THE TIGER'S EYE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5649, 19 June 1886, Page 1

THE TIGER'S EYE.

Colonel Vandeleur was an officer who, more tan once, had done a good deal more than smell powder. As a mere boy, fresh from Eton, he went out straight to the Crimea, and got his first promotion for heading a little party of volunteers who ♦aptured a rifle-pit, and from it turned the enemy's line by taking them in flank. Thia distinguished service had marked him out very early in his career, and he was one of those interest at the Horse Guards had "been strictly due to personal merit, and not to private influence. At the time of onr story he was still in the prime of life, capable of any amount of jkardship and fatigue, a keen sport-man, and, among men at anyrate, a universal favourite. Nor were his good looks spoiled zn any way by his glass eye. Some Band, thrown up by a Eu6sian shell which had Irarst in the trenches, had struck him in the face, and his right eye had to be sacrificed. In its place he carried an eye of glass, which waa perfectly well matched, aoid almost defied detection, hia own features being, as a rule, if not exactly stolid, certainly very far from vivacious. He had made bnt one mistake in life. At the age of forty-five he had married a girl •f eighteen, and he was now playing Hercules to her Omphale, and the veriest slave of her caprices, down to the slightest detail. The match had been a matter of regret to all hia friends, many of whom iad found that the young wife's intolerable ■elf-assertion and petulance made it almost impossible for them nny longer to see their •Id comrade,-except on rare occasion, at the Clnb. Now, it so happened that the Colonel and his wife were staying at the Bedford Hotel at Brighton, and that Sir Greville Sykes was also fixed in quarters at the Old Ship. Vandeleur and Sykes had known each other for some years, and bo it was only natural that the Vandeleurs coming across Sykea st Mutton's Bhould ask him to dinner, and afterwards Bee a good deal of him, and that they should make up between them, wore or les3, a little party of three. A stroke of luck had befallen Vaadelewr. An old uncle, a retired chief elerk in '•hancery, had died suddenly, leaving him all his money, -iinety-five thousand poundis a very comfortable sum. The sooner you get it out of the hands of fee lawyers . and into -your own, the better. So Vandeleur was always hurrying up to London, and, as he-expressed it, pegging away at the musty old dullards of Lincoln's lan. Fields. One day he had a downright explosion with the second partner ««f the eminent firm of Tail, Tail, Eemainde*, and Tail, and had even gone the length of , threatening to transfer his business to the younger and quicker hands of Messrs Shorturoft and Eaid. Thia 80 terrified the mat of tape, that he not only promised to wind the whole business up in a fortnight, but actmally suggested a cheque for a couple ef thousand pounds for any little immediate needs, and, what is more., drew th* doomment and signed it. " This is jolly," said Vandelaur to hims3elf. "It is now enly twelve, and I aan, •easily be back for dinner." ! So first he drove up to the B__k and taahed the cheque j then he paid the balk of the money into his own Bank; and then he had some sherry and a caviare saadwich at the Bag. Next he strolled up into Bond street and made Borne purchases—some gloves, a bracelet, and a sunshade—for his •wife, together with a most charming silver •chatelaine. And for him£*lf, half a dose* boxes -of cigars, and a walking-stick to which he took a fancy. Then he retocned -to bis Club to lunch. , Being much encumbered with tho dast of travel, he set to work about his a-lo-tions in earnest, and before conuaeaciiig them removed his glaee eye. It somehow slipped through his fingers, fell with a -crash on the stone floor, and splintered into a thousand fragments. Now, it is not so easy, as Vaadeleor knew, to get a glass eye at a miaate's notice. 3"ou must devote a ntoraiag to the carrying ont of such a matter, and have your own eye very carefully matched. It is as troublesome an undertaking as a -visit to your dentist. So he resolved to make a Becond visit to Londoa next week, -and bring up his wife, with eurte bUinmlie to ransack Bond street and Begeat street on her own account. Meantime, ke hor_*ied round to the eminent taxidermist who had always set up all his big game for him, and explained his position. " I don't want to go down te Brighton ■with a green patch, you kuow," ho observed. " What can you do for ma f" "We don't keep human eyes, sir. Tea should go to an optician's or a aargtc-l instrument-maker's." " So I will when I am next ia towa, or will come up on purpose to de it. Sal I've only twenty minutes in which to eatea my train, so you must fix me np somehow." The shopman hesitated, but at last produced a box with trays full of eyes of every kind. One was at last selected which itted fairly well. "It will do," Baid the Colonel, as he looked at himself in the glass. "At all events, it is better than nothing. Tf hat beast was it meant for t" The Colonel laughed as he took his change. *' Begad, I ought to have knowa it/' said he, " without being told* If aayone know- a tiger's eye, if s your hamble servant. I've shot them, ah I hy the soore, the brutes." The shopman thought hia eaaUmer was bouncing, and waa jast aboat to giggle, when he suddenly looked at the Colonel, seemed to catch an awkward expression ia hia features, «»* recovcre* bin-self abruptly. . ... Away rattled Vandalenr ia a gmok hansom to Victoria. " Drive sharp,'* he said. When deposited at the station, he tendered the Jehu hia legal fare. The fellow looked at it in disgust. "Why, whafo thisf he was beginning, when he saddealy aee-jed to think better of it. " Beg your nardon, air; I was athinkimr it was froa. Gamberwell." And he clambered into his seat, and went meditativelr away. '* I'd as Boon drive the devil hiaß-lf," he said, when he joined his Meads <m ttie rank. "It was awfnl. Talk of Mr Newfield ' He can look at you and reckoa yo« xm he can. Bnt no beak in London's ia it with thia cove. * Six months.' I heard him aay. Leastways I heard Jm look ft. That's to say, I see him look it." Innocent of all thi_, tne Colonel purchased an ao3ort_-ont of papers aad seated himself in a carriage. It was a very odd thing, he thought Actually a lady who wasin the same compartment whispered something to her husband ra a state of great excitement The gTuri was BumSwned, and they tr*nsf«red themselfee to another carriage. » A carious businee 3 said the Colonel; "they can't talra me for the ghost of Lefroy. 1, Then tne train started, and he settled down to his papers. From the station he drove fco the Bedford, telling the porter to bring of> his packages. His wife was eeated m tte window, bnaied with Ouida's latest effort of

