LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1077, 10 December 1877, Page 3

LITERATURE.

COUSIN DICK. [i'Vowi “ Chambers's Journal.”] Mb and Mrs Woodford were enjoying a confidential matrimonial cbat over their tete-a-tete dessert, and discussing at some length the antecedents and probable future of a cousin, Mr Richard Broughton, who had lately dropped down on them, not from the clouds, but from a Liverpool express train This gentleman had in his youth been ‘ crossed in love.’ Always a musical enthusiast, he had become attached to an amiable girl, a young concert singer, who was the main stay of her mother - the widow of a captain in the army - and some young sisters; and having himself not yet made a fair start in life, the elders of both families rose up in arms against the alliance. Mrs Woodford, of nearly the same age as her Cousin Lick, had been his confidante in their boy and girl days, had sympathised warmly with his disappointment, without very precisely understanding how it had come about, and was now assuring her husband that the attachment had been a far more serious affair than very youthful fancies commonly are. It was true the gentleman had so far consoled himself as to marry another lady, though it was reported he had wedded a shrew, who had not made him supremely happy. But he lost his wife some time before leaving Australia, and now, after a sojourn of nearly twenty years in the colonies, had returned to England with something more than competence. * But what had become of Miss Clifton ?’ asked Mr Woodford. ‘That I do not know,’ returned the lady ‘ Clifton was only her professional name ; her real one I quite forget; therefore if from any circumstances she passed into private life, it would not be easy to track her. Dick only called her Alice to me.’ ‘Probably she also married,’ said Mr Woodford. ‘Possibly, replied his wife; ‘though women are more constant than men; and though she ceased to answer Dick’s letters, and really brought him to a state of misery which drove him out of England, I never thought the fault was quite her own.’ While Mrs Woodford was yet speaking, there was a knock at the door, and Mr Broughton was announced. ‘ Why did you not come to dinner ?’ cried Mr Woodford, rising to greet the visitor. ‘ But we can have the lamb brought back,’ he added. ‘Thanks,” thanks,’ said Mr Broughton; ‘ but I dined at the hotel. I am sure I ought to apologise for calling at such a time, and for having brought Dandy with me.’ Dandy was a terrier, and his master’s almost inseparable companion. ‘Now Dandy, behave 1’ continued his master ; * and go and beg pardon for both of us, we know we are two unmannerly colonial boors, at present unfit for good society.’ Very much as if the sagacious animal understood every word of this address, he approached Mrs Woodford, and sat on his haunches in a begging attitude. ‘He means biscuit,’ said the lady with a laugh, and suiting the action to the word by giving him one, with a caressing pat into the bargain. 1 Seriously, however,’said Mr Broughton, ‘ I would not have come at such an hour, but I wanted so much to tell you that at last I found lodgings which I think will just suit me. Or rather I should say that Dandy found them for me.’ ‘ Dandy ! Well, he is a clever dog ? He will talk next, I suppose. But,’ continued Mrs Woodford, ‘ at present his master must explain.’ *lt sounds ridiculous perhaps to tell of such trifles,’ replied her cousin; ‘ but for the last three or four days—ever since the hot weather set in, I have felt quite intererested in a shop in your neighbourhood —mainly, I think, from the humanity displayed by the owner in setting a large bowl of sparkling water by the door for the convenience of the poor panting dogs, for which Dandy has been grateful more than once. It is a music warehouse on a small scale; but where they also sell fire ornaments and ladies’ Berlin work and so on’ ‘ I know the shop,’ interrupted Mrs Woodford ; ‘ it is kept by a widow and her maiden sister, who seem very superior people.’ ‘Oh, I am glad you know the place,’ continued Mr Broughton. ‘Well, this afternoon as usual I waited, looking in at the shop window, while Dandy quenched his thirst, and wishing I could decide on something to purchase, by way of liquidating my dog’s debt, when I observed a card which intimated there were appartments to let. There were directions to knock at the private door ; but seeing me linger on the spot longer than usual, Dandy had entered the shop, and when I follow'ed to look alter him, I saw hi m planted firmly near an inner door, and accepting the caresses of a little girl of about seven years old as if he had known her all. his life. I made inquiries about the apartments, and found they consisted of the first floor, a nice bedroom, and ipleasant sitting room; attendance with good cooking guaranteed, and no Jother lodgers taken. Of course I went upstairs to look at the rooms, Dandy leading the way with the canine gravity which you remarked in him the other day. He jumped on a chair to look out of the window, and then on the sofa, as if to examine the softness of the cushions,, and finally gave a little yelp, which was only half a bark, and which seemed to say—“ Master, this will do; here we are quite at home.” Even the mistress of the house, Mrs Gray, laughed at the evident contentment of the dog. But what charmed me was there was no rebuke for my poor Dandy’s jumping on the furniture, and remembering besides the bowl of water, I felt inclined to believe that Dandy would bo something more than tolerated in the housp. Accordingly it was with a good hope that I intimated that my dog was my constant companion, and that I trusted his presence would not be objectionable.’ ‘0 sir,’ said the widow, ‘we have only lost a dear old dog within these three months, and for our own dear pet’s sake—if for nothing else—we should, ha kind to a dog. As for my children, I believe they take after their aunt, aud my sister dotes upon dogs.’ ‘ jVb, it was the maiden sister, I daresay, who was the mistress of the lamented dog,’ exclaimed Mrs Wojdl'ord. ‘ I have some recollection of seeing a very old hlacli' retriever in the shop.’ • ' (To he continued,)