1921-12-10 — Page 22

"THE CHIMES.”

(Continued from Page 18.)

"Gentlefolks!" he said. "You've drunk the labourer. Look at me!"

"Just come from jail," said Mr. Fish.

Just come from jail," said Will. "And neither for the first time, nor the second, nor the third, nor yet the fourth."

J

pect, that it will not be lost upon my friends here."

.: "I dragged on," said Fern, after a silence, "somehow. moment's Neither nie nor any other man knows how; but so heavy, that I couldn't put a cheerful face upon it, or make believe that I was anything but what I was. Now, Rentlemen-you gentlé- men that sits at Sessions-when you see a man with discontent writ on his face, you says to one another. He's suspicious. I has my doubts,' says you, Mr. Filer was heard to remark about Will Fern. Watch that fellow! testily, that four times was over the I don't say, gentlemen, it ain't quite average; and he ought to be ashamed | nat'ral, but I say 'tis so; and from that hour, whatever Will Fern does, of himself.

"Gentlefolks!" repeated Will Fern.or lets alone all one-it goes against "Look at me! You see I'm at the him." worst. Beyond all hurt or harm; beyond your help; for the time when your kind words or kind actions could have done ME good he struck his hand upon his breast, and shook his head" is gone with the scent of last year's beans or clover on the air. Let me say a word for these," pointing to the labouring people in and when you're met the hall; together, hear the real truth spoke out for once."

"There's not a man here," said the, bost, "who would have him for a spokesman."

"Like enough, Sir Joseph. I

legg true, believe it. Not the perhaps, is what I say. Perhaps that's а proof on it. Gentle folks, I've lived many a year in this place. You may see the cottage from the sunk fence over yonder. I've seen

the ladies draw it in their books, a hundred times. It looks well in a picter, I've heard say; but there ain't weather in picters, and maybe tis fitter for that, than for a place to live

in. Well! I lived there. How hard -how bitter hard, I lived there, I won't say. Any day in the year, and every day, you can judge for your own selves."

He spoke as he had spoken on the night when Troty found him in the street. His votre was deeper and more husky, and had a trembling in it now and then; but he never raised it, passionately, and seldom lifted it above the firm stern level of the 'homely facts he stated.

"Tis harder than you think for, gentiefolks, to grow up decent, com- monly decent, in such a place. That I growed up a man and not a brute, says something for me as I was then. As I am now, there's nothing can be said for me or done for me. I'm past it."

"I am glad this man has entered. observed Sir Joseph, looking round serenely. "Don't disturb him. It appears to be ordained. He is an example. I example; a living hope and trust, and confidently ex-

to

THE CHINA MAIL.

some other man.

her with my last breath. But that I cannot look upon it!"

you can show the labourer then, thated him that it was not Richard but I died to-morrow. I would remember that we won't take, as ready and as grateful as man can be ; for he has a patient, peaceful, willing heart. But you must put his spirit in him first; for, whether he's a wreck and ruin such as me, or is like one of them that stand here now, his spirit is at this time. divided from you Bring it back, gentlefolks, bring it back! Bring it back, afore the day comes when even his Bible changes in bis altered mind, and the words seem to him to read, as they have sometimes read in my own eyes-in

Roused by the rustling of her dress. jail: "Whither thou goest, I can Not go; where thou lodgest, I do Notors ne cuch trifling sound, he lifted lodge; thy people are Not my people; his head, and began to speak as if nor thy God my God!""

there had been no pause since he entered:

There were but two chairs in the

He slowly recalled his hand, and, room. She gave him hers, and stood at some short distance from him, crushing the puree together, said, waiting to hear what he had to say, with a kind of drowsy thoughtful

He sat, however, staring vacantly, ness

"I told her so, I told her so, as at the floor, with a lustroless and stupiù smile. A spectacle of such plain as words could speak. I've deep degradation of such abject taken this gift back and left it at her hopelessness; of such a miserable door, a dozen times since then. But downfall, that she put her hands when she came at last, and stood be before her face and turned away, fore me, face to face, what could I You saw her !" exclaithed Meg, lest he should see how much it moved do?"

You saw her! Oh, Lilian, my sweet her.

girl! Oh, Lilian, Lilian 1 ***

A sudden stir and agitation took place in the hall. Trotty thought at first, that several fiad risen to eject the man and hence this change in its appearance: But another moment showed him that the room and all the company had vanished from his sight, and that his daughter was again before him, seated at her work. before; and with no Lilian by her side.

"Still at work, Margaret? You work late"

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10,

She shook her head, and motioned round-she knew it now a broken

heart: an entreaty to him to leave her.

*"Good-night, Margaret.” ***Good-night!".

He turned to look upon her, struck pity for himself which tremble in Her by her sorrow, and perhaps by the voice. It was a quick and rapid action: and for the moment some flash of his old bearing kindled in his form. In the next, he went as he had come. Nor did this glim mer of a quenched fire seem to light. him to a quicker sense of his debage- ment.

In any mood, in any grief, in any torture of the mind or body, Meg's work must be done. She sat down to her task, and plied it. Night: midnight. Still she worked.

