LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 36, 11 July 1874, Page 3

LITERATURE.

TOTTIE WTLDE’S DEVICE. In Three Chapters,

[From ‘ London Society.’] Continued.

She acted capitally, did little Tottie Wylde and she attracted his attention at once. He answered : “ I’ll agree to anything, if you arc in earnest.’

‘lam in earnest. You promise V

‘ I promise.’ ‘ Very well. Now I’ll tell you,’ she said, jumping up from the grass as her eye sparkled with fun : ‘ But where are the boys? Oh, there they arc, coming back. Well, Eddie (now mind it’s a bargain 1), you are not to ask me any more if 1 win what I am going t« tell you ; and I’ll promise to marry you whenever you like if you win—is it a bargain V ‘Yes, I promise,’ he said, entering into the fun of the thing, and thinking that it must end to his advantage, whatever it was. ‘Well, so do I, on my side. Now what I mean is, that we shall run a race for it down this hill, right to the bottom 1’ ‘ What bosh, Tottie ; why, you’d fall on your head before you got ten yards, and then there’d be a nice row at the Royal!’ he laughed at the absurdity of the idea. ‘ Would I, indeed, Mr Impertinence—we’ll see. You’ve promised, and I mean to keep you to it.’ ‘You arc really in earnest?” ‘ Of course I am 1’ she answered, beating a wee foot determinedly on the ground. ‘ All right,’ he laughed out gleefully, ‘you’re mine then 1’ ‘ Don’t be so sure,’ she smiled a little slyly; she knew what she could do on her own rugged Welsh mountains; she knew also pretty well what used to be her cousin’s capabilities in the same locality, and experienced little fear for the result. The boys rolled on the turf in ecstasies of fun when they learned the terms of the bargain. ‘By Jove, she’ll beat you, Eddie!’ said Jack, who rather looked down on his cousin as an athlete.

‘ That she won’t —I bet you half-a-crown she won’t!’ So Henry. Edwin Keillor did not quite like it ; the descent was very steep, broken in places with hollows that could not well be seen until one was just in them, and it was an immense distance to the level at the bottom, which rose again before culminating in the final cliff that overhung Seasurf, He had no fear whatever for himself, but he had on Lottie’s account ; she would not, however, be gainsaid, but kept him to the race and began to got ready ; ‘How, Harry, you shall start us fairly: Jack, hold this for me—and this,’ handing

him her fairy hat and delicate mantle. Then she tied her hair in a firm knot behind, shortened her petticoats with one tight, hand, and kept the other free to balance herself. 4 Oh, nonsense, Tottie ; let us give it up—it’s so silly,’ said Keillor. 4 You’re afraid,’ she laughed out, flushed with excitement.

4 I’m not,’ he retorted indignantly, placing himself in position. 4 Are yon ready ?’ asked Harry, in high glee ; while Jack absolutely howled with delight. 4 Ready,’ they both answered. 4 One, two, three —off !’ he shouted, and away they bounded, the boys keeping a little behind.

