LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1287, 4 May 1878, Page 3

LITERATURE.

CHILDREN OBJECTED TO. Tinsley. (Concluded .) ‘ Stay, Miss Hunter. You are quite right, I wonder how I could have been so utterly oblivious of the circumstance. Yes, of course, I remember, though I do not call it an engagement exactly. It is simply an agreement which is not yet signed. Oh, yes, I know Miss Wolfe, and I hope to know her better soon.’ ‘ Brute, unmannerly brute !’ thought Emily indignantly, an angry flush mantling her cheeks, ‘ Poor darling, foolish Elisa, to allow her little head to be turned by an unfeeling wretch like him, who pretends to forget all about her, even to her very name, and calls his engagement to her an unsigned agreement. Why, I declare he is actually casting sheep’s eyes at me ! The wretch ! How dare he ? He has remakably fine soft eyes, though.’ The fact was, the little flush of angry indignation gave such additional irresistible charm to the pretty face that poor Austin could not help looking at her with undisguised admiration.

‘ Well, sir,’ Miss Hunter said at last, ‘ it is fortunate that you actually condescend to remember my friend’s name ; and I suppose you are in the habit in this highly civilised country’—with a sneer—‘ to qualify engagements, such as that existing between you and Elisa Wolfe, as “ unsigned agreements,” only you must indeed permit me to observe that I do not admire the delicacy of the expression.’

‘ My dear Miss Hunter’ —began Austin, slightly bewildered. ‘ I will thank you, Mr Smith’ replied the young lady, highly offended, —‘ I will thank you for keeping within the strict bounds of rigorous politeness when you are addressing me. I have yet to learn by what right you can possibly presume to “dear ” me in any way, although I am Miss Wolfe’s friend.’ ‘ How very handsome he looks,’ she added mentally, ‘ and how crestfallen, poor fellow ! I am almost sorry I have been rude to him.’ ‘Well, Miss Hunter, well, madom, I am truly sorry ; I humbly crave your forgiveness for a slip of the tongue which —’ ‘ Which you could not help, I know,’ the young lady interrupted, with her natural quickness. ‘ You are forgiven, sir. Considering the relation in which you stand to my darling Elisa, you may certainly believe yourself a little privileged.’ ‘ What a queer girl! ’ mused Austin. ‘ So, because her frieud is going to rent a house of mine, she admits I may consider myself privileged to call her dear. She is charmingly original. 1 really must take my eyes off her; for her beauty grows up "in me more and more, the longer I gaze upon her bewitching face.’ ‘May I venture to ask, madam— ’ he continued aloud. ‘Yes, you may; and you may even venture to call me dear Miss Hunter, if it gives you pleasure—for Elisa’s sake, of course.’ ‘Well, then, my dear Miss Hunter’ (‘Sbe is a dear, and no mistake. What a lovable forehead !’), ‘ may I venture to ask you the nature of your communication on behalf and in the interest of your friend, as you so eloquently— ’ ‘ Do not poke fun at me, sir; none of your trying to be sarcastic, please, or I’ll soon manage to be even with you, I can tell you.’ ‘Goodness me, how Yaukeeish, to be sure 1’ thought Austin, ‘ What vulgarity of expression ! Poking fun at her—be even

