LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 174, 29 December 1874, Page 3

LITERATURE.

AUDREY’S CHRISTMAS MORNING. ( Continued. ) ‘ I think we travelled together once, ’ he said, as though it might have been ten years ago. ‘ Yes, last week. Is, the other gentleman who was with you staying here too ?’ ‘ Yes.’ ‘Mrs Huntley never told me,’ Audrey said ; ‘ but perhaps you never mentioned our having travelled in the same train ?’ ‘ I am afraid I must plead guilty to that omission,’ he answered. She was strangely attracted by him, though he looked grave and stern, and old enough to be her father almost; yet Audrey wished he would show a greater interest in her : as for his admiration, that, she felt, would come in time as a matter of course. ‘ Have you ever been in this part of the country before ?’ she asked, saying whatever came uppermost in her mind to detain him, for lie had made another movement as though he would fain have left the room. ‘ Lorrimer Park is considered a very fine old place. ’ ‘ Yes, I have been here before, but so long ago that I have almost forgotten the country, and most probably have quite died out of the memories of those whom I once knew,’ he added, with what struck her as something half sad and half sneering in his tone. ‘ Perhaps you have been abroad ?’

‘ Yes, in India for many years.’ ‘ln India ? We had a great friend there,’ Audrey said, ‘at least papa had, his name was Claude Wrighton, I think. Perhaps you knew him ?’

He smiled. ‘ Oil, yes, I knew him rather intimately. ’ ‘ Oh, do tell me about him !’ Audrey said, in her impulsive way. *He has not written to papa for a long time, and lately we have only heard of his doings from the papers. He is so distinguished and so brave, and papa says ’ ‘Stop,’he said suddenly, putting up his hand; ‘ I don’t deserve such warm praise, Miss Ashton.’

' You ! You don’t mean to say that you are our Colonel Wrighton ?’ she asked, the look of interest in her face growing very deep, and making her look more animated and beautiful. ‘ I mean the Colonel Wrighton papa once knew so well ?’ ‘ I believe I am, ’ said he, scarce able to restrain a laugh at her eagerness.

‘ Oh, how glad papa will be to see you again ! And aunt Helen—did you ever know her, Colonel Wrighton?’ ‘Yes, I have met Miss Ashton ; but that, like the rest of my life in England, was long ago.’ ‘ And you will come and see her now you have come back, won’t you ?’ Audrey asked. * You who knew her as a girl must remember how beautiful she was. She is not so pretty now, of course, but her face, to my mind, is still full of a grace and soft beauty one does not often meet with, though she is so pale. ’ ‘ I am not much of a judge,’ he said coldly. ' I nooKUoorl I promised to meet Mr Huntley at three, and my watch tells me that I shall keep him waiting unless I go at once.’ Audrey sat after he left her, looking into the fire and feeling a little piqued at the evident want of effect that her charms had produced—a feeling new to the spoiled and petted belle and daughter. ‘ How strange it is,’ she thought, ‘ that this should be the man I have heard papa speak of so often, and in language so full of praise that I verily believe I had begun to fancy he must be something of a demi-god, instead of the humdrum sort of mortal he appears to be, with scarcely a civil word to throw to a lady ! And yet there’s something in his quiet, determined-looking face, too, that doesn’t belie that Victoria-Cross story, and makes one believe that it would look very different if it were lighted up by excitement or passion. ” And so the young lady thought on, until, if she had looked into her mind, she would have found that there was no great difference between the ideal that her mind had formed from simply hearing the tales of his powers, and that she had formed now that their hero had been actually brought before her. It was in midst of such dangerous thoughts as these that she was disturbed by her hostess’s return. Very full of apologies Mrs Huntley was for having been away when her young guest had arrived—apologies which she did not cease to make until she had taken Audrey to the room allotted to her. Audrey was more than usually careful in the choice of her dress that evening. At last she fixed upon a soft white drapery, which became her admirably ; and as her glass informed her of the fact, she wondered to herself whether Colonel Wrighton would notice her at all. ‘I am sure lam pretty,’ she thought; ‘ they all tell me so, and even aunt Nelly agrees with them ; yet I don’t think he thinks so. Why should I care ? I am sure I don’t know, but I do ; I never seemed to wish for any one’s attention before. I suppose it’s just the perversity of humaii nature not to care for what we easily get, and to weary ourselves attempting to touch the grapes which are beyond our reach. Now I dare say that boy with the goldy-brown hair, who stared at me so unconscionably in the train, will fall in love with me straight off, and I sha’n’t care a bit about him—that’s sure to bo the way. ’ And it was the way. The boy with the goldy-brown hair did fall in love with her ; in fact, he had plunged headlong into that state of mind when he first met her in the train. She was equally right about the other ; again‘it was the way.’ She might have been a hundred years of age and. as ugly as an Esquimaux for any attraction that her youth and beauty exercised over the colonel, or for any attention he paid her. She smiled and talked her best, she sang her most ravishing songs, and he hardly seemed to listen to her. She rode across country in a style that made Edward Clayton rave as he kept his big hunter close to her side. She could skate to perfection, and looked perhaps best upon the ice. But she did it all for a man who seemed utterly indifferent to her and her doings. She told herself so a hundred times a day, and yet, conscious of her beauty and its power, and accustomed as she was to success, she only half believed herself, and thought she must conquer at last. As for Colonel Wrighton, he counted the hours until he should leave the pleasant house and the kind friends with whom he was staying.

