LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2298, 15 August 1881, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE LOVER'S LEAP. A Moderk Talk. Concluded.) Chapteb 111, THE PBOPOSXL. Mild weather seemed to have had a balmy : -)fluence on all tempers and temperaments. My own fee'ings of irritation calmed, and M : sa Lnfleigh's statelinees softened off into graclonsness. I had sean her onoe or twioa since the evening vf the waltz; and now, on a blrnd midsummer day, I found her alone in the little drawing-room, tbe blind of the front window down, that looting on the garden partly raised, and a delicious fragrance of carnatiors and mignonette wafted in through the lace curtains. Could anything be more propitious ? She seemed to be seated here awaiti-g some such confession as hovered on my lips. There was not a cloud in tbe sky, not a touch of harshness in nature without. Surely she muet relax whers tVL else wac tender; in such soft glow'ng atmosphere the heart of even the coyest maiden must insensibly expand. But was my Letitia oy ? That point I could scarcely decide. At one time I thought she shared her sister's bashfulness, and only vePed it, 'i her own case, by a sort of defiant bluntnessi Again I believed her to be cold .-'id calcnlaticg, computing my capital as closely rs I had her golden charmß under contemplation. However that might be, I would put her to tbe tc~,t now, end seating myself by her sid* I clutched convulsively at my watebchain, as if some means of inspiration or support might be gained thereby. Mlts Lnfleigh remained sPent, and I began to hate her for her impassibility. ' What a lovely enticing day,'l essayei at last; ' weather which no one c?n resist. I am most favored to find you in.' 'I was just going out,' slid Mss Lnfleigh composedly. 'Don't —don't go 1* I broke in with a sort of wildnesa, and then I stopped. I ought, of conrse, to have dashed, ahead now, but I could not. Something iu the cold dull face of my companion sent a chill through me. Letitia's eyes were fixed on nvne with a look of calm inquiry. Who could make way under encouragement such as that ? ' I thought you pronounced the day templog ' she began, as the pause lasted. ' Yes, yes, for those—for any who are free—heart-free. But where you are, I am —Sun, air, nothing is anything if—if— If—'

' I don't understand you,' she interposed. I might have reechoed Marlow's excls»r>*tion with a vengeance. I went on, however, in desperation. 'No wonder ! How could you ? Words can't, won't, express a meaning like n-'ne. They fade and fail at a moment like this. But, dearest Miss Lufleigh, loveliest Mba Lufleigh, you must have seen and known for yourself what I feel. Be pitiful then, be—, At last I had moved her from her composure. A sudden flush rushed 'ito her cheeks.

'Do you know what you are saying ?' she interrupted in agitation. 'Do you know whom you are addressing V •An angel,* I began. 'Mr Gorges, if this is a jest, it Is an intolerable one. ' Such conduct is nngcntleina nlike, unpardonable.' ' How ? Why ? Wherefore V I broke out vehemently. * With love like mine, who can hide it ? Don't tui a from me! Listen to me, believe me, receive me ! Be my wife, Misa Lufleigh—be my one treasured wife!'

The repudiation of all Mormon views in the emphatic ' one ' was scaicely c? I! ed for ii an adjuration of the kind. Its strange introduction might indeed, in some ceses, have had an unlucky effect. Letitia, however, had alighted most happily on another expression, which seemed to give the electric shock to her system. At the word ' wife' all her features relaxed, her eyes fell till the lashes had covered them with a> bewitching veil of shyness. The magic colouring of emotion grew deeper on cheek and lip, and incited by such unexpected tokens, I followed the prescribed formula, and clasped her suddenly in my arms. 'Be mine!' I breathed; 'be mine for ever ! Say it, whisper it to your George !' She did whisper something then. It was a little gulping ' Yes,' and while I trembled at all it bourn me to, another murmur c?»ne from her lips. 'We must ask my uicie, deareet. You will speak to him?' ' Your uncle ? who's he V I cried.

'Dr. Lufleigh, my one guardian now—the generons parent of a poor orphan !' and there was a faint sound of the stirring of some filial emotion.

' What! are not you Miss Lufleigh ? his eldest, his Letitia ?' 'Only her cousin and namesake,' was the reply. ' She Is from home now, arranging matters about her legacy.' ■ Good gracious !' I gasped, and with a sudden and startling rapidity I sprang up, tiung my fair burden to the other end of the sofa, and stood over her in a pose of horror, my hands half clenched, my eves glaring, and terror and menace in my looks.

