LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 527, 25 February 1876, Page 3

LITERATURE.

HOW HE WAS CURED. ( Continued.) A crush would have diminished Mr Herbert Brooks’s apprehensions. In a squeeze his wife’s charms might have been hidden, but now everything was visible ; even Mr Montgomery’s grandmother, a minute lady who sat in an armchair with her feet high above the ground, and who querulously begged everybody not to notice her, as she knew she was in the way, and was going to bed in a minute. The hostess was proud of her pretty guest, Nelly, and instantly set to work to find her a partner. That partner was Mrs Montgomery’s cousin, a tall man, with a fine pair of moustaches and an aquiline nose; a captain of dragroons, and a baronet to boot ; to which accumulation of unparalleled advantages he added an effctive name, Sir Arthur Nugent. The dance was a waltz ; and of course he asked Nelly to allow him the honour. Nelly, with a sidelong look at her husband, who was intently watching Sir Arthur Nugent’s neck-tie, declined ; whereupon, with a glance of admiration at her pretty face, which Mr Brooks distinctly saw, Sir Arthur petitioned her for the dance that followed the waltz. This was a quadrille ; she consented ; he scrbbled down her name, frowning in a very military maimer at the card; but instead of going away, as Mr Brooks held that the least sense of what was due to a lady would have urged him to do, he took a seat next her, said something droll, and made her laugh.

At this juncture, Mrs Montgomery approached Mr Brooks in order to introduce him to a middle-aged lady who had known his father, and who had learnt his name by having expressed her admiration of Mrs Brooks. So our friend had to leave his wife, and submit to a tedious cross-examination on the subject of the past, while Mrs Brooks laughed and chatted with the splendid baronet, and appeared entirely happy and comfortable. Sir Arthur plainly preferring Nelly’s society to the waltz, they ‘sat it out ’ Mrs Montgomery was extremely anxious to be polite to Mr Brooks, and while the people were dancing, detained him in a conversation about his estate and various other matters, which put it out of his power to interrupt the tete-a-tete going on opposite, His wife was greatly admired, Mrs Montgomery told him ; several young men had asked for an introduction; she was not at all surprised that her cousin Arthur should seem so pleased with her, for he could not help being struck with the strong likeness there was between her and a girl he was engaged to some years before, with whom he had been deeply in love, but who had died.

Meanwhile Mr Brooks was engaged in fighting, in imagination, a duel with the baronet, who, in a very few seconds, had been shot (mentally) through the leg, and humbly apologised for causing his opponent any uneasiness.

There is no need to enter into a particular account of that ball; to relate the attention bir Arthur paid to Mrs Brooks ; the languishing smiles with which he regarded her ; his elegant abstraction when he was away from her ; how he took her down to supper ; how Mr Brooks edged in fierce whispers, in which he informed his wife that her behaviour was the talk of the whole room ; how Mrs Brooks, with startled swimming eyes, protested her ignorance of having given occasion for the talk referred to, which she declared she did not believe, and which she added was entirely due to his imagination and the extravagant jealousy which was making her miserable ; how, during the supper Mr Brooks nearly choked himself with a piece of ham whilst watching Sir Arthur pull a cracker with Mrs Brooks, and hand her the motto with a peculiar smile; and how he caused the elderly lady whom he had taken down to supper, to consider him in an imperfect state of mind, since he paid no attention to her wants nor to her remarks ; but helped her to grapes when she asked for tongue; and placed- a bowl of salad before her when she whispered that she would take a little jelly; and made no answer when she inquired if he admired Shakespeare. Mr Brooks’s carriage was at last announced. With very unflattering eagerness he bade his entertainers good night, packed his wife’s arm under his, and hurried out of the room, followed by Sir Arthur Nugent, who insisted upon placing Mrs Brooks’s opera-cloak over her shoulders, and conducting her to her carriage. ‘ Thank God, it’s over!’ cried out Mr Brooks as they were driven home. Mrs Brooks made no reply. She was completely wretched, and felt that should she speak she must burst into tears. On they rolled, Mr Brooks, wrapped in sullen silence, deliberating which he should do the first thing next morning : send a note to Mr Montgomery and ask his motive in inviting him to a house for the purpose of insulting him, or to send his footman with a verbal message to Sir Arthur to the effect that he was no gentleman and a poor creature. Arrived at home, he gave full vent to his jealousy, until his wife, unable longer to bear his reproaches, left the room. Chapter ll.—The Kemedv. The clock struck four. Mr Brooks would now go to bed. There was no candle, and the hall and staircase were dark; but he was probably too much distracted in his mind to feel the want of light; and with both hands stretched forwards to save himself from a collision, groped his way upstairs. He pushed open the bedroom and entered. A couple of candles burned in his dressing-room, but his wife was neither there nor in her bedroom. He looked at the bed, and then under the bed, peered behind the curtains, listened at the door ; and then his heart began to beat. Where on earth was she ? He walked to his dressing-room to fetch a candle in order to seek her through the house ; and there, lying on the top of his box of razors, he beheld a cocked-hat note, which he grasped and stared at. The address, ‘ To my Husband, ’ was tremulously pencilled and scarcely discernible. He bent his nose over the candle and read :

* I can live with you no longer. You are determined to break my heart; and that you may not succeed, I leave you. Don’t follow me. Nothing could be more useless. Sir Arthur Nugent is my protector.’ Three times did Mr Brooks pursue this letter before he grasped its meaning. He rushed down stairs. The hall-door waa ajar ; she had evidently not closed it for fear of being heard by him as she left the house ; Mr Brooks pulled it open, ran down the avenue, into the highway. Here he paused, looking up and down the road. The cool air fanned his temples, but gave him no sensible relief. Far away, behind the black hills of the horizon, the dawn was breaking. Which way had they gone ? One way might be as good as another : and Mr Brooks being very nearly mad, and therefore incapable of reflection, started off to the right, and ran for the space of about fifteen minutes at the rate of some nine miles an hour.

Soon a rumbrng noise smote upon his ear. He gazed intently, and beheld a vehicle approaching him down the road. It proved: to be a fly belonging to some livery-stables in the town near which his house stood. ‘ Hi!’ he bawled. ‘ Now then !’ said the coachman, a sourfaced man, pulling up and exhibiting no surprise whatever at the spectacle of a young gentleman, in evening dress, without a hat, standing in the middle of the road at that hour in the morning. ‘Have you met anybody coming along; this road ?’

‘ Yes —a gent and a lady in a four-wheel', chay, drivin’ twenty mile an hour. ’ ‘ Follow them !’ roared Mr Brooks springing towards the fly. ‘ Follow them ?’ echoed the coachman - contemptuously. * Why, they’re at Jericho • by this time. ’ ‘ Follow them !’ shouted Mr Brooks jumping into the fly and vociferating to the man , through the window ; * and I’ll give you a . sovereign, * Couldn’t do it,’ answered the man. ‘ Just come from taking a party four miles from a soirey. ’ \_To be continued.']