LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1629, 10 May 1879, Page 3

LITERATURE.

HER CHILD’S CRY. [From “Belgravia.*’] Continued; ‘What’s yonrs is mine; what's mine is my own.’ Re showed his ha”d 100 soon. After a week he grow careless of her. This marly broke her he -rt In a month he told her about the legacy, and steps were taken to realise. Seeing how the thing was now. the landlady penetrated the whole design. The good woman’s husband brought Mrs Rylmd privately to me. When he found this out, he turned fnm ind fference to threats, and from threats to the moat attrocious arid inhuman cruelty. To sum up, we pr ved the will, got the money, and I invented it in stock. By this time' I found out that he owed large sums of money ; he had been speculating through another and had got heavily let in. He continued his bad treatment of her, and at last, just when her baby was about to ho born, we gave him two thousand fi-e hundred pounds to t ike himself off and leave her in pea< e. All I could do won'd not ioduce h« r to have a legal separati n. She seemed to think that sa di a step m’ght in some way, goodness knows how injure the future status of her unborn child. I may tell yon that fora w-hole month I resisted giving Mm the money unless I obtained from him so > ething more binding than a written undertaking not to go near her nor molest her in any way. I did not consort until I saw that to hold out any 1 nger would be to imperil her life. Of course, the undertaking gb’en by him has no m re let.’al value than the ashes in that grate. Htr whole soul, her whole nature row seems centred in that child When she had made up her mind that no man wouid ever woo her he came. He was above her station at the time, handsome, as you saw, accomplished, as I know, and fascinating, as you may have guessed. He became her sweat heart, and she knelt down and worshipped him. He became her husband and spurned her as she knelt. He told her he thought less of her than of the lowest of her sex, and she drew back from him after r.n iliad of inhuman abuse and violence ; one only dream of life gone forever into the world, a vile waste of dead hopes that ft stored in a sickly sun She would have worked for him, given him her heart’s blood; but he told Mr he did not want her presence, and that he loathed the very street she lived in. He derided her folly for ever supposing that any man such as he could dream of en luring the presence of such a frightful caricature of nature as she. He heaped every insult and contumely upon her, but he did not break her down; for Baird, she knew she was so nto be a mother. Re might leave her, and ni I leave 'her, but the baby came ; in the winter of her life, in her w rse than widowhood, the baby boy came. She had given money to the husband to go away, but the bady had come instead and lay in her arms aU day and all night, swe t for her kisses, sweet for her love, the companion of her worse than widowhood, the unconscious confident of all her sorrows, the antidote which, when pressed against her bosom, healed her of her memories—’

‘ Get me back my child, or kill me—here —

1 I sprang up and turned round. The woman was standing in the doorway. Both her arms were stretched out toward Langton. Her eyes were staring and fixed, addressed to him mechanically, but not 1 lokiug at him. She was rigid as a statue, and at corner of her mouth appeared foam. Langton had turned round, but did not approach. We were both pertrified with fear and surprise. ‘ Get me back my child, or killjme”—here, she repeated in the same tone ;;s before, a tone that made us shudder. There was no passion in it, no anger, no entreaty, no command. It seemed as though her heart had died and her lips were mechanically repeat ingits dieing wish withoutjowning any human sympathy for the dead heart. ‘Still she sto d rigid in the doorway. Langton looked at mo in consternation, and whispered. This case is now one for you. Go to her and speak to her. ‘ I approached her and took one of the outstretched hands It was damp and cold. As I led her into the room I slipped my finger on her wrist and looked into her eyes. The pulse was low and weak; I had expected to find it high and strong. The semi transparent ruby-colored flaws in her eyes had dilated and gathered deeper fire ; the expression was one of intense subjective occupation. Perhaps I may better convey my meaning by saying that it seemed as if she were dealing rather with the formula for an idea than with the idea itself. At a rough guess I said to myself, “A shock has numbed the perceptive power of the faculty, but has left uninjured the power of pain She has the sickening sense of want and the formula for her lo=s as one who contrasts bitterly the memory of possession past with the realisation of present dereliction. She has no well-defined notion of what her child or death is, but she knows she wants either, that less than either will not quiet the unusnal clamoring of her heart ’

‘ Death or ’her child, it was all one to her; the peace that was gone with her baby, or the peace that was to come—in the grave. “A bad case,” I thought to myself; “the child and the image of the child are gone ; this always means insanity. This woman will be numbed as she is now until either the child is returned to her arms or the imago to her mind.” ‘ how did this happen ?’ I asked of her in as gentle as voice as I could. I He waited for me outside. He took the child from me—l did not let it go until it cried—untill I knew ho hurt it. Well, it cried and I let it go. There were people around, and I asked a policeman to get me back my child. But he said he was my husband, and that the child was his. The policeman asked mo was he my husband, and was the child his ? and I answered, yes. The policeman shook his head and walked away. 't'hen ho got into a cab and drove away—do you undei stand what I say? He got into a cab and drove away with my child in his arms you find it hard to understand ? I don’t, for I felt him do it. I felt it here in my breast, whore my child used to lie a leep—t felt the child drawn out of my hreast —and—sir, while he drove.p.way, as there’s a God above me, my child cried —as he drove away—drove away. sTou find it ha'd to understand, sir ; but ray child cried as he drove away—drove away.” I I dropped her band, anil, having left her, whispered to Langton, Is there any means of compelling that scoundrel to give up the child at once ?’

Hi siioox. iiio head ami muttered a ma'edut )D. iben, said I, you had better send her home in charge of some one. ‘ You don’t think she’ll do violence upon herself? he whispered. ‘ No, But some one should always be with her until the crisis arrives, 1 What do you expect to follow the crisis ? ‘ wi 1 ei her i e cured or grow violent. ‘My dear Baird, I can’t, leave here just ow. Would you see her homo, tell i n landlady to ge some one to look after her, see her own“doctor, and ask them to send all b Us to me ?’ (In he Continued.)