Page images
PDF

od species. These are again subdivided by have invented the method of extracting and prehers, for, under the name of the Dog-rose, twenty-serving the odor of flowers, and to him the merit e forms are named and characterized as species, of distilling the first rose-water is attributed by that there are to be found men of strong faith those matter-of-fact men who seek for causes in the 10 can believe that in the British Islands we regions of science rather than in the realms of ssess forty distinct species of native roses. On mystery and romance. e other hand, Mr. Bentham limits the number to Around one station in India, that of Ghazeepore, e. It matters but little to us for our present in Bengal, there are about 150 acres of ground laid rpose whether there are forty species or only five. out in small detached fields as rose-gardens. These e believe in the Dog-rose, the Burnet-rose, and gardens are let out for about three pounds sterling e sweetbrier; and if there were no others, we per thousand rose-trees for the season, and the cost ould still delight in the fragrance of the Eglantine, of cultivation is about another sovereign. The d have faith in the roses of England as long as a value of the roses yielded should be nearly double se could be found to entwine with the thistle and this sum, or from six to eight pounds. The cultiamrock, and never quarrel, whether it be known vators seldom distil their own flowers, but dispose of science as Rosa canina, or Rosa verticillacantha, them to contractors. From the beginning of March Rosa platyphylla.

to the end of April is the great rose harvest. A wild rose-tree (Rosa canina) grows in the Early in the morning men, women, and children ypt of the cathedral of Hildesheim, which has swarm about the rose-trees like a colony of bees, e reputation of being one thousand years old. plucking the flowers, and carrying them in bags to aron Humboldt states that, from accurate informa- the contractors. The "still” is of the simplest on which he obtained, the age of the main stem and rudest construction; its : 'ier will hold from d not exceed eight hundred years. This is, eight to twelve gallons; into vois are cast from swever, a respectable antiquity, and he adds that 12,000 to 16,000 roses, about fifteen to twenty legend connects this rose with a vow of the first quarts of water are added, and the result will be under of the cathedral, Louis the Pious, and a about one quart of rose-water from each thousand ocument of the eleventh century says, that when of roses. After distillation the rose-water is placed ishop Hezilo rebuilt the cathedral, which had in a glass carboy and exposed to the sun for several een burnt down, he enclosed the roots of the rose days to ripen, or mix well the floating attar with 'ee within a vault still remaining, raised on the the water. The value of one still of rose-water is itter the walls of the crypt, which was re-conse- about 24s. to 30s. on the spot. This is for the pure rated in 1061, and spread the branches of the unadulterated rose-water. Adulteration is duly ose-tree over its sides. The stem, still living, is appreciated and resorted to in the East, and neither early twenty-seven feet in height, and only two rose-water nor attar of roses are exceptions. It is nches thick, and spreads across a width of thirty- difficult to obtain either of them pure. The great wo feet over the outer wall of the eastern crypt. medium of adulteration is oil of sandal-wood, and it is undoubtedly of very considerable antiquity, the native does not appear to trouble much whether ind well worthy of the renown it has so long he gets the odor of the rose or the sandal. At njoyed throughout Germany.

| the commencement of the rose season, people The Abbé Berleze gives an account of a rose- arrive from all parts at Ghazeepore to purchase ree which he saw flourishing at Caserta, near their rose-water, and large quantities are prepared Naples, in 1819, and which had been planted near a and sold. The value of the roses sold in this poplar sixty feet high, and had clambered up to the district for the manufacture of rose-water has been opmost branches of its companion tree.

estimated at from 15,000 to 20,000 rupees a year, or The giant of all the roses is said to have 1,5001. to 2,0001., and the value of the rose-water flourished some few years since at Toulon, with a made therefrom is about double this sum. stem two feet eight inches in circumference at the We had almost forgotten the most valuable prosurface of the soil, and when in full bloom bears duct, but the “attar” must share a little of our the enormous quantity of from fifty to sixty thou- attention; and, at the risk of being regarded as sand roses, and

tedious, a brief notice of how it is obtained.

