Beadle's Dime Library No. 111 — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

i Ee TR “Tf you 4» not let me pass, sir, I will sercam tomy brother, De is eff there in his vacht!” “Your lungs, fair lady, are not sufficiently strong to seml a ory forth that will reach his ear. But you need not be alarmed. I mean you ho present harm. If [ did, it would be an easy thing for me to toss you off this elif. love a too well to wish to harm you, and | woull not furee you now to listen Lo me, if you woul] be a willing listener to me elsewhere !” “Sir, if you will let me go from here, yon may speak to me in my father’s house,” © TL fear that our conversation might be inter- rupted there ; so excuse me if I insist upon suy- ing what L have to say, here.” “ Very well, sir; remember that you speak too pone and unwilling listener, and let your wor Js be brief!” « As brief as possible, Miss Drammond. I have said that [ possessed a seeret, in which you are deeply iterrested. Were you the possessor of it, you would leave this country in a week, aul yo where not only fortune, but title, awaits you! Ah, I see you are interested !” No, sir; only amused by the siallowness of the fiction you are inventing !” “On my life, lady, it is no fietion! You think you are the daughter of Thomas Drum- moni !” “Think it, sir! Do I not know it?” cried Rosalette, “ Have L not known my dear father since I could lisp the name of father?’ “And yet this mueh I tell you, he is not your father. ae father has been dead for years, but your mother lives!” “My mother? Man. why do you mock me!” Ant Rosalette sunk trembling to the rock which had been her seat before he came. “IF yon wish, lady, you can now return. IT will not bar your passage any Jonger!? said Hewlet, wwho saw that she almost feared to dis- believe him. And he turned as if he intended to depart. “ Stay, Captain ITewlet!” she gagped. “ Stay for one moment. In manly merey tell me tliat you have ssid what you have, merely to terrify me; that it is not trae!” * Miss Drummond, as surely as I live and stand before you, I have spoken the truth!” “Can you prove it? Can yon tell me where I can fiud my mother, if she really is living ?” “T can!” “Then do Do, and I will bless you for- ever!” cried the poor irl, beseechingly. “ Lady, Iam not mercenary, but in this mat- ter I linve my price.” “Name it, sir; and if I have or can beg the means of my father—” “Of Mr. Drummond, T presume you mean— our father, 08 I have told you before, is dead.” “Of Mr. Drummond, then! I have jewels, too—you shall have them all. “ Lady, there is but one jewel whieh will pur, ehase my secret. Your hand onee mine, and you shall know all; nay, in one week you shall be speeding to the arms of a mother who will rejoice to again clasp in her arms her long-lost elild !” “Captain Iewlet, you are deceiving me! Failing in your first manner of approach to me, you have invented this story to tury toe win me by deception, You cannot sueceed, sir. I never, never will be yours. I do not love vou —never can!” “ Miss Drummond, vour own heart tells you that there is truth in my story. In what parti, enlar do you resemble cither Thomas Drum- mond or his son Ethelbert?” “ Oh, do not tell me that Ethelbert is not my own dear brother!” “He is no more your brother than I am! Yet he is Thomas Drummond’s son. Ilave they not the same dark flashing eyes —the same dark complexion—the same fiery natares when once aroused? In nothing are you like them, except in such habits as your life-time residence with them would form.” Rosalette thought of a thousand things in a moment; of the conversation whieh she had held’ so lately with Ethelbert on the mystery which their father ever held over the memory of their mother. And her heart. indeed, seem ed to tell her that Hewlet spoke some truth ; and that which she would give anything but her hand to know. “Tf you still doubé my word, Miss Drum- mond, I ean give you a way of knowing that I possess this secret. But if I do, you must. solemnly promise to me not to reveal either to Mr. Drummond, or to his son, Ethelbert, one word which I have communicated to you to-day, until J give you my written or verbal consent so to do.”’ | * The Smuggler Captain, “T do so solemnly promise you, Cantaia Hewlet,” she replied. « [will take your word, Mies Drummond ; fo T feel that it is as sacred a8 wonld be your ent When your father and brother are together, sing, as if you were merely bumming over some verse of an old ballad, these words : “In Castle Delorme, there dwelt a knight As true as his own bright steel— With a nodding plume and a courtly mien, And golden spurs upon his heel— Ania lady fair, with golden hair, And eyes of an uzure hue, Who loved the knight, so gallant and brave— The knight to his love so true !” “Those words,” continued Ilewlet, “ will so agitate Mr. Drummond, that you will know that he possesses 4 secret that he bas, and must, and will, if he can, forever hide from you. Le will ask where yeu learned them. Tell him that you dreamed them, and possibly my deep and sineere attachment which now go offends you, may impel you in future, without hope of reward, to let you know more than I have done. And now, lidy, I humbly ask you to forgive ne for having followed you here, and force: this interview. I would not be rude to you, but in my despair [ knew no other way to gain vour eir. I pray you to forgive me, and I will uever again enter your presence unbidden— never again intrude upou you without your desire!” And Hewlet knelt, and looked eo humble and pale, that Rosalette felt sorry for him, and Bini : “I forgive you sincerely, Captain Iewlet ; and so faras 1 may be, will be your friend. But remember, I ean be nothing more!” He answered only with a sigh. Then he turned to go, But a thought seeming to strike him, he said : “If Miss Drummond should desire to see me before I jeave Leigetown, which will be in ten ot twelve days, a note addressed to me and hidden in this ledge beneath this stone, will caase me to obey her wishes.” And he raised a small flat stone in a crevice in the rocks near his hand as he spoke. She bowed her head, and he turned away, aid disappeared as quickly and as silently us lr. had come. Rosalette staggered back to the mossy rock, and burying her sweet face