LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 37, 13 July 1874, Page 4

LITERATURE.

TOTTIB WYLDE’S DEVICE. In Three Chapters. [From ‘ London Society.’] Continued. * Fancy poor Tot a little devil I’ he murmured softly and half to himself. Carry Hall blushed up a bright passion colour. ‘You know I didn’t mean anything of the sort,’ she deprecated ; ‘ besides, if I did, it’s not likely I should have said it, knowing how fond Mr Keiller is of her—-though she did break his arm !’ ‘ But she didn’t, Miss Hall 1’ retorted the other warmly, for he had not yet entirely forgotten the old love, though, indeed, he those to regard itjnow as a mere brother-and-sisterly affection. ‘But she did, Mr Keiller—young Jack Wylde told me all about the race—it’s well she did not break your neck, as well as—your heart?’ She whispered the last two words, and looked half up at him over her shoulder, to see how he would take them. The girl had marked down this handsome Eddie Keiller for her own, and determined to spare no effort to ‘ bring him to bay,’ poor as he was, ' I’m very fond of Tottie,’ he said gravely, yet with a half sigh, as he shifted restlessly on the soft grass ; ‘ very fond of her—she’s my cousin, you know,’ ‘ So am I fond of her : she ia a dear little thing ; but I don’t believe in cousins !’ ‘ Let us crawl down to the beach, and hear the band play,’ he said, pretending to yawn as he turned away to rise. It was a good move to conceal a little inevitable confusion that came over him just at that moment. Miss Hall quite appreciated it. So they went down by the ‘muchresounding sea ;’ dawdled about the bandstand ; strolled ; lay down on the shingle ; strolled again ; and were finally lost to view round a promontory leading to ferny dells and shady heather - scented nooks, were omipresent Mother Gossip was in the habit of saying most of the flirting of Seasurf was carried on.

‘ Decided case for St George’s ’Anover Square 1’ remarked a vulgar cockney snob (so Eddie Keiller called him) to his comrade as they passed the pair. "Ang it all—ain’t she a clipper I’ was the undisguised note of admiration of No 2, for Carry Hall’s attractions ; and the cads continued their walk.

From that day she seemed to grow on Edwin Keiller, as it were, and to become and more a necessary of his life. There was fascination about the girl ; about her really fine beauty; about the play of her warm dark eyes, and the waving of her voluptuous hair; about her manner and rich voice ; and about her knowledge even of men and things, amply illustrated as it was with a fund of personal anecdote. She was brilliant and spirituclle as the Frenchwoman, stately as the Spaniard, luxurious in repose as the Italian, handsome as the Greek, and ‘jolly’ as the frank, open English girl. Edwin Keiller fell under the influence ; he was charmed ; he loved a living poem, a fine picture, a stately statute, and he very much admired Carry Hall. Poor Tottie Wylde was in tribulation. Since the accident her sisterly affection for Eddie seemed somehow to change in nature. At times she reproached herself bitterly with not feeling towards him in those days of pain as she had felt before ; she could not regard him as Harry or Jack now ; there seemed a difference—a something between them that was as strange as it was unpleasant. Could it be that his silence on the marriage question (upon which he had been so worrying before) was really annoying her 1 Absurd—she flung the thought from her. But then this showy Carry Hall, with her airs and graces, and knowledge of the world, and fascinating, clever talk—was not Eddie (Tottie’sown Eddie) struck with her? was he not almost openly flirting with her? Horrible thought I Might he not be actually in love with her 1 It looked very like it; and though she (Tottie) did not, would not, could not care one atom for him in that way, still it was a pity to see him entrapped by this brazen she-dragoon ; and poor Tottie burst into bitter tears, as after numberless sleepless nights and endless mental discussion of all the ins and outs of the matter, she at length came to the inevitable conclusion that it must be so, and that she herself was really in love with this man, who, shocked, doubtless, and disgusted with her girlishness, her levity, and her share in his accident, had given up all thoughts of her, all love for her, in favor of the odious Carry Hall. This conclusion came to the young girl with a cruel pang, none the less severe that she felt she had almost forced events to take the course they had done, and her self-inflicted punishment was constant and sharp. But she had plenty of pluck, had this mountain maiden, together with a soupcon of natural feminine revenge in her mental constitution, and she soon made up her mind that if Eddie had really thrown her over (for, of course, the race to decide the question was all nonsense), he should not, in addition, have the satisfaction of seeing that she cared for the act, or missed him in the least. If he openly flirted, so could she ; if he made love, so could she ; if he was playing false, why should she appear to mind ? Captain Sam Hall (why, by the way, are the swarms of Halls that adorn the British service, each and every one, dubbed ‘ Sam,’ as if there was no other nickname possible?)— Captain Hall was a terrible flirt, of the most dangerous sort —not your namby-pamby ‘ ladies’ man,’ who is tolerated by the sex, much as wise kings in the days of yore tolerated their court-fools—but a real slap-dash, go ahead admirer, who could not help making love to every pretty woman he saw, whether she liked it or not, and was in consequence very successful in his love forays. In Captain Sam’s eyes Tottie Wylde was simply adorable, and from the first day he saw her established at the ‘ Royal’ by Eddie’s sofa he determined on a flirtation. He tried it, and got well laughed at by her for his pains ; buthe,nothing daunted,resumed operations day by day, until at last—somewhat suddenly, and a good deal to his surprise—his new charmer appeared to appreciate his efforts, and he made rapid progress in his suit. In fact, Tottie Wylde, when once she began to favour him, became almost too evigeante, and (whether it was his face, his heroism, his jovial manner, or a combination of all, he could not tell) she sat with him, danced with him, and acted towards him altogether more like an engaged bride than anything else, once the ice between them had been broken. For some reason or other, Sam Hall was very anxious to keep things of

