LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 383, 3 September 1875, Page 4

LITERATURE.

THE COLONEL'S WIFE. Continued. A few weeks had elapsed since my husband had spoken to me, and I still shrunk from advising her ; when one Sunday afternoon, as I was returning from my school, I came suddenly upon Mabel and Captain Trenham walking together. He was speaking rapidly and vehemently, and she, looking pale and excited, was listening with her eyes raised to his. It was getting dusk; and they were so self-absorbed that they passed me without seeing me. I felt annoyed at Mabel's imprudence. Colonel Carlton, I knew, had left home for a few days; and here was she giving fresh food for scandal. That she was anything more than imprudent never even crossed my mind. Her face was so angelic, that it was impossible to associate a thought of wrong with her. Still I decided, as I sat brooding over the fire on my return home, that I must take heart of grace, and speak to her without delay. Lost in these thoughts, I did not hear a light footfall on the carpet; and I started as a hand fell on my shoulder, and, looking up, I saw her standing beside me. * Why, Mabel,' I said, 'you came in like a spirit; and, indeed,' I continued, as the flickering firelight fell on her face, ' you look like one. How very wan your little face is, my child ; and how cold your hands are ! What have you been doing to yourself ?' I drew a low chair to the fire for her; but she pushed it back; and, seating herself on the rug at my feet, clasped my hand in hers, and rested her pale cheek against it. • Let me sit here, Mary,' she said, ' at your feet.'

I stroked her bright hair with my disengaged hand ; and for some minutes we both sat silent, I considering in my mind how best to put into words what I had to say. ' Mabel,' I at last found courage to begin, * you said once that I was the only friend you had. Will you let me be a true friend, and give you a little advice, which may, Eerhaps, be unpalatable ?' She moved her ead, so as to let her lips rest on my hand, but did not answer ; so I continued, ' I am much older than you, dear Mabel, and more versed in the ways of the world; and I know how soon a young wife, from mere thoughtlessness, may get hard things said of her.' Mabel moved uneasily, but still did not speak. 'I am quite sure that you hardly estimate the imprudence of being so intimate with Captain Trenham. It is impossible to stop ill-natured people's tongues, and you are too lovely, dear,' said I, caressing her bent head, • to escape their malice, if you give them a chance of gossiping about you. Why do you receive Captain Trenham's attentions with such evident plea-

sure ? ' ' Why ?' exclaimed Mrs Carlton, starting to her feet. ' You want to know why ? Because Charlie Trenham is the only man I have ever loved.' ' Oh, Mabel!' ' Yes,' she went on, vehemently,' ' I loved him long, long before I was sold to gratify my father's ambition, and my step-mother's jealousy, What was it to them that I went to the altar with a lie on my lips ? What did they care, though my girl's heart should be broken by their unholy bargain. Yes ; Charlie and I were engaged, and I loved him

—oh, how I loved him! But they drove - him from me because lie was poor; lied to me about him, and threatened and goaded me into my hateful marriage. And 1, poor fool that I was, how could I have been so weak, or have believed that Charlie would have been false to me? Oh, Charlie, Charlie!' she sobbed, as she fell on her knees beside me, and hid her face in her hands. I was horrified. In my worst forebodings I had never imagined anything so bad as this. How strange it seemed to me, as I looked from the calm autumn of my middle age on the young tempest-tossed soul beside me. I let her passion have its way, and when it had spent itself in hysterical tears, I soothed her pitifully, as if she had still been the child she looked. ' Mabel,' I said, ' Captain Trenham must leave this, leave the regiment, exchange, anything ' — l went on excitedly, 'he must not stay here to break your heart, and ruin your fair fame. Why was he so utterly selfish as to join the regiment your husband commanded ?' ' He did not know it.' ' But he knows it now ; and is playing a game, which may be sport to him, but will certainly be death to you, my child, my poor child,'l mourned, as I looked at her pale, tear-stained cheeks. 'He must and shall go, Mabel. You must make him go ; it will kill you if this goes on much longer.' 1 He goes away on three months' leave tomorrow,' Mabel said, with a deep, burning blush suffusing her pale cheek. ' Thank Heaven for that !' I cried, fully resolving in my own mind that my George should see him long before it elapsed, and persuade him to leave the regiment. " Mabel, you ought to thank Heaven, too that he is going.' * Hush, hush !' she saj s, shuddermgly. f You do not know—you cannot guess. Ah ! Mary, has any one ever suffered a 3 I have ?'

