the letter, expressive personal regret that been arranged. " I think, Lockwood, that if you can wait a while, we may yet be able to do the BOOK IV. loan for you," wrote young Snowe. " My lOccaaoEl! CHAPTER III, A CLOSE RUN. father is a cautious man, and I believe the I ON the following day Hugli Lockwood fact to be as he asserts, that the present mtering. kj had two surprises. The first was of a very moment is not one in which prudent men disagreeable nature. The second, though it can afford to run any money risks." told th at first appeared to him to be a very simple "Risks!" exclaimed Hugh, contemp­ be "a matter, was of great importance in its re­ tuously. " Risks, to a house like Snowe's ! sults. I believe the old man could put his hand When he reached the office of Digby and in his pocket and pull out the poor little :i- West, at Westminster, he found a letter sum I want, and scarcely miss it !" there addressed to himself. The sight of Then he thought that it was of no use to the Danecester postmark, made his pulse scold or sulk, and resolved to bear his dis­ LB beat a thought quicker as he opened it. appointment manfully. But it was a dis­ It was from Herbert Snowe, and to the appointment, and he worked on with an increasing sense of depression. nOieTi'ljc following effect: Mr. Snowe, senior, regretted that he It often happens that the first shock of jipri«fc: should not be able at present to advance misfortune is far from being the hardest the sum of money Mr. Lockwood had part of it. We take up our burden with desired to borrow of the bank. The present untired muscles, and find it lighter than time was a period of anxiety and uncer­ our fears had anticipated. But with every .midingHE tainty in the money market. Mr. Snowe mile of our journey, the weight grows more did not feel himself justified in entering and more oppressive. into any transaction of the kind contem- Before the time came for him to leave his p ijQf: plated, without better security than could office, a note was brought to him by a ' be offered by Mr. Lockwood's friends. messenger. And this was the second sur­ Mr. Snowe had every confidence in Mr. prise. The note was as follows : Lockwood's being able to find the money Bedford-square, "Wednesday. elsewhere. Meanwhile he begged to assure MY DEAR HUGH, I have got back from 0.W him of his kindest esteem. foreign parts, where I have been very busy Hugh crushed the letter in his hand, all the winter. I should be glad to see and went straight to his own desk, where you, either this afternoon or to-morrow, at lie began to write at a fierce rate. After a my office here, as I have something ad­ few minutes he put down his pen, and took vantageous to communicate to you. I shall up the letter again and read it through be ready for yon at any time between five '} with compressed lips ; the under projecting and six. over the upper, in a way that gave him a Tours always, strong resemblance to his mother. S. FROST. There were a few words at the end of " Something advantageous It will be 0m lr •*»!/ Mja II,' "irHV* 'ar,~i',_ —'- ^«..--^- ••>-'.—-J^= ' •"•'«•'- ir—^-ii-r^-i^nnTJ'^^a -^^i- VOL. III. =4 146 [January ,15, 1870.] ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [Conducted by

very welcome just now," thought Hugh. Mr. Frost pushed the letter and papers But he did not allow himself to be too across the table as he spoke. sanguine; knowing that Mr. Frost's ideas Hugh read them attentively. And then of his advantage were a little at variance raising his eyes to Mr. Frost's face, said, with his own. He sent a line back by the " The offer is a most liberal—I may say an messenger to say that he would be with extraordinarily liberal—one, indeed." Mr. Frost a few minutes after five. And " The fact is that nearly all the power as soon as he left his office, he made for would be in your hands. They have a "big Bedford-square. name on their prospectus to catch the public, Mr. Frost received him in his private of course. But the man with the big name room, with all his accustomed kindness of would be in London. And I dare say manner, and bade him be seated in the would practically trouble himself very little purple leather chair opposite his own. about the works." " Well, Hugh, and how goes on busi­ " But the assistant architect would have ness ? You are still with Digby and West, to reside at Naples ?" I suppose ?" "It is a charming place. One does not " Yes; for the present." get many opportunities of being paid to go " When I went away, yon had some idea and five in sucli a lovely spot. Upon my of leaving them, and setting up for your­ word, I should think a year or so's residence self." at Naples the most tempting part of the " I have the idea still, sir. But it is a business !" mighty difficult idea to carry out." "Not to me, Mr. Frost." "Naturally! And I hope you will do " Well, to be sure, the other advantages nothing rashly. You know the homely are substantially greater." proverb about not throwing away the dirty " They are very great, no doubt. But— water before you have got the clean." the fact is, I cannot avail myself of them." " I shouldn't call Digby and West dirty " My dear Hugh ! You don't mean to water. They