LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 585, 4 May 1876, Page 3

LITERATURE.

LORD MERYYN ; OH NOT IN THE PEERAGE. (London Society .) Chapter I.— A Wrong Scent. Last autumn I was jilted. In the preceding summer I had narrowly escaped bankruptcy, and in the antecedent spring I had been the victim of a gross piece of injustice on the part of a near relation. The late Mr Sirius Saturn, F.R.S., the eminent astronomer, was my uncle, and on the death of my father, his younger brother, being childless and a widower, he adopted me, promising my mother, who died shortly afterwardI’, 1 ’, that 1 should inherit two-thirds of his large fortune. The remainder was bequeathed to his sister, then a Mrs Vernford, my cousin, both of whom I had never seen till last year. My uncle was by nature a very eccentric and irascible man. He was a staunch old Tory, very proud of his name and pedigree, and therefore when he heard that his sister, who had been left in reduced circumstances by Colonel Vernford, had contracted an

alliance with a Mr Eli Scubbs, a wealthy tallow merchant doing a considerable business in the Levant trade, no one was surprised that he made a codical depriving her and her daughter of every shilling he had previously left them. A year before his death he had determined to make one more grand effort to demonstrate the truth of his remarkable opinion respecting the brighter ‘ faculte ; on the sun’s disc, and with that view he requested me one morning to prepare his large telescope for observation. I did so. Elated at the idea of yet convulsing the scientific world by his great and ingenious discovery, the unfortunate man approached the powerful instrument, and, receiving my assurance that all was in readiness, applied his eye to the eyepiece. Alas I he never saw with it again. In the most careless and culpable manner i had omitted to put on the coloured glasses, and the piercing streak of light that met his gl.noe as he gazed through the telescope blinded him for ever. To describe the old gentleman’s rage when his oculist informed him that his right organ of sight was irreparably destroyed would be as painful as it is superfluous. Suffice it to say that when his will was opened it was. discovered that he had fully maintained his character for eccentricity to the last, having added another codicil, by which he declared that 1 was not to inherit his fortune unless I married by cousin Beryl Vcrnford within a year of the day of his death. Should this condition be uncomplied with, the estates were to be sold, and the proceeds devoted to the founding of a Hospital for the Relief of Indigent Astronomers. What was to be done? Of course the marriage by which I and my cousin were to inherit a fortune was out of the question. In the first place, Miss Veraford had informed Professor Copernicus, one of the executors, and the only real friend I possessed, that ‘ no consideration should induce her to even see her cousin under such conditions;’ whilst her mother added that, ‘ although regretting the flagrant injustice displayed towards her daughter, by which she had been deprived of her rights, she could not wish her to so far forget what was due to her as to consent to such a marriage. ’ Thus things looked hopeless enough, but it was absolutely necessary that something ' should be effected, for my position was ra-1 pidly becoming altogether untenable. With I the exception of the miserable pittance of eighty pounds a year, I, who had been brought up as heir-apparent to an estate worth five thousand pounds per annum, had no means whatever to live upon. Being fond of the drama, I determined to try the stage, and for a brief season did the leading business at the ‘Theatre Royal, Grandborough,’ where I was known, according to handbills, as ‘ the great tragedian, Mr Mervyn Lord.’ Ere long, however, I quarrelled with the principal lady, an elderly person with a passionate nature, who complained that I did not really kiss her in the love scenes, and the result was that I left the establishment. Afterwards I became a tutor, but found that still more unpalatable; and at last I went boldly to the Professor. ‘Professor,’ I said, ‘what am I to do? This marriage, this iniquitous marriage is not to be thought of. Sooner would I take the oath of celibacy, and, joining some monastic institution, live a life of penance, than enter into the married state on such ignominious terms.’ The Professor, who was waggishly inclined, had nothing to suggest except that perhaps I might ultimately be employed as Secretary to the proposed Hospital for the Relief of Indigent Astronomers. Two months had passed in idleness. Eight trying weeks of impecuniosity and discomfort. I had dragged on a miserable existence in a Bayswater lodging. My former creditors, too, had sought me out, and threatened immediate proceedings. My position was intolerable. I resolved to call once more on the Professor, and solicit his kind intervention on my behalf. We talked the matter over, and my old friend informed me that my aunt and her daughter were to leave England very shortly to join Mr Scubbs, who was likely to be detained abroad for some time on business. He strongly urged me to pay them a visit before their departure, and endeavour, if possible, to remove their prejudices. To this I at first vehemently demurred. Then the Professor drew a harrowing picture of my desperate condition. Then he represented an at • tractive one of my cousin Beryl, Then I