It was not always possible to avoid going near Ashton Mills, yet he did his best to avoid that part of the country with a persistency that made others wonder. He told himself that he was still weak enough to be afraid to meet the woman he had once loved so fondly, though a clear stretch of twelve long troubled years lay between them. Mrs Huntley had invited Audrey in the fond hope that she and Colonel Wrighton might fall in love with each other. She watched the success of her plans, and soon had to confess to herself with dismay, that though they had succeeded well enough as far as Audrey was concerned, they had hopelessly failed as regarded the colonel. Poor little woman, she was greatly troubled, for her kind heart felt that she had been in a measure guilty of working sorrow for the young girl where she had only hoped to bring happiness. She did not quite despair yet; she hoped he might discover that he had won her heart, and that then all might be well, * Colonel Wrighton !’ I am sorry to say Audrey had seen her hero walking in the garden, and had joined him on the very poor pretence of having come out herself to take a stroll before lunch, * Colonel Wrighton !’ ‘ Yes, Miss Ashton.’ ‘ Will you tell me where you got those wounds ?’ glancing at the scar across his face and another on his hand. “I got them in very different ways. ’ ho said. ‘ This on my face was a sword-cut at the battle of Aliwal, given me by as fine a fellow as I ever saw in my life—a Sikh. I often see him before me now. ’ ‘ How was it did he not kill you ? I thought in all hand-to-hand combats one must be killed.’ ‘ I killed him, ’ the colonel said, ‘ and many a time have I regretted it since ; but in a fight such as we had there was no time to spare life.’ ‘ And men grow mad in battle, do they not ?’ Audrey asked, looking up at him a little awe-struck. ‘ I think many do, coming for the first time face to face with death. But in my opinion no good soldier should ever lose his presence of mind and self-command. ’ ‘ And the other wound, how did you get that ?’ He smiled now. ‘ That was quite another style of enemy,’ he said ; ‘ a right royal wild boar. After following him for .about half a mile, lie turned and charged home with a will; my horse put his foot in a hole just as I speared him, and came down with me; and the first thing I saw on sitting up was the savage red eyes and the mouth covered with blood-streaked foam within a yard of me. Fortunately for me, a brother officer came up and rolled him over before he could do me much damage, or I should not be here to tell you of as game a death as I ever saw.’ How strange it seemed to Audrey, the change in herself. Here she was walking beside a man who appeared neither to give her any admiration nor to seek her society ; who seemed while he talked to her to have forgotten her very presence. Yet this was the best part of the girl’s day—the time she walked beside him in the bare wintry garden. The bright clear cheek, and the excitement and enthusiasm with which her companion had told her of his adventure with the boar had called forth a corresponding animation and fire into her eyes ; yet an old friend would have fancied that there was something softer and more winning in Audrey’s manner than there usually was. It was strange that any man could walk beside her and not see how singularly beautiful and fascinating she looked. Yet her companion never seemed to notice it—never even really looked at her. *ls India such a very dreadful country, Colonel Wrighton ?’ she asked. ‘ I think I prefer India to England, and yet I have met many people who will have to spend the greater part of their lives there, and who never seem to try and like it. It’s the greatest mistake. When a man gets discontented -with his legitimate work, and is always complaining of the country in which his lot is cast, instead of trying to make the best of it, there is little hope for him. Ah, there is Edward Clayton ; he is better company for you, Miss Ashton, than I am. Good morning.’ Audrey could have ' cried, and wished Edward Clayton anywhere rather than coming to meet her with that glad admiring face of his. ‘ I have been searching for you in the billiard-room and library, and all over the place, never dreaming of looking for you here on a day like this. I wonder Wrighton allowed you to stay. Why, I can almost see it freezing,’ he said, rubbing his hands and turning to walk with her, as his cousin had been doing. Audrey stamped with impatience. ‘ You gentlemen treat us all as if we were made of glass,’she said. ‘I hate the house, it’s so hot; the garden is twice as nice. ’ “Then let us stay in it. Don’t hurry away Miss Ashton. If lam driving you in, pray let me go rather than do so. I thought you might be cold out here. I am sorry I spoke. ’ ‘ You need not be sorry ; but I can’t bear people to fancy that I can never go out of the drawing-room, as if I were only fit to be put into a glass-case. ’ ‘ Some things are so precious that we cannot take too much care of them,’ he said warmly. ‘I don’t care for compliments,’ Audrey said; ‘I am tired of them. That’s another mistake you gentlemen make, thinking it is necessary to give us ladies no more intellectual food to live upon than empty compliments. ’ < I can’t say anything to please you to-day, Miss Ashton. I had better go.’ Poor fellow! his heart had been taken completely captive by the London belle, who I daresay would never have given him a thought in the midst of her gayer life. Yet hers was not an ungenerous nature, and she felt a touch of pity for his evident chagrin. She held out her hand to him, and he grasped and held it in his. She was the loveliest and best thing the world held for him now —the first woman who had ever touched his boyish heart, and . he, standing with his honest handsome face aglow with pleasure at the poor little spark of warmth in the girl’s manner, did not lo ok unworthy of even her love. ‘I daresay I am ill-tempered,’ she said. ‘ I think papa has spoiled me. You have been so kind to me all this time, looking after me and trying to make the time pass pleasantly for me. 1 know I am very ungrateful. I think I’ll go back to aunt Helen.’ ‘Oh, don’t do that,’ he said quickly; ‘ don’t leave us, Miss Ashton; the place would be unendurable.’ To he continued,