with me ! Yet what a charm her sweet lips impart even to such vulgarity !’ ‘ Look here, Mr Smith ; it’s no use beating about the bush’ (‘ Worse and worse,’ thought Austin, ‘ yet better and better; for the more she goes on with this simple and most unconventional prattle of hers the more I grow to like her’); ‘the plain fact of the mat’er is that dear Elisa has been practising a little deception upon you, which, she is sadly afraid, poor child, you, with your stern morality’—with a sneer —‘may feel disposed to ta’ro amiss,’ (‘What on earth can she be driving at ?’ thought poor Austin, iu great perplexity, ‘What can that sneer about my stern morality mean in connection with the young woman who is going to rent my house?’) ‘You see, Mr (Smith, she is not poor, but in reality most wealthy. Now you have it Now the murder is out. She is worth half a million dollars Now what have you to say to it ?’—this half threateningly. ‘ My dear Miss Hunter, if you will permit me to call you so, for your friend’s sake, you know —of course, only for your friend’s sake —make your mind perfectly easy on that point. Why, I know she has got the mopusses !’ ‘ The mopusses 1 Really you must allow me to observe, Mr Smith, some of your expressions are what may be, called inexcusably slangy.’ ‘ Well, then, the cash, if you liko that better.’ ‘ And may I ask you, sir, how you have become acquainted with the fact ?’ * Oh, in the simplest possible way. I made inquiries at her banker’s.’ • Why, the little fool must have betray; _d herself I’ thought Miss Hunter, ‘ That is rather a cool statement,’ she added aloud, ‘ Pray, how did you think your»elf entitled to make such inquiries into the pecuniary affairs of the young lady ?’ ‘Why, my dear madam, it was sinply my duty, as a prudent man, to make inquiries ! I never enter into such engagements, as you are pleased to c ill them, without making quite sure first that the party is in a position to stump up when the time comes round.’ ‘ Sir !’ cried Miss Hunter, with real indignation now, ‘ this is truly atrocious ; your slangy languoge is just on a par with your mercenary sentiments. So, according to your own sentiment, it would appear that you are in the habit of entering into such engagements. Why, you must be a Utah Elder, young in years, old in iniquity! Pray, do the laws of this most civilised land,’ sneeringly, ‘ allow such abominations ? What a pity,’ she added mentally, ‘ such a truly handsome young man, with such splendid teeth and glorious 'eyes, to be so low-minded, mercenary, and deceitful? This will bo a sad blow to her, indeed !’ ‘My dear young lady, I must confess I cannot make out what you can possibly mean,’ replied Mr Smith, with much perplexed air, and with some little indignation ‘ What have the laws of the land to do with it ? Am I not the proprietor, and have I not a perfect right to do with my own as I like, and to take all due precautions against being taken in by designing parties ?’ ‘ Ugh, you bad man !’ shouted Miss Hunter, fairly roused now. 1 Call yourself proprietor—proprietor, indeed ! Why, sir, it is a civil contract between equals which, if the law of reason reigned in this world, should be revocable and recindable at any time whenever either of the contracting parties may have serious cause for complaint and disagreement.’ ‘ Well, so it is, my dear Miss Hunter —so it is revocable and rescin iable, only of course not at any time, but after the expiration of the stipulated term, with six months’ clear notice. As for serious cause for complaint and disagreement, I can assure you there will be none so far as I am concerned in the matter—so long, as the cash is duly forthcoming. The only thing I absolutely object to is children —I’ll have none of them. It is a weakness of mine, a ridiculous weakness perhaps, if you will ; but as a man of independent means I surely may be permitted to indulge in it; and those who wish to enter into such relations with me must make up their minds to submit to this whim of mine, however unreasonable it may seem to them.’ ‘Upon my word, Mr Smith,’ said Miss Hunter, literally aghast, speaking with stern severity, ‘ I marvel at your cool impudence ! Don’t interrupt me, you bad, bad man ! I am surprised, indignantly surprised 1 I never could have believed it possible that such things could be I I beg to tell you, in the plainest manner and most unvarnished terms, that I am determined to use every effort to prevent my unhappy friend’s contemplated marriage with you.’ ‘ Good Lord ! Miss Hunter, what can you possibly mean ? It never was my intention to marry Miss Wolfe. Why, I hardly know her sufficiently well for friendship as yet, let alone a warmer feeling. She is a niceish look'ng young woman enough ; and I shall be most happy to have her iu one of my houses, but as to marrying her —pooh ! Why, she is not half so beautiful as you, my dear Miss Hunter, and has not a tithe of your charm of manner and your witchery of expression.’ ‘ Monster!’ shouted Miss Huffier, with horror. ‘ This to my face 1 Do not dare to look at me in that impudent way ! Poor, poor Elisa I Innocent child, whom you have basely circumvented with your hollow professions of devored attachment and exalted morality, and whom you would heartlessly throw off for the first new face that happens to attract your vile fancy. Fy, sir, fy ! It is a pity so good-looking a casket should hide a toad instead of a jewel 1’ ‘ I am deeply sensible and grateful for the compliment to the poor casket, my dear Miss Hunter ; but I must protest against the toad. There never has been anything at all toadish in my conduct, especially towards the fair sex, except in so far that, as I candidly tell you, up to this very hour I never entertained the least notion of love or marriage. I give you my word of honour that I never, by word, look or gesture, professed devoted attachment to your friend, and never delivered a lecture on morality, exalted or otherwise, to any lady, young or old, handsome or the reverse. How your friend, Miss Wolfe, can possibly have sent you on your professed mission to me, is a hopelessly insoluble puzzle to me. I assure you all I know of the lady is that she came to me to take one of my furnished houses in Kensington, and paid me half a year’s rent in advance ; and 1 have sent her the agreement to sign. Truly and honestly that is all. As to intending to marry her —why, I’d much rather not! ’ Mr Austin Smith said this with such a serious air and in such a convincing manner, and looked so honest and straightforward, that Miss Hunter began to believe there must be, somehow or somewhere, a grievous blunder in the matter, some absurd mistake, although she was unable to understand where or how. So the two parties were looking at one another equally puzzled, when the door was suddenly thrown open, and Mr Augustus Smith rushed in, followed by Mr Vermont, with whom Miss Hunter had been acquainted for years, and who, as well as the young lady herself, felt greatly pleased at the unexpected meeting. When Augustus was just on the point of introducing lo Austin Mr Vermont, and explaining the object of his call, there was a knock at the door, and in walked a stately lady dressed in the height of fashion, accompanied by two sweet little boys. ‘ Pardon me, Mr Smith, for this intrusion,’ she said to Austin, ‘ I see Mr Vermont was here before me ; my impatience to know the result of his appeal to you on my behalf was so great, that I could not rest content to await his call at my place ; so I have ventured to come for the answer myself. I have set my heart upon the house, Mr Smith, and I trust, sir, you will not let these sweet darlings of mine stand in the way, but that you will for once drop that most obnoxious concluding clause in the agreement.’ ‘Ah, I see it all now,’cried Mies Hunter laughing. ‘Do, my dear Mr Smith,’ she added, with an irresistably bewitching smile —‘ do whatever my most esteemed friend, Mrs Wolfe, asks you-or I will never speak to you again—never even look at you again. There now ! ’

