LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 728, 19 October 1876, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE WIDOW’S RUSE. Chapter 11. ( Continued) Lady Alicia was thoroughly beaten. She flushed to the very roots of her hair, wincing visibly beneath the stab, and moving to another part of the room, appeared, to be greatly interested in a book of engravings. Her hostility to the widow remained as bitter as ever, but she never tempted a trial of wits with her again. Of course Mrs Vesey’s reputed wealth had no slight influence on her progress in society. Wherever the money might come from, she was evidently in no want of funds. She lived in a style which excited the envy of the proudest in her circle ; her Mayfair mansion was furnished in the costliest manner; her servants were numerous and of faultless training; her entertainments were of the most sumptuous and recherche description ; nor could the most censorious of those who came to criticise and find fault detect the slightest flaw in them. She had a pair of the finest highstepping ‘bloods’ for her brougham, and drove a pair of the prettiest ponies to be seen in the Park. Whoever she might be, she undoubtedly possessed the power of the purse, and her progress in society was correspondingly rapid. Chapter 111. Ralph Danvil left his sister’s home with mind deeply preoccupied. Ever on the watch as he was for an eligible match, his attention had, strangely enough, never been turned to Mrs Vesey; and yet she was exactly the sort of a person that he sought. Young, handsome, and enormously rich, she embodied all the attractions he could desire in a wife ; and, moreover, her disposition, so gentle and yielding, was just the sort that he would be aide to mould as he might wish. Yes, evidently the little widow was the most eligible matrimonial investment he could hope to meet with, and he resolved to lose no time in endeavoring to secure hex’. His first step was to obtain an introduction, This was easily done, for the rich aud handsome bachelor was welcome anywhere in the circle in which ho and the widow moved. Most of the matrons had marriageable daughters on hand, any one of whom they would have been only too happy to give to Ralph Denvil, could he but have been induced to ask for her. However poor he might have once been, yet he certainly belonged to an honorable profession ; and neither he nor his father, schismatic as the old man might have been, had ever soiled their hands with trade. Above all, he was rich, prosperous, successful. It was not long before Ralph Denvil mot the little widow at the house of a mutual friend, and obtained the wished-for introduction. And now he began to go into society somewhat more freely. Hitherto he had been a solitary, unsociable man, apt to sneer at the frivolities of fashionable life, and inclined to prefer the ease and luxury of his comfortable home to the heat, bustle, aud ‘ boredom’ of the most fashionable reception, If he had visited at all, it had hitherto been only at his sister’s house, aud that only on rare occasions, when she received company. Now, however, he began to emerge from this chrysalis state, and partake more of the butterfly; he began to throw off his reserved unsociability, and to mingle more in|the gay world; his face was now frequently to be seen at receptions and kettledrums, ‘at homes’ and conversazioni, aud other like important gatherings at the homes of his fashionable friends ; aud people began to rejoice that the austerity of his life was relaxing, and that he was becoming more human and like themselves. At most of these assemblages he was sure to meet the little widow. A close observer would have noted that on the occasions when she was absent his stay was of the briefest, and that whenever she was present he seemed to gravitate to her side by a natural impulse nay, it was whispered that he was often to be seen in the afternoon, at hours hitherto sacred to the duties of his office, sauntering in the Park for the sake of a smile aud a bow from the little widow as she rattled past in her neat little pony-carriage. The widow herself was by no means indifferent to the attentions which Ralph Denvil paid her. She possessed in an eminent degree the admirable art of rapidly placing the merest acquaintanceship on a confidential and intimate footing; and this art she soon brought to bear upon the lawyer. Whenever he entered the room in which she was present, her ingenuous expressive countenance would involuntarily light up with sudden pleasure, and, as he made his way to her side, she would greet him with her sweetest smile, and address him in her most winning accents. ‘ Oh, so glad you have come, Mr Denvil! ’ she would exclaim, impulsively. ‘ I was afraid you didn’t mean to come at all—and then just think how miserable I should have been ! ’ T To be continued.']