The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-03-03
LADY ADELAIDE.
A STUDY.
BY L. B. WALF0RD,

'Miladi knows de stairshonH" suggested
Jeannette, doubtfully.
"Stoke Ferrington, my good girl.
Stoke Pennington is our station, you
know-our station at home. We have
only to get there, and the carriage will
meet us"
"The carriage, miladi"
''Oh, we'll, good Robinson will send
us up his comfortable fly. Or Mr.. Tres
ham will drive down in the dog-cart.
Poor dearl of course he will be there to
meet us--that il, if he knows we are
coming"
"Miiadi has then sent the message?"
"Have l sent 1t? Yes--no-I really
forget, and it does not signify. / dare
say he would never get it if did, or
read it if he cot it. No, Marshall, no;
thank you for reminding me, but l pre-
fer not to senp one. would not have
them troubled on any account at such
time. Mr.. Tfesham. will have quite
enough to think of, and it might be in
convenient to send. No, Move shall get
OIL very we'll. Jeanette, there is no
need for more. Let us take the least
possible luggage we can. Why take any?
Would not Il carpet-bag be sufficient-a
carpet-bag which you could hang on
your arm2 Well, we'll, but let there be
little as possible. No evening dresses, no
other bonnet. And now, Jeanette, my
mantle. What comforts these fur-lined
mantels are, to be sure! All! if dear
Elizabeth had only worn one of these;
but it is too late to regret it now. Has
Marshall ordered the cab? Bun and see,
Jeannette-quickl The time is flying,
and cabs go SO slowly. Yet I could not
take our own poor horses out on such a
day. What, not come? Marshall must
send--it is come? Then let lis be off at
once, at once"
In vain Sir Walter murmured his dis
approval-less urgently, indeed, now that
j his personal comfort was no longer inter
fered with, but still in uncompromising
agents. The front door opened, and
out she sailed-her long dress, although
on one side held up high enough to do
duty for both, trailing far behind her on
the other, her hands encountered with
Muff, purse and satchel.
"Now, my good man, I'll give you
double fare if you take us in time for the
twelve o'clock train. The twelve o'clock
train to Stoke Ferrington, mind-not
the London twelve o'clock express
tramp
GAN right, ma'am. I'll do it if it can
be DONE" said the man, resolutely, cast
ing about in his mind for some round
about streets in which he could spin ont
out the time.
'Ts it a block, Jeannette. Look out
and see. What shall we do if it is a
blockT
The station, in spite of all strategy,
was reached 50 soon, that Lady Adelaide.
forgetting that Brighton is not London,
could hardly be persuaded to believe
otherwise than that a mass of vehicles
obstructed her path, when. the halt was
made at last.
The cabman, however, got his double
fare, and she had now the difficulties of
the ticket-office to encounter.
But those difficulties had loomed so
eigantically before the eyes of the house
hold in B. Square, that Marshall
himself, the magnificent Marshall, had
run round through the snowy, slushy
Streets, to save his poor, foolish, kind
mistress from a hopeless tangle of con-
fusion.
He should have been on the box-seat
of the cab, of course, but my lady had
actually driven off whilst he was filling
for her the flask of her traveling-bag,
which she had only produced at the. last
moment. He was at the station before
her, flask in hand. My lady was quite
touched; and it never occurred to her to
wonder that Marshall should, on his feet,
have preceded her indomitable driver
with his cab.
She was safely seen into disengaged
carriage, presented with her tickets,
which Marshall Kept his eye upon, until
they were safely slowed away in the
satehel; and then, he thought, with Jean
nette by her side, she might be brought
! through; though it was not without a
uualm that the worthy major-domo saw
the train depart.
Faster and faster fell the snow.
Ridges formed upon the windows of the
railway carriages; and between the fakes
which settled on the panes, and slowly
melting trickled down outside, and the
steam arising from the warmer atmos.
phen within, the country through which
the travellers passed was almost invisible
A to them.
] The hot-water pans rapidly cooled.
q Every time door was opened, came a
\ blast of air so chill, so withering, that
the passengers wrapped in their thickly-
4 folded rugs, shuddered from head to foot.
h Guards and porters, with snow-tipped
hats and shoulders, blue faces, red noses,
watery eyes and palsied hands, struggled
with their duties. Travellers, either
muffled to the ears in Ulster coats and
comforters, or equally swell shrouded
in seal skin and Shetland wells, sought
the shelter as haven Of refuge.
How dismal, how cross they looked.
There was the burly middle-aged man
with snow on his whiskers, the soldier
with ice on his moustache, the schoolgirl
with thin kid gloves, the school-boy with