The origin of this delicious perfume is thus chron“The last rose of summer left blooming alone"

icled in the romantic stories of the East: Noorjehan does not fall to the ground till chilled by the cold Begum, the favorite wife of Jehan-Geer, was once of November.

walking in her garden, through which ran a canal And who has not heard of the Otto or Uttur* of lof rose-water, when she

of rose-water, when she remarked some oily particles Rose? This valuable and delicious perfume is ad

floating on the surface. These were collected, and mired both in the East and in the West. The their aroma found to be so delicious, that means “Utturs" of India and Persia are highly esteemed were devised to produce the precious essence in a both in the broker's sale-room and the lady's regular way.* boudoir. And not to possess a soul for Otto of The roses are distilled just in the same manner as Rose is equivalent to vulgarity, or worse. Let any

for rose-water, and the product, which is indeed rash mortal confess that he does n't care for “ straw- “ rose-water." is transferred to a large metal bagin: berries and cream" or "otto of roses," the summum and tied over with wet muslin to keep out the inbonum of two of the senses, and he will at once be sects. This vessel is let down into a hole in the regarded as “out of his senses" altogether. And ground about two feet deep, and allowed to stand there is also that delicate luxury of the East called

quiet all night. The attar is always made early in "Rose-water,” so refreshing in sultry weather, the season when the nights are cool. In the mornthat one cannot wonder that it is almost one of the ing a little film of attar has risen to the surface of necessaries of life with the Hindoo. Avicenna, an the rose-water. This is skimmed off with a feather, Arabian physician of the tenth century, is said to and placed in a bottle. When obtained only three • Written as Attur, Attar, Uttur, and Otto; the last, perhaps,

or four days it is of a pale greenish hue, but in a few least correct.

* Lieut.-Col. Palier in “ Asiatic- Researches."

weeks' time it subsides into a pale yellow color. It

“GOOD MORROW, MY PRETTY MAN

coo requires the produce of 1,000 rose-trees to obtain a tolah, or 180 grains of attar. The attar obtained in Once upon a time, on a summer morning, the the Indian bazaars is always adulterated, as not even regiments of soldiers marched through an old i the richest native will give the price for pure attar, town, known to its inhabitants as emphatically-t which is only sold to Europeans. The price ranges town," — one of those towns, like blue-white between $5 and $10 per tolah, or, according to our banging from brown and green sea-weed, English weights and measures, from £13 to 25 per fringe the coast of the frith, known in its voce onnce. So that a vial of the best Indian attar of days as Scotland Water. The town was not die roses, the size of that which contains a “black dated then. It was the resort of skippers to draught," would be worth nearly $50.

born, who did a little in the privateering busine Attar of roses made in Cashmere is considered and left their mark in the shape of two-store superior to any other, a circumstance not surprising, wind-swept, sea-washed houses, with back door as, according to Hugel, the flower is here produced main doors, – a coping above the last, and a sexy of surpassing fragrance as well as beauty :

stone above the coping, bearing an anchor or a * Who has not heard of the vale of Cashmere,

of arms, or two pairs of initials, - those of hu With its roses the brightest that earth ever gave ?" 1 and wife, - united in stone if disunited in flesh. a large quantity of rose-water, twice distilled, is! The town had its population, but what the ai placed over night in a running stream, and in the diers saw of them consisted solely of women, un morning the oil is tound floating on the surface, and children, dogs, hens, and ducks be taken into a is carefully skimmed off with a leat of the sword-lily.count. Not women in their normal state este When cool it is crevnish, and nearly solid. Be- running out, fine or slatternly, rejoicing in the so tween 300 and 600 pounds of roses only produce of the red coats, blessing the bonnie faces of te one ounce of attar.

