LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1438, 25 September 1878, Page 3

LITERATURE.

MY THRII.y WEEKS’ HOLIDAY, AND WHAT CAM L OF IT. “ London Society.” {Concluded.) Cjiaitkk I V. M KA" CAli\ij Oy X). Christ:..as h:,d ‘com,'o and gone. | had pac'- . d it At my own home, where I had been made much of, and potx d by my mother and sisters, two of whom were to make a couple of former curates the happiest of men in a few months’ time. My travels added largely tft my importance among the simply cf/unhy folk, and I am afraid, 1 &W at timer on my imagination in dftVey to increase the ’vendors of them ; but never did I allow vaySeli to allude in any way to my one ’adventure, which had produced such golden results to me Not knowing quite what to do with my hundred pounds, I resolved to place it in a bank, and to devote some part of it to the purchase of wadding! gifts for ray sisters ’vlmn tuo time ‘for the double marriage arrived. ■ 1 b ur some time past I had nccu less of Jack than formerly, and 1 noticed that ip scorn? d (

altered, certainly more steady, and working, as he himself expressed It, ‘like a nigger.’ My uncle had been able to give him several briefs, and I knew he had acquitted himself well, and given satisfaction to the clients ; so I hoped that times were looking up for my friend. After my return at Christmas a sudden press of business kept me very close to the office ; but I had sent .Tack word of my return, and wondered greatly not to have seen his merry face and heard his hearty ‘Well, old fellow !’ long before ; for now we had reached the middle of February. One day, therefore, when my uncle suggested that it would be beneficial for me to take a good long walk before going homo to dinner, I determined that my first proceeding should be to hunt up Jack, and if possible to carry him home to my uucle’s to dinner ; for the old gentleman was hospitably disposed, and had moreover a bin of tawny port, which always made Jack’s eyes sparkle and his tongue go quicker. On reaching Jack’s chambers, I found, early as it was, that both ho and his young clerk had left for the night; so I haa nothing for it but to write an urgent entreaty to know what had become of him on a card, and push it under the door, and set off for my constitutional by myself. I decided on making for the Regent’s Park, and was soon mingling in the throng of nursemaids and children of all sorts and of various degrees of cleanliness, who habitually frequent the ‘ Broad Walk ’ on a line bright afternoon. On reaching the entrance to the / )ological Gardens, I found on looking at my watch that I should barely have time to reacli Kitz-square by my uncle’s dinnerhour, which was as unchangeable as the laws of the Medcs and Persians. I turned, therefore, and was hurrying along at full speed, when I caught sight of my friend Jack coming towards mo, but looking so thin and ill that I hardly knew him for my cheery bright-faced chum. At first, to my great surprise, he scorned half disposed to avoid me ; but I could not bear that, and darting up to him laid my hand on his shoulder before he had time to decide what to do. ‘Good heavens!’ I exclaimed, ‘where have you been, and what have you been doing, to make such a scarecrow of yourself ? Why, I declare, you are losing all your good looks.’ ‘ Short commons, my dear boy,’ he said. ‘ I never was good at living on nothing a day, and that is what I am nearly come to now.’

Utterly astonished and perplexed, I linked my arm in his. and, entirely forgetting time and dinner, I began walking with him in the direction he was going. Well, thought I, here will be an opportunity for using some of my little store ; and surely Jack had more claim oa it than anyone, since but for him it would never have come into my possession. However, I only said, as cheerfully as I could, ‘ ('ome, old fellow, make a clean breast of it; let there be no secrets between us.’ ‘ Ah, I know, dear Tom, you have always told me everything ’ (have I?) ; ‘but, you see, this did not concern myself alone. However, things have now reached such a crisis that I can struggle no longer independently ; and I was only to-day thinking or applying to your uncle for any copying cr clerk’s work he could give me. ’ ‘But, Jack,’ exclaimed I, ‘you amaze me; I do not understand it at a'l. You are a rising young barrister, are you not ?’ ‘Possibly I may b*,’ replied he; ‘ but that does not prevent my being often a very hungry young barrister.’ The sickly smile and mournful attempt at his old cheerfulness with which he uttered these words cut me to the heart, and I was silent for a moment, really not knowing what reply to make, or how to offer him aid in circumstances I could not comprehend. ‘ Well, Tom, dear old fellow, I will tell you everything,’ said he ; ‘but bear in mind one thing, that wha‘ever comes of it, I can never regret the step I have taken. lam living close by ; come home with me, if you can.’

I had visions of my uncle standing on the hearthrug warming his coat-tails in true British fashion, watching the door anxiously for my appearance, lest the fish should be boiled to rags. But to leave Jack was not to be thought of; so I agreed to his proposal, and walked off with him in the direction of Primrose Hill. Passing a little to the right of it, we came to a terrace of small mean-looking houses, which needed not the cards in the window to snow they were let in lodgings, and, to judge by the number of vacancies, ‘ Hill-terrace’ was not afavorite locality. Stopping at one of the cleanestIcoking houses, Jack took out a key and opened a door. We found ourselves in a passage, in which two people could by no possibility have walked abreast. Opening a door on the right we entered a small neatlooking room. Some flowers in the window, a bright fire, and a work-basket on a small table gave it 1 a habitable and comf stable appearance. The cloth was laid for dinner, but evidently with very meagre preparations. More and more I wondered, when Jack, knocking at a door opening into an inner room, said, ‘Come, ,my love, and be introduced to an old friend,’

