LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 832, 22 February 1877, Page 3

LITERATURE.

ONCE, AND A LIFETIME. ( Concluded .) ‘ Agues come ! Why should you hesitate? Do you not remember how often we have been together ? ’ ‘I remember,’ she said, in a low trembling voice, and she pressed her hand to her heart as a sudden spasm turned her faint and cold.

* Then why delay now? Agnes, won’t you give me one happy hour one hour like the dear old times? It is so little to you, so much to me. Come ! So Agnes went. It seemed so little to do for him, and she felt that she could not resist just one taste of happiness—one dream of the olden time before it was put away for ever. It was only Oswald, her cousin, after all.

In another moment they were gliding down the stream. It was a night full of magical beauty. For some time there was silence between the two, then Oswald said abruptly, *Do you know what I would give worlds to accomplish ? ’ ‘ How should I know ? ’ asked the girl, with her eyes averted and in a hushed tone ; her heart was beating fast and painfully, and her breath came short. It was the first time she had been alone with the man she had so desperately loved. ‘ I wish, ’ cried Oswald passionately, ‘ that you and I could drift away to a home and a life of our own.’

Agues started. The voice more than the words told her how unwise she had been in going, and the very consciousness of her own feelings made her speak lightly. ‘ How absurd of you, Oswald ! Why should you aud I wish to be cut off from company and civilisation ? ’

* Don’t laugh i ’ Oswald pleaded, in a tone of absolute pain. * Don’t try and ward off serious truth like this! Agnes, you know what I mean ; you do uot need to be told how I love you. Omy darling, you must believe it; for you oau sec how love mastered everything, and made silence beyond my power. ’ His voice, his words, thrilled her; they brought the past so vividly back when they two had glided down that river many a time —her waist enclasped by his arm, her face against his breast. ' Do not make me regret coming, Oswald,’ she said nervously. ‘What is the sense of these wild words ? Surely you are not trifling with me for mere amusement’ sake ? ’

Are you angry with mo for telling you how I love you ? ’ ‘Yes,’ she exclaimed, forcing a flash of resentment into her eyes. ‘Do you think I am only a toy to serve your will ? You are engaged to i Miss Gascoigne, and yet you dare to talk of love to me. What am Ito think ?’

‘ Think that Adelaide Gascoigne is nothing to me, while you arc-everything,’ he answered, with uncontrollable passion in his accents. * Oswald !’

The name burst from her almost in a moan. She wanted him to desist the dreaded temptation. ‘ I fling Miss G ascoigne and every thought of her to the 'winds. 1 am yours, Agnes my Agues ! And it is for you to say what you will do with me,’ ho exclaimed vehemently. ‘And your honour—where is that?’ the girl asked faintly. * My honour is safe in my own keeping,’ he told her haughtily. 4 1 break no faith in breaking with such a woman as Adelaide Gascoigne. Sho means to marry me only_ as a fall back if she cannot get Leighton. \_ou know whatjshe is. You cannot blame me'if I put her out of my life without even a consideration. ’

‘ But 1 do blame you. A Barclay must not break his faith. You have said mad things to-night, Oswald; but we can both forgot them.’ ‘ A man cannot forget what his heart is full of. Memory has been busy of late, and I oanuot help thinking that you did love me ouee, Agues.’ Again she felt the sharp short pain at her heart as he reverted to the past. For a moment she only remembered that Oswald was facing her that it was Oswald speaking as she had never thought to hear him speak again. Then she realised that by her own fiat she must sileuce the words which he moat desired to hear. Her face was pale and rigid in the moonlight, but her tone was firm.

' You have no right to speak of old days uoav. ’

‘I have a right! : Oswald replied passionately. ‘Agnes’—he dropped the oar, and seized her fragile passive hands —‘you did love, and by that love I sivear I will win you.’ ‘ Hush 1’ and sho drew away her hands from him. ‘ I refuse to listen to such words,’

she said, with a set expression on her fea tures.

‘ Can you not love me again, Agnes ? For God’s sake, don’t tell me that it is too late!’

She shivered all over. Then she answered him gravely and sadly, * Yes; it is too late.’ ‘ Too late !’ The handsome face paled to an ashen one ; the man’s voice shook like a woman’s. * You mean that you do not love me now—that you love Leighton, Agnes !’ ‘ I mean that if you were free as air I would not marry you, Oswald. ’ He looked at her steadily—almost defiantly. It was a strange duel of conflicting resolutions to take place on that calm river.

