Worcester morning daily spy. (Worcester, Mass.) 1888-1898, 1898-01-23
A SEA-NYMPI4.
BY JUSTIN MCCARTHY.
Author of Dear Lady Disdain' Red
Diamonds" Maid of Athens"
"Glenora's Marriage"
"Myra," Etc.
BY JUSTIN MCCARTHY.
(Copyr.ght.)

uOuS energy. 80, AT ledssl, an leE Yuma
women friends said, most Of whom dis
played an energy far more tremendou:
in going the round of the London sea
son, and who could have run her off hei
feet in a mere fortnight of small ant
early dances. When there was M
amusement going on, most of her WON
en- friends had an unconquerable desire
to be doing nothing in particular. Blu
Linda could never be at rest She was
not, to use the American phrase, built
that way" She always wanted TO be
doing good, or trying to do good FOL
somebody or other. She must have hac
what great statesman ascribed to an
other great statesman, "a passion OF
philanthropy" She made sad mistakes
sometimes: she helped the wrong PEG
pie. she was imposed upon by shams
and humbugs; she missed thereby man!
a chance of doing good; but her purpose
all the same fixed and unchangeaole
was a resolve at least to try and DC
good. She was an heiress and very
self-willed heireSs at that. living WITH
a stately old aunt in a west-end London
square, and she had lately been uefl
some considerable property IN the south
coast village of RoXburgh-on-Sea. Linda
was a young woman Of twenty-five
tall. supple and handsome. In being
tail she was emphatically girl of to-
day, when the audacious girls are grow
ing to be on an average considerably
taller than the men. Linda maintained
that the mere fact in itself showed the
deliberate intention of nature that the
women should gradually come to be
much taller than the men, and, in fact,
to guide from their superior height the
movement of social life. Yet she never
took any pains about the enforcement
of women's rights, and always pleaded
that she had enough to do in trying to
help women to get through their duties.
She was fond of riding and hunting and
swimming. and she took to the bicycle,
but chiefly as a means of enabling her
TO get through her round of visits AT
the houses of the poor. It would be
needless to say that when Linda Weston
found herself the owner of property IN
Roxburgh-on-Sea she hurried to the
spot without her aunt, and accompa-
MED only by her faithful maid, and set
tied herself down in the principal motel
in the place. 1t was just at the OPEN
ing of the season, and she fondly be-
lieved that this healthful seaside resort
would afford her fresh and limitless
means of doing good to her poorer
brothers and sisters in humanity.
Linda, of course, knew all the fash
ionable watering places by heart. She
was familiar with Brighton and Flolke-
stone and Eastbourne. She had talked
with painters at Whitby. and explored
ruins at Scarborough, and delighted in
the Valley of Rocks at Lynton. But in
all these places she was an outsider, a
passing visitor, who had no claim on
the locality and no proprietorial right tc
try to do any good there. But in Rox-
Ourgh-on-Sea, she thought, as she sped
along in the train towards that invit-
ing spot, she would be sort of land
owner, a kind of little queen in her own
right, with the privilege to make all hel
subjects happy in her own way. She
had always thought of a watering place
as conglomeration of rich visitors and
prosperous tradesmen who lived on the
rich visitors, and bands and piers and
niger MINISTRIES, and Woodworking
boatmen and a considerable mass OF
neglected poor. She longed to be min
istering to the comfort, the instruction
and the elevation of the poor at R-oX-
burgh-on-Sea.
Only a day was needed to show hel
how badly she had chosen her ground
or rather how badly good for
tune most persons would have called il
had chosen her ground for her wher
making her an owner of property il
RoXburgh-on-Sea. In that happy wa
tering place there were absolutely nc
poor. There were practically no poor
rates. There were very few boatmen
and those who were there were fisher
men by profession as well, and made
a very decent living for their families.
There were no niger minstrels-no, not
one. There were two streets of shops
in the place, and the shops were all do
ing a good business, owing to the fact
that large number of wealthy people
lived within easy distance of the town,
and that the season always brought
with it q goodly crowd of well-to-do and
fastidious visitors, who came there for
just the reason which, if she had known
it. would have kept Linda out of the
place-that there was no pauperism to
be encountered in their wanderings by
the seashore. Linda, in fact, had
come, if we may say so, to the wrong
shop. 1t was as if some good Samari-
tan had, by mistaken waste of energy
made his way to q road where there
never was traveller and never was a
robber.
The first visitor who called on Linda
was Captain Gerald Craven. Captain
Craven might be strictly described as
an official visit, for he was the agent
of the great landowners whose prop
erty covered nearly the whole of Rox-
burgh-on-Sea, and as soon as he heard
Of the arrival of Miss Weston, he felt
bound to call upon her at once, al
though he promised himself little per-
sonal pleasure by the visit. For some
reason or other, he had got it into his
mind that Miss Weston must be an ell
derby person--not to say an old person
and he had also convinced himself in
advance, and without any evidence
whatever to go upon, that Miss Weston
would burden him with suggestions and
advice having for their object the
screwing of more money out of the local
tenants. Now, in the first instance
Captain Gerald Craven was handsome
young man, fond of bright society, and
he did not much care about old women,
ing, he preferred women to be young. In
the next place he believed that he had a
positive genius for the management OF
the Roxburgh estate. and he did not
think there was an old woman in the
world who could give him any hints on
that subject worthy of his considera-
ton. Therefore. when. on sending VI
his card at the hotel, ne was shown 10
Miss Weston's sitting room and saw
Miss Weston herself. he was greatly in
clned to stammer out something about
having expected to see her mother OF
her aunt However the mutual intro
auctions We're arranged satisfactorily
and Captain Craven soon made up his
mind that, on the whole, he would
rather discuss even the screwing-ur
rent question with Miss Weston than
with her aunt, her mother or her grand
mother.
Miss Weston plunged at once into hel
favorite subject for the present
20 Captain Cravenl" she exclaimed
II am so disappointed with your Rox-
burgh-on-Seav
why not say your Roxburgh-on-Sea
Miss Weston" he answered with 6
smile. You own some part of it, at all
events and | don't own any of it,