United States or British Indian Ocean Territory ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Then she would go back and lo! there prone on the sand, his rough muzzle on Stair's knees, his big brown eyes under shaggy bristles of eyebrow, gazing up into his master's face, lay Whitefoot. Only, such was the fineness of his breeding and the delicacy of his sheep-dog instinct, that he rose instantly when he heard Patsy's returning footsteps, and took himself out of the way.
And when he was come to the stair's foot, he said thus unto him: "Seldius, remember this of Charles the Emperor, when he shall be dead and gone, that him, whom thou hast known in thy time environed with so many mighty armies and guards of soldiers, thou hast also seen alone, abandoned, and forsaken, yea even of his own domestical servants, &c.
"King's Mountain has begun the good work, and we shall show Farmer George a thing or two he had not guessed." On this, my lady drew herself up most proudly and her lip curled. "You forget, sir, you are speaking to Mr. Gilbert Stair's daughter." "True," said I; "I did forget. We are at cross purposes in this, as in all things else. I crave your pardon, Madam." Her eyes were snapping by now.
Your guard will give you time and opportunity to execute a quitclaim in Mr. Stair's favor." "Is that all?" I asked. "No; after that our ways must lie apart or yours and Margery's, at all events. Give me your word of honor that you relinquish any claim you have, or think you have, upon her, and I pass this letter on to the ensign." "And if I refuse?"
Having done all I had hoped to do, there was nothing for it now but to wait upon the consequences. So, hitching my chair up to the oaken table, I made a pillow of my fettered wrists and presently fell adoze. I know not what hour of the night it was when the half-blood Scipio, who was Mr. Gilbert Stair's body-servant, came in and roused me.
Joseph was in great trouble because he had not been allowed to accompany his master to his hiding-place, but he retained his self-respect and kept himself so fine that his black court-dress and immaculate white cravat made a blur before Stair's eyes in the upward phosphorescent shining of the sea.
That had been, and was still, Stair's fine idea; but D'Ahremberg had disapproved the methods. D'Ahremberg, it seems, is rather given to opposing Stair; and there rise uncertainties, in this Pragmatic Army: certain only hitherto the Magazine in Hanau. The old Kur-Mainz, namely, had just died; and there was a new "Chief Spiritual Kurfurst" to be elected by the Canons there.
Meantime the preparations for the marriage of young Baldoon with Lord Stair's daughter went on apace. The bride showed no active dislike to the bridegroom her parents had provided, but behaved as a mere lay figure on which wedding garments were fitted, and which received with cold unresponsiveness all the attentions of the man who was to be her husband.
It may be imagined what sort of lodging much of it was; mere closets for ladies of quality, a landing at a stair's head curtained off for gentlemen. My master was offered a couple of rooms under the roof for himself, myself and Beauvais. Count Saxe responded that he was not a snail, and required a lodging somewhat larger than himself.
His collar, duly charged with Jean's letter, was tied in the bundle along with the ex-spy's clothes, and would be put upon him after the moorland winds had dried the mane of hair about his neck. "To Jean you hear, Whitefoot to Jean!" And Whitefoot leaped up to lick Stair's face in token of complete understanding. It was not a long swim, and the pair took the water at the very height of the tide.
Word Of The Day