Southern; but lowering women, scowling and some Extensive rose-farms exist also in Turkey, ating, and where they could not scowl and scold, som Adrianople, Broussa, and I'shak. The cultivators hearted and wet-eyed. When they held up the are chietly the Christian inhabitants of the low coun-children, it was not to laugh and crow to the stro tries of the Balkan. In sood seasons 75.000 ounces gers, but to threaten them: “Look at them, bazy are said to be prxluced in this district, and it is | ken them again; and if your father falls, lades estimated that 2.000 flowers are required to produce grow a man and be their deaths. The old skipper one drachm of attar.

town, hating the l'nion, and loving its former pri In the Orient the Atar-gal,” or essential oil or ileges in malt and salt and trade with Holland, ** | roses is used as a perture, and rose-water is sprin- Jacobite to the heart's core, and these were soldier kleed about from vises constructed for the purpose

of Cumberland, whom Englishmen called Br? orer the guests and apartments, otten to the aston

Bill, and Scotchmen, the Butcher. The townie ishment of Europeans when their first greeting

were away with the Jacobite leaders; the woda chances to be, as it often is a shower of rose-water

were left behind to witness the desolation and de "guirted in their faces

radation of the town as the Hanoverian troop “, eཆར : ༡ ཝརྒྱག གྷ

crossed the ferty, quartered themselves on their en

air The Mer 2 terras perfume,

mies, or marched in pursuit of - Charlie and men." to wait for news of encounters and enge, ments to sigh for the return of their men folk. And the iw of the women's sighs soughs still out

bleat Scotch breezes, among the swaying this As i thast erwus wir martade tal***

and noiding bluebells in spatches of old sons We are toli that iter the taking of Constanti-' O seni Lewie Gordon bame": * A' would napade the church of Sopas (or Constantineli right again, gin Jamie were come back." prior to its convenon into a mosque was washed A strande, deserted, sad, sullen world these Eng throughout with na-war: that Saladin wouni milih gen lempen, reopen, and grooms passed throw enter the walls of the emple of Jerusalem in iis in the state districts like crossing Stry, and until it had b** partei br similar ahlutions the derins amoes she shades of the dead, as to the Sane odorid i that the Moskus un rit sans ibe Nutzern pass appeared the moath of WEITERNUr in the en d oi their teens ani, bat tber we must practical men, thinking of this eren van Fra wobles were user bap Isories Back in the season, or the comfort

countr

O NS of stue and shoulder-belts, of bove and te sniaci sbs within them, of groteru

mig s ites ard-rækail and porridge, Darin

me toas vere given to excursies g

in
w
ns

ces and the siogan of Highlands the F i nn Wy we aim to h

a nd barted curses of the TORE drasle

Rus the miseries o n antiseste sa stones on coats of

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

oh, the son of Jerubbaal ; and the red coats had | best face he could on the sharp retort. “How do :d to march warily through the steep narrow you know that, my pretty maid ?” he went on, in eets of the town.

mock defiance. A few of the spectators were of higher rank and “By the color of your coat,” she answered shortly, atler breeding, but not of opposite faith; these “no honest man wears siccan a coat on his back," re at the windows, expressing their wrath by and she shut the window with a bang and ran from »nt, stately scorn. One young woman of this it in sudden panic, as the commanding officer behind ss filled a narrow window with her hoop and her cried “Forward !” and the loiterers advanced in Hes; while at the other window of the same tall, double-quick time. Not before Captain Bernard, of ly house, women and children, ladies and servants, Bernard's Court, in the wolds of Yorkshire, hailed istered and hung by each other like frightened a passer-by : “Who was that lass that answered yeons or sheep; but the girl set herself forth alone from the window ?” (He had learnt the term, like a mark for the carbines should there be skirmish- the poor gallant Frenchified lad who, with the two

