LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 471, 18 December 1875, Page 3

LITERATURE.

DR SEYMOUR

BY NAKCISSA KOSAVO, AUTHOR OF “POLLY.”

Continued

The result of these very active proceedings came, in a couple of days, in the form of a letter addressed to ‘ The Misses Pemberton. ’ It ran as follows : ‘My dear Cousins,—l cannot conceive how you have discovered my secret. I thought it was entirely in my own keeping, so far as you were concerned, to be divulged at my leisure and pleasure. I would not have kept it from you much longer. Needless tantalisation is not my forte, neither was it ever my desire to excite false expectations and hopes. I am very sorry that I should have misled either of my fair relatives concerning my intentions. I always endeavoured so to divide my attentions impartially between the two that neither could believe I thought seriously of her. It is very unfortunate that I have not been successful in this, especially as my affections have long been otherwise engaged. By-and-by, when the first sharpness of this disappointment shall, in a measure, have passed away, I trust we may once more meet as friends, and re-establish our old intimacy on terms suitable to our altered circumstances. Tell then, I remain, ‘ Your affectionate cousin, ‘James Compton.'

The two Ellens read this with their heads together. The elder lady almost laughed herself into a fresh attack of illness. She was fairly convulsed with merriment, leaving most of the indignation proper to the occasion to be transacted by her niece. ‘ Surely he has revenged himself on us,’ she exclaimed, at last. ‘ But what on earth does he mean by his affections being elsewhere engaged, and so forth ? Oh, Jim! you will be the death of me ! Ellen, the mystery thickens. 1 don’t now believe he ever wrote that forgery, if it is one. Has the Doctor spoken since? No! Well, here goes for another move in the game ! You and I must answer this precious epistle of Jim’s. See, this will do, I think. ‘The Misses Pemberton present their compliments to Mr Compton. They denied themselves to him on the occasion of his last visit, in consequence of their then existing belief that he had been the author of a vulgar practical joke played off upon the house. If he is innocent of this, and can prove that his ‘ secret ’ had no reference to the before-mentioned trick, the Misses Pemberton will be happy to renew their acquaintance with Mr Compton ! ’ This note was in due course despatched by post. Next evening Dr Seymour came to see his patient, who was now almost out of his hands. Miss Pemberton was sitting by the fire downstairs. Her niece did not make her appearance at all upon this occasion. Dr Seymour was much depressed. He held his companion’s hand long in his, and looked anxiously into her face. She coloured violently, and turned her eyes away. ‘ Don’t you think I am very nearly well again now ?’ she asked, somewhat abruptly. ‘I do, I will come next week and see how you get on. After that, I don’t expect you will need me.’ He sighed heavily. His questioner felt embarrassed, and was glad when the interview came to an end. The other Ellen was in her own room. She stood at the window, and watched until she saw the visitor leave the house, and then, after some little time, she went downstairs. Pussy was purring in a comforting manner in her arms. Miss Pemberton was sitting in a lounge near the tire. Her niece took possession of a low rocking-chair, and swayed herself gently to and fro. Presently, the elder lady broke into a little laugh, but it was a nervous and uncomfortable kind of affair. ‘ Have you that letter by you still, Ellen ?’ she inquired. Her companion nodded. * Would you mind letting me look at it again!’

‘ Oh, not in the least. The whole world may see it so far as lam concerned. I don’t care if son nail it np on the hall door. He might read it over then for himself when he next calls. I think that would be a very good plan.’

