LITERATURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4507, 4 October 1882, Page 4

LITERATURE.

A SUBE SHOT: AN IBIBH BTOBY OE THE PBESENT HOUB. (London Sooiety.) (Continued.) A step or two more, and the dusk seemed lifted s some dark shrubs were passed, and Honora found Bose Murtagh beforo her. Some ont else, too. A small form loitering in the background had trotted up to the side of the woman 5 and little Kitty, bright and elfin-like, fixed her clear eyes on the young mistreis of Killavel. The child was in a " Galway " oloak, and wore no hat. Her hair, too wildly luxuriant to follow any undulations but its own, fell freely on her shoulders, some locks in ourls, others rippling. Her feet were bare, but glistening with dew-drops, and showed a shell- pink colouring beneath a short pettiooat of blue ■erg*. She looked so pretty thus that Honora drew her towards her and kissed her with an impulse of that loving warmth whioh springi spontaneously from the heart, and ignores alike the restraints of place er position. Bose oould only drop curtsey after curtsey. "I'm sure you're too good, miss," she murmured j "Kitty, don't be forward." "Oh, she is doing no harm, Bose," said Honora imiling, and letting the little hands oling to her gown and fur j aoket, and feel their riohneis as they would > "she Is a good little girl, lam sure." " Whiles, Miss. Honora. She has her bouts like another. Bat) there's not a doubt of it the boys tease her terrible." " There are three of them, are there not?" asked Honora. " 'Deed an' no lew, miss. If they was my own I'd say they was a deal too many, but one mustn't find fault with what another sets afore us. I'll ask you to 'ouse me for bringin' Kitty along of me the day, mistress, but I was afeard to leave the lass «ith her brothers. There'd be arow in no time." "I am very glad to see her," interposed Honora 1 "were you going aa far as the house P" " I jest was, miss, but I needn't now. 'Twas only about tbe five pounds, to pay baok the lend you were so good aa to make us," and Bose's hand went np to the oheek handkerohief that always guarded hor treasures safer than a fine lady's purse. "No, no, Bose, don't think of this," said Honora quiokly 1 "you have heard of my marriage, iam sure— that lam leaving Killavel to-morrow P I shall be so glad if you will keep this little sum as a parting gift from your old mistress. It was right of you to pay the rent j that aot in itself gives me thanks enough." But Bose Murtagh oould not think this. Bhe was profuse in the outpourings of her gratitude and her praise of the young lady's goodness 1 and the ebullition reaohed a height when Honora invited her and Kitty up to the house to sco the wedding-dress aud other preparations for the coming festivities. The beautiful satin robe was shown last to admiring eyes. It wbb lying on a long sofa-oouoh in Honora's dressing-room, just where the maid had laid it down after her young lady had inspected it. Honora had not that devotion to finery whioh would set it apart as a thing not to be eyed or handled. She be* trayed no symptom of panio therefore when Kitty approaohed and put a plump finger on the glossy fabric. Bose nevertheless soreamed, and in polling the ohild baok something was shaken from the folds of the Batin. Honora took it up. "Oh, it is only a scrap of paper whioh Mr Carolan dropped when he was here to-day," she said, and quietly Smoothed out the orushed surface 1 " I suppose I let it fall inadvertently as I was examining the dress before." She had not looked at it until now, and saw for the first time that the inside was no blank, as she had thought. Gaiing intently, a sudden ohange eamo across her face. A moan, rather than a cry, parted her lips, and she turned white as death. Something only too horribly dear was traced npon the sheet. It was a rude sketoh, bat the bold blaok strokes were unmistakable in the form they took. They indicated a coffin. Underneath was a line or two of writing t "You've had you're last warnin'. 'Twill be a buryin'— no weddin' the morrow." Honora seemed paralysed. She did not move or relax her hold of the paper, but gradually a more deadly faintness crept over her. Bhe was about to totter, when Bose sprang to her side. " Mistress 1 dear, darlint mistress I what is it P" Honora clung to her, and in a wild agony of terror, words at last found utterance. " Look, look ! Oh, is it murder i- meant P What ah all Ido P How oan I save him P" Bose Murtagh had given but a glance, but her eyes distended in horror. She asked — ahe needed to ask — nothing. Dreadful suspicion — more than that, a certainty — pointed to orime indeed, and to the hand that should be stained with it. She saw it already reddened before her. It was that of her husband 1 Instantly she was rushing from the room. Then she stopped. " Where iB he P where is Mr Hugh P " she oried ; " send after him, miss, darlint. Don't lose a seoond I" "But he knows, and he haß not heeded," begin Honora 1 " we are too late I Oh, Bose, Bose 1 " The woman no longer heard. She had fled, followed by the ohild j and quickened by another's rapidity to a sort of despairing aotion on his own side, Honora sprang to the bell, ordered the swiftest horses to be put immediately to the carriage, and long before it oould be round, was standing at the window ready dressed for departure. Her father at the moment oame into the room. "What is this, Honora P " he said • " where are you going to P " In a seoond she had told him all. "Oh, father, when oan we reach it? We must drive instantly to Ballymourne," she pursued. " Yes, yes," interposed the colonel briefly ; " but not you, my ohild. I Bhall be quioker alone. I will take the taxcart." " But I muat go," murmured Honora, and there was something so steadfast in the fixed pallor of her looks, in the dull agony of her tone, that none could gainsay her. A few instants later, and she was in the oarriage with her father. They started rapidly, the horses were urged to their utmost speed, but it was a long drive of nearly three hours, and tho dask had ohanged to the blackness of sight ere the distant town oould bo gained. Drawing np before a tall gaunt house, with a lhabby signboard above designating it as an inn, Colonel Wylde leaped from the carriage. A hurried question brought as prompt an answer, "Mr Carolan had left hours ago." "But howP whioh wayP" oalled out the gentlemen } " wo have oome direot, passing byEoxmount. There is only the one main road." He had ridden aoross the fields, they learnt then, and would probably follow a short out known as Moss lane, which led to the gate of Foxmount. It was impossible to pursue his traok here, and the colonel tried to oonvinoe Honora that, forewarned as he had been, Hugh had ohosen this unfrequented route with the intent of baffling any ainiater designs pointed against his safety. " Oh, why did he goP Why did he leave meP" was all ahe oould murmur in the anguish of her miad. " I suppose the business was imperative, in view of his prolonged abaenoe from home," returned her father j " and you see, Honora, there was no reason why he should mind the £ resent threat more than another. There aye been many futile ones, os he told you. Why should he fear this?" "But I fear it," she said wildly j " oh, father, father, hasten back. Take me to Fo. mount 1 Let me see him 1 ob, if he is lifing, let me see him." Col. Wylde, while ho tried to re-assure his daughter, was not without some nervous anxiety himself, and he at once gave the ordor as she wished. Carolan's property was a mile nearer to Ballymourne than Killavel, and a short sweep from the main road led direot to its entranoe gates. But the distance could not be traversed under a space of two hours. It was now about eight o'olook, but no moon had risen, and the air, though free from raindrops, was dull and weighty. Honora, sitting ipeeohleas in the baok of tho carriage, started evor and again, but it was only in view of some inner phantom. Sho appeared to know already that erery effort was Tain, that her fato was even now sealed. She could not separato it from that of her loved one. In life or death he was hers, and sho felt aa if her own heart muat stop as hia gavo ita laat boat. When Bose had quitted Killoyel House eho ran breathlessly to her own home. Something as actual as physical force drove her panting, terrified, exhausted, to tho threshold of the little hut in the hollow. Her husband was within. She saw him stooping over tho hearth, and raking up the turf ashes to kindle bis pipo. Bhe was in time ; and sho oould euro him yet. From the instant that Bho had deaoried the paper in Miss Wylde's hands droad had taken pOßsession of her. Sho knew the writing aB tbat of her husband, and seized in a lightning flash the significance of muoh whioh had lately passed. Now she understood it all. Ho had atoned for tho orime of satisfying the demunds of law by setting himself in mortal antagonism to it, Life-blood was to pay for an imagined