4 Run, Tottie, run, run,’ they screamed : and Tottie, brisk-footed maiden of seventeen as she was, hill-born, and limb-free as a fawn, did run her best; flying with shortened clothes down the rugged steep ; bounding over furze bushes and intervening rocks ; never shirking, never swaying, save once, when an ugly hollow yawned before her, from which she saved herself almost by a miracle ; till she reached the bright green flat at the bottom, and turned triumphantly to see where the beaten Edwin was in the race. She could not sec him, she could not see her brothers even ; was it possible that they had all fallen in the treacherous hollow she bad so narrowly escaped 7 So back up the steep hill she ran again in strange dismay, till she gained the brink of the pit wherein lay Edwin on his back, his face snow-white and laced with blood from a horrid ragged cut on the forehead, and by his side her two brothers kneeling as useless as boys always are in the presence of pain, sickness, or trouble. In a second she had gained the bottom of the hollow: 44 Oh, Eddie, Eddie !’ she cried, kneeling on the grass in a passion of tears, with the long brown hair now tumbling in confusion all over her sweet face. 4 What have I done 7 oh, what has happened ?’ He did not speak ; but the useless boys said in their ignorance — 4 Oh nonsense, Tottie ! he’s not hurt—only shaken a bit.’ She, girl-like, turned on them furiously—- ■ He’s killed for all you know or care ! Wafer, get some water—down there at the bottom, where I ran.’ Jack bounded away, delighted to escape the fierce look, and soon returned with a hatful, to find Tottie supporting Edwin’s head against her breast, while she wiped away with her dainty pocket-handkerchief the clotting blood from the wound on the forehead. Then she sprinkled his face with sharp dashes of the water until at length he came to and faintly smiled— 4 You’e beaten me, Tot,’ he feebly uttered as he opened his eyes and saw whose arms were supporting him. She smiled through her now fast-coming tears — 4 Oh, Eddie darling, I’m so sorry.’ 4 Never mind it, Tot,’ he said; 4 I’m all right now!’ and in proof of the fact he turned to get up. A sharp yell of pain dispelled the idea—the man’s left arm was broken, and poor Tottie’s heart was very sad as she and Henry helped him down to the Royal Hotel in Seasurf, where they all were staying—Jack having flown on ahead to have a surgeon in readiness. The hon Mark and Mrs Wylde, with Tottie and the two boys, made up in all a strangely clever family. Proud and humble in a breath, despising wealth while they revelled in it, disliking poverty, and famous for the number of poor friends they cultivated; scorning society, and yet enjoying it with a keen zest; utterly uncontrolled by caste or its traditions, and at the same time proud of their high birth ; they stalked, noble savages, in the huntinggrounds of fashion. The grand Welsh mountains, from whose stormy gorges they had emerged a year or two back, had (their friends said) no little to do with this contempt for common Saxon cuatoms : and had not Edward Keiller been a constant visitor to the old castle in the troubled hills, as a bond fide cousin, he would never have come to be called 4 Eddie, darling !’ by.the only daughter, or hold the place he did in the family as a sort of tamed attache whom Tottie was not unlikely to take it into her head to marry some fine day. 4 Only I’m sure I don’t know where you are to get bread and cheese from, Tottie, if you do,’ said Mrs Wylde one day (on their way to Seasurf) sitting half-stifled ia a gorgeous drawing-room of a Brook street hotel.

‘We can colour photographs, ma dear I’ answered Tottie, laughing merrily at the folly- Not that she meant to marry Edwin or any one else ; she was very fond of him—as she was of her brother Jack or Harry—but she had no intention of being worried with a husband at all—that she hadn’t, and told him so very plainly when for the thousandth time he tried to get her into a sentimental mood.

The Wyldcs (with Edwin for their guest) when they arrived at Seasurf took half the ground floor at the ‘Royal’—with wide French windows opening on mossy grass, gay flowers, with shrubs and greens of all shades ; and below, the heaving violet sea, reaching away unbroken into an eternity of mists that sent, at times, deep growling echoes of warning back to murmur ceaselessly on the wave-worn beach. A glorious place for love-making, a glorious time, and a glorious prize. Hills and sea and flowers ; and warmth with scented breezes ; and calm and seclusion —opportunities every where and in every respect; but in spite of all Edwin Keiller made no progress. Tottie only laughed at him, and he sickened with despair sometimes; sometimes contemplated with horror his crushing poverty, as he almost dreaded lest he should drag that bright bird do>vn to a level she was unsuited for. He was but a poor barrister, and taking shorthand notes of special cases for the law journals brought him in more than any other branch of his profession. Not seldom he raved Jagainst himself as culpable, against Tottie for encouraging him, and against her parents for throwing them so much together —such is the folly of man. So Edwin Keiller had lost the race, broken his arm. got a cut on the head that would mark him for life, and dissipated all his chances of marrying Tottie Wylde, as the results of one morning’s nonsense. For lying on a couch out in the verandah of the royal one day, when the heavy heat seemed to press on the air in masses, he resolved that, .come what might, he would adhere to his silly promise, and never again mention the subject of marriage to his cousion. Poor little Tottie was incousablc for the mischief she had innocently caused ; she tended and watched over Edwin with the closest care ; she gathered flowers for him ; she read to him—novels, magazines, dull newspapers, even musty law reports ; she. played chess with him ; nay, she even kissed him ; but not one word could she extract from the

