LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2323, 14 September 1881, Page 4

LITERATURE.

IN AN APPLE ORCHARD.

["Allthe rcarKotrad. ']

(Concluded.)

• Wheie is Ainslie?' the squire ssks aloud as they sestle to t.he serious irork of fie day, and leave a couple of wise old hounds to watoh the hole from whioh taey know the otter will emerge by-»r.d-by. 'Where is Ainalia ? It's the first tima ho has not been out - Jvith ua for two years. He must oome and drink my daughievs health with the rest; h:s family are the oldest tenants on the property ' he addi in an explanatory tamo to the Marquia of Oueingtou, who ia down ■ here to give his approval of his brotberV choice in lbs most uuanistakable way on the! morrow. Ronnie pretty Belle is g?ing to bo a very : great lady; bat, che feels a heartier pleasure , this day in fshowing her father's tenants and friendohow her father'* daughter is appreci-, ated, than she ••fill ever feel in har more dazzling triumphs in a.ieieby by-and-bp. ' One of you yonng feUowß run up to the house and bring Ainsley down,' the squire shouts, and good natu-ed Charles Collingford .jumps up and declares ha will fetch him out. •And I'll come with you,' Belle saya • And have a look at the brown colt,' she adds in a whisper. And the handsome pair suit the action to •the word, and walk away through the orchard to the house to feboh out Ainslie, and to look at the colt. But Dick Is not at home to-day. His mother thinks he had business In Plymouth. At any rate, he went away early this morndug on the brown oolt. « And la It settled with pretty Janie Welbyn yet ?' Belle asks, standing up proudly by the side of the young lord, her lover, who is so soon to take her away from her own people. • Yes, thank God !' his mother says reverently ; ' Dick has made a wise choice, and will have one of the beat and moat prudent of girls for his wife.' ' I'm so glad ! and Lord Charlos and I will go to their wedding ; won't we, Oharliti ?' Belle says buoyantly, and then she whispers a few word:i to her betrothed, and he aays. • Will your son, Mrs Ainslie, be kind enough to send the brown colt up to the squire's to-morrow morning 1 And then he laughs and adds gallantly : ' He's to be the first present my future wife will deign to accept from me, Mrs Ainslie, so I'm anxious to Becnre him—at your eon'a price, of course. * Mrs Ainslie makeu the handsome, jollylooking young naval nobleman one of her daintiest mixtures of bow and enrtsey; and he goes back presently to the _ group by th« river-side with Belle, declaring himself to to be quite enraptured with the Ainslies and their surrounding?. •If I were a girl, I Bhould fall In love with that fiae young fellow and this old picture holm,' he says jollily. ' Belle, why haven't you found a pretty girl for him to marry 1 You neglect your duty. Upon my word, I ahall have to brush you up, and make you keep your eyes open when I take you to our place;' and then he calls his brother to his aid, and they both begin chaffing her charmingly about her duties as queen regnant of the house of Ooclngton. •Mr Ainslie haa found a pretty girl for himself,' Belle chimes in. ' Papa, you onght to arrange that your two old tenants' children should bo married on the same day aa your own daughter ; I should like it of all things, for the brown colt (he is mine now, isn't he Charlie ?) will always be a bond between Dick Ainslie and me.'

•My daughter can't forget the ways of her childhood, you see,' the squire says smilingly to Lord Ocnugton; and he replies : " A. pity she should, as they're such pretty ways. I think Charlie's one of the luckiest fellows ia the world, aud—— * There is a cry that tha otter has come out and gone down stream at this juncture, and the whole party throw off their luncheon lethargy and prepare* to follow him. He is a -wary old dog otter, conversant with every twist and turn of the river, aud with every hole in the bed of it accurately mapped out in his head. He gives them a lively lead for half-cn-hour, and then, jnst as he is twisting himself rouud the trunk of a tree that seem; to spring out of a stone by the river's edge, Dick Ainslie suddenly appears and tails him !

He is an old dog-otter, sorely hunted and savage, and he turns and rends tbe hand that has checked his career.

'Bitten you in the thumb, has he, Dick,' Miss Ffolett says, eagerly coming forward ; ' let me bind it up ! Oh! ia it nothing ? I'm so glad ; I was afraid he had hurt you.' * Will you have hi 3 ekin as a foot-warmer, Miss Fiolett?' Ainelie auks. 'Bo. Ton will, won't yon?' and ho swings the otter, who is dead now, round him, and clears a circle as he speaks. •Young Ainslie will jump into the river and get bitten by hunted beasts once too often,' two or three of young Ainslie's friends say to one another, as they jog home after the otter-hunt is over. ' There's something queer in his family. His grandfather hung himself after after the best year he ever had on the land.'

' Hung himself in thu home orchard, didn't he? I don't know that I've heard rightly, but they say the Ainslies in every other generation come to a bad end.' • Dick's end will be to marry Miss Janie Welbyn : and that won't be so bad for him,' they laugh ; and while they are settling his fate thus comfortably, Dick stands in the apple orchard alone.

