LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 447, 19 November 1875, Page 3

LITERATURE.

GERTRUDE ERLE. Continued . ‘ No ; but, Claud, I have no money, and you have none ; and if you cling to it so much, how is it going to end for us ?’ she asked in an anxious voice that went straight to his heart. Gertrude's words flashed across him. ‘ I may have money some day, A lice ; then I shall be Lord of Burleigh, and you my bride,’ he said, kissing her ardently. She lifted up a radiant face. ‘ 0 Claud, it would kill me to lose you !’ and she wound her arms round him, and held him passionately to her, as if nothing should divide them. Claud looked at her ; then he remembered Gertrude, and he was silent. » * * * Mr Erie died, and died quite suddenly, after all; and Gertrude, in the first days of her bitter loss, had no heart to think of any one but him who had been the best of fathers. But when he was taken away and she grew calmer, a sense of rectitude would not allow her to keep silent any longer on the matter of the will. She_ did not even shrink from the task, strong in her faith in her lover ; desperately reliant on the love and truth that were but broken reeds after all. Robed in heavy black, and the sunny beauty of her face dimmed by tears, Gcr trude looked ten years older when she walked slowly into the room where Claud awaited her. She did not approach him, but sank down into the first chair near, and closed her lids for a moment. Then she plunged into her subject at once. ‘ Claud, I have something to say to you - something that ought to have been said long ago.’ He looked at her anxiously. Her tone was ominous. Was she going to throw him over now, at the last moment, when he had made up his mind to sacrifice himself without a murmur at the shrine of Plutus ? Her manner was strange and her words a little incoherent. He was just making up his mind to a melodramatic scene of reproaches, protestations, and even entreaties if necessary, when she went up to him, a bright crimson spot burned on her cheeks, and her large liquid eyes looked larger and softer for the dark bistre shades that underlined them. ‘ Claud, I asked you once if you would care for me the same whether I was rich or poor. ’ He thought she was putting him through his paces, and he determided to come out faultless from the trial. ‘ Yes, and I answered that rich or poor I would love you all the same, Gertrude, dearest. ’ * Claud, I am poor in purse, but my heart is rich in love for you.’ He stared at her almost rudely. An instinct seemed to tell him that she was speaking the truth. ‘Are you joking or are you mad, Gertrude ?’ he questioned sternly. ‘Neither Joking nor mad, Claud. My fortune was a fraud, and I am no heiress ; but if you love me, I shall be as happy as the day is long,’ she cried joyfully. He turned as white as a sheet. The last straw had floated away from his grasp, and he was a drowning man. But he had the presence of mind to conceal within himself his woful disappointment, his bitter regret. ‘ If you speak the truth, Gertrude, I fear we two must part. Much as I care for you, I can never marry you.’ ‘ Much asjyou care for me ? Is that true, Claud ?’ she asked him eagerly. ‘lf you had money we should not part ?’ ‘Of course not, Gertrude. How could you think it ?’ She took both his hands and held them firmly. Looking him steadily in the face, she said solemnly, ‘ Then I shall be your wife, Claud—your loving faithful wife ; for you have not only money, but you are passing rich.’ ‘ Gertrude !’

She let go his hands and took a paper from her bosom, and opening it out, she held it before his eyes. ‘ This gives you the money that I have lost, Claud.’ He seized the document roughly and perused it eagerly, his face hotly flushed, his eyes kindling. ‘ All mine ?’ he grasped. ‘He would sell his soul for gold, and, when he got it, gloat over it!’ Her dead father’s words came back to her as she watched the effect of the will. ‘ All yours, Claud ; and I am yours too,’ she said quietly and distinctly. He had the grace to turn his face away before he answered, ‘ No, Gertrude, it is impossible, for my heart has long belonged to another !’ She sat down, never so much as lifting up her eyes, while he prepared to leave the room ; but when he was fairly gone, and she was alone —alone in the world—great passionate sobs rang out from Gertrude’s breast—sobs for the love that had lived for Claud and had died so cruel a death by his hand. part in. ‘ You ought not to make Ralph unhappy, for he loves you so dearly, Gertrude, Alice pleaded, with tears in her eyes. Her brother’s low spirits had infected her own. ‘ Ralph knows that I love him, though I refuse to be his wife. I cannot consent to be a drag on him, Alice. ’ It was six months since Gertrude had come to Wales. When she was left homeless and friendless, the Darners had come forward and offered her shelter and affection. They were her nearest relatives, and she accepted the offer at once. Only just enough money was secured to her to render her independent to a certain extent, as far as personal wants were concerned ; and under these wretched auspices—for they were wretched to one who from her birth had been accustomed to unlimited expenditure —she had entered her new home. But the six months had worked a marvellous change in her feelings, Ralph Damcr lovedj her, and she had learnt to love him with a deeper and more enduring love than she had ever lavished on Claud, for with the affection was united a trust perfect and infinite.