Ah! sublime selfishness of youih that knows no suffering but its own ! ' Many,' I reply, mournfully, ' and many will a.am. Yon must be strong to suffer, Mabel, and you must tread your path in life without repining.' I draw her nearer to me; and speak of duties to be fulfilled, of that comfort which is not of earth, and prophesy renewed peace, and, if, not happiness, at least calmness and content. She listens in silence, only now and then drawing a long, shuddering sigh, and nervously clasping and unclasping her fingers. At last she rises to go, and I put on my bonnet to accompany her. ' Come in to Mrs Briice's with me,' I say, as we pass the door, '■ and hear the children sing their hymns before they go to church.' She draws back, but I use a gentle force, and compel her to enter with me; I think the pure young voices will do her good. childish, trebles seem to me as sweet as a choir of angels, as the familiar notes of the Evening Hymn float through the hushed room.

'Lucy is not here to-night,' says Mrs Bruce. 'I do not like any of my children to be absent from our Sunday evening singing. We always have had it, and then I know those who are away are thinking of it and us,' says the tender mother, thinking of her sailor boy. As we leave them again when the singing is ended, she draws me aside to comment on Mabel's changed appearance,

' How ill Mrs Carlton looks ? lam sure she wants nursing and care ; but she cannot have a better friend than you,' says the kind woman, as she presses my hand. I find Mabel waiting for me at her own gate. ' You must not come in to-night, Mary,' she says ; ' 1 should like to be alone. Goodnight, dear, dear Mary. God bless you for all your kindness to me.' She clings tome for a moment almost convulsively. ' You are still a little hysterical,' I say, practically. •Go to bed at once like a good child, and come and aee me to-morrow.'

' To-morrow !' she echoes, wearily ; and once more clasping me closely to her, she turns and disappears under the shadow of the trees.

The next day one thing after another occurred to prevent my going over to Mrs Carlton's, and, to my surprise, she did not come to me ; so in the evening, seeing my husband cosily settled with his feet on the fender and his paper before him, I determined to run in for a minute, and see how she was.

' I shall not be more than half an hour,' I said, as I came into the drawing-room, shawled and ready. ' You had better take Henry, my dear ; it is past nine o'clock,' said my husband. But I wouldn't have a servant, as it was but a step; and I sallied forth into the winter's night alone. As I entered the green lane, at the bottom of which stood the Carltons' house, to my surprise I saw a rly standing there. I had not ceased conjecturing for whom it could be waiting, when a man brushed hastily by me, and even in the darkness, I felt sure I recognised Captain Trenham's tall figure; but Captain Trenham was on leave I knew. He had left that morning by an early train, for George had told me so, and I smiled at my own excited imagination. Still, hardly knowing why, I quickened my footsteps anxiously, and without knocking, turned the handle of the door, and stood in the Carltons' drawing-room. It was empty, and a lamp burned dimly on the table. The place looked deserted and forlorn, and I called eagerly for Mabel. She did not answer; but fancying I heard a movement above, I ran hastily up to her room. Was ths figure that I saw there Mabel's ? She was sitting, with her bonnet and shawl on, on the foot of her bed, a small travelling-bag in her hand, her face white and drawn, dark circles under her haggard eyes—a wreck of the woman I had parted from the day before. As by a revelation, I knew it all! It was Captain Trenham I had seen, and he had come back—for this. No ! never while I had life. I flew to Mabel; I clasped her in my arms ; I poured forth every endearing epithet I could think of. I told her, as I rained warm kisses and hot tears on her cheek, that I had come to save her, that I would save her ; that, never, while I had strength to hold her, should she do this wickedness and 'sin against God.' I pillowed her head on my breast, aDd rocked her in my arms like a child, but she neither moved nor spoke. A marble statue would have been as full of life. What could Ido to rouse her ? And, while I sat here holding her in my arms, if any one should recognise Captain Trenham as I had done, her reputation would be lost for ever. ' Mabel, Mabel! speak tojrie,' I implored. I might as well have implored the dead to rise from their graves. I knew I must act, and that promptly ; so laying her on her bed, and taking the precaution to lock the door for fear of prying servants, I went out again into the darkness, to find the would-be destroyer of my poor sweet Mabel. As I stepped from the door, a figure emerged from th« gloom, with a low cry of ' Mabel' on its lips. I laid my hand on its arm. ' Captain Trenham,' I said, ' I have been sent to prevent the crime you were about to commit; the very thought of which has nearly killed Mabel Carlton. Go, and thank Heaven on your knees, which has saved you and her this night. Go,' I repeated j 'it is well for you if you are not her murderer.'

'ls she ill ? Have mercy, and tell me if she is ill. I will go away and never trouble her more, but tell me I have not|killed her !' he said, humbly. 'Ah! you do not know our story.' (To be eo?itinved.)