CHAPTER XXXI —'INFORMATION REQUIRED '

Waikato Times, Volume V, Issue 269, 31 January 1874, Page 3

CHAPTER XXXI — ' INFORMATION RE QUIRED '

The loneliness of n g<eut swirmuu: city, whero tie faoei are strange, Hnd ona is excluded from the mtercsti winch engross ovcrv human bums; one me» ts , ' »Them one might drop out of the concourse, and not be umsed for one lmtunt by any living soul, fell hea\ ilv on Laurence Dily Dunne their short sojourn in New York, Walter and he bad been so muon occupied with one another, the imminence of separation after their long and close companionship had never boon ab»ont from their thoughts, and they had hardly observed the surrounding scene. But Walter was gonp now, and Daly, though not an ungracious, unsociable man, felt rpry thoroughly alone. He know the feeling was to some extent voluntary, that when he should irnllv rouse himself to look into his ofFnirs, and take any at-vs in the direction of business, he should find no lack or ditileulty of association ; but just yet ho did not feel disposed to make the effort. "Very seldom in his lite before had Lawrence Daly deliberately given way to the indulgence of u weakness, but ho did so now, to the indulgence of the weakness of discontent. Hi< did not envy Waltor his lot, in the sense of feeling anything but jo>ful sympathy with his happiness, and pleasure in his good foriuno ; but he did feel a great longing for a litflo of similar sunshine in his own life. The tide had set against him *omeho«r, just when it turned for Walter, and lio murmured against this. There was nowhere in the world a homo where he "vould be welcomed, in right of himself; there was not a woman in the world ttio pulses o< whosi> heart could bo stirred by his step, his voice, hn smile. Lawrence Daly had not frittered away hiB feelings in flirtation, «nd a ' grand passion,' with its stormy delight and pnngs, had never crowed his life. He had never been well enough off to contemplate the possibility of marriage — in the past ; nnd thin last failure made him think he had bi-tter dismiss the indea permanently for the iulure. It did not much matter, in the abstract form, in which only Dalj thought of marriage ; but, he thought, rather bitterly, it might have mattered, very much. If, instead of the blank life, whose strongest interest was his friendship lor Walter Ciint, his life had been blessed with the love oi a woman — a gentle, sweet woman like Florence, or a handsome, brave, impetuous, somewhat ungovernab'p woman like that goldeneyed Miriam, of whom her brother was so proud and fond — why, then, he would have put his d sappointment right away out of sight, and gone to work, to win a home and a provision for her But, after all, what did it matter to him ? It was this vtry feeling that it did not matter which made it hard to bear. Evidently, Lnwrcnee was out of sorts. Under these circumstance), Deering got the chance of forming a sort of intimacy with him which, under any other, he would not have succeeded hi establishing. Ho was linked, in a slight but still impoitni.t manner, with thoold life, from which Daly hnd had no concoption it would bo so painful to break away; and ho wn« a « nndcrcr. like himself, though unlike him, no stringer to the wa^ of New York. They met again and again, and Deermg gave Daly soup by no means ill-considered or insincere advice cvmerrning the investment of the cotnparatnvlv vmnll Hums it bis disposal, on his own account and Walter's with a view to the speediest returns consistent with saletj. Ihe intermittent fever of speculation was in one of its hot fit* just then in the Empire City, and the only difficulty was that of selecting among the innumerable schemes, oi hitherto unequalled brilliancy and extent, by which everybody was to make a fortune. Daly dabbled, in one or two of the most reasonable of these, and did well. He was begiifting to like the place, to make friends, to get over tne (insolation and desultunuess which had at first beset him. He had heard of Walter's arrival, and of the flourishing state of things in general at the Firs, and, m answer to a cautiously written letter, addressed to Florence, and in winch he had requested an answer from lior own hand, he h«<3 reeei-red it report of Walter's health which satisfied him that he was well, but that no re-awaken-ing of the memory on the subject on which it bad so suddenly and mysteriously t>unk into slumber had tuLen pluce ' I have only two faults to find with Walter,' Florence wrote, near the end of a pleasant letter, which brought her pretty face and sweet voice back to Lawrence's remembrance with tantalising freshness : one is, that he looks t>o much older than his years — 'the other is, tuat he is growing very luzv.' ' fho fever accounts Jbr the one, and ease ar.d prosperity excuse the other,' thought Lawrence. 