Stories with a Vengeance — page 136: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

134 SAVED, was Bedlam let loose. We were so be- wildered that we did not know where to find the narrow guage train for Edge- mouth. : “This way—this way, ladies!” said a very civil porter, whose face was half- hidden by very bushy whiskers, and who found a passage for us through the throng, handed us into a carriage, banged the door, locked it, and as he went away, threw a newspaper on one of the vacant seats. “Inke to look at the last edition of the Globe, ladies P” he said. ‘“ Just down from town.” The whistle sounded shrilly, and we were off. “What a very civil porter!” said my lady. ‘Did it not strike you that he was a foreignerP I wonder they employ foreigners upon English lines. Perhaps it is to interpret.” She took up the paper, half mechanically, and began to glance at its columns. Allat once, she gave a great shriek—loud, and clear, and piercing—that I could hear through all the rattle and the roar of the night express. Then she handed the paper to me; pointed to a paragraph; and bury- ing her face in her hands, crouchetl in a corner of the carriage. As wellas I could, for the jerking and swinging motion of the train, I read this :— “PAINFUL AFFAIR IN Hien LIFre.— Rumours of a most distressing nature have reached us relative to two personages moving in the very highest circles of society. Correspondence of a most damag- ing character, and calculated to destroy the peace of mind of an aristocratic family, has, it is said, been discovered to have passed between a young and lovely Mar- chioness, the mother of a blooming family, and a well-known, officer in the Bengal Irregular Cavalry. A hostile meeting has, it is said, been arranged between the gallant gay Lothario and the injured hus- band ; but it is possible that the entire and most melancholy transaction will soon call for the ministrations of the gentlemen of the long robe.” “Tt is that viper, Lady Fabiansberg !” shrieked my mistress. ‘I always sus- pected her !’ Such another three hours as I passed in that night express, I hope and trust I shall never pass again. Lady Harriette wept, and moaned, and prayed, and then exe- crated her destiny.and herself. She would kill herself, she said, so soon as she got to Edgemouth. How could she explain her absence to her husband ? She was ruined, undone. And then she took out the minia- ture of the swaggering bully, and spat upon it, and trod it under font. It was just one in the morning by my watch when the train slackened speed, and drew up. “Weare at Edgemouth,” I said. A guard, with his lantern, drew down the carriage window, and asked us for our tickets. I gave him the tickets. ‘“There’s some mistake here, ladies,” he sald. “These tickets are for Edge- mouth.” “Well,” I answered, “and are we not at Edgemoyth P We ought to be.” “Why; Lord bless your heart alive!” cried the amazed guard; “ whatever have you been and done? Edgemouth! You’re three hundred miles from Edgemouth ! Youre at the Great Western Railway Ter. minus at Paddington, London! I see it all now,” he continued, scratching his head. “It’s the fault of that plaguey change of gauge. You've gone and made a mistake, and got into the wrong train—the up express—at Rowchester. Shall I get you a cab, ladies P” More dead than alive, and now beginning to hope almost against hope, we moved Fomards a cab, the door of which was open to receive us. But somebody held the door open, and that’ somebody was Count Zabidi. “You are saved!” he said to Lady Har- riette, in a sad but stern voice. “I was waiting at Rowchester, and put you into a train bound for Paddington. It is but five minutes past one. The House sits late, and your husband will not be home till three. You have been to visit your sick cousin, and you are safe.” Lady Harriette made as though she would have said something. | ‘There is no need for thanks,” he inter- osed, haughtily. “Icould only save you by playing the spy, and you must despise me as much as ever. Good night. I have resigned my place in your household, and shall trouble you no more. In fature, bea little more sparing of your scorn towards distressed exiles and foreigners.” In an instant he was gone; and Lady Harriette Dash was indeed Saved, and on her way to her husband’s house in Eaton Place. Google JOO S CO)