She had a meagre fire, the night

and But in a poorer, meaner garret than Not even when you fainted, between the tears streaming from her eyes should be, look at this! O youth

But I told you

and beauty, blessed and blessing all within your reach, and working out the ends of your beneficent Creator. look at this!

She saw the entering figure; screamed its name; cried "Lilian!"

It was swift, and fell upon its knees before her, clinging to her dress.

"I saw her," he went on to say, not answering, but engaged in the same slow pursuit of his own Alderman Cute stuck his thumbs in

thoughts. "There she stood, trem bling! How does she look, Richard ? hii waistcoat-pockets, and leaning

Does she ever speak of me? Is she being very cold; and rose at intervals back in his chair, and smiling, winked As

"I generally do,"

thinner? My old place at the table to mend it. The chimes rang half And early at a neighbouring chandelier.

·?'

what's in my old place? And the past twelve while she was thus en "And early "A much as to say, "Of course I told The common cry! Lord you so.

"So she said. She said you never frame she taught me our old work gaged; and when they ceased she there, at that unusual hour, it opened. bless you, we are up to all this sort of

tired; or never owned that you tired, on-has she burned it, Richard ? could so much as wonder who was O' youth and beauty, happy as ye thing-myself and human nature."

"Now, gentlemen," said Will Fern,

Not all the time you lived together. There she was. I heard her say it."

Meg checked her sobs, and with his out

hands, holding

in his

work and fasting. that the last time I came,"

bent over him to listen; not to lose a flushing for an instant haggard face. See how your

"You did," she answered. "And breath. The frame at which she had work

his arme resting on laws are made to trap and hunt us

knees: and stooping when we're brought to this. I trice ed was put away upon a shelf and implored you to tell me nothing With

And I'm a covered up. live elsewhere.

The chair in which more; and you made me a solema his vagabond. To jail with him! I she had sat was turned against the promise, Richard, that you never forward in his chair, as if what he said were written on the ground in comes back here. I goes a-nutting wall. A history written in these would."

A solemn promise," he repeated, some half-legible character, which it in your woods, and breaks-who little things, and in Meg's grief-worn don't?-a limber branch or two. To face. Oh! who could fail to read it with a drivelling laugh and vacant was his occupation to decipher and

'A solemn promise. To be connect, he went on. Meg strained her eyes upon her stare. jail with him! One of your keepers

***Richard, I have fallen very low; see me in the broad day, near my work until it was too dark to see the sure. A solemn promise 1" Awaken- own patch of garden, with a gun. To threads; and when the night closed, ing, as it were, after a time; in the and you may guess how much I have jail with him? I has a nat'ral angry in, she lighted her feeble candle and same manner as before; he said with suffered in having this sent back, when I can bear to bring it in my word with that man, when I'm free worked on. Still her old father was sudden animation-

"How can I help it, Margaret? hand to you. But you loved her again. To jail with him! cuts a invisible about her; looking down stick. To jail with him! I eats a

Others stepped in between you; loving her and talking to her in a me again!" rotten apple or a turnip. To jail upon her; loving her-how dearly What am I to do? She has been to once, even in my memory, dearly. Again!" cried Meg, clasping her fears, and jealousies, and doubts, tender voice about the old times, and

Oh, does she think of me land vanities, estranged you from the bells. Though he knew-poor hands.

her; but you did love her, even in Trotty-though he knew she could so often! Has she been again?"

Twenty times' again," said my memory!! I suppose I did," Margaret, shebaunts me. he said, interrupting himself for a Richard. She comes behind me in the street, moment. "I did! That's neither and thrusts it in my hand. I hear here nor there. Ob, Richard, if you her foot upon the ashes when I'm at ever, did; if you have any memory my work (ha, ha! that ain't often), for what is gone and lost, take it to

to and before I can turn my head, her her once more. Once more! Tell treasure! We will live together, work voice is in my ear, saying, Richard, her how I begged and prayed. Tell together, hope together, die don't look round. For Heaven's love, her how I laid my head upon your gether!" give her this! She brings it where shoulder, where her own head might live; she sends it in letters; she taps have lain, and was so humble to you, at the window and lays it on the sill. Richard, Tell her that you looked into my face, and saw the beauty What can I do? Look at it!

which she used to praise, all gone all gone; and in its place, a poor,

with him! It's twenty mile away and coming back I begs a trifle on the road. To jail with himi At last, the constable, the keeper-any-not hear him. body finds me anywhere, a-doing anything. To jail with him, for he's a vagrant, and a jail-bird known; and jail's the only home he's got."

The alderman nodded sagaciously, as you would say "A very good home too!"

"Do I say this to serve my cause!" cried Fern. "Who can give me back my liberty, who can give me back my good name, who can give me back my innocent siece? Not all the. lords and ladies in wide England. But gentlemen, gentlemen, dealing with other men like me, begin at the right end. Give us, in mercy, better homes when we're a-lying in our cradles; give us better food when we're a working for cur lives; give us kinder laws to bring us back when we're a going wrong; and don't set jail, jail, jail, afore us, everywhere we turn. There ain't a condescension

A great part of the evening had worn away, when, a knock came at her door. She opened it. A man was A slouching, on the threshold. moody, drunken, sloven, wasted by intemperance and vice, and with his matted hair and unshorn beard in wild disorder; but, with some traces on him, too, of having been a man of good proportion and good features in his youth.

