LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2690, 21 November 1882, Page 4

LITERATURE.

ONLY A SUMMER VISIT : A GENUINE

LOVE STORY

( Concluded .)

‘ There you go/ said Lionel, not too poetically ; ‘ vanished like my hopes, luckless suitor that I am ! ’

‘ As brief, perhaps, but rather more bright, I imagine, than those hopes could have been at any time/ returned Gerard ; ‘ never mind, Lionel, it is a good sign to aim high for the first love.’ ‘First, indeed!’ said Lionel; ‘likely story, that, at twenty. I should not care so much if Howard would but let bor alone. I wish you had gone in yourself to win her, Gerard ; she is much too good for him ; but you are different, and I believe she likes you best of the lot of us, after all/

‘ Rather a moot point I should say,’ said Gerard, ‘ so wo will put it aside, if you have no objection, for another. Lionel, has it never struck you we are one too many here sometimes f ’

‘As how, for instance ? ’ said Lionel. ‘ Well we thin our woods/ said Gerard, ‘to give fresh development to the trees that remain, and it might be wise for us brothers to take a bint from the notion. Three of us very often as it is do the work of two, and two of one, and the upshot of it is I am going away.’ ‘ Going away !’ exclaimed Lionel, sitting upright in bis surprise, and trying vainly to scan his brother’s face in the uncertain light: ‘ you, of all people, Gerard, whom none of us wish to spare. What do you mean ? ’

‘You know about this expedition of Lord A/s to Egypt/ answered Gerard, quietly ; ‘he wanted a kind of upper secretary, sagacious adviser, and highly-gifted companion, so I fancied the post would suit my stylo of genius. In short, I may as well tell you at once it is all arranged between us, and as ho is a very good fellow, and we always get on together, I fancy I shall enjoy the expedition exceedingly.’

‘But, Gerard/ said Lionel, in a voice from whioh all jocularity had subsided, ‘ they say that expedition will stay out for two or three years at the very least/ ‘ I know it/ said Gerard, ‘ and that is partly the reason I am going. There is such remonstrance in your tone, my dear boy, that it forces me to speak more frankly. As my health now stands Ido not believe my life is worth six months’ purchase from this moment, but a complete change of some years to such a climate as Egypt might prolong my valuable life indefinitely, and one has even heard of marvellous cures effected there. It will bo worth putting it to the test whether to live or die, I suppose, and cither way no great harm can come of it/

*No great harm !’ ejaculated Lionel, ‘ for you to go away for years, taking all the brightness from hero with one fell swoop ’ —his voice broke there for a moment— ‘ exiling yourself with strangers in a foreign land, there to fight it out alone with life or death ! Gerard, do you want to break my heart ?’ And Lionel flung his unfinished cigar from him to fall wherever it listed.

‘ There is no need to draw the picture so darkly,’ said Gerard, with determined cheerfulness, ‘ the doctors here, as you know, emulate each other in their incapacity to set me right, and if this chance succeeds —as why should it not ?—you would grant it worth the trial. But take the other alternative, and what then ? What can it matter whether we say good-bye a little sooner or a little later ? We are not sentimentalists. Our faith and affection as brothers need to be no firmer than now. I rely on you never to give cause to feel less confidence in meeting than now in parting from you, and I think you may rely equally on me. The rest is not in our hands, and if our parting were to be this night we might go far before finding a more fitting moment.’ Not a word came from Lionel for some moments, then —‘ You are going very soon, Gerard,’ said he, while a sudden mist seemed to him to obscure the brilliant throbbing of those stars above. ‘ The expedition has been hurried forward,’ said Gerard ; ‘ I go up to town tomorrow to inspect the outfit I have ordered and get the remaining necessaries ; after that there will scarcely be time for more, than a run down to take leave before we sail. I did not know this before to-day, but it is perhaps the best way of doing it. In the morning I shall see my mother before I go and tell her all about it, but I want you to know it now, for I count on you, Lionel, not to let me be missed by her, or my sisters, or anyone—not even by poor old Judson,’ said Gerard, with a smile.

