The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Queen's Cup, by G. A. Henty

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Title: The Queen's Cup

Author: G. A. Henty

Release Date: December 31, 2005 [eBook #17436]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE QUEEN'S CUP***

E-text prepared by Martin Robb

THE QUEEN'S CUP

by

G. A. Henty.

Chapter 1.

A large party were assembled in the drawing room of Greendale, Sir
John Greendale's picturesque old mansion house. It was early in
September. The men had returned from shooting, and the guests were
gathered in the drawing room; in the pleasant half hour of dusk
when the lamps have not yet been lighted, though it is already too
dark to read. The conversation was general, and from the latest
news from India had drifted into the subject of the Italian belief
in the Mal Occhio.

"Do you believe in it, Captain Mallett?" asked Bertha, Sir John's
only child, a girl of sixteen; who was nestled in an easy chair
next to that in which the man she addressed was sitting.

"I don't know, Bertha."

He had known her from childhood, and she had not yet reached an age
when the formal "Miss Greendale" was incumbent upon her
acquaintances.

"I do not believe in the Italian superstition to anything like the
extent they carry it. I don't think I should believe it at all if
it were not that one man has always been unlucky to me."

"How unlucky, Captain Mallett?"

"Well, I don't know that unlucky is the proper word, but he has
always stood between me and success; at least, he always did, for
it is some years since our paths have crossed."

"Tell me about it."

"Well, I have no objection, but there is not a great deal to tell.

"I was at school with--I won't mention his name. We were about the
same age. He was a bully. I interfered with him, we had a fight,
and I scored my first and only success over him. It was a very
tough fight--by far the toughest I ever had. I was stronger than
he, but he was the more active. I fancied that it would not be very
difficult to thrash him, but found that I had made a great mistake.
It was a long fight, and it was only because I was in better
co