LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 360, 7 August 1875, Page 4

LITERATURE.

THE ATHELSTONS OF MORTE d' ATHELSTON.

(From the Dublin University Magazine.)

( Continued. )

Ho could hardly be accused of being over active iu the pursuit of game, as it certainly was unnecessarily early for him to give up in despair and return homewards ; however, no one to look at him would have given him credit for much energy of character ; he was strangely like the Lady Rowena, though hardly so perfect a specimen of the t'axon type of beauty, his colouring might more correctly be called tawny than fair, and his whiskers and large moustachios decidedly merged into red; but in his eyes lay the great difference between the two; like Lady Rowena's in size and colouring, they were as different in expression as eyes could be; when he raised his sleepy lids, it was only to display a laughing look of merriment and good humour, which lit up his face with a charm which was more than beauty. Still he and the Lady Rowena might have passed for brother and sister, whereas they were only distant cousins; nevertheless, Captain Athelston was heir apparent to Morte d'Athelston, with all its broad acres so strictly entailed that, whenever the old lord should die, his daughter would be left, comparatively speaking, fortuneless, for so heavy had been the expenses in which the reckless extravagance of his father had plunged the estates, that he had very little money to settle on his only child. For many years this trouble had weighed heavily on his heart; but all was well and satisfactorily arranged now —a plan, no doubt originating with the Earl himself, had nevertheless been readily fallen into by the heir —and Captain Athelston was engaged to be married early in the coming year to his cousin, Lady Rowena. And the lady herself, when she looked out over the goodly lands which lay before her, rejoiced inwardly in that they were always to be her own, and no doubt so well regulated a mind had she that she would unhesitatingly have fallen into the arrangement made for her, if she had not loved her cousin; but she did love him, with a jealous, passionate love, that few would give her apparently calm nature credit for, and therein lay the sorrow of her life, the skeleton in her ladyship's cupboard carefully hidden away under an appearance of coldness, almost of indifference.

Captain Athelston had not proposed the idea of making her his wife, he had merely acquiesced in her father's plan, partly in a feeling of chivalry towards her, to whom that parent's death would make such a change ; partly from lazy indifference ; and partly, no doubt, because he liked her well enough, and they suited each other, and altogether it was less trouble.

Lady Rowena read her cousin's careless, honest nature as clearly as a book, and she ground her small white teeth in her bitter wrath, for that she, in spite of herself, had given her whole heart to him. If she could only be as indifferent—if she could only be as unexacting as this lazy love of hers, all might be well, but that could never be. No wonder the proud little lady fretted sore within, and that her great love at times was almost turned to hate.

And now this girl with whom her affianced husband was wont to walk, stumbling upon her in mossy lane or dell, and strolling home with her in the dusky shades of evening—this Sybil Charnleigh, whose country breeding Lady Ilowena had once only despised, she had now lately learned to hate —this country girl, who had never had the advantages of a fashionable education, did not even know that it was good style to be blase, who enjoyed life, who said what she meant, and showed what she felt, whom the Lady Ilowena considered vulgar and countrified, had she dared to come between her and her future husband ! Lady Ilowena had once given her opinion of this Yorkshire girl, but Captain Athelston had angrily, and with, for him, most unwonted energy, resented her remarks. 'Sybil is not vulgar,' he had said, ' though she can talk and laugh, and keep one from falling asleep, which 1 admit is an uncommon accomplishment in young ladies, as in their charming soeiety, as a general rule, my whole energies are expended in a prolonged struggle to keep awake.' And the gentleman yawned, and stretched himself ; and Lady Rowena veiled her angry glances 'neath her long fair lashes, and was wiser in future about giving her opinion openly of Miss Charnleigh, though secretlj, if possible, hating that young lady the more. Now, standing like a cpaeen in her young beauty, Lady Rowena's heart was sore; nevertheless, she put on one of her sweetest smiles, as she stepped out on the broad terrace and advanced to meet her cousins. There were many who thought Miss Charnleigh a formidable rival to the beautiful daughter of the house of Athelston. Her dark brown eyes, with darker lashes and brows—an innovation entirely due to the paternal side of her family and which contrasted so strangely with her yellow hair, which shone like the golden corn when the red sunset gleams upon it, was albeit a beauty which the Lady ilowena could not even see, so that at least she was spared the pangs of personal jealousy. ' Why, Sybil,' said Lady Ilowena, smiling sweetly, ' where have you been 1 you look as hot and dishevelled as if you had done all the shooting, while Modred, which is not at all improbable, was indulging in a refreshing sleep in some cool shade, or under some spreading tree.' ■ ' Well, indeed,' said the girl, laughing, ' I might apparently have done all the shooting without over-exerting myself; and I certainly incline to the opinion that Modred was asleep, though it is fair to state that he was nearly awake when I met him in the shrubbery.' ' Now, really, Sybil, that is too unkind; I was wide awake, and, what is more, I assure you, Kowena, I never knew a case of blacker ingratitude,| for I actually offered to carry her basket for her, but she would not trust me.'

