LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2457, 20 February 1882, Page 4

LITERATURE.

MKS GOOOH'3 TONGUE,

If Mrs Groch had been born rleaf and dumb she might have been a much happier woman. She often said so herself. The trouble that long tongue of hrr's had got her into no one knew —no one could know bat herself. No matter how important a saoret was it was impossible for her to keep it. And she did not even make » pretence of confiding only in her dearest friends, an some women do. She was as likely to pour her confidences Into the bosom of the merest stranger. _ Even ai a child she had done, so. iv> that there could not be a family tiff, a question of economy, a bill overdue, or a htt'o com fortable backbiting of friends in the domestic circle, but all the world knew it at onec Tilly Smee- that was Mrs Gooch's maiden came—told everybody. After childhood had passed, and Tilly, being pretty, found herself the object of admiration in several quarters, it was exactly the same. Tilly was ' engaged' to five different young men before Mr Gooch came and her love affairs came to an untimely end by reason o! her chattering each time.

Mr Gooch, a wise, serious, silent man, profited by the troubles of hii predecessors, and wisely told Tilly nothing which he did not desire to bavo repeated. Therefoie, they came at last to thoir weddlrg day, and the long s- flaring pare&ts, sisters, brothers, and other relatives of long tongued Tilly saw her transferred to another homo with sensations of relief. Not that Tilly was not a good girl, but that the preaenoe of a sort of private detoctlva at the firoßide waß scarcely agreeable. In her new abode Mrs Gcoch bocame comparatively harmless. She told all the news as before, but tho small, proper household had no secrets whatever. Billß wero regularly paid. The traditional mother-in-law lived forty miles away. Mr Gooch kept his business affairs strictly to h'mself, and waß what old fashioned people call *■ a good provider." Consequently, Mrs Goooh found herself forced to fall baok on the delinquencies of the laundress and the nvil deeds of Bridget tho cook, for her conversation, and peace reigned in the household of tho Gooor.es. Bnt alas ! upon an evil day Mr Gooch had a falling out with hia business ntighbor. Mr Chubb, the grocer, who woult porsist in filling '•■p the pavement un-.er Mr Gooch's office window with boxes, barrels, and bags, and other articles In no way connected with real estate. Hard words passed, and in his excitement Mr Gooch told tho facts to his wife. In the course of the next day that well-moaning, but indiscreet lady had spread the tale over the whole town, not omitting the statement that Mr Gooch in kicking a box of tea from his premises had pnt hia foot through it, and was ob'iped to pay for the tea, which was gathered up in the meanwhile by several beggar boys and women and carried away. Moreover, that he had also split his new boot In his eff rts Gooch's friends joked him : his enemies sneered. Gooch knew tho grocer to be taotturn and reticent. Hia wife had betrayed him. That day he meditated. At tea time he did not return to his domicile aa usual. Eight o'look came; nine, ten. Mrs Goooh folt alarmid, and cried a little, but at half■ past ten the door opened and Goooh came in. He wore a very solemn countenance, and he merely nodded to her, and walked up to the fire, where he stood warming his hands. Never before in his wedded life had Mr Gooch neglected the kiss of welcome. Mrs Gooch locked at him In surprise, and having taken the ten-pot from its warming place from the hearth, said softly—'You're late rJear ?' ' Yes,' said Gooch. ' Nothing unpleasant,' I hope,' said Mrs Gooch.

Deuced unpleasant,' responded Gooch. ' Oh, what is it V said Mrs Gooch, stealing np to hr husband aad putting her hand on his shoulder.

' That's a secret,' said Gooch. ' You know what a long tongue you have, Tilly.' Tilly sighed. ' It's a deeadful thing,' said Gooch. ' TTgh, I can't think of it with calmness. Give ms a cup of tea, Tilly. Dear! dear! dear 1' He took his seat at the table, swallowed the tea his wife poured out for him, and stared at the wall behind her, with such a horror-stricken look, that she twice turned to see what he could be lookiog at; on which occasions Mr tiooch remarked —

1 No-no; there's nothing there. Tilly." Had Mr Gooch gone mad? Was it possible that Mr Goooh had gone mad ? Mrs Gooch almost feared that this was to; for as soon as he bad swallowed his supper he retired without a word.

