Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-05-04
Miss Marrable murmured uneasily in


her sleep. A fly had settled on her chin.
''Hush.'' exclaimed the girls in unison,
and then they were silent.
I Not long aiterward they caught sight OF
two young men who We're walking arm IN
arm along the sand, couple OF hundred
yards away
Look. There they arer' whispered
Lucy. Aunt must not see them. We
must go and warn them" And, stealthily,
accompanied by her cousin, she crept
. away from Miss Marrable and ran toward
the approaching figures.
l need not describe the greetings that
ensued. Such things are the common
places Of seaside encounters between
Z young men and young women who have
hkings Tor each other. and they have been
described thousand times. Suffice it to
to say that. few minutes later, Lucy and
Robert were sitting together under the
/ shadow OF bathing machine, while Amy
/ and Vivian were cOnhdentially talking
/ nonsense dozen yards off. More than
hall an hour elapsed ere the girls returned
10 MISS Marrable; but fortunately the eX-
| cellent 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 a strange intui-
tive comprehension of danger in the air,
[ t0plc1the unfathOmable baseness of man
and grayely warned them against ever
allowing themselves even for a single mo-
ment to entertain any feeling, save one of
i polite aversion, TO the hated sex.
Thus matters went on for a week or
more, Lucy and Amy meeting their lovers
I every day in secret and Miss Marrabe
suspecting nothing. Although she knew
sir Thomas JellicOe and his son, she treat
ed them, whenever she encountered them,
4 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
1 order that the full bearings of the situa-
4 ton may be properly understood, l must
] briefly explain the characters of Miss Mar
/ tina Marrable's undutiful nieces.
Lucy Larkspur has but little romancein
1 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,
4 and, as she knew quite well that he also
/ loved her, she made no secret to him of
I her affection for him. Amy AIlertOn, on
/ the other hand, is, and always has been,
/ sentmentally inclined. She believes,
I rightly or wrongly, that it is a very charm
/ ing thing to
Let concealment, like a worm i the bud,
Feed on her damask cheek"
4 and she would as soon have thought of
permitting 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 fopdIy
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 a kind Of
oracular voice that, While saying or ap-
pearlng to say one thing, might mean eX-
/ actly the opposite. Miss Marrable was
I destined to discover that she was to some
extent wrong in her estimate, so far, at
| all events, as Lucy was concerned, and
her discOveryiOf her error was, [ grjeve 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 a bashtul young
man, had, perhaps, not pressed her suffi-
GENTLY; but Lucy and Robert understood
one another completely. and were secretly
engaged to get married at the earliest op-
portunity. Nivian's bashfulness could
not, however, endure for an unlimited
! time. One morning he and Amy found
themselves together on the rocks behind
the town, and, the opportunity being ia
vOrable, he screwed up his courage, told
her that he had never loved any one but
her, and obtained a cOyly given promise
that she would be his.
Natures like Amy's, when they once
take fire, often burn rapidly. On Monday
she became engaged to Vivian Jellicoe;
on Tuesday Vivian begged her to name a
day for the wedding and she refused; aud
on Wednesday Vivian, knowing the pc
culiar sentiments Of Miss Martha Maria
bic, and doubtful also, perhaps, whether
his father would not throw Impediments
in the way OF his early marriage, proposed
an elOpement, and Amy, with some besi-
tation, consented.
When she returned from her secret meet /
ing with her lover, she, of course, cOnfded
her plan to her cousin. ''HOw foolish you
are" said Lucy; 'you know that your
father would not have you do that for the
world; and you Will make an enemy of
Aunt Martha, who is like a mother to us
girls"
'But she would never agree to our mar
rying if we consulted her" objected Amy;
''and il she knew anything of our plans l
am sure that she would manage to frus-
trate them. She is a dear old thing, but
Well, she is peculiar ON those points,"
81 have told you what l think" said
Lucy, with an assumption of wisdom that
was perhaps warranted by her superior
age. Don't be foolish"
But Amy was already beyond the influ-
ence of counsel She persisted in her in-
tention, and even claimed Lucy's sympa-
thy and assistanc 3, which, Of course, Lucy
could not ultimately withhold.
Ere an elopement can be successfully
carried out, in the face especially of the
jealous watchfulness of a man-hating
spinster lady of middle age, numerous
preparations have to be made; and, in the
case of Vivian and Amy, the making Of
these preparations involved correspond
ence Amy, therefore, bribed one of her ]
aunt's maids to act as a go-between; and
the maid in question, with a fidelity that
is rare, and at the same time a treacf err
that, | fear, is common in her kind,
promptly carried Vivian's first letter to
her mistress.
Miss Martha Marrable, without scruple,
tore open the envelope and angrIly perused
its contents. "My own Amy" ran the
audacious communication-''letu us settle,
then, to 90 on Wednesday. Anime O'Clock
in the evening a carriage and pair shall
be ready to take US to Harlech, where YOU
can stay for the night with the JOneses,
who are old friends of ours; and on Thurs
day by midday we shall be married, and,
l trust, never afterward parted again.
We can arrange the details between this
and then. But write and tell me that you
agree. Your ever devoted VIVIAN"
CHAPTER II.
Miss Marrable, who. when she received
this love letter, was sitting in her bed
room, was thunderstruck. At first she
thought of going to Amy and charging
her with baseness and ingratitude; but,
after some reflection, she decided to let
matters for the time at least take their