Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 574 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

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FLORINE RATHER SURPRISES HER MISTRESS, THe following day, a Wednesday, passed without any other noteworthy incident than a call from Hugh Spender, to say that he had succeeded in locating Judge- B — at the island of St. Pierre, on the St. Lawrence, whither the long dispatch which had been telegrapbked him on the preceding night at the nearest station, ' twenty miles away, would probably reach him | in the morniug, so thatan answer ought to be | looked for on the forthcoming night, Very early next morning, both Eleanor and Miss Bigbee were busying themselves preparing for the yachting trip, for a start from an an- chorage at the East River foot of Thirty-fourth street, at eight o’clock had been determined on = order to take advantage of the outgoing tide, Florine was to accompany her mistress, and was therefore busy between times with her own toilette while helping Eleanor with hers. But something fitfully distraite and troubled in the girl’s manner, altogether foreign in her ac- customed sprightliness of disposition, had at- tracted Eleanor’s attention from the very first this morning. More than once she had bungled oddly in her services, while once or twice Eleanor caught a wistful, all but tearful suggestion in the young woman’s gaze, as if she might be anxious to say something, and was yet withbeld by some over- powering sense of fear or shame, “What is the matter with you to-day, Florine?” Eleanor at last impatiently exclaimed over a fresh piece of unaccountable clumsiness. ‘* Are you bewicched, or beside yourself?” The girl abruptly finished lacing up her mis- tress’s rose-colored corset, upon which she had been engaged, and faced her with listlessly hang- ing arms anda face in which the rich color swiftly came and went under the perfect tissues of her perfect blonde skin. She herself was but half-dressed, to the revela- tion of a form that was only exceeded by Eleanor’s own in statuesque grace and beauty, and mistress and maid were about of the same e. ** Oh, ma’mselle!” Florine nerved herself to begin; ‘‘ please, may I lock the door first, so that Miss Bigbee cannot be rushing out and in with ber inflated chatter?” ** Certainiy,” wonderingly. Having locked the door, Florine completed Eleanor’s astonishment by throwing herself on her knees before her, clasping her hands and bursting into a tempest of tears. Their genuineness was not to be doubted, though Florine was no more given to such weak- nesses than was her mistress, ‘** Bless me,” cried Miss Sherwood; ‘‘ what is the meaning of this?” ** Ob, ma’m'selle!” sobbed the girl, whose heart was in the right place, for all her vanity and ar- tificiality, ‘‘1 have been a cheat, a hypocrite, a traitress, and you always so noble, so good to me! Throw me out, trample me under foot! nothing is ‘too harsh for my deserts. But don’t, ma’m’selle, do not go on the yachting excursion to-day !” * What?’ ‘* Do not, I implore you, ma’m’selle!” ‘* But why not?” ‘It is a plot—a vile scheme of Monsieur Juan’s!” : ‘¢ Who is Monsieur Juan?’ ** Monsieur Burley.” ** Oh, yes.” . Do not go, ma’m’selle, do not, I beseech.” ‘But explain to me, you ridiculous little oose !” ‘* He will carry you off, and me too. It is a plot of his. He thinks me in his interests—to be in love with him—and he has intrusted me with The officers and part of the crew are new men—Spaniards, in bis interests, He will _ first kill Mr. Spender, or set him on shore, Then he will go to Newport to kidnap Monsieur Le Colonel. Then it is, Ho, for blue water! as he calls it. After he has taken you to tne Canaries, and forced you to marry him, he will return here to secure your fortune. After that, be and I are to run off together and enjoy it in foreign lands!” ured forth with a passionate, his secret. All this was po contriteful incoherence of utterance which no attempt has been made to reproduce. But the astounded Eleanor mastered its éub- stance as given above, and she could not doubt the truth of what she heard. But she acted with her accustomed energy and presence of mind, ‘*Come to me, my poor Florine!” she said, raising the sobbing gir) and kissing her, ‘* You are, at least, a good, devoted girl to make a clean breast of it, even thus late in the day. And did you think I suspected nothing of that man’s machinations in connection with you? Sill Florine! But there 1s still time to spare; so sit here by my side; with my arm around you, and tell me the whole story from ing to end.” Florine obeyed, without the slightest reserva- | ” she sobbed, in conclusion, *‘ if I h -,-- Rot taken the villain’s money, And I let him 4 ¢ » ‘ ty, LP Pie ‘ iy fia fs * ** =# | i 1a give me dresses, and make me other presents, too.” ‘* Hush! do not cry any more. answer some questions,” ** Yes, dear ma’m’selle!” ‘¢ You did not and really do not care for this man, then?” ‘“*Care for him? the scelerat! I hate and loathe bim, And yet there iss omething so strange in his eyes, and—how shall [ express it, ma’m’selle?