Literature.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 170, 22 July 1904, Page 4

Literature.

. , . REFUSED AND ACCEPTED. ff v Na, gir l" > i That was what she said'. I roae up, trying desperately to apunconcerned and careless. Pooh ! tt no use ! Marjory . Chesulc* Saw through me as if I had been Kjr * pair of spectacles. She knew that | Jj ,WOUld b»ye sold myself for a pdat-kge-stainp just at that moment, and considered it a bargain. I got out g?«flhe room somehow, not in the b a '*- ®io®t .. graceful style, X am afraid—£v.:o«it Jiome to ruminate o-n my di&gi' Id seal. g r ?V Marjory Cheswick had not been |» «t 'heiress.!" ■' That was the cry of my bruised ; fceart during, all the weary days arid ; Weeks that followed. Somehow I not divest myself of the idea pry had confounded me with r (Hw-fISW-of fortune-hunters that had always surrounded her. There was no | kelp lor it <now, however. Ah, no g -Uelp for it ! . '"'Charley's going thin—l hope 1» £ Wat going' into a decline," said my mother dubiously, shaking her head. i he'd conaant to take a tabis. Spoonful of cod-liver oil morninir K-wrt afeht/' , Id-liver oil !" said my fairag his glasses magisterialey only needs a little at do you say to a run linent, my boy, eh ?" Jad, X need any rewould rather remain at , looked at me keenly. He who never changed his the upshot of the matter n the Continent I went, n is always more or less I belong to the class of cSI ! Foreign travel ' would' they effect so long I't take a tablespooijful of teswick twice a day, nor across the Channel with iy from home I extended t travel considerably, and crept by almo&t before X bad not forgotten JJarick, and the silvery ' No, as plainly imprinted in r as if it had been spoken kJ .Cheswick!" People ; forgotten the very name uonable circles whose star donee been, when Z returntative land. k I" said Uncle Brownson. everyone and went everyfat old man with a> ho had property and flirtdeal, hey ? Heand he. was ae the daughter's married /nod gone!" X should to have knocked off Uncle i rusty old wig ; but, after wasn't to blame, rolling one evening through e.iprincipat streets lading '.City, vyhon I paused a • ?' BHUiantly lighted codgolden balls hum? Bad- There waa a deadB cart-wheels and screamI, Mid I mechanically turnat the display ia the pawnWdow. eould not Ire mistaken ' )he raindrops off my eye--1 looked again. No—l was ten. <xa ß battered violins, pagte and all the incongruous it collects in such planes, een-plumed canary, strainlall throat in a pagoda of gilt wire ! Marjory GhesWrd ! I should have known all the feathered denizens wy Islands !• But how on 8 it there ? stepped into the shop and the man behind the councage? It's been here these «• no, Of course not. Four °B» we lent on that cageat sort of person redeems an t tell, I'm surei lef( i a gold piece across th( nter with trembling hands, s you might ascertain, b.v lly, sar—certainlv," said tin thing at the coin, while his ''axod into smiles. "Any»blige a gentleman. Let me le—See ! Oh, here it is !

January 17, Matfory Ches-Clies—" I caught the dog's-eared volume snd eagerly read the name, followed 1 v an address entirely new to me. It v. as enough. I had discovered the missing link, and before the astonished shopman had recovered his preface of mind, I was once more 1 ressiog through the rain, the mist, tho darkness. The mere idea of Marjory Cheswick in want—perhaps to suffering—drove mc wdkl ! "I>oes Miss Cheswick live here— Miss Marjory Cheswick ?" At any other tome my fastidious senses would have revolted from the re-eking atmosphere of that dismal house ; now I scarcely heeded the noise and squalor. "Artificial flower maker—upstairs top floor—hack !" growled the voice of someone behind a partially open i door, and I had ;lhe satisfaction of knowing that I was being thoroughly scanned by unseen eyes belonging to the voice. Up the narrow, creaking stairs I passed. My heart seemed almosit to stand still as I tapped at the door, beneath which I had distinguished a faint, yellow line of light."Come in !" responded alow voice and I obeyed. It was a narrow room, whose slop- ; ing roof would scarcely permit a petson to stand upright in any part of | it—with a rusty, fircless grate, and 'a table where one tallow candle il- ' luminated faintly the heaps of half- ! finished artificial flowers upon which bent a weary, slight figure. As my I step sounded on the threshold she i looted up. i Ah, how changed—how faded ! Yet, how 'beautiful still ! The same golden masses of hair, braided now, instead of hanging in curls ; the same ■blue eyes that had haunted mo for years. "Marjory ! Marjory Cheswick \" She shrank back with a low cry ; covering her face with her hands. Had 'J sought her so long to be discouraged now ? I cannot tell how it happened, nor what we said ; but the first distinct recollection I have, beyond that dizzy uncertain moment of recognition, is of Marjory sobbing with her forehead upon my arm. My life's precious jewel ! I had found her at last —my consitant love had met its reward, "Oh, Charley, the only friend who found me out in adversity—the only one whose love outlasts grief, and sad, sad troubles ! And I had fancied that—that '• ' 'That I was a fortune-hunter ? So lam dearest, and I have found a fortune in your love! 1 ' Pshaw ! What is the use of going into details ? Doesn't the reader know just what happened afterwards? If lie doesn't I shall be very happy to see him any evening in our bright little drawing-room, where the green canary sings just as sweetly as if he had never hung under the " three golden balls," and my beautiful wife nourishes the delusion that her husband is a sort of hero. 1^ ur ,°' '"deed !As though anv man wouldn t have passed through 'twice my ordeal to win such a precious treasure.

true " my own Marjory?" And Marjory hides her face in' he* baby's neck, and says : "Nonsenaa l' J