ob, Arthur," cried poor Fanny, " I love you so dearly, indeed I do, and perhaps you •will not believe me! Oh, why did— did he say they would be sure to ha* c* that man, that spy, if they arrested him ?" "Yes, and moßt justly; n ep> deserves no mercy." " Oh ! but Arthur, think of A u re." " Well, Andre had no right i complain ; it was the fato of war ; it was tho stern duty Of Washington." M Yes, dear, everybody says so ; but, Arthur, I have never been able to love Washington since I read that atory ; and the men ■who gave him up— all women always hate them." ■• This is childishness, my dear wife ; would you rather have had West Point taken by the British, Andre triumphant and rewarded, Washington condemned as the traitor?" " No, no, of course not," she sobbed ; "oh Arthur, when I was a child our cat had four yellow kittens ; thoy lived under the porch and were very wild ; but one of them trusted me, and used to come out to me, and I wbb holding it in my arms ono day, when our hired man came out to me, all bloody, with his axe in his hand ; my mother had said they must be killed, and he had cut off the heads of the other threo kittens, and I gave him mine— l let him take it ; I wake up even now Hometimes at night, and rememb.r how cruel I waa to tbat poor little yellow cut ; it Beems something like murder." " Fanny, this is too foolish," s 1 *.l her husband. " I know it, I know it," she replied ; " but I really believe I should lose my reason if I had to do the same thing over again." " Fanny," he sternly, " you forget yourself ; I must remember my duty, whatever you do. After this thero was silence between them. At length the husband said — " I have a long report to writo to-night, Fanny, and acconnts to cast up. I must sit up very late. My poor wife, go to bed." " Yeß, dear," Bhe answered, Bubmisßively. I heard keys -jingling in her key- basket aa ehe moved across the floor. " No, Fanny," said her husbaud, stopping her, "I may want something from the cellaret. Leave me your keys." " You will kill yourself with hard work, let us both go, love." "No, no," said the colonel, "go yourself, you have a headache." "No, Arthur," she answered, "if you sit np, I will stay too." "It is of no use, Fanny," " Still, I wiil stay here." " If I am going to sit up," said the colonel, " I want my slippers." " Let mo get them," ahe cried eargerly. " Sib down." " No, I'll get them myself. They are in the closet, I know. It is locked ? No, I seo that it is not ; the key is in the door." Ho laid his hand upon tho door handle of my place of confinement. For half a moment he hesitated to turn it. I heard Fanny sob. I think she caught him by the arm. "Let me go, Fanny," ho said, impatiently, " I must. You had bettor go away." He threw the door wide open. The gaßlight streamed ia from the Bitting-room. Hho rallied all her strength, and came in after him. Nothing met their eyes but the dresses, the shelves, the rows of pickles and preserves, the broken furniture, the trunks, tho linen in lavender. But standing opposite the door, with itß hinges towards tnem, they might have seen a largo Saratoga trunk, marked on the side, in big **•' ite letters, " Miss Fanny Lewis." Its lid ■». not quite cloßed, the haßp having caught n n the rim. •The colonel drew back. Poor I* ny perhaps fancied I had mysteriously dia:. i ired. They took the slippers from tho !! -, and went into the sitting-room. There i heard her coaxing him to go to bed ; but thero seemed gome hardening of her husband's heart towards hor which chilled her pretty persuasions. , " Fanny," ho said at last, " if you insist on sitting up with me, get me some paper and and inkßtand from your chamber." There was no resisting this request, which he made like a command. She must again have made a movement to pick up her keybasket, and he must again have checked her, for she exclaimed, " Oh ! I forgot ; I beg your pardon," and left the room. The moment she was gone I heard him Tattle the keys. I hoard, too, a click, as if ho ■were engaged in cocking hia revolver. Then he remarked, aloud — "The store-room has no window. I havo him safe. He must Btay there until morning. If a bravo man he will keep quiet. Only a coward wou'l take advantage of her." He pulled o< i his watch. •J3Talf-pa3t twelve," he aaid, as 1. anny camo back again. What agony she in y have felt as she left me without protec: m, and her j husband exposed to my attack if I were armed! " Here is paper and ink," she said. " Now go to bed, darling." "No, love; I will ait up here," and ahe took her place upon the sofa. Meantime no words can adequately depict the discomfortß of my situation. I knew perfectly well that the colonel knew where I ■was, and that in good time ho was going to dispose of me. I quite agreed with him that the gratitude to Mra Lewis required me to keep still. I also know that whatever plan he might be laying for my capture was to be done in such a way as to spare his wife a*. much aa possible. I thought that for her sako I had better let him work it his own way. I only trustod I Bhould be ablo to prove to tho provost marshal that I was Major Dangerfield, and not the secret agent I was supposed to be. Meanwhile my physical sufferings were almost unbearable. In the empty Saratoga trunk my position was inexpressibly cramped and painful. I was perfectly conscious that tho