LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2497, 8 April 1882, Page 4

LITERATURE.

(By Jaspor Jyvecote.)

CAUGHT IN THE TBAP.

Chapter I.

It was upon an October Sunday in the year 1873 that a tall, handsome bub blase looking young man stood on the steps of the Windsor Hotel, listlessly gazing on the great human tide that surged past after having touched high water mark at the various inlets afforded by the churches, chapels and meeting houses with which Fifth Avenue, New York, is so bounteously and righteously supplied An unlightod cigar rolled between his thick, scarlet and sensual lips, and as be Lzily twisied the needle like point of his straw colored moustache, his black heavy 1 idded eyes seemed to say — ‘What an absurd idea is that institution called life ?’$ Herbert Ho’oroft was twenty-five, and had lived about fifty years. He had drained the pleasure cup of life to the very dregs. Left an orphan while yet an infant, his enormous fortune was carefully nursed for him, so that when he took his Harvard degree he was on the borderland of millionniredom.

His yaoht was the handsomest craft afloat; his cottage at Newport the quaintest ia Rhode Island ; his bachelor establishment in Naw York a very marvel of sybaritic elegance. Such a butler! —a man who could whisper a dozen wines in the ear of a guest, tickling the palate no matter how faded, or jaded, or musty 1 Such a cook !—the inventor of obis dishes that would cause a London Alderman to dine on, evenjafter a turtle banquet ot the Mansion Bouse.

Holcroft’a stable was the envy of all horsey men, and his turnout, from the half moon collar and tops of his coaohmau to tho lash of the whip .simply perfection. At the clubs he was feted and petted and caressed and spoiled, white haired men kotowing and bowing to him, and regarding his Ignorant utterances as law. Anxious mammas showered invitations upon him, and experienced young ladies, with powdered cheeks and picked out lashes and cherry pasted lips, and wiles acquired from constant friction with fierce flirtation, lay in wait for him to lure him into the treacherous shoals and quicksands which encompass the harbor of matrimony. It 1s scarcely necessary to say that he was the pet of the conliaaes, as is every brainless idiot who chooses to fling thirty dollar bouquets at the feet of the premiere danseuae, or to hire a private box every night to witness a fifth-rate performance by some brazen nymph, whose nods becks, and wreathed smiles mean receipts in full for golden bracelets and diamond necklets. Of course, Holcroft became very tired of his life at this side of the pond, and resolved to find out [what existence was like at the other. He invited a dozen or so of his mala acquaintances to dinner, and leaving them in their cups went on board the White Star boat with his valet, and was three hundred miles on the Atlantic ere it was known that he bad flown.

* I bate the mock ceremonial of being seen off the dock,’ he said; and as for those stinking flovjera that people send —pah !’ Mr Herbert Holoroft, being well born, full of money, and having a first-class man to introduce him—Lumsdeu, of banking house of Lumsden and Walker, of Wall street, a member of the Union Club, and a quiet bat effective swell—soon fcuod himself in the whirl of London life, and having been presented at Court by the United States Minister, was, by grace especial, invited to dinner at the Marlborough Club, when he had tho honor of hobnobing with the Prince of Wales, so far as a B. and S. want. In the smoking room of that palatial establishment, Holcroft’s host was Lord Aubrey de Lisle, a captain in the Horse Guard’s Blue, and one of the fastest of the very fast men by whom the heir to the throne was at that time surrounded.

He was a * plunger ’ on the turf, and at ecarte would play for a cool * thou.” a deal. By this rapid young nobleman Herbert Holcroft was introduced to the Ealeigh Club, of which. In virtue of his being a bird of passage, he is elected an honorary member, and as the play at this establishment is the ‘hottest’ in England, the youthful American, albeit a cool hand, and not altogether unskilful, met considerably more than his match, and thousands of pounds went forth from his check book to fatten the bank accounts of a set of gentlemen, of whom, it is but justice to say, that they played fair ; but whose skill was equal to at least a dozen points in their favor. Holoroft, as is nsual in such cases, played for high stakes, in order more to rapidly recruit his losses; but fortune was against him, and he left London for Paris, having dropped one hundred and seventy thousand dollars

In the gay and glittering capital of France he soon forgot hia reverses, and avoiding cards, indulged in little dinners at Brebant’s, and little suppers at the Maison Doree.

He took an apartment in the Champs Elyseea fit for an ambasfadnr, and set up an establishment, before the splendor of which the establissements of the gilded youth of fair and frail Lntetia paled their ineffectual fires.

In the Bols de Boulogne his was the hast turn-out, and his the beat loge at the Grand Opera; his the most gratin acquaintances of the type frequenting the Polies Bergeres ; in a word, Mr Herbert Holoroft went the pace, distancing all competitors In that terrible race in which so few are left at the finish.

