LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2608, 16 August 1882, Page 4

LITERATURE.

A BUTLER’S STORY OF A MYSTERIOUS BUSINESS, (Concluded,) While all the great house, guests and servants, had gone to re it, there were two in that large, richly furnished, and deserted room, with one candle nearly burned down, but just bright enough to show me that the one was Sir Edward and the other Lady Beanoiark. If I had lost my place for it the next moment I could not have gone back to my room without knowing something of what they had in hand j but I held my breath hard and shaded my caudle In the corner. Sir Edward was standing in the middle of the room, and his faoo was working strangely, my lady was sitting on a chair against the wall, with a night wrapper about her, which did not cover her hire white feet, her head bowed, and her face half hidden by the fall of her beautiful hair. She was speaking In a low but e’eir tone—-In the deep silence of thr house I oonld hear every word.

‘ I know what ehs did to yon and yours, but sbeia my mother, and your son’s grandmother, for his sake let her go. If 1 could have kept her away from your house I would have done it, but I will swear to yon she will never come back.’

Why didn’t you tell me what sort of a mother you had in time ?’ said Sir .Edward, speaking low too, bat It was as if his passion choked him.

•1 didn’t kaow it till the very last, and then I was afraid you would not marry me ; tut if I had known all that was to come”— and my lady raised her head, and looked at him calmly and coldly—‘l should not have told you that which would bring my mother to the gallows ; but. Sir Edward, I wou d never have married you.’ Sir Edward stepped back -I think It was in pure astonishment; but the next moment he had recovered himself, and his anger took the hard cold torn it Is apt to take in each men.

‘ We are unmarried f om this day ; but there is the cellar key.’ he said, flinging it on the table ; ‘g«t her out of my house as fast as you can; let her keep out of my sight at her peril, and for yourself, remember, that though yoa are Lady Beauclark to the r. st of the world, you are in future no wife to ms.’

And Sir Edward dashed out of the room at such a rate that he went straight over me candle and all. I don’t know who he thought It was, but I heard him sweating about the devil and eaves-dro; pers as he went stumbling up stairs, and I suppose Providence kept him from breaking his neck In the dark. Before I oonld get myself gathered up Lady Beauclark came out with a light in one hand and the cellar key in the other. Oh, but her face was fixed and marble like !

‘I came to look after one of the chased goblets, my lady,’ was all I could stammer out. ‘lt is on the sideboard, Glasaford; but nevermind it,’ she said; ‘I know yon are too disoreet a man to talk of family matters, and I waut yon to get ready, and take a person and a message from me to Johnson the gamekseper’s cottage. ’ ‘l’ll be ready in a minute, my lady.’ ‘ Very well. Come and tap at your own pantry door when you are prepare! to go ;’ and she pissed down roy little stair and made straight for the cellar, I don’t know what passed between her and the oil woman while I got on my waterproofs and made ready my lantern, for it was just as dark and damp a night as ever a man turned out in to traverse a solitary park , but when I knocked at the pantry door they came out together. * Give this to J )hnson from ms,’ said Lady Beauclark, patting a sealed note into my hand: and I know there was money in it.

* Now, good nightand the kissed the old woman, unlocked the back door for ns with her own fair bauds, and told me she would alt up to upon it when I came back.

