The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-11-29 00:00:00

CHAPTER XXX.
A ROMANTIC STORY.

"A la oodly apple, rotten at the heart.
0, what a godly o itside falsehood bath r

BY one of those fatalities which sometimes oicur
to frustrate the most carefully-considered. projects,
the letter written by Dr. Sampson to recall his
protege from the useless journey he had undertaken
failed to reach Leonard Grant, who, however, lost
no time after his arrival at Melbourne in acquainting
the doctor of the fact, and of the earliest results of
his enquiries, which were by no means of a satis-
factory nature
"I can gain no intelligence whatever," he wrote,
"beyond the fact that Alick availed himself of Mr.
rounceby's introduction on his arrival in the colony,
and was some months in the employ of a mercantile
firm in Bourke-street, the principal of which
remembers him very well, and speaks highly oi
his conluct at first. But he seemed discontented with
his position, and after a time grew so careless and
inattentive as to call down censure, and soon aftei
dismissal; since which time they know nothing of
him, and as nearly twelve years have passed, and
the colony has received large numbers of immigrants
every year, it appears'almost hopeless to expect to
find him. I certainly should not be likely to
recognise him, -even if we were to meet, and the
probability is that the difficulty is increased by
his having taken another name. However, I do
not altogether despair. The matter at stake is too
great to allow me to give in without making every
effort in my power to succeed in the task I have set
myself, and I am determined to leave no stone ,
unturned to that end. At any rate I shall not
return till the time we fixed upon has expired. I
had hoped to find a letter from you awaiting me ;
but after all you can have little to say until you
hear from me, and I shall look for an answer by
return of mail. I may not write to Eve herself, you
told me, and I must obey • but don't let her forget
me, or think that the neglect is from any lack of
willingness on my part. Tell her—," &c."
Which conclusion of Leonard's epist'e may with
advantage be filled up by fancy, for the message it
contained only reached the person for whom it was
intended through the medium of Mr. Sartoris, who
delivered it in a very diluted form, substituting
"kind regards" for "dearest love" and "undying
remembrances," and other formal, cold-sounding
sentences in place of the tender, love-breathing words
which Leonard had indited.
No doubt the intention was good, and that
according to his lights Mr. Sartoris was acting-
judiciously in suppressing the passionate utter-
ances which his ward would have rejoiced to hear;
but, as generally happens when one fallible mortal
takes upon himself to control and shape the
destinies of others, such interference worked more
mischief and sorrow than it did of good in the long
run.
For Evelyn Trenehard, angel though her lover
deemed her, was but mortal woman after all, and
asjincapable as the rest of the world to read a locked
volume, or peep below the surface and detect the
true reason of the reticence and seeming indiffer-
ence of him to whom she had given her heart.
All unavailingly given, she told herself, for what
lingering hopes she might have cherished were now
utterly- destroyed by the well-meaning but short-
sighted policy her guardian in his superior wisdom
adopted; and having come to the very natural,
though entirely false, conclusion that Leonard
cared for her only as a friend and old playmate,
she resolved to school herself in such wise as to
prove that he was equally an object of indifferen- e
to her.
It was a hard task, and one that Eve was not
altogether so successful in as she fancied, though
outwardly she continued so to bear herself that she
completely deceived Mr. Sartoris, and made that
gentleman plume himself not a little on his sagacity;
but ihe hidden effort had one effect in reniering
her less docile and sweet tempered than she had
been, and made her give way to little fits of wilful-
ness and ill-humour that were somewhat trying to
her guardian, so that it was almost with a sigh of
relief that he received one day a letter from a far-
off Scotch cousin of Eve's (lead mother ini iting his
ward to pay her a visit.
Eve herself was by no me ins avelise to such a
change from the dull monotony of her life, and
wrote Mr. Graeme a pretty note of acceptance,
and r. Sartoris at once set about looking out for
some one to accompany her, partly as companion,
partly to ail in the completion of her education,
which he did not consider as altogether finished.
To this end he advertised his requirements, re-
ceiving in&eply such a shoal of applications as
filled hirw, a temporary dismay at the bare id a
of having'to ;-vade through all of them before coming
to a decision.
But he was not a man to be daunted by diffi-
culties, and applied himself to the task with so
much energy that in the course of a week he had
weeded out from the mass of correspondence with
which he had been delueed about a score of letters
from which to mike his final -election. Of these,
again, after careful consideration, the larger num-
ber were re ected, until at last he found his choice
narrowed down to so ne half-dozen applicants, and
these he determined to select one from after a per-

