LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2480, 18 March 1882, Page 4

LITERATURE.

EVERY I HP> G OR NOTHING. BT ESTHER SFARLB KESNETH. •Caro!' The dark-eyed girl whom Eawdon Gale wis looking for had pamed upon the landing ol the old oaken staircase, and suddenly grasped with her slim hand, the carven corner of a post, as if to keep herself from falling. What had staid her Heat step and light breathing ? The sight of a ghost or an enemy ? There was neither under the roof of the quaint old seaside hotel. It was a perfome, the beautiful fragrance of heliotrope, which had smitten Caro Pummers’ fine nostrils and sent the glow Into her cheek. Her red, mobile lips broke ap<rt; her dark i yea dilated ; then she pressed a hand upon her heart.’ *lt cannot be. She would not come here,’ she murmured.

A melodious laugh, the gleam of lustrous gray eyes, and a woman’s elegant figure passed the foot of the staircase. It was enough. Apprehension deepened Into certainty. ' Lilith Ferrers!’

Caro pronounced the words with an accent of pain, almost of breathless fear. Then her name was called rather impatiently from the head of the staircase. ‘ Caro! ’

She started, and tried to hurry upward, but her strength had seemed to desert her, and she dragged herself wearily np the last few steps. ‘ Are you not going to finish that game of cheas with me. Caro? It will s ion be dark,’ said Bawd on Gale, tossing hla half-eon-umed cigar through the open window, far down upon the ground. Caro’s glance followed it mechanically, and she saw it slight among the croquet-players upon the beach. ‘lt ia too lata now,’ she said, absently. • They are tying handkerchiefs upon the wickets.’

‘i-h, yes, and the mosquitoes trouble us if wo h’.ve a light. te'ell, there is no one in the parlor, is there? Come and sing me Mendelssohn’s songs withont words.’ * Please excuse me. I am stupid tonight, ’ • You are pale, Caro It is the heat. Pit down here,’ and he drew her into a seat iu a bay-window of the Jong, wide upper hall Then, when she was seated, Bawdon Gale bent, and gently kissed his sweetheart. He meant to pleaae this woman whom he loved ; he did not dream that he was giving her exquisite pain ; for she realised with a pang, how necessary to her happiness were these conrteeies and caresses.

•There were a me arrivals to night,’she said, speaking quite clearly, * and I think Miss Ferrers h-soome.’ • Lilith Ferrers !’ Gale’s tone was one of utter surprise. ‘ You must be mistaken, Caro.’ ‘ No. She —she uses the same perfume ; and —I saw her,’ faltered Caro. She was glad of the darkness just then. * Of all things ! What can induce a woman like Lilith Ferrers to come to a place like this?’ pronounced Gale coolly. Caro knew the man to he frank as light itself. She might have taken heart in the matter from, his appearance ; ’yet she never once withdrew the keen fixedness of her gaze from his face aa he (at opposite her st the window. She could see quite clearly, last as the twilight was deepening, the ex-p-esaion of his countenance, and every little tell-tale movement. He was surprised, interested. He seemed to fco nothing more. But could she tell. Seven years before Rawdon Gale had been passionately in love with Lilith Ferrers. They had been betrothed. Some trouble came between ; they had quarrelled, and the engagement was broken. Then Miss Ferrers went to Paris. Caro had known her a little in these doya. She recognised her when she returned to New York a year previous. She wits yet more beautiful and fascinating than in her early youth. But Caro knew that Gale had never met her since that bitter parting, seven years before, when he declared that she had broken his heart. ‘I know better now, Oaro, but I really thought she had then,’ he said to her. when telling the story. Caro ought to have been satisfied, bnt she was not. She was little, plain and unpretending. She never could understand why Rawdon Gale, brilliant and universally attractive, had been drawn to her. She was so utterly different from Lilith Ferrers, with her tall, lithe form, blush-rose complexion, and blonde vivacious face. Oaro believed herself common-place. But she had one passion ; it was musio. Perhaps It was her playing and singing which had won Bawdon. She was at the Petrel House with her father, and Gale was there because she was. It was a queer old place; had been built for a block house; but, well preserved, and with certain elegancies added thereto, was anything but unpretending and untenantable. The Summers’ suite of rooms were vary comfortable ; and though Gale laughed at the windows of his chamber, affirming that they were the original loopholes, and declared that the waiter at table was the hostler In disguise, the liberty and comfort of the place was limitless, and Mr Summers, who was an invalid, would spend the season nowhere else. And now, hither came the woman whom Caro believed to be her rival.

