LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1351, 13 June 1878, Page 3

LITERATURE.

HUSHED UP. [“ London Society.”] (Continued.) Feb. 28. Things are getting decidedly ‘ odd ’ again. I asked Me ' onnell if he knew any place called Caulderwolde. He did not; but Emma, who was writing some letters at the time, canght the sound and answered me. From what she said, it seems that a distant relative of ours, Sir Jasper Baldwyn, has a grand house of that name in Kent; that his elder son has deeply offended him by a low mar iage, and that the second, who is in (he army, has been sent for to be made the heir. If this be the Captain Baldwyn whom I met at Barbadocs, he has a beautiful young wife and two fine boys already. Strange that neither of us should have known of the relationship ! I suppose he was too proud to acknowledge a trader ‘or his cousin. If it were not for him I might possibly inherit Caulderwolde. I wonder if his name is Edward Fletcher? Edward FletcherBaldwyn of Caulderwold I It sounds well. I think I should make a good county gentleman. Caulderwolde ought to a fine place. Stop! If I were Fletcher-Baldwyn of Caulderwolde I should have only about five years to live, according to the dream. lam to die on the 31st of December, 1870, aged thirty four. Odd that whatever is answerable for that vision should have fixed upon the 31st of December—the day before my birthday, the last day of my thirty-fourth year that is to be—as the date of my death! Suppose people held their lives for a fixed term as they hold their houses, what would become of us ? I think we should go mad. The idea of counting the years and the mouths and the hours and the moments at the last ! Ugh, it makes my blood run cold !

Sept. 16. Jast returned from a visit to ray cousin Sir Jasper. Caulderwolde is a line place. Emma and I are to spend Christmas there, when Captain Baldwyu and his family come home. Sir Jasper has taken quite a fancy to us. Cood old fellow !he is so proud of his race, and so pleased to have them about him, it is a thousand pities that that fool of an elder son has disgraced it. 'I he idea of losing 'kmlderwolde for a painted vixen out of a music-hall ! I would give up— Why can I not shake off the recollection of that idiotic dream which buries me in the middle of a gentleman’s dining room ? Can anything be more absurd ? It has come back to me, I suppose, because the way to Caulderwolde over Easterham Chart is something like the road in dreamland on which I met McDonnell’s double. By the bye, that person does not improve upon acquaintance. He is cold and hard, and 1 don’t think he is sincere. I wonder at Emma’s love for such a fellow. I’m sure ha is unscrupulous and vindictive.

Dec 20 (at Caulderwolde). I can scarcely write for excitement. My God, how horribly strange all this is. We were invited here to rejoice with Sir Jasper over the return of tire Baldwyns, and we have come to break to him the news of their loss. All of them—husband, wife, children—at one blow 1 Forty souls, including thirteen saloon passengers, were saved from the sinking ship ; why should they—why should all of them—have perished ? And that hateful McDonnell, who brought the news, said this morning as we were starting, *lf you play your cards well, you will have—Caulderwold.’ It is very probab’e now that I shall; but why must this cold-blooded ruffian say so ? What business is it of bis ? I suppose he thinks I shall settle something handsome on Ehuuj. He is mistaken. I’ve already told her I don’t approve of the man. Why my poor father sanctioned their engagement is a mystery to me. I can’t forbid her marrying him, but they’ll get no help from me- Caulderwolde or no Caulderwolde -or from Sir Jasper either, if I have any influence over him.

