LITERATURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4868, 6 February 1894, Page 1

LITERATURE.

ALL ALONG THE RIVER.

[BY MIBB M. B. BRADDON.j .Author of "Lady Audley's Secret," " Aurora Floyd," "The Cloven Foot." " Dead Men's Shoes," &c, &c. (Copyrighted.) Chapter XVI. "no budden fancy of an ardent boy." It was Christmas eve. All things were arranged for departure on the twentyseventh, which would give time for their arrival at San Eemo.cn New Year's Diy. They /were to travel by easy stages, by Amiens, Bale, and Lucerne. A good deal of. luggage bad been sent off in advance, and trunks and portmanteaux were packed ready for the start, so that the travellers could take their ease during the few days Of Christmas church-going and festivity. laola's spirits had improved wonderfully since the journey had been decided upon. "It 'seems like beginning a new life, Martin," she told her husband. "I feel ever so much better already. I'm afraid I'm an impoßtor, and that you are taking a great deal of unnecessary trouble on my account." It was ench a relief to think that Bhe would Bee Vaneittart Crowthex no more, that Bhe (Sould wander where she pleated without the hazard of meeting that satyrlike countenance, ' those pale protruding eye' 3, with malevolent Btare— such, a relief to know that she would be in a strange fclace, where no one would know anything, about her; or have any inclination to gossip about ner. Something of her old gaiety ftndintereßt in life revived at the prospect of thoße new surroundings. •' * They wera W put up at an hotel for the first few. days soas to 'take their time in looking lor a villa. Two servants were to go with them — the Colonel's coachman and handy-man, who was an old soldier, and could turn his hand to anything in house, or stable or garden; and the baby's 'nurse, a 'somewhat masterful person" of seven-and-twenty, from the Fatherland, sarrtamed Grunhaupt, but known in the family b? her less formidable domestic diminutive Lotfcchen. Other hirelings would be obtained at San Eemo, Wt'theae two were indispensable — Holford, the coachman, to bear all burdens, and Lottchen to take charge of the baby, to whom life was supposed to be impossible in any other care. : > It was Christmas Eve — the mildest Christmas that had been known for a long time, even in this sheltered corner of the coaat. Allegra had been busy all the morning, helping in the church decorations, and co-operating with Mr Colfox in various arrangements for the comfort of the very did and feeble, and the invalids, among the cottages scattered over the length and breadth of a large parish. She had walked a good many miles, and she had stood (or an hour in the church, toiling at the decoration of the font with Christmas roses, fernß, arbutu«, and berberis while the Miese3 Crowther lavished the riches of the Glenaveril hot-houses gfetpon the pulpit, keeping themselvGß studiously aloof from Miss Leland. Not a jot cared Allegra for their reserve. She disliked their father, and she knew that her brother detested him, without having any clear idea of the cause. She was so thoroughly loyal to Martin that she wonld have deemed it treason to like anyone whom he disliked; so had the daaghtera of Glenaveril been the most lovable young women in Cornwall, she wonld have considered it her duty to hold them at arm's length. Glenaveril and all its belongings were tabooed. . She was very tired when she went home at four o'clock, just on the edge of dusk here— pitch dark.no doubt, in London and other gteat cities, where the pcor, pinched facß3 were flitting by in the fitful glare of the gas, intent on buying a Christmas dinner to fit the slenderest resources. Here, in this quiet valley, the reflected Bun-glow still brightened sky, sea, land and river, and the lamp had not yet been lighted in the hall or drawing-room at the Angler's Nest. There was a pleasant alternation of firelight and shadow in the long double room, the flames leaping up every now and then, and lightiag wall and bookcase, picture and bust, the Mandarin jars, and the golden storks on the black Japanese screen ; but it waa uuch a capricious light that it did not show her someone sitting in the room, in Martin Disney's deep elbow chair, a peraon who sat and watched her with an admiring smile, as she flung . off her little felt hat and far cape, and stretched her arms above her head in sheer weariness, a graceful, picturesque figure, in her plain brown serge gown, belted round the supple waist and clasped at the throat, like Enid's, and with never an ornament except the oxydised silver clasps, and the serviceable chatelaine hanging at her Bide. The tea table was set ready in front of the fire, a large Egyptian brass tray on bamboo legs. But there was no sign of Isola; so Miss Leland poured out a cup of tea and began to drink it, still unconscious of a pair of dark eyes watching her from the shadow of tho big arm chair. "And am I to have so tea, Miss Leland ? " aßked a voice ont of the darkness. Allegra gave a little scream, and almost dropped her cup. " Good gracions !" she exclaimed. " How can you startle anyone like that P How do you know that I have not heart diaease ? " " I would as soon suepact the goddess Hygeia of that, or any other ailment," said Captain Hulbert, rising to his full six feet two, out of the low chair in the dark corner by the bookcase. v Forgive me for my , bearishness in sitting here while you were in the room. I could not resist the temptation to sit and watch yon for a minute or two while yon were unconscious. It was like looking at a picture. While you are talking I am so intent upon what you say, and what you think, that I almost forget to consider what you are like. To - night I could gaze undistracted." " What absolute nonsense you talk," said AUegfa, with the sugar tongs poised above the basin. " One lump— or two ?" " One, two, three— anything you likeup to a million." " Bo yon know that you nearly made ma break a taa-cup-rone of mother's dear old Worcester tea-cups ? I should never have f orßiven you." " But yoa forgive_ me for my stolen contemplation, for sitting in my corner there aad admiring yon in the firelight ?" " Firelight is very becoming. No doubt I looked better than in the daytime." "And you forgive me ?" " I suppose bo. It is hardly worth while to be angry with you, I shall be a thousand miles away next week. Icoull not carry my resentment so far. It would cool on the journey." "A thousand miles is not far for the Vendetta, Miss Leland. She would make light of crossing the Pacific— for a worthy motive." " I don't know anything about motives ; but I thought you were fairly established at the Mount, and that you hod ma^e an end of your wanderings." " The Mount is only delightful— l might cay endurable— when I have neighbour j at the Angler's Nest." "Martin will let this house, pfrh.ii.e, and you may find his tenants pleusaat aeighbours." "I am not like the domestic cat. It is

