LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2406, 21 December 1881, Page 4

LITERATURE.

CAMILLA'S WHDDING-DAY. [" Tinsley's Magazine." (Concluded.) ' And are you happy, dear Camilla?' 'I am not unhappy. If I feel no joy, I feel no Borrow. I don't love anybody much, bat I like people well enough. The life of my life was over five years ago. Yon see, Kate, it was not the feeling of a year, a season, a month. It was not the love that neople mean when they talk of falling in love, as if it were a brink you slipped over in an hour. It was all my life. Now it Is gone, and my yoath is gone ; and I've somo years to live and some duties to do, and I will do them faithfully. Kate, I munt not keep you here all night; it's late—how late ! Good night." She had told her story without a tear or a tremor in her voice, with scarcely a sigh. And the tears gushed from my eyes as I thought of poor Oswald, with his warm, light, young heart. Camilla would do hor duty by him, I knew; but would not the time come when he would yearn for a beating heart of flush and blood in the fair statue's breast?

The wedding was to take place In the course cf a few weeks at Holmehurst ; and Camilla invited me there for the occasion, and to be one of her bridesmaids. I accepted the invitation Bell and Janet Bruce were there to a. I looked with great interest at Aleck's sisters.

' Janet Is like Aleok,' Camilla once said to me.

She seemed to grow colder as the wedding' day drew near, but if ever she softened to any human creature it was to Janet Bruoe. I fatided there grew a oloud over Oswald too now. Did he begin to realise that the sunshine of his happlnesß hid all emanated from his own affectionate heart and joyous spirits? Camilla shed no more warmth around her than the cold pale mooa. On the bridal eve Holmehurst was full of gnests, and we sang and danced the evening away. The brideeleot would not dance ; she was tired, she said, and indeed she looked so. For days past I had noticed she was growing paler and paler, and that evening she was oolnurless as marble, with great dark circles round her eyes. The next morning, the wedding morning, while we bridesmaids went to and fro, flattering excitedly in and out of each others's rooms and of the bride's, moat of us eagerly absorbed in the question of veils and wreaths I oould not help observing to Ada Hilton how ill Camilla looked.

' Brides are always e'ther pale or flashed,' said Ada, trying the effect of her long tulle veil before the glass; 'lt is much more becoming to Camilla to be pale.' ' How do you feel, Camilla ?' I asked presently. ' As well aa a person generally feels who has not slept, and whose heart obstinately refuses to beat the right number of times a minute, as a well-conducted heart ought to do,' she replied, with ber cold sweet smile. She had on her bridal dress now, and the pearly folds of sheeny satin were not whiter than she. She was leaning back in her chair with an air of weariness that was almost exhaustion, her bosom heaving irregularly under the diamond pendant, a bridal gift that sparkled rainbow-tinted in the morning sun.

' She is a little faint, I think,' Annie Hilton said ; ' bring the sal-volatile here, Kate.'

I fetched It from the table, and we made her Inhale a little.

' Do yon feel well enough to have your veil and wreath arranged now, dear ?' asked Ada.

The bride lay back in her ohair, taking no notice of the bridesmaids as tbey buzzed and chattered round her. Her beautiful eyes were wide open, but not looking at any of us, fixed in a strange far away expression upon vacancy. ' May we put your veil on now ?' coaxed Annie.

' Listen !' was her only answer, spoken as if she had not heard; and she pressed her hand upon her bosom, and the strange expression deepened in her dilated eyes. We bent over her amazed and alarmed. Janet and Bell Bruce exchanged peculiar glances, a little alarmed, bat not at all amazed.

' Dou't you hear the horses hoofs ?' Camilla murmured breathlessly, as if in a kind of trance; ' listen! he is galloping faster, faster. The hoofs strike on my heart! Camilla he calls me ; Camilla, lam coming !' The bridesmaids gathered together in an anxious gronp. Janet Bruoe knelt by her side and clasped her hand, and gazed eagerly in her face, as if awaiting some revelation. Bell, pale and perturbed, looked at her sister ouriously. Just then we heard Oswald's voloe In the corridor outside, and Ada flew to the door.