white, pain-compressed lips to prove he had forgiven her silly freak by speaking of tho old subject between them. He kept hia promise sternly; she would not speak of it, no not for the whole world—still so proud was that toy-maiden ; and gradually there came between them a coolness—a sort of stand-off-ishneas—that retarded the man’s physical recovery, while it rendered the young girl miserable with the bitter misery of self-baffled affection. Chapter 11. CAPTAIN AND MISS HALL OP THE PLUNDERS' 4 By Jove ! old Sam Hall, as I live,' Edwin half rose from his great easy chair in the verandah—he was convalescent now—as a tall, brown-faced dragoon swung across the bottom of the flower-dotted lawn on the way up from the beach. 4 Sara, hallo, Sam,’ he called ; the dragoon paused to look up. With him there walked a fine stately girl, also a dragoon, as you could see by her unmistakable barrack walk, and that noli me tangere air that generally appertains to the female soldier. The brother and sister came slowly across the grass towards the verandah. 4 Can’t think who the deuce the fellow is —do you know him, Car ?’ 4 N-no, unless he’s young Pariett of the 41 Crashers”—:ut Fyzabad, you know, Sam.’ 4 Not he, dead long ago— 44 yellow jack” at Bermuda, Why, it’s old Eddie Keiller !’

Hand-shaking, 4 dear old boying, &c., fee., ad libitum. Then introductions; for these two men had been public school chums together, therefore of the same caste, and therefore at liberty to bring their womenkind together. Tottie and Carry Hall set abont 4 reckoning up’ one another with that marvellous, instantaneous grasp of character instinctive with the keener sex. The sum total in either case was a compromise. It was not to be a sudden, gushing, deathless friendship; nor yet a sharp mutual dislike scarce veiled decently over with Judaskisses and plenteous 4 my dears ’ and 4 ray darlings.’ They felt at once that their present position must be a dignified one of nonintervention, an armed neutrality, capable of transformation should policy so demand. The Halls had just come home from India, and down to the 4 Royal ’ at Seasurf to recruit.

4 Like it? oh, it is so jolly?’ answered Carry, as she lay out under the tree-shade wit h Eddie a fortnight or so after her arrival —her brother and the Wyldes having gone off on a rough-and-tumble picnic some twenty miles away. Carry Hall would not join them, she was unwell, she said; and Edwin couldn’t—on account of his arm.

4 Jolly as Mentone, and without the gambling.’ he added to her description. 4 Without the gambling ! Don’t you ever play, Mr Keiller?' 4 Hate it. Besides, I have no money, so I couldn’t if I would.’

Just a trifling shade passed over tier face, he thought, as he explained his absence of wealth. Then she laughed uneasily. 4 Some people play without much money of their own —Sara does for one—and as for me, I am a regular gambler—a professed one ; I gamble with everything. Even with ’

4 Youraffec •’ Eddie was insinuating, but she pretended not to hear tho interruption, and went on—

‘ My neek, Sam says, when out pig-stick-ing I’ ‘ And have you actually—stuck pigs ?’ he asked, maliciously, half rolling over on his sound arm to have a better look of her face. ‘ Don’t be absurd, Mr Keiller. I have been out, and ridden hard to see men to do it, though—there, don’t say it’s unladylike, for it isn’t ; besides, your Tot—Miss Wylde, I mean—would do the same if she had the chance.’ ‘ How do you know V he asked curiously, wreathing his cigar-smoke in circles from his nostrils. ‘ Oh ! I know she would,’ was the inconsequent answer; Carry Hall was rapidly plucking daisy-heads and aiming them at the very elegant bottine that peeped out at the foot of her dress : ‘ I know she would ; she is just, what Sam calls, a little d (don’t be shocked, I’m a soldier you know) at‘anything 1’ Eddie Keiller was not shocked in all; in fact he rather liked a straightforward bit of slang in a regular girl of the world—more particularly when she happened to be a remarkably handsome one, with brains and a reserve power of being ladylike to extreme when she chose. To be continued.