Holcroft’s bright, particular, male companion was Monsieur Frangoia de Malmette, a young Frenchman of the Faubourg St. Germain, and blue-blooded as a lineal descendant of Henri IV., even if left handed, has right and title to be. He was a dandy of a pronounced type, a woman-killer, and as handsome as a Greek god. These two men liked one another from the first.

De Malmette spoke English with a charming fluency, having been educated at the Roman Catholic College of Osoott, He was merry and clever, and au courant with everything; knew everybody worth knowing, the inventor of a new omelet as well as of an absinthe cocktail, which latter he dedicated to hia American friend ; played the piano a ravir, and knew the best bits of * ff-nbach off by heart to a sympathetic tenor voice.

Not over-burdened with cash, he, however, honorably Jived on his rouleau, and bestowed hia company only upon the salt of the earth.

It is something new for Holcroft to meet a man who drew rein when his financial horse was not fit to take the leap, and, being pretty well tired of companions who stopped at nothing, he courted De Malmette’a society with a success that rendered them inseparable. ‘ Why the deuce can’t you come and put up in this ranche, De M»1 ?' observed the American, one day. * I would lose my independence, Stars and Stripes.’ * 1 wish to goodness you would.’ * I know that.’ * Then come,’ 1 No.’ ‘ You might as well.’ * Jamais.'

When De Malmette used that word, there was no use in pressing further. It was his seal.

One lovely afternoon in July, just before the creme de la creme of Paris were thinking oj hieing to Dieppe, or Trouville, or Biarritz, or the Pyrenees, Herbert Holcroft tooled a mail phaeton in the Bois De Malmette seated beside him. two servants, whose liveries fitted them like paper on the wall, cross arm?d behind.

They spun up to the restaurant at the Cascade, where De Malmette, with hla own hands, mixed absinthe cocktails for two. 4 Now for a spin in one of the side drives,’ exclaimed Holcroft seizing the reins, 4 where we’ll have the track all to ourselves, ’ 4 By all means. ’ ‘ I haven’t given the brutes their space yet. Hold on, young fellow, ’he added, over his shoulder, to the servant. The hordes started off at the unexpected loose rein and still mere unexpected application of the whip, and in a few seconds were galloping along the tnrf-like road even as a billiard table, causing the mould to fly Into the air, and the leaves of the overhanging boughs to move as though stirred by a breeze.

At the moment that Holcrofl’a mail-phae-ton disappeared Into the unfrequented alley, a hired cab, which had been drawn up op-

poalke the Cascade, drove away at a rattling I ace, while an elderly lady, through the window in front, eagerly cried * Can you cut them off ? Get a hundred vards in front of them without being perceived,’

* I’ll do it,’ said the driver, as he plied his whip with the most mercffoes vigor. **#•»*

The alleys in the Bois de Boulogne are either very open and wide, or particularly narrow and shady. The open drives are, of course, more frequented and thronged with vehicles of all description, while the more retired roadways are used by ek erly people, who prefer the retirements, or by lovers, who, for reasons of their own, descend from their carriages in order to get away from the maddening crowd. The cab driver, in common with moat of the Parisian Jehns, was an export, and seemed as much at home in the tortuous windings of the Bois de Boulogne as if he had been in the Rue de Rlvoli or the Boulevard de Sebastopol. By taking a shott cat here, crossing a main road there, and dashing through the copse in another place, he succeeded in bringing his cab to a description of oirns from which fine shaded alleys gave in different directions.

‘Jump out quickly, Fifine!’ cried the elderly lady, as she bundled a daintily attired little girl of five years on to the sidewalk. ‘ Quickly, Marguerite. For heaven’s sake adjust your hat, it’s all on one side,’ Marguerite descended from the cab. She was a tall, exquisitely formed girl of eighteen or thereabouts. Her face was a perfect oval, her complexion ivory. Her eyes were 'of dark grey, the black lashes sweeping her cheeks. If her nose was perhaps a trifle too short, a lovely mouth amply compensated for this defect, while the chin displayed a winning dimple, snob as Coreggio never dreamed of for his Cherubim. She was attired from head to heel In black, a broad cambric handkerchief adorning her shapely shoulders, fastened in front by a bnnch of natural lavender hued pansies. • Quick, you have not a second to lose 1 Pifiine is to run across the road right there! Bee that she starts so as to be safe from all harm. You dart after her—stop short 1— you rehearsed it to perfection this morning. Fon will appear to sprain your ankle. The American will pull up. You will use your eyes to the utmost, and the rest will come. I leave you—Ha! here comes the break. Au revoir I’

And the elder lady, who was a saliowfaoed, beak nosed, glittering eyed woman, darted into the cab, the driver whipped his hoiee, and they were gone as Marguerite, seizing the child’s arm, pushed her toward the roadway. (To he continued.')