slightest noise I made would be heard by the husband and wife in tho Bitting-room, and I was unwilling to disturb any hope the latter might entertain that I -was gone. My plan was to wait till she was out of the way, and then place myself at the disposal of her husband. Meantime a solemn silence seemed to settle on the house and all the neighbourhood. My nerves had become so excited that I could with difficulty keep myself from uttering involuntary cries. Hour after hour I heard the deep cathedral bell. Had it not been for the hope I entertained, in common with the colonel, of saving Fanny's feelings from a shock, and her wifehood from suspicion, I Bhould have come forth at once, and have mada an end of my misery. Sometimes, as all around me seemed so still, I fancied that the married pair had quitted the sitting-room. But I felt that ic I tried to leave the h.us. , watched as I knew it to be, my capture on her door step would compromise her loyalty. Time moved liko eternity. At laßt the morning market waggons began moving, ai d the dawn came peeping into my retnat. There was another violent pull at the street door bell. I hoard the colonel rouse himself to answer it. I heard Fanny start up to her feet, while a coarse voice called out loudly in the passage, "What, up by peep of day, colonel ?" " Yos ; I had a report to write up. Clappole has left everything in disorder." ** I thought I'd let up know, colonel, that that spy wo wero talking of last night is in the hands of tho marshal]. I was mistaken about his being seen about this place. The police got on the track of him last evening, and took him at that nest of seceession, Mrs Charles Garey'e." As the street door closed upon this visitor, I heard Fanny givo a suppreMed sob. "Thon ho was not — him?" said her husband, careless of grammar at that supreme moment of reconciliation. "No, no," she cried; "he said he was a poor prisoner who had jumped off the train." "Poor little Fanny! brave little Fan!" said her husband, and I guessed, though I could not see how he was comforting hor ; " let this bo a lesson to you not to play with treason. Henceforward leave it a'one severely. You must be one with me, de.r wife, and such things aro not allowable in our • osition. Now go and call Bridget, and tell her to get breakfast I must got lo the office early.

1 An' 1 . Far.ny," ho added, "tell her to flip down the "ulley the first thing, and tell Williams, who owns the dray, that when h-j hus harnessed up his horse for his day's work I wish him to back up to our tide door. I im determined to get rid of everything that belongs to my sister Fanny. I'll send her trunk away. I'll clear the houso of treason and secession. Tell Bridget that I say so. It may be a warning to her, love." In half an hour Bridget announced the dray, "Send in my orderly," said the colonel, " and s«e if you can see anything, around the corner, of the policeman!" As Bridget was executing thia order, the colonel entered tho store- room, und clo-ed the spring-lock of the trunk lid. " Have you the key of Fanny's trunk, my love?" " I don't know." "Give it to me," he .aid, decidedly. '* Since your man is not the spy, I share your treason for this once, that henceforth you may always side with me. Ha! policeman," he added, as he threw open tho door of the store-room, which opened on the alley, " will you help the drayman and my orderly to get this trunk of my sister's on the dray ? Sbe ha3 been Brnt south as you know, and I decline to keep her things. Yes, I suspect it may weigh over two hundred pound*. . It is ' powerful heavy,' as you say. But that is the way always with ladies." By this lime I wa-* hoisted on the dray. " Now, Williams," said the colonel to tho drayman, " carry this trunk to Mrs Legrand's. She is a friend of my sister's, and a very Secesh lady. She will no doubt know what to do with it. Take the key, and desire her to open it the moment it arrives. She must find the way to send it to Mi:s Fanny if she thinks it necessary." "All right, sah," cried tho voice of the negro drayman. I fainted, I suppose for want of air, and knew no more till I found myself surrounded by Southern ladies in the back parlour of a house well-known for Southern sympathies and hospitality. I told my name and story, only omitting the adventures of the night in Colonel Lewis' store-room. " But how on earth did you got here in Fanny Lewis' trunk ? The drayman left the trunk and key, with a message that the truuk was to be unlocked immediately." " Ah, ladiea," I cried, " it is too dangerous a secret. I dare not breathe it into the ear of any one of you." " But we know all kinds of dangerous Becrets," pouted one fair lady. " I have no doubt you do, and all Dixie knowa that you can keep them, but this is one you must not aßk me." "I declare that I believe that Colonel Lewis himself had something to do with it." " On my honour, ladies, I never saw Colonel Lewis in my life. What does he look like, anyhow ?" .... The question was nevir answered till about six years later, when I was introduced to Colonel Lewis on Pennsylvania avenue. He took mo to his house in Georgetown, whero I met both the Fannys. It is no disparagement to Mrs Lewis, nor is it base ingratitude, to say that I love the Southern Fanny best, for she has been my wife five year.-, and Colonel Lewis is my brother-in-law.