18
"THE CHIMES."
(Continued from Page 16,)
"Who hears us echo the dull vermin of the earth: the putters down of crushed and broken natures, formed to be raised up higher than such maggots of the time can crawl or can conceive," pursued the goblin of the tell-"who does so, does us wrong. And you have done us 'wrong!"
"Not meaning it," said Trotty. "In my ignorance. Not meaning it!"
creature dearest to your heart, how breath, and brushed away the blind bad the bad are born. See every buding tears, that he might look upon and leaf plucked one by one from off her, that he might only see her, the fairest stem, and know how bare and wretched it may be. Follow her! To desperation!"
Each of the shadowy figures stretch ed its right arm, forth, and pointed downward.
"The Spirit of the Chimes is your Go! companion," said the figure. It stands behind you!"
Trolly turned, and saw-the child! The child Will Fern had carried in.. the street; the child whom Meg had watched, but now, asleep?
"I carried her myself, to-night"
In these arms! said Trotty.
"Show him what he calls himself," said the dark figures, one and all.
The tower opened at his fect. He looked down, and beheld his own form, lying at the bottom, on the out- side: crushed and motionless.
Lastly, and most of all, pursued the bell, Who turns his back upon the fallen and disfigured of his kind abandons them as vile; and does not trace and track with pitying eyes the unfenced precipice by which they fell from good grasping in their fall some tufts and shreds of that lost soil, and clinging to them still when bruised and dying in the gulf below: does wrong to leaven and man, together. time and to eternity. And you have done that wrong!"
"Spare 'me," cried Trotty, falling on his knees; "for taercy's sake!"
"Listen!" said the shadow. "Listen!" cried the other shadows. "Listen!" said a clear and child- like voice, which Trotty thought he recognised as having heard before.
The organ sounded faintly in the church below. Swelling by degrees, the melody ascended to the roof, and filled the choir and nave. Expanding more and more, it ruse up, up; 3p. up; higher, higher, higher up; awakening agitated hearts within the burly piles of oak, the hollow bells, the iron-bound doers, the stairs of solid stone until the tower walls were insufficient to contain it, and it soared into the sky.
No wonder that ал old man's breast could not contain a sound so vast and mighty. It broke from that weak prison in a rush of tears; and Tratty put his hands be fore his face.
"Listen!" said the shadow. "Listen!" said the other shadows. "Listen!" the child's voice.
A solenin strain of blended voices rose into the tower.
It was a very low and mournful strain-a dirge-and as he listened, Trotty heard his child among the singers.
"She is dead!" exclaimed the old, juan. "Meg is dead! Her spirit calls to me. I hear it !!
No more a living man!" cried Trotty. "Dead!"
"Dead!" said the figures all to
"Gracious Heaven! And the new
year
Past," said the figures. "What!" he cried, shuddering. "I missed my way, and coming on
fell down a year ago?" the outside of this tower in the dark,"
"Nine years ago!" replied the figures.
As they gave the answer, they re called their outstretched handy; and where their figures had been, there the bells were.
And they rang; their time being come again. And once again, vast multitudes of phantoms sprang into existence; once again, were incoher ently engaged, as they had been before; once again, faded on the stopping of the chimes; and dwindled
into nothing.
"What are these?" he asked his guide. If I am not mad, what are these?"
"Spirits of the bells. Their sound upon the air," returned the child. They take such shapes and occupa tions as the hopes and thoughts of mortals, and the recollections they have stored up, give them."
"And you," said Trotty wildly. "What are you?
Hush, hush: returned the child.
带着
Look here!'
:3
In a poor, mean room, working at the same kind of embroidery which he had often, often, seen before her, Meg, his own dear daughter, was He made no The spirit of your child bewails present to his view. the dead, and mingles with the dead--effort to imprint his kisses on her dead hopes, dead fancies, dead im- face; he did not strive to clasp her aginings of youth," returned the bell, to his loving heart; he knew that .but she is living. Learn from her such endearments were for him, no Life, a living truth. Learn from the more. But he held his trembling
Ah! Changed. Changed. The light of the clear eye, how dimmed. The bloom, how faded from the cheek. Beautiful she was, as she had ever been, but hope, hope, hope, oh, where was the fresh hope that had spoken to him like a voice!
THE CHINA MAIL.
go round, and bear to look upon such lives!'
"Lilly!" said Mex, soothing her, and putting back her hair from her wet face. Why, Lilly! You! So pretty and so young!'
Oh, Meg!' she interrupted, "The holding her at-arm's length, and look ing in her face imploringly. worst of all, the worst of all! Strike She looked up from her work, at a me old, Meg! Wither me and shrivel companion. Following her eyes, theme, and free me from the theadful thought that tempt me in my old man started back. In the woman
he youth!" grown, at a glance. recognised her In the long silken hair, he saw the self-same curls; around the lips, the child's expression lingering still. See! In the eyes, now turned inquiringly on Meg, there shone the very look that scanned those features when he brought her home!
