LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 730, 21 October 1876, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE WIDOW’S RUSE. ( Concluded.') ‘ Oh, no, my dear husband ! I am in full possession of my wits—l was never more so. The facts of the case are these. The late Mr Vesey was at one time a very wealthy cotton-spinner in Manchester ; but some reverses in fortune obliged him to suspend. He was the very sole of honor, good man ; and, when he found he could not go on, he wound up the business at once, paid twenty shillings in the pound, I believe you men call it, and retired from active life with some five thousand pounds, all he could save from the wreck. When he died, shortly after, he left that five thousand to me.’ ‘ Five thousand pounds !’ exclaimed her amazed husband. ‘ Whence then did you obtain your fortune ? Whence did you obtain the means of keeping up your large establishment ? I thought you had it from your first husband !’ • Now, Ralph, do listen calmly and you shall hear all,’ she expostulated. *Mr Vesey left me five thousand pounds. Of course the interest of that paltry sum would not provide me with the means of living as I had been accustomed to live, and, as I was young and —well, I may as well say it—not bad looking, it occurred to me that the money might be well invested in securing another and more advantageous settlement in life. With this view I came to London, took up my residence in a fashionable quarter, got introduced into society, and of course maintained a corresponding liberal style of living—all on this five thousand pounds.’ ‘ What !’ cried the utterly astounded husband.

‘ I say I lived on the capital and on credit,’ responded his wife, with the utmost coolness. * I speedily heard of you, Ralph, as an eligible parti, and determined to try to secure you. You see how frank I am. Chance brought about an introduction. I exerted all my powers to interest you —I was successful, and the result was our marriage. Voilu tout !’ And she laughed her light, silvery laugh. Ralph Denvil thought she must be insane, he thought his own ears must have deceived him, he thought he must be dreaming. ‘Do you mean to tell me, Eleanor, he asked, wildly, ‘that you do not possess sixty thousand pounds ? Do you mean to tell me that you did not possess it when you called me in to make your will ?’ ‘Not a farthing of it, my dear Ralph,’ she answered, readily; at least I believe there is a hundred or so of my five thousand left. The fact is, my dear Ralph, I saw that your object in marrying me was the same as mine in marrying you. I saw that you delayed only until you could learn the amount of my fortune, and as I couldn’t afford much delay in the risky game I was playing, I thought I’d just try to bring you to land a little quicker. Surely you can’t blame my innocent little ruse She sat upon the couch now, and her large, blue eyes were fixed upon his, but their sweet, artless expression was there no longer, A cold, mocking light played in them which he had never seen before.

‘ Great was the rage, tihe fury of Ralph Denvil, the keen, cautious lawyer, whose confidence in his own acuteness and prudence was so extreme, when he realised the fact that he was the dupe of a clever woman, the husband of a penniless adventuress. He stamped, he cursed, lie raved, he threatened the direst results ; he would have struck her to the earth but that he was too manly to raise his hand against a woman.

«You viper ! ’ he hissed. * You lying, cheating jade, I'll be revenged on you! ITI repudiate you —l’ll have a dhorce—l’ll cast you off—l’ll expose your base trickery in a court of justice, and refuse 10 supply you with a single shilling! ’

‘Now, Ralph, do be calm,’ returned his mocking little wife from the couch, without altering the languid attitude into which she had sunk at the first outbreak of the storm, and without laying aside the book which she had taken up again. * You know you will do nothing of the sort. The thing is done now, and there’s nothing left but to make the best of it. What possible good will it do to expose yourself to the ”idicule, or, what is worse, the phy of your acquaintances ? And you know very well you can’t expose me without exposing yourself. Just fancy what the charitable world would say when they heard that the clever lawyer, Ralph Denvil, had been duped by me—poor, simple, innocent, artless me. You’ll never be such a fool as that.’

Ralph Denvil ground his teeth with impotent rage. He could not but admit the wisdom of his wife’s remarks. His sensitive spirit shuddered at the mere thought of the storm of ridicule which would descend upon his head were the real facts of the story known. With curses in his heart and on his lips he left the room. With calmer moments came calmer thoughts. He saw that the step he had taken was irrevocable—that there was no way of escape except at the cost of raising a storm of ridicule or impertinent pity more intolerable than was even his marriage itself. Eventually he arranged a quiet separation, on the ostensible plea of incompatibility of temper, and settled on his wife an annuity of one thousand pounds. He then gave up all idea of disposing of his practice, applied himself with yet greater ardor to his professional duties, and speedily accumulated wealth.