There was silence again for some moments, and then Lionel spoke in a voico full of pain and passion, bnt also with a kind of enthusiasm running throught it. * Gerard, I had rather be you than anyone else I ever heard of. You are as much above the rest of us as those stars up there. No honours could make you higher than you are, and death or life is all oue to you. I would rather he like you than anyone on earth.’

* My career has been one of such marked success that I can easily believe you, you arch-flatterer ! ’ said Gerard, but he spoke with indulgence, for he knew that the words had come from the depths of as honest and warm a heart as over beat, and that his brother’s eyes, looking up to the starry multitude of the sky, were full of tears. Lionel had not outgrown the age of heroworship—it is not on record that he over did—and he had not chosen his hero far amiss. A little longer they lingered on those steps together—a little longer yet after saying they must go. Next day, after he had gone, the news of his plans set the whole household in commotion, and the general consternation and regret over them seemed to Lady Violet the best satire on the uselessness of Gerard’s life as described by himself.

If opportunities had been given him,’ said she to herself, ‘ he would have been a leader among men. As fate has willed, it is his home and a narrow circle that have owned him and claimed his services, and is hejless great for that '! ’ The Egyptian expedition had indeed hurried forward its movements. In a few days Gerard reappeared to take leave, and the occasion was marked by that regret and hurry, baulking of desire and impotence of speech that seem inseparable to partings that strike deeply. It was remarked by all that Gerard looked worn and white, but he said it was only from the overwork incident to this forced march on Lord A.'s part. And Lady Violet was aware she had never realised what misery meant until to-day. Not a word of Glauirwon, of moonlight memories iu the past or meetings in the future ? He was going, and even simplest works of sympathy were frozen on her lips. He was gone, and she had only hurried forth at the last the things she eared least to say. Time and the hour tortured her until the solace of night was gained. Then, sleepless and despairing, she gauged again and again the hitter results of a time that had promised so fairly. ‘Lionel would undertake impossible things for my sake,’ she murmured; ‘ Howard surely wants me to be his wife ; Gerard goes away without a word, to die in a distant country.’

And next day, in good truth, Howard laid himself and his prospects, figuratively speaking, at her feet, and never had the magnificent one, through all his prosperous career, been more taken aback than by the very distinct refusal he met with from Lady Violet. So time went on, and before six months were over Gerard, true to his presentiment, was struggling for life with the disease that, however often baffled before, seemed doomed to conquer now. The result from the first seemed hopeless ; his hold on life was almost gone, and though he hung on between life and death far longer than the doctors had predicted, they said it was but tlie. last grip of vitality so remarkably strong in some constitutions, and that recovery was all but impossible. When the patient still lived on, they modified this opinion to a certain extent.

* He might linger for a while,' they said ; and so far tbeir sagacity was justified by the event. But the little while grew into a long while, gnd Gerard had made unquestionable advances towards recovery. The Solona around him wore puzzled—they wore, indeed, wholly out of their reckoning; hut, to do them justice, they were even yet more pisaaed, for Gerard, at home or abroad, and, ill or well, had the mysterious gift of

winning hearts. The teuderest care was lavished on him by the strange attendants round, and by his friend Lord A -. When at length he rose from his sick bed, it was with a very uncertain hold on any earthly future, and it seemed scarcely worth while to traverse the weary stages of convalescence with the enemy still so near. With many a backsliding, with many cheeks, the stages were, however, travelled, until Gerard was at last as well as he had been when leaving England. And then what was this that the doctors began to hint about, and at last to openly predict—this, that his own opinion began to confirm in a resolute way what was indeed now

They began, those good men, with smiles, instantly qualified by warning shakes of the head, to say that, with care, with a fair trial of the benefits of the Egyptian climate, and their own most skilful treatment, Gerard might yet live to he older than any of them, and enjoy health far bettor than ho had known before. Gerard himself, who had so often faced death calmly could not quickly trust his voice to thank those that brought him now the message of life—life with its renewed hopes and possibilities, its wonderful Godgiven opportunities, its glamour and its joy. There are some natures, and these not the least noble, whom joy breaks down as ill fortune never yet had power to do, who will meet the one with undaunted courage and calm front, the other with bowed knee and with head abased. Gerard’s own heart knew best why he valued this boon of life so highly, but he was slow to believe in its possession, and the doctors had no difficulty in persuading him to lengthen his stay in Egypt as long as prudence required. Until their unanimous voices had again and again ratified that hope that they had given him, until prudence itself had no further precautions to urge, Gerard remained in Egypt, then, fleet as a greyound released from the slips, he took his way northwards and homewards.

