LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 797, 11 January 1877, Page 3

LITERATURE.

ANNE. ( Continued ) The morning brought news. Dr and Mrs Lewis were on their way to Maythorn Bank, expected to reach it that evening, and the young ladies were bidden to depart for it on the following day. * * * * A wonderful change had taken place in Dr Lewis. If they had doubted before whether the doctor was not going into his dotage, they could not doubt now, for he was decidedly in it. A soft-speaking, mooning man, now, utterly lost in the shadow cast by his wife's importance. She appeared to be smiling in face and gentle in accent as ever, but she overruled every soul in the house; nobody but herself had a will in it. What little strength of mind he might have had, his new bride had taken out of him.

Anne did not like it. Hitherto mistress of all things under her father, she found herself passed over as a nonentity. She might not express an opinion, or hazard a wish. 'My dear, lam here now,' Mrs Lewis said to her once or twice emphatically. Anne was deposed ; her reign was over. One little thing that happended, she certainly did not like Though humble-minded, entirely un-self-asserting, sweet-tempered and modest as a girl should be. she did not like this. Mrs Lewis sent out invitations for dinner to some people in the neighborhood, strangers until then to her ; the table was too full by one, and she told Anne that she could not sit down. It was too bad ; especially as Julia and Fanny Podd filled two of the more important places, with bunches of sweet peas fresh in their hair. 'Besides,' Mrs Lewis had said to Anne in the morning, 'we must have a French side-dish or two, and there's nobody but you understands them.'

Whether the having to play the host was too much for him, or that he did not like the slight put upon his daughter, before the dinner was half over, the doctor fell asleep. He could not be roused from it. Herbert Tanerton, who had sat by Mrs Lewis's side to say grace, thought it was not sleep but xmconaciousness. Between them, the company carried him into the other room; and Anne, hastening to send in her French dishes, ran there to attend upon him. ' I hope and trust there's nothing amiss with his heart,' said old Coney doubtfully in the bride's ear.

' My dear Mr Coney, his heart ia as strong as mine—believe me,' affirmed Mrs Lewis, flicking some crumbs off the front of her wedding dress. ' I hope it is, I'm sure,' repeated Coney. ' I don't like that blue tinge round his lips.' They went back to the dinner table when Dr Lewis revived. Anne remained kneeling at his feet, gently chafing his hands. ' What's the matter ?' he cried, staring at her like a man bewildered. ' What are you doing ?' 'Dear papa, you fell asleep over your dinner, and they could not wake you. .Do you feel ill?' ' Where am I f he asked, as if he were speaking out of a dream. And she told him what she could. But she had not heard those suspicious words of old Coney's. It was some minutes yet before ho got much sense into him, or seemed fully to understand. He fell back in the chair then, with a deep sigh, keeping Anne's hand in his.

• Shall I get you anything, papa V she asked. ' You had eaten scarcely any dinner, they say. Would you like a drop of brandy-and-water V

' Why was not your dress ready ?' ' My dress !' exclaimed Anne. ' She said so to me, when I asked why you did not come to table. Not made, or washed, or ironed ; or something.' Anne felt rather at sea. * There's nothing the matter with my dresses, papa, 5 she said. ' But never mind them—or me. Will you go back to dinner ? Or shall I get you anything here ?' ' I don't want to go back ; I don't want anything,' he answered. 'Go and iinish yours, my dear.'

' I have had mine,' she said with a faint blush. For indeed her dinner had consisted of some bread-and-butter in the kitchen, eaten over the French stew pans. Dr Lewis was gazing out at the trees, and seemed to be in thought.

'Perhaps you stayed away from home rather too long, papa,' she suggested. ' You are not accustomed to travelling; and I think you are scarcely strong enough for it. You looked vrey worn when you first came home ; worn and ill.'

' Ay. I told her it did not do for me ; but she laughed. It was nothing but a whirl, you know. And I only want to be quiet. * It is very quiet here, dear papa, and you will soon feel stronger. You shall sit out of doors in the sun of a day, and I will read to you. I wish you would let me get you

'Hush, child. I'm thinking.' With his eyes still fixed on the out-of-door landscape, he sat stroking Anne's hand abstractedly. Nothing broke the silence, savo the faint clatter of knives and forks from the dining room. ' Mind, Anne, she made me do it,' he suddenly exclaimed. ' Made you do what, papa?' ' And so, my deal', if I am not allowed to remedy it, and you feel disappointed, you must think as lightly of it as you are able, and don't blame me more than you can help. I'll alter it again if I can, be sure of that; but I don't have a moment to myself, and at times it seems that she's just my keeper.' Anne answered soothingly that all he did must be right, but had no time to say more, for Mr Coney, stealing on tip-toe from the dining room, came into see after the patient Anne had not the remotest idea what it was that the doctor had alluded to ; but she had caught up one idea with dread of heart—that the marriage had not increased his happiness. Perhaps had marred it. Hawthorn Bank did not suit Mrs Lewis, Ere she had been two weeks at it, she found it insufferably dull; not to be endured at any price. Ther.e was no fashion thereabouts, and not much visiting; the neighbours were mostly simple, unpretending people, quite different from the style of company met with in garrison towns and pump-rooms. Moreover the few people who might have visited Mrs Lewis, did not seem to take to her, or to remember that she was there. This did not imply disourtosy: Dr Lewis and his daughter had but just, so to say, come strangers into the place, and people could not practically