His wife was quite wealthy with her investment. She considered a thousand a year very good interest for the five thousand pounds she had sunk in order to secure it. She did not care again to face society in which she had moved previously to her marriage with Ralph Denvil, but retired to a pleasant house in the country, where, by her beauty, her wit, and her easy circumstances, she became the centre of the neighbouring society. Whatever hope she might at one time have cherished of a reconciliation with the husband whom her ruse had won, she was satisfied that, with Ralph Denvil for that husband, such a reconciliation was impossible. She knew that with his cold unforgiving nature no soft memories of her could ever touch his heart, and she was content to live without him On the whole she was quite satisfied with the result of her ruse. A DAY’S SPORT. * Come, Maria, pack my satchel; I am going off, and you, Tom, get ready as soon as you can. ’ J ames Chester, the speaker, a large, robust man of six-and-thirty, had made up his mind to go ifishing, taking with him the aforesaid colored boy named Tom, who did all the hard work for Mr C., and who now had the pleasure of carrying the fishing-rods, the bait, the dinner-basket, and a sachel containing some clean clothes for Mr C. Off they started, Mr Chester walking ahead, and poor Tom following, almost caving in under the heavy load he had to carry. They reached the depot just as the train was going to start. It had already started when Mr C. jumped on. Tom followed, but in his hurry he tripped on the platform, falling heavily into the car, all he had in his hands rolling in ahead of him, the dinner-basket breaking open and the day’s dinner exposed to view, namely : sandwiches, a pumpkin pie, a flask|of whisky, &c. At the sight of this Mr C. swore mildly. Tom, in his hurry and confusion, again tripped and seated himself in the pie and kicked over the whisky flask. This was more than Mr C. could stand He therefore seated himself while Tom gathered all the things together, and they patiently waited for the end of their route. This was reached without any more trouble, and a short five minutes’ walk brought them to the shores of the lake. Tom’s first act was to stumble over Mr C’s foot into the water, and Mr C., in his hurry to save Tom (and the whisky flask), took hold of Tom by the seat of his inexpressibles and landed him on the other side of the road in the grass. Beneath the grass was a pile of stones which Mr C. did not see, and, as Tom’s luck would have it, he fell right onto the pile of stones. He hurt his foot quite severely, which made him limp a good deal, but on catching sight of the boat he ran towards it as fast as he could, forgetting all about his lame foot. The boat was a playedout, flat-bottomed, old-fashioned machine, in which Mr C. and Tom seated themselves. Mr C. then took the oars and they rowed out towards the centre of the lake. He was so much taken up with the rowing, and Tom was so much delighted with the ride, they did not notice the boat was filling with water from a leak in the bottom. Mr C. remarked that his feet were cold, and Tom looking at the feet (which had often, when at home, come in contact with a certain part of his body), noticed the boat was nearly half full of water. Having nothing else wherewith to bail the water out, Tom was compelled to take his hat and with that keep bailing till he had emptied the boat. Mr C. then took out his handkerchief, tore it in pieces and stopped the leak. At last they stopped rowing, in the centre of the lake, which was not more than three or four feet deep. Mr C. fixed his rod, put some bait on the hook, and told Tom he would catch fish on the average of one every two minutes. First taking a good pull at the whisky flask, he cast the line overboard and waited for coming events. The coming event came in the shape of a bite at the end of Mr 0. ’s line. He gave the line a sudden jerk, the hook came out of the water, over Mr O.’s head and fastened itself in Tom’s breeches. Mr C. pulled again, thinking there was something big at the end of the line, and hearing Tom exclaim Oh, was encouraged, and gave a strong pull, pulling the line, Tom and himself into the water. Mr C. and Tom managed to get into the boat safely, and after drying themselves, they concluded that they had better eat their dinner, it now being halfpast twelve. After a short rest Mr O. again cast forth his line. A bite stronger than the one before convinced him that a fish was on the end of the line, this time. He therefore pulled more carefully, and sure enough there was the fish, a sunfish about two inches long, and as for weight, it would take more than twenty to weigh a pound. He carefully took it off the hook and handed it to Tom. Tom’s joy at the sight of the fish was so great, that he did not hold it very tight, and it slipped out of his hand into the water. Mr C. s anger

was terrible to behold. It was only appeased by giving Tom sundry kicks and taking a good pull at the whisky flask. In a half hour’s time Mr C. succeeded in catching another fish of the same kind. Being afraid to trust Tom and not wanting to hold it in his hand, he put it in his watch pocket, the only pocket he had without a hole in it. Baiting his hook and setting himself in the stern of the boat he again waited patiently for a bite. In the meantime the leak had reopened and began filling the boat with water. Tom did not say anything but began bailing out the water which gained upon him rapidly. The boat was nearly full when he thought it about time to get help from his master. He therefore called him, but Mr 0. was so much taken up with his fishing or the whisky, I don’t know which, that he did not hear him. The boat was sinking deeper and deeper, when, with a sudden plunge, down it went, seating Mr C. in the bottom of the lake. He soon got on his legs, which were not very steady, and with the help of Tom they raised the boat; but as often as they raised it, so often did the boat sink. At last they were forced to abandon it and turn their faces toward home. They got on land, and Mr C. had a wrangle with the proprietor of the boat, in which he got worsted and had to pay the full value of the boat. They jumped on the homeward bound train and soon reached the city. Mr C. reached his home safely, sick, tired, and disgusted, only to get a curtain lecture from his loving wife, Maria. From that day to this Mr 0. has never been known to go fishing.