LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 889, 1 May 1877, Page 3

LITERATURE.

BIRDS OP A FEATHER. BY A. S. (Banbury News.")

It was in a high draughty lobby of La Mode Theatre that Harry Wyndham said 1 Good bye !' to little Lina Fernlie.

So sweet she looked in her state dress of white silk slashed with crimson velvet, that the parting was more painful than he had anticipated.

At the door of her dressing-room he mur mured, 'Good-bye, Lina! —I may call you so this once ? Yesterday it was my intention, before sailing for the States, to beg from you a promise of this dear hand on my return ; but now your father has become so wealthy, that it is impossible. Though I can honestly say I am glad for your sake, still you must know what a terrible blow it is for me to give up all hope of ever winning you ?' ' Oh, Harry ! as though money can make any difference !' ' Is it possible that you care for me a little ?' he asked eagerly. ' But don't answer darling ! Your father says you will leave the stage now, and enter into quite a new world, where your wealth will gain you a position, and henceforth our lives will run in very different grooves. Lina, dearest, I had so hoped they would have been as one !'

There was a passionate emphasis on his last tones that somehow sent a thrill straight to Lina's heart; but she only replied, ' Please don't talk like that!'

' Lina, if I thought there was a chance of your remembering me, I would ask you something ! ' « What is it, Harry ?'

He stooped, and picked up a leaf from the dusty floor— only a glitteiing tinsel thing fallen from a ' property' May-pole required in the coming burlesque, but to these two hearts it possessed au intrinsic value now and for evermore

' Dearest, it, when winter comes, you can give me any hope, will you send me this ? Is it asking too much? You will be perfectly free, and should I never see it again, I will try and hope that another, worthier than I, has won what I would give my life to possess !' ' I will send it, Harry," she said, simply : and, pressing a kiss on her red lips in silence, be left her.

Mr Fernlie and his daughter were great favourites thrc ughout the profession, no less than they were with the play-going public ; for though neither could boast of real genius, still there was a deal of quiet, uademonstrative talent in both father and daughter.

And so it was rather a mistaken idea when Mr Fernlie thought it would be better now that their living did in nowise depend on it—to remove Lina from public life entirely.

But with him thought meant action, and a fortnight after Harry Wyndham sailed for New York, he and his daughter were comfortably installed in Boulah road, near Regent'- Park. Now, when Lina had a handsome pair of bays for her barouche, unlimited money at command, and had become acquainted with the fourth rate set who inhabited the rather imposing-looking dwellings in the neighbourhood of Beulah fc'oad—and who, by the way, considered this wealthy ' actor fellow' rather an acquisition than otherwise—she was supremely happy, and already felt that it was perhaps as well as not that Harry had left her perfectly free. That happiness lasted some time, before the glamour of her newly acquired wealth began to wear off. Then Lina was not slow to see that the female portion of her friends desired either to patronise her graciously or trample the little rebel under foot. Before Mr Fernlie's arrival here, the belle who reigned supreme over this little world was Miss Catherine Davenport, a lady of some dignity, and whose family mansion was directly opposite. But now, as Lina's beauty, matchless of its kind, had successfully deposed Miss Davenport, sh<' ruled in her stead, and the followers of the elder lady, objecting very strongly to be led by a little vagabond player, let no opportunity pass of sending veiled sneers at Lina's former life

Amongst the visitors at Mr Fernlie's was Sir Digby Snaffleton, who, in right ot his baronetcy, was looked on kindly by all those beauties (and they were manv) who were matrimonially inclined. And previous to Lina's appearance on the scene, Miss Davenport had marked him as her own.

Sir Diu'by's title was only twenty years old. Of his ancestry, all anybody know 3 about them was that his g andfather had been only moderately successful in the tea line, while to his father had been reserved the honor of the family, for, when in the civil choir, Majesty had been graciously pleased to confer on him a baronetcy. A» Sir Digby was the match among their -et, Liua was not sorry when he attached himself to her train, and soon became the most assiduous of all her admirers.

As fast as Liua gained ground with the men she lost it with the women. But be'ng such a vain little thing, she found great de-

light in ke ping a' 1 the men round her, listening to her hr Diant t Ik. '' itty it w a, without doubt, but p-rhaps a trifle too free. Nob dy but he-self knew >ow it wounded her to eateh a wondering expression on a listener's f ce, tiling Iter, as plainly as possible, th it her bri 1 ancy

savored too much of h r old life—the life that ha<i intr duced he to so many d fferent phases of human nature, of which Beula roaH knew little, aud wished to know less.