My aunt's face was before me, her tierce denunciatory tones rang in my ear, and it is no wonder if they reaohed meauierically upon my motions. * What do you mean ? George George, Mr Gorgeß, what can you mean ?' was the exclamation of Letitia, and I felt her grasping at my arm. 'l'm—l'm ruined!' I had all but said : but catching up the word ero 1 was wholly disgraced, I substituted the first that oame.

' I'm too, too happy !' I crier? : ' this rapture is driving ma mad !' and I struck my forehead wildly. ' Calm younself, collect yourself, dearest!' and Letitia, seizing me in a more ten tit* clasp, drew me again upon the couch. 1 he luckiest rap that ever resounded upon a knocker released mo from the fatal position. The embarrassment of a lriver naturally Beized me at the sound. I sprang from the sofa, gained the hall, drew back the bolt of the door, and the next iuttnnt was in full

collision with Dr. Luflelgh, who stood mildly on the doorstep. A muttered word of apology, some dim hint of a coming explanation, and I had shot pa3t him and sped like a madman along the street. Chapter IV. TUB LBAP. Certainly ao innocent unoffending fell >w waa ever placed in a position more critical than mine. I waa trapped as neatly as any mora tuft hunter, and yet I could not accuse myself of the propensity. Beyond the policy of pleasing my aunt, there had been nothing mercenary in my motives. I didn't want to be married, I didn't aspire to that fragile article 'a jwvvel of a wife,' however rich might ho her setting There waa no r.ae, however, in pausing on the past, in either cletring or condemning myself. Itetloetion would not alter the state of matters, and that was the sole object at present to be attained, I could never return :o my aunt bearing my present tale of misadventure, ar.d if I did not take some prompt step I was entangled for ever. It was plain to me now that Miss Letitia had been as ounnlng as cool, and had but rebuffed me at moments by her fiigid demeanour to draw me on the more reoklessly in the end. At the first symptom of seriousness on my part she had snatched at the reality with an avidity which showed me how tight a tusael it would take to relax her grasp. I bad gained my room in the ho'el, and for nearly an hour 1 paced it up and down in a state of growing distraction, till suddenly, fleet as a meteor-ray, a thought flashed on me. I snatched at pen and Ink, drew a sheet of paper from a blotter on the table, and in a second wss seatad before the latter, dashing off an epistle which I felt would be all the more natural and effective the greater the despatch used in lt» penmanship- I was charmed with three biota which fell on the sheet at the wind up. I scarcely read It over; the more distracted and disconnected the effusion the better, and it should have no benefit from later amendment. It was one of those wild desolating farewells which bespeak utter despair of the mind, and blank hopelessness hb to any brighter change for the futnre. Returning to my secret longing for a refusal, I determined now that I had been refused, and upbraided the fair Letitia In a few incoherent words for her persistent coldness.

Never, I said, could I olalm a forced Affection. Her manner had too plainly shown what her feelings were, and mine were suoh that a renewal of my suit was impossible under the circumstances. 1 must at once and for ever tear myself from her vicinity ; and then, rising boldly to ac'imax, I alluded darkly to an instant departure for Boms deadly region of destruction ; and signed mysKlf, with the most emphatic and irrevocable of dashes, 'Yours, in death, George Gorges.'

If she thought me mad after perusal of this missive, what did it matter ? I waa at least free, and that point gained I could have courage to face any later embarrassments.

The letter duly sealed and addressed, I inquired about the trains on the adjaoent line of railway ; and finding that one left in twenty minutes, I made arrangements for immediate departure. I determined to walk to the station to get rid of company or questioning in the omnibus, and before starting I left my letter with the waiter, with emphatic instructions to have it deliverod safely at the doctor's house.

