LITERATURE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7816, 8 May 1905, Page 4

LITERATURE.

TWO LOVERS AXD A MAID, The guard had whistled, thetraiu had just begun to slip away from the platform, when a young gentleman rushed up to the moving carraiges, opened the firs* one he came to, and flung himself in, having hurled in. various i minor articles of luggage before him. Putting his head. out of the window he shouted to a groom standing on the platform : " Have you seen to the luggage ?" Receiving an affirmative touch of the iat, he oddeuVat" the top of Wis Voice: :Tcll them I was in lots of time," and subsided into his seat. Thou recollection the reckless way in which hat-bos, sticks and rug had preceded his entry, he looked round the carriage wi,th a view of collecting .them, and met the gaze of a, fellow passenger, ait whose feet the hat-box had rolled. This was a girl of about seventeen, with a small, pale face, clearcut features, and a rather large mouth, wh»se amused expression displayed a very white and regular set of teeth.

" I am afraid I must have startled you in my abrupt entry/' he said, agreeably surprised, us he pie.kcd up his various possessions, and began to arranga them in this rack above his bead ;'•'but it was a very near thin;. I ran it rather W>atose," " Indeed," rejoined tbkjMung lady. '-' I thought 1 overheard Jou say to someone on the platform that they were to be told you were in. lots of time.".

"A pious, fraud !" exclaimed Mr Treves—to give our hero his name. "•'_ To have to scramble for your scut, as 1 have just done/ is almost worse in my governor's eyes, than to nii-s the train altogether." As neither of the travellers were at all shy, they were soon deeply in»mcrsed in conversation, in the course of which the singular coincidence was elicited that tbey were both bound for the same destination.

'•• You sea," said Trevor, who, after the ice had been broken by various commonplace remarks, had begun to wax confidential, "my father thinks it is time I got through sundry examinations-. So he' wouldn't let me go bock to college this term, but packed me off to a parson; and I've got to read with him for the next three months. A lively time I shall have of it, by all accounts, down at Glendale."

" Glendalo ! " exclaimed the young lady, ■•• why, I am going there. How very curious ! "

'• Indeed ! " said Trevor, thinking it might not be quite so dreary as he had at first feared. " 1) 0 you live there ? "

" l»o ; I'm only going to stay with my aunt for a few weeks. It certainly is not a very lively place. But you knew I was going there," ■he added suddenly, ■* lor you have read the label on my hand-bag. Tve seen you- looking at it a dozen times."

" I have certainly tried to read it," said Trevor, "but 1 could not get my neck far enough round to see the lost word. » Miss Kate Grey, Miss Foster, The Grange,' is as far as I .oyer managed. I hope we shall be able to keep the carraige to ourselves till we reach our destination."

And they did have it all to themselves as far as Glendale; during which time Miss Grey told him that she was very angry at having to leave h|ome to-day,, as to-morrow was Valentine's Day, and she felt sore her sisters would open her valentines to see from whom they came and then pretend that they did it under the belief that they were addressed to themselves. Mr Trevor sympathised with her, inwardly resolving tbtit she should have one valentine, at least, that no one should- open but herself. At last they steamed into Glendale. A prim old lady standing on the platform as they passed being identified by Miss Grey as her aunt, but young lady suggested thai they should shake hands in the carriage. Which they did, Trevor remarking that it wasn't going to be good-bye for long, as of course he should see her often enough during the next month. At which Miss Grey blushpd and said " Perhaps." On emerging on to the platform Miss Grey was at once claimed and inarchqTort by her aunt to point out, her luggage to a porter ; whilelv tall handsome man of about thirty, in most untidy clerical garb, introduced himsoM.to Trevor as the Reverend Paul Vyner, remarking that he believed he was right in supposing him to be Sr Trevor. • • » •

We must now say a few words in defence of our heroine, whose conduct so far may appear indiscreet. Certainly she was wrong to. enter into conversation with a strange young man in a railway- earaiage, and very wrong to more than half promise to meet him on some future occasion : but as wo have started a paragraph in defence of her, we must do our best in her behalf.

Firstly, (then she was caugiit laughs ing at unceremoiiioiis entry, and so, in the most innocent way", ilaid herself open to be addressed* Secondly, hf» was not only a handsome man, but evidently a gentleman. Thirdly, she was a flirt, though a very pretty aid innocent one, and was vcrv gted to meet with someone likely to relieve the monotony of a monUi in the country with no one to speak r— to but an elderly maiden aunt.

Xow all this may account for her behaviour down to this point ; whether it will continue to do so is for Ute reader to judge •' Aunt," began Mis Grey at lunch, -" "yno is the rector of the parish ? '* " M*" Vyner, my. dear,", replied Miss Foster. ;' The Reverend Paul Vyner. He is a Cambridge man, and, . 1 am told, of very gob« family. However, he is poor, and takes pupils. He conducts the service verv badly, and is utterly useless in t he'parish*. " - *Oh ! Has he any pupils just at present? ' imjuirei Miss (J ley inno- " Wo, my dear.'i replied her. aunt; •' and X don't see what difference it i_ would make t 0 you if he had." For Miss Foster, though a kindhearted and good woman, was a great Htickler for propriety. Her other main characteristic was that of saying disagreeable tilings she didn't » mean, and was sorry for afterwards, a Kiss Kate, having learnt all she |\ wanted to lanow, now glided genth f hut swiftly away from the danger- »£ 2Sj. top * C and being a Q-JirigJit, clever .succeeded in pros' during a favourable impression on s? her aunt. p. During the afternoon she retired to f unpack. In the course of this occu- . pation she came acroas a large uu.velopc,. wfcich-;*he took* out'of her ; ' trunk Sirf r 'Bafenced thou4.lt.fuUy in her •jahd ; she ahooß out the contents on to her dressing table, and" - bo««m sorting them through. * .They were haH-a-dozca cards, bearing 4hc (devices common to the feost - ft 8t 4 ,V»Jcntine t which shv had i' ■'

brought with hereto dispatch from Glendale to various acquaintances. Having selected one which seemed to suit her purpose, she wrote two lines on it in pencil, ond, placing i' in an envelope, directed 'it to : '• A.T., Care of the Rev. P. Vyner, r lTie Vicarage, Glendale." For though Trevor know her name. it being written in full on her laggage, she only knew his initials. which she hud seon printed on his hat-box. However, having asc. rinined from him that he was going to live at the vicarage, and from her aunt that the wear's name was Paul Vyner, and that he had no other pupils just now, she felt sure that ler letter, though vaguely addressed. must liml the right person.

