LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 905, 19 May 1877, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE CHARM ( Continued.)

Teresita had a vein of superstition running through her nature. She belived in various signs and omens, and held to old family legends with tenacious pleasure, and as she did believe in this amul-t, she retorted sharply: 'Mr Jermyn, you know nothing about it whatever. If my Grandmother Freer, whose sense you can hardly doubt, sir, thought fit to preserve this old relic as a memento of the past, and if she half believed it to be associated, as the tradition runs, with the prosperity of the family, it is scarcely meet for her descendants to cast scorn upon it.'

She spoke with great dignity, giving a stately glance both at her sister and her cousin. Louise smiled : she had no superstition whatever ; but she was fond of her pretty sister, and liked to humour her. William Jermyn looked at them bjth. scarcely understandinc.'. ' Teresita, you don't really mean to say that you believe in that little relic of an amulet—that you think it k<?eps harm from yon—or gives any blessing ?' ' Never mind what I think, sir. Why did you say it was no better than one of Uncle M chael's nuts ? '

'My dear child—l grant you it is not a nut. It is a little amulet, carved the same as the chain. But I think it is rather a clumsy ornament to wear. And you surely do not believe that it has any protecting properties!' Teresita had sought out some tine twine, dark and strong, and was threading the beads again. She melted at his gentleness, and the fire w« nt out of her eyes.

' I can't say that I really believe anything about it, William Jermyn; but it has a singular charm for me, and I know I had rather lose all the trinkets my Grandmother Freer left me than this. It may be because ii Jooks so mysterious, because nothing positive, can

be told of it, except that its possession in the family was held to bring good luck, You cannot deny, Louise, that grandmamma believed that.'

Louise nodded. The young girl continued.

' And it had a certain poetic interest, from the fact that it was always worn by grandmamm 's sister-in-law, the beautiful Aunt Joan, whose picture hangs in the library. You know her history, William. For two or three years before her death she was in sane, in a quiet, melancholy, harmless sort of way. She was superstitiously attached to this chain and amulet, never letting them be off her neck; and once, when she accidentally broke the thread, as I have done now, her distress was terrible. Grandmamma used to tell all these things in her fascinating manner untd they seemed to be as much part of my remembrance as hers. She was deeply attached to Aunt Joan; and I think she leved the amulet-or charm, as Aunt Joan called it—for her sake; I think, too, that she must have become imbued with a little of Aunt Joan's superstition regarding it. Any way, I am quite sure that when grandmamma at last hung the amulet round my neck and charged me to take care of it, she thought she was giving me a great gift.' 'And, therefore, you treasure them,' remarked Mr Jermyn, as he rose to take his leave.

' Yes. Would not you ?' 'I would,' he answered, laughing: 1 though I don't go so far as to say that 1 should wear them always : or look upon the amulet as a charm that would keep me from evil. Fare you well, Teresita. Good afterternoon, Louise.' They returned his salutation ; Louise with right good will. She had no love for boy and girl folly, as she regarded this wasting of t me, and she was anxious to get the work finished.

In the days gone by, there lived in this good old-fashioned mansion—which stood amidst its own land a mile or two removed from the bustling metropolis—one Marcus Freer : a wealthy gentleman and a courtly, quite of the old school. The estate was his, and other property besides. He lud a wife and an only child a daughter. The daughter, indulged and self-willed, married Mr Van Dest; married her in spite of her father. Mr Van Dest was of good family, but poor; Miss Freer was, or would be, very rich; some people thought that Mr Freer might have set the one's poverty agair st the other's wealth; and, perhaps, had it been anybody but Mr Van Dest he would have done so. But between the Freers and the Van Dests ran a long-continued feud, originating in a law suit; and Mr Freer hated young Van Dest, and would not hnve given way one iota to his daughter's love. The Van Dests, originally from French Flanders, had settled here a generation or two ago. William Jermyn's' mother was a cousin of theirs.

Mi S 3 Freer married Mr Van Dest. Not exactly in defiance-at least, she did not look upon it as such, for she was supplicating ever for her father's consent, and she fully believed that he would run to offer his forgiveness at the very church door, she, his cherished daughter. Not so. Mr Freer was implacable. And the first thing he did was to make a fresh will and leave his daughter's name out of it. A few years went on, and then Mr Van Dost, never very strong, died. Mr Fr6er relented a little then; and yielding to his wife's earnest persuasion, he received his daughter home again, with her two little children, Louise and Therese. And the years went on, and Mr Freer himself died. When his will was searched for, the only one to be found was that which he had made disinher ting his daughter. Everything was left to his wife for her life; at her death it all went to a distant relative, one Squire Ford. Old Mrs Freer was surprised; she knew that her husband had made a later will. But no fresh will could be found, and the other had to be acted upon. Before Mr Freer died, a great tribulation had come upon him. His sister Joan, so renowned for her beauty as to be called the beautiful Miss Freer, and who wa3 many years yonnger tlrai himself, had fallen into melancholy. Ihis went on to positive insanity. She was never sufficiently insane to be sent from her home ; but had to be confiued to her own apartments. She had always resided with her brother and his wife, never having married. When her niece (of whom she was very fond) married Mr Van Dest, it affected her bitterly. She shared in all the family hatred of the Van Dests, and openly said she would rather have seen Louisa die than marry Van Dest. Neither (unlike her brother) did she ever see Louisa ; and when the latter came back with her two children, Aunt Joan could n«ver persuade herserlf to be cordial with them. The melancholy set in, and it ende 1 in insanity; but the poor lady was always placid, Mrs Van Dest was the first to go; Mr Freer next; then Aunt Joan: and finally Mrs Freer.

Now came in all the terrible distress that such a will entailed. During Mrs Freer's life time it was not felt; perhaps was hardly thought of by the two young girls, her granddaughters. Louise and Therese Van Dest had now to realise the fact that they were penniless. Save a tew 'odds and ends of personal effects of their grandmother's, and for a small sum of money that she had saved, but she was ever improvident, they had absolutely nothing. All jthc property, including the grand old house and its furniture, belonged now to Squire Ford and his sons; these distant jelatives who had no claim to it, who had not expected it and did not want it, for they had plenty of money of their own. The old Squire, whom they had never seen, li-'ed a hundred miles away. When he found that he had inherited, he wroto to the late Mr Freer's solicitors and also to the young ladie i themselves, intimating that tor a twelvemonth at loast he should not think of entering into possession of the house, and expecting that the young ladies would remain in it for that period of time as their < wn. But he said not a word about adding to their means, or or settling any small income upon them. '1 he more one has the more one wents. (To be continued.)