not house 3 I care for, but people. My affections would not transfer themselves to the now tenants." " Eow caa you tell that ? You think of them to-night aa strangers — and they se9m intolerable. You would like them after a weeli, and be warmly attached to them at the end ot a month. Why, you bave known us for leas than three months, and we fancy ourselves quite old friends." "Oh, Miss Leland, is our friendship only fancy ? Will a thousand miles make you forget me ? " "Xo, we could not any of us be so ungrateful as to forget you," answered Allegra, struggling against growing embarrassment, wondering if this tender tone, these vague nothings, were drifting 1 towards a declaration, or were as simply meaningless as much ot the talk between men and women. "We can't forget how kind you have been, and what delightful excursions we have had on the Vendetta." " The Vendetta will be at San Eemo when you want her, Allegra. She will be aa much at your command there as Bhe has been here; and her skipper will be as much your slave as he is here — a3 he has been almost ever since he saw your face." This wa3 not small talk. Thi3 meant something very serious. He had called her Allegra, and she had not reproved him j he had taken her hand and she had not withdrawn it. In the next instant, she knew not how, hia arm was round her waist, and her head, weary with the long day's "work and anxieties, was resting contentedly on hia shoulder, while his lips set their first kiss, tenderly, reverently almost, on her fair broad brow. " Allegra, this means yes, does it not P 6ur lives have flowed on together so peacefully, so happily, since last October. They are to mingle and flow on together to the great sea, are they not, love— the sea of death and eternity." " Do you really care for me ? " "Do I really adore youP Yes, dear love. With all my power of adoration." "Bat.. you must have cared for other girls before now. I can't believe that I am the first." " Believe, at least, that yon will be the f }ast, as you are the only woman I ever .'asked to be my wife." ""Is that really, f e"ally true ?" "It iairue aa the needle Co the north." "Yet they s^y that sailor* — -" . . ; "Are generally -.tolerable dancers, and popular in, a ball-room, especially when they are the gjvers of the ball— that they can talk to pretty, women without feeling abashed— and that they contrive to get through a good deal of flirting . without singeing their wings. I have waltzed with a good many Dice girla in my time, Allegra, and I have Bat out a good many | waltzes. Yet lam here at your Bide, ' honestly and devotedly your own; and I have never loved any other woman with the love I feel for yon. No other woman has ever held my whole heart; no, not for a single hour." " You make nice distinctions/ said Allegra, gently disengaging herself from his arm, and looking at him with a faint shy smile, very doubtful, yet very anxious to believe. "I am dreadfully afraid that all this fine talk means nothing more than you would say to any of your partners, if you happened to be Bitting oat a waltz." : " Should I ask any of my partners to be my wife, do you think ?" - " Oh/ you can withdraw that to-morrow — forget and ignore it. We may both consider it only a kind of under-the-miatletoe declaration, meaning no more than a mistletoe kies. I believe when English people were domestic and kept Christmas, the head of the family would have kissed his cook if he had met her under the mistletoe." " Allagra, ia it not cruel of you to be jocose when I am so tremendously serious ?" " What if I don't believe in your seriously sb?» "Is thia only a polite way of refusing mo ?" he asked, beginning to be offended, j not understanding that this nonsense-talk was a hasty defence against overpowering emotion, that she was not sure of him, and was desperately afraid of betraying herself. "Aml to understand that you don't care a straw for me ?" "No, no, no," she cried, eagerly, "as