Mrs Gooch soon followed his example, but sleep did not visit her pillow, Mr Gooch groaned aloud aid muttered unintelligibly. •My dear, whfct is the matter?' sighed Mrs Gooch.

• Oh, dear, dear, dear !' said Mr Gooch. ' Do tell me ?' said Mrj Gooch. ' You'll never tell V said Gooch, solmnly In the darkness.

• Oh, no, no,' said Mrs Goooh. ' Well,' said Mr Goooh, ' I feel that I mutt unbosom myself to someone. I've killed Ohubb.'

' What!' gasped Mrs Gooch. «I've kilkd Chubb, the grocer. That's whit kept me so late. Oh, dear !' * He is mad,' said poor Mrs Gooch. ' No, I'm not, Tilly!' said Mr Goooh. 'No, I'm not! Indeed I'm not? He came Into iny office, about that tea, you know; and I got angry, and we had words, and—well, he'd brought his cheese, knife with him, and when he called me a rascal I just jabbed It into him.' ' Oh !' shrieked Mrs Gooch.

' Well, there he was, dead, you know !' said Mr Gooch, 'and murder is a hanging matter. So I felt I must hide it. I just stepped out and got a barrel—an empty potato barrel. Ah! how often we'd quarrelled over it—and brought it into the office. and let down the blinds and tried to stuff him into it. But Chubb is fat—was fat, I meau—and—' * I shall die I' moaned Mrs Gooch.

' Don't make any noise, Tilly!' said Gooob, in an awful whisper. ' I had to cut him Into chunks, like pork, you know, to get him in. ' «Oh J Ah !' moaned TUly. ' Then there was the floor to scrub, and sinking the barrel in the oistern that is never used, you know It was dreadful. And Chubb's ghost standing just behind you all tea-time. No woader I'm not myself, Tilly.' But he said no mora. Tilly was in hysterics. Poor Tilly Gooch ! She sat alone next day, after her husband had gone to his office, and felt that the worlr? had been turned topsyturvy. Here was a secret the must keep—a horrible secret that she dared not breathe to any one. Certainly it would kill her. Oh ! she mnsfc tell her mother. Her mother would know what depended on silence. She would be true. And then somewhat comforted. Tilly put on her hat, tnd a veil over her eyes, and " ran over" to the parental mansion. In just ten minutes after her entrance old Mrs Since knew a'l about the murder, and was shaking from head to foot, and ejaculating wildly : 'Oh ! dear, they'll hang him ! Oh ! dear, they'll hang him on the gallows ! Oh ! dear what a drea'iful thing ! Oh ! how wicked I Oh ! poor Mr Chubb! Oh!' At the sound of her mother's cries the eldest sister of the tamily, Miss Maria fc'meo, rushed in, and deminded explanation. •I can't tell; I can't tell,'' sobbed Mrs Smec.

'Oh, Maria, you are my friend,' sobbed Tilly. • You wouldn't betray us.' And out came the story again. Now, Maria Smoo was nervous, and given to shrieking when terriSed, and as soon as she had heard the awful facts she began to utter shriek after shriek, each shriller and more prolonged than the last. The windows were open ; neighbors heard and rushed in. The house was in commotion. No one knew what had happened, and someone sent for the family doctor. The dootor came. He was a wise, benignant old gentleman, and he questioned Mrs Gooch kindly. 'Somothing has agitated Mrs Smoo and Miss Maria V he said. ' Yes, said Mrs Gooch. 'And you are trembling, too,' said the doctor. They were alone In a little room, whither

he had led her to question her,, and Mrs Goooh could not restrain her tongue. •Oh, doctor,' said Bhe, 'you wouldn't wonder if you knew all. Don't tell anyone.' And tben and there she told him all. Meanwhile the ear of the ' up-fltairs girl' was at the kejh ;le. ' M/ dear, my de r, this is horrible !' said the doctor. ' You can't expect me to keep a s-cret like that. Compound a murder 1 Be a port of accomplice after the fact! I can't ! I can't! Not if It were my own 3on.'

