FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   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   >>   >|  
familiar name to the pretty young wife before her) 'yo'r husband?' 'Yes, you knew him, didn't you? when he used to be staying with Mr Corney, his uncle?' 'Yes, I knew him; but I don't understand. Will yo' please to tell me all about it, ma'am?' said Sylvia, faintly. 'I thought your husband would have told you all about it; I hardly know where to begin. You know my husband is a sailor?' Sylvia nodded assent, listening greedily, her heart beating thick all the time. 'And he's now a Commander in the Royal Navy, all earned by his own bravery! Oh! I am so proud of him!' So could Sylvia have been if she had been his wife; as it was, she thought how often she had felt sure that he would be a great man some day. 'And he has been at the siege of Acre.' Sylvia looked perplexed at these strange words, and Mrs. Kinraid caught the look. 'St Jean d'Acre, you know--though it's fine saying "you know", when I didn't know a bit about it myself till the captain's ship was ordered there, though I was the head girl at Miss Dobbin's in the geography class--Acre is a seaport town, not far from Jaffa, which is the modern name for Joppa, where St Paul went to long ago; you've read of that, I'm sure, and Mount Carmel, where the prophet Elijah was once, all in Palestine, you know, only the Turks have got it now?' 'But I don't understand yet,' said Sylvia, plaintively; 'I daresay it's all very true about St Paul, but please, ma'am, will yo' tell me about yo'r husband and mine--have they met again?' 'Yes, at Acre, I tell you,' said Mrs. Kinraid, with pretty petulance. 'The Turks held the town, and the French wanted to take it; and we, that is the British Fleet, wouldn't let them. So Sir Sidney Smith, a commodore and a great friend of the captain's, landed in order to fight the French; and the captain and many of the sailors landed with him; and it was burning hot; and the poor captain was wounded, and lay a-dying of pain and thirst within the enemy's--that is the French--fire; so that they were ready to shoot any one of his own side who came near him. They thought he was dead himself, you see, as he was very near; and would have been too, if your husband had not come out of shelter, and taken him up in his arms or on his back (I couldn't make out which), and carried him safe within the walls.' 'It couldn't have been Philip,' said Sylvia, dubiously. 'But it was. The captain says so; and he's not a man to be mistaken.
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   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   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Sylvia

 

captain

 

husband

 

thought

 

French

 
landed
 

couldn

 

Kinraid

 

understand

 
pretty

Sidney

 
burning
 

sailors

 

friend

 

commodore

 

daresay

 

plaintively

 

petulance

 

British

 

wounded


wouldn

 

wanted

 

thirst

 

shelter

 

familiar

 

dubiously

 

mistaken

 

Philip

 

carried

 

prophet


faintly

 
caught
 

strange

 

looked

 

perplexed

 
earned
 

Commander

 

beating

 

bravery

 

nodded


sailor

 

assent

 

greedily

 

listening

 

modern

 

staying

 
Elijah
 

Carmel

 

ordered

 

seaport