in the streets, or volleys of insolent triumph, in words “bonnie lass,” won the woman's heart of luntary testimony, knitting her smooth brow and Scotland.) tting her white teeth, to her hatred of the Whigs. “Lass !” grumbled the pawky gangrel, “she 's he had thrown the window up and leant on the nane of a lass; she's the young leddy of Legs-my11, and there framed by the window-frame in a set-lea,” (Scotticè for Ecclesia Maria, Church lands ng of diamonds, the small window-panes glistening rechristened at the Reformation.) “Mistress Mause ad sparkling behind her head, she was a conspicu- Mailin of Watergate that was; the Laird of Legsis object and a striking contrast to the general | my-lea wedded her and brought her home a month orlornness and disarray, — the studied neglect and syne; for him, you can speer word at her if ye want qualor. Not that it was a propitious face, for not him, for he's gane like the lave of the men to the

face there gloomed more determinedly; but it was coals, or the peats, or the hay, or — aweel, the deil he gloom of a summer shower shrined in a rain- and their wives ken whar." low; the pout of a girl, and a lovely girl, - a rustic! It happened that Captain Bernard was left, much eauty growing up spontaneously like the convol- against his will, to hold the town with two scores of rulus on the sea braes, with the same wonderful | his men; and before night the news was brought ombination of delicacy and wildness. A throat him that the Laird of Legs-my-lea had been in a like a swan's, a head like a fawn's, eyes like the shy, tussle with the loyal militia of a landward town, at beautiful eyes of a game bird, and a mouth that some miles' distance, had been wounded in the spoke frank, rash, froward words of love and hate; shoulder, had trailed himself home like a wounded a delightful, bold, fearless, trusting, tempting child's dog, and was lying hid in his house in the town at mouth, which, even as she bridled and frowned, that very moment. “Legs-my-lea!” cried the capburst apart, and showed the glistening teeth in their tain; " by George, that's the husband of the saucy half appreciation and whole marvel at a grand jade who spurned me!” spectacle, a rare show in the town. The entire figure was in holiday array, as Montrose dressed for The Laird of Legs-my-lea's house in the town his execution, in silk gown, worked apron, and gold was scant of room. People did not want either chain with keys dangling at the side, lace stomacher, space or privacy in those days, but did the most exand little lace cap laid flat, like the cap of the citing deeds, elbowing each other, in the centre of Christ-Church boys, on the top of the overflowing, well-informed, interested spectators. Then there crisp, girlish, dark hair.

was trouble in the house, which makes a house smallA young officer with a light step, a roving glance, er. 'Last month a bride had been brought home and a gay, thoughtless heart, looked up and caught by a wildfire of a laird, who did not think “ going sight of the peerless picture, the one pleasant pic-out” and risking his head was sufficient business on ture which the town presented. “Good morrow, bis hands, but must marry a wife and risk her tender my pretty maid; will you go with me?” he called heart into the bargain. Now, a wounded man lay, out of the undisciplined ranks, giving a scrape and boots and all, on the top of the quilt which Mause a swagger.

had patched, in the box-bed, that was not yet disThe blood rushed like fire over the beautiful carded from its position as a convenient article of young face; but as the other women screamed and furniture in a private sitting-room. It was highly fell back, she stretched farther forward, and facing convenient for Magnus the laird,- the comely, dethe bold man, she drew her two arched brows into spotic, generous young giant, who was not so much one straight black line, pressed her red lips together, injured that he could not raise himself on his elbow, and uttered the bare monosyllable “ No," with an see what was going on in domestic economy, and energetic rudeness that caused a hoarse laugh to rise put in his word when affairs went against his will, and ring among the old rough John Bull soldiers. and in the fever and irritation of his wound he put

The young officer was a man of rank (as they in his word perpetually. It was horribly inconvenient say), and would linger and parley at will, though for Mause, – the lady, the laird's mother and her sishe kept his comrades waiting. “And why not?" ter, and the lady's mother and her sister, - all of he demanded in explanation. “Because you are whom had taken refuge in the one house of Legs-myno an honest man," asserted the daring, confiding lea for comfort and company to each other, deserted red lips, the wild eyes looking without winking at as they were by their natural rulers and protectors. his dangling sword and silver-mounted pistols, the The women had business of their own, to which white throat swelling with fondness and fidelity to they did not want the man, over whose unexpected his foe; while a murmur and rustle of fear, an “0, return they had laughed and cried three hours Mause, tak' tent and dinna brag the sodger," shook, before, to be a witness. Mause was fretted in the like the wind among the slim willows and the birches, nursing of her husband by the interference of so the group at her side.