recollect all at once that Maythorn Bank was inhabited. Where was the use of dressing up in peacock's plumes if nobody came to see her ? The magnificent wardrobe, laid in during her recent honeymoon, seemed as good as wasted. ' I can't stand this !' emphatically cried Mrs Lewis one day to her daughters. And Anne, chancing to enter the room unexpectedly at the moment, heard her say it, and wondered what it meant. That same afternoon, T)r Lewis had another attack. Anne found him sitting beside the pear-tree insensible, his head hanging over the arm of the bench Travelling had not brought this secoud attack on; that was certain; for no man could be leading a more quiet, moping life than he was. Save that he listened now and then to some book that Anne read, he had no amusement whatever, no excitement; he might have sat all day long with his mouth closed, for all there was to open it for. Mrs Lewis's powers of fascination, that she had exercised so persistently ttpon him as Mra Podd, seemed to have deserted her for good. She passed her hours gaping, sleeping, complaining, hardly replying to a question of his, if he by chance asked her one. Even the soft sweet voice that had charmed the world mostly degenerated now into a croak or a scream. Those very mild, not-say-bo-to-a-goose voices are sometimes only kept for public life. 'I shall take'you off to Worcester,'cried Mrs Lewis to him, when he came out of his insensibility. 'We will start as soon as breakfast's over in the morning.' Dr Lewis began to tremble. ' I don't want to go to Worcester,' said he. 'I want to stay here.' ' But staying here is not good for you, my dear. You'll be better at Mrs Lake's. It is the remains of this paint that is making you ill. I can smell it still quite strongly, and I decidedly object to stay in it.' 'My dear, you can go ; 1 should not wish to prevent you. But, as to the paint, I don't smell it at all now. You can all go. Anne will take care of me.'

'My dear Dr Lewis, do you think I would leave you behind me ? It is th© paint. And you shall see a doctor at Worcester. ' But Mrs Lewis did not intend that Anne should go; and stopped her when she saw her busy over her trunks. ' You need not pack your own things. i T ou are not going to Worcester. It is intended that you shall remain here and take care of the house and of Sally.' ' Oh, but, Mrs Lewis, I could not stay here alone,' cried Anne, a hundred thoughts rushing tumultuously into her mind. 'lt could not be.'

' Not stay here alone I Why, what is to hinder it ? Do you suppose you would get run away with? Now, my dear, we will have no trouble, if you please. You will stay at home like a good girl—therefore you maj' unpack your box.' Anne went straight to her father, and found him with Herbert Tanerton. He had walked over from Timberdale to inquire after the doctor's health.

' Could this be, papa ? ' she said. ' That I am to be left alone here while you stay at Worcester ?'

• Don't talk nonsense, cluld,' waß the peevish answer. 'My belief is, that you dream dreams, Anne, and then fancy them realities.' ' But Mrs Lewis tells me that I am not to go to Worcester —that I am to stay at home,' persisted Anne. And she said it before Mrs Lewis, who had come into the room then and was shaking hands with the parson. I think, love, it will be so much better for dear Anne to remain here and see to things,' she said, in that sweet company voice of hers

'No,'dissented the Doctor, plucking up the courage to be firm. ' If Anne stays here, I shall stay. I'm sure I'd be thankful if you'd let us stay : we should get a bit of peace and quiet.' She did not make a fuss before the parson. Perhaps she saw that to hold out might cause some unprofitable commotion. Treating Anne to a beaming smile, she remarked that her dear papa's wish was of course law, and bade her run and finish her packing. And when they arrived the next day at Lake's, and Anne heard that Henry Angerstyne was in truth still there, and knew that she should soon be in his presence, it did indeed seem to her that she had stepped into paradise. She was alone when he entered, the others had sought their respective chambers, leaving Anne to gather up their packages and follow, and she had her bonnet untied and her arms full of things when he came into the room. Paradise J she might have experienced some bliss in her life, but none like unto this. Her veins were tingling, her heart blood leaping. How well he looked ! how noble ! how superior to other men ! As he caught her hand in his, and bent to whisper his low words of greeting, she could scarcely contain within bounds the ecstasy of her emotion. ' I am so glad you are back again, Anne ! I could not believe the good news when the letter came to Mrs Lake this morning. You have been away two weeks, and they have seemed like months.'

'You did not couie over: you said you should,' faltered Anne. ' Ay. And I sprained my foot the day you left, and have had to nurse it. It ia not quite strong yet. Bad luck, was it not What do you want ? Where are you going ? ' I must take these things up to papa and Mrs Lewis. Plea.se to let me go.' But, before he would release her hand, he suddenly bent his head and kissed her ; once, twice. ' Pardon me, Anne, I could not help it; it is only a French greeting,' he whispered, as she escaped with her face in a naoie, and her heart beating time to its own sweet music. ' What a stay Mr Angerstyne is making !' exclaimed Fanny Podd, who had run about to seek Miss Dinah, and found her making a new surplice for Tom. ' Well, we are glad to have him,' answered Miss Dinah, 'and he has had a sprained ankle. We know now what is detaining him in Worcestershire. It seems that some old lady is lying ill at Malvern, and he can't get away.' 'Some old lady lying ill at Malvern !' retorted Fanny, who liked to take Misa Dinah down when she could. ' Why should that detain Mr Angoretyne ? Who ia the old lady l' ' She is a relation of his ; his great aunt, I think. And I brieve she is very fond of him, and won't let him go to any distance. All these visits he makes to Malvern are -to see her. She is very rich, and he will come in for hor money.' [ib*<j continued.']