LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1267, 10 April 1878, Page 3

LITERATURE.

CAROM EL’S FARM. BY JOHNNY LUDLOW, I Ootyt-iit'iH’d'.) A fortnight or so had gone by wnen Church ‘l ykely awoke one morning to an eleotrio shock ; Nash t aromel and Charlotte had gone and got married. They did it without the consent of (as the squire had put it) pastors and masters. Nash had none to consult, for he could not bo expected to, yield obedience to Ids brother; and Charlotte had asked Mrs Tinkle, gnd Mrs Tinkle had refused to c iunttauuce the ceremony, though she did i ob actually walk into the plnvcu to forbid it. Taking a three weeks’ trip by way of honeymoon, the 1 ride an I bridegroom came back to Church Oykely. < aromel’s Farm refused to take them in ; and Miles Calomel, indignant to a d( gree, told his brother that * as he had made his bed. so must he lie upon it,’ which is a ver y convenient reproach, and often used ‘ Nash is worse than a child,’ grumbled Miles to tho squire, his tones harder than

usual, and his manner colder. *He has gone and married this young woman —who is not his equal—and now he has no home to give her. Did he suppose that we should receive him back here? —and her as well? He has acted like an idiot,’

‘Mrs Tinkle will not have anything to do with them,’ returned the patar ; ‘ and Tinkle, of hikherrow, is furious.’ ‘ Tinkle of Inkherrow’s no fool. Being a man of substance, ho thinks they may be falling ba k upon him ’ Which was the precise fear that lay upon Miles himself. Veanwhile Nash engaged sumptuous lodgings (if such a word could he justly applied to any rooms at Ohurch Dykely, and drove his wife out daily in the quy g'g Haat was always looked upon as bis at CaromeTs farm.

Nash was flush of money now, for he had saved some ; but he could not go on living upon it for ever. After sundry interviews with his brother, Miles agreed to hand him over a thousand pounds : not at all too large a sum, considering that Nash had given him his services, such as they were, for a number of years far just his keep as a gentleman and a bonus for pocket money. A thousand pounds would not go far with such a farm as A ask had been used to and would like to take, and he resolved to emigrate to America.

Mrs Tinkle (the Squire called her simple at times) was nearly wild when she heard of it. It brought her out of her temper with a leap. Condoning the rebellious marriage, she went off to remonstrate with Nash.

‘ But now, why need you put yourself into this unhappy state?’ asked Nash, when he had heard what she had to say. ‘Dear Mrs Tinkle, do admit some common sense into your mind. lam not taking Charlotte to the “other end of the world,” as you put it, but to Ameifica. It is only a f< w days’ passage. Outlandish foreigners ! '-ot a bit of it. The people there are, so to speak, our own countrymen. Their language is ours ; their laws are, 1 believe, much as unrs are.’

‘ You may as well be millions of miles away, practically speaking,’ bewailed Mrs Tinkle. * Charlotte will be as muc* lost to me there as she would be at the North Pole. She is my only daughter, Nash Caromel, and has never been away from me ; to part with her will be like parting with life.’ ‘lam very sorry,’ said poor Nash, who was like a woman when any appeal was made to his feelings. ‘ Live with you ? No, that would not do ; but, thank you all the same for offering it. Nothing would induce me to spunge upon you in that way ; and were I capable of it, your son Henry would speedily turn us out when he returned. I must get a home of my own, for Charlotte’s sake as well as for mine ; and I know I can do that in America. Land, there, may be had for an old song ; fortunes are made in no time. The probability is that before half-a-dozm years have gone over our heads, I shall bring you Charlotte home a rich woman, and we shall settle down here for life ’

There’s no space to pursue the arguments —which lasted for a week or two. But they brought forth no result. Nash might have turned a post sooner than the opinions of Mrs Tinkle, and she might as well have tried to turn the sun as to stop his emigrating. The parish looked upon it as not at all a bad scheme. Nash might get on well over there if he would put off bis besetting sin, easy indolence, and not allow the Yankees to take him in. So Nash Caromel and Charlotte his wife set sail for New York ; Mrs Tinkle bitterly resenting the step, and wholly refusing to he reconciled.

About five years went by. Henry Tinkle’s wife had died, leaving him a little girl, and he was back with the child at his mother’s : but that has nothing to do with us. A letter came from the travellers now and then, but not often, during the first three years, Nash wrote to Caromel’s Farm ; Charlotte to the parson's wife, Airs Holland, with whom she had been very friendly. But none of the letters gave much information as to personal matters; they were chiefly tilled with descriptions of the new country, its modes and customs, and especially its mosquitoes, which at first nearly drove Mrs Nash Caromel mad. It was gathered that Nash did not prosper. They seemed to move ab ut much from place to place, making New York a kind of standing point, to return to occasionally. For the past two years no letters at all had come, and it was questioned whether poor Nash and his wife had not dropped out of the world.

In the midst of this uncertainty, Oaromel, who had been seriously ailing for some mouths, died. And to Nash, if he were still in existence, lapsed the Caroinei property. Old Air Oaromel’s will had been a curious one. He bequeathed < 'aromel Farm, with all its belongings, the live-stock, the standing ricks, the crops, the furniture, and all else that might be in or upon it, to his son Miles, aud to Miles’s eldest son after him. If Aides left no son, then it was to go to Nash (with all that might then be upon it, just as before), and so on to Nash’s son. But if neither of them had a son, and Nash died during Miles’s lifetime—in short, if there was no male inheritor living, then Miles could dispose of the property as he pleased. As could Nash under similar circumstances.

