United States or Brunei ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Thomasson pause; he could have done with Gretna which Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act had lately raised to importance or Berwick, or Harwich, or Dover. But Bristol had a grisly sound. From Marlborough it lay no more than forty miles away by the Chippenham and Marshfield road; a post-chaise and four stout horses might cover the distance in four hours.
At ten o'clock next morning, Simpson, his voice all broken, his old eyes filled with tears, dashed into Captain Hardwicke's office. "Dead?" cried the young soldier, springing up in a sudden horror. "No. Gone over night both the women God knows where, but they left secretly, by the Master's orders!" And then Hardwicke sank back into his chair with a groan.
When the Calcutta train rolled into Allahabad, two days after Harry Hardwicke's crushing surprise, Major Alan Hawke, the very pink of Anglo-Indian elegance, awaited the dismounting of the returning voyagers. He had passed a whole sleepless night in revolving the various methods to play oft each of his wary employers against each other, and had decided to let Fate make the game.
Hardwicke's successor, Lord Northington, was the first of a line of port-wine-drinking judges that may at the present time be fairly said to have come to an end although a few reverend fathers of the law yet remain, who drink with relish the Methuen drink when age has deprived it of body and strength.
After an inspection of that little town, the party started for Wimpole, and on arriving at the House in the Fields the Queen's escort of Scots Greys filed off at Lord Hardwicke's request, their places being taken by a troop of the Whittlesea Yeomanry Cavalry, the Lord-Lieutenant roundly declaring that 'the county cavalry was well able to guard her Majesty so long as she might stay in Cambridgeshire. On the following day Lord Hardwicke gave a dinner in honour of her Majesty, followed by a ball, of which the Queen makes mention in her letter, to which three hundred guests were invited.
Invoices to you to be signed by him. Property to be sent down in sealed pay-chests, with your seal and Major Hardwicke's. Report compliance, and telegraph in cipher No. 2 Hardwicke's departure for Calcutta. Special transportation has been ordered." "There, my boy, you have your orders!" an hour later said General Willoughby when Major Hardwicke reported.
Captain Hardwicke's argus eyes, love inspired, were now daily fixed on the marble house. He scoured Delhi and amassed a pyramid of detached fragmentary gossip in all his alarm, but one star of hope cheered him.
There was only a moment of suspense, for the tile was slid aside, and a package was then eagerly clutched. With one mighty leap, the Major bounded to the man's side as the door swung open. The cold steel muzzle pressed the ruffian's temple as Hardwicke's hand closed upon the burglar's throat. There lay the sealed canvas package, covered with official Indian seals.
He made a careful and very studied toilet and sauntered out of the club en flaneur, and then stealthily betook himself to the pagoda in Ram Lal's garden, where his innocent dupe had so often waited for him with a softly beating heart. "I'm glad the girl is gone," mused Alan Hawke. "If she were here, the chorus hymning Hardwicke's perfections might set her young heart on fire."
"The angry old man will keep me away from the girl forever, and the old brute is going to Europe. I have spoiled one game in taking one trick too roughly." Another "late party" was at Major Hardwicke's quarters, where the loyal Simpson related to the lover all the gossip of Johnstone and General Abercromby, over their brandy pawnee and cheroots.
Word Of The Day