LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1459, 19 October 1878, Page 3

LITERATURE.

VALENTINE’S VIGIL.

A Story or the Day and Night,

By W. W. XfuNN.

{Continued.')

Chapter II. — the night.

I do not attempt to describe the effect wh'ch the stratagem pract’scd on Nina by her cousins had upon that yovmg lady, nor do I protend to defend or condemn the plot. It may have been highly reprehensible, it may have been perfectly justifiable, I don’t offet an opinion, I am but the faithful chronicler of events, and proceed with 'there, record. Nina is the first in the breakfast room the following morning. A few letters arrive, but there is only one for her The address is evidently in a disguised hand, observing which fact, as she opens and reads the missive, she mutters,

‘ Jvidiculous attempt to deceive As I expected, his valentine ? How absurd he is ! \\ ill nothing make him serious ? Will he for ever be joking, even in the midst of the saddest events’ Ah, but 1 do him injustice; X forgot this was written and posted, according to what i overheard Fanny say, before he knew what had happened to Fmily. Yes, to be mi-e. But, then, there ought to be another letter from him ; he promised he

would write if he did not return last night. 0, this is too tiresome ! At least ho might have written to my aunt, or somebody,’ Here Mrs Davenell and the two girls came in, lamenting that the increased indisposition of Mr Davenell would prevent his going to the city to-day ; buttheir solicitude f >r their father did not prevent Fanny and Emily from exchanging glaueea ; for they had seen Nina hiding her letter as they entered. Mrs Davenell and her niece likewise cast meaning looks at each other, the latter shaking her head in response to the elevated eyebrows of the former, and the breakfast proceeded in a silence that was somewhat unusual. When the meal was over, aunt and niece seized an opportunity of withdrawing together. ‘ As he has not written, I feel sure he will be here before the morning is out,’ whispers Nina, directly they wore in the hall. ‘ I hop) so ; I will give him till twelve o’clock ; if he is not here by then, I must let Emily know the worst ; it is now half-past ten,’said Mrs Davenell, as the two passed into the drawing-room. They had scarcely been there a minute when the bell rang, and Mr Grey was announced and shown in.

A glance at his tired look and unchanged dress told them that he had been up all night. Heading their thoughts, he said abruptly, as he shook hands. ‘ Yrs. but I have just come straight from Mr Wynne ; I have seen him at last, and 1 have bad a rare night’s waiting and watching, I can assure you.’ Then, with a significant look at Nina, he added, 1 But 1 kept my vigil faithfully. I did not stop to see you, Mrs Davenell, last night, because I thought there was no time to be lost; but I daresay Mr Davenell told you that he confided to me many details of the case, and the letter he had received from Mr Wynn?. Well, armed with these, I went straight to his chambers ia Gray’s-inn-equare. His oak was sported, but I rang the bell, and the door was opened by the woman, the laundress, In charge. She said Mr Wynne would not be home till very late ; indeed ha might not return at all. She could not let me go into his room, because she did not know me. What could I do 1 I took counsel with myself. I had promised not to return here until I had seen him. There was nothing for it, then, it seemed to me, but to wait for him outside his chambers, on the staircase ; but then I did not even know him by sight. I coul 1 therefore only identify him by seeing him actually go up to his own door. ‘ I must not lose sight of that door,’ I said to myself, ‘ however long I wait.’ It was then barely eight o’clock, but I sat down on the stairs, where I could command a full view of his oak, and began my vigil; and I sat there till past twelve.’ ‘Oyou poor man,’ here exclaimed Nina, ‘how good of you! ’ ‘ Well,’ Grey went on, with a grateful look at the young lady, ‘ not a creature approached Mr Wyune’s chambers; mauy people went up and down to other floors, but none of them stopped on his. Now, 1 had ensconsed myself in the angle of the upper llight of stairs to get a little out of the draught —for the night was cold and windy—and where, like a true detective, I might avoid observation. When I heard the clock strike twelve, and there was no sign of him, I began to think that probably he would not come home. This did not seem unlikely, if he was keeping out of the way; still I could not desert my post; I dared not lose a chance of catching him, so I waited patiently on. At length, when everything had become perfectly quiet, and the traffic on the stairs had ceased, judge of my surprise at seeing the door of his chambers quietly opened and a man’s head appear. He had his hat on, and, after listening for a moment, he ca ne out

‘Oho! ’ thought I, ‘you have beeh at hon. o all the while, have you ? ’ and I was about to pounce down upon him from my corner, when, to my disgust, I saw ho was not alone; a woman, thickly veiled and muffled up, followed him out on to the lauding, and the two,, aftor shutting the door, descended the stairs softly, but quickly, together,

‘ Then it is all true !’ exclaimed Mrs Daveneil, with some agitation. Valentino raised his hand, and continued :

‘ 1 decided that this was not the moment to tax him with his perfidy, if he w»s really the man I was seeking, and I had fair reason to suppose that ha was, ao 1 waited till the two were clear of house before I followed; yet, you may. be sure, 1 was not going to lose sight of him now, though I did not mean that he should get any suspicion of being watched, As I emerged from the chambers into the square, I saw them crossing the further side of it, and making for the Holborn gate of the inn. When the porter let them out he looked ba;k, and seeing mo following, held the gate open for me also to pass, and thus I saw which way they turned. Going straight up Holboru, and continuing their way at a rapid pace through the silent streets, till they came to Tottenham Court road, they branched off into tho region of Fitzroy square, finally stopping at a dingy house in Howland street. Here the woman bade the man good-night, and with a latchkey let heyaclf in, whilst he, turning on his heel, bent his steps eastward again by the way he had come. As unobserved I had followed him out from, so I now followed him back to, Gray’s Inn. I let him re-enter the gate, and when it had closed upon him about two minutes, I rang the bell and went in also. Then Iso calculated my time as to overtake him on the lauding exactly at the moment when he was in the act of putting his key into the latch of his own door. He turned on hearing footsteps close behind him, and, wifhoqt hesitation, I said, ‘Mr Horace Wynne, I believe ?’ He looked surprised and a little startled, as he answered. ‘Yes, that is my name ?’ I continued ;

* I must apologise for presenting myself at this unseemly hour, but ray business is urgent. May I beg the favor of a few minutes’ conversat’ou V

With some perplexity he said : * Certainly ; hut what is yortr business ? This is hardly the time. What is your name, pray ?’ ‘You would nob know it,’ said I; ‘but I come frujn Holton gardens, from Mr Davenell’s. 1

‘O, indeed I I hope there is nothing amiss there ’’ he said.

‘ Well, yes,’ I went on, i ‘ there is a good deal amiss, and it b that which brines me here If you will let me walk into your rooms, it will explain.’ ‘ You will excuse me, "but how am I to make sure that what you say is true’’ he urged. 'This is hardly the time of night when one expects— ’ * No, very likely ; but see here, Mr Wynne, this is a letter,’ 1 went cn as I produced it, ‘ which Mr Davenell received from you this morning, ox rather yesterday morning, and it is up.n that subject that I come. 1 called here at eight o’clock this evening, and I was told you were not within, so it is hardly my fault that our interview is postponed till this inconvenient time.’

He glanced at the letter, and then said : ‘ Well, if what you have to say will really not keep, walk in and I followed him into his TOojns.

(To he. continued.)