a friend I like you better than anyone else in the world, only I don't want to give you more than friendship till I can dare to believe in your love." "Prove it, Allegra," he cried, clasping her waist again before she was aware. " Put me to any test or any trial — impose any duty upon me— only tell me that if I coma through the ordeal you will be my wife." " You aro not in a great hurry to fetter yourself, I hope," she said. ' "lam in a hurry — I long for those sweet fetttra by which your love will hold me. I want to be anchored by my happiness." " Give me a year ot freedom, a year for art and earnest work in Italy, a year for Martin and Isola, who both want me, and if this night year you are still of the same mind, I will be your wife. I will not engage you. You may be as free as air to change your mind and love someone else ; but I will promise to be true to you and to this talk of ours till the year's end— one year from to-night" "I accept your sentence, though it is severe ; but I don't accept my freedom. I am your slave for a year. I shall be yoixr slave when the ysar is out. I am yours, and yours alone for life. And now give me that cup of tea, Allegra, which you have not poured out yet, and let ub iancy ouraelves Darby and Joan." " Darby and Joan ?". echoed Allegra, aa she filled hU cap. " Muat we be like that, old and proay. sitting by the fire, while life goes by ua outside ? It seems Bad that there ! Bhould be no alternative between old age and untimely death." "It is sad; but the world is made bo. And then Providence stesps elderly people in a happy hallucination. They generally forget that they are old ; or at least they forget that they ever were young, and they find young people so ineffably silly that youth in itself seems despicable. But we ha 70 a long life to the good, dear love, before the coining of grey haw and elderly prejudices." And then he began to talk of ways and means a3 if they were going to be marriea next week. "We shall have enough for bread And cheese, love," he said. " I am better off than a good many younger sons ; for a certain old grandmother in our family married with a settlement which provided for the ycuaefer braacbes. It is quite posaibla that Lostwithiel may never marry — indeed, be seems to me very decided agaiisat matrimony, and in that case those who come a£tt*r H3 must inheiit title and estate in days to corce." "Pray cbu't talk co," cried Allegra, horrified. "It sounds as if you were speculating upon your brother's death." "On Lo-twithiei'a death. Not for worlds. Gad bleaa him, wherever he may be. You don't know bow fond we two fellows are of each other. Oaly when a man is going to be marrud it faehove3 him to think seriously. I shall have to talk lo t'ao Colonel, remember ; and ho will expect me to be explicit and bc3ine36like." "I hopo you don't think Martin ia lmrconnry." s.'tid Allegrw, " There never whh a iiiH'i ttLo^ct ifts' rilue on money, It WtuMa't cjrtbo any d fft?rei co fo him if i y..u hail not a poany. Anclaai'or nwi, I i have a littlo i&come From my mother — ■ more tb:in esoagh i> buy frocks and thiage j — and U'.yond 'that I can earn my own living. Sj you really needn't trouble youri j aoH about mo."

There was a touching simplicity in her j i speech, mingled with a slight flavour ot audacity, as of an emancipated young 1 woman, which amused her lover, reminding him of a heroine of Murger's, or de i Muaaet's, a brave little grisette, who wbb r willing to. work hard for the manage a deux, and who wanted nothing from her lover but love. He looked into the bright, frank face, radiant in the fire-glow, and he told himself that this was just the one woman for whom his heart had kept itself emnty. like a temple waiting for its god, in all the years of his manhood. And now the temple doors had opened wide, the gates had been lifted up, aad the goddess had marched to her place, triumphant and allconquering. (To be continued.)