Luttrell Of Arran Part 107

"Who has been here, Jane? Whose cane is this?" said she, taking up a stick, Harry had forgotten in his haste..

The woman explained it was the young gentleman to whom her mistress gave permission that morning to see the Abbey, and who had only just taken his departure.

"The whole day here!" exclaimed Kate.

"True enough, Miss. He was two hours, and more in the Abbey, and I thought he was asleep, for he was lying on the masters, grave with his face hid; but when I spoke he answered me. It was what he wished, Miss, was to be let go up in the tower and have a view from the top; but I told him your own rooms was there, and n.o.body ever got leave to see them."

"I mean to go to the Murra Glen to-morrow, Molly," said Kate, turning to her old and faithful servant, "and you may let this stranger go over the Abbey in every part; so that he be away before nightfall, the whole is at his disposal. Go-down this evening to the inn, and take his stick to him, with this, message."

Seated at her tea, Kate was thinking over the long sea voyage that lay before her, and the new land in which she was to seek her fortune, when a wild shrill scream startled her, and, at the same instant, Molly rushed into the room, and when she had reached the middle of it, staggered back, and leaned, half fainting, against the wall.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 541]

"What's the matter, Molly? What has happened?" cried Kate, eagerly.

"May the blessed saints protect and guard us, Miss, but I seen him as plain as I see you."

"Whom did you see?"

"Himself that's gone--the master! Glory to him, and peace too, if it was G.o.d's will," said the woman, falteringly.

"How foolish this is, Molly. I scarcely expected this from _you_."

"I don't care. I'll swear it on the book I saw him, and heard him too. 'Would you be so kind------' says he; and at that I let a screech out of me and ran in here."

"This is too absurd," said Kate, with some irritation in her voice. "Go and see what this man wants."

"Not if you were to give me a hat full of goold, Miss Kate. May I never, if I'd go there again to be Queen of England."

"I am not pleased with you, Molly," said Kate, taking a candle in her hand and moving towards the door. The woman threw herself at her feet to prevent her, but with a haughty gesture she motioned her away, and pa.s.sed out.

A man was standing in the doorway, who courteously removed his hat as she came forward, and said, "I'm sorry to have alarmed your servant, Miss Lutrell, but I had left my walking-stick here this morning, and came to get it."

Screening the light from herself with one hand, she threw the full glare on the other's face, and, in a voice of deep emotion, said, "I see well why she was frightened. Your name is Luttrell!"

"I must not deny it to the only one that remains of all my kin. Are you not my Cousin Kate?"

She held out her hand to him, and, in a voice quavering and broken, said, "How glad I am to see you--and to see you here under your own roof."

"There must be two words more before that be settled, Kate," said he, kindly, as, still holding her hand in his own, he walked back with her to her room.

"There, Molly--there's your young master; perhaps you'll be less frightened now that you see him at my side."

While the poor woman gave way to a transport of joy and tears, Harry continued to gaze at Kate with an intense eagerness. "Tell me one thing, Cousin Kate," said he, in a whisper; "answer me truly: Were you on board of a convict-ship in Kingstown harbour on Tuesday last, as she was getting under weigh?"

She nodded a.s.sent

"Then it was I who lifted you into the boat, and asked your leave to see you safely on sh.o.r.e."

"I'm ashamed to seem ungrateful, but I have no memory of your kindness.

I had too much sorrow on my heart that morning."

"Oh, if you knew how I longed to meet you again--how I walked and walked incessantly to try and come up with you, never dreaming of such happiness as this--that, when we met, I could claim you as my own dear cousin!"

"And was it right, Cousin Harry, for you to come here in disguise and visit the Abbey like a stranger? Was that an evidence of the affection you speak of?"

"You forget, Kate, I didn't know whom I was to meet. If I had known that you were the girl whom I carried down the ladder to the boat, I'd have gone to the world's end to see you again. How came you to be there?"

