LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1953, 28 May 1880, Page 3

LITERATURE.

ACCIDENTALLY OVERHEARD. From the “Atlantic Monthly.” ( Continued.) At this point, discovering that Miss Cameron had come to a stop, he held out his hand for her paper, and at the same moment she took his. They read their papers, and it suddenly flashed over Harrow’s mind— This is Miss Helen Cameron! Perhaps she is the Helen whoso place I unwittingly took. He looked at her with a sudden curiosity. What was his amazement to find her covered with confusion! He glanced at his paper to see what he had written that should make her blush. Now, he had not finished the sentence which he waswriting, nor had he the remotest intention of writing his Broadway experience ; it was merely a trifling incident of the evening which he had meant to tell, to point a remark. The situation confounded him with its awkwardness. He was apparently about to te’4 Miss Helen Cameron what no man of honor would disclose. She could not know that he had not recognised her as one of the two behind whom he had walked, and whose place he had for a moment taken, to hear from her companion a confession which, even if said in fun, no lady would wish to have had

overheard, far ?»33 repeated in coarfe jest. And this, moreover, was the woman whom he loved, and whose good opinion was worth the world to him.

What could she think of him ? What did she think 7 She showed plainly enough that she had no wish to continue the conversation, for she got up abruptly and went across the room. In the occupation of his mind this evening with Miss Helen Cameron, he had quite forgotten the incident of a few days back, but now it returned vividly to him, and he was agitated by the recollection. True, Miss Helen Cameron might not have been the Helen for whom the confession was intended; yet why then should she be so disturbed at his words ? At the time he had not associated her with that unknown, and indeed unseen, lady. He had heard her named by his cousin only with her familiar name, and he remembered well how inappropriate to her stateliness and fine bearing the name Nelly had seemed. And now xeturned the wavering in hia mind between his mute regard for Miss Cameron and his half romantic ohivalrio feeliog toward the unknown lady whose voice only he had heard.

Could it he possible, then, that the two ladies whom he had passed that Saturday afternoon were In the balances before him ? He blnsied at the temerity of hia position ; yet even as he blushed he felt a singular attract!in toward the one who had so openly proclaimed her liking for him. As he stood thus, a tablet was suddenly thrust before him. He looked up. Anna Lester looked mischievously at him, and his eyes fell on what she had written—‘My dear dear romantic cousin—Do you know that you have been stand ng motionless for three minutes, thinking, in all probability, of Miss Nelly Cameron 2 \our face is a sorry tell tale. It is quite as signifirant as speaking aloud. Now, come with mo. I have a friend who asked to have you introduced early in the evening. I suspect she is an admirer ef yours. Your affectionate base flatterer.

* P.S. Her name is Miss Elwell, and she has a charming” voice. Yon must ask her a question which will require a spoken answer.’

Barrow gave his arm to his cousin. Ho was so possessed with the romance in his mind that it was only another confirmation when Miss Lester, guiding him to a distant part of the room, left him confronting not Miss Elwell alone, bat Miss Cameron, who had been busy writing, and who held, he could see, the unfortunate paper which he had left in her hands. Miss Elwell acknowledged the introduction with a profound courtesy and a certain plentitude of manner which had all theappearance of being donned for the occasion.

* Miss Cameron has told her,’ sighed Barrow to himself. ‘lt is useless for me to attempt to explain. I should only get into deeper trouble. The best I can do is to ignore it all.’ It was easier to sigh this to himself than to meet Miss Cameron’s somewhat accusing face. He tick his block, and wrote hastily to Miss Elwt-ll: — ‘ Pray pardon my impertinence ; impertinence, I find, comes easy to me on paper. I had the pleasure of addressing my cousin’s, Miss Lester’s, notes of invitation ; yet yonr name was not among them.’ Miss Elwell looked over his hand as he wrote, and at this point took the paper from him. 1 1 accidentally overheard of the party from my friend, Miss Cameron, whom I am visiting, and she easily begged a special invitation for me.’

The phrase was so evidently unnecessary and obtrusive that it had a significance at once. Barrow was nettled. It seemed as if she was bent on undeceiving him, if he really fancied her confession to have any sincerity in it. He wrote careless ly—- ‘ How long have you been visiting Miss Cameron ? ’

' Several weeks,’ was the reply, ‘ I think I have not had the pleasure of meeting you before, though I have often seen yon. Von know a few glitnses sometimes will serve in place of a long acquaintance.’ ‘ I and that my acquaintance with people,’ Barrow wrote boldly, ‘is often marked more by the voice than anything else. I remember voices as some people remember faces, and I have even fancied that I knew people by their voice better than by their face. If, for instance, I had ever heard yonr voice, I should not have forgotten it. Your face I wish I could politely say I had seen b:fore, yet I must have seen it sometimes when you have been with Miss Cameron.’

