Bluebell Part 39

Many of the pa.s.sengers had got letters, and were talking of their plans and fussing about luggage.

"How refreshing it is to see some one without that business look!" cried Mr. Dutton to Bluebell, who was leisurely reading in the saloon. "But have you no goods or chattels, Miss Leigh? And ought not you to have a letter with sailing orders?"

"I have two boxes somewhere in the hold. No, I didn't expect a letter, I was to telegraph at Liverpool, and come right off. This is the address:--

"Mrs. Leighton, "Leighton Court "Calmshire."

"Why, that is my line!" said the sailor, mendaciously. "I can travel with you as far as Calmshire."

"Can you really? How very strange! But I suppose England _is_ a small place," said Bluebell, _naively_.

"Oh, extremely insignificant! I shall be able to see you safely to your journey's end. So that's all settled. Now I will go and look if your luggage is coming up, for I suppose we shall land in an hour or two."

Bluebell's curiosity was excited by the _Times_ newspaper, which a gentleman had just laid down. It was only the advertis.e.m.e.nt sheet, for some one else had immediately snapped up the rest, and she glanced vaguely down the first columns, puzzling over such enigmatical insertions as "Our tree, our bridge, our walk," "What shall we do with the Tusk?"

and that "John is entreated to write and send remittances to his afflicted Teapot,"--when her eye lit upon the following name among the deaths:--

"On the 22nd inst., at Leighton Court, of scarlet fever, Evelyn Cora, only child of Mrs. and the late Henry Leighton, Esq., aged eleven years."

Bluebell sat petrified,--the ground cut beneath her feet,--she could only be shocked for the poor child whom she had never known. But what was to become of herself in a strange land, with no place to go to? Besides Leighton Court there was not a place in all England, except an inn, that she would have a right to enter; and in a few minutes more the shelter of the ship would be withdrawn,--even now she could see the smoke of the tug coming to disembark them. Perfectly appalled and unnerved, she pushed the paragraph towards Mr. Dutton, who had just entered, and gazed helplessly at him with large frightened eyes.

He took in the situation at a glance, and the thought that had struck him before of the strangeness of sending this beautiful girl, like a bale of goods, to an unknown country, where she had no connections, returned with confirmed force. How friendless she was! But slenderly supplied with money, of course. A daring possibility had darted into his mind. It was an irresistible temptation,--and sailors are proverbially reckless.

Matrimony hitherto had never entered into his views. It would entail leaving the navy and living with his uncle, who, though kind, was arbitrary enough, and would have very decided opinions upon whom his choice should fall. Connection, money, he knew would be a _sine qua non_.

More than one well-born and tochered _debutante_ had successively been indicated to him as a bride that would in all respects suit Lord Bromley's views; and Bluebell, as far as he knew, fulfilled none of these conditions. All the same the struggle in his mind was in combatting the difficulties that opposed his resolution to marry her.

Bluebell, of course, could not guess his thoughts, and she only felt very desponding that he seemed unable to suggest anything.

"Oh, Mr. Dutton," she cried, "do go and tell the captain, and ask him what I had better do! He is sure to think of something,--for a day or two, at any rate."

The young man looked up with a strange smile, but there were other persons present. "Certainly," he said, with rather a constrained manner.

"I will go and tell him,"--and Bluebell, mistaking his reserve for coolness, felt disappointed.

The captain was very busy, and not too well pleased at being interrupted, but when he had mastered the intelligence he gave it his whole attention directly.

"Eh, the puir la.s.sie!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, "wha's to become of her!"

"There's only one thing that I can do," said the lieutenant, briefly.

"You!" said the skipper, whose remark had been an exclamation, not an interrogation. "What the mischief could you do? I am doubting what the guidwife will say, but I am thinking I must _jeest_ take her home."

"Oh, how good of you, sir!" said the young man, seizing his hand, un.o.bservant of the dry cynical look in his eyes. "But I trust it will not be for long, as I must tell you, in confidence, if she will only consent, I intend--I hope to marry Miss Leigh immediately."

"You be d--d! I will have no such goings on. If the la.s.sie comes to me, she will act conformable; and, if you think you are in a position to maintain a wife, you may consult your _feymily_; I'll have no such responsibility."

"You are, of course omnipotent in your own ship," said the young sailor, angrily, "but you need not forget you are speaking to a gentleman."

"As far as I can see they are no honester than other people. I only belong to the respectable cla.s.s myself, and I'll no have it."

"What a fool I was to tell you! But surely," half laughing, "matrimony is an honourable inst.i.tution."

"I kenna--I kenna. I'll give the bairn shelter till she hears from her kin, but I'll have no marrying or such like, to be called to account for mayhap afterwards."

But Mr. Dutton, only made more eager by opposition, sprang away to the saloon, where Bluebell was sitting.

"Yes, I have a message for you," said he, in answer to her inquiring look. "Will you come on deck? Here are your cloak and hood."

He led her away, with rather a pale face, to the most secluded part of it.

"What did the captain say?" she asked.

"The captain is a canny, suspicious, pigheaded old Scottish-man!"

"Of course, of course," very despondingly, "no one can do anything for me. I must go to a lodging, and advertise for another situation."

"They will want a recommendation from your last place."

"Well, I can get it from Canada."

"And that will take a month. Bluebell, listen to me; for there's no time to beat about the bush. I love you, my sweet child; but that you know already. Will you marry me? Don't start. I know it is sudden, but it will be all easy. Directly we land we can drive to a register office; they will ask no questions, but marry us right off, and we can have it done over again in a church, if you like."

Bluebell began to wonder how many more sensational minutes this hour was to contain.

"Mr. Dutton," she gasped, in a horrified tone, "what _are_ you saying?

You must know it is impossible."

"Summon all your moral courage, Bluebell. You were not afraid in the storm. Why do you shrink from acting a little out of the common?"

This speech was so like what Bertie would have said, that it nearly brought the tears to her eyes.

"Pray say no more," said she, shrinking away from him. "How could I ever _dream_ of such a thing!"

"_Can't_ you care for me, Bluebell--ever so little?" pleaded Harry Dutton.

"But that would be so _very_ much!"

Her strange wooer grew more eager, for the moments were pa.s.sing, and Bluebell was at her wit's end, when the skipper came rolling up to them.

The delight and relief with which his proposal of taking her home was received was far from pleasing to Mr. Dutton, and Bluebell, in her lightened heart, felt some self-reproach at the sight of his gloomy countenance.

The captain was hurrying her away, but she lingered a moment, and, with one of those speaking glances he had learnt to look for and love, put out her hand to the young sailor.

"Stay with me," he whispered; "it is not yet too late." She shook her head, "I believe you hate me!" he muttered, savagely.

"No," said Bluebell, impulsively saying more than she felt. "I like you only too well--but not enough for that."

"Any more last words?" said the skipper, who had stood aside good-humouredly, master of the situation.

"I have nothing further to say," said the young man, stiffly, making way for her to pa.s.s.

A minute more, and she was rowing to sh.o.r.e in the captain's boat, who then put her into a cab to drive to his home.