LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 111, 8 October 1874, Page 3

LITERATURE.

SWEET NELLY HUNTINGDON,

Chapter ITT, Con t inned.

The color rushed into his face this time, and his breath can unnecessarily quick for a stalwart young guardsman habituated to all the languors of good societ} 7 . But he was strangely taken with the ■mignonne white face and fawn-like eyes, with the slim gracious figure and tiny feet, and the idea of holding the pretty freight in his arms was a very pleasant one. He took her up as if she had been a doll, and walked through the water to the opposite bank. As he did so, his eyes fell upon the dainty shoes and stockings lying there. ‘ What are we to do with these?’ he asked, putting her down for a moment, and taking up one little shoe with wondering admiration of its tiny proportions. Here was a new distress for Nelly. If she went home without shoes and stockings her trespass would infallibly be discovered ; but to put them on was equally impossible, and, besides, the poor little sprained foot was quite swollen by this time. If ever there were equally mixed sensations of pain and pleasure Nelly experienced them on this eventful afternoon.

‘ I’ll tell you what we can do,’ said Captain Wellesly, feeling for her distress, and yet hating the thought of having to leave her at all. T will carry you to some place where you will be within call of your own people, and then you can put on one shoe, and the absence of the other will be explained by the pain of your foot. But before we part I want you to promise me something—will you ?’ ‘ If I can,’ she answered, with a wistful look in his face, sorely loth to part with this new-found happiness. ‘A few days hence, when your foot is better, and you are able to walk, will you come here once at this time ? I shall watch every day for you.’ Nelly hesitated. A clandestine meeting with a stranger seemed almost a crime to her innocent mind.

‘ Do,’ he urged, with strong entreaty in his tones. ‘ Say Yes.’

‘Yes,’said Nelly, blushing deeply, divided between happiness and remorse. Then the young man lifted her once more in his strong arms, and carried her to the long beech avenue that ran at the back of the big flower garden. ‘Good-bye,’ he said, regretfully. ‘You promise to come ?’ ‘ Yes,’ whispered Nelly, almost inaudibly. Captain Wellesly took her hand and raised it to his lips. He would very much have liked to ask for one little shoe to keep as a souvenir, but there was something in this little maiden’s frank innocence that abashed him more than the haughtiest reserve of a town-bred woman could have done. But as he took his way back to the brook lie found one little bronze slipper had been dropped on the road, and he picked it up eagerly and kissed it. ‘I will keep it until she comes again,’ he sairl to himself, quite glad at the thought of seeing her once more, and yet impatient of all the long hours that must come between. Chapter IV. When her new friend left her, Miss Nelly detennined, most imprudently, to get home by herself as best she could. Great, then, was her dismay when she discovered the loss of her shoe. But there was a long strip of grass that led to the door of the housekeeper’s room, and along this the poor child limped slowly and painfully, her white face whiter than ever. Nurse flew to her at once. ‘ Lord ’a mussy upon us. Miss Nelly! Why, whatever’s the matter ? ’ ‘ I’ve sprained my foot,’ murmured the girl, her tell-tale face betraying her. ‘ But how, deary—how did you do it ? ’ ‘Oh, it’s so painful!’ cried Nelly; ‘do get me something for it ! ’ and nurse’s attention was at once diverted to the subject of remedies. ‘ Now, deary, you lie down here on the sofy, and I’ll get water to bathe it at once. ’ ‘Whatever shall I say ?’ groaned poor Nelly. ‘ I can’t tell a story, and if it’s found out I shall never see him again. ’ ‘Now, dear,’ said nurse, coming back and bustling about, * how ever did you do it ? ’ ‘ If I tell you, will you promise me faithfully never to let any one know ? ’ Nurse looked up in surprise. ‘ Law, my dear, whatever mystery can there be about it ? ’ ‘ Well, will you promise?’ ‘ Yes, my dear.’ ‘ Faithfully ?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘ No, say it after me—Faithfully.’ ‘ Faithfully,’ repeated Wilson, obediently. ‘ Well, then, I did it down at the brook.’ ‘ That comes of doing as you’re bid not,’ said nurse, unable to refrain from the pleasure of this little stab.

‘Of course, I knew you’d say that!' cried Nelly, pettishly. ‘ Well, deary, and how did it happen ?’

* I wanted a bunch of forget-me-nots I saw on the bank, and I took off my shoes and stockings ’ ‘ Law, Miss Nelly, how could you ? Suppose any o’ the men should have been about ?’

‘Of course I looked first to see there wasn’t any one near,’ answered Nelly, crimsoning painfully, and beginning to feel for the first time the dreadful enormity of a man having seen her bare feet. ‘ I shall never be able to look him in the face again,’ she groaned to herself. ‘ Well, my dear?’ ‘Well, I got the flowers, and hi turning to come back, I put my foot in a hole ana twisted it. ’

• Miss Nelly !’ cried Wilson, aghast; * and you walked home all the way from the brook with your foot in that state ? Why, it’s enough to make you lame for life. And where’s your other shoe ?’

