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"If I could only slide down into her, an' nick off to the old Alvina over there, I'd be home before breakfast," he said. "Me people live at Queenscliff don't it seem a fair cow to have to go past 'em, right up to Melbourne?" The pilot's head appeared above on the bridge, beside the captain's, and presently the Nauru gathered way, and, slowly turning, forged through the tossing waters of the Rip.
I was conceited enough to imagine that Miss Alvina, and her vis-a-vis, Miss Car'line, did not look altogether unfriendly; but the handsome face and magnificent curls of the young hunter were beside me; and it was no use taking the field against such a rival. I was not jealous of him, however, nor he of me.
And afterwards, when submitting to the ignominious punishment, with his flesh lacerated by the scourge, no groan escaped his lips that might reach the listening ear of Alvina. He bore it all with Spartan firmness.
Alvina was tranquillized at once by the evident sincerity of the assurance. "You are alone now in the world," pursued the stranger "I strove to save your bridegroom, but he fell before I reached him." "I loved him not," answered Alvina, coldly; "I mourn him not."
"Say you so?" shouted the Cossack. "Then thou art mine mine and forever joy of my youth blessing of my manhood!" "Yes, thine thine only." "But bethink thee, sweetest," said the Cossack; "I lead a strange wild life." "I will share it with thee," said Alvina, firmly. "My companions are rude men." "I shall see only thee." "My home is the saddle, my palace the wide steppe."
By the glances occasionally cast towards him, from the opposite end of the table, I could perceive that "Miss Alvina" and "Miss Car'line" were not insensible to his attractions. Neither, however, had reason to congratulate herself upon any reciprocity of her favouring glances. The young man either did not observe, or, at all events, took no notice of them.
By this time the court yard of the castle was filled with uproar and turmoil. The clashing of swords was mingled with pistol shots and groans, the shouts of triumph and the shrieks of despair. Alvina, left alone by her father and Radetsky, trembled not at the prospect of approaching death; she felt only joy at her deliverance from the arms of a hated bridegroom.
"You may hate me for the deed," said the stranger, "and I would fain escape that woe; but here I vouch it in the face of heaven, Count Willnitz fell by my hand. My sabre clove him to the teeth. Years had passed, but I could not forget that he once laid the bloody scourge upon my back." "Alexis!" cried Alvina, now recognizing her preserver.
The page is beautiful; they have been thrown much together. Alvina is lonely, romantic " "Enough, enough!" said the count, stamping his foot. "I will watch him. If your suspicions be correct " He paused, and added between his clinched teeth, "I shall know how to punish the daring of the dog. Away!"
This was an old woman who now filled the office of housekeeper, having succeeded to full sway on the death of the countess, the young daughter of the count being unable or unwilling to assume any care in the household. "Well, dame," said the count, pausing in his walk, and confronting the old woman, "how goes it with you, and how with Alvina? Still sorrowing over her mother's death?"
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