LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1450, 9 October 1878, Page 3

LITERATURE.

SACRIFICED TO AMBITION. By Stella [From “Tinsley’s Magazine.”] (Concluded) Whatever Celeste’s own private ideas on the subject might be, she, together with the two waiters, who had stood like statues with their napkins over their arms, left the room, the maid remarking to her admirer, Gustave, on the staircase outside, that she shouldn’t wonder if it had been that billet-doux that she had taken into the young lady’s room that morning that had caused her to be so ‘malade.’ ‘Ah, ces amours ! with a sly glance at Gustave as she hastily tripped away. But Celeste was mistaken in her conjectures for the billet, doux that she spoke of was neither more nor less than a note from an artist in England, who had been deeply impressed with Florence Beverley’s beauty, and had asked as a favour if she would oblige him with a sitting or two, as he •was engaged on a picture for the next season’s show, and hers was the kind of expression that he was at a loss to find elsewhere. As may be supposed, such a request, coming as it did from one of the first-rate portrait painters, tended to gratify the vanity of the ambitious Mrs Beverley who at heart gave her consent at once, but had raised many objections to her friends against such a proceeding These objections bad of course been overruled, and Florence had given the artist two seances at Myrtle Down prior to leaving home ; and now a formal note of thanks had been received, which note was the billet-doux of the romantic Celeste. But Florence Beverley did not get over the shock so well as she had anticipated. At night-time she was found to be delirious, and burned up with fever. A doctor was sent for, who pronounced it to be an attack of brain fever, brought on, he affirmed, by physical prostration, accelerated by over anxiety, and asked if anything had occurred of an unusually harrassing tendency. Mrs Beverley knew perfectly well that something had occurred, but in answer to the question muttered that the poor girl had never got over the loss of her dear father and sister. ‘ Ah, poor girl! she must have the greatest care and attention paid to her, and I will send on a nurse—an English nurse whom I have known some tune and can recommend,’ said the medical practitioner, who was himself Eng ish. * She seems to bear great enmity towards some one,’ he continued. ‘ Strange that delirium should alter one s nature so much; one couldn’t imagine a beautiful young girl like Miss Beverley in her right mind talking of such things as “fraudulent transactions, extensive robberies, transportation, revenge!” and other things altogether foreign to her nature and understanding ’ Mrs Beverley did not like the idea of the English nm’so at all, and meekly suggested to the doctor that she and she alone would wish to do all for her daughter ; to which he replied that, from present indications, it would really not be safe for the mother to be the only attendant on her daughter, who gave tokens of the m-’st severe form of brain fever. Consequently the nurse arrived the next morning, and went about her duties in an orderly professional style, saying little or nothing to anybody, but, like the parrot, thinking a great deal. This woman loved her native land, England, and seemed to look down upon all foreigners with a kind of contemptuous toleration. She was much sought after on account of her being an Englishwoman, and could afford to be coolly independent; but she did not, as many of her- class do, take upon herself airs and graces. No; o-dy silent indifference, but fulfilling her duties efficiently and well. Now this young person was quite an authority on the news of the world, for she had much time for gratifying her taste for reading when her patients were asleep ; therefore she kept a plentiful supply of books and papers at hand, to take up at any moment when she had a few minutes to herself—also to keep her senses awake, and prevent her falling into a doze, when occasion demanded. Putting two and two together, the sharp wits of the nurse soon unravelled the mystery of the young girl’s raving, for the woman was quite an fait with the trial that was then going on in her own country—-the trial of the three directors of the ‘ Nonpareil Mining Company.’ There was a species of sensationalism connected with the whole affair, that assumed great interest for the astute female, who had a touch of the detective in her character, and, had opportunity offered itself, would undoubtedly have become quite a star in that profession. The secret was quite cafe in her keeping, though, for she wa,s not in the habit of making friends with any of ‘ those French misses,’ ac she called them, and was a good woman at heart, who sent more than half her earnings homo to her aged mother, who lived in a small village in the South of England. After the great turning point, v;Wn there had seemed every like ihood oi Florence Beverley’s succumbing rather than rallying, much to every one’s surprise the young girl began to very rapidly, and in a few weeks abb' to sit up again for a short tinfw, lophipg like the ghost of her former qojf. Not a word had passed between mother and daughter respecting the Hon. Adolphus Wotherspoon, not a line had reached them from that gentleman, since Florence had written upon their arri'al in Paris. The future now appeared a blank to Mrs Beverley, whose schemes and plottings had landed her in this disagreeable strajt ; but her natural common sens© told her that she must not give up yet, and she determined, immediately her daughter’s strength was qusjiently K-oatubhshcd, to leave the gay

