TWO CHRISTMAS TIDES.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1129, 24 December 1883, Page 4

TWO CHRISTMAS TIDES.

For two weeks a gay party had been cheating Old Time, or themselves, at Mrs Edwards’ hospitable country house, which had been thrown open by its hostess for an old-fashioned winter jollification, which to include the holidays. All the guests were well known to each other—all save one ; but at the end of this first fortnight, both among men and women, remarkable to tell, she reigned prime favourite. ‘ I’m just determined to have Nellie Arden with us!’ Mrs Edwards had said to her husband when they had been arranging their list. It’s just a shame! Buried down there in the country, she sees no one, and she’s as pretty as a picture. Uncle Reuben is so horrid and selfish that I expect I shall have to go through a regular siege to get her, but come she shall —that I am determined on —and I’ll take her up to town, too, for the winter, if he’ll let her stay so long.’ ‘All right, my dear,’ Clarence Edwards had replied, with considerable faith in his wife’s ability to carry any threats into execution —a faith in this instance well founded, for by some means, known only to herself, Mrs Edwards had gained her point, and the first among her guests to claim a welcome was the charming little cousin whom she had beguiled from her country home. ‘I quite depend upon you, Nellie,’ she said, ‘ to help me in entertaining all these people ; only don’t make the women too jealous. If you can escape that, I give you free permission to break the hearts of all the men.’ A bright bluah had mounted to the girl’s cheek as she listened to these words.

A strange embarrassment took possession of lier.

‘Cousin Ada,’ she stammered, ‘I think I ought to tell you that ’ But she got no further. Some one at that moment interrupted, and the conversation was never resumed until But we anticipate. Two weeks of the four had passed. What a glad merry time it had been !

They conld hardly find time for sleep in pleasure’s relentless pursuit. To Nellie Arden it was a life she had dreamed of, read of, hut in her wildest imaginations had not fancied it could he made reality to her. She was supremely happy. The women made of her a pot and plaything.

The men Well, somehow, all had given place to one.

It was Jack Yernon who always secured the after-dinner place by her side —Jack Yernon who rode or drove with her —Jack Yernon whose step best accorded with her in the waltz —handsome Jack Yernon, the young officer, home on furlough. It was the buttons, of course, the other men declared; hut they were very imaginary buttons, for he wore no insignia of his rank, though the straight form and splendidly-held shoulders marked him every inch a soldier.

It had all come to be a matter of course to Nellie.

She had got on "better with Mr Yernon —that was all.

That any possible danger might lurk to either of them she never dreamed.

It was Christmas Eve, and not until in the ‘ wee sma’ hours ’ were the ‘ good nights ’ said. There had keen dancing and tableaux.

In both Nellie had distinguished herself.

‘ Isn’t it perfect ’?’ she had breathlessly 7 exclaimed to her partner. ‘Oh dear, I wish it might last for evor.’ ‘ What might last for ever, Miss Nellie ?’ he had answered, halfroguishly, half-seriously— ‘ that you might dance through life with my arm encircling your waist ? I am quite willing, I assure you.’ But she had torn herself away at his words, with a vivid blush, and ran hastily up the stairs, her hostess calling after her, ‘ Beware of the mistletoe, Nellie, tomorrow.’

This warning had fallen unheeded on her ears, for the words which had preceded them were still ringing there.

Her own room gained at last, she turned the key in the lock, and stood pale and motionless, her two hands clasped above her heart. Why was it beating so wildly ? At Jack Yemen’s foolish, doubtless already forgotten words ? Or had they suddenly brought before her something which she had forgotten —something of which to-night the memory burned itself into heart and brain alike—something before which she shrank, trembling and afraid ?

Her face was a little paler than its wont, next morning, when she came down the broad stairs into the seemingly deserted hall. Evidently she was as usual one of the early ones upon the scene; and breakfast in this house meant not a formal gathering at a set hour, but a gradual dropping in of guests into the breakfast room, from nine until twelve.

It was not yet nine. Even the butler would look surprised to see her before then, she thought, and she turned aside into the library. She had imagined herself the firstcomer ; but bere somebody was before her—somebody who sprang up from a table, where he was half-hidden behind a newspaper, and coming eagerly forward, caught her by both hands. ‘ Eairly won!’ cried the gay voice she knew so well. ‘ First under the mistletoe, Miss Nellie, I claim my reward.’

