LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 530, 29 February 1876, Page 3

LITERATURE.

HOW HE WAS CURED. ( Concluded .) Mr Brooks muttered some unintelligible answer in a choking voice. ‘ I am anxious to receive your answer,’ pursued the baronet, ‘in order that I may advise you. To speak plainly—and between gentlemen there ought to be no concealment of sentiment —if you should marry again, I am very desirous that you should choose a prettier woman than your second wife. In fact, my dear fellow, I want you to marry somebody worth running away with. Now, though it goes against my conscience to soy anything unkind of a lady, I must be pe- - mitted to politely call your attention to the fact that she was not what a fastidious connoisseur would consider beautiful.’

* You’re a bully !’ burst forth Mr Brooks * A bully is a rascal who presumes upon his strength to insult weaker persons. You’re a bully.’ Uttering which definition, by whichjhis soul appeared to gain trilling relief, he blew his nose scornfully and turned his shoulder upon his visitor. * Even Nelly,’ continued the baronet with a lofty smile, ‘ did not thoroughly please me. She was indeed very pretty, had most melting eyes, and her hair was exactly suited to my taste. But she was too fond of you, sir. She was hampered with absurd prejudices in favour of homo and what she called her first love. Then, again, she was too fond of crying, and assuriugjhue that she would never

have left you had you only possessed the slightest confidence in her faith and honour; which annoyed me to hear. On the other hand, your second wife is too willing—has a tropical avidity of emotion which when taken conjointly with her face and figure, affects me disagreeably. For, give me leave to inform you, Mr Brooks, that I am an epicure. Therefore I am here for the purpose of entreating you, in your choice of a third wife, to choose with some little regard to my taste. ’ Mr Brooks clenched his fist; but the baronet gave him a look which caused Mr Brooks to sit down.

‘lt is plain to me,’ said the baronet thoughtfully, ‘that your mission in this world is to create sport for men of my kind. I particularly noticed you at the Montgomerie’s ball, and could scarcely restrain myself from thanking you heartily for the very handsome gift you were making me of your wife. You will observe, sir, that it is quite impossible for any lady to have you, and such as you, for a husband, without feeling herself to be a very ignominious person. The natural result of such jealousy as you exhibit is to degrade and annihilate that sense of self-respect and personal dignity which form the backbone of the moral nature. The more faithful, the more innocent, the more womanly, a girl is, the more will her finest characteristics suffer from the miserable intepretations you place upon her artless behaviour. Su-pect evil where there is none, and you will often create it. Now, sir, as it is perfectly plain to me that the most noble and exquisite character would suffer as much injury from association with you as ever any woman could suffer from her own errors: and as I cannot conceive that you should meet with a wife who would be willing to live with you, at the .very outside, longer than three months, I am naturally anxious that in your next choice you should consider me, and that ’ But Mr Brooks could contain himself no longe. Darting from his chair, he grappled with his enemy. A fearful struggle took place. Chairs and tables were sent flying in all directions. Sometimes the baronet fell down with Mr Brooks on the top of him, and sometimes Mr Brooks fell down with the baronet on the top of him. The scene presented a wild complication of arms and legs, broken buckles, and streaming hair. The floor was strewn with buttons. Suddenly the baronet, rearing himself erect, seized Mr Brooks by the scruff of his neck, lifted him from the ground, rushed to the window, and let his victim fall. In his effoit to save himself Mr Brooks gave a great and powerful plunge, and —Opening his eyes, beheld his wife Nelly on her knees at his feet, watching him with an expression of profound amazement. * Where is he ? let me get at him ! he’s murdered me !’ he roared, struggling to drag his clenched fists out of his breeches’ pockets, in which they were hopelessly jammed. *My dear, dear husband! what is it ? what have you been dreaming about?’ cried Nelly.

‘Dreaming?’ gasped Mr Brooks, sitting bolt upright and looking around him. ‘ Dreaming ? Where’s the baronet ? Where’s Carlotta ? Where are you ?’ ‘ Oh, he is still asleep ! he is still dream* ing ?’ whimpered Nelly. Mr Brooks stared about the room as a man might who, having been buried alive, is disinterred and restored. Then bit by bit his senses came to him. He looked at Nelly. He looked at his legs. He looked at the bottle of brandy and the glasses on the table. He looked at.the clock. And then throwing his arms around Nelly’s neck he kissed her frantically. * I have you ! 0 my darling, it was all a dream. But, my God! what a dream! What time is it ? half-past four ? Have all these things happened in half an hour ? And what are you doing here, Nelly ?’ She immediately explained. She had gone to her bedroom crying. She had waited for him to come to her, that she might kiss him and ask his forgiveness for grieving him by her conduct—which, she declared, she did not know was wrong—at the Montgomeries’. Twenty minutes passed, he did not come. And so she crept downstairs, and seeing that he slept, would not disturb him, but knelt at his feet, hoping to gently arouse him by looking at him with her loving eyes. He heard her, and then he kissed her again, and yet again. And after that, once more. He seemed as transported to see her as if they had been separated twenty years. And how her sweet eyes sparkled under his kisses ! and how close she drew to him! And, though the early morning light was making the window-blinds sallow, how eagerly she insisted upon his relating his dream to her before they quitted the room! That dream cured Mr Brooks, I don’t say the cure was instantaneous. But the dream initiated a beneficial change in his views of his wife’s character and love ; had the effect of causing him to ponder before he came to the immediate conclusion, on observing his wife to smile if a gentleman addressed her, or dance twice with the same individual at an evening party, that she never really cared about him; gave him quite a new idea on the subject of woman’s privileges, and on the absurd mistake jealous husbands are apt to make in supposing that an amiable heart, gay spirits, and an innocent love and enjoyment of such pleasures as society contrives are incompatible with connubial integrity and singleness of wifely devotion. This said, the moral ends; and nothing need be hinted as to the extreme circumstantiality of the dream. For the artistic sequence and nice conduct of the details, considering it was a vision, let Mr Brooks be held responsible. W. Clark Russell.