LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1385, 24 July 1878, Page 3

LITERATURE.

IVY. [" Cassell's Family Magazine".] Chapteb I. A castle, and an ogre, and a princess—beautiful, of course—and a prince who loved her, and wanted her to be his wife ; and a good fairy who helped them, always taking their part against the ogre. Just like a fairy tale, but it is all true. Sometimes Ivy, as she paced the terrace alone, and thought of Chris, felt as if she had really got into a fairy tale. ' For lam imprisoned by my unkind grandfather, and I am sure Chris loves me as much as the princes always loved; only, where is the good fairy who, with a wave of her wand, will liberate me, and unite us, to live happy ever after ? ' ' Come in, darling,' said the fairy from the window ; ' it is too late for you to be out.' ' Oh, dear auntie, I am not cold, and I must stay out, for he said he might be able to come to-night, and the moonlight is so beautiful.' The next moment a little light shawl was flung out from the window, with a 'Naughty child! ' and then she put it on gracefully, and resumed her walk up and down. Presently a low whistle reached her listening ears. She called Boftly in answer, and then in a moment the prince was beside her, his arm round her, his lips on her cheek, his voice sounding, oh, how sweetly in her ear ! And she was happy. Stolen waters are sweet. The fairy was keeping watch, and the ogre safely out of the way, so there was no danger. And the moon shone down lovingly upon two of the happiest of mortals, smiling perhaps because the sight is not unusual to her. But all things have an end, and ere long the castle clock told ten, and like Cinderella, Ivy was flying away, her shawl falling from her shoulders. The prince caught her again to put it on, begged for one more kiss, and ajpromise to meet him again on the moonlit terrace, which she could not resist. It was an unfortunate delay; as she ran in at the castle door she met the irascible ogre, who in a fury demanded where she had been to, and why she waß so rosy and trembling. She clasped her hands and implored forgiveness, till the fairy, hearing the angry words, came out to shield her pet, and j oined her in begging the ogre's forgiveness. 'And ynu connive at it,' said he furiously, 'you ought to know better. lam ashamed of you.' So the Wry was in high disgrace too ; the princess was sent sobbing to bed, and her aunt's eyes were no drier than hers. But they each other upstairs. ' If I could onlv get away from this dreadful place!' sobbed Ivy. 'lt is just like a prison.' 'You shall, my pet,' said Aunt May. 'How, dear, good auntie—tell me how?'

But the fairy only nodded her head, and hade her sleep sweetly and dream of Chris, which she did. For Ivy was, after all, only like othor young ladies of seventeen, and though it might have heen very romantic to sit at her window and ga/.e with tear-rilled eyes at the monn, and sigh over her fate, it was more sensible to lie in her soft white bed, and shut her eyes, and forget all her woos in a sound healthy slumber, only waking when a housemaid bade her 'Get up, Miss Ivy; it's half-past seven,' CHAiTEn the Second. 'too young.' ' You have come to meet my grand daughter, sir, and you will do no nothing of the Cupid had (very mischievously) enticed the prince to the ternce against

his better judgment, in the hope of meeting his fair lady-love, and it was rather unpleasant to be greeted thus by her infuriated grandfather instead. And poor little Ivy, from her window, distractedly waved a pocket handkerchief to her banished and retreating lover as he passed beneath it, but in vain. The ogre's eye was upon him, and he dared not look up. Ivy consoled herself by writing a brokenhearted little n< te, which however, being intercepted by her grandfather, never reached bim.

