The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-11-26 00:00:00

I don't think the young Icily will be so comfortable,'
Mr. Hansard replied. 'She looks too pale and worn
out to be sent to an hotel. Come, my dear, and let
us make you at home, if we can. You have passed
throngh much peril, I hear.'
'I was drowning,' Helen said, her colour coming
and going with startling rapidity. was gone till
that good man--'
Ah, I thought so,' Mr. Hansard said, springing
forward and catching her as she would have fallen but
for the hold she had on Cuthbert's arm. She has
kept up till now, and now that she is safe ashore she is
breaking down. That settles the question at once.
You are my guests, Ingram.'
Helen was carried upstairs, and given :over to the
keeping and kind offices of the kindly wife of. the
warm-hearted consul. Mrs. Hansard was known far
and wide for her goodness. No poor Eng;ish person
ever went away from her hospitable, house without
being helped and cheered in some way; and the poor
of Havre, no matter what their nationality, could
testify to her charity and sympathetic interest in their
misfortunes.

'Talbot, attend to these gentlemen,' she said to a
servant who came at her summons. 'They will like
to dress for dinner; put out some things. Mr.
Edward's things will fit Mr. Ingram. I can see you have
been shipwrecked,' she added, hastily, as if she were
feari\il that Cuthbert might take offence at proposing
to clothe him, 'and I am so used to having people here
who need a change of clothes, that I generally tell
Talbot to put them out.'
'lndeed. You are very kind,' Cuthbert said, 'I
shall begin to believe that it is not all a fairy tale
when I am properly dressed once more. lam in-
debted to that good man who brought me here for the
clothes I have on. I have literally nothing in the
world belonging to me. The very rags I had on
when picked up, after the loss of the Asphodel,lwere
well-nigh burnt off, they told me.'
I Ah, don't speak of it,' the warm-hearted lady said;
it is too horrible. Make haste and dross, and I will
see to Miss--; you did not tell me the lady's
name—'
'He did not tell it to me either,' the elder Mr. In-
gram said. 'He only said, "This is Helen." She
may be Helen of, Troy, come back to life again, for
aught I know.'
'She is no one so remarkaLle—only Miss Ramsay,'
Cuthbert said. 'When may I see her? Is she very
ill?'

• She is not ill at all, we hope,' Mrs. Hansard said,
only suffering from reaction and overstrained nerves.
She hardly realises what has happened to her yet; it
was all excitement at first, and now the danger is
quite over she has given way. By the time you are
dressed she will be ready to receive you, I have no
doubt.'
It was something to be able to attire himself in
something like the ordinary cbthes of a gentleman,
and Cuthbert Ingram laughed at himself for the
pleasure he felt in a decent suit of clothes.
'I never was a dandy!' he said to his uncle as they
talked; 'but the sight of civilisation seems to make
things seem real to me. My good friend Tregellis's
garments are of the outlandish order, though I was
right glad of them. How shall I ever pay him ?'
'We'll find a way,' his uncle said. You leave that
to me. So that young lady's Miss Ramsay, is it?
And how the dev--, well, I mean, how did she come
aboard the Asphodel? I thought she was safe with
her friends somewhere.'
She wasn't on the Asphodel, uncle.'
'Then how did you come to be drowning together?
Did she drop from the clouds?'
We were not together. She could never have
passed through such an ordeal as that awful fire. We
picked her up here, in the Bay of Biscay, not many
miles from the French coast, off Rochelle, or there-
abouts. How she came there is a strange story, and
I shall want your advice. She shall tell it you her-
self.' _

And about your own rescue, my boy. I can hardly
believe it yet, the news was so positive. There were
no others saved. I saw one of the poor creatures that
came home. I have seen a good many pitiable Bights,
but that beat them all; they had nearly eaten one
another-'
can guess they had; I heard of it afterwards.
Poor fellows, poor fellows!'
There was a woman amongst them.'
'Horrible! Alive P

She came ashore alive. All was being done for
her that could be done, when I heard anything about
her last; but the papers said that she was almost too
far gone for there to be any hope. They all said
positively that you must have been one of those on
board when the ship blew up. One of them knew
your name and remembered you quite well.'
'I was on board,' Cuthbert said, shivering at the
memory of that awful moment. They were quite
right; I was standing with the captain when we were
whirled up, up; and then- Well, then I re-
membered no more till I woke up in the hospital at
Cadiz, No. 25, whom no oneknew. I might have been
there now but for Tregellis ; he fetched me out and
brought me home in the Christabel. We caw) right
through the storm of the night before last, and in the
midst of it we found my Helen.'
We will write to her friends, my boy; they must
be dreadfully anxious about her. By the way I am
almost sure I heard a report she was missing. I may
be mixing up things, but it seems to me that some-
body told me that Jarvis said so. How glad he will
be.'

