LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1969, 16 June 1880, Page 3

LITERATURE.

LUCRETIA.— A CANADIAN HOTEL ADVENTURE. [Abridged from the Christmas number of "Belgravia.”] ( Concluded.) ‘Oh, what a dreadful .play to_ read on Christmas eve ! ’ cried Lueretia, with a little deprecating gesture; * but you must come and have your breakfast. * I followed her into the dining-room, a pretty little bright looking room behind the bar. Fiightened as I was during the night, I could not fail to notice how tastefully the bed-room was furnished; “but this little salle-a-manger was far prettier. The table was laid, and the white table-cloth, with its bright silver and sprays of evergreen in the vase, looked delightfully appetising. I began to think I might manage a breakfast after all.

‘ How pretty all your things are !’ I said to Lueretia.

*Do you think so ?’ she answered. ‘ I chose them, and I laid the table.”

I looked surprised ; but in a moment more I was fairly overwhelmed when Lueretia left fora minute, and then returned carrying a tray with dishes. These she rapidly and dexterously placed upon the table, and then asked me to take my seat. ‘ But,’said I, hesitating, ‘am I to understand . . , You don’t moan to say . . Are you .... going . , to . . . wait upon me ?’ Lnoretia’s face was one smile of innocent amusement from her white little forehead to her chiselled little chin.

* Why, yes,’ she answered, laughing, ‘of course I am. I always wait upon our guests when I’m at home. And I cooked these salmon outlets, which I’m sure you’ll find nice if you only try them while they’re hot.’ With which recommendation she uncovered all the dishes, and displayed a breakfast that might have tempted St. Anthony. Not being St. Anthony, I can do Lucretia’s breakfast the justice to say that I ate it with unfeigned herr ineas, So my princess was, after all, the domestic manager and assistant cook of a small country inn I Not a countess, not even a murderess (which is at least romantic), but only a prosaic housekeeper 1 Yet she was a princess for all that.

After breakfast came a serious difficulty. I must go to the Pritchards, but before I went I must pay. Yet how was Ito ask for my bill. I couldn’t demand it of Lueretia. So I sat awhile ruminating, and at last I said, ‘ I wonder how people do when they want to leave this house.’

• Why, said Lucretia promptly, ‘ they order the sleigh,’ ‘Yes,’ I answered sheepishly, ‘but how do they do about paying V Luretia smiled. She was so absolutely transparent, and so accustomed to her simple way of doing business, that I suppose she did not comprehend my difficulty. ‘ They ask me, of course, and I tell them what they owe. You owe us half-a-dollar.’ Half a-dollar—two shillings sterling—for a night of romance and terror, a bed and a bedroom, a regal breakfast, and Lucretia to wait upon one ! It was too ridiculous. And these were the good, simple Canadian villagers whom I had suspected of wishing to rob and murder me ! I never felt so ashamed of my owu stupidity in the whole course of my life ! I must pay it somehow, I supposed, hut could not bear .to hand over two shilling pieces into Lucretia’s outstretched palm. It was desecration, it was sheer sacrilege. But Lucretia took the half-dollar with the utmost calmness, and went out to order the sleigh. I drove to the rector’s after bidding good-bye to Lucretia, with a clear determination that before I left Richmond she should have consented to become my wife. Of course there were social |differences, but those would be forgotten in South Kensington, and nobody needj ever know what Lucretia had been in Canada. (Besides, she was fit to shine in the society of duchesses — a society into which I cannot honestly pretend that I habitually penetrate. The reotor and his wife gave me a hearty welcome, and I found Mrs Pritchard a good motherly sort of body—inst the right woman for helping on a romantic love-match So, in the course of the morning, as we walked back from church, I managed to mention to her casually that a very nice young w O-i? an bad come down in the train with mo from Quebec, ‘You don’t mean Lucretia?’ cried good Mrs Pritchard.

