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   126   127   128   129   130   131  
132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   >>   >|  
don't talk such foolishness. It was a stupid, a wrong thing to do, after Mr Leigh had given explicit orders that--" "It was, was it? Then you take that, and just mind your own business!" exclaimed a well-known quarrelsome voice behind us, and the next instant Master Julius, who had crept up noiselessly behind us in his rubber-soled deck shoes, smote his sister a resounding box on the ear. As a rule I am a most placid-tempered person, but somehow that blow instantly aroused in me a fury that made me "see red" for a moment. Wheeling sharply, I seized the boy by the scruff of the neck and shook him until his teeth fairly rattled in his head. "You young ruffian!" I exclaimed, "how dare you strike your sister? You deserve a downright good thrashing for such a deed, and--mark you this, boy!--if ever you so much as attempt to do such a thing again and I get to hear of it, I will rope's-end you until you can neither stand, sit, nor lie down. You ought to be ashamed of yourself!" And I flung him from me with such violence that he went staggering along the deck for three or four yards before he recovered himself. Of course there was at once a pretty to-do. Anthea was crying--more, I think, at the mortification of being struck than for any other reason; while Mrs Vansittart instantly went into violent hysterics, shrieking that her darling boy was being murdered. The young gentleman himself meanwhile slunk away down the companion stairs, eyeing me as he went, as though by no means certain that I would not yet fall upon him and inflict the punishment that he must have known he richly deserved. Then up rushed the two stewardesses, in response to Mrs Vansittart's shrieks, and between them and Anthea she was piloted below, and, it is to be presumed, ministered to and restored, for the shrieks and outcries presently died away. About half an hour afterward Lizette, the head stewardess, summoned me to breakfast, at the same time explaining that Mrs Vansittart was taking the meal in her own room, with Julius. "She is dr-r-readfully angree with you, Monsieur Leigh," the girl informed me; "but do not you care. It is time that somebody should take that boy in hand. He is everey day growing more execr-r-rable!" CHAPTER TWELVE. THE CONVERSION OF JULIUS. When I went down to breakfast, Anthea and Lizette were already in the dining-room. The former had quite recovered her composure, although her eyelids were sti
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131  
132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Anthea

 
Vansittart
 

breakfast

 

Lizette

 

instantly

 

recovered

 
shrieks
 
sister
 

exclaimed

 

Julius


stairs

 

companion

 

eyeing

 

inflict

 

punishment

 
TWELVE
 

CONVERSION

 
reason
 

JULIUS

 

struck


dining

 

murdered

 

gentleman

 
violent
 

hysterics

 

shrieking

 

darling

 

eyelids

 
summoned
 

stewardess


everey

 

afterward

 
explaining
 

readfully

 

angree

 

Monsieur

 
taking
 
piloted
 

response

 

deserved


rushed
 

informed

 

stewardesses

 

CHAPTER

 

presently

 

growing

 

outcries

 
presumed
 

ministered

 
restored