LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1745, 23 September 1879, Page 3

LITERATURE.

A WILFUL WOMAN. {Concluded.) Now Alberta's petulance had been, in reality, against Emily and her own indecision, bnt, like a pawn at chess, she could not go back. Since, with a man's dense stupidity, he had chosen to suggest her answer, he should even have it so. 'Yes, that is my answer,'said Alberta, with unnecessary vehemence, ' and I particularly beg I may hear no more upon the subject- ' 'That you shall not, be sure, Grod help me to bear this as best I may !' There was something so simple and manly in the words, so earnest in the tone and the look he gave her, that the coldest heart might heve been stirred. At this joyful moment the luncheon bell clanged out, and Mrs Hinxman, opening the glass door, exclaimed :

' Oh, here yon are still. Come along, if you are 'ready.' Thereby giving fresh evidence of her fitness for matchmaking.

The governess and children, and Mr Hinxman, awaited them in the dining-room, and the meal was got through with the usual amount of conversation. Not that Alberta helped it much—a dangerous inclination to cry seemed to threaten her accustomed selfpossession, bnt she had nothing to complain of in Mr Crichton. He oovered her silence, and brought the children to the surface of the talk, an infallibly successful rnse where parents are concerned. Then, with an easy transition from the subject of toys : ' That's right,' said he, ' you have spoken just in time—tambourine, gun, doll, drum, and toffy. I am going up to London this very afternoon. Has .anyone else got commissions for me ?'

An exclamation of surprise from Mr Hinxman, who kept discreetly ont of plots and domestic asides; a reproachful glance from Emily to Alberta. Bnt Mr Crichton was equal to the occasion, and had reasons ready made for change of plans, or aught besides. Only, as be held the door open for the ladies to pass ont, in wishing good-bye to Alberta, he laid a certain grave emphasis on the parting word, that conveyed to her ear, as it was intended, something more than what is usually meant. Emily followed the schoolroom party to give some afternoon orders, and Alberta strayed back to her balcony alone. The doll was still seated in the corner with arms straight down and head thrown back, smiling insanely,! probablylat her own good fortune in being a doll, and not a suffering mortal. Alberta sat down, looking at the calm beauty of lawn and field, at the rugged mountain range, and at the smoke rising above the trees from the chimneys of Crichton Court. Its park boundary came close to the Hinxmans' lawn, across which an oft-trodden path wound from the house down to a ha-ha, and from the road concealed therein yon entered Mr Crichton's grounds. Nothing could be more peacefully fair than the scene, and nothing broke the stillness of it except the bees among flower-beds below, and the more distant cries of the lambs playing in frolicsome companies npon the lower lawn. If she did not love him, she could remember it all as a picture of Idyllic beauty, where a Corydon and Phyllis might well make love, and woo, and wed, and where Mr Crichton would doubtless soon forget the disappointment of to-day. If, on the other hand, Bhe did love him, that scene might rise np and haunt her some day. Presently Mr Crichton appeared, making his way through the walks past the flower-beds and croquet-ground to that path asross the lawns. He walked on steadily, not once looking back to the house he had left, with head erect, but with a slower step, for all that, than when he had come that way In the morning. Alberta looked after him spoil-bound. The lawn sloped; he would soon be ont of sight; the ha-ha was reached, and the maßter of Crichton Court turned off and vanished from view as he returned to his solitary home.l .-J3n3BH

And then she was qnite sure that she loved him.

