LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 999, 7 September 1877, Page 3

LITERATURE.

"MAN PROPOSES. 3 '

(Continued.)

In due course of time supper was announced, at which meal Norton felt his arm suddenly and violently nudged. ' By Jove ! look down at the other end of the table,' said the nudger. Norton looked. Next to the captain sat Miss Corson. 'Same girl we were talking about the other day.' 'Yes,' said Norton. ' Quite a coincidence.' The nudged smiled. When, after supper, they went on deck, they found Miss Uorson was before them. The sun was just setting. It passed the horizon like an immense molten ball slowly sinking into the sea. She stood up and looked. ' Isn't it grand ?' she said. ' Quite imposing,' answered Charley, with cool impudence. She turned with an air of eurprise. ' I beg your pardon, sir, I thought it was the captain behind me,' she said, with a smile, and so simply that Charley felt more, strangely than he had ever before. He retired in confusion. ' I will get an introduction,,' he 6aid to himself. ' I thougt no woman could embarass mo, but she knocked me over with a glance. Norton has had su< h deuced little experience with women, she will tangle him before we get to Boston. I know I might get caught myself, if I was not already mortgaged.' In the saloon he found the captain. ' You are acquainted with the young lady on deck, forward, are you not ?' he asked. ' You mean Miss Corson '! Yes.' 'You'd oblige me greatly by inquiring whether she will form the acquaintance of Norton and myself.' Agreeably with this request, the captain consulted the young lady. The young lady 'would be most happy,' and the ceremony was performed with all due decorum and formality, and as much grace as possible under the circumstances. After the trio had conformed with the ancient and time-honored custom of stating their opinions of the weather, and the necessary and proper remarks had been made relative to t>he. rolling of the ship, ' Are you gravelling alone, Miss Corson V asked Norton. ' Yes. A few days ago papa went to a little quarry village in New England, called Avonville, to stay one day. After ho arrived there I heard he was sick, c*nd as I left in two hours 1 did not have time to rind au escort.' ' You shall have two, Miss Corson, if you will honor us,' said Charley, gallantly. 'Oh, thanks. But I couldn't think of taking you away from your business,' 4 Busings j' Charley laughed. «That's

just what we are running away from. We are on a rambling pilgrimage through New England. Why shouldn't we go to Avonville V * Your proffered escort, then, is thankfully accepted,' she said, smiling. As the conversation drifted on, one subject suggesting another, Charley, with what he fondly imagined was tact, gradually withdrew himself, and finally, making some excuse, left them. ' I'll give them about an hour alone to fall in love, he thought. 'My plan will work well; Norton will have a fine wife, and I, sweet revenge. He said I was a fool to engage myself; perhaps he will prove of the same kind.' The saccharine nature of his revenge was not, however, reflected in his countenance. His expression was anything but sweet. There was a little thought he was trying to keep back, which said, 'lf I had only met her a year ago.' He felt a little like sighing. When he returned he found Norton greatly entertained by Miss Cors m's bright remarks. * We thought you must have fallen overboard,' she said to him. ' You appear to be in a remarkably good humor about it,' he laughed gaily. 'lt's such a pleasant disappointment to see that our suspicions were untrue.' The effect of the bow with which he received this compliment was somewhat marred by the rolling of the ship. It was pitch dark now ; only a dim light from the cabin door fell on Miss Corson as she talked and showed the varied expressions of her face. For two hours Charley listened like one enchanted. When it was all over, when Nature had asserted herself and Morpheus had claimed his own, to himself he thought: ' She loves him, and has a true heart; I like her; is a lucky dog.' But when Norton asked his opinion, he said : ' Deuced fine girl—brilliant, yon know —all that sort of thing—give me a cigar.' He thought his plan was working well. Perhaps it was, but Norton did not commit himself. On their arrival at Avonville, a pleasant little village with a small, old-fashioned, but well-kept inn, they found Mr Corson seriously ill. However, two days after his daugher's gentle treatment brought him to a state of convalescence. It was arranged, on rather short notice, that the party, with the addition of one of Miss Corson's friends who would join them in a week, should a flying visit through New England, and then go to Europe to remain until winter. ' We'll have a jolly time.' Miss Corson said. She would hot tell the name of the friend who was to join them. 'lf you knew her, you would like her already; if you don't, you will like her when you do,' was the rather ambiguous answer the young men got to their repeated inquiries. On the fourth day of their stay, the artist went out to make some sketches of the beautiful scenery in the neighbourhood. His daughter accompanied him with her book, but soon strayed away, and was separated. Our masouline friends, firm believers in the maxim that ' the early worm gets caught,' arose at eleven, and strolled out for a smoke. Ranibliog aimlessly through the woods, they finally emerged through an open spaee, and found themselves at the bottom of the quarry, and in the presence of a scene which baffled their understanding. At one end of the quarry, which was some 200 feet long, was huddled together a crowd of the workmen, pale with terror, and almost speechless-their eyes riveted in fixed intensity on the furthest wall of the immense granite basin in which they stood. Norton had just perpetrated a witticism, but the laugh died away on his lips. ' What is the matter ?' he asked, hastily. The men looked fiercely at the 'city swell,' whom they hated ; but one of them, forget ful of small animosities, in the supreme terror of the moment, snatched him by the arm, —'Look,' he said, 'there's the largest blast in five years—it will be off in a minute. Cod help the lady »' Charley looked. Id the extreme end of the quarry, on a ledge some thirty feet above the level of the quarry bed, a young lady in white was lying asleep, with a book halffallen from her hand; she had evidently come down from the road but a few feet above, and the workmen under the ledge had not seen her ; not more than two yards beneath her the snake-like fuse, much longer than usual, to guard against danger from the large blast, trailed its length over the rocks. He saw it all in a moment. ' That Corson girl, by George !' A bucket of drinking water stood near him. Seizing this in a moment he was over the intervening space, and just below the blast at the foot of the incline. The workmen, strong rough men, who knew the tsrrible agency he was about to defy, thought him mad. The silence in the quarry was deathly—no one spoke ; they scarcely breathed ; momentarily they expected to see launched into eternity that couple—the one so unconscious of her peril,- the other so fearlessly trying to save her. Only the footsteps of the climber were heard, with their ghastly echoes reflected from the granite walls. The slope near the bottom was quickly mounted, until ho stood eight feet from the charge, at the foot of a perpendicular wall. Here he paused a morneut. There was no crack or crevice in the wall ; the treacherous lire above could be seen slowly crawling toward the blast. A half minute more and all would be over. He was thinking how to act ; he was only smoking his cigar, but what a shiver 1 hat wreath sent to the heart of the strongest who watched. A moment only he paused, then placing the bucket at his feet, stood on it, and stretching his body to the utmost, reached the top, hooked his feet in the bucket handle, and, with a strength he had never known before, drew himself and the bucket up, until he stood quietly over the burning fuse. Stooping, lie poured a mere cupful of water on the powder, and it was out. He had saved hor life ! He had looked for a moment at the pretty picture above him, arranged his necktie and cuffs in a dandified way, knocked the ashes from his cigar, picked up the bucket, still almost full, and descended. The workmen, God bless £heir honest souls, went mad. Cheey after cheer went up, such as those ol£ stones had never heard before. The hated 'city chap 'of jester day was the hero of to-day. Poor fellow ! he was a martyr to their enthusiastic admiration. Finally, Norton came to the resoue, and he escaped with that individual. When the two friends wers alone together, they clasped as old friends only clasp. ' ChaiVey, it was a noble act,' was all that Norton said. {To be continued,)