The door opened, and out walked the identical young lady whom we had met at the table d’ hute, abroad. My surprise and bewilderment even made Jack forget his troubles and burst into a hearty laugh, ‘ Allow me/ he said, ‘to introduce you to my wife ; I think you have met before.’ I stammered out my congratulations awkwardly enough, and then, dropping into a chair, had leisure to notice wnat time had done for my fair friend. She looked older in years, but decidedly happier ; the weary depressed expression had almost gone, and she looked more like a person who had been through a great trial than one who was at present suffering. A bright smile lit up her pretty features as, turning to me with winning grace, she expressed her pleasure at seeing me. Jack was evidently proud of her beauty, and anxiously watched the impression it made upon me. ‘I hope, Letty,’ ho said, ‘ wo oan stretch our dinner into enough for three, for I am afraid I have been the means of bringing my friend away from his.’ ‘<V I exclaimed, ‘don’t think of me ; I really did not come with any intention—’ ‘Now shut up, old fellow.’ cried Jack, ‘ Letty will see to it; we have not yet arrived at starvation point, t hough how soon it may come IJertven only knows. ’ A very simple repast was soon on tho table, and when finished we drew our chairs to the lire, and Jack fulfilled his promise of telling me the circumstances that had led him into his present position. It appeared that atter his return to London he one day encountered the young lady and her father in Eegent street. As all his efforts to trace them before had been fruitless, he was determined not to lose sight of them again; so he followed, them without being observed to tlijir '.edgings in a street leading from Sfirand, Through the medium oi the servant of tho home he con11rived to get a letter conveyed to the young lady, who iu reply told him she was in greater trouble than ever. Her father had come into possession of a large property by the death of his aunt; that ha upapried a woman of low births who mad? her home miserable. H.-r father treated her more unkindly than ever, and persecuted her to ; fv.hd her engagement to Count L, She had ’at'last consented, feeling that no life could bo worse than the one she was then leading and they had come to London to make the mesas ary preparations for the wedding. Jack was nearly beside hippgeif o._, heading the letter, and after g interviews prevailed oy 41 sr to consent to, a private marring a., aud toTk his bride home to a fireBide whitih had little but love to brighten it. ■Exasperated at the failure of his plans, her father refused to see them and even declined to continue the small allowance his daughter bad hitherto received for her own expenses. • But indeed,’ observed J,a v k, ‘if what we hear is correct, l;e wvl scoff be a beggar himself, with the' help of his friend Cebu it L ,' he id gambling away all * 0 ,me -‘ Fortunately the principal squander, though he can, T be t.-p it to any one he ( honaov .

I do AOi. ifA-Aw-- . » - ■>,’ said I.ctty, in a voice V J - _ u y B obc, ‘ that if my aunt had

had any idea of my father’s pursuit she would have left me without some provision; for there never lived a better and kinder creature than my aunt Fairclough.’ * Probably had she lived a single day after reaching England things might have been different/said Jack; ‘but she was seized with a 'second attack of paralysis, which carried her off within a few hours of her landing. Oddly enough, Tom, she was staying in the same hotel at 0. that we were, and her life was there despaired of/ Was I in a dream, or could it be possible ? The name had struck me as familiar, and what Jack now said convinced me that the heroine of my adventure and Lctty’s aunt were one and the same person, and if so what a change in the prospects of the young couple ! Jack must certainly have thought me a candidate for Bedlam ; for jumping up, 1 exclaimed, wringing his hand till he roared for mercy, * It’s all right, dear old chap ; I altered the will/

‘ You did what ?’ shouted he. * Tom, are you gone mad V

* Not quite, though very nearly so with joy. Now look here, don’t lose an hour, but put some things together, take the family lawyer, and go at once to the English Consul at 0., and desire him to deliver up the paper which was left in his hands in September last; and if you do not come back a richer and a happier man I’ll give you leave to call me a Dutchman, or anything else equally complimentary.’ Hurrying away, I declined any more explanation, hut agreed to meet him in three days’ time at his office. I did so, and found there had been no difficulty made about giving up the document to the solicitor ; and its instructions were then being acted upon. The purport of the deed was to state the testator had only just been made aware that her nephew and heir, to whom she had left her property, was passing his time and making a precarious living at gambling-rooms; she, therefore, entirely revoked her former will, and constituted Letitia Fairclough her sole heiress, with the single provision that she did not marry a foreigner ; in that case it was to revert to a distant connection. Little did I think when writing thoso stiff legal words, that they would so greatly affect the happiness of my dearest friend. 1 had never by any chance heard Jack mention the name of the fair lady in whom he took so much interest, so remained in total ignorance of the connection.

Mr Fairclough at first threatened to dispute the fresh will; but as Jack behaved very liberally to him, and he became convinced that the case was too strongly got up against him, he determined not to contest it, and retired to the Continent, where I have no doubt he is still to be found frequenting the card and billiard tables by any one who may be inclined to seek him.

The fortune came to Jack just when he was in a position to turn it to good account; he had plenty of talent, and only required a start. A few years saw him in a fair way to become one of our leading barristers, with a first-rate connection His charming wife is now the happy mother of several very lively children, the eldest of whom (my godson), I regret to say, follows his father’s disrespectful example, and salutes me with a ‘ Well, old fellow !’ when I go down to pay my usual Sunday visit at their pretty villa on the banks of the Thames. Still, in spite of his want of reverence, I have inV3sted in his name the hundred pounds which was the only secret I had ever kept from my friend Jack. Though a constant witness of the happiness of their household, I have as yet not found any temptation strong enough to induce me to form one for myself ; but some day, when the old house at Fitz square grows too lonely (for I am now its sole occupant), and when I can find some one as charming as my friend’s wife, I may be open to conviction ; and I have determined that at least part of our honeymoon shall be passed in the place where the little adventure which I have related occurred, and which had so happy an effect on us both.