THE MOONBEAM.

Southland Times, Issue 877, 6 January 1868, Page 3

THE MOONBEAM.

BY IHILY IEE.

WON BACK. A being 'with, an angel's face, And all a woman's winning grace. . . . And seemed so distant far from guile, Though oeinons lurked beneath her smile. — Anon. Soothing, soul-raising" strains, rose slowly upwards, gliding lightly along the lofty ceiling, and escaping out of the half-open many-colored windows, over surrounding house-tops in the soft night air, the music died lingeringly away; while chanting voices rose and fell with a summer sea murmur. One by one, the strangers and stragglers, attracted perhaps by the sweet call, entered the sacred edifice. I thought that all who were near had joined the praise-giving multitude within, for everything had settled down into such a holy calm ; the very leaves, of the heavy-hued gum trees hung still, as if in rapt listening silence. As the shadows cleared away from beneath the surrounding arches, two forms, hitherto unseen, became visible in the sad nightlight. A man's dark eyes flamed and flashed down upon the fair beauty of his companion's face; but for some time they spoke in such low whispers, that it must have been a difficult matter for even those who stood so close together to make sense of the murmurs. I was wondering to myself whether or not they were a pair of lovers, but what else could they be ? or had they each chosen the other, as a clay idol to worship, in opposition to those within, whose sounds of praise ever and anon swelled and died away at intervals ; when, seemingly in answer to some foregone speech of hers, he burst forth excitedly — " Woman, angel, or fiend, which are you?" She raised a pair of luminous orbs to his for an instant ; and beneath their glance, as if spell-bound, his mood changed, and his tones, harmonious and ■wooing, sounded in unison with the faintest echo of music's vibrations. " Hester, my precious, I forget myself sometimes when you bring before me your power and my weakness. I become frantic at times when I think of the insurmountable barrier standing, rock-like, between me and happiness and love. Hester, I would court perdition for your sake!' " You did not always think or feel so, Oliver. lam afraid you are deceiving .yourself, if not me." " No, Hester, lam not. God kno^vs what demon possessed me to pass you and wed her; for I never for a moment deluded myself with the idea that I loved her. I love you — only you — and so madly, that at times, when I have seen you smile or speak to another, I have been seized with a desire to strangle you. Oh ! don't start or turn away from me, it is the truth I am telling, to show you the intensity of my love ; and I writhe under chains forged by myself — chains which cannot be broken." The woman's hand, fair and white, was laid on the man's arm, and a world of wicked meaning gleamed from her raised eyes, as she asked, in a wavelet ripple murmur, " "Why, Oliver — why can they no-:- be broken? If you love me with half the love you so lavishly profess, there are ways and means to be used, 'if you wish for them. "Why not use them, Oliver? Why?" . Her fair face approached closer to his as she repeated her question, and her meaning seemed to fall deep into his passion-darkened soul. A silence of a few moments, then a strong deep shiver ran through his frame; but her hand seemed to press heavily on him, and her eyelids never winked even to break the charm of the steady evil eye bent so firmly on him. G-lancing timidly, almost fearfully, around, he hoarsely whispered. " Hester, for heaven's sake, what do you mean ?" "Mean? Perhaps nothing, perhaps everything !" " But, Hester, do you know the risk I should run, or the price to be paid for it?" She gave a slight half-laugh as she answered, " Are you afraid ? I think you are. Well, perhaps it is best so. But, however it is, this must end. I told you before that these stolen interviews must cease. I shall not longer compromise myself. You do not care for me. I must think of and for myself. You have only to—" " Fashion a halter for my own neck to please you." The tone of his interruption was more sad than bitter or reproachful. Another light little laugh issued from between her rosy lips as she said, tauntingly, " Why, what a coward's heart you own. Is shrinking fear so absorbing that it leaves room for neither love nor loathing ? Bah ! At the very worst, and the case clearly proven against you, the heaviest sentence would be a paltry three months. Wife loathing is only a domestic calamity, and the consequentTesult, of such frequent occurrence, that your fellow citizens, case-hardened, look upon it with a very lenient forgiving eye. Our sex is treasured arid well protected, is it not? Ha, ha!" " Hush, Hester, for God's sake ! How reckless you are. Do you see we are not alone ? Look at those two." " Well, what then ? They will see my hand resting on yours, thus; and they will think, as they glance stealthily at us, ' how fond she is of him.' " A youthful couple slowly passed, and turned their wandering glances in the direction of the shaded arches, where the man stood, looking down in an impassioned manner on the fair face upturned to his, while her hands were resting interlaced on his arm " Look, Gertie," whispered the youth as they passed?" to his companion, and his voice sounded painfully reproachful — " Look how loving she looks. She loves him better, more confidingly, than you do me. Gertie." " Well, perhaps she does," carelessly answered the girl, and they passed out of

