LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 446, 18 November 1875, Page 3

LITERATURE.

GERTRUDE ERLE. Continued. I My dear Gertrude, a reason could not exist for such a wish ; at least not to the thinking of a poor devil like me.' ' Suppose you were wealthy, Claud, and the unwelcome idea came into your head that you were only liked for the sake of your wealth?' He looked at her askance for an instant, and judged directly that an arriere pens'ee dictated her words. 'lt depends,' he remarked diplomatically. ' If I knew that I was young and good-look-ing, I should be vain enough to believe in my own attractions a little.' 'Ah!' and a cloud that had shadowed Gertrude's fair face cleared off like mist before sunshine. She rose and walked up to him, and slid her arm through his. He let her do it, but there was no pressure or appreciative sign of any kind on his part, lover though he was supposed to be. ' Claud, if I was poor, would you care for me all the same ?' she asked him with yearning eyes. He knew the talk was all folly, for she was undoubtedly Miss Erie, with more money than he could count at her back. 'Thank you, Gertrude,' he said reproachfully, ' for thinking me such an interested individual.' ' I did not mean that, Claud;' and she clung closer to his arm. ' Only it would make me so happy to hear you say that, rich or poor, you would care for me all the same,' she pleaded. ' Of course I should love you all the same,' he replied ; but in spite of him a red flush mounted to his forehead at the falsehood. ' But if you were poor, I could not marry you ; for Cupid and starvation don't agree well together, Gertrude; and neither of us is fit for love in a cottage, and all that sort of thing, I fancy.' A speech that would have chilled any one ; and it had its due effect on her, for she bent over a geranium plant on pretence of plucking a dead leaf to hide a quiver on her mouth, while a shiver ran through her frame, although the thermometer was at seventy-five. Then she glanced up at the handsome face near her, at the almondshaped deep-violet eyes, and the perfectly chiselled lips ; her idolatory of beauty returned in full force, and she felt that castle or cottage with him would be alike to her.

' Could you be a Lord of Burleigh, Claud '!' she asked, with a shy smile, hoping, longing for him to turn and take her in his arms, and swear all manner of tender things if he were but rich and she was poor. ' Lord of Burleigh, Gertrude ! By Jove ! I have been a pauper so long that riches would turn my brain, and I should be sorry to answer for my actions under such circumstances, ' he laughed out harshly. She did not say a word. The harsh laugh, the unpleasant sentiment jarred upon her. All she wished was that she could then and there tell him everything and give him his freedom. That that freedom would be accepted she had no doubt. Claud could not help but notice the shadows that had gathered more quickly over her usually sunny face. He knew he had given a long rein to his tongue. His pace might be dangerous, he thought, with a disastrous result; and he pulled himself up with a jerk, to say, with an arm thrown round her waist.

' Do. not let us lose time in foolish talk, Gertrude. I have to leave you in a few days.' ' Going away again ?' she exclaimed in surprise. Claud's migratory powers were evidently ou the increase, and he seemed always on the wing. ' I promised a man a visit. I would not go, but I cannot help myself,' he replied with an air of martyrdom. A little weariness of these enforced absences crossed Gertrude's mind, and ruffled the serenity of her temper. * You are not obliged to go if you do not like, I presume,' she said coldly, with a slight shrug of her shoulders. He glanced at her. His tassel gentle was getting restive, and he must tame her, and make her settle down iirni in his grasp by a few loving phrases. He bent down, and looked in her face until she could see herself mirrored in the blue depths of his eyes ; under the glamour of those beautiful blue depths her wrath melted away in thin air. ' You know I hate leaving you, Gertrude. Don't you believe that I do, dearest ?'

The expression of the eyes, the tone of the voice, the term of affection, were all sham ; but Gertrude did not dream it.

' 0 Claud, you make me so happy sometimes,' she murmured, with a hot blush that she hid oil his shoulder. 'Do you love me very inueh, my own ?' he asked in well-feigned accents of tenderness. 'So much, that it would break my heart to part from you !' she cried -passionately. ■ And so it would mine !' he answered feruently ; ' or, rather, it would be torn to pieces in the clutches of those grasping Israelites,' he ejaculated inwardly. PAKT 11. ' My darling !' Claud's voice had gained considerably in fervour since his last tete-a-tete with Gertrude Erie. His darling raised shy eyes to his face, and then Hung white arms round kis neck.

