Novelist.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2650, 6 July 1889, Page 5 (Supplement)

Novelist.

[ALL RIGHTS IiESI'RVJiD.] Love's Labour Won: AN EVKXTI't'L STORY. BY JAMES GRANT. Author of •'Tho ltrmiancs of War," " Tlio Black Wiiteli," " .Fairer than a Fairy," &c., &c. CHAPTER XYIIL—" Foil Life, run Death." Though tho last man in England who would bo guilty of such a act intentionally, tho eavesdropper referred to had been tho Baronet of Ravonsbo ume, and lie would have blushed —blushed with pain, shame, and indignation, could ho have conceived tho suspicions that hovered in tho mind of Montague Lonsdale.

Ito had been passing in tho direction of the place —a very secluded one—-whero the lovers woro so f idly engaged with each other; but ore ho could withdraw, Avliich he did softly, and in haste with a malediction 011 his lips, and great anger and anno3'ance in his heart, he had seen and heard enough to convinco him that all was over with him just then; that lie had been seriously befooled, as ho thought, by all parties ; and in great disgust he tossed away his cigar.

" This is how tho fox jumps, is it ?" ho muttered, when tho now light to tho opposition or indiffoience of Melanio Talbot broko upon him ; "and I actually brought that follow, Lonsdale, down hero with my nephew, into her immediate vicinity ! Well, Burmah will be further off than liavensbourne ?" ho added, bitterly.

The cigar formed a specios of clue to Montague Lonsdale, -while the changed bearing of his host that evening at dinner, cloak it as tlio latter might attempt to do, enraged liim, convinced him who the eavesdropper had been, and added to his anxiety for the future of Melanio.

Sir Briseo's wonted suavity liad gone ; lie was silent and abstracted over his wine and dessert ; the departure of his nephew, the gay Hussar, would scarcely account for that; but his manner, in spite of .himself, was cold, curt, and dry ; and the moment he left the table he betoolc himself to writing angry letters to Mr. Griinshaw, and his other ally, Mrs. Chillington, while, irritated by the vague memory of his recent boastful statements (or wore they rovelatious ? ho pondered) made to Lonsdale, ho felt himself small—exceedingly small, and, thank heaven ! he had not been tempted to say more. But neither of the new rivals ever mentioned the affair to Molanie. The breakfast next morning proved rather a bore to both men —to the baronet especially. "SoHorace has gone and left the Vicar's little daughter lamenting," ho remarked incidentally. " Foolish follow ! I wonder what the old folks will think. Bomantie little puss ! Who would have thought of him —a Hussar—being bitten by her, though tho English nineteenth contary hero iu his ,stand-up ' masher,' is rather deplorable. They carried on their lovemaking very quietly—openly j think] Deuced bad form."

Lonsdalo coloured and remembered the half-smoked cigar.

•' But the girls of the present clay do half tho proposing," added the baronot, a little viciously, as ho tugged his white moustache. "By tho way, you have to catcli an early train, I believe ?" " Mid-day must bo the train for me," rcpliocl Lonsdalo, who knew that he had to tako a painful leave of Melanie. << Ah." In 1 lis present mood tho geniality —even the hospitality of Sir Brisco had evaporated; his mannor was, as wo have said, cold, hut calm, and disapproving of "treachery," as he absurdly doomed it. " Thanks for all your kindness to me," said Lonsdale, after a time; " ere we meet again I shall hopo to have won my spurs in Burmah. and return major." " If you ever return at all, poor devil!" was tho angry thought of Sir Brisco. So tho end had come. Lonsdale was to go to tho burning East and loavo Melanie behind him. In the first few weeks that intervened between their final separation they had not, perhaps, thougl.it much of it apparently ; tho dark cloud had its silver lining, when he returnedhome again, and if he could not return she would join him in India. Thoy could but love and trust through a vague term of pain and anxietv.

What might not happen ore all that came to pass ?

How tenderly and deeply the poor girl loved him! Thoy then saw only and felt only the charm of their present joy; each, to tho other, was tho idol round which that joy centred. They were never tired of looking into each other's eyes —of listening 1 to each other's voices ; feeling a strong pity for all who did not love, and all unthinking of when love may perhaps bo " regard oil in the light of a curse rather than a benefit to humanity, whoso very weakness renders it unlit to cope wisely with a passion that is so absorbing, and at times so fatal!"

Undo Grimshaw thought them a pair of fools —would it all hist ? Aunt Chiilington laughed cynically and spid " No," flattering herself that she knew more of that phase of life than her brother-in-law.