And he stooped as if about to press a kiss upon her lips. She drew back, flushed crimson, ‘ Don’t, Mr Vernon !’ she said. ‘I —I did not remember.’

He laughed then. It was long ere any one heard such a merry, boyish laugh issue again from Jack Vernon’s lips. ‘ Did you think I would steal what you would not give me willingly, Nellie?’ he asked, and his voice now was grave and tender as he went on. ‘ Lift up your face, then, little girl, and let me taste the sweetness of your lips. It is Christmas Day. Have you no gift to offer me my darling ? There is only one I crave. Gave it to me, with your kiss. Fulfil the promise of the misletoe. It is yourself, child. What have I said —what has happened. For Nellie, pale and gasping, stretched out one trembling hand to the table for support, and held out the/, other, as though in warding him off she kept something terrible and terrifying at bay. ‘ Is my love so repulsive to you ?’ he asked reproachfully. ‘ Have I indeed so cruelly deceived myself ?’ ‘lt is my fault —all my fault!’ the girl found voice to whisper then. ‘ I —I should have told you. I already am engaged. I am to be married in the spring.’ ‘You engaged—you to be married the spring! And you have let your great brown eyes look into mine as though I might read down, down into your soul!_ Tell me you are jesting, Nellie! For Heaven’s sake end this cruel farce!’ ‘I cannot—l dare not—it is too true ! Oh, spare me your reproaches! I did not dream of this!’

He laughed then, hut oh how differently it sounded. It was a cruel, mocking laugh, all unfitting the Christinas sunshine. ‘ Flirt—coquette I’ he muttered. ‘ And I thought you such a child—such a sweet, innocent, soulful child that I marvelled how I dared attempt to whiten my own life that I might unite it with yours.’ Then, ere she had divided his intention, he had sprung upon a chair, snatched down the mistletoe from where it had hung over the door, and stamped and crushed it beneath his feet.

She covered her white face with her two little trembling hands. When she took them down he had gone, and only the bruised and broken leaves told her of the scene through which she had passed. Stooping, she picked up a tiny sprig, and covering it with kisses, flew with it sobbing to her room. A few hours later she opened her door to door to admit her hostess and and cousin.

‘What is all this, Nellie?’ asked Mrs Edwards. ‘ Jack Yernon comes to hid me good-bye in a great hurry, and when I question the cause of his abrupt departure he tells me to come to yon. And here I have fancied you two were in love with each other, and so admirably suited in every way. It is too had ! What does it all mean ?’

‘lt means something I see now I ought to have told you before, cousin Ada. It means that lam engaged to he married to another man —and oh ! help and pity me ; I am so unhappy !’ ‘lt means that you didn’t know your own heart, or its existence, until Jack Yernon taught you the lesson. Acknowledge that, Nellie. Break off tMs foolish engagement—suck bonds are far better broken than kept —and let me send for Jack to come hack.’ ‘ I can’t ! I can’t!’ sobbed the girl. ‘ I am to marry Harold Green, cousin Ada, and he holds the mortgage on all papa’s property. I have given my word; I must keep it. I did not know how hard it would he ; hut that is no excuse. Only let me go away, cousin Ada. It’s the kindest thing you can do now. I ought never to have come.’

So the Christmas party lost two of their number ; but if any suspected, only cousin Ada knew 7 the truth, and bluster and scold Nellie as she might, she kept the poor child’s secret, hut sighed heavily as, one week’s afterwards, she read that Jack Yernou had rejoined his regiment; and a little later the same paper held the printed announcement of that which engraved cards lying in her basket already had predicted —viz., the marriage of Nellie Arden to Harold Green.

He was a grave, stern man, Harold Green, but he fondly loved his young wife, and though he sometimes wondered why she so rarely smiled, he could find no fault with the gentle tenderness slie alivays showed him.

‘You have made me very happy, darling,’ he whispered to her, one little year later, when they bore him to his bed after a fall from his horse which had fatally injured him. ‘ You have made me so happy that death’s one pang is in leaving my girl-wife!’ He little dreamed what fierceremorse was in her heart as she heard the words, which were his last.