He stopped until he had her leave to enter; and she, retiring a pace or two from the open door, silently and

He saw Richard. sorrowfully looked upon him. Trotty had his wish.

"May I come in, Margaret?". "Yes! Come in. Come in!" It was well that Trotty knew him before he spoke; for with any doubt remaining on his mind, the harsh, discordant voice would have persuad

UP-TO-THE MINUTE FASHIONS

IN DAY and EVENING WEAR

COATFROCKS. GOWNS, WRAPS CROCHET and CREPE JUMPERS

He held out in his hand a little purse, and chinked the money it in

closed,

'Hide it," said Meg. "Hide it! When she comes again, tell her, Richard, that I love her in my soul. That I never lie down to sleep, but I bless her, and pray for ber. That, in my solitary work, I rever cease to have her in my thoughts. That she is with me, night and day.. That if

wan, hollow cheek, that she would weep to see. Tell ber everything, and take it back, and she will not refuse again. She will not have the heart!'”

So he sat musing, and repeated the last words, until he woke again, and rose.

You won't take it Margaret?"

"His blessing on you; dearest love. Kiss me once more! He suffered her to sit beside his feet, and dry them

and compassion !" with her hair. Oh, Meg, what merey

As she died, the sprit of the child and radiant, returning... innocent touched the old man with its hand, and beckoned him away.

FOURTH QUARTER.

SOME new remembrance of the ghostly figures in the bells; rome faint impression of the ringing of the chimes; some giddy consciousness of having seen the swarm of phantoms reproduced and reproduced until the recollection of them lost itself in the confusion of their numbers; some hurried knowledge, how conveyed to him he knew not, that more years had passed; and Trotty, with the spirit looking on at mortal company. of the child attending him, stood

Fat company, rosy-cheeked con

They pany, comfortable company. were but two, but they were red enough for ten. They sat before a bright fire, with a small low table between them; and unless the fragrance of het tea and muffins lingered longer in that room than in most others, the table had seen service very lately. But all the cups and saucers being clean, and in their proper places in the corner "Up. dear! Up! Lilian My cupboard; and the brass toasting-fork hanging in its usual nook, and spread- "Never more. Meg; never more!ing its four idle fingers out, as if it own dearest !** Here! Here! Close to you, holding wanted to be measured for a glove; to you, feeling your dear breath upon there remained no other visible tokens of the 'meal just finished, than such Sweet Lilian Darling Lilianas purred and washed their whiskers my face!" Child of my heart--no mother's love in the person of the basking cat, add can be more tenderlay your head glistened in the gracious, not to say

the greasy, faces of her patrons: upon my breast!"

Never more, Meg, Never more!

This cosy couple (married, evidently) When I first looked into your face had made a fair division of the On my fire between them, and sat looking knees before you, let me die. Let it

at the glowing sparks that you kneeled before me.

be here !"

dropped into the grate; now nodding off into a doze; now waking up agaio the rest, came, rattling down, as if the when some hot fragment, larger than fire were coming with it.

It was in no danger of sudden extinction, however; for it gleamed not only in the little room, and on the panes of window-glass in the door, and on the curtain half drawn across them, but is the little shop beyond. A little shop, quite crammed and choked with the abundance of its stock; a perfectly voracious little shop, with a maw as accommodating and full as any shark's. Cheese, butter, firewood, soap, pickles, matches, bacon, table- beer, pegtops, sweetmeats, boys' kites, bird-seed, cold ham, birch, brooms,

(Continued on Page 22.)***

come "You have

back. My

"Ah! Kiss my lips, Meg; fold

your arms about me; press me to your bosom; look kindly on me; but don't raise me. Let it be here. Let me see the last of your dear face upon my knees!"

O youth and beauty, happy as ye should be, look at this! O youth and beauty, working out the ends of your beneficent Creator, look at this!

"Forgive me, Meg! So dear, so dear! Forgive me! I know you do; I She said so, with her lips on Lilian's see you do: but say so, Meg!' cbeek, And with her arms twined]

z ziz ii sssz z SZ Z S

JAEGER PURE WOOL

ww

GOLFERS - JUMPERS - SCARVES

MOTORING

COATS

DRESSING GOWNS-SLIPPERS:

.

HAND

MADE

UNDIES

AMERICAN

SILK

HOSIERY

FANCY GARTERS

UMBRELLAS

LANE

CRAWFORD

& Co.

HANDKERCHIEFS

IN

FANCY BOXES

FANCY HANDBAGS.

IN

LEATHER & SILK

GLOVES EVENING SCARVES

GIFTS

FOR

LADIES

THAT ARE SURE TO PLEASE

BROCADE SHOES

SHOE BUCKLES

AND

FEATHER

NECKWEAR

-FANS -