LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2313, 2 September 1881, Page 4

LITERATURE.

THE STEANGEST JOURNEY OF MY LTEE. [From " London Society."] I aas about to recount a Btory which will appecr in the highest degree romantic and Improbable. My readers, however, will not be slow to detect the solid basis on which this narrative reposes. It will recount the longest and tho oddest journey, or series of journeys which I ever took in my life. It will be Been also that it was a journey crowned with very happy and triumphant resulfiß. My readers will accuse me of being a person of a peculiarly sentimental and susceptible nature. They will look npon it as a tale of unparalleled and unheard-of folly. I have too mnch humility of character to disavow the charge. I, however, salve my conscience through the fact that the sweetest of beings, by whom this imputation could be most effectively brought, has entirely forgiver. me. Also, if there is any truth In the adag > that those may langh who win, I may venture to tell my story with a laughing heart.

There is this additional extenuation—that, at the time my story commences, I was in & weak state of health, and that my brain was '.the weakest part of me. I had been going abroad in the diplomatic service, for which I had a nomination, but for which also it was necessary that I should pass a severe examina tion. There was no competition, to be sare, bat the hardest of competitive examinations conic, scarcely have been more Bevere. Now my whole moral nature has always been thoroughly opposed to tho system of competitive examinations. All my previous line of life had been opposed to it. I know Paris and_ Parisian society thoroughly. I was familiarly acquainted with the chanceries of two or three embassies. I flattered mysel 1 that in all essential points I should make as good a diplomatist as any of them—much better than two or three fellows whom I could mention, neither so good nor so goodlooking as myself. Nevertheless, there was a frightful quantity of work to be done—lnternational or public law, all modern hiatory, all the treaties of all the countries, not to mention languages and literature. Now I had always been a boating, yachting, oricketiog man, and to take me out of the fresh air and nail me to my books for ten hours a day wbb an extreme instance of cruelty to animals. The animal natnre succumbed. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. I passed my examination, bnt very soon after that victorious examination I was taken ill. I got wet through one day. If my whole constitution had uo'-. been thoroughly undermine! by that process of examination, as injurious as Spanish or Italian I should have thrown off the effects of the rain :is easily as a dog or a duok. I had an attack of fever, and the fever flew to my over-wrought brain and became brain fever. By the advice of my physicians I applied for

and obtained furlough for nine months. I wanted rest and change of acene, so they Bald, and I went down to stay a little time at Clifton, where I had friends. I had one friend in particular, who will figure in this unvarnished narrative, and whom I beg to Introduce to my readers under the somewhat imposing title of Lord George Erskine. But, bless your hearts, he was no lord at all. George Erskine was no more the son of a duke or a marquis than he was the son of a gun. But his parents had the devotion of the British Philistine for Debrett. They hit upon a plan for making their son a lord. 3 hey adopted the queer plan of having him christened Lord George. Their ostensible reason was that their cub had expectations from a distant connection. I don't quite bdieve that statement. At any rate, in that cnse Lord George Erskine never came in for Swift's beatitude, 'Blessed is he who expecteth nothing, for he shall not be disappointed.' Certainly, to judge by his chronic impecuniosity, Lord George had never come in for anything good. But wo called him the noble lord, the peer, the baron, the right honourable, and so on, at all which terms poor Erskine was greatly flattered. If anybody was taken in and called him 'my lord' hia face was perfectly funny from delight. If he was spoken of as an esquire, ho would explain that every lord by courtesy waa only an esquire legally. We all had our little joke at him. He had thought fit to attach himseif to me, to say the truth, in a somewhat parasitic manner. I had not bis advantages of social rank ; but then I had the vulgarian advantage of a good deal of ready money. When I state that my official salary from a grateful country would be £l5O per annum, and that would not begin until I commenced my duties aa an attache, and that it would be necssary to spend a good many hundreds In order to carry out the idea of the office, it will be seen that it was really necessary that I should have a good deal of money. Erskine was a capital fellow to fetoh and carry. I never met any poodle who did it better. He had no serious alms and interests in life,' but had taken it into his head to hold quits a doggy attach' ment towards me. If he found me out h would stand like a terrier outside the door of my Oxford rooms until such time as I should retnrn. I think he was alive to his own interests, bnt I am also convinced that he had mine at heart as well. I had Invited him to come and he my guest for a month or six weeks' holiday. Of course I should pay all his bills, and had also tipped him a cheque. There are certain mental and spiritual states closely dependent npon bodily states. Aa people Bay, I was as weak 83 a rat. Of course there is all the difference in the world between getting well and getting ill; but as there is an equinox in spring and autumn, so there is an exact parallel of bodily condition In tho periods of disease and convalescence. My illness had been very serious, and I gathered health but slowly. I was weak, if yon will, mentally as well aa physically. I conld not read a noble passage in a book but my eyes filled with tears. I could not even read of an accident in the newspapers but I realized it in a morbid fashian. I found myself endeavouring to write long loving letters to my friends, but failed to finish them, and commenced one or two sonnets, but did not posaees sufficient intellectual energy to tnrn them off with the true Italian correctness. But I seemed to hear every sound with preternatural acuteness. My sonl drank in with delight the beauty of the sunshine and shadows, of the opening flowers, of the gleaming waters. I would often have fits of long dreamy meditations. I am bound to say that George Erskine waa very kind to me ; he watched and knew my moods and ways, and never interfered with me unless it was for my own good. Not being strong enough to walk, I was wheeled about the downs in a bath-chair. And in the early summer those downs and cliffs were lovely indoed. I shall never forget the long arcidod path to the fountain, the mural walls of the tidal Avon, the suspensionbridge so lightly poised aloft, and the Leigh Woods in their abundant leafinesa on the further side. I was to take steel and quinine and to be in the open air as much as possible ; and though I walked and drove occasionally, the bath-chair was my 'usual mode of taking the air. I was especially enjoined to avoid all fatigue. So two or three hours were spent every morning on that spriney turf, wandering away over the cliffs and Durgham Downs as far a* Cook's Folly, and on the high-roads beyond, where past the estuary Avon I saw ' that broad water of the west' and the blue outlined of the Welsh hills on the other side of the Severn sea.