Oaro could not sleep that night. She thought It was the sweep of the surf upon the shore—rather, it was her own excited thoughts. There was a morbid vein in the girl which made itself felt now. ‘ I have always feared that happiness was never made for me. Why have I dared believe otherwise of late ? Rawdon ia good and noble ; but he cannot resist that exquisite face. But a little while and he will wish for his freedom. I shall be only in the way. Lilith Ferrers—from the first I feared her ; I had a presentiment that she would work me evil.’ *

To suoh sad thoughts Caro fell asleep in the early dawn. She was late for breakfast when she awoke Hurriedly tying a pink ribbon over her white dress, at the throat, tr hide her jaded cheek, she looked Into her father’s room, found him gone, and hurried down. Two figures were passing out at the farther door of the dining-room. She caught a glimpse of Gale’s faultless morning dress (he wonld have been fastidious in dress if he had been quite alone at the Pe‘rel House, down there by the sea), and saw the sunshine touch the tendril rings of gold above Lilith Ferrers’ blue eyes. * Already,’ she murmured. But when she had forced herself to eat and dilnk (he bravely joined them on the piazza, where they were walking np and down, whtle Mies Ferrers chatted animatedly, And Rawdon—Rawdon was looking vastly entertained. ‘Caro, come here,’ he called, as she paused in the doorway. ‘ Yon remember Miss Ferrers. Ihe is telling of an experience in Paris. It ia exceedingly funny.’ So Caro went forward, joined the two, and was forced to langh at the siren’s wit. Witty she was and faultlessly beautiful, Caro saw ; and she had an inexpressible charm—the charm of the woman of the world. At four and twonty Lilith Ferrers was quite this, while Caro—Oaro at three-and-twenty—fell like an awkward child beside her.

It was true that the simplicity and troth of her character gave the latter an air of literalness which was totally foreign to Miss Ferrers’ nameless fascinations ; but there was a charm, too, in that very transparency. Giro had nothing to conceal, and needed no a-ts behind which to hide h-raelf. But when Mies Ferrers went early to dress for dinner, and Rawdon, with the morning’s glee still flushing his face, tnrned to Caro and put a caressing finger under her soft chin to lift her glance to his, she blushed painfully. ‘Miss Ferrers will bo a nice addition to onr little circle, won’t she? She s’ys she is tired of the world, and has come here to rest,’ said Bawdon.

Caro forced herself to speak highly ‘ The world cannot bo tired of her.’

‘ Amusing, Isn’t (he? and quite as pretty as she need to be,’ he added, thoughfully. Caro was looking upon the floor of the piazza, and mieaed the retrospective eyes returning, full and lander, to the steadfast sweetness of her f ice. Hhe felt Gfle lightly touch the ribbon at her throat.

‘ 1 like pink, ' he said. There was a caress in hi a tone. Dear, sweet Caro 1 - she was not perfect—was a little inclined to look upon the dark side -and so comes my atony.

The days came and the days went—days full of the glitter and glow of the summer sea and sky, days quiet and melancholy with the pour of cool rain and the shadow of oj aque clouds. The scant score of boarders at the Petrel House idled them away, in the main, contentedly. Of course, Mias Ferrers was the belle. It was impossible that she should not be popular. Old as well as young admired her —enjoyed her sparkling repartee, the nn failing vivacity and animation of her presence.

Hour by hour grew Oaro’s melancholy. Rawdon. with the others, paid court to Lilith. Caro felt herself helplessly drifting to the wall. Stunned by grief, she made no effort to struggle out of the vortex which seemed ingulfing her. One day an ill attack of her father confined her all day to his chamber. In the afternoon, when he was better, he noticed the paleness of her obeek. • Yon need not stay hear, dear, I shall do very well alone for awhile. Go down and walk on the beach with the others.’

Bnt Caro dropped her head upon his breast as she sat at the bedside.

•No, father; I will stay with you,’and had nearly added aloud. ‘ They do not need me.'

The group upon the beach did not need her to add to their hilarity—but Gale left It and sought the corridor from which the Summers’ rooms opened. He hesitated to knock at the door of the sick room, when, observing that the d or was ajar, he pushed it slightly, and beheld Mr Summers’ sleeping countenance, and Caro with her face hidden upon his breast, the, 100 seemed asleep. After silently regarding the pair for a moment, Gale toftly closed the door and withdrew.

