LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 894, 7 May 1877, Page 3

LITERATURE.

ON THE WEST PIER. A Tale in Two Chapters. ( Continued.) Chapter 11. A second voice answered. ‘ Then you never saw an awful scamp. I wondered this afternoon, when I met him walking with that gentle, lady-like looking girl, what she or the parents would say if they knew of the ballet dancer wife in the background.’ ‘ Wife ? ’ with a world of accent. * Oh ! yes, he married her I know, and a jolly little thing she was, too. He’s stopped her actiag now, though, and keeps her mewed up in lodgings in Islington ; but she’s back at the Surrey every other night, behind the scenes, or looking on.’ ‘ Nice lot, those fellows of the —th ! ’ said the first. “And this one “nicer” than the rest. Head over heels in debt before he took up with little Zitelle at all. Bless you, we hold dozens of his acceptances. I wonder what old Garsford would say if it came out ?’ ‘ Kick him out of the house, probably. It isn’t likely, however; for the fellow’s a most consummate hypocrite, and reads the Bible to his father just after signing a ‘post obit,’ ha ! ha ! ha 1’ There was more said, but they did not hear it. Till then they had stood spell bound by those first words ; only she had drawn her hand away and clenched it with the other against her breast, as if to keep down some emofcion struggling for utterance; and he, after one hasty movement, as if to withdraw, resigned himself with a half despairing shrug. Had not those first syllables told her the worst ? Suddenly she started, turned her head, and looked at him full and bravely. ‘Corneas ay. How is it people live, and speak such lies !’ she said fiercely. Their eyes met again ; but there was no answering fierceness in his ; nothing but a great shame, a gre- t grief and embarrassment. Her whole face altered in a moment, a blush so burning as to bring the tears into her eyes, crimsoning it even to agony. ‘ Mr Granger, it is not true—any of it ?’ she said, in a tone half indignant, halfappealing, a tone which in the still watches of the night he hears even now. ‘ Ethel,’ he stammered eagerly, ‘ don’t judge too harshly. I wi»h you had not heard ; but if you would let me try and explain ‘ Explain 1 ’ The blush was gone now, and a mortal paleness in its place. ‘ I do not think any explanations would be fitting, Mr G ranger, If you please, I will go back to my father now.’ And then, before he could stop her, she had turned and left him with a decision and dignity which did not admit of delay'. Cyril uttered a hasty word, and went off as swiftly in an opposite direct on, as if looking for some one. Captain Garsford had accompanied his friend home, and was strolling back along the King's Road, when he was met by Granger, and saw at the first glance that something was am'ss. ‘What is the matter!’ he cried out out hastily. ‘ H as my father had one of his attacks again?’ ‘ No ; but come to my rro ns and I’ll tell you,’said Cynl, with equal agitation. ‘I was looking for you. 5 ‘ Nothing wrong with my father or Ethel ? Tell it here then.’ ‘ As you like. It is about her, in one way. She has found out about Zitelle ’ ‘ Found out I How 1 Good Heavens ! She couldn’t ’ * She has. I tried to explain and soften it, but she wouldn’t listen to me.’ Nor would Garsford, Before the story was half through he had shaken off his friend, and darted away towards the pier ; and Cyril, left to himself, walked on with a step unusually slow and heavy to the hotel where he was lodging. But ten minutes back, and how different were his feelings. Do what he would, try to occupy himself as be might, he could only see two faces relieved against a blue, black sky, one so near, so sweet and fair and tender, he had almost drawn it to his breast and hidden it there with his own; the other white as death, averted and rigid, with an offence which would not even permit of argument. Had he been too confident, after all ? Surely, if she had cared for him she would never have stopped him so harshly. Suddenly—an hour had passed, but it might have b en ten, or ten minutes, for all he knew of time —a hand was laid on his door-handle, and Garsford entered, his face very pale and anxious, though rather less so than when he had rushed away. Cyril started up. * Well ?’ he said, quickly. ‘Well—’ Garsford repeated vaguely, ‘it’s not well; but sit down, old fellow, and I’ll tell you.’ Cyril sat down again very quietly. ‘ Go on,’ he said, lifting his eyes kindly to his friend. ‘ Granger,’ said the elder man, laying his hand suddenly on the lieutenant’s shoulder, ‘ do you—remember that day in the Adriatic ? ’ With a quick movement of his hand to clasp that on his shoulder, a quicker backward movement of his head to look iuto his friend's face, Cyril answered warmly : ‘ Do I not, old fellow! Why, I was sperking of it to —to her just before those brutes began.’ To any keener observer than a brother, proverbially the least quick-sighted of human beings, it might have seemed significant, that for some time back Cyril had found no title by which to allude to Miss Garsford but ‘ she ’ or ‘ her.’ George paid less heed to it than ever now. ‘ It was nothing, really; I’d have done it for any one : but you always made a deal of fuss about it. Did you mean it ?’ ‘Mean that I owed you my life, and only wish I could repay it you any way. Try me, that’s all!’ cried Cyril, with perhaps a little extra enthusiasm from the fact of the man beside him being ‘her’ brother. ‘ I don’t think you’ll find me backward, Garsford. By Jove, if you only knew—’ ‘ Yes, yes,’ the captain broke in, ‘ but you mightn’t like—not that it would do you any harm, however—you see, this is how it is : 1 went off'to Ethel, told her I had just seen you, a ad that you had told me of what she had overheard, and asked her if she had repeated it to my father or any one. She was properly angry at that, I assure you ; asked if you thought so, and if you had fo*gott' a she was a lady. I had no idea she was so excitable ; but I suppose it was the unpleasantness] of the subject. She was

