LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1691, 22 July 1879, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THEE a MEETINGS. ( Continued.') A train was just steaming out of the large and busy station of one of our great northern towns. The passengers were hardly settled in their places; a [young man who had entered a first-class compartment at the last moment was still engaged in tumbling what he would probably have styled his “traps” into the order he approved, At length the task was accomplished to his mind, and he was commencing to unfold a newspaper when some sudden misgiving appeared to seize him, and he tossed over afresh all his paraphernalia in search of some article, apparently that was not forthcoming. Then, in new concern, he prosecuted a voyage of quick discovery in his pockets, with stillgrowing dissatisfaction, for at the end he exclaimed, with great heartiness—- ‘ Confound it! "What is to be done now ?’

A alight stir and movement, probably occasioned by astonishment at the vigor of his language, drew his eyes to the further end of the carriage, where now he could dimly see the form o? a lady, quite unperceived before in the twilight of the early winter’s morning. At once he subdued his demeanor into the ordinary repose of a gentleman’s manner, saying, courteously—- ‘ I beg your pardon; I thought myself alone.’

The young lady slightly inclined her head in acknowledgment of his ap logy, and at the same moment, by the increase of light duo to their having emerged into the open country, each beheld the other plainly. There was no spoken word of recognition j but though the embargo of silence was laid on their tongues, their eyes flashed a message of recognition, and both thought of Spenser and the Castle hill at Hightown, and a hurried walk iu the sweetness of an August evening, more than a year agone. ‘ I hope you did not take me for an escape lunatic,’ he said, laughing slightly. ‘ No,’ she answered ; 1 1 comprehend that you were without something you wanted/ ;‘Jußtso;my overcoat. My constitution would survive that hardship, but the fact is I have therewith lost my money; Some friend persuaded me that it was wrong to carry coins and notes in indiscriminate confusion, and presented me with a purse. It cost me some labor, but I faithfully make use of it in gratitude,’ he added, smiling and trying to recover from his annoyance ‘ And my self sacrificing devotion has culminated in leaving it, with all my worldly wealth, behind me at the station, in my overcoat pocket.’ ‘ And you will lose it ?’ ‘lt is not unlikely,’ ho said, moving to the opposite seat to hors, to talk more at convenience; ‘ but that is not the trying phase of the matter. I have to re-book at DampclifTe, and I am on my way to keep an important engagement, and cannot afford delay. Altogether it is a boro, Oh, friends, friends, they have been the bane of a man’s existence from Job’s days until these !’ he exclaimed, half pettishly, half laughing. Miss Marion tfolmes tacitly declined the wide ground for discussion the subject of friendship offered. But after a few minutes’ silence, she said timidly—- ‘ I have been thinking—thinking—’ there she paused. ‘ Yes ?’ ho said, Interrogatively. ‘ 1 have been thinking that I might be of use,’ she replied, now completing her sentence, and to make ber meaning clearer, opening her purse, from which she took a 20dol. note.

‘ No, no, he said hastily. ‘Thank you all tho same ; thank you very much. 1 shall get on, no doubt —a man can easily raise money—and let us hope they _ will be moderately intelligent at Dampcliffe Junction.’

‘ You will not borrow of me?’ she said slowly and painfully. ‘ It is not necessary, or I would not hesitate,’ he said, gently, for, glancing at her face, he perceived something of the enormous effort which her varying color showed the offer had cost her.

She spoke again. ‘ You once rendered mo a great service ’ — he smiled, and rather liked her courage in alluding to it—‘ you once did me a great service, and I hoped I could do something toward repaying your kindness by helping you, that was all,’ she said, meekly. Ho looked at the distress and mortification written in her pure, [soft eyes, and said—

‘ If you will allow mo to change mj mind, I will do so, and avail myself of your kind thought; but I will not have the note.’ Smiling in restored content of spirit, she put the purse into his hands. He took it, and glancing at its manifold contents. There wore some silver pieces, a plentiful store of golden sovereigns, some memoranda, a dainty little pencil-case, her railway ticket, and some cards. He touched all delicately with a gentle reverence.