Mrs Gooch screamed, and Biddy Haggerman left the keyhole and ran to the Police Office.

Th >re Bhe made a statement of the facts of tho case. Mr Chubc had been murdered last night, Mr Gooch murdered him. Tho grocer's remains were in a barrel in the old cistein behind the real estate office. She had a'l the particulars. Justice Spruce was an energetic man. In half »n hour two stout police:m:n were on their way to arrest Mr Goooh, who shortly was led through the streets towards the

statloo, followed by a crowd of boys, and stared at from the windows. Justi e Spruce was an old friend of Gooch's. He advanced to meet him. ' Gjoch,' said he, 'I regret the part I've been obliged to take in this aff »ir. I hope you did not tell Mrs Gooch that you had murdered Mr Chubb, and that his remains were packed up in a barrel in your cistern.' ' I did, though,' said Goooh, ' I don't deny it." May I see my wife in your presence befor) lam sent to prison.' Th) privilege being aocorded, Mrs Goooh was sent for. She arrived in the cab, a mere wisp of misery: her hair dishevelled, her cellar unpinned, her eyes and nose swol en. With htr came all her relatives and half the town. Go >ch stood before his miserable wife, and looked at her with a queer expression on his face. * I confided an awful secret on which my life depended, to your wifely bosom, Tilly,' he aa d, ' and you betrayed me.' 'Oh, my dear! Oh, my dear!' moaned Mrs Gooch. 'I didn't mean to. Oh, please hang me, Mr Spruce. It's my fault. Let him go. I did it. Oh, oh. oh.' The ladies of tho Smee family wept, spectators shook their heads. At this iobtant somebody was heard saying : ' Let ma get through, folks ;' and in an instant more a bulky form appeared b fore the justice, who stared at it in astonishment.

' I jest come back from market,' Raid the newcomer, cheerfally, 'and I hear I'm murdered and packed in&o a tater barrel, in Mr Gooch'B cisiern. Now me and Gooch did have words last week, bat I han't mean enough to want him hunp for murdering me so long a'j I aia'fc muvdsred, nor no attempt been made. Who has circulated this here story ? How de do, Gooch ? All right, now.' 'Well.' said Goooh, ' It's Mrs Gooch has been telling it, I believe ; but I told her. I jnst wanted to see how long a woman's tongue really war. Now I know.' ' yhameful. Gome home with mo, daughter,' cried old Mrs Smee; but Tilly put her hand under her husband's arm, and they went home together. * You won't publish the next secret I confide to you, will you, Tilly?' a iked Mr Goooh. Tilly said nothing.

HIS CHRISTMAS ROSE. IVOW AND LOST. £Krom " London Society."] Chapter I. ' My Christmas Rose, —Please wear the enclosed for the sake of your own Poor Ned' * My poor Ned, how exactly like you! Very nice of you, all the same 1' said she, smilirg a radiant smile as she laid down the note on tbe toilet- tfcble and held a little basket of Christmas roses against her own face to try the effect. Not that she was Ignorant of it; for Christmas roses were her own espeoial flowers—not only because her name was Rose, and having come into this world one Christmas Day, she had hersolf always been called a " Christmas Rose," but because, as Ned had often remarked, there was a sort of poetic likeness between his Rose Sheddon and those delicate-looking, yet hardy, winter blossoms. Now Ned was an obtuse young man; so yon may be sure the resemblance must have been more than obvious, or oertainly he oould never have seen it. ''• Please wear the enclosed." What a curious way of patting things he has! This note was lying on the flowers. How could they be " the enclosed" 1 Why will he always use the wrong word ? Poor old Ned! But you're a good kind fellow. I thought you wouldn't forget me, although you were so late 1' At the moment the flowers had arrived Rose Sheddon had been arranging a spray of email ivy in her dark hair ; but now she took it off and replaoed it by a few of the fragile white roses Ned had sent, setting them cunningly here and there in the soft wavy mass that orowned her shapely head, and pu ting the rest on her white dress. Rose was neither a brilliant beauty nor an exquisite dream ; but standing there In her rioiple whits raiment, adorned with darkgreen leaves, she looked very sweet and gentle—just, in fact, like the Christmas Rose that she was, and like the blossoms she wore.