‘ Why not ?’ he asked, with a determination that his question must be answered. ‘ I will tell you. It is because I once loved you, Oswald—how much only God and my jown heart know. It is not for me to speak of what I hoped when you went away. It is not worth while either to speak of what I suffered when I realised that you had forgotten me. You took from me something which neither you nor any one else could ever give me back.’ She paused a minute, and looked wistfully towards the hills that were softened by the misty moonbeams and the dark shadows of the drooping woods. Then she went on quietly : ‘ I do not know whether or not it was that I poured out my whole heart at your feet wastefully, and so have none left. Your words pain me—that is all; for they make me realise how far removed you are from me. This is my answer, Oswald. Dearly as I loved you, so long as we live I will never give myself up to that love again. ’ Oswald said nothing ; he merely turned the boat back. Then as he reached the bank, and Agues prepared to step on shore, he spoke, his words sounding loud and distinct on the silent night. ‘You need not think that I shall accept your decision. A man cannot surrender without a desperate struggle the only hope that makes his life. I love you. I know now that I have never loved any but you. And I shall love you always, my darling. Remember this, and remember also that I am simply waiting to see what you will do with this love,’

Before Agnes could answer, there was a sound on the shore that startled them. A hasty tread, and from behind a clump of larches Miss Gascoigne stepped full into the moonlight. All her brilliant color was gone. Only her eyes burnt with an angry fire that would have scorched up both Oswald and Agnes. The latter in her surprise exclaimed, ‘ Mias Gasooigne !’ ‘Yes,’ she answered in accents that quivered with passion, ‘it is I, Miss Clive ! You did not count on a witness to your love scene ; but I could not resist the temptation of letting you know my appreciation of the fine sense of honour that seems to distinguish your family. ’ ‘ Your labour under a mistake,’ broke in Oswald.

‘ Please do not address me,’ she observed, with indescribable scorn. ‘lf I were a man I might tell you what I think of you, but a woman is debarred even words.’

* You forget that you have no right to treat me like this,’ he replied sternly. *lf I have talked of love to another woman, it is no fault of yours that you have not listened to love from another man. ’

Miss Gascoigne turned pale and red alternately. ‘ As for Miss Clive, having failed in securMr Leighton, she has wisely turned her attention to you.’ ‘1 regret all this,’ Agnes remarked quietly, though inwardly her pulse beat fast with agitation ; 4 but I will not attempt a justilication of charges which I have too much selfrespect to notice or rebut. ’ ‘it would have been fortunate if your self-respect had asserted itself before you became a plaything for the men. Miss Clive. Neither of them has desired anything but his own amusement.’

Hardly had the insulting words been uttered, when, to the surprise of Agnes and Oswald, Howard Leighton, stepping out of the thicket, took his place by Agues, and addressed the incensed heiress. * You have done me the honour of associating my name with Miss Clive’s, and I trust she will forgive me for making a declaration in public that your remarks call forth. I love her as a man loves only one woman in his life, and I live in the hope that my great love will aid me to win her. ’ An absolute stillness followed this. Knowing only the artificial side of the man’s character, two of his audience were unable to realise that it was indeed he who made this simple avowal of affection and resolu tion. At the conclusion of his sentence he met Agnes’s eyes. She put out her hand to him, but rather as to a friend than a lover. ‘ Thank you,’ she said softly. ‘ You have been very good in speaking thus to save me from humiliation and intense—’

She staggered, made a step backwards, and foil into the stream.

In less than a moment Leighton had plunged in and borne her back to the shore. White and unconscious, she lay in his arms. Suddenly she opened her eyes. Something like a look of terror came over them ; then she fell back. The shock and the fierce strain of emotion had done its work with merciful quickness. Too much of sharp tension had been laid on the heart, and the great organ of life had ceased its work for ever.

Oswald, wild with grief, knelt and pressed the alight figure to him, regardless of lookers-on.

‘Agues, look up ! It is I—l, whom once you loved !’ he cried wildly. Leighton put a hand on his shoulder; something of the story of these two seemed to come to him.

‘ Oswald, he said in a hushed voice, ‘ she loved once, and for a lifetime. Now she has gone where no earthly love can reach her.’ And taking her out of the human clinging grasp he laid her gently on the grass, and reverently closed the white lids ; while the moonbeams played on the still white face, and the summer wind sighed a requiem.