LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1981, 30 June 1880, Page 3

LITERATURE.

A TUBN OF AN ACCIDENT. ( Concluded .) The heat was yielding to evening freshness and he urged his horse, impatient to set matters straight; but, with his best endeavor, it was after eleven before he at last drew rein in front of Nash’s Hotel. He was expected, and that was evident, for lights were burning, and both Nash and his wife hurried out to meet him, wearing faces of lugubrious length, which only in part changed to cheerfulness when they heard of the recovery of the wallet. * There, what did I tell you ? ’ cried the husband. ‘ Haven’t I been a-saying all day that likely as notgthis scare would turn out all for nothing 1 And you wouldn’t listen to a word, but just keep on to that poor thing inside there, and she nothing to blame all the time. I declare, it’s too bad the way women act to each other—and folks calling them “the softer sex ! ” A man would be ashamed to be so hard. Well, do tell! and so the money was a-lying there in the dust all the time. Well, I’m mighty glad, for your sake and onrs, too. Go right in, sir, and wife’ll give yon some supper. I’ll see to the horse.’

Mrs Nash waited on the meal in grim silence. She seemed only half rejoiced at the denotmment.

‘ It’s mighty queer,’ she remarked, as she set the last dish on the table. ‘ I don’t feel as if we’d go to the bottom of it yet. Why didn’t Lncy deny more positive ? ’ ‘But she did,’ said John, between two mouthfuls j ‘ she said she hadn’t got it.’ ‘ Why. of course, she said as much as that. You didn’t expect her to say that she had got it, did you ?' rejoined the landlady, with a fine scorn. ‘But she didn’t speak up violent and bold, as you’d expect an innocent girl would.’ ‘ But she was innocent all the time, you know.’

‘ I ain’t so oversnre about that.’ replied Mrs Nash, with a shake of her head. ‘ It’s a queer business.’ ‘ Now, look here,’ shouted John, roused by this persistent injustice ; ‘ what is there queer about it, I should like to know ? Here’s my wallet ’ —slapping his pocket—- ‘ and I’ve told yon where I found it. And you know as well as I do that I never did pat it under the pillow, and that girl of yours had no more to do with it than the babe unborn. It’s her pardon I ought to beg, and you, too. So I hope, ma’am, you’ll drop the subject, and just make it up to the poor thing by being extra kind, as it wore, for the bad day we’ve made her spend,’ Mrs Nash seemed by no means mollified by this not over-judicious appeal, and as soon as her duties as hostess would permit, left the room, muttering under her breath something which John did not catch. He was too sleepy to care particularly about the matter, and presently went to bed, when dreamless slumber drew her veil over the day’s vicissitudes. Hurrying out to the barn the next morning in the best of spirits, a low sighing sob called his attention to a bench onteide the kitchen door ; where sat a figure crumpled up into a forlorn little heap, in which he recognised the pretty maid of the day before. She wore her bonnet, and a bundle lay beside her. Her face was hidden on her arms, which were crossed on the back of the bench.

‘ Why, what’s the matter ?’ said John, turning back. The girl looked np, with a start. * I beg your pardon,’ she faltered, ‘ I am just going. Z didn’t mean to stay so long. ’ Going ? Where ?’ ‘ I don’t know where,’ she said, dejectedly. * I’d try for another place, only there doesn’t seem much chance of getting one without any recommend.’ * Do you mean to say that they are sending you away from here?’ ‘Yes.’

‘ But, in the name of goodness, why ?’ ‘ I don’t know. Mrs Nash says she don’t like to have servants about who are suspected of stealing.’ The blue eyes filled again as she spoke, and she hid her face. ‘ By George ! I never heard of such Injustice in my life,’ shouted John. * Now, Lucy, if that’s your name, you just sit still where you are. Don’t you stir or move till I come back. I’ll see Mrs Nash. I’ll put things right,’ To put things right seems easy enough to a strong hearty man, with justice and argument on his aide, bnt that is because he does not calculate properly on those queer hitches and crotchets ot human nature, which have no relation to jnstlce and fair dealing, and are unaffected by argument. Mrs Nash proved impervious to John’s choicest appeals. Her mind was made np ; she ‘ didn’t want to hear no more on the subjectfinally, her temper rising, what business was It of his, she demanded, what help she kept, or if she kept any help at all ? He’d got his pocket book back ; acconnta were squared between them, there was no further call, so far as she could tee, why he should meddle with her concerns. The upshot of the interview was that John flew out of the kitchen with his face as red as fire, tackled his horses, threw valise and feed bags into the wagon, flung the amount of his reckoning on the table, and addressing Lucy, who. pale and ter--ified, stood, bundle in hand, prepared for flight, called out: ‘ Now, then, my good girl, you’ve lost one place by my fault, and I’m darned if I don’t offer you another. Will you jump into my wagon, and go home with me? My old woman’s been talking this long piece back of getting a smart girl to help along when she’s laid up with rheumatics; so you’re just the one we want. She’ll treat yon fairly enough. I’ll be bound, and you shall have whatever you were getting here. And if you behave yourself, you’ll be well used, not turned out of doors for nothing ; I’ll engage to that; it isn’t the way up in our parts,” with a vindictive look at the landlady, who stood planted in the doorway. *We don’t set up to be extra Christians, but there’s little honesty and decency left among us, which is more than can be said for all places. Well, what do you say ? Yes or no. There’s my hand on it, if it’s yes.’ He held out his broad palm. Lucy hesitated, but for a moment only. •Yes, I will,* she said. ‘l’ve nowhere else to go, and you seem kind.’ Another moment, and they were driving off together down the maple-shaded road, whose yellow and crimson boughs danoed overhead against “October’s bright bine weather.” There were peace and calming in the fresh stillness of the early day. Gradually a little color stole into Lucy’s pale cheeks, and John’s hot mood gave place to wonted good humor and cheer. ‘You’ve had no breakfast, I’ll bet,’ he said, with a smile, * And no more have I, I was so mad with that woman that I couldn’t swallow a mouthfnl, bnt now I begin to feel sharp enough. We’ll stop at the next tavern. Bouthwick, isn’t it ? Dive miles and a half. Can you hold out till then?’

