LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 758, 24 November 1876, Page 3

LITERATURE.

A GREAT FOOL. (Concluded.) After a stir in his own mind, John Holt concluded that Nellie and Albert had quarrelied. He sighed, since she could not hear, and so be annoyed, pitied the girl, and then went steadily about his work. The waters of his soul were too deep for babbling. When spring came, for the first time in his life John electrified his friends. He was going to California. The announcement was made quietly but firmly, and he stood like a rock against which expostulation beat itself to spray. He gave good reasons and resolutely maintained his right to choose for himself.

' You have always said, mother, that you wished I was more venturesome,' he said. ' I am going to please you now.' • But how is the farm to get along without you ?' she objected. 'Frank understands everything and can manage.' Mrs Holt took courage, and, breaking over some little awe which, in spite of her talk she felt for her son, spoke out: ' John, has that Nell Cramer jilted you ?' ' Jilted me 1' he said, flushing as much with anger as with surprise. ' What do you mean, mother? We have always been friends, but never any more. I never gave her the chance to jilt me.' ' Then why don't you give her the chance?' persisted the mother, who did not choose to give up, now that the ice was broken. ' Nell is a good girl if she does flirt a little. I always thought she liked you, only that you were too slow to see it. Then Nell has got a little sum of money of her own that wouldn't be amiss.'

'You are entirely mistaken, mother,' he said decisively. ' Don't let us say anymore about it.'

' On, you great fool!' muttered the mother, looking after him as he went out. ' Was there ever a man so blind ? He is no more fit to live in this world than an angel out of heaven is.'

Then seeing Nellie Cramer passing the street, she lifted her voice and called her in. The girl came in, wondering at such a peremptory summons. ' Come and sit by me !' commanded the matron, and Nellie obeyed. Mrs Holt scanned her from head to foot—the neat trim figure in its snugly fitting paletot of dark grey, the green bonnet that brought out her fresh clear color with a newlustre, and the fair bright face. ' Did you know that our John was going to California?' asked Mrs Holt abruptly, her keen eyes on the girl's face. All the color faded out of it in an instant, and Nellie Cramer dropped into a chair as suddenly as if she had been shot. She sat there and looked at the other with her strained eyes, but said not a word. ' Yes,' said Mrs Holt, unable to suppress a slight smile of satisfaction at this proof of the correctness of her surmise; 'yes, he's set on going in spite of all I can say. He is going in a month or six weeks. Let me see; this is the middle of April. He says he shall start by the first of June at the furtherest.

That Bmile of Mrs Holt's was an unfortunate one. Nellie had always feared those sharp eyes, and now the thought flashed into her mind that John's mother was trying to expose and mortify her. A woman's pride will do a good deal for her, even when her heart was breaking. It brought the color to her face again, and strengthened her trembling limbs. It steadied her voice and eyes. Mrs Holt was puzzled and disconcerted by the sudden change. 'I am so sorry,' Nellie said, in a tone of fearless regret. 'We can scarcely get along without John; he seems such a standby. But men oughtnot to be tiedat home, I think. If they chose to go they should be allowed their own way. There he is now in the garden. I am going out to speak to him of it.'

' Try to coax him to stay, Nellie,' said the mother, in a tone of more entreaty than perhaps she had ever used in her life before .'He is a good son, and I can't get along without him. 1 think you can keep him if you will.' This prayer would have been effectual, but for the memory of that smile which rankled in the girl's heart. Had she not given John Holt every encouragement, if he had cared about her? Had she not said and done things so affectionate toward him that she had blushed with shame thinking of them afterward ? John was no fool, and if he had cared for her, he might have understood. He had probably been trying to put her back.

With these thoughts burning in her heart, Nellie Cramer went straight to John Holt as he walked up and down the garden. He stopped, seeing her, aud looked wistfully into her face. Though he denied his mother so decededly, her words had not been without weight. Women understand eich other. Could it be possible ? and there was Nellie coming down the walk. Her head was erect, and her face perfectly composed, though slightly pale. 'I am so sorry,' she begun. 'Your mother has been telling me of your plans. Of course you know what is good for you, and I have been telling her to let you have your own way. But we shall all be sorry to lose you, John.' That was all. He gave a last grasp at his self-command, and held it. There was a short, formal conversation, both so engaged in making a pretence of being kind and friendly and just as usual, that each could not perceive that the other was also making a pretence ; and four weeks after they parted with tolerable composure, and John Holt went to California.

He stayed there five years, and sent his mother her gold spoon. He stayed there three years longer and then came home himself. Nellie was Nellie Cramer still, they told him, and was much sobered. Some way she hadn't seemed to care much about flirting for several years. Her father and

mother were dead, and she was keeping house for her unmarried brother. There were hints that the new minister went to see her very often, but ,Mrs Holt did not believe that In ellie would look at him. John listened, and when evening' came took his hat and went out for a walk. No one but his own. family as yet knew of his '&£ return, and he was resolved to see himself the effect of his coming on Nellie. The soft spring twilight was settling down when he reached her house, and as he walked quietly up the path, a slight figure sat in a window, looking out, singing lowly to herself in a mournful reverie. She did not see him, but when he came nearer he sawher face clearly. The round outlines and bright color were gone, but he was forced to own that she had grown far more beautiful. The Chastened lustre of the eyes, the firmer, sweeter closing of the mouth, the purer and more perfect outlines—all belonged to one who had eaten of the bread of sorrow, and had found a blessing in its bitterness. Something swept over his heart with passionate force—some regret, some longing, he scarce knew what. If he had suffered at losing her eight years before, he felt that such a loss now would kill him. He quietly entered the open door, paused on the threshhold of the room where she sat alone. She still sung softly, but as he looked, stopped, sighed, and became silent. * Nellie!' he would have said, but his voice was only a whisper. He went forward into the shadowy room. 'ls it you, James ?' she said, half turn* ing, expecting her brother. John took a step nearer, and this time his voice did not fail. 1 Nellie!' She started, half rose, hesitated, then, as he took a step nearer, sprang with a glad cry into his extended arms. ' I thought you never would come, John !' ' she sobbed. 'Were you waiting for me?' he asked. ' Did you care for me before I went away ?' ' Then and always, John. How could you be so blind ?' John Holt smoothed her hair tenderly, for one moment of silence, then exclaimed, as though some great truth had suddenly dawned upon him : ' I deserved it 1' I always thought them wrong, but they were right. I was, indeed, a great fool!'