‘ I must have dropped it. ’ ‘ I’ll send Foley to look for it to-night. There’s the first dinner-bell.’

‘ Oh, Wilson ! how shall I keep it from papa ? ’ ‘ You go in first, before he comes out of the library, and I’ll be bound he won’t ask no questions.’ Nelly limped into the dining-room, and took her seat at the table before the next bell rang. ‘ What, you first, Nelly ? ’ said her father, coming in just as the clock struck. He was a tall, spare man, with fine features, that would have made him handsome but for the air of gloomy severity that frowned from his thoughtful brows. This severity was a characteristic of the men of the Huntingdon race. They were kind and generous enough in the main, but stern, implacable, and utterly unyielding : a race to be staunch friends and bitter foes—better framed, indeed, for good haters than good lovers. No wonder all their womenkind stood in awe of them.

Nelly’s father had for some years past devoted himself entirely to literary pursuits, so that she had enjoyed very little of his society and companionship. They met at meal-times, when he would ask her a few indifferent questions, and she would answer them, and she was too much afraid of him to demonstrate any particular affection. ‘ Mayn’t I read for you, or write, papa V she had asked timidly sometimes; but the response was always—- ‘ No, thank you, my dear; seclusion would not be good for you. Run about and breathe the fresh air and ride your horse. I shall do very well. ’ But on this evening, when she would fain have been silent, her father was unusually talkative.

‘ Where have you been to-day, Nelly ?’ he asked, as soon as he had taken his seat.

Why he should have asked that question to-day, of all others, the first time it had ever been inconvenient to reply ? ‘ Out in the woods, papa, and I—l strained my foot a little. ’ ‘ How did you manage that ?’ ‘ Put my foot in a hole, and twisted the ankle. ’

‘ That comes of your romping ways, I suppose. You really are too old to go racing about now, Nelly. And, Nelly, I have something to say to you. ” ‘Yes, papa;’ and her heart beat thick and fast with a great dread. ‘ I don’t wish you to anywhere near the lower part of the wood for the next month. I hear Lord Langholme is coming to the Court with a party of men, and I don’t choose you to be seen by them.’ Nelly stooped her head over her plate in an agony. Could her father know anything ? ‘ Lord Langholme is not a desirable acquaintance for young ladies, ’ proceeded to Mr Huntingdon, with the frown deepening on his brow ; ‘ and as he runs after every petticoat he sees, he might wish to force the honor of his acquaintance upon you, and I’d sooner see you dead than have anything to do with him, ’

‘ You need not be afraid, papa, ’ said Nelly, raising her head with spirit. ‘ I would not speak to Lord Langholme. I detest him without ever having seen him. ’ Now, it was very odd that such a conversation should have taken place on this particular day, when the name even of Langholme had never been mentioned between the father and daughter before. But on that very morning Mr Huntingdon had received a letter from his brother in town, and the postscript contained these lines : ‘ Town is getting quite empty. I hear your neighbor, Lord Langholme, is going down to the court with a party. He’s a terrible fellow after pretty faces, and Nelly must be getting a great girl now. ’ The bare suggestion had been enough to stir up all Mr Huntingdon’s latent hatred of the rival house, and caused him to bestow the caution just uttered. ‘What shall I do,’ thought Nelly, piteously, ‘ now papa has forbidden me to go to the brook ? I dare not disobey him; but surely there is no harm in my speaking a few words to Captain Wellesly, even if he is Lord Langholme’s friend. I would sooner have died than speak to him.’ So for three days, during which Nelly was confined to the house by her foot, she was in a perfect agony between the fear of displeasing her father and the misery of not seeing the handsome stranger again. But on the fourth day, Vrith a sorely guilty conscience, the disobedient child limped towards the brook to keep her tryst with Captain Wellesly. The blue eyes were looking keenly for her as their owner stood leaning against a tree on Lord Langholme’s side of the brook. There had been no rain, the water ran shal lower than before, and the young athlete cleared it at a bound. Nelly put her slim fingers quite naturally into his outstretched hand.

‘ How is the foot to-day ?’ he asked, ten-

derly. ‘ Oh ! very nearly well, thanks ; but Host my shoe the other day. ’ Captain Wellesly took the missing article from his pocket and held it regretfully towards her.

‘ If you would only let me keep it !’ he pleaded. ‘ I don’t think it would be much use to you,’ laughed Nelly, archly, looking down at his feet, which, by the way, were particularly well-shaped? ‘ No, not in that way,’ ho answered smiling. ‘ But, do, won’t you?’ Why Miss Huntingdon should have consented to such a ridiculous request I am not prepared to say ; but that she did is an indisputable fact, since Wilson a day or two later put away one little bronze shoe by itself as being useless without its fellow. To he continued.