" I know you would not mind narrow means—almost poverty on your account, dearest," Montague Lonsdalo had said, more than 01100; " but I know how unjust and hard a long engagement is on a girl —especially a girl so lovoly as you, and with all the temptations that beauty brings about her. But you will remember my words and me "

" Remember —oh, Montague !"

'• Will love mo, and so darling, as I cannot give you up, I will strive to win and deserve you ; and if my expectations aro speedily realised, I shall bo back all the sooner."

"If I went wit!) you to India," Melanie had said, " instead of complying with the wish of Uncle (Jrimshaw, he would, in revenge, send Reggie to break his heart in some hospital, and drive poor Dick into the streets—so, you see how painfully —how horribly, I am situated.''

So the morning of the day had come, on which Lonsdale had, inexorably, to depart for the headquarters of the district regiment— Prince Albert's Light Infantry— belonged, far away in the southwest of England, but considerably nearer to the land where the scene of its new operations would lie.

Looking around him, on tho pretty garden with its old, overshadowing trees, on the distant landscape, with a lingering and caressing gaze wo give to wcllloved placcs wo are about to quit, perhaps for ever, and on which h? knew the gaze of Melanie would rest often when he was gone, he paid his last visit to Roso cottage.

Fortunately, he thought, Uncle Griinshaw was " not at home," but he paid his adieux to helpless Reggie and curly-pated Dick, into whose hands he slipped a sovereign or two ; after which ho hastened away to join Melanie.

He had won Dick's heart even more, by cleverly bandaging up Bingo's forcpaw, which had been badly crushed in a treacherous rabbit trap that lay concealed in the woods of the retired soap boiler, against whom Dick vowed an aristocratic vendetta; and, as Lonsdale withdrew, the elder brother's regret was mingled with somethiug of envy as lie thought of the active career that lay before the soldier, while glancing at his own Naval sword and yold-laced belt

that hung upon the wall—the sword he never more would wield. It was one of the iirsfc days of August now—a day that Lonsdale and Amy would forget. The apples were ripening and reddening in many a bee-haunted orchard in Essex ; and also the hops —-which there grew to the height of six feet at times—were turning black and clustering round the slender poles; and the wheat was yellowing up for the harvest. When it -was gathered in barn and granary, Montague would be far away from England and her.

It was will) a heavy heart indeed that Melanie Talbot made her way to their accustomed place of meeting when, during the few days of his unexpected visit to Ravens'uourne Hall, she h.-ul so often sat with Lonsdale, and talked over their present uifliculties and dreamed over the future.

This would bo the last—-alas !—■ the last of these meetings. When and where would the next be ? thought the affectionate girl, as she contemplated the empty desolation that was to come. Early though she was, Lonsdale was there before her, and in silence he clasped her to his breast; their emotion was too great for words just then ; and the eavesdropper of yesterday was utterly forgotten by him. " Melanie, love," said he, after a time, in a low, caressing voice, " I feel now, indeed, how hard it is to depart, knowing to what I leave you." And Melanie clung to him in silence, faith growing in her heart, sorrow and joy for a space most strongly mingling there. " And, oh, my darling, how shall I iive'without you V' said the girl in a voice like a whisper. "Our engagement will be concealed from all by your IJncle, I know ; thus when I am gone any fool will be at liberty to address you." " Other than fools may do so, and who may cause me great trouble," replied Melanie, thinking of her chief bete noir—Sir Brisco. " Your aunt and uncle may worry you cruelly, dear Melanie." " Let them do their worst," said she, with a sickly smile through her tears, drawing confidence from his caiess, and casting up her pretty head and slender white neck'; " and their worst shall not separate us." She did not then sec all their worst could be. At last they had to part. Eagerly and reverently ho covered her face with caresses—and then came on — "Along, kiss—a kiss of youth and love And beauty, all concentrating, like rays Into one focus, kindled from above, Such kisses as belong to early days." All this is but the old, old story, and we must hasten over it. He held Melanie in his arms for the last time—the last time. Never till his final hour would lie forget —he thought—how they stood thus for a painfully brief space, her soft arms clinging to his neck, and her quivering girlish lips pressed to his, as wildly and as passionately as his own. And they parted, and went their way without a word more. So the supppscd year of separation was begun !