Then what was this, beside him) Looking with awe into its face, he saw a something reigning there-a lofty something, undefined and in- distinct, which made it hardly more than a remembrance of that child, as yonder figure might be; yet it was the same the same: and wore the dress.
Trotty turned to look upon his guide. But the spirit of the child had taken flight. Was gone.
man Cute to the heir of Bowley, aged twelve." Sweet boy!. We shall have this little gentleman in Parliament, now," said the alderman, holding him flective as he could, "before we know by the shoulders, and looking as re- where we are. We shall hear of his the House; his overtures from govern successes at the poll; his speeches in ments; his brilliant achievements of all kinds; ah! we shall make our little orations about him in the common council, I'll be bound; before we have time to look about us!"
"Oh, the difference of shoes and stockings!" Trotty thought. But his heart yearned towards the child, Neither did he himself remain for the love of those same shoeless in the same place; for Sir Joseph and stockingless boys, predestined (by Bowley, friend and father of the poor, the alderman) to turn out bad, who held a great festivity at Bowley Hall,might have been the children of poor in honour of the natal day of Lady Meg. Bowley. And as Lady Bowley had been born on New Year's Day (which the local newspapers considered an especial pointing of the finger of Bowley's destined figure in creation), it was on a New Year's Day that this festivity took place.
Providence to number one, as Lady
Bowley Hall was full of visitors. The red-faced gentleman was there, Hark. They were speaking!.
Mr. Filer was there, the great Alder. "Meg," said Lilian, hesitatingman Cute was there--Alderman Cute had a sympathetic feeling with great people, and had considerably improved his acquaintance with Sir Joseph Bowley on the strength of his attentive letter; indeed, had become quite a fiend of the family since then-and many guests were there. Trotty's ghost was there, wandering | about, por phantom, drearily; and looking for its guide."
How often you raise your head from your work to look at me!"
Are my looks so altered, that they frighten you!" asked Meg.
But you smile at Nay, dear! that, yourself!" Why not smile, when you look
me, Meg?" "I do 50. Do I not?" answered, smiling on her.
she
Now you do," said Lilian, "but
not usually. When you think I'm busy, and don't see you, you look so anxious and so doubtful, that I hardly like to raise my eyes. There is little cause for smiling in this, hard and toilsome lite, but you were once so cheerful."
"Am I not now?" cried Meg, speaking in a tone of strange alarm, and rising to embrace her. "Do make our weary life weary to you, Lilian?"
"You have been the only thing that made it life," said:
Lilian, fervently kissing her; "sometimes the only thing that made me care 10 live so, Meg. Such work, such werk! So many hours, so many days, so many long, long nights of hopeless, never-ending work-not to heap up riches, however coarse; but to earn bare bread; to scrape together just enough to toil upon, and want upon. and keep alive in us the coneciousness of our hard fate! Ob, Meg. Meg!" She raised her voice and wired her aims about her as she spoke, like one in pain. "How can the cruel world
"Richard," moaned Trotty, roaming among the company to and fro; where is he? I can't find Richard! Where is Richard?
SATURDAY, DECEMBER, 10, 21.
was to have been here to-day-high in office in the Goldsmith's Com- pany
Not. stopped!" exclaimed the
"Shot himself." alderman. It can't be "
*
"Good God!" "Put a double-barrelled pistol to his mouth, in his own counting house," said Mr. Fish, "and blew his Princely brains out. No motive. circumstances!!
Circumstances !" exclaimed the alderman. "A man of noble fortune: One of the most respectable of men. Suicidé, Mr. Fish! By his own hand!"
"This very morning," returned Mr. brain!" "Oh, the brain, the Fish.
up his hands. "Oh, the nerves, the exclaimed the plous alderman, lifting nerves; the mysteries of this machine called man! Oh, the little that un- hinges it: poor creatures that we are! Perhaps a dinner, Mr. Fish. Perhaps the conduct of his son, who, I have heard, ran very wild, and was in the habit of drawing bills upon him with out the least authority! A most re- One of the most Show me respectable men I ever knew! A
lamentable instance, Mr. Fish. public calamity !.I shall make a point nf wearing the deepest mourning. A most respectable man! But there is One above. We must sumbit, Mr. Fish. We must submit!"
Not likely to be there, if still alive! But Trotty's grief and solitude con- fused him and he still went wander ing among the gallant company, looking for his, guide, and saying,spectable man, "Where is Richard? Richard!"
He was wandering thus, when he encountered Mr. Fish, the confidential secretary-in great agitation.
#
A
Bless my heart and soul!" cried 'Where's Alderman Cute? Mr. Fish.
What, alderman! No word of putting Has anybody seen the alderman?
