THE COURTSHIP OF DICK TREVENA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5273, 1 June 1895, Page 3

THE COURTSHIP OF DICK TREVENA.

[BT H. D. LOWEY.!

(Windsor Magazine.)

Tho very name of Ephraim Holloway would be utterly forgotten by this time if j it were not inscribed upon the faces of innumerable tall grandfather's clocks still honestly working in many bouses round about Tallywarn. Yet there wa9 a time when a multitude of young men looked upon him as a person who must by all means be delicately courted, and his utterances received as if they were plainly the last words of Wisdom herself. Ephraim's shop stood in the very centre of Tallywarn where business was chiefly carried on ; bat the windows were so dull in themselves, and so free of any attractions for the wandering eye, that a man might take it he had begun to know the town well when he could swear to the whereabouts of its chief jeweller's shop. The jeweller was, and long had been, a widower, and had only one child, Loveday, for whose sake the young men of the town Bought arduously to secure his approval. She was one of those maidens whom unkindly critics hardly need to slander, yet are quite unable to annihilate. She had, indeed, a pleasing figure, though she was considerably under the average height of women. She carried herself prettily, knew the colours she might wear, and how to place a ribbon ; end her voice was soft. But there was little to say for her hair, and a man might know her a long while and never think of her eyes until there came a day when he met her, talked awhile, and said farewell without regret — and Bhe looked back bb she turned to go, and smiled, without speaking. After that he would scorn the mere idea of criticism, deeming it was sufficient that she was Loveday. And so ehe moved about in the little gay world of Tallywarn, conquering by virtue of no accidents of feature, but simply because she was herself. At last it seemed that she, the conqueror, was captured. She had Bmiled and smiled on Dick Trevena, until the very ground she trod was sacred in his eyes ; for a long time he pursued her blunderingly, as a schoolboy follows a swift and vagrom butterfly upon the moorlands 5 and finally ehe had more than half surrendered. That is to say, Dick believed he had her promise that she would some day be his wife, though he could hardly recall the words with which she had bound herself. As a matter of fact she never trusted to words for the utterance of really important things. Dick was more straightforward : Loveday understood that he waß wholly hers as long as he should live. It will be seen, then, that the lovers were in vastly different positions if ever it should come to any talk of rights, Loveday meant to marry Dick, but in the meanwhile it was necessary to find amusement, and so it not unf re quently appeared that she had forgotten the pledge upon which her lover counted. No one could have suffered more than he did, though perhaps hhv love was all the stronger for the fact that she sometimes chosa to play the butterfly again, and be for the moment ss far beyond his reach as ever. But it was tacitly understood that he had no right to the relief of jealousy. / It Boon appeared, however, that Loveday counted herself very differently circumstanced. Dick happened to possess a very pretty tenor voice. He was in the habit of singing in publio, and once there was a concert at the town hall. The chief soprano was a Mies Jessie Lelant, a tall, dark girl, with splendid eyeß and an infinity of dusky black hair. Loveday looked upon her with i disapproval : there had already been trials of strength in which- she had not alwayß gone unworsted. And Dick sang two duets with Jessie-,. There could be no doubt of the success of the songs ; they wore encored vociferously, and repeated by the vocalists. Dick handed hia partner on to the platform, and again to her seat in the front row of the auditorium, with an absence— or rather a stern suppression- of nervousness under publioity, which made him exceedingly well satisfied with himself. He imagined Loveday's pride aa she watched from the back of the hall, and saw how good a figure he cut.. And when he had made his last appearance on the platform he sought her side. Loveday did not seem to see him at first ; and, when at last he had attraoted her attention, Bhe made a little room for him, and immediately resumed her rapt interest in the music. Dick sat down beside her, glowing with honest satisfaction in his succese, and his present liberty to be with her. " Well," he whi|pered, " did I do all right ? "

And an unkind man might have laughed at the sudden change in his face when Loveday spoke : " Hush ! " she said. " Can't 'ee hear there's someone singing ? " Onoe again she gave all her attention to the music, while Dick sat dnmb beside her. The Binger waß Misa Jessie ; when ehe had finished, her late companion applauded aa in duty bound ; but Loveday, whom the song had so interested, sat still and quiet, and did not tnrn to Dick with the comment which usually came on such occaaions with the first of the applause. And bo things went until the end of the evening. Dick hardly heard the muaio, being only conacioua of the fact that a concert iB a hollow mockery when a man ia full of worda and not allowed to speak. Loveday was silent.