With Melanie, all the pentup misery of • the last few hours gave way on her return, the Hood-gates of sorrow burst open ; she lost all solf control for a time, and in the excess of her grief cared nothing for what Uncle Gi'imshaw might think or write to Mrs. Chillington,

Meanwhilo, being mado of sterner stuff, and amid changing scenes and faces, Lonsdale, after quitting tho Ilall and it master in a specios of dream, as he travelled townward cigar in mouth, in a coiner of a smoking carriage, looked like an everyday man of tho world, untouched by thought or care ; yet a vanished form was over before him.

Betimes lie was in London. Midsummer was past, when, in such streets as Oxford-street, arid others liko it, the roar of vehicles, tho touting of 'bus conductors, the voices of newsboys, tho solicitations of ugly flower girls, and all the savagely unintelligible and unmelodious street cries deaden tho sense of hearing, while tho lato sun, hidden by clouds and haze, renders tho air oppressive, and makes ono think of brain-strokes, more oven than when it boats pitilessly down on tho whito pavement, the glittering shops, or tho dust-powdered and dried foliage of tho paries and squares. In tho shadowless hoat, amid which tho mighty concourse of human life rolls endlessly to and fro, tho result of overdone civilization, and tho greed and struggle for existenco it produces—amid all this roaring vortex, could it bo, that but an hour or so ago he had boon with Molanie amid the sweet sylvan solitude of Eavensbourno, where thoro were no sounds but the hum of the bee in tho wild honeysuckle, the rustle of the old oak leaves, and tho lop-lop of the softly flowing river amid its tall, wavy ridges ?

The first further stops of his long, long journey wore before him still, and evening saw his clanking train steaming out of tho confusing and astounding station at Waterloo, faster at every moment over the ugly sea of roofs that characterise tho modern Babylon, away from the broiling streets and polluted river, away into tho green country, where the grass rippled pleasantly in tho wind, and the sua shouo unshorn of its ravs, pouring its golden light on wide fields and green hedgerows, on farmyards full of hay, on dark coppices, on shoots of water, on cottages smothered in flowers and creepers, and all the charming colour that goes to make up the sleepy and placid beauty of an English landscape.

On swept tho train, through Earnborough, when his soldier's oye quickly detected the Aldershot tents and tho slopes that overlook the long valley ; by Basingstoke, nestled in its fertile country; Salisbury, with its .slender spire amid tho plain; Yeovil, and so forth.

Night came down, the light darkened from amber to crimson, from crimson to gloom, and under the rays of the silvery moon, the features of the fast-flying landscape looked ghostly at times aud sweetly

pretty at others, when the trees cast their shadows on the white gleaming surface of starlit waters ;

and Montague Lonsdale thought of all he must inexorably look upon ere lie saw tho vanished face of Melanie—the Indian seas to be traversed, the banks of the Rangoon river, and the land of gilded pagodas and pestilential marshes; but the knowledge of her faith made his heart feel strong, if tender : and he tho ight softly of the words of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, that unless we vow—" For life, for death, oh, fear to call it loving." CHAPTER XIX.—TUB P. and 0. Lixnit Paggda.. A few days afterwards saw Montague Lonsdale, again weary with his own anxious thoughts, and his journey by rail from the district headquarters to Southampton, on board the great. P. and 0. Liner, Pagoda, of above three thousand tons burden.

With a brother officer, a favourite old chum and Afghan comrade, ].)igby Montressor (of whom more anon), he got to the ship about midnight, posted a letter to -Melanie, and after a cigar and " night cap " in his little cabin, turned in at once ; but to court sleep was difficult, as the adjacent saloon was full of military passengers, all jolly fellows, going to the front and Burmah, and all resolved to make a " wet " night, or rather morning, of their last in old England, Perhaps the chief topic of conversation was the coming war in the J.and of Rubies, and, as usual in such vessels, from the hour of deck-swabbing in the early morn till the bugles sound "lights out," when troops are on board, little is heard on all sides but tho strangely sounding names of places in Hindustani, Afghani, or Paihan, and of others in the Indies, where ere long the Russians, leaving Herat, Candahar, and Cabul in their rear, will be seeking to cross swords with us.

Happy, and mostly heedless young fellows, whoso partings with those they might never 'see again were past and over, a revulsion of feeling had set in, and over their liquor they found that

" The chief end of life is to live and be jolly."

