LITERATURE.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1042, 4 June 1883, Page 4

LITERATURE.

THE WIDOWER’S SECOND WOOING.

* Nearly three years,’ I replied, sighing deeply, * Yon hare experienced strange yissitudes.’ ", ‘ True,’ I answered; ‘ wonderful* ups-and-downs. But she I once thought down , and who suddenly rose up t is how, as I suppose yonr mamma informed yon * at rest.’ * Poor thing !’ ‘ Yes; and so I come to yon for consolation.’ ‘When I first knew you, sir,’ said Anna Marin, with provoking coolness, * you seemed to require little consolation ; you thought proper to pay me marked attention during the voyage, anil being very young, and very inexperienced, I complied with my mother’s wishes, and accepted yon,’ *1 now am free to claim yonr plighted hand,’ * Since that period,’ she added, * I have become three year& older, 1 have, therefore, more experience, and, I hope more sense; yon, cir, are also three years older, and you look it.’ ‘ Ma’am ; Miss Millington ; Anna Maria ’ ‘Do not interrupt me. I certainly promised to marry yon; when yon proprosed for me, yon were not aware of an impediment to our union, therefore, i! yonr attachment was real, the circumstances which separated ns must have given you deep pain. As no obstacle now exists, and as yon have again sought me, I do not think I should be justified in retracting tbc consent which I formerly gave, that is, if yon persist in your determination to wed a portionless girl.’ ‘ When I came to seek yon here sweet idol of my beating heart,’ I replied, ‘I might have been the smallest degree in the world startled at the very little house in which I found your very small establishment.’ ‘ That is candid ; then, adieu.’ * Nay, I said not that; and you are endeavouring to conceal from me a circumstance which(thongh nothing could render yon more dear), is still, in a worldly point of view, highly gratifying to any individual about to be—that is I don’t mean to say that—in fact, I’m aware of the accession of fortune. ‘ Oh, you are ! Weil, isn’t she lucky ?' ‘Who?’ - ‘ My aunt ?’ ‘What aunt?’/ ‘Miss Chumps.’ ‘Oh 1 yonr mother’s maiden sister, who brought ithe news 1 Yes, yes, she and indeed all in any way connected with yon, must rejoice in your good fortune.’ ‘ Mine!’ * Yes, yours.’ ‘ Oh, yes, certainly ; anything advantageous to one so near and dear as an aunt, most indeed gratify me ; not that I have any selfish reason to rejoice, for, though aunt Chumps is not young, she will of course marry.’ ‘I beg yonr pardon,’ said I; ‘it seems tome that I do not clearly comprehend this matter; and, now I remember, it was bnt an ignorant girl that spoke to me on the subject.’ ‘ If she told yon that my aunt, Miss Chnmps, had unexpectedly come into a large fortune, she told you the truth/ * Your annl ?’ ‘ Yes; was that what yon heard ?’ ‘ No^-yes—that is—l really—l forgot.’ ‘ Ob, of course you were thinking of other things. But do yon know I never was so surprised;as when I heard yon had recollected me after such a lapse of time. You must not forget the disparity in our ages; 1 am many years younger than: yourself, and yon may by-and-bye think me gay and giddy. Visit us, if you please', hut speak no more of love until yon have very seriously reconsidered the matter.’ I retired to my lodgings, startled, disappointed, disorganised ; and as prevention is better than cure, I sent down to Mr Morbid for an autibilions pill; bnt notwithstanding my precaution, my slambers that night were feverish and disturbed. The next day I was introduced to Miss Chnrhps, and I really thought fief a very ; interesting woman. A long residence in a tropical climate had tinged her with deep yellow, and the lines under her eyes and round her month Were peculiarly dark. Her form; tall and erect, was perhaps what critical people would have called meagre, but still there was a certain something about her far from disagreeable. She-had been sent out to India to seek a husband when she was very yonng (which must have been a long time ago), and the search having been fruitless, she now came back again, possibly to establish a similar look-ont in her native land. I don’t know how it happened, bnt I saw very little of Anna Maria or her mother during my daily visits to Pigmy Villa. Miss Chnrnps always received me, and now and then we strolled together by the seashore. She had left England so early in life that her notions were all Oriental—she certainly most have been a little bit vulgar before she set out, and l am inclined to think that a long residence in India, unless the individual is naturally elegant, and has been early associated in England with persons of refinement, is not particularlarly calculated to give ladies what we are in the, habit of considering lady-llke ways and notions. The Chnmpses were persons of low origin. An early marriage with a most gentleman-like man had made Mrs Millington presentable in Society, but her spinster sister, Miss Chumps, looked so odd, and had such odd manners, that one would not have been anxious to inenr the responsibility of presenting her anywhere. Still, what Anna Maria had told me about the accession of fortune rendered her somewhat interesting in my eyes, and being, as I thought, rather neglected by the niece, I was glad to avail myself of the exense to try and get into the good graces of the aunt. (To he Continued.).