LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 38, 14 July 1874, Page 3

LITERATURE.

TOTTIB WILDE’S DEVICE. In Three Chapters. [From ‘ London Society.’] Concluded. Eddie Keiller’s face had turned a deep scarlet as he translated the note ; Carry Hall became deadly pale. She rose hastily. He had bounded up to his feet at the first few lines. ‘I must stop this. I did not know my brother could act so disgracefully.’ She spoke in a passion, but very determinedly. Eddie, too, was in a passion—a turmoil of many conflicting passions rather — and scarce knew what he said. There was a seaside pony-chaise standing for hire at the end of the lane they had just come down. ‘ She is my cousin—a mere child—and her father does not know of this,’ he muttered hoarsely, as he made towards it, followed closely by Carry. ‘To Burcombe —quick as you can,’ said Eddie to the sunburnt boy who squeezed in between them to drive—thus preventing, happily, any further conversation on the note—and away they went. The ruined chapel at Burcombc, a couple of miles or so from Seasurf, stands picturesquely at the sea end of a lovely dell, well wooded, well flowered, well watered by a sparkling trout stream, and very well known as a trysting spot for lovers with art proclivities. It was called a ‘ chapel,’ but in reality the shattered ruins of a good-sized monastery occupied the lovely spot; and it was not by any means easy to find any person who might be wanted amidst the numerous blocks of decaying buildings that crowded the undulating ground. ‘So they’ve found us out at last, have they ’’ laughed out Sam Hall’s jolly voice, as he wiped his heated forehead and sat down on a stone in an arched recess of the old ruin close by, where Tottio was making a pretence of sketching. (Her brother Jack had wandered away, boy like, down on the beach.) ‘ Hush ; there may be people about; don’t speak so loud,’ warned the girl as she toyed with the dainty hat she had just taken off.

‘ All right. But what have they said about me ?—anything awful!’ ‘Oh ! no. Only I’m forbidden to see you any more in private. They found that out somehow. People do talk eo. And I should not have been here to-day, only Jack and I arranged it long ago. 1 Mamma looked very odd when I told her I was going ; and I shouldn’t wonder a bit if she followed me, she seems so queer about it.’ ‘ About what V he asked, lighting a cigar and making himself comfortable by unbuttoning his waistcoat. 4 Well, about our — 4 absurd love-making,’ she called it:’ Tottie fairly burst out laughing, and Sam joined in with a boisterous guffaw. ‘ But what do you intend for the next move ?’ he inquired, when he had half choked between tobacco smoke and laughter. ‘ I don’t know, I’m sure. Everything seems to go wrong and thwart us,’ she replied meditatively, and a gathering gloom creeping over her fair young face like a thunderstorm rising on a fair April day : 4 What can we do ? We can’t well run away—elope 1 She smiled again, but only a little, at the word.

‘Why not? Jove, just the right thing. Postchaisc to Farpoiut—train—express, if you like cross-countiy route —splendid I —bring ’em all to their bearings—old Eddie and all—in no time 1’ The dragoon was quite carried away with the enthusiasm the idea evolved in his romantic brain.

‘ Hush—oh, do hush—you —well, dear old fool I there ? People may hear you—and ’

‘ Well, but it would really be our best plan; wouldn’t it now 7 Jove, it would stir the jolly old boy up though ! Be after us like a shot ’

‘ And your sister ?’ put in Tottie, quietly. She was flushed with the eager conflict going on in her mind, but she spoke calmly ; ‘ what would she say of it ? and above all, what would she think of poor me after running away with her brother. ‘ Ob, Car be hanged 1 she can console herself with some fellow ; old Eddie Kei ’

Captain Samuel Hall never finished that sentence; his sister and Edwin burst out on them from behind the turret.

1 She would think you a very brazen-faced girl, Miss Wyldc, to run away with a married man, as my brother is? 1 So Carry Hall. ‘ Some fellow, as you’re pleased to call me, will put a stopper on your game, Captain Hall,’ cried Edwin, in a towering passion, going towards Tottie, who had bounded to her feet at the interruption, and now looked the picture of dismay. ‘ Oh, by Jove I here’s the d—l to pay, and no pitch hot 1’ groaned out the Captain, who was thunderstruck at the sudden appearance and words of his sister—he did not notice Keiller—just when he had expressed (in most uncomplimentary terms) his views on her future prospects. ‘Do you mean to say that your brother is really married, Miss Hall ?’ asked Eddie. ‘ Keally,’ she answered, flushing all over as the bitter memory of a sad mesalliance came over her mind.

‘ You hear that, Totiic ? The man is a—’ ‘ Stop 1’ shouted Sam Hall, before the other could utter the word : ‘ Miss Wylde became aware I was married a week or two after she first knew me ! Did you not ?’ •I did,’ answered Tottie, simply. She was regaining her calmness now, and her own darling Eddie had her hand once more in his with the old warm grasp that sent a thrill through her. ‘And I knew it, tool’ said Master Jack, who had come up during the scene : ‘ Why, Tottie, and I and Captain Hall were only serving you out in your own coin, when you went off on the high stilts after your tumble down-hill 1'

‘ And you never told me your brother was married, Miss Hall I’ said Eddie, in a rage at being deceived in so barefaced a manner. Carry Hall drew up to the full extent of her stately figure as she answered him with great dignity mingled with scorn (for she had well noted of late how his temporary passion for her was waning); * I am not in the habit of gossiping about my brother’s affairs, Mr Keiller I’ She made him a stately courtesy, turned on her heel, and left them with all the dignity of an injured queen —three minutes afterwards they heard the rattle of the pony-chaise, and knew she was driving into Seasurf. Then, on the walk back, and in the pleasant family rooms at the ‘ lloyal’ in the presence of Mr and Mrs Wylde, the whole business came out by degrees. Tottie, in the simplicity of her trusting nature, had turned Sam Hall from a flirting admirer into a

friend, by disclosing to him her passion for her cousin Eddie ; while he, on his side, told of his marriage, and between them they concocted a plot of sham love-making to pique the latter into returning to his allegiance— Tottie’s maid and Jack taking an active part in the performance by slyly mentioning before Kcillcr the various places where the pseudo lovers were about to meet. Sam, of course, dared not tell his sister, because she held the secret of his wedded misery, and he did not wish it spread all over the place—for he knew her temper when roused —and, ns he justly remarked, ‘ Car can pick up a good follow anywhere—one spoon, more or less, will be nothing to her 1’ But when Major Ralston, who knew the Halls well, so unexpectedly turned up, and informed Mr and Mr Wylde of all the gossip he heard at the Marine Hotel about their daughter and Captain Hall (at whose marriage Ralston had actually been present) the whole plan fell to the ground, and hence the meeting at Burcombc Chapel, that eventuated so differently from what had been expected. There is no Totlio Wylde now ; but should you this season visit that very excellent hostelry, the ‘ Royal’ at Seasurf, you would find plenty of people to tell you of her ‘ device’to win back her cousin-lover —‘which her name is Kcillcr now, sir I’ as the staid head chambermaid said to us only the other day when narrating the little romance.