The result of this odd will was, that Nash, if alive, came iuto the farm aud to all that was upon it. If Nash had, or should have, a son, it must descend to that son; if he had not, the property was his absolutely. But it was not known whether Nash was alive; and in the uncertainty Miles made a will conditionally, bequeathing it to his wife and daughters. it was said that the pos sessiug no aon had bug been a standing in the shoes of Miles Caromel ; that he had prayed for one, summer aud winter.

But now, who was to find Nash? How could the executors let him know of his good luck? The squire, who was one of them, talked of nothing else. A letter was despatched to Nadi’s agents in New York, Abraham B. Whitter and Co., aud no more could be done.

in a shorter time than you would have supposed possible, Nash arrived. He chanced to be at tljesie same agents’ house when the letter got there, and came off at full speed, flp the will made by Miles went for nothing. Nash was a good bit altered - looked thinner aud older : but he was evidently just as easy and persuadable as ho used to be: people often wondered whether Nash had ever said No in his whole life. Ho did not tell us much about himself, only that he had roamed over the world, hither and thither, from country to country, aud had been lately for sou\o time in California. Charlotte wan at San Francisco. When Nash toqjr chip from thence to New York, she was not well enough to undertake the voyage, and had to stay behind. Mrs Tinkle, who had bad rime, and to spare, to got over her auger, went into a line way at this last item of news ; and she caught up the notion that charlotte was dead. For which she had no grounds. Charlotte had no children ; had not had any j consequently, there was every probability that Caramel's Farm wou'd be Nash’s absolutely, to will away as he should please. He found Mrs Caromel (his brothei’s widow) ami her daughters in it : they had not bestirred themselves to look out for another residunc’. Being very well oiV, Mrs Caromel having had several substantial windfalls in the shape of legaeug; from rich uncles aud am its, they professed to be glad that Nash should have the property—whatever they

Slight have privately felt. Nash, out of a good-uaum'd wish not to disturb them too aeon, bade them ch ose their own time for moving, and took up his abode at JN'ave, the lawyer's. There are lawyers »nd lawyers. lam a great deal older now than I was when these events were enacted, and have gained my share of worldly wisdom ; and I, Johnny Ludlow, say that there are good and honest lawyers in the wodd as well as bad and dishonest. My experience has lain more amidst the former class than the latter. Though 1 have, to my cost, been brought into contact with one or two baa ones iu my time ; fearful rogues.

One of these was Andrew Nave, recently of Church Dykely. His name might have had a “ K” prefixed, and been all the better for it. Of fair show outside, indeed rather a good-looking man, he was not fair within. He managed to hold his >. wn in the parish estimation, as a rule; it was only when some crafty deed or other struggled to the surface that people would say, ‘What a sharper that man is !’ The family lawyer of the Caromels, Crow, of Evesham, chanced to he ill at this time, and away for change of air, and Nave rushed up to greet Nash on his return, and to offer his services. And the fellow was so warm and hearty, so fair-speaking, so much the gentleman, that easy Nash, who knew nothing of the man, bad or good, clasped the hand held out to him, and premised Knave his patronage forthwith If I’ve ma te a mistake in spelling the name, it can go. To begin with, Nave took him home. He lived a door or two past Duffham’s : a nice house, well kept up in paint. Some five years before, the sleepy old lawyer, Wilkinson, died in that house, and Nave came down from London and took to the concern. Nave thought that he was doing a first-rate stoke of business by securing Nash Caromel as an inmate, the solicitorship to the Caromel property being worth trying for ; though he might not have been so eager to admit Nash, had he foreseen all that was to come of it. Not caring to trouble Mrs Caromel with his company, Nash accepted Nave’s hospitality ; but, liking to be independent, he insisted upon paying for it, and mentioned a handsome weekly sum. Nave made a show of resistance which was all put on, for he was as fond of shillings as he was of pounds and then gave in. So Nash, feeling free, stayed on at his ease. When Nave had first come to settle at Church Dykely with his daughter Charlotte, he was taken for a widower. It turned out, however, that there was a Mrs Nave living somewhere with the rest of the children, she and her husband having agreed to what was called an amicable separation, for their tempers did not agree. This eldest daughter, Charlotte, a gay, dashing girl of two-and-twenty then, was the only creature in the world, it was said, for whom Nave cared. Mrs ‘ aromel did not appear to find readily a place to her likiug. People are particular when about to purchase a residence. She made repeated apologies to Nash for keeping him out of his home, but he assured her that he was in no hurry to leave his present quarters. And that was true. For Charlotte Nave was casting her glamour over him. She liked to cast that over men ; and tales had gone about respecting her. Nothing very tangible; and perhaps they would not have held water. She was a little, fair, dashing woman, swaying about her flounces as she walked, with a great heap of beautiful hair, bright, as gold. Her blue eyes had a way of looking into yours rather too freely, and her voice was soft as a summer’s wind. A dangerous companion. Well, they fell in love with one another, as was said ; she and Nash. Nash forgot his wife, and she her old lovers. Being now on the road to her twenty-eighth year, she had bad her share of them. Once she had been abs. ut for two weeks, and Church Dykely somehow got up the idea that she and one of her lovers (a young gentleman who war- .or hug law with Nave) were taking a fraternal tour together as far as Loudon to see the lioas. But it turned out to be a mistake, and nobody laughed at the notion more than Charlotte. She wished she had been on a tour —and seeing lions, she said, instead of moping away the whole two we -ks at her aunt’s, and had a perpetual asthma, and lived in a damp old house at Chelsea. {To he continued.)