One day my chair had been brought to a stand very near the Observatory. Thence there waa a wide panoramic view over the Somerset hills. I had a volume of Browning in my hands, but my thoughts had wandered from my book as I watched the landscape, and the sense of the greatness and awe and mystery of things gathered moodily about my soul. And there came up the little path a young lady leaning on the arm of an elderly gentleman.

A glance was cast at me. Indeed, I had all the appearance of an invalid, although the tide of health was returning, as surely aa at that very moment hundred of feet below there was a slight stir on the muddy stagnant waters of the Avon, which prophesied that they would soon fill their nrn within those western hills.

The glance which I obtained revealed to me one of the sweetest and fairest of faces. I do not know whether it was just the beanty of the face, though I have now learned to look on it as the most beautiful of all 'faces; but there was something so spiritual and kind in the look, so courteous and graceful, such eapphire eyea, such dignity and womanliness of feature, that I felt as if all the strength and sweetness of the coming summer were gathered in full affluence around me: The magic touch of a new-born feeling concealed the fountains of life, and I felt a rush of new emotion and power throughout my being. They rapidly descended the path, and I suppose the old gentleman, since he conld no longer see mo, forgot that I might be able to hear ; hut I beard him say, ' That young man does not look as if he were very long for this world.' And tones were wafted back full of pity and sympathy that thrilled me to the heart.

'O, you most not say that! Poor follow, I hope he may got over it.' This little bit of dialogue impressed me much. I began to realize a dim fear, which I know bad been entertained, that my sharp illness might prove a chronic trouble which might darken and shorten my days. But tho gentle words which I had heard bore infinite balm and healing. And all my soul went out to meet that lovely face, those kindly accents. ' And If I ever do recover,' I breathed to myself, ' that angel and no other shall become my wife, if I can only win her.'

I fell into a kind of vague dream, from which I was aroused by a remark of Erakine's, that tho young party wasn't half a badlookiDg girl. I need hardly say that I rebuked him for his unseemly flippanco But none the less I felt that my hour waa come. I had rushed upon my destiny, I had met my fate. That muoh-derided event, love at first sight, had really befallen me Yon might abuse auch a notion, you might argue against it, yoa might disprove it; but there it was, an uliimate fact which you could not disprove, and which you could not get over. I never wished to deride such a fact. Indeed, why should I ? I am glad that there are persons to whom such happiness comes; and I think those are to be pitied who have no such experience. To me it was a blessed experience, It came just at a 'time when my destiny needed to be guided into a fresh course, when such a bright and absorbing Interest could save me. A new star arose on the horizon of my life. Each morning awoke with a freshened interest in life ; the opening summer, with its melodies and perfumes, seemed to harmonise with this fresh chapter of my Me. My thought was— * If I could only find her ! if I could only find her!' But although I was always moving about Clifton, It seemed destined that the fair viaion crossed my path no more.

One day my cbair being wheeled along the Mall at Olifron, with my faithful and noble fried Lord George by my Bide, when his lordship drew up suddenly, and made the following observation:— 'By Jove! that's my pretty girl over again!' The chairman, trained to stop when any occasion of interest turned up, came to aa immediate pauße. {To be continued )