LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1716, 20 August 1879, Page 3

LITERATURE.

BOROUGH-ENGLISH. A Tale op South African Like, By Copia Fandi, 5.0. L., Author of “Twelve True Tales of the Law.” Chapter Vl.—( Continued. .) The old man sank back exhausted in his chair, * One word with you !’ said Lowcraft to Dolly, rising, pale with anger, to take bis leave; * Hark ye, girl!’ said he, grasping her by the arm, * I’m not the man to be baulked or insulted with impunity. Mark my words— I’ll ruin your father and I’ll marry you.’ Saying this he snorted with rage, and flinging the girl backward from him, he strode out of the house. The fluttered girl returned into the room. Her father was speechless; * Sintwango I Sintwango !’ she cried, * take this paper and fetch the doctor. My father is ill. Tyetya!’ The savage put the paper in the cleft end of a stick, and holding it reverently before him, bounded over the league which divided the cottage from the town. The caresses and attentions of the girl met with a scarcely visible response from the motionless, but still living, body. The note brought the physician, and the Kaffir brought Jack, but the old man never recovered his speech, and in three days he died. ‘ Dust to dust’ is an order which in the semitropical coast lands of East Africa is usually fulfilled within 24 hours. The short black procession wound down the hill to the cemetery, and two hours afterwards Jack, the physician, and Sintwango returned to the cottage. A lady companion had been found for Dolly.and Sintwangojsilently laid food before the two Europeans. Dolly, feeling lonely, sat with them, but ate nothing. She looked all the more mournful for not being in mourning. She leant back in a chair, enveloped in a sombre shawL

Why do women always wear shawls till they have bought their mourning ? It is because their instinct teaches them to cover themselves from the world, and from sight, and nothing does this so completely as a shawl. It is, also, because it tends to hide the bright colors beneath, which seem to mock the affliction of the wearer. And, lastly, it is because the mourning woman refuses food, and so the blood is scantily renewed, and the attenuated current fails to warm the externals of the body. The skin of the afflicted is cold. These were the reasons, though she did not know them, why Dolly sat covered with a shawl. Suddenly Sintwango entered and told them that Lowcraft and a gentleman from town were riding up to the house. The other gentleman entered first. He was a lawyer. He regretted his intrusion on such an occasion, but his client, Major Lowcraft, was executor of the deceased gentleman’s will.

‘Executor!’ exclaimed Jack, looking at Dolly. By this time the Major had followed his adviser into the room.

‘ I thought it beat to read the will,’ said the lawyer, apologetically. ‘ Certainly,’ said Jack, recovering himself, and he offered them seats.

The will simply left everything to the testator’s daughter, and appointed Lowcraft executor. It was dated the day before Dolly’s letter in which she told Jack that another document was signed the day before. * Perhaps we had better take possession of the deceased’s papers,’ said the lawyer, ‘ and we need not disturb anything else at present.’ ‘With Miss Brokesby’s leave I will go through the papers with you,’ said Jack, ‘ and you shall take them.’ He turned to Dolly, bnt she sat with her eyes staring into the empty air. ‘I think, my dear child,’ said the physician, ‘I had better take you back into the other room while we attend to business.’

‘ No,’ said Dolly, ‘do not take me away. I want to talk to Jack ; indeed I do. Jack,’ said she, going up and seizing his arm with both hands, ‘ are you very strong, dear Jack ; you and Sintwango both very strong? Cannot you carry things ? ’ ‘ Carry things,’ said Jack, gazing awestruck into her face.

‘ Ye?, carry, lift, wheel them, tnm them out into the field—chairs, tables, books, beds, dinner and all, and get a waggon and oxen and send them away, so only that this imposter never darkens the door again.’ * Scoundrel! ’ she screamed, turning to Lowcraft, ‘ you have fulfilled your threat to ruin my father; beware how you return to marry me 1 ’ The doctor carried the fainting girl away. Lowcraft took this opportunity of breathing a little fresh air. Jack and the lawyer went to look over the papers. ‘ Fity the poor young lady was so affected,’ said the lawyer to Jack, when they were alone. ‘ You see, your client’s a rascal, said Jack, * that’s where it is.’

‘ Do you think he really did make those threats ? ’

‘ Yes, she told me so before.’ •But I don’t fancy there’s much of an estate,’said the lawyer. ‘Nothing but her face and figure to want to marry for, eh V ‘ No, the Major has got a good deal of money from the old man ; but Miss Brokesby is entitled under the will of her uncle, unless he revokes it. By Jove, here it is I I don’t think we ought to hand this over.’ ‘ Let’s look at it! Why you see the old man is left executor here, and we are his executors, so it’s ours, isn’t it ? ’ ‘ All right,’ said Jack, * just let me take a note of It, and you shall have it.’ So Jerry Smith’s will was handed over to Lowers ft’s attorney, and put down in the list along with the other papers.