‘lf I had money I would marry Ealph to-morrow—that is if it pleased him to take me,’ she said shyly. * Yet I do not care for money, Alice. It is a curse and not a blessing very often.’ ‘ A curse, Gertrude ?’ and Alice opened her blue eyes in surprise. ‘ Yes ; it was money that nearly broke my heart, and killed my faith in the goodness of human nature. ‘ But Ealph has brought back that faith ?’ ‘ Dear Ealph !’ Gertrude murmured very low, with a bright blush on her face and a soft light in her brown eyes. ‘ Have you ever been engaged, Gertrude !’ Alice asked. She wanted to find out if all girls who were engaged felt the misery and anxiety that had been her lot for the last six months, during which she had neither seen Claud nor heard from him. Gertrude did not even change colour as she replied. Claud’s influence over her feelings was a thing of the past completely, and she could speak his name calmly and coolly, with only just a little scorn cropping up in her mind. ‘ Yes, Alice, I was engaged for some months to a man who swore he loved me for myself ; but when I lost my fortune he cast me aside like a worthless glove. Is it any wonder that money is a horrible thing in my eyes, since it opened them to an amount of deceit and falsity that I never imagined existed V ‘ Perhaps he could not help himself. He might have been too poor to marry,’ suggested Alice, in the hope of salving down the bitterness of spirit that Gertrude evidently felt. * Oh, no,’ she cried scornfully, * there was no such excuse for his conduct. My poverty made him rich.’ ‘ It was not Claud Wilton ?’ And at the tone Gertrude turned hastily, to see that Alice was as pale as ashes. ‘ Y es. Is he anything to you ?’ ‘ We have been engaged two whole years. And this is the end!’ the girl said, in a dreary piteous voice that told of the desolation in her heart. ‘Oh Alice, Alice !’ And Gertrude took her cousin’s slight figure in her arms, and caressed her just as she would have fcomforted a child. ‘ He has broken his oath ; he can never be anything to me again !’ Alice cried. ‘ W hat oath ?’ ‘ He swore upon his knees [that he would never love any one but me.’ ‘Be satisfied, dear child ; he has kept his oath as far as I am concerned. Claud Wilton worshipped my money, but he never loved me.’ ‘ He must be so mercenary, so unworthy !’ Gertrude had a good dash of nobility in her nature, and she forgot her own aggressed feelings to try and soothe those of the poor little heart that beat audibly near her. ‘You may prove him neither mercenary nor unworthy. If Claud really cares for you he will be sure to marry you by and by,’ ‘By and by !’ It was an indefinite period to look forward to; but in spite of her jealous fears, her wounded love, Alice knew she would not be able to utter * nay’ if her Lord of Burleigh came and said to her, ‘ All of this is mine and thine !’ » ■* * jH * * ‘ Don’t close your heart against me, Gertrude ! Think how long I have loved you.’ And Ealph’s eyes, beseeching and sorrowful, met hers. They were not beautiful eyes, with their iris deeply violet, and neither was the mouth that spoke so perfect in shape as that other mouth that had not scrupled to breathe falsehoods even while she gazed upon it in a foolish idolatry of its beauty. But Ealph, with his manly face, his tender smile that was almost womanly in its sweetness, and his strong muscular figure, was everything to her now. Antinous in propria persona would have been powerless to tempt her allegiance from him. ‘I don’t close my heart, Ealph. You may read it like an open book, ai; • i you will see your own name inscribed on every page,’ she said softly. ‘ Then marry me, Gertrude, and make me happy.’ She looked at him, and she saw that he was thoroughly in earnest. Now she could not doubt that she was loved for herself, and loved with all Ealph’s honest soul. ‘ Will you take me, poverty-stricken as I am, and never regret it, Ealph ?’ ‘ Gertrude !’ Only her own name in response ; but she knew that it meant that Ealph would take her for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, with a willing heart. ‘ Take me then,’ she said frankly, putting her hand into his. But Ealph was not content. In another moment she was clasped in his arms, and a kiss, pure yet passionate, lay on her lips. ‘ I must tell you something, Ealph—something about an episode in my life. ’ ‘ Not that you have ever loved before, Gertrude !’ he cried jealously. ‘Yes, but I have, Ealph,’ she said quietly. ‘ I loved Claud Wilton !’ ‘ And are you sure that the love is quite dead, Gertrude ?’ he asked gravely. ‘ Trust me. ’ ‘I do; but oh, my darling, you must never see him again !’ Ealph was human, and on earth perfect love does not cast out fear. ‘ Why not ? Claud is nothing to me, and you are’ —she hesitated. ‘ \V hat, Gertrude ?’ ‘Everything.’ To he continued.