capital for a tour in Italy, where they would remain quietly until the dreadful denonevient of her intended son-in-law’s trial should have become a nine days’ wonder, and in time a thing of the past and forgotten. Florence Beverley’s appearance had changed and with it her whole nature; indeed, it almost seemed as if another being than herself had awakened to life after that long and fearful illness, for no longer was she the bril iant and witty girl of former days ; but though still retaining great beauty, she had become a calm matured woman, resigned and contented with her fate at last. A spirituelle light shone in her large dark eyes, and an expression of rest pervaded her whole countenance, rendering it at times almost saint like in its loveliness. All vanity and regard for self had vanished entirely, and her thoughts now seemed all for others and not for herself. Mrs Beverley had become almost afraid of her daughter in her new character, and dared not mention the past to her upon any consideration. There was that about Florence Beverley now that spoke of higher things and aapirations ; and the mother, in her ignorance, attributed it to a deficiency of intellect, resulting from the brain attack, and resolved to do her utmost to lead her child back to the ways and doings of the great world when it should be expedient for both ladies to venture once more into society. Chapter YIT. Four years and more had flown by, and a new set had sprung np, taking the places of those who were married or gone away from the West of England county, and following in the very same footsteps of the predecessors, each eagerly desirous of securing for herself the greatest prize in the lottery of life. But no one of them could be compared with the beautiful Florence Beverley, the acknowledged belle of some four or five seasons ago. Poor Florence! perhaps more sinned against than sinning, what avail all your charms and fascinations now? Where are those friends who were never happy but when in your presence. Where are they who have knelt at your feet like humble slaves, ready to do your bidding ; they who, only to pick np a fallen glove and present it to you, would have given much for such a chance? And he whom ycu turned from in the flush of your girlish pride when he dared to speak to you of love—where is he now ? And that other, to whom you were ready to sacrifice your youth and affections for the sake of bis wealth and name—where is he ? Ah, we can answer that last. He, the Hon. Adolphus Wotherspoon, is working amongst his fellow-convicts, only aspiring to one idea, that of getting a ticket of leave! Let us hope, poor fellow, he may do so, for he has been too tenderly reared for such hard work, and should it have to continue it might post ibly shorten his time for repentance Mrs Beverley and Florence had spent some months in private life in Italy, where the latter had made the acquaintance of several of the priests, who had wrung from her a full confession of her past life, and had eventually induced her to take the veil, and become a devotee to the Church, a thing that she grasped at as the last link that could bind her to life ; and, notwithstanding her mother’s earnest remonstrances, which Florence now regarded simply as worldly ignorance, she became a nun, and spent her remaining years within the cloister, without a sigh of regret for the days of her youth and admiration. Mrs Beverley, a thoroughly disappointed woman, defeated and checkmated in all her schemes, went about in search for what she never found, a happy and contented mind ; a 'd the last account of her was that she had met with an old lover of her girlhood, who, having married a woman much older than himself, an example that had been set him by the only girl he ever truly loved, Rosalind Harcourt, afterwards Mrs Montague Beverley, only that his bargain turned out Itona fide and hers did not, and having jnst closed his term of mourning for his deceased partner, offered his hand and heart once more to the love of his youth, who this time accepted, though perhaps more for the sake of the £6OOO per annum than for the gentleman himself. Even that fortune did not bring happiness with it, for within two years the happy man sued for a judicial separation, which was granted without hesitation, after the overwhelming and startling disclosures that were brought forward in evidence. Young Spanker remained a bachelor in spite of the attaoka that were ma'le upon him by the, young ladies; for Colonel Spanker as he had become, was now considered an extremely e'igible parti , inasmuch as he had come into possession of an extensive estate realising an enormous income. But he could not forget his first and only love, Florence Beverley, so gave up his life and fortune to doing good in the world in which ho lived; and right well did he accomplish it, and truly was his name beloved by the poor for his goodness and generosity. Fannie Claver ton’s marriage was announced in the “Morning Post” shortly after her friend Florence Beverley had renounced the world and its ways ; and from the rumors that spread abroad, her husband, who was the much-talked-of Captain Campbell, was well pleased with his choice of a wife. So the story ends—a story of ambition, and how it failed in the end.