" You are my evil genius, Hester. I cannot live without you, and you know it, and would remorselessly lead me to perdition. sTou are my evil genius. He repeated the words accusingly, and she stopped him short with a lazily worded speech. " Do you know, Oliver, I wonder how often that cowardly accusation has been repeated since the first man tried to clear himself by saying, ' The woman gave me of the tree, and I did eat.' Ob, you had better return to your duty and your wife. Go — I grow weary of you." She moved slowly forward as she spoke; but trembling hands enfolded her, and a pleading voice besought her to stay. " Don't go, Hester, don't go aud leave me— at least not yet. Will nothing less than that satisfy you? I have wealth. We could soon place worlds between her and us. Come with me, and be my love, my wife, in far off flowery climes, where i " j " No, no — here ! Your wife here, and 1 here alone — I shall be satisfied with I nothing less ; or we part here to-night, and fer ever — for ever, Oliver Kyle !" As she repeated her words, and finished with his name, her voice melted into a soft, wooing cadence. Eaising his hand, and wiping away the cold drops of dew from his pale brow, he murmured — " Part ! No ; nor life, nor death, nor hell itself shall part us, my beautiful queen-J- My evil genius," he added, fiercely, as he clasped her delicate fingers between his own, tightly, till the blood almost sprang from their taper points ; but she did not appear to feel, at least was not conscious of feeling at the time. So he stood crushing the small hand, unconsciously, until the silence was again broken by plaintive notes — notes almost human in their wailing sadness. A feeling of awe stole over them as they listened. It showed itself in their whitening faces and downcast eyed ; but it passed off, and she spoke first, " Hark ! Oliver, they are singing their parting hymn ; we, that is you, must go. Did you say that she was within ?" " Yes ; you will let me see you home, though ?" "No, no; go home with her. And remember, I shall not see you alone again until you are a free man. It is but a ' life for a love !' " As she spoke she drew back slightly into the shade; and as he half bent forward to follow, with a sudden graceful movement she clasped the bending head in her arms, and with a quick, warm kiss, sealed the compact ; at least it seemed so for he clasped her in his arms as she was about to fly from him. And while he showered kisses on the upturned face, he kept repeating— " Mine ! mine! ' A life for a love ! — a life for a love !' " " Oliver, go, go, and remember !" With a light spring, almost while she spoke, she reached and placed a door, with its outpouring multitude, between them ; and while some saints and many sinners came forth with slow and solemn steps, her eye, through the crowd, was fixed on one alone. And when he was joined by a small nun-like form, she followed at a little distance, muttering bitter words to herself. Once something attracted the. unsuspecting, betrayed wife to gaze backwards, and I lingered for an instant in her hungered, love-craving eyes while they encountered Hester's, whose destroying hate flowed from their luminous depths. A shudder passed through the woman's frame as Hester muttered — " How I hate — hate that woman ! Oh ! she was a very fool to place herself between him and me. There was the many for her, and but one for me ; yet she won him ; oh !^ fool, fool ! But I have won him back again— bought him with her life— with my own soul !" As their forms disappeared from sight, she approached a cheerful-looking home, and entered its lighted, opened hall, while I faded in gloomy sadness.