It wis a weary trudge I had through the park with that old woman. She never spoke a word to me, but muttered a good deal to herself, and kept leaping back from every branch or weed she saw waving in the wind with a smothered cry about somebody coming from the Aeholiff rocks. It was a mighty business to get Johnson woke up i and his wife made the wood ring with her cries of thieves and mnrder ; but at last they understood who was knocking at their door. Neither of them looked overpleased when they saw the old woman, but the contents of my lady’s note made all right, and Johnson bade me tell her he would obey her commands. I walked back to the hell, feeling wonderfully relieved; and there was Lady Beaudark, with no more clothes on in that cold night than before, waiting far me at the open door. t- ir Edward and she did not go to ohuroh together next morning j it was said they slept too late. But the hall was decorated with the Christmas holly. We hung the misletoe in its usual place, but only the downstairs people took notice of It. There was not a better Christmas dinner in any house in the county, and everything went on smoothly and merrily. A keen observer might have noticed that Sir Edward and bis lady never exchanged a word if they could help it; and he was rather brief in returning thanks when the company drank their health, and wished them many a happy Christmas ; but only the pair, myself and Johnson knew what had been locked up in tho wine cellar. Tho Cornish con. ins remained innocent to the last; they made ont their vie it, prat sad days and all; said they enjoyed themselves very much, as I honestly believe they did, and went home to Cornwall with strong invitations to Sir Edward and his lady to come and spend Easter among them, which both promised to do. As soon as they were gone. Sir Edward’s valet packed up his mister’s things, and master and man set off to London—never to come back. From that time Sir Edward lived partly at the Club, partly at the House of Commons, and partly cn the continent. His lady heard from him through his solicitor. I believe she got a pretty fair allowance out of bis income, as she kept Heath Hall in a quiet, respectable way, and did a deal of charity. When all was settled, Johnson was one day told in a public manner to bring her ladyship’s faithful old nurse, Mrs Wilson, from the poor street where she lived in London home to the hal! ; for the good woman should be taken oare of for the rest of her days. In proper time, Mrs Wilson was brought accordingly, and comfortably lodged and provided for in two good but out-of tho-way rooms upstairs, where my lady often went to sit with her,and read the Bible. All the servants thought Mrs Wilson a very odd person ; she seldom came out of her rooms, looked frightened if she saw a stranger, and had a habit of talking to herself abont somebody falling down the rook, and that she didn't do it. I knew her to be the same old woman who had crept through the shrubbery, and been locked np |in the cellar, 1 don’t know what Master Philip woold have made out on

the subject ; but directly after sba came, one of his father’s cousins, who had looked knowing on Chriatmas-eve, took the boy away on a visit to Cornwall, and ho never came back to the hall in my time. His childish tongue coat his mother df ar. I think hia being taken from her was the heaviest part of it. But the absence of hus band and son was soon noticed by the county families; the Christmas eve etcy got wind, and didn't get less ; what Sir Edward tbooght when ha followed me down to the cellar, was the only meaning people oonll give to such appearances 5 and the ladies, who had always hated my lady for being handsome, v t 4 her a very improper person, and not to be visited. Poor Lady Bouiclaru; was not long a mark for tbeir gossip or censure ; while Sir Edward was getting through his third session of Parliament, she sickened of what we thought a severe o Id, but the doctor found out that it was a rapid consumption, and though her husband was written to in good time, he came only to attend her funeral in very deep mourning. The weak after his man of business paid off and discharged all the servants but myself. They wanted ma to stay on account of what I knew, yon see ; bat I oould afford to go, through the legacy her poor ladyship left me, and 1 declined the offor goatee ly, of course. They never thought of asking Johnson to stay, though he had a legacy too, and earned it better than myself, but stay ha did, through the favor of the man of business. And when they got Mrs Wilson conveyed to the county lunatic asylum he said the poor woman was undoubtedly mad, fir he heard her crying out that the late Lady Beanolark was her daughter, Johnson was gamekeeper for many a year after, when Heath Hall was inhabited again, and Sir Edward brought home his second wife, Lord Hampshire's niece, and one of the plainest women in the county. He caught a Tartar that time, I am happy to say. May be It’s not right, but, for my Lady’s sake, I can’t belpit. She ap?nt beyond counting ; she affronted all his couslus; she threw bis mother’s picture out of the dicing room, and made Heath Hall so hot for him that he used to flee for refuge to the old place In Cornwall, and he died there at last. Dear me, how one generation goes and another comes on. Master Philip Is Sir Philip now, and brought home a bride nearly as handsome as hia poor mother last Christmas, But I hope he will never happen to think as bis father did, through his chattering, that she has somebody locked up in the wine cellar.