Jan. 13, 1566. It is all very fine for Sir Jasper to say that he does not like his nearest male relative (he ignores the existence of his son) to be connected with trade but I’m not going to fall between two stools. He may live another twenty years ; may marry, and have other children. I’m not going to sell the business at a loss on the chance of his making me heie. He ought to state distinctly wbai his intentions are. I will tell him to-morrow that I cannot afford to stay any longer away from my trade. That will make him speak out. Nov. 30. Just returned from the funeral and reading of the will which makes me master of ( aulderwolde. It is extraordinary how true my instincts are. 1 felt that McDonnell was a viper, and now I know he is. He may deny it all day, hut I am convinced it is his work ; for T often told poor old Sir Jasper that i had an objection to change my came. Fletcher is just as good a name as Baldwyn. I was a fool to let him (McDonnell, I mean) be employed at all in drawing the will. I might have been sure he would make some mischief. I don’t care so much about the reversion of the Caulderwolde estate going to my sister and her children in case I die without issue, because thgt is so very remote. I shall marry now, of course. But what I hate is to be obliged to take another name. Ifc seems as though I were fulfilling that idiotic dream just as I had begun la forget all about it. Never mind. The thing has to be taken altogether, of course. I am (or soon shall t'e) Edward Fletclier-Baldwyn of Caulderwolde in the regular and natural course of events ; but this is no reason why I should die on the 31st of December, 1870, and be buried in the middle of a Turkey carpet. March 1, 1867 (at Geneva) Wrote to Emma, declining to stand godfa'hor to her boy. She chose between me. and that creature McDonnell, and must acids by her choice. Wrote also to '■'pinks, saying I shall not return to Caulderwolde this year. Before the place, was mine I thought it beautiful; r,ud the moment I got I hated it. Thoge roads over the Chart are so dreary. Received a letter from the Hatberus. They will be- here ou Friday. 1 wonder if Sibyl Hat hem really cares anything for that puppy Calverly. June 23. Answer to the conundrum propounded in my journal of March Ist—sJ e doesn't. She cares for me for me, a* I stand in ten pounds’-worth of clothes, n< t knowing that i am a man of fortune Shall I play the Lord of Burleigh, and take her thud class to my ‘ castle ’ in a cotton gown ? I am afraid that the prosaic custom of set'lcraents has put th-se romantic surprises out of date. I shall have t > talk settlements with old Hathern to-morrow. A foolish letter from Spinks, saying that Dr. Massinger’s house has been burned down to the ground. I have not the b ast rec ’llection of the doctor, or his house cither. It is not ou

my land ; so why should Spinks bother me about it ? I believe he writes for the pleasure of writing. June 30. By the merest chance I find that these Hatherns—all of them, Sibyl included —have made a dead set at me, well knowing who I am and what I am worth. Sibyl let It out quite by accident. When she was a little girl she used to visit near Caulderwolde, and she knows the country roads better than I do. And I thought her the most true and simple-heared of women 1 Mercenary little witch 1 Bah, they are all alike ! Spinks wvnta me to take shares in a new buryingground they are going to make, as the old churchyard is to be condemned. If I put three hundred pounds in the Caulderwolde Necropolis Company, I can have an ‘allot ment,’ as well as a dividend out of other people’s graves, for my money. Not a very cheerful investment, but I suppose I ought to make it.

July 2. I have been trying to harden my heart against Sibyl, but I cannot. Besides, her excuses are difficult to answer. I had told her that I hated Caulderwolde ; so why, she a°ks, should she have sp'ken of it, and so raised a disagreeable subject ? She was so indignant, and looked so handsome when I taxed her with insincerity, that I half repented what I had done before she answered. "What a fool a man in love can be made ! I went into the room resolved to break off the engagement, and I begged her pardon on my knees before I left it! I shad always think that the old people ‘ ran cunning but I’m not going to marry them. Aug. 26, 1868. I wonder why I ever took a dislike to Caulderwolde ? Sibyl says we once had a quarrel over it. I suppose I must have had some cause—good, bad, or indifferent. It could not have been a very strong one, though. I wish I could find my my diary for 1867 ; I should then be able to recall what was passing in my mind at the time. All I can now remember is that the place seemed very gloomy after old Sir Jasper’s death, and that I went abroad for a month, and stayed away two years. Caulderwolde, thanks to Sibyl’s care and management, is a very different place from what it was before our marriage ; and then the baby—l beg his pardon, the heir I What a change the advent of that morsel of humanity has wrought! I must hunt up my old diaries, and take a look back into my old life, if only to measure by contract how happy I am, and how thankful I should be. Mem. To see Spinks about those cottages at Fenny Lornden. They are in a horrid state. Do low places make dirty people ?or would low people turn any place into a pesthole ? I shall try to decide this point by pilling down those cottages, building others on the hill-side, and giving the people a chance of living decently. Mem. No. 2. That Sibyl is not to go amongst them till the change is made. Aug. 28. My warning came too late ; my good intentions were too long deferred. O 1 ! to think that it is all my own fault I To think that the punishment for my criminal carelessness about the poor folk committed to my charge has fallen on my innocent wife and child ! It is horribly unjust. Why should I escape—l, who am responsible for the outbreak of this fever, if any one is —and my poor tender Sibyl be stricken ? Why should the pest she brought home from her mission of love have passed on to the boy, and not to me ? There can be no Providence if such things may be. All is chance!

Cct. 1. May Heaven forgive me for what ( wrote on the 28th Sibyl is better. In my agony, before the change came, I repeated that blasphemy. It was wrung fr m me, and she—well, she is an angel. 1 asked her to pray for me : she said, “Let us pray together.” I knelt down with her dear weak burning hands between my own, and our prayers have been answered. Is this chance ? (To he continued.)