‘ I will take this,’ ho said, pocketing the bank note, l if it will not inconvenience you.’ ‘ Oh, no ! I have enough for my wants.’ A silence fell upon them. Although he had practically finished with it, Trevor did not return Miss Holmes her purse, but retained it within his fingers, which felt and clasped the leather almost caressingly. Presently he spoke again, but very softly came his words.

‘ I do not know to whom I am indebted.’ ‘ It is not of any consequence, is it ?’ she asked, in return, shrinking, she hardly knew why, from revealing her identity.

‘ You do not want to tell me your name ?’ was the rejoinder, with a smile. She looked up, startled at hearing her secret thought thus translated into speech. ‘ Then do not; yet I must send you the money.’ Miss Holmes knitted her fair brow over this puzzle ; she could scarcely understand her own reluctance to disclose her name, and yet she was clear in her own mind of intending most decidedly to keep it a mystery, if possible.

He, meanwhile, worked out the problem. ‘ You are going to the city ; that I saw by your ticket; but without that, I should hare inferred it from your starting on your journey so early in the morning. I will send you the amount under cover of initials—A.B. say—to Charing Cross Post Office, if you will call or send for it.’

‘ Yes ; thunk you.’ ‘That is settled then;’ and with that he began to talk to her of other things. With her intelligent conversation, and her lovely face raised in confiding simplicity to his eager regard, the time flew by, and the station was soon reached where ha had to get out.

When a porter had conveyed his belongings, and tho moment had come that he himself must descend, Trevor took possession of Marion’s small hand.

‘Wo shall meet again ; I feel that wo shall,’ he said, his eyes, the while, bent upon her, telling a plainer tale of emotion. Marion trembled, and did not speak at all ; and the white lids were dropped over her soft eyes so that he could read nothing there. # # * # #

It was midnight; hut tho assembly rooms of Hightown were blazing with light, and from the open windows came sounds of music, for a ball was being held there that night. This fact alone was scarcely noteworthy, but this particular ball was nearly being distinguished by a tragic circumstance. The largo hall, where the dancing proceeded, was decorated with festoons of evergreens, and from those hung at intervals small, colored lamps. Tho effect was pretty ; but, when the crowd was thickest, and tho revelry and gaiety at their height, one of tho pendulous stars broke loose and fell—fall upon the skirts of a lady, and the gauzy fabric, of which her skirts were composed, ignited instantly. Tho next moment tho unfortunate creature was enveloped in flames. A rush and confusion ensued. Cries of alarm or curiosity arose on all sides, while advice, mostly of a remarkable character, was freely tendered. ‘ Water ?’ ‘ Roll her in a hearthrug !’ ‘ But where is there a hearthrug ?’ ‘ A tablecloth will do.’ * Then get it.’ 1 Who is it ?’ ‘How did she get on fire ?’ ‘ Sand—bucketfuls ot sand—right thing !’ ‘ Don’t let her run out in the air.’ ‘ Fetch a blanket!’

The din of voices reached even tho ears of a young man in tho act of quitting the room. Uponj tho outcry he arrested his steps, and retraced them to tho scone of excitement, Tho music had ceased : the dancers were all hurrying to one centre; the marvel was, that in the throng and tumult, the fire had not spread and the mischief increased. It orobably would have ultimately been tho case out for one circumstance.

While every person was calling for an impossibility or an absurdity, and doing nothing effectual, aft.-r the manner of people under such stress, one quiet, little, pale lady had unobtrusively stolen forward with a heavy shawl, and flung it, as far as her size and strength would permit, about the unhappy victim.

Others then, perceiving her plan, assisted to draw it more closely round tho poor girl, so that by the time tho new comer had reached tho scene, the flames were entirely extinguished ; only fragments of tinder still floated in the air, and strewed tho ground.

‘Lot me see! What is it?’ said the fresh arrival, Dr. Trevor, authoritatively ; and some of those present, recognising him as a medical man belonging to the town, gavo way readily to permit his approach.

