Show ul m 3 E I 1 A L LLE STORY I 1 M st aj a ti THE NY ata B of the LADY LADA ar ARABELLA by MOLLY ELLIOT SEAWELL SEWELL 1 coper 1906 bobbs dobbs merrill co CHAPTER I 1 tie not in my nature to be cowed by any woman whatever therefore when I 1 found myself in the presence of my lad Hawk hawkshaw shaA in her chinese drawing room with her great black eyes u glaring at me and her huge black plume of feathers nodding at me as she sat enveloped in a ast vast hack black robe like a pall I 1 said to my self after all she Is but a woman so I 1 stared back at her with all the cool ness in the world and I 1 w as a seel er after favor too and but 14 years of age and had only seven and sixpence in my pocket the tall footman who stood behind lady hawkshaw s chair made a grimace at me and I 1 respond ed by a fierce look as it if I 1 was about to run him through the body jeames said her ladyship boand go and make my compliments compi ments to sir peter hawkshaw and say to him that his roistering kept me awake halt half the night tight and consequently I 1 feel very ill III this morning and that hia his great nephew master richard glyn from america Is come after a midshipman s warrant in his majesty s navy and I 1 11 desire sir peter to attend me in my immediately her ladyship s french was the queerest imaginable yet in her youth ehe she had the french tutor who had taught the daughters of the regent of france there was a silence after the tall footman left during which my lady and I 1 eyed each other closely I 1 re member having heard that she had de fled fied her father lord bosanquet and one of the greatest family connections in the kingdom in order to marry sir peter who was then a penniless lieu tenant in his majesty s navy and the eon son of a in the city this name same dr salter was my great grand father but I 1 had an infusion of an other blood agh my mother god uless bless her who was of a high family and a baronet baronets s daughter the dry galter salter strain was honest but plebeian while the baronet strain was mas rather more lofty than honest I 1 fancy having heard as I 1 say of the des str biggle it cost lady hawk shaw to marry her I 1 eu tenant I 1 some what expected to find her and admiral sir peter hawkshaw living like doves in a cage and was disconcerted at the message her ladyship lad ship se sent nt her lord but I 1 was still more disconcerted when sir peter a short stout man with a choleric eye presently bounced into the room sir peter said her ladyship lad ship here is your nephew tom s brat who wants a midshipman s warrant sir peter stopped short looked me ever I 1 was tall for my age and grinned savagely I 1 thought it was all up with me and was almost ready to haul baul down my flag and sir peter screamed her lady alp ship he must have it hang me my lady snapped sir peter bit b it when did you take such an interest in my nephew ton s brat this very hour replied I 1 lady hawkshaw tartly ind tossing her wack black plumes haughtily you behaved like a wretch to the boy after the death of his father and moti er in america and god has given y 0 oi i the chance to make amends and I 1 say he shall have his warrant zounds madam bawled sir peter since you ou take the liberty of disposing of my var warrants rants I 1 presume you are the holder of my commission as vice admiral of the white in his majesty s service let me I 1 now it it if you are let me know it I 1 say stuff responded my lady to which sir peter answered something that sounded like damme and then my attention was distracted from this matrimonial engagement by b the silent entrance of two oung young girls one of them v was as about 12 years of age she bad had dove like eyes and her dark lashes kissed her cheek she came and stood familiarly by lady hawk bhawe chair and the gentle affect of her manner toward that redoubtable person amazed me at the time this v was as my first sight cf of daphne daphno carmichal carmicha I and when she fixed her soft childish glance upon me it was like the sight of stars on a cloudy night but the other one a tall girl of 16 or thereabouts dazzled roe me eo so that I 1 am obliged to confess I 1 had no more eyes for daphne this older girl was the lady arabella stor mont and was then and always by tar far the handsomest creature I 1 ever beheld I 1 shall not attempt to describe her I 1 will only say that her brilliant face with such a complexion as I 1 never saw before or since showed a haughty indifference toward the shab by boy over whom sir peter and lady hawkshaw were squabbling and the sense of my shabbiness and helpless uel pless ness pierced my heart lad lady arabella s calmly scornful scornful caze kaze both of ta ties ese yo komg ing girls vere it ere the great nieces of S r peter ha hals eshaw but not on the dry salters lule elde so they were no blood relation to me sir peter M as the i g gl ardlan and lady Haks dakshaw havi had charge of them aid ai d was most kind and de voted to them in hei way I 1 soon found out that every one of sir peter peters s family had a good friend in lady hawl shaw and I 1 may as well say here that for true devot on and incessant wran gling I 1 ne neer never ver saw a married pair that eat equaled aled sir peter and lady hawk shaw the di dacuss cusson on between them con berning me grew hotter and I 1 grew as hot as tl e d scission in thin ing what a figuie figgie I 1 atas ma making irl before that divinely bea t rs fui lady arabella I 1 had clean forgotten daphne lady hawkshaw Hawk 1 egged in a great variety of extraneous matter remind ng sir peter of certain adf I 1 predictions concerning I 1 s f ture which had been made by the last chapla n who sailed ailed with him sir peter deno need the chaplain as a sniveling dog lady hawkshaw indulged in some french at wh ch eh lady arabella laughed be hind her hand the battle royat roya lasted some time longer b it lady hawkshaw s metal was plainly I 1 bavier than sir peter peters s and it ended by sir peters saying to me angrily very well sir to oblige my lady I 1 will give vou the remaining man s berth on the ajax 74 you may go home now but show yourself aboard the ajax at portsmouth be fore 12 0 cloch on this day da week and be very careful to mil d your eye I 1 had nerved myself to hear with coolness the refusal of this fery ad miral but his real k edness disguised under so much choler overcame me I 1 stammered something and stopped that hound of a footman was grin ning at me because my eyes were full of tears and also perhaps be cause my my coat was of cheap make and my shoes needed attention but at that moment little daphne with the