" Where arc they going?" asked a special correspondent. il To the front!" was the invariable reply; but how, when or where, these young warriors neither know nor care. All they are certain of is. that they are going to get as near the enemy as possible, and that when there, they mean to fight. Meanwhile they discuss, with a refreshing disregard of exact history, politics and oven ethics, both the retrospect and the prospect ; but turn the compass as they will, the needle always points the same way —they are going to the front. All our soldiers on board are not griffs. There are helmets which have seen service, and in certain workmanlike baggage lie weapons that have already flashed on Indian battlefields. Not a few are, perhaps, old frontier men, and some—they are the oracles amongst us—know the Khyber and Quetta more than by name only. Their regiments have seen service along the Afridi troubled borders or garrisoned that advance-post at Shere Ali's end of the Eolan, which his Highness of Cabul would give much to hold to-day.

So amid much laughter and a babel of voices, in which tho talk was much of the Russian seizure of Pul-i-'Khotun and Penjdeii, and now of Khojah-Saleh ; of Mongals, Shanwarris and Towokis ; of Utnbcylo, the lvolem "Valley, and of the Rangoon River, with Minhlo, Mandalay, Bhomos, and so forth, Montague Lonsdale strove to court sleep, os he did not feel, just then, in the 111 cod for such heedless and hilarious society.

Bound to reach Calcutta in thirty eight days, the great ship Pagoda, was above three thousand tons burden, as stated ; but with all her splendour of fitting-up—and the boasted luxuries of sucli vessels— she was not without some of the discomforts that attend these liners; thus, almost everything being sacrificed to the saloon, which few enter but at meal time, the tiny cabins, with sometimes four occupants in each, were little to anyone's taste.

The passenger lay on a narrow shelf for a sleeping place—its roof so low that it was almost impossible to turn without knocking the head against the planks above, while the shelf itself was so high up perhaps, that a ladder was necessary to reach it. There were pegs all round hung with garments, and every chance of one's basin and tumbler being used by others, while nearly all toilettes were performed in public, and delicate and refined ladies, to reach the bathroom, had—in deshabille —to run the gauntlet of the quizzing and critical male passengers, stewards, and ship's officers.

In the haze of an early August morning, and while the rays of the sun were still lingering beyond the higher ground of the Isle of Wight, the Pagoda, under half steam, dropped down the great estuary named Southampton Water, and Lonsdale, Montressor and a few other young officers—some of them looking seedy enough after last night's work in the saloon, and nearly all wearing the lightest of tweed suits, while some had already —in anticipation of the terrible heat of the Red Sea-—adopted white helmets with puggarius—were smoking on the poop together ; and now the exposure of edifices that form the

borough, with the spires of St. Michael and All 4 Saints' were fading out on the port quarter, with the raised causeway or promenade and all its stately trees. And around the P, and 0. Liner was the opening fairway, studded with sails, and streaked with foam and the stir of innumerable steamers. On tho starboard side, after East Cowes was past, rose the soft beauties of the Isle of Wight, where the harvest fields were ready for the sickle ; and already the first glimpse of the coming autumn eoulcl be seen by the glass amid the openings where the leaves had already fallen, and where the breezes were not a-Maying now. The woodlands were all flushed with the last touches of summer, toned down in places by those of the coming autumn. "Half-franked with spring, with summer half-embrowned." The great white cliffs, gashed by their chines, stood up, shaded with grey and blue above the sunny sea, and as the ship glided on, in quick succession she passed Ryde—who knows not Ryde 1 — Nettleston Point, and over the wide height of Sandown Bay, overshadowed by high hills, and sweeping in a beautiful curve from Shanklin to the Culver Locks ; then came Ventnor on its commanding height and even the Pagoda feit the waters of the channel curling under her fore-foot.

Lonsdale and Montressor, more reflective than most of their companions, were thinking when should they look on these most English scenes again, and the former was feeling that ages had apparently elapssd since ho had parted from Melanie in their lone and lovely trysting-place, when a lady came on deck, with a white knitted hood tied coquettishly over her bright sunny hair; and she advanced smilingly towards the group of officers, one faultless white hand ungloved, twirling the large sunshade that resting on her shoulder, a bright smile in her beautiful, but sleepilylidded hazel eyes, and Lonsdale's heart gave a leap of dismay on recognising Hilda Tremayne. Hilda going out the in Pagoda too 1

Who can control circumstances —who among us can be stronger than fate 1

" Evil will coii'.cof this !" thought Lonsdale. "If Melanie hears that this girl is in the same ship with me her old pique will be renewed ; what will she think and what may not jealousy prompt V'

And she did hear of it, as time will show.

{To be continued.)