‘Oh yes, indeed,’ with a grateful look out of the blue eyes. John’s tone grew more and more friendly. • We’ll have something hot and hearty there,’ he said. ‘You look pale. I guess you didn’t sleep any too much last night ’ ‘Oh, I couldn’t sleep at all. Mrs Nash told me that I must go the first thing in the morning, and I felt so badly.’ ‘ I should think you would not want to stay with a womanlike that.’

‘ But it’s so dreadful to have nowhere to go to. And besides—” She stopped abruptly, with a look like terror in her eyes. * Have you no friends, then ? ’ asked John.

‘ No.’ The tone was very reserved; bnt reserve could hardly fail to melt under so sunshiny a presence as John Boyd’s, and before the long day’s ride was done, he had woq from her the main facts of her story. Lucy Dill was her name. Her mother had married for a second time when Lnoy v.as twelve years old, and three years ago, when the girl was barely fifteen, had died, leaving her to the protection of her stepfather, ‘ She didn’t know what sort of a man he was,’ said Lucy. ‘ And ho wasn’t that kind of a man when she was alive. I was too young to notice mnch, and mother always put herself between him and and me when things went wrong. After she died it was dreadful. Elkins—that’s his son —came home to live. He never lived there before, and—and he— ’ ‘ Wanted to marry you ? ’ ‘ Yes; and hia father said I mast, But I was afraid of him—of them both. And people began to come to the house—bad people, not good—and I began to suspect things. ’ ‘ What kind of things ?’

It was not easy to get an answer to this question. In fact, the terrified and inexperienced girl had hardly dared to formulate her own fears ; but John gathered the idea that coining or other unlawful practices were going on, and Lucy, only half-comprehend-ing, had understood enough to startle and frighten her into making her escape. She had effected this by night, six weeks before, and her great dread was of being discovered and forced to go back. John re-assured her as well as he could.

* You’ll be just as safe at the farm as if you were in an Iron safe,’ he protested. But, spite of his assurances, 'the lurking terror never left Lucy’s eyes, though weeks seed safely by, and nothing occurred to alarm her. Every sudden noise made her start ; the sight of a strange figure on the road blanched her roses to paleness. Except for this fearfulness, she proved an excellent ‘ help ’ in all ways—quick, neat-fingered, sweet-tempered. Old Barbara wondered how ever the farm got on without her, and John in his secret heart wondered also. It never should be without her again—on that he was firmly resolved. ‘Lucy,’ he said one day, three months after she became an inmate, ‘ I'm tired of seeing yon crimp and quiver and scuttle up stairs whenever the peddler or the ragman comes along. It’s bad for yon, and it worries me almost to death. Now there’s just one way that’ll make all safe, and set yonr mind at ease, and that is, that you should just marry me out of hand, and give me the right to protect you. Once my wife, X shouldn’t care if your step-father and all the gang came after you; let them lay a finger on yon at their peril, while I’m alive and have the right to interfere. Will yon, Lucy 1 It’s the best thing to ba done, trust my word for it. I don’t mean to pretend that I’m doing it for your sake entirely,’ added John, with a broad smile, ‘ for I ain’t. I want you for my own sake the worst way, hut both ways it will be a gain ; so, unless you have something against ms, say ‘ Yes,’ Lucy, and we’ll have the parson over tomorrow, and make all safe. Will you, Lucy 1 ’ ‘ Oh, how could I have anything against you 1 ’ replied Lucy, with the sweetest blush.

* Well, declared John, s moment after, as he raised his head from his first long lover’s kiss, “ now I forgive Mrs Nash 1 1