LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 678, 22 August 1876, Page 3

LITERATURE.

WHY ARE YOU WANDERING HERE, I PRAY ? (Continued.) In her exalte state she composed many speeches, eloquent, pathetic, all tending to clear up the misconstructions, that were now making both their lives wretched. She would throw her arms round him, entreating him to let her be to him all that it was in her power to be. In the midst of her most touching appeal she fell asleep, to awake with its burning phrases still on her mind. Alas, how fade and melodramatic did they appear in the sober morning light! And how impossible would be eloquence and pathos before George Arnold, cold, repressive, with the hard lines round his mouth aud all that wiry hair standing aggressively on end! However, he must be met and the cheque returned ; so without giving herself too much time to think, she walked boldly into the book-room. George Arnold never ' took his ease;' never lay back, or bent forward, or, in fact, never gave way to any human frailty. He was seated now bolt upright in a straightbacked chair, looking spick and span, as though he had just stepped out of a band-box. Georgie used to think sometimes what a relief it would be to see if only one hair out of place. At sight of hiui now even her burning eager excitement was quelled a little. There was no eloquence certainly, yet much simple pathos in the tone in which she began : 'Uncle George, I've come to you about the letter you wrote me, and that cheque ' ' Jt is payable to order,' he interrupted in a business-like tone, ' and you must indorse it, that is ' ' 1 don't want to know what to do with it. I won't If eep it !' in a voice trembling with excitt-ment. ' I wouldn't take it for all the world ! And why did you write me that letter ?' indignantly. ' I never thought you ought to give me more money for my dress, or for anything else. If you would only let me be a little affectionate to you, that is all I ask.' ' You must keep the cheque,' he answered in the same business-like tone, and quite disregarding her passionate appeal. ' It is made payable to you, and must be endorsed by you before it can be changed.' ' i will never endorse it, never use it, never touch it !' vehemently. ' Do you

j think that money can make up for telling me that I have no affection for you ? I, who would die to give you pleasure !' He arose, half in alarm, half embarrassment, conquered, in spite of himself, by the dominating beautiful personality of the eager impassioned girl before him, as she stood her soul in her eyes, defiant, yet tender. 'Calm yourself, Ceorgie. Why this excitement, this scene ?' he said. ' Calm yourself, I beg, and take the cheque ;' holding it out with a trembling hand. While urging her to calmness he was much in need of it himself. These storms before breakfast were quite too much for him. She did take the cheque, but it was to tear it across the middle and throw the fragments on the table with an indignant gesture. George Arnold sat down aghast, helpless before the girl who could thus recklessly tear up a cheque. ' Oh, oh Vhe exclaimed, and there his power of utterance ceased ; partly from surprise, partly owing to the fact that Georgie's arms were round his neck, her fresh burning face in close contact with his own cold withered one, and a torrent of kisses falling on hi 3 aggressive hair, shaggy eyebrows, and wiry moustache, while a yet fuller torrent of loving words, tender reproaches, and' eager entreaties, swept away the clouds and mists between them—- ' Uncle George, why are you angry ? Why are you cold 1 Why won't you believe that I love you ? You, the only friend I have ever known in the wide world ! How could you say I would throw you over for any one ! Why do you give me money and cheques and things ? I don't value them one straw!' And much more to the same effect, all interspersed with eager kisses and tender stroking of his wiry hair and brown forehead, in which even the wrinkles seemed to lie in geometric lines, as if conscious of the cut-and-dried nature of the precisian on whose surface they had to impress themselves. But what is geometry, and what is cut-and-dried-ness before the passion of a girl giving vent to the long-pent-up affections and repressed tendernesses of years ? She was hardly conscious of what she said, nor was he. Neither could recall afterwards any one phrase. Her eloquent appeals and burning words were all forgotten ; but no eloquence could have been so moving, no appeal so touching; and George Arnold was conquered, tamed, and would henceforth be held by his niece in bonds ot love which not even Death himsolf would sunder.

And. Philip? How were his claims and George's to be reconciled ? That day she did not see him, though he was out eariy on the plain, hoping to meet her, and failing, wandered about disconsolately, foregoing even luncheon for her sake. She meanwhile was reading Greek in the book-room with commendable attention, and listening to George Arnold's disquisitions on the text; yet who could say that the sunbeams which danced in and out, so joyously solicitous, carried no stray thoughts from the brighthaired reader to the plain, where she thought it just possible Philip might be ? If Philip were only reading Greek too, or the weather wet, and she not so ' almost sure' he was out there listening to the larks ! In the afternoon she went for a walk, not, however, towards the plain or Beechlands, some undefined feeling keeping her from doing so ; but in the afternoon Philip had to do duty at a tennis party with the Beechlands ladies, and so the day passed, —the longest she had ever known. She devoted herself to her uncle; read with him again in the evening, and was altogether satisfied with herself, yet so unsatisfied. With that restlessness that would not be stilled, that weary unsatisfied longing, that constant expectation of something that would not come 1 At last something did come—a servant from Beechlands with a note from Mrs Aylmer, enclosing one from Julia. Both contained pressing invitations. Would Miss Verschoyle go to luncheon there the next day, and would she spend from Monday till Wednesday with them? Miss Verschoyle showed the letter to her uncle, announcing her intention of declining both invitations. However, as to the first, he overruled her decision, and without again bringing up that for-ever-to-be-avoided subject of her dress, she could not get out of going. It was less formidable than she had expected. They had asked her that day because the whole party, save Mrs Aylmer, Julia, Mr Chalmers, and Philip, had gone to Boldrewood. Her dress was therefore a matter of less concern to her. In truth the luncheon was summed up for her in the fact that Philip was there.

• I am distressed and disappointed that you won't come on Monday,' he said. 'I had hopes of overcoming your scruples about the ball.' ' I can't dance. How absurd it would be for me to go to a ball!' ' People don't go to balls to dance: at least you and I wouldn't. We could have sat so comfortably and talked.' ' You would have told me how I can help you with your mother and Edith.' ' I should, indeed.' 4 Can't you now ?' ' Not so well. Things depend on circumstances so much. I must wait till they are here.' ' Well, I'm sorry; especially, too, that I shan't see you in your uniform. So selfish of me, I know,' with a half smile. ' Kot at all. But you shall see me, if it pleases you. If you will be, early to-morrow morning, by the stile close to the tree where we had luncheon that day, I will come to you there, got up in all my toggery.' ' 0 Philip, will you really ?' her eyes going up in a rupture to his face. ' But the trouble—' 'ls no trouble—for you. I don't say I would do it for Julia, mind;' with a gay smile. But if it rains ?' anxiously. ' Some propitious deity forbid! But it won't.' ' It always does if one wants to do anything nice. So few nice things have come to me in my life.' ' Poor little thing !' • But so sure as I wanted to go anywhere with Mattie it rained.' ' Things will turn out unluckily at times. But we're safe for this once, I think. There is not a sign of a change.' ' Still there's no knowing. Of course if it does rain you won't come; it would spoil your uniform.' ' You think my uniform was made to be kept in a glass case 1 No; the rain wouldn't hurt me ; but on no account would I have you come out in it. Suppose it should be ill-natured.enough to serve us such a trick, we will defer our visit to the stile till the next line morning.' [Tobe continued,]