' I suj)pose its contents were too precious,' sneered Lady Rowena, casting a contemptuous glance at the basketful of ferns and wild liowers, which hung upon her cousin's arm. It was a subject of inward amazement to her how any girl could go poking into hedges and ditches for things that looked like weeds when she might, at any time, send to the gardener for a bouquet of the rarest flowers, or have gone to the conservatory for them herself if she preferred it; but the sneer was lost on Sybil Charnleigh, and, if she knew, she certainly did not seem to heed her cousin's sentiments in the

least, so she only replied with a gay laugh, " No, indeed, it was not quite that, but you know it is the last straw that breaks the camel's back ; and I was afraid that if I took advantage of Modred'a chivalrous devotion, it might end in such comijlete exhaustion on his part, that I should not only have to take back my own basket, but probably have to carry his gun aud bag also, which I did not feel equal to this hot day." "Sybil! I should have died in the 'struggle,' but such a terrible catastrophe should never have occurred ;" and the Captain made an effort to look sentimental, but only succeeded in looking absurd, while Sybil's gay, ringing laugh was the only reply he received. These two cousins were, doubtless, once or twice removed, nevertheless cousins, and, consequently, prone to indulge in that serio-comic species of flirtation, the admitted privilege of that degree of consanguinity, albeit the Lady Rowena did not like it, so she interposed sharply, proposing a game of croquet. "Croquet," groaned the Captain, "who is to play ?" "Sybil and I, against you with two balls."

The Captain gasped, "Rowena, your word is law; but for one moment reflect upon what you are doing. Just consider the extraordinary amount of rigour that Sybil throws into her requests, and your own good sense will show you that no constitution on earth could stand two balls under such circumstances.

" Well, my feebleness would, in a great measure, counteract her indisputable powers. However, I think you will be spared the terrible ordeal, for here comes Mr Appleby. He and I will play you and Sybil." really, so it is; the sheen of your satin, or the glimmer of your—whatever Tennyson says about that sort of thing, you know —is quite sufficient for that deluded young man to turn up. Rowena, you should be careful, it would be decidedly awkward to see his patent leather boots sticking out of the moat some day—really quite tragical, enough to make a rival deuced uncomfortable ;" and the Captain stroked his tawny moustachios and shuddered, while the Lady Rowena, not deigning to answer him, swept majestically to meet the object of her cousin's anxious solicitations.

If there was one thing more than another which grated on the haughty little lady's nerves, it was chaffing, and then about a curate, no doubt a faultless specimen of that genus, spotless as regarded the small portion of white collar displayed at the top of his tightly-buttoned black waistcoat, unexceptional in the matter of boots and gloves, nevertheless a curate still, and, therefore, as far removed from her sphere as the little brook, which albeit basks and glitters under the silver light of the cold moon that shines upon it. But Lady Rowena was too well bred to let her disdainful feelings appear in her manner, as she shook hands, almost cordially, with the poor infatuated young man, who was so utterly bewildered in the presence of this woman, who to him was as a goddess, that he seemed utterly unconscious of even the existence of the others, till Lady Rowena blandly called his attention to them, and asked him to join in a game of croquet. It was nothing now that Mr Appleby had solemnly sworn one night, as he had done many a time before, over his solitary chop, limited in quantity, lavish in smuts, that he would fly from this siren, this ignus fatuus, leading him he knew not whither—only it needs must be into darkness and despairforswear the Castle grounds, take to his second best boots, makes his lavender kids do duty longer, and confine his croquetplaying to the grounds appertaining to the Miss Plums, of the Orchard, well-looking, well-dowered young women. The glamour that was on him was too strong for his powers of resistance, and each day was but a record of broken vows and good resolutions abandoned, and the Miss Plums' croquet ground, in so far as our poor curate was concerned, was left intact to the sole use of those eligible virgins. CIIAPZER 111. Three weeks had passed since our last chapter. The green beauty of summer was slowly giving way to the golden tints of autumn. Tho days were growing perceptibly shorter, and a cool breeze stirred the tops of the tall trees ; still the weather was beautiful, and the joyous summer seemed loth to depart, but lingered lovingly, unwilling to give place to the rough blasts of winter.