'Oswald,' she said tremblingly, 'I am afraid Camilla is ill!'

The bride rose up, but still like one in a trance, with open and unseeing eyes. She oroßeed the room with the look of a dreamer walking in sleep, and met Oswald at the door.

'Camilla!' he cried, startled, seizing her passive hand. She gazed beyond him, but not at him, ' Listen ! Listen ! Don't you all hear it ? Nearer! olose ! He pulls up his horse! He is here ! Aleck ! a leok !'

We had never thought to hear a cry eo passionate, ao tender, from Camilla's lips. A look that we had never seen her wear before lit np her face, and transfigured her to an almost unearthly beauty. She stood, unconscious of our presence, with outstretohed hands and upraised eyes. ' Camilla, what is this ? ' asked Oswald, well nigh as pale as she.

* Don't be alarmed ; we have known her like this before,' said Janet softly, but gravely, as she stood watchfully by Camilla's side.

We tried to lead her back to her room, but she took no heed of us. Then Mrs Stamer appeared on the scene. ' It is getting lafcn ; the Bishop is at the church already. You should be there, Oswald. Dear, dear, what is the matter with her? What are we to do?' she lamented helplessly. • Listen!' presently exclaimed Bell, with a violent start.

We all listened, as dumbly and breathlessly now as the bride. We heard the trample of a horse's hoofs; first galloping, then slackening at the gate. We looked at each other with a strange flatter of excitement. We heard a loud peal at the door bell, and then a stranger's voice. We had no time to listen for more, as Camilla, with a kind of wild waking sob, staggered and sang into Janet's arms. In a minute or two, before we could get her to her room, while we still hunp over her, exclaiming, wondering, and condoling—while Oswald chafed her oold hands and felt her feeble pulse— a hasty step was on the stairs ; a tall, dark, bearded stranger stood before us, gaz'ng at the group—the bride, in hor white satin and orange blossoms, lying insensible in her bridesmaids' arms.

'Aleok!' cried Bell, springing to him with eager loving greeting. • Bell! Janet! Am I too late ?' he said. • Who are you, sir ?' demanded Oswald. ' I am Aleck Bruce—her cousin and her friend.'

'I have seldom known so long a swoon,' said the doctor, about an hour afterwards. ' Let my brother speak to her,' suggested Janet; ' Try if she will not wake at Aleck's voice.'

So Aleck came, asd took her cold white hand, and called upon her name. Soon she stlrrod and sighed. 'Camilla I Camilla!' she said; 'itial— Aleck ! Open your eyes and speak to tne!' Then the lashes quivered on her oheek, and slowly the great, deep, beautiful eyes open, and rested, with a vague wonder and content, upon his face. 'Aleck!' she murmured, and her fine era olosed gently on his, and her iips parted in a smile so angelically sweet and soft—Buoh a smile, I think, as that with which oar beloved lost will greet us at heaven's-gatet. By this time, Bell and Janet and I knew the story of the oause of Aleok's unexpected return. His wife was dead, and he was free. Instead of writing, he oune to Camilla himself ; end hearing but the previous day a rumor of her intended marriage, he hastened to see her, and to hear at least from her own lips whether he camo too late. There is little more- to bo told. Aleok Bruoe returned In time, though at the eleventh hour. To Oswald's generous and noble nature but one course was open now—to release Camilla from her engagement.

'Do you think so meanly of me,' he said, 'as to suppose that I would take your hand without your heart V And Camilla was too strong and true to wreck three lives for a conventional scrapie. Oswald resigned her, and Aleok was free ; Aleck, the half of her life, the twin of her heart, whose spirit called to hers across the gulf of time and distance, whose soul and hers, as she had said to me, neither life nor death could sever. Nobly, freely, Oswald had given up all claim upon her. Dear Oswald! so frank and true. I think the bride he resigned appreciated and admired him, if she did not love him. ' Do not mourn about Oswald, Kate,' she said to me gently ; 'he will be happy. Kate, dare I prophesy that some day some one else will be happy too, and four lives be blessed ?' Ab, Camilla, sweet olairvoyante ! You saw true for others as for yoursel', and today four happy hearts bless the hour of Aleck Bruce's all bnt too late return.