' 0 Claud, how good of you to come again so soon !'

'lf I am good, why am I not rewarded?' he whispered. A pair of sweet red lips were lifted up, and he bent and kissed them fondly. In the lonely lane there was a rustic seat, almost hidden by drooping larch boughs. Claud drew the girl to it, and she nestled quietly into his arms like a little child. The two were first cousins, as well as lovers ; and this, united to the fact that they had known each other for years, made her more demonstrative, perhaps, than she might have been otherwise. ' And what have you been doing with yourself since I was here, Alice ?' he asked, stroking her air softly, as it streamed over his breast in long golden waves. ' Thinking of you, Claud,' she told him artlessly and frankly. ' Is that anything new pet ?' She blushed a faint pink blush, that tinted her cheek into the colour of a seashell. ' It seemed as if I remembered nothing that existed before we loved one another ; and since, I only remember you.' Claud answered her, and satisfied himself by drawing her closer to him, and resting her face against his own. ' Were your mother and Ralph surprised to see me last evening ?' ' A little. Ralph said he could not understand what attraction a man so essentially town-bred as yourself could find in such an out-of-the-way place as this.' ' Ah, he doesn't know !' and Claud's violet eyes looked down straight into the lightblue ones of Alice with an expression that said plainly, 'lf he did know, he would not wonder if I went to the world's end.' 'No, he doesn't know,' Alice replied gently and a little sorrowfully; then she plucked lip courage: ' Claud, it would make me s"o much happier if I could tell him.' ' Not for the world !' he answered quickly ; visions of Miss Erie and her thousands vanishing in the distance, and the gigantic armies of Israel advancing to the fore, made him shudder at the very notion. ' I have not the means to marry at present ; and Ralph would object to a long engagement, and probably prevent our meeting.' _ This was enough to silence her. Anything would be preferable to the chance of being debarred seeing him. 'We cannot be too careful, in fact, of our secret; all cur future happiness depends on it,' he went on persuasively. So Alice smothered the good impulse that prompted her to be open and truthful to the mother and brother who loved her, and consented to hold her love-trysts with Claud in secret. 'Do you ever see Gertrude Erie ?' she asked. ' Occasionally.' ' Does she seem to like you ?' • So-so.' And as Claud recollected whose head had so often rested lovingly on the shoulder that was dedicated now to the particular benefit of Alice, he could not help experiencing a species of self-scorn at his deceptive answei. ' And do you like her ?' persisted Alice. 'As a cousin.' ' Is Gertrude very beautiful ?' and the girl felt a painful thrill at the thought that Claud liked a lovely woman at all, even as "a cousin. ' Not half so beautiful as you, my darling,' he said earnestly and truthfully enough, gathering up the slight figure with a fervency that would have given Gertrude a new lease of life and joy and hope. ' Claud, I believe I am of a jealous temper ; I feel as if I could hate you if I ever found out that you liked or admired any one else.' And Alice drew herself away from him with flushed cheeks and glittering eyes. He laughed. ' And if you hated me, what would you do —kill me ?' ' No, die myself !' she whispered piteously, turning pale at the terrible picture of her soul in revolt against Claud. ' I have eyes for none but you, love.' ' And your heart ?' ' Is all your own.' ' Swear it, Claud; swear on vour bended knees that you will always love me, and me only !' He flung himself on his knees before her. ' 1 swear it ?' And he was Gertrude Erie's future husband ! ' Ralph thinks Gertrude perfection,' Alice said when the two were seated again side by side. ' Does he ?' and Claud was inconsistent enough to feel angry that any one should dare to admire or comment on his property. ' She would be such an excellent catch for him,' he sneered. ' Ralph would not marry any one for money. Her fortune would always prevent him from asking Gertrude to be his wife; he is too noble to be mercenary,' Alice exclaimed in her brother's defence. 'He is a nonpareil, no doubt,' he mocked ; Alice had hit him so hard while she spoke. 'Not a nonpareil, only an honest-hearted man, Claud. It must be dreadful to marry any one for the sake of money ; I think I should pine away under a weight of shame and obligation.' ' You see, men are made of sterner stuff than yon are, child ; and money is such an excellent thing that it makes up for so many deficiencies.' ' Claud !' ' Well, is your romantic little soul above such material things as pounds, shillings, and pence ?' To be continued.