between her small white ands, she wept and sobbed like a child suddenly left parentless. “Ethelbert not my brother!” she sobbed. “Oh has it been a sin to love him as | have loved—to have received his burning kisses on my brow and lips? It cannot be trae—and yet my heart—my trembling heart keeps telling me that it is. I will sing those words—I uever ean forget them— before my father, or Mr. Drummond, and if they affeet him, I will be- lieve all that Captain Hewlet bas told me. O my fair haired, blue-eyed mother, I know I have dreamed of you! It will be hard for me to keep my promise and not to tell Ethelbert what L have heard; but it is made, and shall be kept. Oh that I knew all! That Lt could go and see my mother, if indeed she lives Buta breeze is epringing up, and Ethelbert is returo- ing to the harbor. I must go back, for he will socn be home !” And Rosalette, with a far heavier step than that with which she descended the pathway, went slowly and sadly back to the cottage in the Piaes. CITAPTER XVII. When Hewlet returned to his room after his interview with Rosalette Drummond, his dark face was radiant with pleasure. “JT shall win her yet—in my own good time she will be mine!’ said he to himself. “ She believes me; and I know just enoug! of Old Drummond's seeret to enable me to carry out my plans, and to make her think I know much more than I do. She forgot her pride in a hurry when T began to make revelations, and by working the eard of humility and despairing love—quite a good one, by the way, with your tender hearted sympathetic women —I will in a proper time so win upon her, that she will, to gain all the secret, !ecome Mrs. Hewlet. But it will be a work of time. I will have plenty of time meanwhile to coax my little Betsy off to the city; and that, too, I shall so work, that not the least suspicion will fall on me. My old partner at cards, Nelse Randall, has prom- ised to come, én masque, and help me in that matter. All that I have got to do is, to win Betsy to my plan, and that will be easy; for the poor little fool loves the very ground I walk upon. She is like a moth fluttering around oreees- ee ee a candle—tiicre it will flutter till it gets ite wings scorched—then down it drops. Well— but there comes the little pet, singing like a nightingale. “ Come in here, Betsy—sit down darling—I have something to tell you.” “ Well, you must tell me soon, dear Frank, for it is almost tea-time, and I have got to set the table.” . “T have hit upon a plan, my love,” said Hewlet, and he drew her down upon his knee, “by which you can leave the village without specially alarming any one, and without in any way compromising me. So that 1 can return antl see how your folks are for you; and they will have no suspicion that you are with me at all, until it will be right and proper for us to come out above-board, and let them know that we are married, which wiil be as soon as my, precious uncle dies, and leaves me his wealth !” « What is your pian, dear Frank ?” “J will tell you, my darling. A friend in whom I can place the utmost confidence; a gentleman of wealth and the highest respecta- bility, will come here next week as a jewelry- peddler.” “Aga jewelry-peddler! What for?” ‘To make love to you, my dear, and sell his Awelry 1” “If he offers to make love to me, he will get hia ears boxed !” “No, he will not, my dear; for he will do it at my particular request!” ‘ “Frank, you are cruel to jest so with me!” And poor Betsy's eyes filled with tears, and her pouting lips quivered. * Poor shild ! I do not mean to pain you, He will not make love in real earnest. Ie will pretend to be very much in love with you, and vive you some beautifal jewelry, which really is a bridal-present from me. You will pretend to like him very much, and [ shall be jealous, and will go away apparently in anger with you, but really to go to the city to prepare a house for us to live in, and to engaye & minister to marry us the moment you arrive—which will be in three or four days after [ leave. I shall com- plain of your tiekleness before [ go, and you will, in a day or two after, elope with my friend, have run away with the jeweler ; when, in trath, leaving a letter to inform your parents that ue | you will come right to my arms, and be made my wife ns soon as ‘ne reach me! Dv you uu- derstand my plan, darling ?” “1 think Ido, dear Frank, But how can I endure even to appear false to you, and to receive the attentions of another?” “For my sake, and to insure our future hap- piness, you can dissimulate in this case, my sweet vet.” me For your sake, anything, dear Frank! But it will be hard. ButTI will try, if you are sure this friend of yours will not take any liberties with me. He must not attempt to kiss me—my lips are sacred to you only !” “ Certainly, my little angel. {Te is a gentle- man, and my friend. Now you can go and set yrur tea-table, and, after your evening's work is oter, we will walk out and talk my plan over, aid I will tell you bow tu act your part in the liltle drama of dee-ption.” “Yes, dear Frank; there’ don’t kiss me any nm ore, or iny face will be so red that everybody at the table will notice it!” “ [can't help it, my sweet Betsy. so strong, and your lips are so sweet!” CITAPTER XVIII. “ You have had a dull sail to-day, brother!” said Rosalette, who, having returned in time to wash all traces of tears from her face, and to regain entire composure, before Ethelbert ar- rived from the village, now met him as she al- most always did—excepting, however, a kiss which she generally gave him when he came back, if he had been away ever 80 short a time. “ Yes; there was scarcely any wind outside !” he replied. “ We did not go three miles from the barbor; and there we lay becalmed for honrs f" “T'saw you from my little retreat among the eedars !” “Ah! were you there? I did not see you. fe I might if I had used my spy-glass, and known that you were there.” “Hardly. The little thicket is so dense, and the background of rock so dark. Where is father ?” “He has just come from the village. He was driving in at the front gate when I entered the house.” “TI want you to do me a favor, Ethelbert.” “What is it, dear sister? You know how I am to serve you.” ove is a Gomichoo ‘S (E(o) Sa a Lea NS en eee ee ee - ee ——