FROM CROMWELL TO PEMBROKE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1020, 4 November 1881, Page 3

FROM CROMWELL TO PEMBROKE.

By this time I thought it best to retrace my steps, ag the hour for tea was drawiu - ' nigh. After partaking there .f, f went for a walk along the 1 each, which again I met the star of at fraction, of course acciently (on purpose). After a stroll along the lennce, we sat down on a rustic scat to lest and chat and inale the evening breez-. 1 felt as if I leaped back 20 years | in my life. 1 was full of life, vigour, and i animation, whereas in the morning I was i somewhat languid and weary. This was a great change. What could I attribute it to ? was it the change of air 2 No i it was jiu consequence of meeting with Miss ■ Fortune. 1 went to my lodgings, wrote to i my friends, apprising them of my safe ar- ! J'ival, and where located. According to arrangement, I met her on the following day, and as usual seemed glad to sec me, and consult with me on a matter which _,ave j her much concern. She wisho Ime lo procure a good horse and buggy, an I take her ' for a drive, as she wi-hed to .see as much of the country as the horse could go over in j one day. i This t readily consented to do, and the ' intended drive secure I to give her the most unbounded satisfaction. We parted with bright hopes fur the morrow. I felt something like a school girl preparing for her first pic uic. “Man proposes, but God disposes.” It was now evident that I was progressing in dry land fishing beyond my most sanguine expectations, but in future I must n e judgment, prudence, an 1 caution. To do the Wanaka people j istice, they are very cautious iu their words and actions, list they should say or do anything that might displease their visitors. This has i been instilled in their tender minds, grown j with their growth, and become a part of ! their nature. They are noted f.r their hospitality. Many a poor swagger has had his hunger satisfied here, at the same cheap j rate ,llat tUe Hi lernian gut the cabbages at ' tlle Fair oE Ballintra : ho got them for ; nothing, and he said, “ Hal I waited until this afternoon, I would have got them cheaper. Notwithstau ling their anxious solicitude for visitors’ welfare 1 must act with, prudence, as I have nothing to commend rne hut honesty, truth and sobriety, Ihey are the three great virtues upon which all that is honorable, prosperous and j happy are founded. The charge entrusted j to my safe keeping was a responsible one. The more f me litated ou it, the more 1 was filled with dread and fear, lest I should do or s y anything to incur her displeasure. I had courage blended with hope, i must leave ad to time, the great establish'd’ of truth, ami I hope 1 to become victorious. Whilst in this perplexed state, 1 undressed and laid down on ruy bed— not to sleep, hut to rest. Soon I fell into a dreamy j sleep, when I saw nothing hut fast arid dan gcrous driving, with hair-breadth escapes, and ducks and geese killed and maimed for life ; then there was a fl rsh of lightning, a clap of thunder, with rain pattering on the window. The rain soon came d o wn in torrouts. Thus freed from ruy contemplated drive, I slept soundly and long into the morning. To think that such an old bird should ho caught at last ! Ah me ! It is appointed unto all men once to doit. I knew it would come sooner or Inter. It was impossible to Jive such a life of unalloyed bliss, as I had led for, say, -10 years, without meeting my fate at some time. I met her at last. Perhaps some may doubt me when I say she was the loveliest woman that eye rested upon The old story some will say. Now, I have had some training in this sort of thing, and am talking sense in sober earnestness. Wanaka blossomed like the rose after I had seen her ; the scales tell from my eyes, and the place appeared like a pavilion of beauty. The buds were singing iu the branches, the skies were bluer and lighter than they weic before, the long afternoons changed from a dreary desert of hours to an ccstacy of moments, a new light shone iu my eyes, colour came into my check, and 1 stepped proudly', as if there was something worth living for. All men have to go through with this thing at some time. Some go through with it early iu life, ami some later. Is is the waiting of insuapectel emotions, i I met Robinson. Ho commenced abusing j the place ; I defended it witli enthusiasm, j Thou ho sard, “ Old fellow, you are in love. I never saw you 'ike this before."

“ By all that is good you Iwvu guesse I it jymtclly,” I criij(l._ It is (listing in a sentence ; the truth never was more clearly put.” • “ Who is she?” ho then enquired I t' oh him (iff a little distune) to a more retired place, an I sa : 'l, “She is Ve ins, Juno, Minerva, and all the Uloo t of coin - pmisons packed into one bodice,” j llohtnsou is a praoticlo man. JIo pondered, and then asked, “ Were you over like tliis before? 1 1 looked surprised, and said, “does a man come into the world twice ? or have two identities. Is love a disease that attacks you at the full of the moon ? or a circumstance that comes once to all, like death itself? Itohinson, lam astonished at your question. Consider if I could ever lie this way before, when there is but one such on earth, and 1 have just met her. Equally s usi Me would it be for St. Peter to ask you when you reach Heaven if is is your second or third vi«it.” *■ Does she know all this ?” askel lie. “Know it,” sail 11” Why, woman always knows it. She can tell hy an intern d pioccss of her own, who admires her, ever though her eyes were shut, ; liesi les, I lo\e to hover round her, you know, like the moth round the candle, and all that sort of thing ; to tremble when I touched her, to sigh when 1 lift her, and to blush when she appeared. She treated me with a sort of pity at first, hut as she found me ardent, well- f o-do, a profound lover of natiue, a keen admirer of beauty, a tender emotional person in faot, altogether unlike the thoughtless herd that swarm about her, melhinks her heart wanned to me. She was not sory when she met me afterwards 1 No, to mo it seemed the j >y of her heart.

“ es, yes, ” said Robinson, “ I understand all that sort of thing. What sort of a woman is she ?

“ Radiant, nature, hut tender ; womanly, hut overflowing with grace and enthuiasm of youth ; queenly, voluptuous, magnificent,” I replied. “ Who does she look like

“ Helen of Troy." “ Don’t know her,” said Robinson. “Mention somebody in Pembroke.”, “ Jack.” I cried, “ she is peerless, comparison, is out of all question ; the whole amount of it is that I have met the finest woman in the world. I have got to make her mine. I believe I can do it.” “ What’s her prospects ?” “Undisturbed devotion if she listens to me !” “ How mueh is she worth ?” “ Intrinsiealiy, independent of New Zraliud; commercially, I never enquired perfection not quotable.” “ Angelic with a dash of the tigeress in it to make one remember that she is a woman. I’ll show her to you some evening ; introduce you, if she will but permit it.”