It was just a year later. Alberta, with her parents, had been staying in this same county, when she got a letter from Mrs Hinxman asking her to spare her a few days, if no more, on her way up to London. * There are, of oourse, few attractions to tempt you,' said the letter; ' and iu one line, at least, you despised what I onoe provided ; but yon know how welcome you are to all of us,' and so on. Then : ' I am such a wretched correspondent, otherwise I should have told you about our Militia Ball, which was so good. Little Jessie Bulteel came out at it, and looked so pretty. Mr Orichton said she was quite the belle of the room, and I am going to have her to stay with me next month, in hopes. I tell yon this, for lam sure you liked Mr Crichton well enough to be glad he should be provided with such a good little wife as I have a private idea that Jessie would make him.' Alberta did not look back with pleasure on the year that was gone. A London season, and a constant round of visits and pleasuring during the winter, had found and left her bright and happy many a year before. Although her life's programme read somewhat a frivolous one, Alberta was no idle butterfly, and, above all, she had not led that exhaustive chase after matrimony which leaves so many shattered and spent before their time. She valued the solids of life as well as its sweets. Her lot had been a prosperous one ; but, in the face of poetical justice, it need not follow of necessity that one carries a cold and selfish heart even along an o'er smooth way. It had come, however, now to pass, that all through this year Alberta had failed to gather much enjoyment from any of the old sources. A regret, a contrition, an insatiable yearning for a certain idyllic and ideal country-side, haunted her, and spoiled everything besides. And now that Emily's letter had come, Alberta could not resist it. She must go. Mr Crichton might or might not be in love with Jessie Bulteel's silly little face. She, Alberta, was going to stay for these few days with Emily, not with Mr Crichton - to try and lay the memory of that Beulah land, and look that mistake of hers, of which she was well aware, fairly in the faoe, and accept its consequences. And so she went. She had only a few days to spare, so it was fortunate that, after late spring, warm weather had suddenly set in, and the familiar scene wore aa fair a smile upon its face as the one Alberta had left there just a year ago. Mr Crichton was at home, and the second day after Alberta's coming saw him emerging from the ha-ha and coming up to the house on one of his usual visits. He had not chosen to break through his customary habits, and so the inevitable meeting took place. If there was something of constraint between them as they shook hands and described the weather to one another, it was scarcely enough to attract attention. Mt Crichton was studiously friendly in the few remarks he addressed to Alberta ; but how few they were no one knew better than she. nor why he made them so. He had strictly obeyed her somewhat vehement commands to be left in peace, and no doubt considered it necessary to carry them out, even in this minute particular. ' What a pity it should all be at an end,' said Emily to herself, 'when they would have suited bo well; but Alberta never will listen to anyone's advice without she fancies it herself.' Whioh was more true than grammatically phrased—Mrs Hinxman having picked up this mode of expression from her head nurse. The next day passed on, and then came the last evening, and a very beautiful one it was, making Alberta's heart ache"|»t the thought of leaving on the morrow, although she had inwardly known bnt little peace or satisfaction throughout the visit. Mr Crichton had come over to dinner, and they were not allowed to sit long after it, for the children had been promised to go and see ' the peat field burning,' and were gathered in an impatient little troop on the gravel outside, one or other 'appearing at door or window now and then, with • Arn't you just coming, pappy ? You've been such a long time at your dinner I' Towards the left of the Hinxmans' house the ground began rising on its way to the mountains, and across a couple of meadows you came to a sloping field, shaded on one side by trees, where the peat was burning. They all went along merrily, the children, in full zest of contentment after their long waiting, wheeled and fluttered round the elders like a flock of pigeons. Emily and Alberta had led shawls over their evening dresses, and a basket with work and novels to read, if they preferred sitting down by-and-by. It was an exquisite evening, balmy and fresh, and the smell of the peat, mingling with the sweet air, was something to call forth panegyrics every moment. The laborers in the field, too —moßtly women—seemed so good-tempered and pleased to see them, working at the firing and turning the peat with none the less vigor for being under the master's eye. The children were in ecstasies, now venturing on daring contact with the burning peat, now running screaming away in pretended fright, and chasing each other in and out of the heated clods of grass and earth. Emily had accepted Mr Crichton's arm to ascend the side of the rugged field, skirting its hedge. Mr Hinxman took Alberta round about among the peat, now talking to the workpeople, now explaining to her how the weather had been too damp to do this burning sooner, and how the field would now be in prime condition for the autumn setting of corn. They were generally pleasant companions to each other, but to-night Alberta's heart .was ' throbbing with the May,' and in secret she gave only a kind of sick man's attention to his farming plans. Presently they rejoined the others, and stood admiring the pretty scene and the beauty of the evening. Now and then they played with the children, now and then strolled round the field, for the dew was falling too thickly under the trees for the projected seats and novels. The smell of the peat was delicious. As the shades deepened, the fires came out brighter, sparks and flames now burning steadily, now running round a fresh piece of peat, or rising in the air. The whole field, was a network of bright edges, sparkling and darting like fire-flies, and full of mystery and romance. They were all getting childish and merry, and the children were half beside themselves with the fascination and adventure of it all. Something of last year's cordiality flashed out again between Mr Crichton and Alberta in the unguarded gaiety of the moment. It was much too delightful to be left, but the night was drawing on, and after repeated reprieves, the children, hot and excited, were collected together, and the homeward journey began. In returning, the gentlemen running races and playing with the still excited children, Emily and Alberta fell behind, and reached the hall door alone, when they found thenbasket had been left behind. Nothing would do for Alberta but to fetch it herself; she said she had wanted all along to see that field again, and forbidding Emily to say where she had gone, she was off round the corner of the house. It was not far to go, only a short cut across two fields, and the gate was reached. Alberta had come so fast she was fain to stop and rest half-way up the ascent, looking once again at that fascinating scene around, and surprised to see how the. moonlight, whioh had been so shadowy a while ago, steeped the country now in a perfect both of light. Presently she became aware that one of the gentlemen had followed her. She stood in the dark end of the field under the trees, from behind whioh the moon sent tongues and shafts and trembling mysteries of light aoross the shadow. Her white dress, however, betrayed her, and, much to her annoyanoe, lest she should have been supposed to foresee this consequence of her coming, Mr Crichton in a few steps was at her side. * I am ao sorry you should have taken the trouble to come,' she said. ' I begged Emily not to say I had come to fetoh it.' ' Has something been forgotten T I have not spoken to Mrs Hinxman since, but seeing you return to the field in a hurry, I thought you had lost something, and that I might be of use.' ' Thank you ; it is the basket; but I know exactly where to find It.' They went a few steps farther on and found it duly awaiting them in all innocence in the hedge. Mr Crichton took it up, and they turned their steps homeward almost in silence, Alberta walking very fast. Once she gave a little slip, but recovered herself. ' The ground is very slippery with the dew. Won't you take my arm?' said Mr Oriohton.

