LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2688, 18 November 1882, Page 4

LITERATURE.

ONLY A SUMMER VISIT ; A GENUINE LOVE STORY. Dangerfield Park was a fine country place belonging to the Danbys, and it looked its test one fine August afternoon that came in a spell of set-fair summer weather. It had teen coincident now with the visit to Dangerfield Park of Lady Violot Kueller, who, having lately formed a friendship with one of the Danby girls, had come to stay with her friend and make the acquaintance of the rest of the family. The present owner of Dangerfield Park, handsome Howard Danby, had gone up to Scotland a fortnight ago to favor the grouse with his presence, but three stalwart "brothers yet remained to do honor to Lady Violet’s visit. Mrs Danby was a fond, indulgent mother to them all, but duly imbued with a belief in the perfection and general infallibility of her son Howard. Her two daughters were amiablo girls, who have little to do with these pages. The time had gone so quickly over the heads of these young people, and they had been so merry and intimate and happy together, it would have been curious if all hearts had come out of it unscathed. If farther reasons for peril were wanting, Lady Violet was beautiful, bright, and good, an

only child, and doubly orphaned since her early childhood ; and although the family estates had passed with the title to her father’s next male heir, she was possessed of a tine property in one of the the fairest of Welsh valleys, and was therefore an heiress of no small importance. Little indeed, however, does heiress-ship count beside beauty and goodness in the eyes of an unspoilt boy of twenty, therefore let no suspicion rest on the name of Lionel, youngest son of the house of Dauby, who was quite hopelessly in love with Lady Violet. His passion gave the family much amusement, and Lady Violet found no other treatment of her lover possible than to pet him and laugh at him alternately. The next son, Edward, had only a second affection free to olfer, if Venus herself had appeared on the scenes, his first being centred in a pack of otter hounds, of which he was the master. Tire eldest of the trio was stalwart like his brothers, as far as inches and proportion went, but he had been delicate from boyhood, and so often face to face with the arch-enemy, that it was a matter of no small surprise to him sometimes to find himself now, past thirty, still walking in the llosh about the park at home. In Howard’s absence he had taken the trouble of the various comings and goings of late on his own shoulders, and the result had given universal satisfaction. This afternoon Lady Violet and be, returning from a walk, came out through a bend of the path into sunshine from the shade of some trees. It was a favourite walk, and one that wound round a craggy hill of no great eminence, rising close to the one side of the hall. Gerard was smooth shavon all to a thick, brown moustache. His eyes were blue and remarkably expressive, but self-control had so far triumphed in his character, that the most usual expression of his face was one of a nonchalant and half amused observation of the ways and doings of his foUoW-crcatures. Lady Violet’s characteristic expression, on the contrary, was one of sweet earnestness, while her smile, when it came, was so swift, sympathetic, and bright, as to be especially alluring. She was not smiling now ; over her beautiful gray eyes the lashes drooped, and a compression of pain was about her lips. ‘ I cannot believe that doctors are so useless as to be unable to deal with your case,’ t she exclaimed ; ‘ you should not speak of your health as you are doing now.’ ‘ Why not ?’ said he ;, * doctors are divided into two classes, the hopeful and the despairing. I have tried both, and considerably prefer the despairing. They give one the chance now and then of a pleasant surprise, while I have been ready before now to administer slow poison to the hopeful fellows in return for the disappointment to which they have laid me open.’ ‘ By your own showing,’ said Lady Violet eagerly, * they have been in the main more right than wrong. You may yet have many years before you of usefulness in the world.’ Gerard gave a little laugh. • I cannot flatter myself that the world would be much poorer if my work came to an end,’ he said, ‘my brothers have each careers cut out for them. Howard has his place and the duties of a landed proprietor to atttend to. Ted has devoted himself to field sports as a profession, whatever the | world in general may do. Lionel aims at : being an army doctor, and will, I think, do well in that line. But for myself, all my my earlier years were passed in futile attempts- to enter one profession after another, in defiance of health. And now, having failed in all, thanks to that ever-recurring impediment, and not possessing brains enough to write a book to discover a new solar system, 1 should bo rather a fool to suppose myself very necessary to the existing order of things.’ ‘ Then value your life, if you do not care to do so for yourself, for the sake of those who love you,’ said Lady Violet, in a low and troubled voice. She had strung herself up to say the words which meant so much more to her than they outwardly betrayed. It seemed that her riches and health and ,property were creating such a barrier between two destinies that longed to meet, that she felt wellnigh tempted to grasp at royal prerogative with the noble self-abandonment of true love, and speak out plainly what was in her heart. They passed again under the shade of trees, and so the only time in which he had spoken to her of his health came and went. Some years previously chance had led him, when on a visit to Lady Violet Kueller’s home, of Glanirwon, to spend an evening there that had served as a bright initial letter to this later acquaintance. Emerging from the trees, they were talking of this former meeting, and she again looked bright, for he spoke of Glanirwon in much the tone she would have chosen for him to use. ‘ 1 don’t believe it is ever daylight there, ’ he said, T even doubt its real existence at all, it comes back to me after such an uncanny fashion. It stands out in my memory as about the most perfect scene of beauty 1 ever beheld, dews and moolight, deer and river mists,' and I suggested to my friend that we should cut the dinner party and dance, where you were all strangers to me, and take our pleasuring in your park instead.’ Lady Violet laughed. ‘Are you always so merry down in Wales, and does the moon never get into the fonrth quarter there ?’ ho asked. ‘Never,’ she answered him, according to his jesting spirit; ‘it is always full moon there. If you doubt me, come and see for yourself.’ ‘ Yes, I will come,’ he said, laughing ; ‘ either in the flesh or out of it. Magical arts should be detected and exposed. It is only in Wales such practices can linger.’ And so they passed laughing into shade again. When again they returned into sunshine the house was full in sight, and on the terrace below them the rest of the party wore assembled, grouped round a tall handsome man, who, standing beside Mrs Danby’s chair, placed on a rug of leopard skins and scarlet, looked monarch of all ho surveyed. ‘ What a remarkably handsome man !’ exclaimed Lady Violet, involuntarily, as they paused to look on the terrace. Gerard did not speak for a moment, then said—- * Yes. It is my brother, ‘ Howard the magnificent,’ as we sometimes call him.’ Lady Violet laughed and blushed. ‘ I really could not know that,’ she said, in deprecation, ‘ when I thought he was in Scotland at this very moment.’ ‘ Of course not,’ said he ; ‘ and you only expressed the general sentiment. Come, shall we go down and join them ?’ Steps leading down to the terrace were cut in the rocky hillside. As he put out his hand to lead her down, he looked up, and their eyes met. If they had held by the old time-honored language read there, they might have been safe, but ‘ He does not really care for me,’ she thought, and ‘ I must not let her suspect she is everything to mo,’ said the other, with an honorable man’s repugnance to bid anyone share his invalid career, and an unusually modest estimate of his own attractive powers. Yet both wished those few steps would last longer, and went down hand-in-hand in a lingering content. ‘ So that is over,’ said Gerard, with more emphasis than he was aware, as their hands fell apart. ‘ The steps down, do you moan ? 1 she asked. ‘ The descent to a lower level, ’ he replied : and the next moment they had joined the rest of the party, and it seemed to Gerard some dozen voices, his own among them, were introducing Howard to Lady Violet Kuoller. Sun browned, dark, handsome in face, and commanding of mein, Howard the magnificent was further endowed with good address, and welcomed Lady Violet with some ompressement. In a lively and agreeable manner the talk flowed on, and few ladies would have been insensible to the concern displayed by such a handsome man as Howard for the due enjoyment of his guest. ‘ What ; had they not gone to the polo match at Q , nor taken her yet to the Ivy Cross Abbey, tlxe great lion of the neighborhood ? Why, what had they all been about? The last omission must he rectified forthwith, and what day should they choose for it ?’ ‘ Where are you oil to, Gerard ?’ said his sister Ethel, ‘you must be tired after your walk, and tea will be out directly.’ ‘None for me, thanks,’ said Gerard; T have got to bo at the stables for half an hour or so,’ and he' strolled olf in that direction. Quite two hours later lie was returning along the shrubberies, when ho was met and joined by Lionel, a fair young picture to ] look on ; fresh as morning itself, and with- | out a suspicion on his often smiling lips of