sonal interview.
Two he dismissed at once, with polite expressions
of regret for the trouble he had given them, as too
old and starched to be likely to meet with Eve s
approval. There remained then but four, but these
proved his greatest di culty, since their qualifica-
tions and references were with an exception as
to the last requi,ite—equally balanced. The ex-
ception was
_a row, prepossessing lady who gave
her name as Laura Desmond,. In everything else
she was all that could be desired, Out when it came
to the matter (5f references she tranlay declared her
inability to furnish any.
_ _

-
aid Mr.--Sartoris, dubiously, and stro';--
ing his clean-haven chin with the palm of his hand
.•as an aid to consideration. lam very much afraid
then in that ease, Atiss—_,,
._ • •
" Des 1-iond,"
It is
" Miss I.`esmend. Yes, exactly," he went on,
think ?
glancin-: at her card. " an Trish name, I
"

"Yot do not object on that score, sir, surely ?.
"By no means! Most certainly not! Nationality
is matter of no consequence. It was a mere idle
remark." _

" My name is certainly Irish," Miss Desmond
went on. And I suppose to a certain extent lam
an Irishwoman, though I never saw the country in
my life. My father however, was born there, but
left when a boy, and never saw it again."
" Indeed ! May I enquire what he was ?"
"Certainly. He entered the Austrian service, and
attained high rank there."
"Then surely some one must have known you
?ho can speak of your—of your—that is, I should
s iy to whom you can refer me."
"(jive me a character, I suppose you mean, Mr.
Sartoris,' she said, with a slight inflection of sarcasm
in her tone, and then suddenly assuming a mournful
aspect. "Yes I suppose that it is only right, only
just thlt it should be required, but in that case it
will be useless for me to take up any more of your
time."

"You mean-"
" .Ihat I cannot give you the name of a single
living creature whose reccorrunendaVon would avail
me." _

" Really! I regret it very much," returned Mr.
Sal tons, surveying her as she made this confession
with some little interest. " Frankly speaking, Miss
Desmond, if you had been able to satisfy me on this
point I should have felt inclined to give you the"
preference, but as it is---"
"There is no hope for me," said Miss Desmond,
as he hesitated to find a phrase with which to put
his answer in the most delicate waY. "Well, I
cannot complain. You are quite right, of course,
and I must bear it"

(To I. continuod.)

IMPORTANT EXTENSION OF TELE-
PHONE LICENSES.

The secretary of the United Telephone Company
has sent the following copy of a letter to the press
referring to new licenses granted to the company, and
which foreshadowed important extensions of the tele-
phonic system:
"United Telephone Company (Limited), Oxford.
ecurt, Cannon-street, E.C., Nov. 24.
"Dear Sir,-1 am requested by my Board to
acquaint you that the new form of license for this
company has been to-day received from the Post-
master-General. _ _

"The license is for thirty-one years from the lst
of January, 1881, and the following are the principal
points on which concessims have been made:
"The license contains no limit of area nor restric-
tion as to running trunk wires from town to town.
"Call offices may now be opened whereby members
of the public can communicate with subscribers.
"The claims of the Post-office to provide in the
license for the supply of telephones to the department
by the company and the proposal that the company
should pay a royalty to Government upon private
wires erected and maintained by it have been given
Up.
"By a separate agreement telephone exchanges
may be connected with the post-office, and subscribers
may send and receive telegrams by telephone.—l
am, &c.,

(Signed) " TnomAs BLAME, Secretary.
"Henry Charles Burdett, Esq., Share and
Loan Department, Stock Exchange, E.C."