Ones on my route my spirits rose. I recalled with a thrill of delight the mad manner in which I had rushed at Dr. Lufleigh, nearly knocking him over in his own doorway. With the vision of a like exit before him, he must certainly confirm my own assertion that I was a rejected lover. Nothing bat this state (or the insanity, which was an equally convenient attack) could explain auoh distracted condnct. I absolutely chuckled to myself at the remembrance ; and my ruminations were 80 engrossing that it was not till a sharp whistle broke on my ear that I recalled that the conclusive step of escape was not yet accomplished. Looking in the direction whence' the sound came I saw to my horror that I had taken the wrong turning, that the station was on another road, that the omnibus had already arrived there, and that the engine of the train wis even now dashing up to the platform. There was nothing for It but a steeplechase across hedges and dikes ; and finally, when I came up panting to my destination I was greeted by a second shrill shriek, and received the simultaneous shock of beholding the train paffing off at its beat speed. Determined to foster the impression of my eccentricity, I rushed in wildly to the station master, upbraided him furiously for my own stupidity, and only cooled down on the assurance that another train, bound olty-wards, was due in an hour's time. Nothing could persuade me to emerge from the station in the interim; not even that tempting balminess of the air to which I had so touohingly a'luded on a recent occasion.

I sat down doggedly at the window of the one umall waiting-room, watohing the blank p ntform with the eye of a Cerebus, ready to make a pounce on the first locomotive tba t appeared, and take it by storm, in revenge for my late discomfiture. The driver of the omnibus had no doubt seen my escapade across the fields, and thus, should inquiries be made for me at the hotel, he would be prepared with information as to its vain result.

What If Letitis, vexed or vengeful, should send her uncle in search of me ? A qualm came over me at the thought. Passionate impatience supervened, and np I got, and began such pacings and stampings in my small retreat that the station-master must have prayed as devoutly as myself for the providential arrival of the train.

An hour passed—the wretched conveyance was late. What business had it to pause anywhere but here ? I would have a report drawn up to the directors ; and full of my new grievance I emerged from confinement and strutted ont, puffing and wrathful, towards tho ticket office, The man at once popped in hla head with a frightened gesture. But if I could not confront him by menacing looks, at leaat he should not shut out my stormy accentc. Ihese were rising over higher and higher when an awfnl sight stopped them. It was the dull deadly face of lietitla Lufleigh in the doorway, backed up by that of her uncle. I dashed like a maniao in the opposite direction. This bronght me right out on the platform—the bare blank p'atform, without the sign of a train, without a haven of refuge in sight .' I sprang about midway up, descried a small closed door, pushed violently agait.st it, and as it yielded to the forcible pressure, my hat rolled off behind, and I fell almost headforemost into a deep cavernous abyss Something sharp and shiny rose up around me and above me. It was pile upon pile of black glittering coal. There I lay, ' Beneath a heaven dark and holy,'

though I certainly could not pursue, in poetic fervour, ' Fropt on a bed of amaranth and moly.' Bruised, rather, and battered, I scrambled like a sweep to my feet, and had just strength left to bound frantically towards the door, and hold It by the look. In the same Instant a bell rang, I caught the whistle of the engine, and knew that the train was up. Loud above its noise rose another. It was the voice of Letitia Lufleigh.

' Where is he ? Gracious patience, where fa he gone to ?' ' He's mad wherever he is,' said the doctor calmly.

* Stark staring mad,' echoed the stationmaster. . * Bdt what has become of him ! T>o look ; do think !' cried the lady distractedly. 'O, good heavens, he's under the train!' ' No, no, Letitia.*

' hut he is, I say ! 1 sea his hat I' In the terrible commotion that ensued a hopa flashed upon me. Everyone had rushed to the far end of the carriages. I could hear them screaming, poking, and gesticulating. Hlowly I released my grasp of the coal-hole door, peeped out, and made one spring across the p'atform. The luggage van was directly in front. In a second I was iu it, and had crept behind a big box. 3af« here, I listened breathlessly for the stait. Even though my crushed remains lay undar the wheels, the train couldn't wait for ever for their recovery. The guard plainly was of my opinion. My heart gave a bound of delight aa I heard him bangingto the doors, though hia cool remark at the moment would have made my blood curdle under leaa happy ciroumstances—- • Smashed to smithereens ! Gone as clean aa a cockle ! Not a hair of him loft but the bat!!

A doncenr to this feeling functionary ended my difficulties on my arrival in town, and a letter to my aunt, when I had gained further haven of London, cut short any trouble with hor. She indorsed, at last, all the later steps of my career with the stamp of approval, and reoommended a prolongation of the continental tour which I had promptly mapped out for myself. On my return to her hospitable hearth, never again did the name of Lstitia or Luoy vex my hearing. Her cautious consideration extended to other young ladies as well; and charmed at this release from matrimonial intermeddling, I have felt that credit rather than censure must ever attach to the dashing valor of my • lover's leap.'