many other nurses tendering their advice unasked, The officer reddened a shade in approach to the us a right of kindred, though Magnus turned his hue "angry and brave” of his coat, but he put the back upon them and would allow no one to put a finger on him, not even his old mother, none save uncovered maiden head scornfully, and gulped de his seventeen years' old wife of six weeks.

an indignant sigh. In the mean time these good people took their “I couldna help it,” urged Manse irrelevant ease in the erroneous impression that Cumberland's “ my heart just came into my mouth." soldiers had marched through the town, and over Legs-my-lea lay there like a lion that has the hills and far away, before Legs-my-lea's arrival. bit, with his yellow hair so tumbled free fra Engrossed by their own matter, they had not heard powder and pomatum that it was flying loose of Captain Bernard and his forty men coolly en- mane, and brushing Mause's soft cheek, whe sconced in the town-house.

pulled her down to him (much as it had done It was a low-roofed, white-panelled room in which she had sat at her wheel during the long night the family commotion prevailed, full of the mingled the past stirring winter, and Legs-my-lea had simplicity and mystery which our ancestors loved. a-courting to Watergates), wooed by the care Unsophisticated as the room looked, it was choke touch, and uniting, as amber draws strans full of secrets. The box-bed opened like a cup-Mause's dark curls, not yet taking the situat board. The cupboard itself was entered by a mov- curch, still clustering in rich rings to the higre able panel. Try to open it in the legitimate way, of the snood. At this point Legs-my-lea startal: and a man would require an axe to split the wood against his own flesh and blood, and Mause's, ir asunder; but press a panel in one direction, and it tyrant of the first water, and swore nobody she slid away in a trice, leaving to view an innocent conter" (Anglicè, contradict) Mause but hirs. enough thing, in its uselessness, - a carved buffet, Mause was to do what she liked, and Mause's pas whittled into curves and scallops, not worth the ure was his pleasure, and he would like to bear manœuvre of getting at it, unless that it bore poor would flyte on Mause after he said that; bruts Mause's blue-and-gold starred china, one cup of them flyte"; and “Mause, my joe, never min which was broken already. (And Mause could have fules' fiytin." sat down and cried when the fracture took place, Legs-my-lea fell back exhausted; the family et ere she knew what she was about, had not Legs-mr-died away in scared silence, till Mause, who lea been still at her elbow to kiss the first big bright listened to her own condemnation with dryerese drop away; and had she not promised herself never an erect little head, fairly sobbed at bis detza again to trust the eggshell cups in clumsy irrespon- He had burst the bandage on his wound, and : * sible fingers, but to wash them night and morning, bleeding afresh, and that was what the cruel per like a good housewife, with her own dainty hands, had made by their work. and dry them with her satin damask napkins) The At that very moment a friendly scout rushedel very window to the garden was not a window, but with an awful complication of evil tidings. De a door - half glass, half panelled wood -- which English were lying billeted in the town: the Engs opened with so low a step to the flower-border, that, captain had word Legs-my-lea had come to bece lift the latch, and wreaths of green and white peri- of his hurt by the hands of his young wife made winkle, purple and green clematis, and single “red, his own roof-tree; and the roystering blade red roses leapt straight in and more a shifting, captain having swallowed his dinner and still fading, exquisite summer carpet on the coarse home- bottle of claret under his belt, was tramping 21 spun floorcloth.

the streets, breathing fire and smoke, and brings In this room the somewhat ominous gathering of a magistrate's warrant and a dozen of his mer! the couple's families and friends sat, like a bench of his beels to apprehend the defenceless man, squs judges, masquerading in damask gowns, pinners, like a bare br his own bearthstone tog knots, and mumbled and mowed and skirled The report raised a frenzied rout, and above 2 their sentences on the improper behavior of the in- sounded the shrill accents of Magnus's mother experienced heads of the house of Legs-mr-le: "You see what you have done, Vare : Four took Mause to task sharplr, and spoke out their slain pour ain gode man and my dear baira by to minds indirectlr to the chained at laind.