‘ Oh, the lady is Mistress Wolfe then, not Miss Wolfe! X suppose there is a Miss

Wolfe in the case, though, another young lady. I see, your flame most likely, Augustus, whom this most charming enchantress wanted me to marry, whether I liked it or not, with half a million dollars for her fortune, which it would appear she somehow was afraid it would offend my, or rather your, stern morality, Augustus, that she had kept dark about,'

‘ She wanted to be loved for herself alone, poor child, which was the sole reason why she pretended to be a poor governess,’ said Miss Hunter pleadingly. Another knock at the door, and in walked Lady Barton and Miss Elisa Wolfe, who had called at No. 7, and had been sent on by the clerk to No. 17.

Elisa, still sorely troubled in her mind, in spite of her faith in Emily, had told all to the good city dame, who had at once decided upon this personal call. The dear girl was delighted to meet her stepmother and her old friend Vermont.

‘ My poor darling,’ said her lover to her, ‘so you were afraid I might look frowningly upon your most excusable little stratagem ? Make your mind easy, dearest; you are forgiven, most fully and freely. Indeed, your wealth cannot make you dearer to me ; but your sweet deception, which has enabled me to prove to you the deep sincerity of my affection, could only make me love you the more warmly—if that were possible. * Well, Mr Smith, what about your reply to Mrs Wolfe?’ said Miss Emily Hunter, with another of her bewitching smiles. ‘ You surely cannot mean to insist upon that most ridiculous condition of yours. I should just like to catch you at it. What, a handsome young fellow like you wanting to play the woman and child hater! For shame! ’ ‘ No, my dear Miss Emily— ’

‘ Miss Emily indeed ! Who gave you permission to “ dear” me by my Christian name, I should like to know, you creature ? ’ ‘ You did look permission, if you did not say it, my dear Miss Emily. Mrs Wolfe shall have her agreement on her own terms. lam thorougly beaten, I capitulate to you. You have begun my cure. Will you complete it ? Say, dearest Emily, will you ? ’ ‘Well, I declare, the creature’s impudence beats anything! ’ said Miss Emily, with a pretended severe frown. ‘ Here is a surprising case of love at first sight; and lam afraid,’ she added, with a comic expression and a rosy blush on her bewitching face—* I am afraid it is mutual.’

‘Hurrah!’ shouted Austin, and, utterly regardless of the presence of strangers, he drew his blushing struggling enslaver to his arms.

* Well,’ said Augustus, ‘ this is truly enchanting. Our friend Lady Barton is provided for; but here is Mrs Wolfe, a most charming widow, and my friend Mr Vermont, if he will allow me to call him my friend—’ Mr Vermont bowed.

‘ Here is Mr Vermont, I say, whom I know to be a very great and most sincere admirer of the lady. I think, after the tremendous conversion of my cousin Austin, one might almost be justified in hoping to see so good an example followed by others.’ ‘ Many a word spoken in jest, sir, cried Mr Vermont, has come true in the end. If Elisa would only have me— ’ he added hesitatingly, ‘ Why, you never asked me, my dear Mr Vermont,’ said the young widow, ‘ and leap year comes round only once every four years.’ ‘ You consent, then, dearest Elisa ? ’ cried Vermont joyfully. ‘You make me truly happy. I have loved you long, but I never could muster the courage to ask you.’ ‘ I say, Austin,’ cried Augustus, ‘ I trust you have dropped your objection to chil —’ Miss Emily’s little hand was placed firmly over his mouth.

‘None of your impudence, sir! ’ said the young lady. ‘ You talk to your sweetheart, will you, and leave me and Austin to settle our own affairs.’