A GIRL'S HEROIC ACT.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3195, 24 September 1881, Page 1 (Supplement)

A GIRL'S HEROIC ACT.

(By Carl Brickett.) A quiet country road, and a carriage drawn by two spirited ponies, who tossed their heads and arched their graceful necks as if they were enjoying to the utmost their own rapid motion. Such was the scene. In the carriage were seated two young ladies. The elder of the two was guiding, with a firm hand, the restless ponies. Sho was not a beautiful girl, you would think at first sight; but her refined face, with its broad, intellectual forehead, and the proud poise of the small head set upon an erect, finely moulded figure, made a picture very attractive to the eye. Her companion was a perfect contrast. ' Lovely !' was the adjective which would rise involuntarily to the lips on seeing her. Great silky masses of golden hair swept back from a brow as pure as alabaster, while the dark lustrous eyes were in vivid contrast to the peachy fairness of her complexion ; her mouth was an incarnation of sweetness with its delicate rose-red curves ; while beneath, the rounded chin was cleft with a roguish dimple. ' Nip and Tuck seem in good spirits this morning, Annis,' said May, as they flew away. ' Have you thought that if I return home when papa wants me to, that this will be our last drive ?'

Annis gathered the reins in one hand, and quickly passed the other around her friend's slight wai9t, as sho said : ' I do hate to think of your going, my darling! I have enjoyed these few weeks to the utmost. But I know your father needs you, and I must not be selfish.' As she spoke thus |lovingly, a sudden resolve came into May's face. She hesitated a moment, then drawing off her glove she held her small left hand up before Annis's eyes. On the third finger, in its enamel setting, gleamed a large solitaire pearl. After one surprised look, Annis exclaimed, reproachfully : ' Why, May, can it be that you are engaged, and have never told me of it ?' A bright flush suffused May's expressive face as she replied : ' Yes, Annis, you have guessed rightly. I meant to tell you long ago, but somehow it is hard for me to speak freely of my own feelings, and it ia all so recent I hardly can believe it myself yet. .But Ido realise one thing —that the one who placed this upon my finger is the noblest and best of men, and you will agree with me when I tell you who he is—for you know him, Annia. One day, soon after our engagement, I was speaking to Mr Coleridge of the visit which I was to make you at ' Grey hurst' this fall, and when I mentioned your name he said at once that he knew you well—had met you when you were at your uncle's.' As the girl's happy voice spoke theee words a sudden pallor overspread her listener's features. But not noticing, May went on :

' I suppose you wonder how I became acquainted with him. Well, it happened this way : Our minister was called away by his mother's illness, and Mr Coleridge came to take his place, and papa invited him to make his home with us during his stay.'

As her friend spoke Annis's thoughts had flown back to the past year. She remembered how her interest had been caught at the first sight of the young clergyman whom her uncle had brought home with him one evening, and how the oftener she saw him the deeper that interest grew, until suddenly she became aware that all unconsciously she had given away, unsought, her girlish heart. It was true that Ealph Coleridge had never acted towards her in a lover-like way ; but Annis could not help the love which had so strongly entwined itself in her heart. Then had come the announcement of the death of her father's only brother, and that he had left her his sole heiress. Then she had been obliged to lease the quiet home in which she had been so happy, to enter upon her duties as mistross of stately ' Greyhurst.' She had had many suitors since ; but her heart yet remained true to its first impression. Now she saw that the future to which she had looked with the hopefulness of youth held no bright possibilities for her. As her friend paused, with a strong effort Annis regained her self-control and said, calmly, as she kissed the little ungloved hand which had nestled itself in her own : ' Then Ralph Coleridge is the happy man ? Indeed I do congratulate you, May ; for he is, as you say, good and noble. As his wife you cannot help but be happy.' When the girls had driven away from ' Greyhurst,' the sun -was shining brightly ; but, though they had not noticed it, in the distance there had been a little cloud ' like a man's hand,' and now all at once they became conscious sf the storm gathering about them. With a frightened face Annis suddenly exclaimed, as she turned towards home ; ' We must hasten, May, for the ponies are afraid of lightning.' Eapidly onwards came the ominously threatening clouds, while now and then the thunder rolled its sonorous peals. Annis was a gJod horsewoman, and now with a steady hand she held the reins ; but her eyes dilated with an agonised expression as she saw the almost certain destruction which lay before them. At the foot of the; nill wiiich they were swiftly descending was it high stone wall.

' Annis,' exclaimed May, ' can you stop them before they get to the foot of the hill ?'

In low, intense tones came the answer:

• No, May ; I can do nothing with, them, We are doomed!'

With a sobbing cry May bowed her head upon her hands. ' Ralph ! Ralph! Can it be that I shall never see you again ? O. it is hard to die so young and so happy!' As Annie heard the piteous words a sudden determination flashed into her mind. She had once read of a brave deed which at the time had filled her with marvel. Could she not do the same thing herself and save her friend's life ?

For herself it did not matter; she was alone in the world; but for May—should her life be spared—a future of happiness with him she loved so dearly stretched out before her. Stooping, she said, quietly :

' May, listen ; do not give way. I think that before long I can check this terrible speed, and in that instant do you jump from the carriage.'

May looked wonderingly into Annis's face, scarce comprehending her words. ' Check that terrible speed ?' It seemed certainly more than human power could do.

'Now, May!' cried Annis. With the words she had made a desperate spring, and the next moment she had landed squarely upon the back of one of the ponies, and had grasped the check-rein with all her force. With a startled plunge the ponies stopped —then reared wildly and stood pawing the air with their hoofs.

'Jump, May! Jump for your life !' cried Annis ; and May obeyed. A few wild plunges, and then with a snort and a scream the two ponies dashed on, shaking from her insecure seat the brave girl. The storm was over. The clouds had dispersed, and once more the sun came forth in royal splendor. His rays fell upon a pitiful scene. Upon two girlish forms —one, yet living, but unconscious, with the solemn seal of death set upon the white, bruised face.

Annis had saved her friend's (and her unconscious rival's)' life at the expense of her own.

Another summer had come and gone and it was fall again. In one of Nature's lovliest spots, shadowed by a drooping elm, near which a limpid streamlet glided with a happy murmur on its way to the sea, a marble shaft roared its snowy head.

The sunshine glancing through the leaves, dropped a gentle kiss upon the grave beneath, and fell upon the bowed heads of two mourners. It was Ralph and his newlymade wife, and in softly whispered tones they talked together of her who slept below, to whose heroic deed both owed the happiness which life had already given and still held for them in the years to come.