half relented. Then the Professor alluded again to the spectral Hospital for the Relief of Indigent Astronomers, and finally I determined to make one tremendous effort to win a wife and fortune. My aunt and cousin were stopping for it short time at the quiet seaside town of Beacham; and one fine afternoon in July found me knocking at their door, and feeling very contemptible and cross. ‘ Mrs Scubbs in ? ’ I inquired of the landlord, an unfortunate victim of epilepsy, who could scarcely speak. * Un—no,’ he replied in a sort of squeak. ‘ She and her daughter, Miss Vernford, have gone to London for a week.’ ‘Just my luck,’ I thought, and hurried abruptly from the house, irritated and disappointed. The attractions of Beacham, where I remained during the week, were limited. Outsize the town and on the sea beach were the remains of an old ruined castle. A noticeboard intimated that beyond that po nt the young idea of Beacham might learn to shoot (with catagults), but that any one found doing so on the town aide of it would be prosecuted. Here I used to spend the mornings filling up the ocean with pebbles and m dilating in what variety of nothing 1 should pass the afternoon. On one rather windy morning, when I was still quite undecided as to whether I should sleep away the rest of the day on the sofa in the parlour or on the spring mattress in the bedroom, I was considerably surprised and greatly hurt by receiving a violent blow on the ankle from a stone. ‘ Those horrible catapults again I’ I exclaimed, writhi g with agony, and looking towards the castle. But, strange to say, in that direction there was no one to be seen. ‘ The young rascal is hiding,’ I thought; ‘ but I’ll be even with him yet.’ At this moment there was smothered laughter in my immediate neighbourhood, and, turning sharply round, I beheld a young lady sitting about ten yards off, and almost concealed by a large brown silk umbrella. Could it have been she who had committed this unprovoked assault, and w r as now enjoying the fun behind the shelter of a monster parasol? I was just about to request that she would select some other target for her practice when the umbrella was partially lifted, and to ray intense satisfaction there peeped forth from beneath it the most lovely pair of laughing dark blue eyes imaginable. ‘ A pretty girl, by Jove I I wonder if she would care to have a shot at the other ankle,’ I thought to myself. And now she put down the umbrella altogether, thus displaying her rare beauty more fully. A profusion of dark golden hair, that waved wantonly in the wind, lent all the attraction of a vivid contrast to the spot'ess health of her fair complexion. Her delicate neck swathed in down, the small chisseled nose, the short upper lip, all betokened refined origin ; whilst the firm rounded contour of her form, in all the promise of its antes maturity, claimed attention in spite of the negligee which she wore. She glanced at my ankle with a look of quasi-piteous sympathy, and then, with an expression of pseudo-humility, raised her large, longlashed, good-tempered eyes to mine. One look was sufficient. I was in love with her. But, nevertheless, my ankle began to pain me considerably, and upon trying to get up I found that I limped awkwardly. At this moment my fair neighbour again raised her umbrella ; bub no sooner had she done so than I heard a slight scream, and caught sight of the sunshade rolling rapidly down the beach and into the sea. My first impulse was to rush forward and save It; but my foot was now in that state of incipient inflammation that I scarcely dared to stand up. She was, however, now standing at the waterside, and, stamping her shapely little, high-heeled boot petulently on the ground, looked round at me with the most pitiable and imploring glance, I could resist no longer. Martyr-like I hobbled down as fast as I could, and arrived beside her just as an unusually large breaker burst at our feet. {To be continued.)