Seen the alderman? Oh, dear down? Remember, justice, your high Who could ever help seeing the aldermoral boast and pride. Come, alder man? He was so considerate, so affable, he tore so much in mind the natural desire of folks to see him, that if he had a fault, it was the being constantly on view. And wherever sure, attracted by the kindred sym the great people were, there, to be
There was to be a great dinner in the great hall. At which Sir Joseph poor Bowley, in his celebrated character of
to make his great speech.pathy between great souls, was Cute. friend and father of the was Certain puddings were to be eaten by his friends and children in another hall first; and, at a given signal, friends and children Bocking in among their friends and fathers, were to form a family assemblage, with not one manly eye therein un- moistened by emotion.
But there was more than this to happen. Even more than this. Sir Joseph Bowley, Baronet and Member of Parliament, was to play a match at skittles real skittles with his tenants!
"Which quite reminds one," said Alderman Cute, "of the days of old King Hal, stout King Hal, bluff King Hal. Ab. Fine character!"
"Very," said Mr. Filer drily. "For marrying women and murdering 'em. Considerably more than the average number of wives, by the bye.”
You'll marry the beautiful ladies, and not murder 'em, eh?" said Alder
Several voices cried that he was in the circle round Sir Joseph. Mr. Fish made way there; found him; and took him secretly into a window near at hand. Trotty joined them. Not of his own accord. He felt that his steps were led in that direction.
It's almost enough to make one.. think, if one didn't know better," said Alderman, Cute," that at times some! ing on in things, which affected the motion of a capsizing nature was go- general economy of the acciai fabric. Deedles Brothersi"
The skittle playing came off with immense success. Sir Joseph knock- ed the pins about quite skilfully; Master Bowley took an innings at a shorter distance also; and everybody said that now, when a baronet and the son of a baronet, played at skittles, the country was coming round again, a's fast as it could come..
At its proper lime, the banquet was. served up. Trotty involuntarily res paired to the hall with the rest, for he felt himself conducted thither by free will. The sight was gay in the “ some stronger impulse than his own extreme; the ladies were very hands some; the visitors delighted, cheerful,. and good-tempered. When the lower doors were opened; and the people flocked in, in their rustic dresses, the beauty of the spectacle was at its height; but Trotty only murmured more and more. "Where is Richard? He should help and comfort ber! I can't see Richard!"
There had been some speeches made; and Lady Bowley's health had been proposed; and Sir Joseph Bowley had returned thanks, and had made his great speech, showing by various pieces of evidence that he was the born friend and father, and so forth; and had given as a toast, his friends and children, and the dignity of labour; when a slight disturbance at the bottom of the hall attracted Toby's тар broke notice. After some confusion, noise, and opposition, one through the rest, and stood forward. by himself.
man! Balance those scales. Throw me into this, the empty one, no dinner, and Nature's founts in some poor woman, dried by starving misery and rendered obdurate to claims for which
Not Richard. No. But one whom Eve. Weigh me the two, you Daniel, offspring has authority in holy mother going to judgment, when your day he had thought of, and had looked for, shall come! Weigh them, in the eyes many times. In a scantier supply of of suffering thousands, audience (not light, he might have doubted the unmindful) of the grim farce you identity of that worn man, so old. play. Or supposing that you strayed and gray, and bent; but with a blaze from your five wits-it's not so far of lamps upon his gnarled and kuott- to go, but that it migt be-and laided head, be knew Will Fern as soon hands upon that throat of yours, as he stepped forth, "My dear Alderman Cute," said warning your fellows (if you have a fellow) how they croak their comfort- Mr. Fish. "A little more this way able wickedness to raving heads and The most dreadful circumstance has occurred. I have this moment re-stricken hearts. What then?
The words rose up in Trotty's ceived the intelligence. I think it will be best not to acquaint Sir Joseph breast, as if they had been spoken by with it till the day is over. You some other voice within him. Alder. understand Sir Joseph, and will give man Cute pledged himself to Mr. Fish me your opinion. The most frightful that he would assist him in breaking and deplorable event!"
"Fish!" returned the alderman. Fish! My good fellow, what is the matter? Nothing revolutionary, I
with the magistrates?" hope! No-no attempted interference Deedles, the banker," gasped the "Deedles Brothers--who secretary.
the melancholy catastrophe to Sir Joseph, when the day was over. Then, before they parted, wring Mr. Fish's hand in bitterness of soul, he And added that he hardly knew (not said, "The most respectable of men!" even he) why such afflictions were allowed on earth.
"What is this?" exclaimed Sir- Joseph, rising. "Who gave this man admittance? This is a criminal from prison Mr. Fish, sir, will you have "A the goodness"
"A minute!" said Will Fern. minute. My lady, you was born on this day along with a new year. Get me a minute's leave to speak.
She made some intercession for him. Sir Joseph took his seat, again, with native dignity.
The ragged visitor for he was. miserably dressed looked round upon the company, and made his homage to them with a humble bow,
(Continued on Page 20.)
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