—.Don't telegraph to day, uncle,' Cuthbert said;
'wait till you have heard what she has to tell you. I
think it would be advisable to let them think she is
dead a little longer if they really do think so.'
lou shall do as you like, of course, or rather as
she likes. Yes, we are quite ready, Talbot,' as the
servant appeared at the door to tell them dinner
was served. How is Miss Ramsay? have you
heard?'
'The young lady, sir?'
Yes.'

'She is much better. She sent down to say that if
you would excuse her, she would rather not dine; she
feels a little upset still, but she will be quite ready to
see you after dinner. The lady's maid says she is
quite comfortable.'
There's a fillip to your appetite, my boy,' Mr.
Ingram said, linking his arm in his nephew's and lead-
ing him downstairs. It was a lucky thought of your
seagoing friend to bring you here. There must have
been a dispensation in it, as the pious people say.
There isn't a warmer-hearted man in office anywhere
than Hansard, and you wouldn't have met me if you
had been put ashore at any other place. What made
you choose Havre?'
I had no choice; it was the place easiest to bring
the Christabel to, I believe. Tregellis knows the
consals at most of the places along the coast. He goes
to them all with his little schooner, the Mary Jane. It
was Kismet, uncle, and nothing else, that brought us
to this place.'
It was a truly hospitable house that the wanderers
had been received in, and Cuthbert was made to feel
himself quite at home; and when Mrs. Hansard
summoned him after dinner to see Helen, he felt as if
he had been ashore a long time, and as if the perils of
the burning ship, and the more recent storm were
things of long ago.
Helen's swoon had given way under the kind atten-
tions of her new friends. Carefully tended and laid
in a soft bed, she soon forgot her troubles in a calm
sleep; and when she was arrayed in fresh clothing
belonging to her hostess, and a soft white dressing
gown, with her magnificent hair once more brushed
and glossy, she felt, like Cuthbert, as if all the
terrible past had been a dream, and she was only just
awaking.
She was taken out into Mrs. Hansard's dressing
room and bidden to make herself comfortable.
No one shall molest you, dear,' the good lady said:
and we will send you up some dinner, and then you
will be able to see the gentlemen and talk to them
about what you want done. They will telegraph to
your friends for you.'
No! oh no I' Helen said hastily to Mrs. Hansard's
amazement. Ido not want any one to know where
I am, just yet; not till I am quite sure.'
' Sure of what, my dear? I beg your pardon,
should not have asked you any questions, perhaps. '
'Oh yes, it is notbing, only I would rather they did
not know yet; there are reasons, I will explain. I
have had a terrible shock, and--'
There, there, my dear, don't talk about it,' the
kindly lady said. You know your own affairs, of
course. Don't worry about anything; things will
come right. You were not saved to be troubled.'
And she stooped and kissed the pale face, for Helen's
pretty colour had not come back to her since the day
of her adventure with Horace Gayford, and her hur-
ried flight from Ardennes Villa.
'I should be very ungrateful to be worried now,'
she said gently. 'What can I say or do to thank you
for all your kindness?'
Eat a good dinner, and be bright when your
friends come up to see you,' Mrs. Hansard said, and
hurried away to head her table and chat to her guests,
leaving Helen to the care of her maid, and the comfort
of her cosy dressing-room. Presently, when her
dinner was finished, there came a knock at the door,
and Cuthbert and his uncle entered in obedience to
her answer.
Mr. Ingram was quite startled at her beauty. She
had looked handsome when she was standing in the
office all dishevelled, f for the means of dressing her
hair on board the Christabel had not been of the
easiest, and her clothes had been soaked with water,
and were rough-looking, and in sad disarray. He saw
her now carefully dressed and surrounded by pretty
things, and she seemed to be in her .right place. He
stooped and kissed her forehead with an old man'd
freedom.
I have heard of you, my dear,' he said. 'lt was
you who 'sent my boy, here, across the sea; he told
me-so,, if not in words, by implication; and I think I
liked him all the better for going.'
I did not. know,' Helen said, blushing rosy red now,
and Mr. Ingram patted her on the shoulder.
'I think you did, my dear,' he said; you guessed,
it. It was the only thing he could do, and if he had
died out there, without overseeing me again, I should;
have known that he had done what an honourab4
gentleman should, and run away from temptation. He
is si orthy of you, child; and Heaven has brought/
you together at last in a fashion that makes you more
one than anything else could have done.'
She bent her head, end be saw that the tears -weret
flowing under her clasped hands. -
I want to hear everything,' he said. 'I hardly
understand yet what has brought you to this pass.
I thought you were safe with my sister. Was she not
kind to you?'
Kind? Ay, yes. I love her like a mother; she is
iust what I have always imartined a mother must be,'