' imagination. She jumped np and oame to . meet him. j " I waa wondering when you would 1 return." ahe said. "I thought perhape j you might stop and dine at your Club, and eome down by the last train, or perhape to-morrow morning." "Why should you think thatP" he ! asked, nob at all unnaturally. It was annoying, when he had come down with a lot of presents for her, that she should not , be more cordial in her welcome. j She looked at her husband for a moment, ! made a step towards him, then turned ! round, threw herself upon the sofa, and burst into tears. ! "0, don't kill me! Don't kill me! Pre been dreadfully wicked, horribly wickedj 1 but don't kill me !" i * * # * * I Colonel Vandeleur went back to town that night by the late express, and took up hi. quarters at an hotel in Jermyn street much frequented by him in _,_= bachelor days. Next morning he received a short letter from his wife, which was at once incoherent and yet explicit. Also it ■ was truthful, which her letters, aa a rule, were not. He meditated a good deal and went ' round to Lincoln's Inn Fields. Then he 1 went to the clnb, hunted oat an old friend, and took him to dinner. They dined ttte-a-I Hie in a private room, and sat talking , until very Bmall hour- of the morning, , The consultation over at last, the Colonel i wrote a letter, and a confidential clerk [ from the offico of his solicitors took it down ! next morning to Brighton to make sure oi ' personal delivery. J "At my time of life lam averse to a scandal, nor have I any wish to marrj [ again. I have no secrets and no attach- . ment or even an ordinary entanglement j that I have hidden from you. Tour position | will not be affected. Tour settlements will : remain as they are. But I impose one j condition on you. Tou will have to live J at Southwold, whether you like the place . or not, and I forbid you to leave it even for ! a day, except by the written orders of my J doctor, who will at any time come <Jown, ( from London to Bee you. t "I mav also tell you that your move- ! ments will be duly and regularly reported jto me. A day will be enough for you tc j make your arrangements. On any business : matter, however small, yoa may write to mj solicitors. { " There is thus nothing that need trouble you. For myself, I am leaving England, and have no fixed plans. If you write to J me, I shall refer the letter to my solicitors, ; bo that you may spare yourself all attempts jto shake an irrevocable determination. ; Were you not a Protestant, I should advise ' yon to go to a convent. As it is, I have done the next best thing for you. • " CH-RLBS V_J»D___rtJß." * # # * e Mrs Vandeleur i_ much -respected at South wold, where the curates and the old : maids compare her troubles and Borrows to J those of poor dear Lady Byron. She ia very , charitable and immensely energetic, and on j minor points of, pariah administration the j rector defers to her. Colonel Vandeleur himself is yachting and shooting, not extravagantly at all, but 'in true sportsmanlike fashion. His hair i_ grizzled, but he is still erect as a dart.