There was a tap at the door. She opened it. Two little girls, the daughters of her hostess, came in, and overwhelmed her with their childish admiration.

'O Bosie, you do look lovely!' they both oried together.' 'And what beautiful flowers ! They didn't grow in our garden, I know.'

She laughed. The children's words brought a slight touch of color into her cheeks, which were usually as white as Christmas roses ; then, after hastily taking up her gloves, with a charming turn of her slender wrists, she gave a hand to eaoh of the little ones, and danced with them gaily along the corridor and down the broad staircase, to the hall which had been oleared for the Christmas revels.

It was not a baronial hall, nor did it even pretend to be one. Neither was it altogether a modern affair. It was part of a good substantial last century house, and, said its owner, 'like an Act of Parliament, you could drive a coaoh-and-six through it, and turn them round Sagain.' Ned had already arrived—he had, indeed, brought the flowers himself—and, during the few minutes that had been spent in arranging them he had been loungiug with several other young men against the heavy velvet curtains that guarded the door which led to the library. He had come early on account of the little offering; he entered the hall with fear, dreading ho might be the first arrival. However, far from that, Major Carston was already on his hands and knees, grandpapa was swinging any number of youngsters under the mistletoe, and several other elderly men were giving themselves up to playing with the children. I So thankful you're all here I* said Ned, with a sigh of relief as ho entered, 'This la a trying occasion!' * Very,' assented one of the loungers. 'We shall want lots of backing up to get through It. It's quite the typical thing yon know: ' And old atd young come forth to play

On a Christmas holyday." ' Hate typical things—always a bore !' said another. ' I'll take care It doesn't happen to me again. Why Isn't there a sooiety for the suppression of Christmas ? Beggar though I am, I'd head tne subscription list with a handsome sum. I've no talent for amusing brats. No man between seventeen and forty-seven should attempt it.' ' There's a fellow who Beerrs to be doing it pretty well, though, remarked the first speaker, looking towards the centre of the ball, where a man, young as any in the lounging group, wai keeping quite an army of children in a state of ecstatic merriment. ' Who Is the gifted being, Ned ?' ' I don't see the gifted being,' said Ned, looking about vaguely for his still absent Christmas Boso. His companions' laughter at onoe showed him his error, and oovered him with confusion. ' O, that fellow !' he said, trying to reoover himself. 'That's Monkton, London man—no end of a swell—millionaire—staying in the house—plays with gutter obildren in Whitechapel—has learned the business properly. Hate him I' Enter the Christmas Boss by way of the staircase, with a little girl in each hand; and Ned, forgetting confusion, nervousness, and everything else, sprang over the floor to meet her. 'Thank yon, thank you, so caoh!' he

exclaimed, as his eyes fell upon the flower* ■he wore; and he perceived that, in spite it all his foolishness. and his habit of never d ing or saying the right thing, he had been ab!e to make a little offering thai; had not been despised by the onljr oreature in the world whose approbation'was worth anything at all te him. 'Thank you, Ned dear!' this <;r»cions goddess was pleased to observe, with so indescribably delicious an emphasis on th < 'you,' that if Ned bad not already been her slave, that syllable alone would have captured him. They had been engaged, I think, about two months, • And now, Ned, what have you been doing ? Not lounging about with those idle young men, I hope ? Look at Mr Monkton, how useful he is making himself ! Come, we must organise Suppose we begin with ' birds, beasts, and fishes" for the little ones. Shall we V And without waiting for a word of reply from her adorer, Bhe sent him to beat up the children of all ages for a round. Poor Ned! Of course it made him very happy to be with his Hose ; but whf n he had been Inveigled into (xclalrr.ing before the whole company that a rhinoceros was a bird and tbat a rhinoceros was a fish and that a whale was a beast, the situation became more than a little trying, they laughed at him so heartily; and all the while Monkton, that gifted person, was never wrong once. 'My poor Ned, where did you Jearn natural history ?' asked Bobb, when that game was over, as she took Ned, who wax six feet high, np to a small partner of eight years old for the quadrille that was forming. 'O, if yon please, I never eould put the right place In the right word V he stammered ;' and you're going to give me a waltz after supper V She nodded and flew away, while Ned tried his hardest to please his severe little partner, whose eyes followed Mr Monkton in a way that quite aroused Ned's jealousy ; and jealousy was one of Ned's strong points. ' Rose,' he said later in the evening, 'I hate that man Monkton; he's a superior person.' ' Indeed he is. Look at him now. talking to old Mr Torrington, who's as deaf as the dead I Good fellow ! When the children are gone I shall try to reward him for hia self-denying efforts. 'Rose, said Ned, with sadden anger, ' don't dance with that fellow!'