Not much was changed there. One sister had married, Ted was otter hunting in Wales, Lionel’s coveted moustache had come. He had managed to get away from his work to meet his favourite brother on his landing, and bear him back in triumph to Dangerfield Park ; and that re-union, so little hoped for, left nothing on Lionel’s side to be desired. Little on Gerard’s side either, only that his desire now was to go forward ; his home was only a halting-place, and no longer a goal. Such changes are the inevitable work of years, but large natures such as his do not forsake the old for the new, but rather expand themselves until they take in both alike, like oaks that mark the cycles of time by added rings. They talked together again under the stars, Gerard and Lionel, with unabated confidence and brighter hopes, and they spoke of Lady Violet Kneller.* Lionel had not a little to tell of trifles connected with that never to-he-forgotten visit long ago. In spite of his moustache, his face was as boyish and sunshiny as ever; but, for all that, Lionel was a shrewd observer, and drew his conclusions sometimes with remarkable nicely. There was not much, perhaps, that was notable in what he said, for Lionel had tact, and Gerard listened almost in silence, and with little comment. Only when the two brothers stood side by side on the hall steps, before parting for the night, said Gerard to Lionel—

‘lam going to-morrow down to Wales, to look for Ted and the otter hounds. It was chiefly for that express purpose I came back to England.’ ‘ I hope you will find them,' then, with all my heart,’ said Lionel ; and both laughed significantly, and knew they were speaking in parables well understood. Next day Mrs Danby was not a little perturbed at Gerard’s intentions, and thought it great folly on his part to expose his newly-recovered health to the risks consequent on otter-hunting ; but Gerard assured her he would observe every caution, and" kept his word, since, though he went down to Wales that afternoon, Ted and the otter-hounds beheld him not.

Lady Violet had not married in the years that had passed since his departure. She had tried to forget a certain fine face with jits military set of head and heavy moustache, since she found it barred the way against all fresh interests and loves that came near her. She had tried to be resigned to the expected ne s of a death in a far country with which her life would have no ostensible connection, but in neither effort did she meet with much success. With how little, indeed, she only realised when Gerard Danby walked once more at her side through the river mists and under the deer-haunted oaks of Glanirwon. What he told her there, what he asked and what she answered,, need not be specified here. Herne the Hunter heard it, perhaps, and the river gods and Pan—but they keep such secrets safely, and only hint at them in sweet murmur of water and rustle of bough down in Wales. Anyhow, Gerard and Violet were married after a vjry brief engagement, and somehow no one who knew the bridegroom ever insinuated that interested motives had led him to seek for the hand of the heiress of Glanirwon. He had abundant work cut out for him in the management of that fine estate, and it was with a firm and capable hand he ruled his kingdom. That that rule was a beloved one) that Lady Violet and he were the model couple of the country-side, may be safely assumed, and no one held the belief more strongly than an aspirant for medical fame in the army, called Lionel, who visited very frequently at Glanirwon, looking always some years younger than his actual age. Ted and the otter-hounds wore always welcome too, but Howard was not quite so frequent a visitor. Each time he came ho wondered anew how it was Lady Violet had preferred his brot her to himself, until some misgivings grow to mingle with tho surprise, and as time went on even Lionel confessed that Howard became less magnificent and more human year by year. And it was indeed a merry world that Gerard found down there in Wales, nor did its witchery lose its power, nor were his illusions dispelled, for although the years have now mounted up so that children play under the oaks and by the river, the honeymoon at Glanirwon has never known decrease or fourth quarter, hut stands ever at the full.