"You shall hear it all when you have time and patience. We each have much to tell, and you shall begin, but not to-night, Harry; let us be satisfied to make acquaintance now. Why do you stare at me?"

"Because you are so beautiful--because I never saw any one so beautiful before."

"A very frank compliment, and I suppose too frank to be construed into what is called flattery."

"To think of you living here!--_you_, in such a place as this! Why, it is downright monstrous."

"Cousin Harry," said she, gravely, "if you are to-do nothing but make me compliments, our intimacy will have but a sorry chance to make any progress. I have no doubt I'm pretty, but remember, that in this place here there are scores of things you'll be struck by, simply because they come upon you unexpectedly. Look at my little tea equipage, for instance; could you have dreamed of anything so tasteful on the Island of Arran?"

The playful raillery of this speech could not turn his thoughts from herself. Nor was it alone her beauty that amazed him, but her exquisite grace of manner, the sweet-toned voice, low and gentle, her every movement and gesture, and then her bearing towards himself, so nicely balanced between the reserve of a maidenly bashfulness and the freedom of a near relative.

"We will have our tea together, Harry," said she, "and you shall tell me all your adventures. You could not readily find a listener more eager for all that is strange, or wild, or exciting. Let me hear of the scenes you have gone through, and I'll be able to make some guess of what manner of man my cousin is."

"My rough life is little more than a long catalogue of common-place hardships--hardships that sailors come at last to look at as the ordinary events of existence, but which certainly tend to make us somewhat careless about life, but very ready to enjoy it. Where am I to begin?"

"At the beginning, of course. I want to see you as a boy before I hear of you as a man."

With a manly frankness, and a modesty totally devoid of any affectation, he told the story of his sea life; the strange lands and people he had seen; the wild spots he had visited; the hopes of fortune at one time full and radiant, at another dashed and destroyed by disaster; dreams of wealth and affluence rudely dispelled by mischances; and, last of all--the crowning calamity--the attack made by the Riffs, and his captivity amongst the Moors.

"Was home very often in your thoughts through these reverses?" asked she, gravely.

"Seldom out of my thoughts, Kate. It had not been, as you may know, a very cheerful or a happy home. It was a lonely, gloomy life I led here, but I believe sorrows can attach just as well as joys, and I longed to see the old rock again, and I used to fancy how much more companionable I could be to my poor father now that I had grown up and had learnt something of the world and its ways. All my misfortunes were nothing compared to the sorrowful tidings that met me as I landed at Genoa, and learned I was alone in the world, without even one to care for me."

"You went at once to Sir Gervais Vyner's. Tell me about _them_." "You know them better than I do, Kate," said he, smiling. "Ada told me of all her love for you--it was the theme she never tired of--your beauty, your wit, your gracefulness, your talent at everything--till I grew half angry. She would talk of nothing else."

"And Ada herself--what is she like? She was, as a child, almost perfectly beautiful."

"She is very handsome. Her features are all regular, and her smile is very sweet, and her manner very gentle, and her voice singularly silvery and musical."

"So that you fell in love with her?" "No," said he, shaking his head--"no, I did not." "Yes, yes, you did! That list of her perfections was given too readily not to have been conned over."

"I tell you again, I felt no love for her. We were whole days together, and lived as a brother and a sister might, talking of whatever interested us most, but one word of love never pa.s.sed between us." "A look, then?"

"Not even that. Just think one moment, Kate. Who is she, and who am I?"

"What would that signify if your hearts caught fire? Do you think the affections ask leave of t.i.tle-deeds?"

"Mine certainly did not. They had no need to do so. I was as frank with Ada as with you." Scarcely was the last word out, than a deep crimson flash covered his cheek, and he felt overwhelmed with confusion, for he had said what, if true in one sense, might possibly convey a very different meaning in another. "I mean," added he, stammeringly, "I told her all I have told you about my sea life."

"You are a puzzle to me, Harry," said she, after a pause. "You can enumerate a number of qualities with enthusiasm, and still declare that they had no influence over you. Is this the sailor temperament?"