' Ned !' she exclaimed, her faoe aglow like a roao in June

'Well, of course T didn't mean anything,' said Ned, trying to beat a retreat. 'There, there 1' said Rose. 'There's no time for quarrelling now. Go and lounge, iN ed ; go and lounge; you can at least do that admirably.' ' I'm glad yon think so,' retorted Ned, and retreated to the curtain, where he joined his companions in criticising the festive coene with unsparing severity. Presently, however, it dawned npon him that his Bose had vanished ; his eyes sought her all over the room, but they could not fiod her. bhe had gone, and so—O, horror ! —so had Monkton. So, too, had Med been wise enough to notice, had all the children. But Ned, poor fellow, only saw the fact that Bose was gone, and Monitor), of oonrsa, had gone with her. 'Aw ! Christmas tree,' remarked one of the ornamental young men. Ned hurried across the hall and into the dining-room, where he found Mr Monkton disguised as Father Christmas, and Bobs disguised as Snow, distributing the gifts from the tree. Bose beckoned to him in the kindest manner possible, and at ones set him to work to untie the toys that were on the higher branches. ' J'm an awful fool,' said Ned penitently to himself, somewhat soothed by the smiles with which his Koee rewarded him for every dram of sweeties he succeeded in getting down. 'l'm an awful fool I' All the same, Beeing Mr Monkton's hand very Dear h's own as he was cutting the string that tied a lovely doll to a topmast bough, he felt a desperate wish to attack that hand with his penknife. Well, at last the children had had their supper and were all gone. ' But you won't dance with Monkton, will you, darling ?' pleaded Ned, after he and Boso had finished a very long waltz. ' Well, Ned, for to-night you shall have it all your own way,' said she; and they strolled off into the conservatory together ; for, between onreelvea, Rose was very fond of Ned, and always made excuses for him ; and after the exertion of the evening she felt that a few quiet minutes with birr would be pleasant. ' O Kose,' sa'd Ned, as soon as they were alone, 'how I wish you were quite my own.'

' Bat, Ned, I am quite your own,' eha returned sweetly and brightly. 'I don't know,' said i*ed, 'whtn you've hardly spoken a word to me all the evening.' 'Nevermind, she slid, 'l've thought of you all the time. See how busy I've been.' ' Yes, about other peop!e.' ' Ah, Ned, yon want to quarrel, I see, but I won't qnarrel with you.' ' It's only because I'm bo fond of you,'said Ned.

* Yea, yea, I know dear; and for that reason I forgive you everything. There now, you shall have one of my Christmas roses to take home with you. And you must go now. Look, they're putting out the lights; ev» ryone has gone." ' Not Monkton ; he's going to stay in the house. I wish I were.' (To be continued.)

Mr Henry A. Duffy, Manchester a writer, is the author of new pieces with which Mr and Mrs English and their talented child actress will go on a tour next spring. From the pen of the same author will be the fare provided by Miss Marie Majilton when she takes to the road next year; and her brother, Mr Frank, will also produce a work by this gentleman. "The Black Crook" has already proved immensely attractive at the Alhambra, and by t'ne olose of this week it is estimated that no fewer than 20,000 persons will have seen and enjoyed its many beauties. The receipts on a Wednesday evening amounted to nearly £SOO. This speaks well for the management of the house, whioh is just now in the hands of Mr Henry Sutton, the ohairman of the Board of direotors.