Chapter VII. A WEDDING AND AN OMEN. The physician who had charge of Dolly was luckily one of those who neither blunder with bleeding, blisters, alcohol, and narcotics, nor ruin the patient’s purse by requiring 1 change of air’ to come in aid of the professor’s ignorance of his art He was not helpless in the presence of a body disorder which had a mental origin ; but understood the use of drugs which cure the mind, and through it the body. In a few days the patient was restored to health, but not to the brightness and elasticity which marked her before her recent afflictions. Living In the cottage on the Berea with no other companion than the lady who lived with her, she passed three months unvaried, save by a visit from her lover. Her walks amid the semi-tropical luxuriance of her garden, and her strolls among the hills looking down over the anchorage, the lighthouse, and the sea, tended rather to

soothe than to invigorate her ; but the advent of Jack made a red letter day in her calendar of mourning. There was little need to say much of love, for that was already settled between them ; but Jack’s pleasant talk about his own doings, and about fhe world in general, restored the life and animation to the tall crape-robed figure. The lover had put his mistress’s business affairs into competent hands ; steps had been taken to keep Lowcraft to a strict account of what was left of her father’s property, audit was through the lawyers that the expenses of the little establishment were paid. Up till toff there had been enough, but lowcraft’s claim to the further instalments of the share of the sugar plantation rendered future payments for the support of the girl a matter of doubt and anxiety. Jack had not as yet spoken a word of thi-. But one day, after Dolly bad discarded the blacker emblems of grief, her lover told her how things were All he possessed was hers. She relied wholly upon him. It was thought useless to protract the period of mourning, but good taste dictated the avoidance of publicity. A licence was procured from the magistrate, and they were privately married by a clergyman at the cottage on the Berea, as is the custom of the colony. The ceremony was scarcely over when Sintwango entered, carrying the dead body of a black mamba. He had killed it as it was about to pounce upon a white pigeon. The savage held the reptile upon in triumph. ‘Selevu Simyama!’ said he, pointing to the snake, and walked away. The name he uttered, meaning * the man with the black beard,’ was the Kaffir name for Lowcraft. Nearly every white man has a Kaffir name, though ho does not always know it, and it is very seldom that the natives can pronounce any other. Selevu Simyama, at all events, was killed, and the white pigeon was safe.

Chapter VIII. THE MAJOR’S TRUMP CART). Jack Smith returned to town because he had given no reason for his absence from the office. It was shortly after dusk of the same evening that Major Lowcraft rode up to the cottage. The events of the day were unknown to him, and he paid his visit in pursuance of a plan which ho had been some time revolving in the chambers of his mind. In ruining the father he had carried out only one-half of his threat; and if the uncle’s will, which he had in his pocket, were still unrevoked, and Dolly were still as attractive as before, the fulfilment of the second half of his vow would prove both more interesting and more profitable. But what was of quite as much importance as the fulfilment of his threat was the repair of his mined fortunes, and the possession of a beautiful girl, though in what measure the latter object added to the force of his motives was more than he could venture to reckon. The task before him was difficult; but he argued with himself as follows ; —‘ She will not have forgotten my threat nor my violence; but she will attribute both to my passion for her, and so she will be satisfied. Besides, women do not mind being threatened, They are used to it. Moreover, what I have done already will produce fear in her mind, and women are easily swayed by fear. I have already reduced her to poverty, and have sole [possession of the will whose production may render her wealthy. I stand, so to speak, as the sole bridge between pauperdom and a fortune—a position in Itself sufficiently strong. Remembering my threat, she will have been daily expecting mo to present myself. She has felt disappointment at my not coming to urge my suit. She will feel this quite independertly of any liking for mo. Any girl would. She has been wondering whether my abstention was on the ground of delicacy. Sometimes she decides in my favor, sometimes not. She often hates me ; but, hating or not hating, she expects my approach with cariosity, which is the key to the soul of woman. I have, therefore, strong moral advantages and strong material advantages on my side, and can any man want more? Allans'. I am a good-looking man and good looking men have done harder things than this, when a beauty and a fortune were both to be won.’

So reflected the gallant major as he rode up to the gate. As he rode up the carriage way, the place seemed so silent that his heart misgave him, and his conscience had half a chance of being heard. He called to Sintwango to take his horse, but no answer came. He went across to the verandah, but there was no one there, and then, half frightened at the silence, he rode to the back of the house and hitched up his horse In the open and empty stable. When ho got back to the cottage there was s light In one of the rooms, and when he rapped with his whip at the door it was Dolly’s voice that bade him enter. Dolly was not taken by surprise, for she had heard the stranger arrive, and heard his call for Sintwango ; nor was she frightened, for she remembered the omen of the morning. Indeed, she was not of that kind that feels much fear except when the nerves are greatly shattered.

* I have postponed my visit,’ said he, *ont of respect for the loss you have sustained, and which, in a loss degree, has fallen upon me also.’ ‘ You have come upon business ?’ ‘ Miss Brokesby’ said the Major, lowering his voice to a sympathetic tone, ‘ I am content that all matters of business between ns should be settled by others, since you so desire [it. But, as you mention it, I may observe that I have endured in silence many unfavourable imputations from those who act for you ; and it gives me pleasure to be able to give yon personally an assurance that they have completely misunderstood my views with reference to your father. And I now tell you that if they do not approve of his purchase of a share of my estate they are welcome to take back the money. I could get better terms from a stranger than what I offered to a friend.’ {To be continued.)