With some hing lik* malicious plea uro it was that Lina entertained the idea of beC' ming Lady Shaffleton. JM ver had Lina thought Sir Digby so insufferably conceited as on one evening when taking his accustomed place by her side, he said, alluding to the Misses Davenport, who were playing a rather brilliant duet at the piano, 'Nice girls those if they would not run after one so much, are not they, Miss Per- lie?"

' They never run after me, Sir Digby, and what 1 have seen of them I don't eve for,' replied Lina.

Mh ! jealous, poor little thing,'mused the Baronet, pulling his mustache indolently. * They play well together.' he said.

' Yes, though they always seem to run down the piano by easy stages. But how is it you are not turning their music ? They will be annoyed ? ' ' How can I when you are here ?' ' I cannot see how my presence has any bearing on the case. She felt vexed with him, for what she could hardly have expressed had she been called upon to do so, but there was an expression on his face that implied so much condescension that she was hardly prepared for this.

' Lina,' he said suddenly, ' your presence is everything to me. I have loved you some time now, and it is the wish, the first wish of my heart, to make you Lady fc'haffleton.'

It w s out, find Lina smiled a little con temptuously at the emphasis on the ' Lady Shaffleton.'

Involuntarily her mind flew back to a night eight months ago, a dimly-lighted iobby, an earnest face aglow with love for her, and in her heart of hearts she knew that not for an instant had her maiden love swerved from that 'third-rate actor.'

'ln refusing your offer, Sir Digby, believe me I am highly sensible of the honour you have done me although it was quite unexpected,' she answered. Was ever such a look of surprise depicted on a man's face since the 'Laird o' CockpenV rejection ?

' Will Miss Fernlie take a little time to consider my offer ?' he was saying, hastily, when they were interrupted by a general demand for Miss Fernlie at the piano, a request for which she was grateful. 'I wonder how I have put up with the stupid fellow so long,' mused Lina, when in her room that night. * I don't like thia life at all, and I know papa is miserable, or he wouldn't have taken so much wine at dinner, ' she went on, discontentedly, throwing down a bracelet. 'He was happier when we wer* at La Mode, or even as we were long ago in the country I did not have to dress for our dinners then a mutton chop and a glass of sixpenny ale. He is sure to take more than he ought to-morrow, again. I wish we were not going to have that party. Oh, dear ! what a great mistake it is to be taken out of one's natural element.'

The next eveniug Lina beheld the confirmation of her fears, for on stealing to the dining-room door, she saw her father, with his head resting on his chest;, talking incoherently to himself, and totally unheeded by his guests, among whom was the Baronet. ' Yes, all through an ungrateful public, that never thinks of the real laborers. There's Mercia, only been on the boards two years, and commands his own salary; and here am I, look at me—worked hard day and night all my life, and am not a sixpence the richer. Do you think they would give me sixpence if I was starving to-morrow ? No ! Tf I w»s dead they might bury my old body, but I doubt it.'

' Shaffieton, I thought you were making a fool of yourself with the little Fernile last night; didn't come to anything serious, I hope ?' ' Serious ! —pho !' replied the Baronet. ' I never meant anything serious, as you say, with that little party : though she seemed to think so, did not she ? ' How Lina's tingled as she heard this dishonorable lie ! ' And I had thought to be happy with th se people!' she muttered, bitterly. ' I'll cut them all, if they don't cut me first. Thank goodness, lam not likely to become Lady Shaffieton.' A week lat r, and across the broad Atlan tic, abroad the good ship Hope, was speeding a leaf, of njhich we have before made honorable men-ion.

And November had just put in an unusually damp appearance, when the Erx reported the marriage of Harry Wyndham an>) Lina Fernbe, and added, ' La Mode has changed hands, and under the able and enterprising management of Mr and Mrs Wyndham, promises to be more the fashion than ever.'

Theirs was a quiet honeymoon, parsed by the river at Chiswick, for the theatre, which was undergoing redecoration, required some little attention. ' This month has been the happiest one of my life, Lina, and it is but a foretaste of our future, dearest,' said he, as they wan dered by the moonlit Thames on the eve of the opening of La Mode. 'At one time I almost feared you would be married to one of your wealthy admirers before I returned from the States,' he continued, throwing the end of his cigar away, and giving her a little embrace.

'Harry,' she said, 'if you knew how stupid they were, you would never have given them a thought.' ' There is a kiss, darling, for preferring a poor, undeserving wretch as I am, to even a Baronte, though I don't see how you could do it.'

She lifted her head, and returned the kiss with wifely grace, before she answered a little saucily, I don't know that I prefer you now, only, you see, we are ' Birds of a Feather.'