quite white and trembling, upon my honor - and then ’

‘ You explained how it al! happened ? ’ put in Cyril, as his friend paused. ‘So; I would have done so, but she stopped me. I thought at first it was all up didn’t I tell you how they would look on the affair if they ever found it out ?) but something she said showed me that what do you think ?—I can’t guess how it came about, but it seems she has taken it into her head that those Jew beasts were talking of you!’ 1 Of me 1 ’ the words came with an accent of utter surprise and agitation, and were accompanied by a hasty movement, as though the lieutenant were about to spring to his feet. Garsford’s heavy hand held him in his place. ‘Yes; and, Cyril, boy, what I want to ask you is to let it rema n so. It won’t hurt you ; for she’ll never breathe a word of it to any one, and it doesn’t matter a fig to her how many wives you might happen to have.’ ‘ Let it remain so ! ’ repeated Cyril. The suggestion seemed in some sort to stun him. Garsford grasped his shoulder tighter. * Yes,’ he said, eagerly, almost imploringly; ‘ it will be only a trifle to you, aftei all; and, you know what it will be for me. Ruin, and abso'ute ruin! I believe it would simply kill ray father ; and as for Ethel, if it weren’t for her implicit belief bless her girl’s heart !-in ray sanctity and perfection, she would never be willing to coax sufficient supplies from him, as it is. to enable me to keep ray head afloat and a roof over that poor child at Islington. If it were found out I should be cut off with a shilling, have to leave the service, and should have all the Jews down en me of a heap.’ ‘But would not she-Ethel, keep your secrets ?’ asked Cyril, too much agitated for a nice choice of names. Garsford shook his hea I. ‘ She would try—yes; but it would be just ss fatal to me in the end, You don’t know that sister of mine, Granger. She’s one of those ultra-truthful, upright girls, without an atom of knowledge of the world or of men and their temptatio s, who would think all this sort of thing, ‘ damnation doubly damned,’ and concealment even worse. I verily believe even her love for me wouldn’t stand it; and then she would bo always going on at me to tell my father, and fretting about it; and as to continuing to get extra supplies of him for me. therc’d be an end of that. She’d break her heart; but she wouldn’t do it; and in the end it would all come out, and 1 might as well cut my throat now as think of it.’ ‘ And—if I agree ? ’ said Cyril, very low. The fire had died out of him by now ; and the fair face looked ten years older. ‘You will be the saving of me, nothing less ; and I shall thank you all my life for it. Gyril, you know yourself no man could feel more bitterly remoisiful than Ido for that page of my life; but I was younger then, and had got into the hands of an infernally bad set. On my honor, ever since I got my step I’ve clone my very utmost to keep straight, and pay off the interest on my debts at any rate.’

r To be continued ,"|