He waa hardly permitted to help her presently, when the National Anthem was being sung, and she struggled with her jacket. It had the prettiest collar in the world, and whan she turned ic up around her ears Dick shivered, feeling it must be very cold outside in the street. Indeed, it wbb chilly at first. And then the young maU-COuldbearw^liejeUeflce_c > o,loQge.r,,

He stopped in the quiet street and faced his sweetheart. " Look ! " he said. " I've done, or said, or looked wrong, somehow. What's the fault this time ? "

AU Loveday'a indignation broke out. " Innocence ! " she cried. " I wonder all the room didn't laugh aloud at you as you stood up there with your * love ' and • dove,' and your 'heart' and ' dart,' and your eyes all the time waiting for a look from Jessie Lelant. How ia it you've time to see me home ? Did you ask leave of her ? Or has she others at hand and no need of you to-night? I'll Bay good-bye here, Mr Trevena ! "

"My dear Loveday ," said Dick in honest amazement. But he could not find words to cope with such a foolishness ; and even if they had come they would have been wasted on vacant air, for Loveday had crossed the street and was making homewards. Her lover watched her until she was out of flight. Then he turned in the direction of his own home. "I wonder what a man can say to a thing like that," he murmured, aa he found hia way to hia bedroom. Now, why Loveday chose to aot as she did act iB beyond explaining. A wise man has somewhere said that the best of women have only impulses for reasons; and Loveday had been passing kind for many days. The astonishing thing ia that the night brought her no fresh wisdom. For Bix interminable days Dick had never the opportunity of a word with her. Once or twice he Baw her, and she swiftly avoided him ; on tho Sunday he watched her unceasingly throughout both services from his Beat in the choir, and could have sworn — with the rashness men use about women— that her eyes were never once allowed to wander in his direction. And then he also was tempted to folly. He was passing by the shop of Ephraim Holloway when he became conscious of two significant faots. Loveday was looking out of the little window above the shopg; while the cause of hio misfortune, Jessie was advancing towards him. She' was looking her very beßt ; he understood in a vagus, impersonal manner that some men might think her pretty. And Jeasie stopped as ahe met him.

" Aren't you coming to the choir practice to-night?" she aaked. "There's a new anthem for the chapel anniversary."

Dick hesitated. " Upon my word," he said, " I had forgotten all about it. I — l have been very busy lately. But of course I amjcoming." He paused aftd seemed about to look at the shop, but did not. " May I walk along with you? " he Baid.

Jessie laughed, and did what he had not done. "Are you allowed to?" she asked provokingly; and without further expenditure of words Diok turned and accompanied her. He "put her home" after the practice that night, and saw much of her in the few weeka that followed. She was very full of sympathy, and yet had skill enough to convey it in such a manner that he half believed the split with Lovoday had been a thing of his own deliberate making. And bo he drifted and drifted; he was for ever hoping that Loveday would say the word which Bhould call him back to her, but she made no sign, and he began to hear himself rallied upon the subject of his inconstancy. "Ah," said a friend of hia mother's, " 80 you've given Loveday the go-by ? 'Tis a shameful thing of 'ee ; but I never thought she was the one for you." And he had no choice but to take the heartrending pleasantry in good part.