He advanced to the sufferer, and the eyes wide with alarm and pain, which met his, were those of the girl to whom, a few months ago, he had said they should meet again. They had mot; but thus ! His heart, stirred before only in the interest of humanity, now throbbed with an intense personal anxiety. ‘Save me!’ she cried, hope supplanting the torture and fright in the wide eyes, as she recognised him. ‘Are you much burnt?’ ‘ My arms and shoulders ; do cool them ?’ Trevor glanced at the parts, and could see only large surface burns. So ho whispered— ‘ Are you equal to leaving the room ? Do you think you can walk ?’ ‘ Yea,’ she answered, her courage and spirits rising in the comfort and strength of his care, ‘ I could not help it, Mrs Cholmondelcy ; it was an accident.’ This remark was addressed to the little lady who was wringing her hands over Marion, and crying—- ‘ Why did you set yourself on lire ? What will be done?’

Perceiving that this lady was responsible for, if not actually a relative of the injured girl, Trevor gave her one or two plain directions, and the sufferer was quickly conveyed away into a cooler apartment in the hotel, which adjoined the assembly rooms. Having done what ho could for the young lady’s relief in the present, Dr. Trevor spoke to Mrs Choliaondeley. ‘ I have applied some temporary dressing to the injured surfaces, and I should advise your getting the young lady home and sending for your own medical man. The morning will be time enough though j she will do until then.’

‘But wo live twenty miles from hero—at C .'

‘ Ah ! she will not be fit for such a journey for a day or two.’ ‘ And I hope,’ said little Mrs Oholmondeley, who was fidgety, but who was not without delicacy and refinement— ‘ and I hopo you will continue to take charge of the case. ’ Dr. Trevor bowed in grave formality, but ho felt a thrill of delight at the prospect it opened to him. ‘ Shall I ho a great fright from this accident ? ’ hie fair patient asked Dr, Trevor one day that Mrs Cholmondeley had been called out ot the room, leaving them alone, and free to chatter as their happy, foolish, young hearts chose.

‘ How came you there—to m y help ? I mean the night of the ball when I was burnt ? ’

‘ Fate, I suppose. I had been at a dinner party, and turned in for half an hour to the ball. I was in the act of quitting the room when the outcry arose, and detained me.’ ‘ You always appear when I am in waut of care,’ she said. Ho rose from bis seat and stood behind her chair while he spoke his next words. ‘My darling, do you know that it is tho great hopo of my life to have you always for ray care —and my delight ? Do not answer mo now; let me have time ; let mo try to wia you ; do not send me away.’ Perfect silence upon her part, and she trembled as the trees do when the summer breeze passes over them. ‘Marion, speak to me!’ he cried, with lover-liko inconsistency, after a moment’s pause, coming round to her side. Her face had dropped on her breast to hide her emotion from his devouring gaze, but she could not quite screen her blushes and radiance.

‘ Marion,’ he whispered ; ‘ will you give yourself to me ? Bid mo hope. Look at me, dearest.’

Still not b sign of encouragement, Bare that lower and lower slid drooped her head ; so ho just took his strong hands and uplifted the dear face. His jealous, throbbing heart was satisfied by the reply he road there. When his raptures were in part quieted, and he was trying, in the [very gladness of hoort, and for the pleasure of hearing her soy the words, to gain her verbal promise and consent to their union, she had suddenly stipulations to make.

‘ Then you must not undertake to pick up any more books for ladies on the Castle Hill,’ was her first suggestion. ‘ If the library of the British Museum lay there I would not rescue a volume,’

‘ Nor escort helpless young ladies to the station.’

‘ Had railways to bo abolished for want of passengers, I would render no help. At least,’ he added, with a kiss upon her sweet lips, ‘not without coming home to fetch you to take care of me.’

‘Now,’ said ho, * I have provsos to make. You, upon your part, are not to offer money to any penniless young man whom you may come across.’

‘ Don’t!’ she cried, quickly, laying her hand over his mouth. ‘ You hurt me.’

With surprise Trevor noticed the crimson tide of color that had instantly flooded her

fac3, but changing his tone into one of loving seriousness, he asked her—- * Do you not think, my Marion, that I respect you the more for your kind thought and action ?’

‘ Believe mo,’ she said, with an earnest simplicity, ‘ from the first 1 felt a peculiar trust and confidence in you—not to misunderstand me, even.’

‘My darling, trust me with your happiness through life, trust mo with your dear self, and you shall never have reason to regret the confidence,’ ho answered, solemnly.