the moustache he so earnestly coveted to see there.

The brothers walked on in silence for if few moments, and then Gerard said * Prithee, why so mute, young lover ?’ ‘As well mute as anything else,’ returned Lionel, ‘and I think the world is just the most disgusting, disappointing piece of humbug that eve r.vas.’ ‘Which being interpreted means,’ said Gerard, ‘ “and Allah, the king, slept with his fathers, and Ahaziah, his sou, reigned in iiis stead. ” ’ ‘ Exactly so,’ said Lionel, smiling, ‘ and I dare say I should not care much, only that Howard always will come King Ahaziah so awfully strong, it riles a fellow so.’ ‘Well, my son,’ said Gerard, ‘as far as your chances in the desired quarter arc concerned I fancy it does not matter much whether he is here or not, and it is always well to face the inevitable. ’ ‘ Ob, I am not saying my chances were hopsful, and for that matter,’ he added, grandly, ‘it is an open question whether I should have cared to tie myself down so early.’ Here came a derisive laugh from his brother which he had some difficulty in not joining. ‘ But what I say is, who was to think of Howard turning up just now? We have had an awfully jolly time of it. and none of us wanted a change, not she nor anyone,’ said Lionel, discarding a nominative, ‘ and it will all go to the dogs now.’ To he continued.