LITERATURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7181, 4 June 1891, Page 1

LITERATURE.

THE MUQADDAM OF SPINS. " A mote dancing in a snulxjam— tlie sun has act — the mote is gone — whither ? — into n brother's eyo jorchanoe. Well; if he be a frnc brother, it is safer there than in the sun."--Diiu''iib'< t !t i W s ' by <m Vtterer. We all belong, consciously or unconsciously, to the Society for " Protection Against the Unknown." Dogs sniff at newcomers. We Bhrink from death, from unfamiliar names, from new authors. | With crafty, half-averted eye we scan the titles of books, of magazine articles, and, repelled by a new combination of letters, we elect to pass by on the other side. Now, before the wary reader has had time to withdraw that cautions, suspicions eye from this page, let me hasten to fix and perchance soften it by explaining that *' The Muqaddam of Spins/ in AnsjloIndian parlance, only means "The Chief of Spinisters "— fioss, more in virtue of years, and " far-off, old unhappy things, and battles long ago," than in virtue of social position. She whose story is here told was endowed at birth with gifts and graces not a fewbeauty, wit, good nature ; a charming voice and a grand talent pour lasocieto ; a moral nature, the toxture of which was not perhaps as tough as oosoanut fibre, but which might wear well, if no great strain ■were put upon it ; and a heart as true as 3fcael. Bufc, alas ! who must coeds step in at her christening but the invisible, uninvited, malicious fairy godmother !— her decree beiDgr that saddest of all mortal decrees — " Of love that never found its earthly close." " To love and to ride away " was to be the rule of the road for all the girl's suitors." " Gall the child Pipette, and take that bottle of Fer Bravaia oui; of the room, and never let mo ees ifc again. As for the doctor, he'a the image of a duck-billed platypud." So spoke Mrs Trenchard to her attendant, while the little French ■doctor, in coat lined with otter skin, stood grimacing on the hearth rug. Mrs Trenchard wa3 lying in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, her four-months-old infant was lying in the Valley of the Shadow of Life — I know not which the darkest. "Mais, Madame, I'affaiblissement est extreme" and the little doctor advanced murmuring, "fer bravaisel la Pipette;" but Mrs Trenchard turned her face wearily to the wall. A week later a .mound in a French cemetery hid les beaux restes de Mrs Trenchard, whose play of humour and handsome face had made a striking personality in the world in which she lived, and Pipette wa3 handed over to the care of an easy-going, scheming married cousin, Mrs Candy, who allowed the child to grow up in her own nursery, sent her at the age of ten to a second-rate school in Brussels, and ab eighteen fetched her home to Weedington to enjoy the social amenities of a garrison town. Here Pipette danced, flirted, picnicked, rode to hounds when friends gave her a mount, and got herself well, or rather ill, talked about. Poor little Pipette! Mirth loving, mirth provoking, she was an attractive mark for men's admiration and women's envy. Something of her history, as years went on, may be gathered from the desultory remarks of friends, (sic.) "Oh yeß," Mrs A. would say ; " Pipette Tranohard was engaged- -yean and years ago to Frank Soiners, but he broke off owing to some fracas about marriage settlements. Her solicitors, Mum and Budget, thought him grasping, but I forget the outs and ins." "I knew her first when Charlie Besßborough, now Lord Aldine, was paying her great attention," said Mrs B. "He was on the verge of declaring himself when Mrs dandy spoilt all. She locked them into the conservatory the night of the Pelham dance and lost the key. Charlie lo3t his temper — didn't propose, Mrs Candy had out-manoeuvred herself, and Pipette suffered." "Bufc Mrs Candy's most unscientific atroke was played in the Ferrers' affair," added Mrs Z. Marmaduke Ferrers had in truth loved the girl, and Pipette had given him her heart. No word had yet been spoken, but Captain Ferrers' whole being was centring round the thought of Pipette as a wife. She was not his ideal woman; her surroundings offended his taste. Many things in her manner, in her character, jarred upon his finer sense. But he loved her, and saw her adaptability and chameleonlike capacity for taking on the colour of her environment. He also believed in his own inherent power to raise her to and keep her at a higher level of oulture and refinement than she had yet reached. "We must go to town soon for the day, Pipette," said Mrs Candy ; " I've got to be fitted by Mrs Bracegirdle. I shall drop you out at Marmaduke Ferrers' rooms and be back in twenty minutes to lunch there. I'll send him a line to say we're coming." The line was forgotten, but the two ladies started for town next day. Pipette ■was set down at 9, Jertayn ecreefc, while her cousin •went on to Mrs Bracegirdle's. •Captain Marmaduke Ferrers was at home, having just breakfasted, He saw Pipette «nter with astonishment, deepening into annoyance. She attempted to explain, then grew defiant before his frigid manner. And when Mra Candy entered breathless from the hands of her dressmaker an hour late 6he found Harmaduke «oldly supercilious and the girl half frightened, half indignant. " I see you continue to worship at the ahrine of the great God Hugger Mugger," he said as he handed the ladies into their hansom. "Oh! what have I done?" whispered Pipette, with sad besoeching eyes. "It's not what you have done — it is what you are," and he bowed with a chilling, sarcastic air. Pipette saw no more of Marmaduke. His regiment was ordered to Canada, and Pipette herself went out to India to live •with her half brother, Richard Trenchard, fifteen years her senior. Mr Trenchard belonged to the uncovenanted Civil Service, and was full of the grievances of that longsuffering body. He was entirely departmental, and entwined from top to toe in blue tape, (I think I am right in saying that the uncovenanted C. S. are not allowed to use red tape.) He was a tall, pale, Btifi man, without the faintest sense of humour, ■with an aggrieved tone in hia voice a3 of one who had been sinned against past forgiveness. He had a way of turning hia head and shoulders when addressed, as if he were carved out of one solid biock of ■wood, and had no pivot on which his neck could revolve. Pipette became very popular at Kalijigaum, which is a largo civil and military station in the Deccan. She was invited ■everywhere, and often seemed on the verge of marriage, when suddenly her=. gourd would wither in a night— the desire of hei «yes become the desire of other eyes. The blight of the fairy godmother came to blaal all her buds of hope. Pipette was evei ready to flirt with the Commander ii Chief, to drive with the Collector's lonelj wife— he had only one, but a great manj people in India have more, it's only a ques tion o£ pigment; and skewas equally readj to sit up at night with the Americai missionary's sick baby while the worn-ou mother and ai/a/islept. Pipette came very near marrying Majo Fazakerly of tho Artillery— very, ver; near. But he happened to overhear he mimicking hia bad Hindustani to Captaii Dafter, the Persian interpreter and hi