He has since been heard to declare that he must have been mad at this epoch; and, if this be bo there may be eome grains of truth in his further statement that he really was upon the verge of asking Jessie to become his wife. But that could never bave happened; " I should never have let it come to that," said Loveday a while ago. " Pride is pride, but I couldn't have Been tbat happen. Besides, the whole thing was as muoh my fault as hia." And she prefers to consider what he would describe as the act of his desperation a piece of transcendent cleverness.

For there came a day when Mr Holloway had to leave his establishment to Loveday's care to go on business into the country. The earlier part of the day waa uninteresting, trade chancing to be slack. In the afternoon Loveday was busy in the little inside room, a small pane of glos3 let into the wall giving her a view of the shop. And suddenly the bell tinkled. She looked up, and her heart stood still. For Dick Trevena was in the shop. She did not move, and after a few momentshours to each of them— he shook the door, so that the bell rang madly. And Loveday took her courage between her hands, and entered the shop, saying icily, as she stepped behind the counter, "What's for you, Bir ?" Dick turned and nodded awkwardly. Then, as he saw no token of recognition in Love-lay's face, he tried to carry himself as though he were an everyday customer, entering a shop he had not previously visited. " Will you please to show me a few rings ?" he said. " A few engagement rings." Loveday started, not so slightly but that he saw, " About ten shillings ?" she asked quietly. j " Ten shillings for a ring ?" cried Dick* ".•"Tis a thing a man don't buy bufc once, and when he do buy it he may as well have it such that a friend can show it with some pride if he do give it her. I was j thinkin' to give somewhere about—" j He named a price which almost took away the last of Loveday's hardly kept composure ; for she had sometimes thought "him a trifle oareful of his money. j Nevertheless she took some cases from the shelf and set before him. Then, when he began to examine the rings which they contained, she stepped aside a little and did her beßt to appear uninterested. But she could not resist a little angry move* ment when he looked up and turned to her for advice as to what he should choose. , " These 'ere blue stones are pretty," he said. "They're turquoises," she answered, abruptly, with the smallest possible sniff at bis ignorance. " Though some might fancy these pearls," he went on relentlessly. "Yes," said Loveday, "some do like pearls— when they're good." "And what's the price of those that are in the case ?" asked Dick. Loveday could stand the ordeal no longer. It was not long since she had told Dick that the only stone she loved was the sapphire. "If you'll look," she said curtly, "you'll find a little label on each, with the price marked on it. And perhaps when you've made your choice you'll call me. lam very busy in the house."

Whereupon, withont giving him time to make any answer, ehe left the shop, and, having entered the inner room, proceeded to make such a to-do as should convince him of the truth of her words. Nevertheless she continued to watch him closely through the convenient pane of glass; for Bhe had still a desperate hope that he would choose the ring she had approved, and, having chosen, offer it to her.

Dick stood before the counter examining the rings in the most perfunctory manner imaginable. He had been hoping aha would speak; and now he cared neither for pearls nor sapphires. He was consoious of having failed abjectly, though he could scarcely nave described the intention with which he had come to the shop. And so at laat he chose the ring of tiny sapphires, and spoke, " Can you come out a moment, Miss Holloway," he said. Loveday appeared behind the counter. " I think this here is as good a, any," Baid Dick, " Have 'ee got a little case to put it in?" Still Loveday gave no sign. " Yes," she said, " yon can have a case." She turned to a drawer, and found the case. Then she placed the ring in it, noting the while how pretty the blue stones were. " 'Tis three pounds for the ring," she said, as she handed it to Dick. " There's no charge for the case." Dick paid the money, and Loveday placed it in the desk. But still Dick waa loth to go. He lingered, hoping for a word ; and finally, las he turned and opened the door .Loveday Baw him raise his hand as if to fling his purchase into the middle of the street. Ha mutttered somej thing. And the girl could stand it so longer.

Ho turned, a new lisrht in his face. " Wilt have it ? " he cried. . And, while she sobbed hysterically behind the counter, he leant across it and fitted the ring npon her finger.