* Either my face or my back,’ she wrote quickly. ‘ Unfortunately, this the last place in the world for hearing any one voice. I am afraid, Mr Barrow, if you care to remember me at all, you will have to make an effort, and remember my iace. ’ He looked up, half unconsciously, as he read this, and bashfully withdraw his eyes from her smiling face. '-The excess of manner which she had put on when they met was gone, and in place he saw a frank mirthful girl, who watched him half roguishly. Miss Cameron had left them, and just row he discovered that the room was becoming deserted by the movement of the company into the supper room. He offered his arm to Miss Elwell, and they walked after the rest. * It must be, ’ he said to himself, * that she only uttered an extravagant expression of no value.’

SfHia pride suffered a little at this disillusion, and there still remained a hurt feeling that he should have so laid himself open to Miss Cameron.

‘ Miss Elwell meant nothing,’ he reasoned, * yet I, like a brute, seemed to be vain of the words and ready to repeat them to the next person. ’ Suddenly he remembered Anna Lester’s words. He turned to Miss Elwell, and led her to the piano. ‘Will you not sing just one song before we go in to supper ?’ he asked, with his one question. _ Miss Elwell bowed, and drew off her gloves, as she sat down at the instrument. She hesitated a moment, and then, looking curiously at her companion, sang— What were the words she said, she said ? What were the words she said ? She shot the words from her curved lips. And my little heart lay dead.

She spake the words in jest, in jest 1 She spake the words in jest I Up sprang my heart from its little grave. For the riddle love had guessed.

Miss Elwell sang the song demurely, with a rich contralto voice, and then, rising, took Barrow’s arm again. He was perplexed in the extreme. Trying to make allowances for the difference of the voice in singing and in speech, he persuaded himself there was kinship in the voice that sang this song with the voice which he had heard on Broadway. He wrote on Miss Elwell’s slate —

«Thank you for the song and the voice ; but unless I am always to hear you sing, how can I remember you by yonr voice when I meet you again ? Pray say romething ; or, stay. I will ask you a question.’ ‘That is useless,’ she interrupted him, * I recklessly threw away both question and answer as soon as I entered the drawing room. I hesitated at the piano, but I thought that singing would not be a breach of contract.’

He was forced to be content with this reply, and Indeed the lively scene of the supper room prevented any very sustained conversation. Young men were performing miracles of dumb show, as they flourished their plates and cups about in heroic attempts to understand and be understood when their fingers were so abundantly engrossed. One ingenious young man was engaged in a corner cutting an alphabet out of cake while his companion vainly endeavored to explain to him both that she was hungry and that a single alphabet would be entirely inadequate toward expressing anything. Miss Lester had provided a supply of mottoes, which were drawn with great eagerness by her guests, each hoping to find these somewhat arid compositions more expressive than formerly. ‘ This is the hard tack,’ explained Miss Lester to Miss Cameron, with whom sbe was hobnobbing, ‘which our shipwrecked conversationists are snatching at in my desert island, Nelly, when lam at liberty to open my month, I intend to scold you roundly. I find pencil and paper very inef fectual for scolding purposes.’ ‘ Write your scolding, Anna. 1 have no objection to writing mine. Poor Mr Jennesa has been trying in vain to make out some severe words which you wrote him. X do not know what they were, but I have caught him eying them and you all the evening.’ ‘ Poor Mr Jenness should not try to make out too much meaning in them,’replied Miss Lester.

‘ My dear. I have a great mind to repeat them here for yon, but I won’t, because—because they were fill;.’ The last font W nds ware scratched out before they reached Mira Cameron, and she tried hard to decipher them. ‘ ft’s no use, Nelly,’ wrote Miss Lester again; ‘my scolding however shall be perfectly legible. Why did yon get up and leave my poor cousin so abruptly? ' ‘ Because’—rtrjoined Miss Cameron, and the four words t-at gave her reason were maliciously scribbled over they reached Miss Lester’s eyes. ‘ Well,’ continued that young lady, ‘when I get yon under my tongue, yon will not be able to scratch out anything. Writing is one thing; speech, thank goodness, is another. For scalding purposes and for purposes of confession give me speech.’ &ii s Anna Lester was in fact, if the truth must be told, rather more restless under her experiment than were her guests. They had so entered into the fun i f the thing that there was a rivalty of pantomime and a determination not to break into speech. Dancing, on which she had counted as »- great resort, was repeatedly broken up by the merry retreat of the dancers to more lively conversation. After supper, however, dancing became more general. Barrow found himself in the same set with Miss Elwell and Miss Cameron, and as he passed to one and the other it was with a perplexity that showed itself somewhat plainly in his face. He looked seriously at each in turn—far mo'e seriously than the exigencies of the quadrille demanded - and encountered Miss Jill well’s laughing eyes and sober mouth, Mbs Cameron’s more unquiet look. The evening at length came to an end. Each geest, bidding Miss Lester good night, expressed in the most effective manner his or her delight over the frolic Bursts of laughter came from the rooms uj stairs, as confidences were rapidly exchanged; but, true to the last, the several couples as they passed down the staircase preserved a demure silence of lips, until they had stepped over the threshold of the porch. Barrow was one of the last to leave, and as he entered the gentlemen’s room above he caught sight of two figures about to issue from the opposite room, cloaked and hooded.

‘ Helen,’ he heard one of them say, ‘say what you please, I am mortified and disappointed.’

(To be continued.)