Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-08-14
CHAPTER xxx.
A woMAN's VOICE BRINGS TO HAROLD a
nREAM OF TILE p .Sr


hailed with satisfaction. The prevailing
thought with regard to him was, "We
have bad enough of strangers. This ex-
preston of feeling concerned neither Evan
geline nor Margaret Sylvester, two of the
three strangers living on the isle. 1t
touched only Rant the hunehback
A week after the exchange of the letters
between Mauvain and the islanders, Har-
old-he and Mauvain being still on board
ship-said to Mauvain
''I sigh for mother earth this monotony
of rest, this eternal rocking to and fro, is
sapping the very foundations of my being "
1, too am weary of it." said Mauvan
Let us impart variety into the hours /;
we will go ashore.
81 do not stir from the ship until my
house is ready to receive me.
(Which according to reckoning am
becoming quite nautical in my expressions
will not be for many days yet l cannot
endure this uneventful routine any longer;
shall pay my respects to the soil. Ac-
company me in disguise, and we will seek
adventure. No? Mauvain, your name is
consistency. Well, must go alone. You
will see me again in the evening. Intrust
me with commission.
"Ascertain for me, if you can, the exact
day upon which this family of the Sylves-
tiers will oblige me by quitting my house,
and if in gentle way you can intimate to
them that they are tagging somewhat and
are thereby entailing discomfort upon me,
shall not object You may say to them,
if you please, in the event of their show
ing a disposition to condemn me to these
planks for longer time than is absolutely
necessary, that l should regret to be COM
PEELED to enforce my rights"
"By force, Mauvain ?"
''If necessary"
cit would be neither prudent nor agree
able to adopt such course. l should adj
wise you not to attempt it.
81 am accustomed to take my own ad-
vice, and shape my own course, Harold. +"
81 know it, Mauvain. Forgive me for
supposing it possible you could ever be in
error. Adieu till evening"
1t was noon when he left the ship. and
night before he returned.
Mauvain, waiting on deck for his friend,
greeted him immediately with the ques-
ton:
How were you received
ga moment, Mauvain. 1 am really, in
my idle way, full of news, but it must
iltrate slowly, my mind being dilatory.
You have wine there" Harold filed a
large glass, and emptied it at draught.
''Nectar Life is worth having"
Have You not eaten since you left the
ship?"
"a little. l asked for fruit, and they
gave it to me; but they did not give it
without the asking; and only one man
invited me to his house This cigar, Maui
vain, has a delicious flavor Life is a
precious gift. 1 foresee more unlikely
things than that l should become the
grossest of materialists. How was | re-
ceived? Variously. By some who did
not know me I was looked upon, 1 think,
as a curiosity. Our friends yonder are not
accustomed to fine gentlemen.
4 am beginning to alter my opinion of
them 1t may be nearer the mark to say
that they are not accustomed to gentlemen.
A distinction with difference"
Decidedly; but prefer my own words
in this instance, for 1 am not at all certain
that the Silver Isle is without specimens
of the gentleman, pure and simple-as in
sober truth he ought to be. l have seen
to-day men whose manners would not dis
grace court, men whose stateliness was
natural Their dignity becomes them the
better because, in my inexperienced eyes,
it lacks artifciality.'
"Ah. I have sometimes thought that
you were better fitted for the grove than
the court"
"If that be so, shall be here in my
element To nearly every person l met on
the isle l was stranger, and as l have
said, 1 was regarded as curiosity. It
might pay US, Mauvain, to exhibit our
selves in cages.
''Is it possible, Harold, for you to speak
seriously for three consecutive minutes q
81 do not know I have never tried.
Anything in the shape of effort is emf
nently distasteful to me. When have a
thing to tell, must tell it my own way.
Among the strangers on the isle there were,
perhaps, a dozen men and women who had
a remembrance of me. One or two Of
these, recognizing me, smiled, and then
checked their smiles the others, recogniz-
ing me, frowned, and did not check their
frowns. It set me thinking little
asked for Father Sebastian he is dead.
So, there l found myself stranger, in a
land of strangers, and impressed with the
distressing conviction that with the men
and women OF the isle l was failure.
But happily for me there are children in
the world. Mauvain, have always been
successful with children, and those met
on the Silver Isle won my heart, as l may
say without vanity won theirs.
cit is not difficult to believe, Harold
You have a sunny manner, and even The
wise are compelled to overlook your fault,
when they come in contact with you.
myself, having in your absence been angry
with you for some trihing matter, hav,
forgotten my anger when you have APP
peared. You possess a charming magnet
ism, Harold.
'You are graciousness itself. But l an
afraid that l am not magnetic to the seri
ous-minded when they and / come int
contact it is / who am magnetized. There