The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1884-05-17

Cors-y-Gedol Hotel, while at the Red Goat
close by, Sir Thomas Jellicoe and Vivian
occupied rooms on the first floor and Mr..
Rhodes had bedroom on the third
In the course of that afternoon Miss
Martha Marrable, accompanied by her
nieces, and followed at respectful dis
tance by the two maids, walked in the sun
shine upon the hard sands that stretch, for
| do not know how many hundred yards at
low water, between the rocky hills behind
the little town and the margin of Cardigan
Bay. The weather was hot and sultry, and
the unrippled sea looked like molten lead
in the glare Much exercise was therefore
out of the question, and ere long the three
ladies sat down on the seaward side of a
rush-grown sand-hill to read, leaving the
two maids to stroll further if they chose to
do so, and to explore at their leisure the
unaccustomed wonders of the sea-shore.
4 Miss Martha, having arranged her sun
shade to her satisfaction, opened a little
volume on s.The Rights of the Slaves of
England, y while Lucy devoted herself to
one of 0uida's novels, and Amy plunged
1 deep INTO Keats In five minutes "The
Rig hts of the Slaves of England" fell heav-
lily to the sand, and in three minutes more
Miss Marrable was emitting sounds which,
but that | know her to be woman who
has no weakness, | should call snores.
From that moment Lucy and Amy, as if
by common consent, read no more.
'Lucy,' said Amy mysteriously to her
cousin, Il have seen him.
$50 have l, " said Lucy.
"What a curious coincidence y
"Not at all. He told me that he intend
ed to follow u.s.
"What! Vivian told you p
"Oh no! Bother Vivian You are
always thinking of Vivian. mean Rob
ert"
"He here, too" exclaimed Amy. 81
meant Vivian, | saw him half an hour
ago with his father
"Well, l advise you not to let Aunt Mar
tha know too much, said Lucy. eff she
suspects anything she will take us back to
London this afternoon.
Miss Marrable murmured uneasily in her
sleep. A fly had settled on her chin.
'tHush !" exclaimed the girls in unison,
and then they were silent.
Not long afterward they caught sight Of
two young men who were walking arm in
arm along the sand, couple of hundred
yards away.
''Look There they are y whispered
Lucy. AUNT must not see them. We
must 90 and warn them And, stealthily
accompanied by her cousin, she crept away
from Miss Marrable and ran toward the
approaching figures.
1 need not describe the greetings that
ensued Such things are the commonplaces
of seaside encounters between young men
and young women who have ikings for
each other, and they have been described a
thousand times. Suffice it to say that, a
few minutes later, Lucy and Robert were
sitting togething under the shadow of
bathing machine, while Amy and Vivian
were confdentially talking nonsense dozen
yards off More than half an hour elapsed
ere the girls returned to Miss Marrable, but
fortunately the excellent spinster was still
murmuring sleepily at the fly on her chin;
and when she awoke she had no suspicion
that she had been deserted by her charges.
As she walked back with them to the hotel,
nevertheless, as if with strange intuitive
comprehension of danger in the air, she
held forth to them upon her faYoFite topic
the unfathomable hasepess of man-and
gravely warned them against ever allowing
themselves even for single moment to en-
tertain any feeling, save one Of polite aver
sion, to the hated sex.
Thus matters went on for a week or
more, Lucy and Amy meeting their lovers
every day in secret and Miss Marrable sus-
pecting nothing. Although she knew Sir
Thomas ,Iellicoe and his son, she treated
them, whenever she encountered them,
with such freezing courtesy that they did
not seek her society. AS for Robert Rhodes,
she did not know him, and he therefore es-
capped her lofty sights.
But in due time crisis arrived; and in
order that the full bearings of the situation
may be properly understood, must briefly
explain the characters of Miss Martha Mar
rabies undutiful nieces.
Lucy Larkspur has but little romance in
her composition; she has strong feelings,
but not much sentiment; and she is one of
those girls who are perfectly open with
their hearts. She loved Robert Rhodes,
and, as she knew quite well that he also
loved her, she made no secret to him of her
affection for him. Amy Allerton, on the
other hand, is, and always has been, senti-
mentally inclined. She bc!icY25, rightly
or wrongly, that 1t is a very charming
thing to
"Let concealment like a worm the bud,
Feed on her daInask cheek"
and she would as soon have thought or
permitted Vivian Jellicoe to think that
she loved him as of attempting to win and
WOO the Sultan of Turkey. The conse-
quence was that Miss Marrable, who fondly
imagined that she knew all the thoughts of
her elder niece, trusted her much more
than she trusted her younger. She re-
garded Lucy as an open book that might
be easily read, and Amy as kind of ora
cular voice that, while saying or appearing
to say one thing might mean exactly the
opposite, Miss Marrable was destined to
discover that she was to some extent wrong
in her estimate, so far, at all events, as
Lucy was concerned, aud her discovery of
her error was, | grieve to say, accompanied
by good deal of pain and modification.
Ten days had passed, and the two pairs
of lovers had made considerable progress.
Amy, it is true, had not declared herself
to Vivian, who, being bashful young
man, had, perhaps, not pressed her sufi.
ciently; but Lucy and Robert understood
one another completely, and were secretly
engaged to get married at the earliest op-
portunity. Vivian's bashfulness could not,
however, endure for an unlimited time.
One morning he and Amy found them
selves together on the rocks behind the
town, and, the opportunity being favorable,
he screwed up his courage, told her that
he had never loved any one but her, and
obtained coyly given promise that she