•There's the spot,' he says to himself. 1 They cut the tree down and dug up the mould around it, but there's the spot where poor old grandad did for himself. That was a dark night's work. I wonder dear little Janie can think of me, and be willing to come to a place with tho stain of self-drawn blood on it.'

Before he goeß 'bo bod this night Dick makes his mother feel very happy. *I shell settle it with Janie at Miss Ffolett's ball to-morrow night, mother,' he says.

'And aofc married before harvest, Dick,' she says earnestly. ' Lor! what a help Janie will be to me at that time.'

It is a very brilliant affair this birthday of Belle Ffolett's. In the first glow of her happiness, her engagement openly acknowledged and approved of by the heads of both houses, the girl feels as if she could not do enough to make her fellow croaiures glad and happy too.

Another young engaged couple are here also, and on these Belle Ffolett's interest is soon concentrated. Bichard Ainslie and Janie Wei by 'have made it up between themselves,' and blushing Janie is hardly second to Miss Ffolett this night in the intensity of her satiaf icti'jn at having won tho love she prizes. ' You mast bo married the same day as I am—the 3rd of August,' Miss Ffolett says to Dick in the piu<es of tha quadrille she is dancing with him ; 'and I shall ask Janie to accept her wedding dress from me, and it shall be made by my own dressmaker. What a pretty wife you'll have, Dick—the very prettiest tjirl about here ; won't you be proud of her 1' Dick looks a little wildly at her, but says nothing, and : elle s;oea on:

' Lord Charles thinks the colt perfection. We're going to call him Golden Pippin, after yonr famous apples, and I hope to be often down here in the hunting season after I'm married, and then you'll see him.'

Golden Pippin ! It i B not an auspicious namo to mention to an Ainslie, for it was on one of their famous golden pippin trees that the grandfather of tuis present man hanged himself. Bat Belle has either never heard of this fact, or it has entirely escaped her memory. 'Now, look hero!' says Miss Ffolett; *if Jaoie and your mother agree to it, will you bo married wl.eu Lord Charles and I are, Dick ?' * Yea, Miss Ffolett; as well then as any time,' he says hopelessly, and tho looks at him in surp ise and asks : *ls it too long off a date ? it's only two montbs from to-day, you know—the 3rd of August. I shall go and tell Janie it Is fixed.'

Presently tho two brides olect are holding sweet con verse togeuhsr in the corner of the room.

•Are ycu very fond of him?' Bello U asking, 'l'm sure you are, and ho and you will be such a dear, nice, happy couple; I shall like to feel that two other people are just as hippy as ourselves down here the day Lord Charles and I are married. It will

be another bond between, ua. X look upon the brown, oolt as one already.' The next morning Richard Airralie _ receives a cheque from Lord Charles Collingford for the brown colt, which is about three times as much as he would have asked if ho coald have baen persuaded to name a price. He doea net say anything to his mother about it, but takes it into the home ' orchard, and tears it into little bits a? he stinds rateditativelf under a tree. Then he goes about his daily work. The weddiag day is definitely fixed for the 3rd of August, and preparations for the reception of tire young wife at the Little Firs farmhouse proceed upaco under old Mrs Ainslie'a able management. Janle will find everything in the most perfect order, and the admirable manner in whioh she has been brought up justifies Mrs Ainslie'a most sanguine anticipations of happiness resulting from the match. But Dick do°a not Beem happy. The 3rd of August is a golden summer day, and numbers of people from the adjmcent villages are assembled about the entrance to the churchyard to see the two weddings about whioh so muoh talk has been made Miss Ffolett'd long train of friends have arrived, and now Miss Ffolett, leaning on her father's arm, walks up the little pathway through the churchyard, and looka round eagerly for the other bridal party. Aa she advancrs to the altar railings, and the service which is to unite her to Lord Charles Collingford begins, the Welbyns bring their daughter io, and two or three scouts are sent off to eee what makes Richard Ainslie a laggard in love this morning. Sis mother Is waiting for him in the old oak parlor, looking happier than she has looked since her husband'* death. Her plain colored si k dress and bonnet suit her well; Miss Ffolett has ohosen them as well aa Jonie's dress.

Where can Dick bo? The friendly messengers como in breathlessly from the church where his bride is awaiting him. And there is a search made, gleefully enough at first, anxiously enough after a few minutes. Then they find him. There in the home orchard, near to that same spot where her husband's father had died by his own hand, the poor mother sees Dick, her son, lying in hia wedding clothes, senseless, cold, dead. They find no marks of violence about him; his face is peaceful enough, poor fellow, now ; and the doctor who is hastily called in declates it to be ' heart disease,' and no word iB said to the bereft mother and the poor little girl who loved him so well, of the fatally condemning little bottle which they find empty in a llttio tuft of grass olose by. •It is so Bad,' Lady Charles Collingford says when she is down for the hunting season the year of her marriage, as she rideß Golden Pippin well after her father's hounds over the Little Fira Farm ; •he was suoh a nice yonng fellow, Buch a friend of mine, and bo happy in the prospeot of being poor Janie'a husband ; it almost makes me shudder to pass by this appleorchard now after such a tragedy.' So he lives for six months at least in her memory. __^_^_^_____