The next morning at the vicarage. wh:n Mr Trevor lounged down ai hour late lor breakfast, ho loan,. h:s future tutor in a curious stale oi bewilderment. " Considerably knocked out of tiiae," comuienio. the shrewd youth, when Mr Vyi.e answered his apologies by saying in an absent way ; " 1 believe it is onK sellishr.ess'." And then perceiving l>> .Trevor's face of astonishment thai he must have said something- ver\ odd, he got up from his untouch.o breakfast, and went into the garden, (pleading a headache. I This is what had happened. On coming down that morning, he saw on the mantelpieoe in the spot I where his letters were always placed, an ».-nveiopc with hio name writr Iten across it. Bilng of most tare less of men, he never noticed the " A. T. " written above, so tore op en Uie envelope, flung it behind him. jand. to his surprise, found in his hands a card, bearing on it a grace fully executed bunch of primroses j white underneath was written in t lady's hand:

| ,T ln the Spring a young man's fancj 'lightly turns to thoughts of love."

| His first thought was to examine ithe envelope with his name written [across it; he turned to pick it up, but, alas ! lie had thrown it into Ithe very heart of the fire, and nothing remained of it but a sheet oi black ash.

| After all, there would be nothing in this to account for the vicar's Imental disquietude. The reception oi 'a valentine from an unknown hand ! would scarcely disturb the equanimity of most young men. I But Kate's seed had fallen on fruitful ground. ) It was singularly opposite (when opened by the wrong person, and chimed in so well with many of Mi jVyncr's thoughts during the last year or two, that, while the valentine itself, or its sender, never cost him another thought, the tempest ol recollections, wishes, sclf-reprout-hes, 'and plans for the future that it rais ed in him were more than he could at once allay.

I The reflections that had so engrossed him at the breakfast table, anJ which' he was now attempting to reduce to order, by walking up aiu down the garden pulling furiously ai a big pipe, ran briefly something like this : | " Why don't I marry 1 Is it, as 1 . tell luyseff, because I do not wish ? ißecause I am too poor? Because no girl would marry a slovenly object like me? Or is it because lan. too selfish ? Because I should have to sacrifice so much that has now; become second nature to :.'.e '■ M\ bachelor ease ; my summers on the Continent ;my untidy h>i'o ! .ts -, and, wretch that I am, avy claret and cigars ? Do I ao my duty her,- ? Not a bit. I know no one intimately : I eare for no one's opinion ; J hate the place. With a wife, al) thai might 'be changed. A plea suit ccmIpanion and a comfortable home arc I surely worth the surrender of a few of my special sclf-indulgenc,:s. 1 should be a better and happier man, I Besides," he thought, witih a touch of selfishness on the other side oi I is argument, " she could So that horrid visiting ; I absolutely dare not. I should resent anybody comng here and telling me I was leiuV|ing a wretched and godless life. Why should anybody be better pleased if |1 drop in at their cottage and tell | them so. Women do that kind oi thing much better than men do." Thus the result of JUisslCato's valentine was that, for his own good, and the good of his parish), the Rev. Paul Yyncr decided to- take unto himself a wife.

During the afternoon of St. Valentine's Day, Miss (Jrey started out foi a walk, and we blush to state that |she stopped the Ijrst rustic she met, .and asked the way to the vicarage, | "It will amuse me to sue him, and please him to see me," ruininat;ed the young lady. " And, after all, , where is the 'harm so long as we understand each other ? "

| With this .very stale apology for. flirtation, she strolled on till she Came to the vicarage. , I The hotjsc, a handsome, old, redbrick building, stood in extensive grounds surrounded by a high fence. | On one side, between the fence and, the adjoining fields-, ran a narrow lane, and down this lane Kate made) her way, trying to persuade herself that she went there be cause it was pretty, and a likely spot to find primroses, and not because 'it was sow possible for her to see into the | vicarage grounds-. So she dawdled listlessly down the J lane, half-amused and half-angry at jher own foHy ; at one minute wishing to see Trevor, at another, hop-' mg she should not ; poking the end f her parasol into the banks -as she passed with a vague sort of idea that that was a recognised wav of muting for wild flowers. Suddenly she was brought to a full stop by a voice right above her, inquiring if shei were looking for anything. ° Kate turned her eyes up, and mentally decided that she had seldom seen a handsomer man thVm the one now leaning over she hedge, and in whose ayes she was quick to detect no little admiration of herself. And certainly the parson in his ;lawn-tennir costume was a goodlv sight. Six feet higK, long in tfeleg, broad in the shoulder, and flat in the back, his loose flannel attiredisplayed, as much as his dilapidated clericals concealed his personal advantages. His handsome cleanshaven face glowing with exercise, small head, and closely-cropped dark Curls, surmounted by a shooting c a p .hich was pushed bock as far as was compatible with its remaining on his head at all. formed a wholj nat was undeniably pleasant. (To bo continued.)