LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1095, 2 January 1878, Page 3

LITERATURE.

<». AN APPALLING APPETITE. [From "Tinsley's Magazine."] (Continued.) Florence was shocked and grieved. She confided her trouble to her cousin, who consulted Mr Grainger. The lawyer advised an application tj the Lord Chancellor, which Florence, however, would not be persuaded to consent to She remembered her solemn vow to her dying father, and declared her firm determination to keep it, at whatever cost to her feelings; so nothing could be done in the matter. Jonathan Grasper, who somehow had a suspicion that all waa not right, resolved upon another move in his vile game. After Mr Walden'a death be had taken possession

J of his deceased friend's house, which he, in obedience to his miserly instincts had then \ at once proceeded to strip nearly bare of ; every article of comfortable furniture which i formerly brightened and cheered the dullness and gloom of the spacious but decaying mansion. So he one day abruptly informed Klorenrc that he wanted her to live at the old house, and he mercilessly carried her off from her cousin's; all remonstrances, pleas, and entreaties notwithstanding. Florence had a lady's-maid, a Mrs Pall, a young widow, who had, before her marriage, been in Mrs Walden's service, and had returned to it after her husband's death. Mrs Pall, who was warmly and faithfully attached to Florence Walden, was a clear sighted sharp-witted woman, who had long since seen through Jonathan Grasper; but her dread lest he should separate her from her young mistress had made her keep her own counsel. Shrewdly guessing the old man's intention to remove his wa>-d to a place of his own, she secretly intimated to him her full concurrence in the plan, and she even managed to give him the impression that she might be bribed to act in his interest. It is a curious fact, amply proved by experience, that the sharpest villains are also occasionally the most easily dnped. Jonathan formed no exception to the rule. Like all crafty misers, he would always readily consent to drop a few sprats, when in sight of a shoal of herrings. Mrs Pall played her cards so well that the old man fell into the trap. He offered her one hundred pounds to do her best to persuade her young mistress to listen favourably to his suit, and to watch carefully that no communication should take place between Sir Richard and Florence ; he even gave her a handsome earnest on account.

Having thus, as he thought, secured the active co-operation of Mrs Pall, and fullypersuaded that Domber, the only other inmate of the house besides himself and Florence and her maid, was absolutely in his power and at his mercy, he resumed his vile persecution of the unhappy girl on the very first day of her return to the house of her late parent, and, as we have seeD, he made no secret of his wretched intention His calculation was that Florence, helplessly abandonf d to his infamous obsessions, might be worried into yielding to his monstrous suit. He knew her for a gentle timid creature, with strong religious feelings, who might safely be trusted to regard her solemn promise to her dying father as sacred and inviolable ; and he knew the strength of his own evil will, and the tenacity of his own evil purposes. Thus it came out that, on the very day of the poor child's compulsory return to her home, he talked to his clerk of his contemplated marriage as a settled matter. When the clerk could find words at last to give vent to his pent-up feelings, he burst out, under a sudden impulse of rashness.

• Marriage settlement! You, Mr Grasper, and Miss Florence ! You cannot mean this, sir! The child is in her teens. Consider your age. sir. ' ' Consider my age !' cried Grasper angrily. ' Zounds, sir, what do you mean ? lam not seventy yet, and hale and hearty. Abraham was twice my age when he took Keturah to wife.' 'For heaven's sake, Mr Grasper, do not quote Scripture in support of this most iniquit ' Here Domber broke off suddenly. He trembled lest his feelings should carry him too far. ' Iniquitous purpose.' Graßper cooly completed the sentence. ' That's what you were going to pay. I do you too much honour to condescend to argue with you. But pray where is the iniquity ? Most likely I may have only some fifteen or twenty years longer to live.' The clerk raised his eyes to the ceiling in mute astonishment, whilst Grasper calmly went on. ' So Florence will be a young widow with a pretty large fortune ; for I shall leave everything I am possessed of to her and the children, of course.' Domber looked again up to the ceiling, muttering to himself, ' Children 1 children, of course!' 'So you see, Master Domber,' Grasper continued, 'that naught but good is intended to my (with an emphatic sneer) dead friend's orphan child. And now, sir, let there be an end to your insolent gabble. Confine yourself in future to minding that part of my business which is legitimately your business as my servant. Begone! If I catch you again travelling beyond your province, or interfering in any way or degree with my private concerns, I am fully resolved to detect you in another robbery ! You know the consequnces to yourself and [with another ugly sneer] to your son's honest name. Begone 1' ' God forgive you, Mr Grasper, and soften your hard heart!' said the clerk meekly ; then, in sudden excitement. ' But mind this well, Bir : no fear of consequences, even to my poor innocent boy, shall ever deter me—' Here he stopped short, then adding, more calmly, 'No matter ; time will show !' be went from his master's presence. Grasper looked after him, just a trifle disturbed.

' Would you ? Would you, Master Domber? he muttered to himself. Then, after a brief pause, he went on, quite reassured evidently, 'Bah! the old lay. rlo will thick twice of it. Destroyed the bond ! .No, no ; that would be a grievous blunder indeed, which might put me to ■•onsiderable inconvenience were Domber actually to peach; for old Grainger might after all give me a deal of trouble ; and the world would talk, and it would not look well in the congregation.'

For, like a great many more similar moral shams and ieligious hypocrites, though the man had but little practical belief in God, and stood in even less dread, perhaps, of His judgment, he yet was rather afraid of the world's and the congregation's likely censure and reprobation, should he ever be found out for what he knew himself to be in his own heart. ' No, the bond is safe in my cabinet upstrirs '—he continued his soliloquy—"which also keeps my hold over Master Domber. " Safe bind, safe tmo 1 ," says wise old Shylock. Florence once Mrs Grasper, the bond is cancelled, and the ten thousand pounds are mine—legally and morally mine. And Mrs Grasper she must and shall be, in despite of Sir Eichard Greenlands and her girlish affection for him. I am sure she'll soon get over that. She has always been gentle and submissive, and she will never dare to disobey my commands, the less so as I have her here absolutely under my control r (2b be oontiMum,)