glaiket pride and fale's passion." * What for did you don rour best silk gown, mr And Mazee's despairing protest. — * Vothes dochter." insinuated old Ladr Ler mr-les, in a wonid dee for him: I will dee for him." cracked voice that sold have been kept for the And Magnus's tender reassurance, - Nerer ber king's coronation or for the buttersens at least. * my mother, Manse ; never beed man or woman

* And you have tom your negligée that cost me them; and you, mother, be silent, I commande ever so many pan is Scots roa wastrite bair":old I tell you my sweetheart, you have not barmed Ladr Watergates thrown so far off her guard as to bair of my bead.* contents to a price fionted the ronthfal matron in No time was to be lost. After a short consultatis another carvering pina

Magnus was burned. zainst the grain, through. * All the town was there to see" plead Manse, in glass door to try for an escape or the garden: Sansaare van:tr: *was Lego-mr-lea's wife to appear roune Mause, as his wide and representative stare like a common woman or like no rite at all, bot an, behind. stiff with horror, ret straining all her pote! wasneered as $*

lo hadr and mint to meet the dreaded visitor.... i * You are a haald wife of two m.mths-00 out' Naine as we of this riri erer pot forsan that a strange man said mint to miss you at stare anì fortune. The youngest of her family em." her SONRW . Mism La n , where she was courted and wedded the first she , husban is racerk, and who was in this on band of Legs-mr-les's bousebold. – Over mother per link, with high cbers bones verned Nam mais ana e She was the woman who

challenged out, and who answered the chalkas, * And what carred re anime she man vos catro Canani's will office. Sbe has the vie Heth. Toda ron litt ruan: but we were are to be the bese, indicate the bonur, sed a u se or won would not be where van sere"; the same aber hashen. Then the quasi Cried Bean the borde's married in set, wbs matbots and wailing sisters shrank in their love had a hair and many freckles and we are herm ers out of sight, this one of seventeen

Saturday

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

ward. She had not yet attained her full growth ; | Bernard looked from one to the other with his rapid : endurance was only for a time; her constancy glance. He arranged the “top” of his hair fopled after a struggle ; but of her temper, tried and pishly; but as he did so he exposed to view above tured, heroines are made.

the jeering lip and the thin nostril that quivered exMause stood in her brave attire in the middle of citedly, a frank, open brow. “You are my prisoner,

low-roofed, white-walled room, with its secrets, Legs-my-lea,” he said plainly, “but it may be better r eyes wandering in agony to the glass door as for you than if you had fallen into our hands later ptain Bernard's firm step sounded on the thresh- in the day, as you assuredly would unless you had

fled forth of Scotland, when I might have had less The soldier came in with his cocked hat under power to protect you. Now, all that I insist on is, i arm, bowed so low that he shook the powder that you lie still in your own house in the town im his hair, fixed on Mause his falcon blue eyes, until your wounds be healed, and afterwards that

if he had never beheld her before, and said, you hold yourself bound not to bear arms against th covered irony, “Your worshipful servant, mad-King George for a year and a day, when, as I think,

there will be no other prince or standard left in Mause responded with a throbbing heart, as if she Scotland for you to fight for. As for you, madam,” d never in her life set eyes on Cumberland's — and the soldier smiled on Mause with the sweetficer in his high collar, his stiff cravat, with his ness of a brave man's smile, -"on some sunny day een eyes and curling lips. " What is your pleasure, to come, either here in your own house, or in my r?” she asked courtesying, not to be beat in polite house of Bernard's Court, in England, I trust you

pocrisy, — so deep a courtesey that she concealed will take back your hard words, and grant that r whole three seconds the buckles in her high-heeled there are honest men and pitiful men, as well as 100n, keeping her untrained eyes on the floorcloth, knaves, bullies, and cut-throats, who wear my uniiat she might not be tempted to look again at that form." readful glass door, before which the boughs of the Not on one sunny day alone, but on days of rain lematis stirred, though there was not a breath of and frost, at home and abroad, Mause admitted rind in the sultry summer afternoon.