In vain the moonbeams streamed upon the terrace night after night; the prince came no more, and the little maiden was condemned to her prison. In a strange and mysterous way (I fancy the fairy knew how;, sundry little notes got from one to the other, containing things almost as sweet as moonlight whisperings, and Ivy adopted a consolatory habit of sleeping with one under her pillow, which generally had the effect attributed to a piece of bride-cake in such a place. Now it fell on a day that grandpapa went on a journey, and left Aunt May and Ivy to amuse themselves as best they could without him, and the way they amused themselves was this. Aunt May's fingers and Ivy's became wonderfully busy over a dress of white and shiny appearance, and certain white llowers and a white veil; and there were many meetings with the prince, and thus passed some happy days—the happiest Ivy ever spent, I think. And one bright morning she and Aunt May got up early and went by train (taking with them a largo box) to a small and rather out-of the-way place, which you would not find on the map, where the prince met them, and begged them to be quick as it was nearly eleven They hurried to an inn near, and in a small poking room, without any mirror (alas, for her vanity !) Ivy rapidly attired herself in the white dress, and Aunt May threw over her the white veil, and then lifted it to kiss her and call her a beautiful darling. And Ivy cr!ed a little, and laughed a little, and said ' Could it be true ?' and then dried her eyes and said she was bo happy ; and then Aunt May cried a little too, and said it was true. And then they drove to a small church, not far off. At the door stood Chris, but with a countenance so dejected that Ivy's fell from sympathy. Beside him stood a tall, smiling man, in a white tie, and they both advanced and began speaking at once, so that it wa« difficult to hear what either said But what Chris said was that he had been a fool (which was perhaps true), and what the clergyman said was that he was very sorry, but such a very young couple had plenty of time before them. 'But what is the matter?' asked Aunt May, very much puzzled. Now the truth was that such things as licenses being necessary had never entered the h«ads of any of these young people (Aunt May, being very little older than either of them, was not much wiser), and the clergyman, although professing himself very willing, declared himself obliged to decline to perform the ceremony that day. adding, however, that at 'some future time,' &c, &c. Then, feeling very flat and very much disappointed, and Ivy in tears, they went back to the inn, where the unhappy little bride divested herself of her bridal garments, and then as fast as they could they went home— Ivy and Aunt May to the castle, and Chris to his own home. For a whole week after that, Ivy saw and heard nothing of him, and then she but I will tell you what she heard in another chapter. Chaptkr thk Third. " GOOD BVE." The following are two little notes she received successively : ' Darling Ivy,—lam distracted, my father is a tyrant; he says I have eaten the bread of idleness long enough under his roof, and he has decided to turm me out —Yours" (never mind what he signed himself), 'Chius.' Note number two. ' Darling Ivy, —I am nearly mad. I shall never see you again! But I must, I will. My father has taken a berth for me in the Medea, and I sail on Tuesday week for America.' Ivy got no further; her eyes swam with hot tears, and they were running down her cheeks when Aunt May took the letter from her. •Tuesday week I' said Ivy wildly. ' Auntie, I must see him ! Oh, he cannot go ; how cruel I Oh, if we had only been married I could go with him. 'The governor,' she read on—' he means his father'— ' has found out about you, and says he shall put a stop to it.' 1 How cruel; oh, how unkind!' wept Ivy. ' Aunt May, I can not bear it ? I must say goodbye.' ' You shall, my pet,' said Aunt May. • * * * * * A small room in the castle, the hour nine in the eveuiug, a stolen meeting between the poor broken-hearted children (for they were children then), the fairy keeping guard, and the ogre for once, for the lust time, eluded. ' Oh, I cannot let you go, Chris ; it will break my heart!' ' Ob, don't say that, Ivy; you will break mine!' ' I know you will marry someone else.' 'Never!' ' But you will love someone else ?' ' Never I' (still more emphatically). • But always be true to your little Ivy, and come back to her?' 'I swear it! And you—you will never marry anyone but me, Ivy ?' (rather imperatively). ' Chris !' (in a tone of pain). ' And Live no one else ?' • Oh, Chris ! how can you ?' ' But promise me ! Prombe !' ' I promise : I Chris, let me whisper it. it's such a naughty word—l swear 1' (this in a solemn whisper). ' Ah, my own darling, good little Ivy !' So they parted, and awav sailed the p-ince over the sea, leaving the princess weeping in the castle tower s away glided the ship tbat bore him into the distance, to the other shore; and there we must leave him, for we must return to Ivy—lvy, very dejected and melancholy, very sad, poor little thing, and yet very full of hope, and trust, and love. Many were the tears she wept, and the sighs she Bighed, for her beloved Chris so far away, yet there was the time to look forward to when he would sail back to her; and when she thought of that she felt brave and 6trong, and her heart beat high with happiness. And Aunt May, and even her grandfather (who really loved her), were always very kind and tender to their darling, and though' grandpapa' bade her 'forget Chris,' Aunt May did not, for she knew it was impossible. And thus the days went by, and the weeks and the months, and at last the years. And Ivy grew older, and I suppose wiser, and I am sure prettier; and she had many people to admire her ; and sometimes there were moonlight walks upon the terrace, and sometimes sentimental passages ; but never any sentiment on Ivy's part, for she kept her promise to Chris, and never loved any one else, and her heart was true to him from top to bottom. Aunt May had given her heart away too, in those years, and her hand, and she had some dear children of whom Ivy was very fond. And the ogre ? He had gone to his long home, and lay sleeping in the churchyard : and so the years went on. And when seven years had come and gone, the good news reached Ivy that Chris was coming home, and her heart bounded as she thought of the old promises they had made to each other, that now would be fulfilled; and she read over all his old loving letters, that were so liko his own loving sell', the letters she had received from him in the old happy days. They were all she had to live on for seven years, and she kissed a thousand times over the old faded photograph of his dear face. And in all the world no maiden's heart was fuller than Ivy's of bright sweet happiness and joyous hope. Then she heard that he was on England's shores once again, and from that moment she watched hourly from the window, as of old, her heart beating high, her cheek flushed with eagerness and joy—and at last he came. (To be continued.)