The feminine orator made her little speech with very unusual sharpness in her tones. Pussy did not understand or approve of this unpleasant excitability, and she attempted to escape, but her mistress closely imprisoned the would-be deserter, within her arms. ‘ Ah, Pussy, please stay with me. Don’t you go away too,’ she murmured, laying her cheek against the cat’s soft fur ; and Pussy stayed. The aunt looked on with an air of provocation. ‘Do give up petting that animal, child,’ she exclaimed, almost angrily. ‘lt is no wonder you are going to be an old maid, when you never, by any chance, put her out of your arms. Have you forgotten that I asked you to lend me that letter again ? ’ Ellen drew the required article from her pocket. (It had been dethroned from its first resting-place.) She handed it over with studied carelessness of manner. ‘Perhaps, after all, you ought to have written an answer to this,’ Miss Pemberton said, poking up the fire, and bending forward to catch the light of a sudden blaze ; for the two were sitting in the gloaming. Ellen looked up, hot and indignant. ‘He wants no reply,’ she returned. ‘He cares nothing for me now, and I—l—of course I I don’t want to have anything to do with him.’ Her companion turned the letter over and over in her hands. There was an odd embarrassed look again upon her face. * I have a thought which might possibly explain this mystery, only I don’t like to tell it to you,’ she observed, hesitatingly. ‘ Say whatever you think,’ whispered her niece out of the depths of Pussy’s consoling fur. ‘ Well—l—could it be possible that this extraordinary affair was after all really intended for me. ‘ But the direction ?’ These three words came out with a gasp. ‘ Why, child, how often our letters get muddled together. You know they do. Nearly every advertisement, for instance comes to you, and yet, no doubt, at least half of such things are intended for mo. Then Haynes is often with the Doctor. He talks to him by the yard of old times, when my father and elder sister were alive, and before Geoffrey—l mean Colonel Clive—went away to India. He always speaks of me as Miss Ellen, and will persist in doing so. The Doctor may have had this in his mind. He may be wholly unaware of having put anything but Miss Pemberton on tbe envelope. I have noticed that ho is in some ways an absent man. A person in love, too, would put the Christian name down almost unconsciously of the girl—bah ! I mean the woman he cares for. * Ellen is my name too,’ sobbed the other occupant of the room, half piteously, half appealingly. ‘ If—if it was you Le meant, why has he never said one word to you about the letter in all these days when he has been here so often ? ’ ‘ He—well, you see, dear, it seems as if the great goose fancied I had been very ill indeed. He may have avoided all discussion about the matter, iest excitement of any sort should prove injurious to my recovery.. Ho will probably have the affair out next week, when he comes again, if things are at all as I have been surmising. To tell the truth, it was his manner this afternoon that put all this into my head.’ * And do you care for him ? Will you ’ The elder lady cleared her throat, and. then again poked the fire vigourously.. ‘I ’ A sudden loud summons at the hall door disturbed the conference. Miss Pemberton , sat stiffly up in her chair and listened. Pussy leaped on the floor, and was not hindered in so doing. Her mistress fled. away to her own room, hot and angry with , herself and with all the world, and yet unable to make her indignation quell a great pain which was aching at her heart.

Meanwhile, Mary, with a surprised face, ushered Doctor Seymour in to her mistress for the second time that day. She lit up the gas, and then left the two alone. The visitor was excited, and much flurried. ‘You will never forgive me,’ he said, breathlessly. • I can certainly can never pardon myself for what I have done. Here is a letter which is, I suppose, intended for you. I have read it through, almost without knowing what I did. It has been lying in my room for several days past. Pray see if it is of importance to you before 1 explain. O impo tance I The first sentence made her gasp for breath, and 100 > up at her companion with a wild sta ’tled gaze. • Deakest Lllem —1 have just returned home after my twelve long years of exile. I have learned t at you are still unmarried, but that is all my informant can tell me of you. lam of the same mind as of old May I come and see you again ? Do not say yes, unless you can let things be once more upon their past happy footing between us. Let us meet as engaged, if we meet at all. I will wait here ten days for your answer : this will give you time for consideration. As ever, ‘ Yours, ‘Geoffeev Clive.’ As Miss Pemberton read, tears streamed down her face, and at last she pressed the letter to her lips, heedless and forgetful of a bystander’s presence. ‘You should have got this long since,’ Doctor Seymour said, hesitatingly. His companion started as if awakening suddenly out of a dream, Her cheeks became carmine colour. (JTo he continued,j