wrong, and his was to be the hand to shed it. Yet a moment or two, and Bose entered. Luke started aB tho door swung baok, and fixed his eyes on the flushed and still agitated form of the woman. " Where hey ye been to P" he asked roughly 5 " the boysis rampant fur their supper j I sent them out to have Borne peace. Did ye take Kitty along of you?" "Yes ; she's comin' after, but I run faster. Oh, Luke, Luke, I got such a fright!" She had not thought to tell him, but in the oonfusion of the moment all escaped her j and then, taking a step nearer to her husband, she laid her hand on his arm. " You'll not leave us the night?" Bhe said} "sit down, man, and I'll make the tay in no time. Ivo a out of bacon fur ye, too, an' I oan fry up the cold potaties." " I'm off, BoBe," he interposed, and his tone, though gentler, had the dull quiet of resolve; "but get the supper fur yersolves. Don't wait 3 I may be late." She watched him narrowly. He had his pipe lighted now and put to his lips 5 hut Btill he del»yed. He Bought something, for she saw hia eyes lowered, then raised furtively, as if in the desire to evade her glance and impatient of its observance. For a second she averted hen, stooped to push baok a fagot from the hearthstone, and instantly locked round. Her pulses leaped. Luke Murtagh had his hand thrust into a nook beneath the cottage thatch. It was withdrawn, but he held something in it j there was the gleam of metal. With one bound she was beside him, and saw that he had grasped a revolver. Sho threw her arms about him. With a strain on every nerve in her frame, she poured forth her entreaties, adjurations. "Luke, Luke, you'll never do it! Think of me darlint. MiBS Honora! She that's bin that good to us ! My eyes is still restin' on her weddin'-dress as she showed it so glad an' proud-like j is it to a shroud you'd turn it P Oh, man dear— you that have a wife and childer— you must have some heart in ye " "What d'ye know, what d'jje say, woman P" and Luke, releasing himself with difficulty, stood baok a pace. "Ye can't deny it, not with that oruel thing in jet hand I Oh, what did he ever do, how did he ever hurt us, that poor dear Mr Hugh should be a marked man P His father afore him was good to ye. I've heard ye tell of the same. Could ye lie happy in yer bed ; could ye e'er get God's blessed rest agin if ye sent an innocent soul to his last sleep P " Bose shuddered. She had conjured up already a ghastly vision, a pursuing phantom, and a ohill of icy horror ran through her veins. "See," she cried, " I will kneel to you, Luke 1 Did I ever do that afore P Would Ido it -now but to says ye from bloodstains, from the blaok blot of murder P " (To be continued). —^ —^— _— _-^^