LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 900, 14 May 1877, Page 3

LITERATURE.

HELEN WHITNEY’S WEDDING. By Johnny Ludlow. ‘ What a hot day is is going to be I ’ cried the Squire, dinging back his thin light coat, and catching the corner of the breakfastcloth with it, so that he upset the salt-cellar. ‘ Yesterday was about the hottest I ever felt, but to-day will be worse.’ ‘ And all the jam-making about! ’ added Mrs Todhetley. ‘ You need not go near the jam-making.’ * I must to-day. Last year Molly made a mistake in the quantity of sugar : and never could be got to acknowledge it.’ ‘Molly—there’s the letter-man,’ broke off the Squire. ‘Run, lad.’ I went through the open glass doors with speed. Letters were not every-day events wi’h us. In these fast and busy days a hundred letters are written where one used to be. It was one only that the man handed me now.

‘ That’s all this morning, Mr Johnny.’ I put it beside the Squire’s plate, telling him it wai from Sir John Whitney. There was no mistaking Sir John’s handwriting ; the popular belief was that he used a skewer.

‘Prom Whitney, is it,’ cried he, ‘ Where are my spectacles ? What’s the postmark? Malvern ? Oh, then, they are there yet.’ “ Belle Vue Hotel, Malvern.

‘ Dear Todhetely. — Do take compassion upon a weary man and come over for a day or two, A whole blessed week this day have I been here with n ver a friend to speak to, or to make up a rubber in the evening. Featherston’s a bad [ layer, as you know, but 1 wish I had him here now. I and my wife mi,lit take double dummy, for all the players we can get. Helen is engaged to be married to Captain Foliott, Lord Riverside’s nephew; and nobody has any time to think of me and my whist-table. Bring the boys -with you : Bill is as moped as I am. We are at the Belle Vue, you see. The girls wanted to stand out for they Foley Arms: it’s bigger and grander : but I like a place that I have been used to. ‘ From your old friend, ‘ John Whitney.’ The little Whitneys had caught scarlatin all the fry of them. Recovered now, they had been sent to a cottage on the estate for change ; and iSir John, his wife, Bill, Helen, and Anna went for a week to Malvern while the Hall was cleaned. This news, though, of Helen’s engagement, took us by surprise. ‘ How very sudden !’ cried the Mater. Tod was leaning back in his chair, laughing. ‘ I told her I knew there was something up between her and that Captain Foliott. ’ ‘ Has she known him before ? ’ asked the Mater. ‘ Known him, yes,’ cried Tod. ‘She saw a good deal of him at Cheltenham. As if she would engage herself to anybody after only a week’s acquaintanceship ! ’ ‘As if Sir John would let her!’ putin the Squire. ‘ I can’t answer for what Miss Helen would do.’ And Tod laughed again. When the children were taken ill, Helen and Anna, though they had had the com plaint, were packed off to Sir John’s 3'ster, Miss Whitney, who lived at Cheltenham, and stayed there for some weeks. After that, they came to us at Dyke Manor for three days, and then went with their father and mother to Malvern. Helen was full of Captain Foliott, talking of him to us in private from morning till night. She had met him at Cheltenham, >nd he had paid her no end of attention. Now, as it appeared, he had followed her to Malvern, and asked for her of Sir John. ‘lt seems to be a good match—a nephew of Lord Riverside’s,’ observed the Squire! ‘ls he rich, I wonder ?—and is the girl over head and ears in love with him ? ’ ‘Rich be may be ; but in love with him she certainly is not,’ cried Tod. ‘She was too ready to talk of him for that,’ The remark was amusing, coming from Tod. How had he learnt to be so worldly wise? ‘ Shall you go to Malvern, father V ‘ Snail I go !’ repeated the Squire, astonished at the superfluous question. ‘ Yes. And start as soon as ever I have finished my breakfast and changed my coat. You two may eo also, as you are invited. ’ We reached Malvern in the afternoon. Sir John and Lady Whitney were alone in one of the pleasant sitting-room of the Belle Vue Hotel, and welcomed us with outstretched hands. * The girls and William ?’ cried Sir John, in answer to inquiries. ‘Oh they are out somewhere—with Foliott, I conclude; for I’m sure he sticks to Helen like her shadow. Congratulate me, you say? Well, I don’t know, Todhetely. It’s the fashion, of course, to do it; but I’m not sure but we should rath rbe condoled with. No sooner do our girls grow and become companionable and learn not to revoke at whist, when they can be tempted into taking a hand, then they want to leave us. Henceforth they must belong to others, not to us ; and we, perhaps, see them no more frequently than we see any other stranger. It’s one of the crosses of life.

Sir John blew his old red nose, so like the Squire’s, and my lady rubbed her eyes. Both felt keenly the prospect of parting with Helen. ‘ But you like him, don’t you ?’ asked the Squire. 4 As to liking him,’ cried Sir John, * I am not in love with him : I leave that to Helen. We don’t all see with our children’s eyes. He is well enough, I suppose, as Helen thinks so. But the fellow does not care for whist. ’ ‘ I think we play too slow a game for him,’ put in Lady Whitney. 4 He chanced to say one evening that Lord Riverside is one of the first hands at it; and 1 expect Captain Foliott has been in the habit of playing with him.’ 4 Any way, you are satisfied with the match, as a match ? ’ observed the Squire 4 1 don’t say but what lam,’ said Sir John. 4 lt might be better, of course ; and at present their means will not be large. Foliott offers to settle an estate of his, worth about ten thousand pounds, upon Helen ; and his allowance from his Uncle Foliott is twelve hundred a year. They will have to get along on that at present.’ 4 And the Captain proposes,’ added Lady Whitney, 4 that the three thousand pounds, which will come to Helen when she marries, shall be invested in a house : and we think it would be wise to do it. But he feels quite certain that Mr Foliott will increase his allowance when he marries; probably double it. ’ [ To be continued,']