But Caro was not asleep. Thought was too busy for that. Only for a moment she had seemed under a spell; and when Gale had gone the tears started to her eyes as she heard his laugh upon the piazza. •He does not know it, perhaps, but he is glad of this afternoon’s liberty.’ For it was true that, admire another aa he might, Gale had never neglected Caro ; and she had heard him distinctly name her to Miss Ferrers aa I my fiancee.’ It was only that she felt him drawn from her side by invisible strings, which he seemed not always unwilling ao resist. Care breakfasted with her father quite early the next morning. When she came down, she learned that Mr Gale and another of the [gentlemen had gone on a horseback ride with Miss Ferrers and her aunt. In a moment more the horses swept up to the door, the party having returned. Mrs Buckingham, a portly lady of forty, almost as vivacious as her niece, was accompanied by Mr Golding, the rich bachelor ; and Gale rode with Lilith. Instead of the conventional blaok riding habit, she wore a blue bodice and skirt delicate in hue, and enhancing the dszzling fairness of her face. Caro saw Gale smile, heard him utter some complimentary words as he lifted her from the white horse. Bat she saw, also, that he turned to her gladly when he beheld her. Mies Ferrers nodded and smiled, too. ‘ Don’t run away again, please. Mr Gale has promised that you shall sing to ns tonight,’ she raid, laying her delicate gloved hand lightly for a moment upon her arm as she passed. Oh, the sweet and bitter were sadly mingled for Caro when she felt her hands in Gale’s. ' 1 went with them to pass away the time. I thought you werenevor coming down again. Is yonr father better ?’ ‘ Much better.’ ' D jn’t shut youraelf np so again. Yon are as white aa a cloth. Come out into the sunshine,’ and he banded her her shade hat from a nail in the hall, and led the way down npon the heach. But others came, too. Miss Ferrers with them, and she staid after the oteers had gone, sitting on the yellow sand, her perfect face exquisite under the glowing shade of a pink parasol, and she and Rewdon talked and Caro listened.

It seemed to her that they had whole worlds in common, which she knew nothing of. Gale, too, had been abroad. He, too, was familiar with beautiful tonalities and works of art. Caro watched the two faces until her soul was sick.

1 hat evening Gale urged her to sing. It seemed to her utterly impossible, but the first liquid note of the piano seemed to give her heart uttarance. In a moment the pure voice commanded utter stillness. And Caro —Caro forgot evcryth’ng then but the sweet sounds she poured forth. * Actually, I never heard anything so lovely I ’ she heard Mias Ferrets say, as she rose from the piano. They pleaded for one more song—' something less sad ’ —though the words had not been melancholy, bnt Caro made an excuse of her father’s ill health and left the room. She looked back once and saw Bawdon Gale standing at Mias Ferris’s side.

Her father was wakeful upon his pillow. * I don’t want to take you away Caro, bnt I want to see my doctor.’ * We will go, father, in the morning.’ Gale left Petrel House with a hunting party at four o'clock the next morning. Whei he returned, a little past noon, Caro and her father bad departed cityward, and the maid who had assisted Miss Summers to pack handed him the following note : * Bawdon, —I must be everything to you or nothing. Therefore, I have gone away. Yon are free, If you choose. * Oako.’ The great stone house In town shut the girl In with her sorrow. It was pitiful to see her devotion to duty, to hear her moan upon her pillow at night. She was very fond of her father, and, tco, he seemed slowly dying. A relapse had followed his last attack, and there are no words in which to tell you how bleak life seemed to Caro. She bad not allowed herself an instant’s -hope; bnt one day she stepped into the great parlor, gleaming with cream-colored satin, and Bawdon Gale was there, waiting for her. ‘I have brought the gift of my freedom back to you, Caro. Ido not want it.’ ‘Not if—’ she faltered. ‘ There is no if about it. Lilith Ferrers is going to marry Mr Golding, and I am willing. Child, if you knew how little cause you have had to be jealous! For you were jjaloua, though I could not believe it at first. Your note stunned me I Caro, you are of the stuff martyrs are made of. Don’t speak. I have had a secret pleasure in seeking Mies Ferrers’ side that I might contrast her nature with the peerless one I had won. She is a brilliant creature, ntterly hollow, a Dead Sea apple. I would not marry her if there were not another woman In the world. She la nothing to me, and yon are everything.’ Kven Oaro was satisfied by such vows as these, and since time proved their sincerity, and skill restored the health of her dear father, why, if she is not to day perfectly happy, she has no excuse for being otherwise.