vanity being greater than his love swamped it, and Pipette was left lamenting. Tears rolled on, and her hair, which was of that wavy silver-gold not often seen, showed more of the silver and leas of the gold, and the olender figure waß growing set and plump. Bat still Pipette, looked young and debonnaire. "The Muqaddam of Spins haa gone like Jephthah's daughter, to bewail her spinsterhood upon the mountains," wrote Mr Hoßkins, the Judge, to his wife at home. Pipette and her brother had gone up to the charming hill station of Tundarat to spend the hot weather. " Richard, when I die you are to be sure to put ' Pipette, Muqaddam of Spins/ on my tombstone, and nothing else, mind," said Pipetto, one morning at breakfast. " A woman of your age shouldn't talk nonsense," replied Mr Trenchard testiiy, turning Mb head and shoulders en masse toward Pipette, and looting out through her at the distant view. It was a way he had. He never looked at anybody, but always through or beyond. It was very aggravating, and made people long to pull his nose or his hair, or to 3trike him across the mouth with the back of the hand, or offer some other atrocious indignity. " A woman come to your years, I repeat, should not talk foolishly. I hope you and I have other and more useful thiug3 to think of than our tombstonee." Then rising, he walked with his deliberate step and air of protest toward his office, -which was at the end of the verandah, in a small detached bungalow. " If my age is so prodigious, what must your own be, my good man !" laughed Pipette. Poor Pipette ! she was feeling very sore at heart that day — for- she had just heard thab Marmaduke Ferrers wasm Tundarat on a month's leave. His regiment was in the Deccan, and he had come up to share The Hermitage with his friends, the Oakleys. Rumour said he admired Kate Oakley — a handsome gypsy-dark girl, just fresh from home. Colonel Ferrers was now fifty, and his hyacinthine locks were beginning to thin on the temples and turn gray. I "It must be Panorama Point to-day," cried Kate. She was mounted on Hyder, a Kabul pony, and was waiting the escort of Colonel Ferrers for au afternoon ride. " Old Silver is game for the dizzy steep, ißn't he ?" The Colonel assented, not quite certain that old Silver's master was equally "game." Marmaduke was feeling the effects of climate. " We shall have to go in Indian file most of the way, which is a position I ahall find distinctly tantalizing with Miss Oakley for my companion," said he. " Well, you must be content to follow the leader to-day ;" and Kate set off at a smart pace on her sturdy cob, followed by the white charger. (To be continued.)