LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2504, 17 April 1882, Page 4

LITERATURE.

WHAT THE) BAND SAID. 1 Hurry up, gentlemen ! the coach is waiting,' cried the voice of the stage driver, In front of the Metropolitan Hotel, at Long Branch. My story goes baok to days when railroads to the Branch were unknown, and the transit to New York was achieved by coaches to Sandy Hook, where a steamer awaited the passengers. A tall, handsome young man, at the summons came down the staircase, two Btepn at a tlmo, and almost ran over a matronly woman, a few years his senior, who was crossing the ball. •What? Going to leave us?' said tie lady in some surprise, and with more meaning in her look than in her words even. ' Yes ! it's no use,' was the reply. 'Thanks for your good wishes, which I can see in your looks, Mrs Maxwell. But I'm tired cf playing the fool.' 'Pshaw!' said the lady, pntting her arm familarly Into his, and leading him into the drawing-room, which, at that hour, was desorted ' Faint heart never won fair lady, Mr Hastingß. Listen to me. The coach wiU wait a moment.' 4 It is not a question of faint heart,' answered the gentleman. ' But Kate won't have me. See here, Mrs Maxwell, it's hardly fair of you to corner me, but she refused me point blank last night.' •And what if she did? I refaised Mr Maxwell tho first time myself. It's a way some of our wax have. Gome, Btay and try again.' 'l'm a proud man,'was the reply, 'and don't like being trifled with. But I'd stay if I thought it would do any good. But it won't. She isn't anywhere about, yon fee, | though I told her I would go away to-day.

When I said it she aotually laughed. And yet confound her, I can't help loving her.' Mrs Maxwell would have liked to hava laughed. But she knew better than to do it just yet. ' Hhe was a little hysterioal or she wouldn't have laughed/ she said. 'The truth is Herbert, you are a pair of fools. Vou are proud, as you say, and don't brook refusals. Kate is, perhaps, a bit of a flirt, but I sincerely believe she loves you. All she needs is a little more urging, you mas'; storm the fortress till it surrenders. Give her no quarter, that is my advice ;' and now Mrs Maxwell, seeing his faoe brighten, ventured a laugh. It was a clear, musical lough, and it cheered Herbert still more. He hesitated. If another five minutes could have been granted to Mrs Maxwell's she would have prevailed, But at this moment a voice cried—

• Here he is. Hnrry up, Hastings. The stage-driver won't wait another moment,' and Hastings shook his head to Mrs Maxwell's entreating look, wrung her hand, and dashed out of the drawing-room. It was six miles or bo to the steamboat landing. And now Herbert began half to repent of what he had done. 'Perhaps I have been too hasty,' he said to himself. • What if Mrs Maxwell la right ?' He mused thus for quite half a mile. 'l've a great mind to go back,' he thought. 'Hold on, driver,' he oried aloud, 'l've I changed my mind, Stop till 1 jump ont. I'll walk baok.'

Before his sleepy companions could ask what he meast, he had left the ciaoh, had lit a cigar, and was plodding through the heavy sands on his return. Hi<> mood soon changed again. What a precious fool I am making of myself,' he reflected, and he turned to hall the coach, but it was a quarter of a mile off. He stopped still. 'lf that fish hawk dives before I count fifty,' he said, ' I'll go back to the Metropolitan ; if not, I'll walk to the landing and take the afternoon boat.'

Ihe fish hawk dove almost immediately. 'Fate has decided, for me,' he said desperately. ' Now let us see how wisely.' Meantime, where was the off on ding Kate? To do her justice, she was not aware how much she loved Hastings nntil she had refused him. It was not altogether ooquetry that led her to say ' 'no." i 'JL'he answer had been given in the first surprise and ernbarassment of the proposal Kven before he left her she bitterly repented what she had said. Had he persevered a little longer, she would have confessed the truth. She did not, however, believe he would leave the Branoh, even after he had nald so. Hence, early In the morning she hid started for a long walk on the beach, hoping to meet him there, as usual; for hardly a day had passed within the last fortnight that these two had not so met.

There was an old wreok at tbattime abjnt a mile or more above the Metropolitan, which had been a favorite haunt of theirs, and thither she repaired. She tried to read till Herbert should appear, bnt her thoughts wandered from her book continually. Meantime the hours passed without Herbert appearing. Her heart began to fail her. She spent the time examining her real feelings, and the more she scrutinised them the more she felt ber love had gone from her forever. By and by the hot tears began to come. She knew how proud Hastings was, and she said to herself he would never come baok.

The sea rolled heavily in ; the fish hawks sailed overhead ; the breeze blew fresh from the eastward; the snn shone dazzlingly blight. Is was getting toward noon. She gave up all hope at last, and rising, began to walk backward to the hotel. But after a while she sat down again on a boulder under shelter of the bank, for she had been all this time upon th« beach below it. She would not yet abandon the chance of seeing him, GraJual'y she fell into a sort of revery and began, h*lf unconsciously, to trace Herbert's name in the sand with the point of her parasol. It was at this juncture that Herbert, who was wa king at the top of the bank above, discerned her. He hastily sprang down the bank and began hurriedly to retrace bis steps toward her.

He thought she would hear him as he approached. But she did not. Ho approached so close at last that he could look over her shoulder. Blessed vision 1 Could he believe his own eyes ! She was writing with hoi parasol in'tho'sand the word, 'Herbert, I love yoo.' Hastings could control himself no longer. Bis cigar had long been out, though retained mechanically ; he now flung it away, and stooping over, oaught Kate's face in his hands and kissed her full on her ripe lips. ' Da.ling, 5 he whispered, clasping her in his arms and drawing her up to him, ' God bless you-for thosa words. I had come to try my fate once more. Say that dear oonfe3sion over a^ain.' .Kate was silent for awhi'e. But his caresses soon dried her tears, and made her forget her momentary shame. What a happy hour it was that •followed. The lovers paced up and down the strand, far.out of.a'ght of any intruders,' exchanging confetsions.aa to when they first began to be interested in each other,

Ah 1 that first hour of mutually acknowledged .affection. Is there anything in life, ever after, half, or quarter, so blissful ?