Literature.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 208, 6 September 1904, Page 4

Literature.

o THE HAND OF FATE,

The fact that old Jacob. Grainger had amassed a large fortune on the Stock Exchange made people extremely anxious, to shut their eyes to the coarseness and vulgarity that were his two most prominent characteristics ; but their efforts were not, as a rule, particularly successful. For Grainger was a blatant individual, who had made his pile, and did. not care who knew it; being a firm-Reliever in the dogtoa of self assertion, and the glorious gospel of self-advertisement. Mrs Jacob Grainger, on the other hand, was a 'ady, both by birth and instinct, who had been forced into a marriage with the eminent financier by her scheming relatives, and had found the wealth and position which this marriage had brought her a very po 0 r compensation for being tied for life to a man who was best summed up in the one word "impossibfte." There was, however, one bright spot in Mrs Grainger's life, and that was her daughter Mamie—her only child. When people looked at Jacob Grainger, and then turned to contemplate his charming and beautiful daughter, their thoughts inevitably recurred to a verse in a poem of C. S. Caverley's, which runsOld Poser snorted li e a horse; His feet were large, his hands were pimply ; His manaen, when excited, coarse— But Miss'F. was an angel simply. Mamie Grainger was, in fact, one of those beings who are occasionally (but, alas t all too rarely) sent into this weary world for the express purpose of proving that if every prospect pleases and only man is vile, woman, on the other hand, is capable of combining in her own person so many charms' and virtues and fascinations as to make the average vileness of man a comparatively negligible iqjuantity. If the reader is inclined to think that this ds stating the case too strongly, toe has only to refer to Mr Leslie Mannering, who keeps in his mind a complete catalogue of the numerous physical and intellectual perfections of Miss Mamie Grainger, which he is willing to produce at any time, on the smallest provocation, or even with none at ail.

He can tell you, for instance, all about her soft grey eyes, and the .way they can look into a man's very soul, winkle at the same time revealing the 'beauties that lie in the spotless soul that glows behinl them According to him, her hair is a heavenly vision, her lips ure a peifect poem, hej figure is a dream rf grace and harmony, while her hands But on the subject of her little white hands Leslie ,was wont to wax bo dithyrainbic that any attempt to reproduce has rhapsodies would inevitably result in failure. Suffice say that no girl before or, since ever possessed a pair. of hands so exquisitely small and white and soft and tdainty;as : those- belonging to Mamie Grainger, From which it may be gathered that Mr Leslie Mannering had fallen a hopeless, victim to Miss Grainger's indisputable charms. Unfortunately : for him, however, he knew old Grainger, and his ambitious schemes for his daughter's marriage, well for a single instant to imagjtne that he would look upon a penniless engineer who was just starting for •the other side of the world in pursuit of fortune in the light of, a possible suitor for Mamie's ihand.

Nevertheless, Mannering had been staying far a fortnight in the Graingee's country house, during which time he had heer( seeing her every day. And without being conceited enough lo think thaU she was in love with him, he had at least the satisfaction of knowing that she and he were excellent friends. And now he had reached the last night : of liis stay. To-morrow he would have to return to London, and the day alter he had to start for Australia, where he was to take up a billet ias a mining engineer, which he had every reason to hope might lead, eventually to fame and fortune, but which, for the moment did not amount to much. In tlhe meantime, 'he dared not apeakto Mamie, because he knew only too well that, even if she were willing to listen to him, her father would be •furious. And when old Grainger was furious it did not tend to increase the comfort or the peace of mind of other members of his household !

■''• It's an infernally ill-managed world !" said Leslie to himself, with that calm confidence of extreme youth which takes for granted that, if only the speaker were given a free band with the universe for a short time, he could convert it into a far more profitable concern all round than Providence has ever so far succeeded in doing, without his able assistance.

*'l am a silly ass for having thought about her !" he remarked, viciously. And just tjy way ofigivong point to his remark,, he continued to think of Hothong else all the time he waa dressing for dinner,with ithe result that he cut himself while shaving, and was within an ace of incurring oW Grainger's undying anger by committing the unpardonable sin of being late for that solemn function. As a matter of fact, Mannering was a good deal less of an ass than the average young man of and this was no dou>btdue in jome to the fact that his opinion 'of himself was not an unhuly exalted one. . Although he did not have the privilege of taking Miss Grainger down to dinner,'he had the felicity ot srihting next to her ; and, without too obviously negjlecting his o wn partner he managed to put in a Kood deal of Conversation with the oibjcct of his adoration.

"I am so sorry you are going tomorrow, Mr Manncring," she said brightly; "we shall all miss you very much. But he did not flatter himself that this meant that she would miss him more than any of the rest of the household, "and with a fine effort of self-control he "bucked up," as he expressed it, and tried to appear extremely cheerful about his approaching voyage, feeling that, under tha circumstances, it would be little short ot idiotic to play the part of the love-sick swain. Nevertheless, when Mr Mannerimg went up to bed that night he carried with him a tiny five-and-a-q'uarter glove flfloch he had picked up under the table when Miss Grainger followed her mother to the drawing-room after dinner; and he somehow felt as if this small fragment of white kid would be ihis 1 most cherished possession that he would take with him across the ocean.

So that, considering he had just Convinced himself that Mamie was certain to be married to someone with a title ever so long before he could even begin to think about Coiriiiig home again, it must be admitted that he was not so far out, after all, in putting himself down aa a "silly a ss-" The next day he said "Good-bye" to Miss Grainger, and caught the train for London in the familiar frame of mind of the man who feels that he is leaving all that makes life worth living behind him. Be clung to the same attitude of mind all the way to Australia, and failed to avail Mimself of any of the numerous opportunities for flirtation which an ocean steamer invariably offers. He knew perfectly well all the time, however, that the sooner that beillamshed Maimio from his Uwi(gfliiW the better, as it was perfectly obvious he could never have the smallest chance of winning her. When he arrived in Australia he found that the work he had to do was likely to aW sorb not only all his time, but all bis thoughts and energies, and threw -himself into it with astoniishing vig,our, being determined that he would at anyrate show what stuff he was made o'> As « matter of fact, lie was a very clever mining engineer, , and he very soon became a living 1 instance of the saying that a man who is unlucky in love has his good fortune made up to him elsewhere. Is a short time he had an oppor-

tunity of buying „ mine, which he had every reason to think very well of, on particularly favourable terms. He had formed a friendship with another man of his own, age, named Dickie Forbes, who had a little capital to spare, and he went into partnership with him over the mine, which, in a remarkably short space of time, turned up trumps of a most satisfactory kind. And before Mannering had been out there two years he found himself on the way to becoming a lich man. From time to time he used to mve about the girl whom he adored, without, of course, mentioning her name ; and Dickie Forbes w o uld sit and smoke his pipe and listea sympatheticaly while be discoursed upon the adorable eyes and the incomparable hands of "the girl he left behind him."

At the end of four years they had a chance 0 f selling their mine to a syndicate, retaining „ certain number of shares for themselves. And they were both so well pleased with the result of this deal that they determined to run over to England for six months. (To be continued.)