greatest artlessness came up and slipped her little hand into mine saying he means he is very much obliged to you uncle and to you dear aunt ma D I 1 hene Is your nephew tom s brat I 1 do not know how I 1 got out of the house but the next thing I 1 knew I 1 was standing on the street outside I 1 had been told to go home I 1 had no home now unless the bull in the bush tavern be one but I 1 did not return to the bull in the bush whose tawdry splendors revolted me now after I 1 had seen sir peter hawkshaw s imposing house as much as they had before at t me I 1 was tingling with the sense of beauty newly developed in me I 1 could not forget that exquisite vision of lady arabella stormont who seemed to my boyish mind more lil III e a white v hite rose bush in full flower than anything I 1 could call to memory I 1 made my way instead to the plain though clean lodgings where I 1 had spent the years since my parents death with good betty green the widow of corporal green late of my father s regiment these two excellent but humble creatures had brought me an orphan home from my birthplace america consigned to sir peter and lady hawkshaw this woman betty green had been my mother mothers s devoted servant as her husband had been my father s and it was thought perfectly sate safe to send me home with them but there was a danger which no one fore saw betty was one of those strange women who love like a lioness this lioness love loie she felt for me and for that reason I 1 believe she deliberately planned to prevent my family from ever getting hold of me it is true on landing in england her husband husbands s regiment being ordered to winchester she went to see sir peter hawkshaw and I 1 suspect purposely made him so angry that lady hawl shaw being ab sent he almost kicked betty green out of the house that Is what I 1 fancy my lady meant when she reproached sir peter with cruelty to me I 1 well re member the air of triumph with which betty returned and told the corporal of her III success then clasping me in her arms she burst out with a cry that no admiral nor ladies nor lords neither should take her darling boy away from her green her husband being a steady coolheaded cool headed fellow waited until the paroxysm was over when he told her plainly that she must carry out my parents instruct eions and he himself would go to see sir peter as soon as he could but fate disposed of 01 this plan by cutting short the corporal corporals s life the next week most unexpectedly then this woman betty green illiterate a stranger in england nod supporting 1 us both by her darly labor managed to foil all of the efforts of admiral S r I 1 peter hawl havo shaw to f and nd me fr he be I 1 had done all he co id to d scoven the whereabouts of I 1 is nel nephews hew s orl brihan ban not for me to say one wold against betty green for she slave 1 foi me as only a woman can slave and besides bro il igi t me up in the habits and manners of a gentleman albeit albett she d d little for my ed and to this day da I 1 im prone to be em bair assed wl en I 1 hale hane a pen in my h hind hand and I 1 can not say that I 1 was as hippy in the demoted though savage love she laNi lavished shed t apon poll me sl SI e would not no allow me to play with the be b rs Vs of her own class and those of my class 1 never saw all my cla clamon to inow 1 now something about my family on either side were met by her declining iring that she had forgotten where my mothers people lived and as for sir pete she gave me such a horrifying account of him that I 1 never dreamed it possible to receive any kindness from him at last though on her death bed she acl now ledged a part ot of the deception her desperate affection had impelled her to play upon me the poor soul had actually forgotten about my mather s family and had destroyed destroy Od everything relating to them but directed me to go to sir peter and thus it was that on the day after I 1 saw betty green my only friend on earth la d in a pa iper s grave I 1 went to the house of my m father fathers s uncle with the result narrated when I 1 got back to the hi able lodgings where I 1 had lived before betty s death I 1 looke I 1 up a small box of trinkets of little value wh ch eh had belonged to my mother and from the sale of them I 1 got enough to live upon for a weeke week and to make my way to portsmouth at the end of it either sir peter had forgotten to tell me anything abort abo it my outfit or else I 1 had bad slipped out so quickly galled by the fear of weeping before that rascally footman that he had no chance at all events I 1 arrived at portsmouth Ports by b the mail coach with all of my belongings in one shabby portmanteau I 1 shall not describe my feelings dur mg ing that journey toward the new life that awaited me in tact fact I 1 scarcely recall them coherently all was a maze a jumble and an uproar in my mind we got down in the inn yard a coach full of passengers I 1 the only one who seemed adrift and alone among mong them I 1 stood looking about me at a pert chambermaid who impudent ly ogled the hostlers and got a kiss in return at the pretentious entrance to the inn at all of the bustle and coffus on of the arrival of the coach presently I 1 saw a young gentleman somewhat older than myself and wear ing the uniform ot of his majesty s sea service come out of the inn door he had a very elegant figure hul but bis hig face was rather plain within five mf minutest of my first meeting with giles vernon I 1 had an example of what was one of his most striking traits eiery wort worn an in immediately fixed her at on on him and smiled at h in one was the chambermaid who left off oft ogling the ho hostlers stIers and gaped at this young officer with her coarse hand seme some face all aflame another was the landlady who followed him to the door smirking and fanning herself and the third was a venerable quaker ess who was about entering the inn and who beamed benevolently on him as he bowed gallantly in passing I 1 know not why this should have made such an impression on me but being young and a fool I 1 thought beauty was as highly prized by women as by men and it surprised me that a fellow with a mouth so wide and with something dangerously near a squint should be such a lady killer it was common enough tor for young gentlemen holding midshipmen s warrants to come down by the coach and as soon as he saw me this young officer called out hallo my hearty I 1 Is it a shili ship 01 ol the line or a frigate you are booked for or Is it one of those damned gun brigs which are unfit for a gentleman to serve ln in TO BE CONTINUED |