—at times he flattered my imagina- I wish you to | tion so that I half-believed him, and hardly knew j | did, even while pretending to assent—I swear it! whether I should assent to take part in bis ini- quitous schemes,” ‘** You half-believed he loved you?” repeated Eleanor. ‘* Only at times, ma’m’selle, when bis burning eyes and romantic words bewitched me for a little space.” ** And you don’t believe that now?” ‘* What a question! I never really believed it, As if I could not penetrate his trick! It was all of a piece to secure my secret assistance as against you, in spying upon you, and telling him your affairs. But indeed, indeed, I never But it is you he really loves, ma’m’selle.” Eleanor laughed increculously. ‘* Ah, but it is true, ma’m’selle! He loves you as a cataract would the cbasm into which it thunders and falls—as a volcano, an earth- quake!” ** Pish! my money, you mean?” ** Ma’m’selle, it is pot so,” earnestly. ‘‘ Vile as he is, it is yourself. Ido believe that, were you destitute of fortune, his passion would be none the less ungoversable and desperate.” Perverseness, or inscrutableness, of woman! Much as Eleanor Sherwood detested this map, and, with all her nobleness, it was with a posi- tive feeling of satisfaction, or, at least, an agree- ableness to her pride, that she at last believed that it was herself, and not ber fortune, which rompted bis admiration, ‘* Well, well, my dear,” she said, rising brisk ly, ‘‘ we lose time, and there is quite enough of this, Bestir yourself now, or we shall keep the Fearnaught waiting. And there is Aunt Jeru- sha knocking at the door again.” Florine also arose, but in supreme astonish- ment. ‘‘The Fearnaught!” she repeated. ‘‘ Surely ma’m’selle doesn’t mean to say she is going?” **Of course, 1 am gomg! What do you take me for? Leave it all to me; and be very care- ful that you don’t betray this knowledge of mine to John Burley. Forewarned,forearmed! Now unlock that door.” Florine obeyed, and then mechanically went on with her preparations, while Miss Bigbee strode into the room fully equipped for the trip —panoplied for the fray, you might have said, her costume was so fearfully and wonderfully made, and it topped her grim bead and hung around her bean-pole of a fraine in such awe- some folds, Particularization will not be attempted, but she suggested nothing so much as one of ‘‘ them terrible femails” that cornered Artemus Ward at the Woman’s Rights Convention of thirty years ago, ‘* Tam ready, my loves!” exclaimed the cham- pioness, with a martial wave of her parasol, that was larger fhan an umbrella, with a stock suggestive of an Irisbman’s blackthorn stick. ‘*Come; don’t imitate our tyrants, the men, in the vice of procrastination,” **In one minute, aunt,” replied Eleanor, now fully dressed in an exquisite sailor suit, and before her mirror for the last time, ‘‘ Florine, fasten on to that bundle. in it,” Spender sche fast to escort them, and by eight o’clock they were on board the Fearnaught, CHAPTER XXIV, ON BOARD THE FEARNAUGHT. THE Fearnaught was a very large and ver swift sloop yacht, of superb proportions, which had very seldom been beaien in the numerous regattas in which she bad sailed, As she was slipping up the river, with the early morning mists still clinging to or lightly brushing the water, like aerial cloud-phantoms, shod with wool, Eleanor, after expressing her delight with the fresh fine weather, remarked to Burley, who was standing at her side, on the number of strange faces she noted among the officers and men, ** Yes,” was the reply, ‘‘ Some of the old ones had got so neglectful that, as your father had kindly given me carte blanche, I ventured upon considerable changes.” ‘* I used to know all the officers and men by name, and some of them quite intimately. The new ones are all prutgnees, are they not?’ ‘*No more than I, ences in favor else being equal “Let me introduce you to the commanderand ready, _~ gt RY 4 "<: iti @ 7 ij / za ¥ ‘ oe: iL t ex < 7 » ¢ ~*~. .) ae. xX, ~e* a f. e _ el dad KKK LLL —$ Never mind what is romptly on hand after break- Miss Eleanor "—*t Miss Eleanor” again, quite easily now, and still un- resented—replied Burley, with just a suspicion of uneasiness in his laugh, *‘they are Creoles, ; ) or West Indians, and capital navigators. I tion, and not sparing herself in any particular, ‘ suppose you will hardly blame me for the prefer- Bae vita, “ T wouldn't condemn myself so worry ped Be Sata ae 2 aie Sel A ACS ne) = pesto peeve They are very agreeable fel- ows.” ‘** No, thank you—at least not just now. Some- how or another, I don’t exactly take to them,” With a dazzling smile for himself, whose equivo- calness he still could not perceive, “Tsay, Burley,” called out Hugh Spender, who was very genial with him, though by this time fully informed as to the projected plot, and who was pointing out shore objects of interest to Miss Bigbee and Florine, ‘‘ this is a fine racing wind we are having.” ‘** Couldn’t be better,” was the reply. the best of it is that, according to tue civil ser- vice weather report, it will shift in the early afternoon so that we shall still have it with us on our return,” ‘*Oho! how far shall you run up?” ‘** To Sachem’s Head, off Guilford.” “ Humph!” And at the same time Eleanor gave her cousin a cautioning glance. According to the details which Florine bad furnished, subsequent to ber first revelation, this alleged turning point was where the mask would be dropped, and the plot betray itself, At this juncture they were passing Astoria in whose cove a fine sloop-yacht, about as large as the Fearnaught, was rocking lazily at anchor, and whose beauty drew forth an exclamation — from both Miss Bigbee and Florine. ‘* There’s a vessel!” cried the former, shaking her parasol enthusiastically, ‘‘How she must walk the life like a thing of water, when sheeted to the lightning’s breath! and who would not move the monarch of her pimpled deck?” [Though not unaccustomed to “orate,” Aunt Jerusha either never could or never would get ber quota- tions straight.] ‘‘ And oh, if woman only bada show on the waving bound, no less than man, the sailor-tyrant, who can only be profane, guz- zle grog, and poison the pulsing crystal with to-_ bacco-juice !” ‘What yacht is it?’ Eleanor, the better to control her risibles, asked of Burley, who re- remained as grave as @ bangman, though both Spender and Florine had had to skip behind the companionway coping to explode in private. ‘¢ The Ganymede, Miss Eleanor.” “ Ah!” eying the anchored yacht with fresh interest; ‘‘ the sloop you mentioned as being the only one that could outsail the Fearnaught?” ‘* Yes; a splendid craft!” ‘*‘ And for sale, too, I think you said. Dear — I can’t see how anv one could part with | me! a yacht, unless upon the direst pecuniary com- pulsion, or how, in that case it should long re~ Ny main unpurchashed.” Burley smiled. ‘* Both contingencies are Eleanor,” he replied. ‘‘The Ganymede belongs to the estate of Mr. A——,-arich broker and unsold because the executors, through. their ignorance in sucb matters, plece such an absurd- ly high price on her.” ** What price?” she asked curiously. yacht six years old, at that!” ‘“* Well, I don't know. I have heard papasay build, when labor and materials must tave beeh cheaper than they are now, I should judge. And if I wanted a yacht for my own individual pleasuring—wanted it real bad, you know,” with a laugh—‘‘ [ don’t think I should hesitate, ordo much haggling, about paying the price demand- sr 7 ‘ ds f + , . - that the Fearnaugbt cost sixteen thousand ed for that beauty,” ‘‘ But it would be more tban she is actually worth.” ‘““No matter,” indifferently. mind being overreached to the tune of ¢ thousand or two for the sake of gratifying my © r fad.” ‘‘You are very rich,” sentimentally. delightful it must be to have riches without limit—to be so very rich, Miss Eleanor.” Miss Sherwood’s individual fortune was es timated at rather more than a million, }: ‘* Not always, it is said,” she carelessly an swered. ‘Would you like to be so, Mr Burley?” ; sy ret ‘Only on one condition,” and he looked at ‘* Yes,” in a low, thrilling voice; ‘“‘ that with Ty wealth I could have the love of the woman of ~ her intentl «A condition” before she could ‘check here self, or think to what it might lead. « my heart’s adoration—which I would just as gladly in that woman,” wildly—-‘ nay, you shall hear me out, Eleanor—is yourself!” . | ** Indeed !” coldly. & 236 He seemed op various topics. | | In the mean time, the Fearnaugbt, bending fully before the wind, with every stitch o1 er enormous spread of fection, was slipping into the neck of the Sound as if instinct with the very spirit of grace anc r of my compatriots, everything \B noo were within fifteen miles ¢ the steward thrust bs head anrt shoulder ° ha ‘A A : | mS , e . . i * ert a ee “ And / ‘ ’ eS 2 Pos - % , a 4 _ -- « i. as i ‘Sy accounted for, Miss * ws ‘‘ Twenty thousand doliars—and for a sloop- — . ~ 7 hy, | 3 “f wouldn’t +) es > oe ae - jo Pee se, verty as in opulence—and | ** Well, suppose we ch Mt the subject, sir.” ESE to come out of a sortof trance, — a with a forced laugh, be was quickly at — his ease again, and began chatting indifferently canvas drawing to per- — * oan 5 hia 41a ih « . i ft see-lover, but recently dead; and she remains ap Ne ¥ ¢' Var kt ee ~~ a th fe