this sort a little dark before his sister : he seemed (absurd as it was) to be afraid of her laughing at him for spooning on such a chit as Miss Wylde; while Tottie was just as desirous to preserve appearances before her brothers (her parents did not care much what she did) —boys will be so annoying about these affairs—so that eventually it came to pass that an understanding was established between the two as to their walks, rides, moonlight strolls, &0,, that was very pleasant even if a little deceitful, But somehow Sam discovered to his great chagrin at first (afterwards he did not mind it a bit), that they seldom or never deceived Eddie, who not unfrequently turned up unexpectedly in their most enjoyable Utes-a-tcte, to their manifest confusion and his very evident annoyance, ‘ Gad, Miss Car must have a hand in this!’ Sam said one day to Tottie as they met Eddie face to face in a secluded part of the promontory walk. ‘ Why your sister ?’ asked Tottie when he had passed on ; ‘ surely you don’t leave my notes lying about 7’ Captain Hall muttered apologetically something about his d d carelessness,. which he excused on the ground that Carry took care of everything for him. Tottie would put a stop to that easily,so (rejoicing to notice that Eddie; could see them from the position he had taken up on the hill) she made Master Sam sit down, and there and then she inducted him into the mystery of the characters of a system of short-hand her brother Jack had somehow picked up : ‘ There,’ she said, handing him a copy of the character to put in his card-case, * I’ll always write to you in that ’ * Gad !’ he broke in ; ‘ Carry will think it’s some of my’old Arabic writing I It’s not unlike it at all.’ ‘ All the better,’ said Tottie, and the arrangement for secret correspondence was completed. Chapter 111. THE ENEMY OUTFLANKED. Mid-harvest and shortening twi-lights; grand red-gold moons, calmly ruling the soft, scented autumn nights as the southwest breeze came up, purring and kissing, from the thickening channel mists. The Hon Mark Wylde and his wife were disturbed in their minds as they sat out on a balcony in the ‘ Royal,’ and gazed on the throbbing waves. A distant relative, a Major Ralston, had been staying down at the Marine Hotel on the beach for some few days past, but it was only this evening that they knew of his even being in England. He had just left them, and in the course,' of conversation had imparted to the parents some information, partly true, partly mere Seasurf gossip, that made them thoughtful. The upshot of their discussion was that Tottie was to have—for about the first time in her life—a serious ‘talking to’ the following morning. Eddie Keiller was lounging the next day about noon on the lawn, wondering lazily what he should do with himself after lunch. His arm was nearly all right again now, and there were many amusements open to him, but they were all encumbered with one objection—company, and the man wanted to be alone. Only a month or six weeks ago he would have bounded with delight at the ‘ company ’ —that of Carry Hall—which he now dreaded. In fact, a revulsion of feeling had set in, and Keiller was very unsettled in his mind, and very unhappy. He could not account for it; he had from the first hour he saw her hungered and thirsted after the love of this splendid woman ; and now that he seemed to have attained it, it turned to bitter husks in his mouth. Had the winning been too easy 1 He had stuck to his absurd bargain with Tottie through pique and feverish irritability as much as for any other reason, and now his darling little cousin seemed hopelessly lost to thim —absorbed in that swaggering dragoon with bis bravado, his crimson-brown face, his uncouth oaths, and his horrible bonhomw. The whole business since the accident seemed strangely unfortunate, and all was at sixes and sevens. He was out of sorts —had been for some time past—perplexed, miserable, and he almost wished that he had never seen the mesmerising Carry Hall. A soft warm hand on his shoulder, a low rich voice at his ear—‘ln the blues?’

1 Yes, in the bluest of blues!’ he Answered a little harshly, as he turned and met the searching play of the deep dark eyes of Carry Hall.

‘You are hipped, my poor fellow; bored to death at this stupid hole. You want a change—excitement. Let us stroll on the beach, and talk of it, Come.’ There was magic in those eyes, allurement in those tones, that Eddie, (beginning to tire of them a little though he was) could not resist, and he went away down with her. On the way he wanted to smoke, but he had forgotten his fusee-box, and almost swore, so irritable was he. Carry bought a box of common lucifers in a sweetstuff shop just on the verge of the shore, and when they sat down on the shingle to talk Eddie tried to light his cigar, but failed through the wind puffing the matches out one after the other.

‘ Try a piece of paper,’ suggested Carry, who well knew the soothing power of ignited tobacco on the system of irritated man, pulling two or three scraps from a little tattingcase she toyed with. But the last match he tried did light, and he was soon exhaling clouds of perfumed smoke in comfort. • Some of Sam’s mems, 1 she idly said, tossing the scraps away. One fell close to the arm with which Eddie Keiller was supporting his head. 1 What is it ? Not English, surely ?' ‘ Arabic character. He always keeps his private notes in it, for secrecy.’ ‘ Rum Arabic,’ said the other, picking up the pencilled scrap, and examining it. • Why, it’s shorthand 1 —‘ Dear Captain Hall, I have something very particular to tell you.” Hallo I that’s warm, isn’t it V “Do go on,’ entreated Carry ; and he, with changing color (for he had caught the signature) and a forgetfulness of honor that would have been inexcusable under other circumstances, or in another man, read rapidly on as follows : ‘ Something I heard to day from mama, that I am afraid will put an end to all our jolly walks and fun together. lam so sorry you dear old fellow ; but matters must come to a crisis soon ; and then—but here’s that teasing Jack to take me to sketch the ruined chapel at Burcombe. Ho will wander off while I am drawing, and then you can come up, and we will settle everything. Not a second to spare. ‘ ‘ Yours ever, * 1 I’OT.’ ’ To he continued,