'I wonder how the golden-oyed Miriam gets on.' Presently there wub arelttienee to her in Florence's letter . • Wo are s»till always expecting Mr and Mrs 3ft Quentin, and tin y are still a'wiiya not coming. Ho has b< en ill l»tely, Walter bids mo tell 3011, with, gout, and takes the most violent remedies in order to be able to go out into company. He goes about to. nil sorts Of places with Minnm. I hopo they will come to England soon, but I have giving up counting upon it. Walter says he has only ono thing beside to msb for — that your timo was up, and you woro safely at home at the Firs. And, indeed, dear Mr Daly, so do I heartily wish this also ' 'A good, kind, genuine, womanly letter,' said Lawrence to himself, as he folded it up. 'Tt makeß a follow feel lesß lonely and lost to get such a letter as this. Walter moatfs me to understand that ho is conn'rined in his notions of the St Quentin manage, of course. The old gentleman stifles his gout in the interests of his jcalousj, 110 doubt.' Duly had completely adopted DporintrV th«orv of Hie occurrences at the gold-digeinps, -and had ioine to regard the loss of the nugget with composure, as ho might have regarded any ordinary los« by robbery. As time wont on, it did occur to him bometnr.es to think it strange that he knew so little of Deering. apart from their joint transactions; how reserved and tauiui 1 th- .man was in everything which related to his own past n ■ . „w i'auuh relations, or his future prospects;, whomis he Lu.l bow toiurabh expansive in his communications with Deenng. He remembered tnat Walter Clint had made u remark ol thu suuic kimi to him one day, and had accompanied it with an expression of dislike to Deering. As for "Mr Decmiig Imnsdf, he found* the acquaintance with D.ily, to wlnoli ho had contrived to-gucthe uppearai^o of intimacy, lutb Useful and pleasant, and it was tjuite remarkable w ,lv w hat curiosttj and interest he collected fi am Daly's conversation every detnil which could serve in the constriction ot the hwtary of his past career. D>ily was t>o much the opposite of an.egotistical man, that the collection of thene details was not an easy matter; indeed, it demanded considerable tact, in which Doenng sometimes broke down, so that if Lawrence had not been as little suspicious as he was egotistical, it must have struck him that his friend was strongly actuated by curiosity. Hut the two qualities combined acted m the interests of Deenng's purpose. Duly was not put on his guard by any overweening notion of his ow« importance, and he rever suspectecTDoering of uny ulleiior objict. TUus it came to pass that, 111 process of time, Jieering had arrived at a knowledge of all the events in Daly's history sufficiently accurate and minute to have served for the compilation of one ,_ * those wonderful dom'tern, which aie the terror of Fr«neh delinquents, and objects of envy and admiration to French romance writers. ' You'll excuso my saying so,' he remarked to Daly one evening when they were smoking sooiably together on a well-known balcony, ' but I think you acted rather rashly in rashly in respect to the" nabob ! You cut the painter there too abruptly and too completely. If you had thpn had a little more knowledge of tlio world, I fancy you would have given him more time, wouldn't you ?' ' What for ? lv keep u promise to » doad woman whieb he had peisistently broken while she lived ? Where would have been the souse in that ? I bhould have gained nothing by it, and lost my vm\ stlf-respeot. No, no ; notwithstanding tho loss of the nugget, I am better off now than I should have been, loafing about, and waiting for the favours ol such an uncommonly treacherous and shift} old providence as Mr Chbborn.' ' 1 tuink I understood you to say, in addition to bis having marritd your mother's sister, he is a relative of your own ?' There was an unaccountable eagerneo in Deering's face as he asked this question, to which Daly replied carelessly : 'Heis a distant relative, but the nearest I have ; and I am the nearest he has, I believe.' Then they dropped the subject. About this time, Mr Deenng had an unusual amount of correspondence on hand. Ordinarily, he neither wrote nor received letters which implied anything beyond the bukinoss he was ongugeJ in, and t tie rather low pleasures with which ho diversified it Buk he had taken to looking out for maildvys of late, and it might hive been ob«orv d that he was prcocaipted al suc'u tunes, and additionally attentive to Daly and watchful of him.