FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   >>  
with as much secrecy as possible. I shall ask my aunt to go with me." I assured Miss Stanleigh that the _Sylph_ was at her service. * * * * * Mrs. Stanleigh was a large bland woman, inclined to stoutness and to making confidences, with an intense dislike of the tropics and physical discomforts of any sort. How her niece prevailed upon her to make that surreptitious trip to Muloa, which we set out upon two days later, I have never been able to imagine. The accommodations aboard the schooner were cramped, to say the least, and the good lady had a perfect horror of volcanoes. The fact that Lakalatcha had behind it a record of a century or more of good conduct did not weigh with her in the least. She was convinced that it would blow its head off the moment the _Sylph_ got within range. She was fidgety, talkative, and continually concerned over the state of her complexion, inspecting it in the mirror of her bag at frequent intervals and using a powder-puff liberally to mitigate the pernicious effects of the tropic sun. But once having been induced to make the voyage, I must admit she stuck manfully by her decision, ensconcing herself on deck with books and cushions and numerous other necessities to her comfort, and making the best of the sleeping quarters below. As the captain of the _Sylph_, she wanted me to understand that she had intrusted her soul to my charge, declaring that she would not draw an easy breath until we were safe again in Port Charlotte. "This dreadful business of Eleanor's," was the way she referred to our mission, and she got round quite naturally to telling me of Farquharson while acquainting me with her fears about volcanoes. Some years before, Pompeii and Herculaneum had had a most unsettling effect upon her nerves. Vesuvius was slightly in eruption at the time. She confessed to never having had an easy moment while in Naples. And it was in Naples that her niece and Farquharson had met. It had been, as I surmised, a swift, romantic courtship, in which Farquharson, quite irreproachable in antecedents and manners, had played the part of an impetuous lover. Italian skies had done the rest. There was an immediate marriage, in spite of Mrs. Stanleigh's protests, and the young couple were off on a honeymoon trip by themselves. But when Mrs. Stanleigh rejoined her husband at Nice, and together they returned to their home in Sussex, a surprise was in store for them. El
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   >>  



Top keywords:
Stanleigh
 

Farquharson

 

volcanoes

 
Naples
 

moment

 

making

 

referred

 

Sussex

 

dreadful

 

Charlotte


mission

 
business
 

Eleanor

 
acquainting
 
returned
 

naturally

 

telling

 

captain

 

wanted

 

understand


sleeping

 

quarters

 

intrusted

 

surprise

 

breath

 
charge
 

declaring

 

romantic

 

courtship

 

marriage


irreproachable

 

protests

 
comfort
 

surmised

 

antecedents

 

Italian

 

impetuous

 

manners

 

played

 

Herculaneum


unsettling
 
rejoined
 

Pompeii

 

husband

 

effect

 
nerves
 

confessed

 
honeymoon
 
couple
 

eruption