‘Lucretia,’ I answered in a cold sort of way, ‘ I think that was her name. In fact, I remember ahe told me so.’ ‘ Oh yes, everybody calls her Lucretia—indeed, she’s hardly got any other name. She’s the dearest creature in [the world, as simple as a child, yet the moat engaging and kind-hearted girl you ever met. She was brought up with some nuns at Montreal, and being a very clever girl, with a great deal of taste she was their favorite pupil, and she has turned out a most cultivated person.’ ‘ Does she paint ?’ I asked. •Oh, beautifully. Her ivory miniatures always take prizes at the Toronto Exhibition. She plays and sings charmingly.’ ‘ Are they well off ?’ «Very, for Canadians. Lucretia has money of her own, and they have a good farm besides the hotel. ’ ‘ She said she knew you very well, I ventured to suggest. ‘ Oh, yes ; in fact, she’s coming hero this evening. We have an early dinner —you know our simple Canadian habits—and a few friends wili drop into high tea alter evening. She and Tom will be among them —you met Tom, of course V ‘I had the pleasure of making Tom’s acquaintance at one o’clock this morning,’’ I answered ; ‘ but, excuse my asking it, isn’t it a little odd for you to mix with people in their position!’ The rector smiled and put in his word. ‘This is a democratic country,’ he said ; ‘ a mere farmer community, after all. We have little society in Richmond, and are very glad to know such pleasant intelligent people as Tom and Lucretia. ‘But then, the conveniences,’ I urged, secretly desiring to have my own position strengthened. I got to the hotel last night, or rather this morning, there was a lot of rough-looking hulking fellows drinking whisky and playing cards.’ ‘ Ah, I dare say. Old Picard, and young Le Patourel from Melbourne, and the Postoffice people sitting over a quiet game of ecarte whilst they waited for the last train. The English mail was in last night. As for the whisky, that’s the custom of the country. We Canadians do nothing without whisky, A single glass of Morton’s proof does nobody any harm.’ And these were ray robbers and gamblers ? A party of peaceable farmers and sleepy post officials, sitting up with a sober glass of toddy and beguiling the time with ecarte for love, in expectation of her Majesty’s malls, I shall never again go to bed with a poker by my side as long as I live. About seven o’clock my friends came in. Lucretia was once more charming ; this time in a long evening dress, a peach-colored silk with a square-cut bodice, and a little lace cap on her black hair. X dare say 1 saw almost the full extent of her wardrobe in those three changes ; hut the impression she produced upon mo was still that of boundless wealth. Lucretia was the soul of the evening. She talked, she flirted innocently with every man in the room (myself included), she played divinely, and she sang that very song from “ Lncrezia Borgia ” in a rich contralto voice. As she rose at last from the piano, I could contain myself no longer. I must find some opportunity of proposing to her there and then. I edged my way to the little group where she was standing, flushed with the compliments on her song, talking to our hostess near the piano. As I approached from behind, I could hear that they were speaking about me, and I caught a few words distinctly. I paused to listen. It was Very wrong, but twenty is an impulsive age,^ ‘ Oh, a very nice young man indeed, ’ Lucretia was saying ; ‘ and we had a moat enjoyable journey down. He talked so simply, and seemed such an innocent boy, so I took quite a fancy to him. (My heart beat about two hundred pulsations to the minute.) ‘ Such a clever, intelligent talker too, full of wide English views and interests, so different from our narrow provincial Canadian lads.’ (Oh, Lucretia, I feel sure of you now. Love at first sight both sides, evidently !) J And then he spoke to me so nicely about his mother. I was quite grieved to think he should be travelling alone on Ohristmaa-eve, and so pleased when

I heard ha was to spend his Christmas with you, dear, I thought what I should have feH if—-— ’ I listened with all mv ears. What could Lueretia be going to say ? ‘lf one of my own dear boys was grown up, and passing his Christmas alone in a strange land. ’

I reeled. The room swam before me. It was too awfuL So all that Lacrctia had ever felt was a mere motherly Interest In me as a solitary English boy away from hia domestic turkey on the twenty-fifth of December. Terrible, hideous, blighting fact ! Lncretia was married !

The rector's refreshments in the adjoining dining-room only went to the length of sponge cake and weak claret cup. I managed to get away from the piano without fainting, and swallowed about a quart of the intoxicating beverage by tumblerfuls. When I had recovered sufficiently from the shook to trust my tocgue, I ventured back into the drawing-room. It strnck me that I had never yet heard Lucretia’s surname. When she and her brother arrived in the early part of the evening, Mrs Pritchard had simply introduced them to me by saying, ‘I think you know Tom and Lncretia already. 1 Colonial manners are so unceremonious. I joined the fatal group once more. 'Do you know,’ I said, addressing Lucretia with as little tremor in my voice as I could easily manage, ‘ its very curious, bat I have never heard yenr surname yet.’ ‘ Dear me" cried Lueretia, * 1 quite forgot. Our name is Arundel.’

‘ And which is Mr Arundel ?’ I continued; " I should like to make his acquaintance.” * Why,’ answered Lueretia with a puxzled expression of face, ‘you’ve met him already Here he is!’

And she took a neighbouring young man in unimpeachable evening dress gently by the arm. He turned round. It required a moment’s consideration to recognise in that tall and gentlemanly young fellow with the plain gold Binds and turndown collar, my rough acquaintance of last night. Tom himself I I saw it in a flash. What a fool I had been 1 I might have known they were husband and wife. Nothing but a pure piece of infatuated preocnception could ever have made me take them for brother and sister. But I had so fully determined in my own mind to win Lueretia for myself that the notion of any other fellow having already secured the prize had never struck me. It was all the fault of that incomprehensible Canadian society, with its foolish removal of the natural barriers between classes. My mother was quite right, I should henceforth be a high and dry conservative in all matters matrimonial, return home in the spring with heart completely healed, and after passing correctly through a London season, marry the daughter cf a general or a Warwickshire squire, with the full consent of all the high contracting parties, at St. George’s, Hanover square. With this noble and moral resolution firmly planted in my bosom, I made my excuses to tbe rector and his good little wife, and left Richmond for ever the very next morning, without ever seeing Lueretia again. But, somehow, I have never qnite forgotten that journey from Quebec on Cfiristmas-eve; and though I have passed through several London seasons since that date, and undergone increasingly active sieges from mammas and daughters, as my briefs on the Oxford Circuit grow more and more numerous, I si ill remain a bachelor, with solitary chambers in St. James’s. I sometimes f mey it might have been otherwise if I could only once have met a second paragon exactly like Lueretia.