He little knew tlie sliadow which, had come between them for ever, until now death’s shadow took its place. ‘ I gave him all I had to give.’ she murmured, as she bent to kiss his marble brow. ‘Was it my fault my heart was not mine own to offer? Does he know the truth now, I wonder ? and has he forgiven me ?’ Another and another Christmas came and went.

Three years had passed since Nellie Green had learned her heart’s secret, when one morning by her plate at breakfast she found a note addressed in cousin Ada’s well-known hand.

‘We are going into the country again for Christinas—not a gay party as we were before, hut just one or two grave people like ourselves. If but for auld lang syne’s sake, dear child, will yon uot join us? Remember, I accept no refusal.’ Should she go? Nellie asked herself.

Why not ? What comparison could be drawn between the gay, happy girl of three years before, and this sad-eyed woman, still wearing her widow’s weeds ? Besides, Jack Vernon was a soldier still, and his regiment was far away. So cousin Ada had her way; hut

sometimes Nellie was sorry that she had yielded. Old memories were awakened that had been sleeping; old longings she had thought . long buried in their graves. More than ever they pressed upon her as she watched the Christmas dawn break.

As once before, she stole down the stairs, the first astir except the servants, and stood upon the threshold of the library. She might enter now unchallenged. With a sad, sweet smile she threw open the door, and stepped within the room, only to stagger back, a faint scream upon her lips. Had she conjured up some wraith of the past ? For there, with his handsome brown eyes staring straight into hers, a haughty, cruel smile upon his lips, stood Jack Vernon.

So this is the trick Mrs Edwards has played me,’ he said, ‘when she summoned me here for the Christmas season? Yon see, old memories were too strong for me. I only arrived last night after the household had retired. Yet this morning I came into this room. I heard the names of all the guests. Yours was not mentioned.’ ‘ Yon did not know, perhaps, my married name ?’ she murmured. ‘As yon say, it was a cruel trick; but believe me, I have been no party to it. Had I dreamt of meeting yon, I should never have come.’

He laughed sardonically. ‘Yon think it necessary to impress that fact, upon me ?’ he asked. ‘ Why not toll mo at once yon would avoid me as 3 r on would shun the plague ? Have yon not already despised and trodden on my heart ? See! you are standing under the mistletoe. Are you not afraid I may claim the forfeit ?’

* It is you who are cruel now,’ she answered. ‘ You asked me once for a Christmas gift. Let me claim one from you. I meant to do you no wrong. Grant me your forgiveness.’ ‘lf I told you I forgave you, I should lie,’ he said. ‘I loved you, but I was poor, and the man you married had money. He was old, they tell mo, and you could not have cared for him. You sold yourself, then, for his gold ?’ ‘I did not love him no,’ she whispered in reply. ‘ That I did not, will he my lifelong remorse, for he was good, and tender, and true to me; hut it was not quite my fault. It is not for you to reproach me with it—you, who ’ She stopped, her voice shaken hy sohs.

‘ I, who was once before your dupe, do you wish to make me so a second time ? Are your wiles more perfect now than then? Well, take your triumph. Standing there, and knowing you false as you are fair, my arms ache to enfold you, my lips hum to call you hy every fond, endearing name, my soul cries out in its hungry greed for your possession. Lor the second time I throw you my heart to trample under your feet as I once crushed under mine the mistletoe.’

A.strange light came into her eyes. She slipped her hand within the breast of her dress and threw out a little hag, from which she took a tiny sprig of withered green. ‘ See !’ sbe said, lidding- it before him, and laying one little hand upon his sleeve, 1 you crushed it, hut I loved it better crushed than living. It has lain night and day on my heart, Jack. Oh, will you not forgive me now ?’ Will the mistletoe tell what followed?

I think not, though the bright green houghs laughed in triumph, and even the poor little withered sprig smiled that its mission at last was ended. But after all it was to cousin Ada that the real victory belonged. ‘ Such an opportunity to turn matchmaker,’ she whispered to her confidential friends. ‘ I really couldn’t resist the temptation.’ For all of which two hearts, at least, are most devoutly thankful.