' No thank 'yon ; I shall do rery well,' said Alberta, slipping again in proof of it. * Is there any occasion to go quite so

some notice. One could rarely see a finer.' ' Ho,' admitted Alberts, as they Btopped still under the trees, " in moonlight, shine, and shade,' to look at it. The fairiea were busy at their revels, no donbt, if one could but have seen them. The peat fires smouldered a little. All the open country was spiritualised by moonlight; dew and enchantment were everywhere. Alberta and Mr Crichton resumed their walk after a few vague commonplaces of admiration ; now in silence, now with a constrained word or two that showed that silence noticed. Then Mr Crichton said, rather abruptly : ' You are going away to-morrow, and if I were a wise man I shonld be glad of it. That I suppose I am not, for I am too sorry to bear it quite in silence, or admire this moonlight, or enjoy the present as I might, for thinking how soon it is to end.' * I do not see why my going shonld make any difference,' said Alberta. ' Possibly not,' he answered. ' Possibly you do not understand, either, how a man can get to care for a woman so that he cares for little else besides. Porgive me, however, for saying this. I have no right to trouble you. I have not forgotten the commands you laid on me to leave this subject alone. If it had not been for them, I should have much to say to-night—but, no doubt, you wished them obeyed ?' ' Of oourse I did,' answered Alberta. ' And you wish it still ?' «I do.' ' Then that is enough for me,' said Mr Crichton, with such a depth of sadness in his voice as he held the gate of the peat-field open for her to pass, that the painful contrast to his merriment with the ohildren so short a while ago was more than a warm but wilful heart beside him could stand. ' But,' began Alberta, and then stopped short, with her face in the moonlight grown suddenly as hot as the peat brands. ' But what ?' said Mr Crichton, gravely, for there had been a few minutes' silence, and his thoughts had been full of gloom. ' But.' repeated Alberta, with a ripple of laughter somewhere in her voice * tuppoting there had been no commands, what was it you would have said ?' * Is that a fair question?' he asked, halting and looking at her in a mixture of surprise and doubt. ' Quite fair,' said Alberta, looking anywhere but at him; ' Then I should have asked yon once more to be my wife, and to give me love for love, if in ever so small a degree. Tour answer, if you please, Miss Graham?' concluded Mr Crichton, a smile upon his own lips now. 'As you like it, then,' said Alberta, steadily, for she knew her own mind and his well at last. And with a fervent ' God bless you for that!' Mr Crichton drew her closer to his side. Perhaps the moon had never smiled upon a happier pair of lovers since the days when Lorenzo and Jessica paced the avenue at Belmont and bandied similes, ' I never was so glad of anything in all my life,' said Mrs Hinxman, when Mr Crichton presented his promised bride to her about half an hour later, ' Although, why Alberta could not have married you, as I wanted her to, a year age, is just like her contrary way of doing things. And now,' laughing, ' thinking it was all over between you, I asked little Jessie Bulteel here, and had quite made up my mind you would fall in love with one another, and my fan is all spoilt!' ' Pray let her come,' said Mr Crichton. ' Hearing of it, I too have asked my young nephew to visit me, for I thought they fancied each other at that Militia Ball. She seemed a nice pliant little thing ; but for myself, you see, I like the perverse, provoking, wilful woman best.