humbly, and thanked God on her bended knees for " Will you do me the favor to tell me, madam, the husband of her youth and the father of her Then you last saw the Laird of Legs-my-lea ? ” in- bairns, that in the ranks she had condemned the uired the Englishman, mincingly patting his cocked wheat grew strong-stemmed and full-eared along

with the tares. In proof of the statement Scotch“Legs-my-lea left the town on the 3d of July," men still tell how James Wolfe raised his sickly, aid the girl, with whitening lips, checking off the stern head and defied Bluff Bill to the face, when number with her third finger on her rosy palm, and he received the order to stab the prisoners and the alling into that double language in which an honest wounded men, lying thick as herds of cattle and falltongue invariably takes its first stumbling step in en leaves on the black spring heather of Drumleceit.

mossie Moor. “I am a soldier," answered the hero “Madam, the substance of your communication of Quebec,“ not an executioner.” is false," observed Captain Bernard, rather pleasantly than otherwise, dropping his hat, drawing out his jewelled snuff-box, and refreshing himself with

STONE EDGE. a pinch of snuff in the most elegant manner imaginable.

CHAPTER XI. — THE ONE-EYED HOUSE. “ Sir,” cried the rustic Mause, starting violently, A DAY or two after old Bessie's funeral Roland - how dare you say so ?”

returned to Youlcliffe. He had been working his “I judge by the color of your sleeve, madam. heart out trying to sound and set right that bottomNo honest woman wears such a sign on her arm," less pit (to an honest man), his father's affairs; and he replied, with a sneer; and he snatched up one he found on his return, after little more than three of poor Mause's cambric ruffles, on which was a weeks, that his dear old friend was gone, and he had foul stain of blood, not yet dry, from Legs-my-lea's not even been present to pay her the last respect. sword-cut.

He now felt sure that his father had purposely sent Mause gave a loud dismal shriek, and fell at the him on a fool's errand, and he resented doubly the Hanoverian's feet, praying, “Mercy! mercy!” being treated as a child, kept from home under false clinging to his knees, almost dragging him round pretences, taught to believe that he was doing his with his back to the glass door, where, as he touched father a service when he was only helping to break her, she had seen Legs-my-lea's inflamed face glar- his own heart. He was more angry and hurt than ing through the panes.

Joshua could have conceived possible, and the anBut in another instant the glass was broken with noyance did not go off. What might not Cassie a crash, the door flung open, and Legs-my-lea stag- think of his absence, of his having allowed himself gered in.

| to be kept away at such a time? "I am your prisoner, captain. Get up Mause, He went down to make his peace with old Nathan, you quean, and do not beg grace of any loon. whom he found sitting dismally by the fire, as he Hands off my wife, sir! I surrender.”

looked ruefülly at the vacant chair on the other side. In the doting passion of his honeymoon, Legs-my- He seemed ten years older. lea was half furious that Mause should abjectly crave “Nobody can't tell how bare and lonesome it is," even his life and liberty from another man. He said he, “now she be gone. I've got a sorrow down would prefer to have the English officer's hand my backbone wi' thinkin' o' her.” Then, after a clapped on his shoulder, though that gripe should long pause: “I want Bessie, I want my wife !” said lead him to the Tolbooth and the dark Tower of Lon- he, with a loud and bitter cry. “What iver will I don with its purpled block in the distance, than that do wi'out her!” the white-ringed fingers should ruffle the plumage1 “You'll mebbe get o'er it, Master Natban, after and brush the bloom from his darling. Captain a bit. She were a well-livin' 'ooman, yer know, and

« PreviousContinue »