have behaved very hand­ say that you will be so But I won't be somely to me. But as to your proverb, if a angry with you. And I won't take you at man were always content to stay as he is, your word. What possible reason can there it would be a poor business for the world in be ap/ainst the scheme ?" general." " I hate to seem so ungracious: un­ "I have not been unmindful of you grateful, I assure you I am not. The truth whilst I have been away, Hugh. I have had is there are several reasons against it, your interests in view. And I come back which all seem good and sufficient to me." empowered to make you an offer." " Might one ask what they are ?" " Thank you, with all my heart, for "It is really not so easy to explain kindly thinking of me." them." " Oh that is nothing. I consider myself " Excuse me, Hugh, but in general when bound—I am your father's old friend, you a man can't explain his reasons, I take it know. There is nothing to thank me for. they are not clear to his own mind ; or else But I hope you will consider my news good that he is ashamed of them." news." " I am certainly not ashamed of mine," " Whatever I think, I shall not be the answered Hugh, good-humouredly. less obliged to you for your good-will." " And you really mean to throw up this Mr. Frost perceived that Hugh was not prospect without more reflection ?" going to bind himself blindfold, to accept "I do not believe that further reflection whatever should be offered him: he saw would alter my intentions. And besides, that there was a quiet preparation on the \ < in know, it would not be fair that I should young man's part for making resistance if hesitate too long. Since it is so desirable resistance should be necessary. a thing, there will doubtless be plenty of "Well, I am commissioned by the candidates for it." Directors of the Parthenope Embellishment "I dare say the position will not go ft- Company, to offer you an engagement aa bagging," answered Mr. Frost, stiffly. assistant architect and surveyor to the " Look here, Mr. Frost. You know thatj works they are employed on, at Naples. am not ungrateful for your kind interest in And. if you will cast your eyes over this me. But I am not a child, ami I nml H letter of the secretary to me, and over these allowed to judge for myself in (his mi papers, I think you will allow that the offer "Oh, certainly!" is not a bad one." "Now you areangry with me. Ami yej

* Charles Dickens.] VERONICA. [January 15,1870.] 147 on my honour I would do almost anything Embellishment can wait that time. Now rather than that you should be. You re­ tell me how is all at home—your mother ?" member that we talked of my prospects, last " My mother is not very well, I fear. year. And I told you then, that I was She does not complain, but I believe she has resolved to endeavour to make a little career been harassed and tried too much. She and home for myself. I am still in the frets more than she ought to fret, about same mind. I believe I am rather a con­ troubles. But yet she is wonderfully placid stant fellow by nature—well, obstinate, if in her manner at most times. Last night, you like ! I see the word in your face. If however, she was ruffled and unlike herself." I am to be in any one's employ, I will "Indeed?" remain with Digby and West. They have "Yes. You know we have had trouble treated me well. And they are safe as in the house, in the death of poor Lady the Bank. This Parthenope Company Tallis ?" offers very magnificently, but it may be all "I heard of her death. It was on the a flash in the pan, you know. These com­ fourth of March, was it not ?" panies sometimes collapse unexpectedly. " Let me see. I think so. Yes." These are reasons that I can explain, you " Had she been ill long ?" see. There are others that I am not at " LT, yes: but not long in apparent liberty to speak of, and that I must ask you danger." to take my word for." "And she died on the eveninp- of the " Hugh, if I guess one of these reasons fourth of March." aright, will you tell me ?" " Morning! On the morning of the " Why, I don't know what to say about fourth." that!" " Oh, morning was it ? Aye, aye. I sup­ " That means that you won't! But I pose her niece was with her to the last ?" can tell you that, last year before I left " By an odd chance, I believe I was the England, I had a conversation with your last person who saw Lady Tallis alive." mother: who foresaw even then, that you " Really ! Then I suppose her death were very likely to lose your heart to a fair took place very early—before you went to young lady." Westminster ?" "Did she, sir?" said Hugh. He was " I did not go to Westminster to my inwardly a good deal surprised that his office that day. I could not leave my mother should have spoken confidentially mother and Maud—Miss Desmond—alone. to Mr. Frost on a subject which she had I had no very special work on hand, and never broached to himself at that time. had taken a few days' leave of absence." " Yes: and I will say candidly that I "I see, I see. Poor Lady Tallis! On then thought that prospect a bad one." Tuesday morning the fourth of March. At " That I should lose my heart to a fair about ten or eleven o'clock, I suppose. You young lady ? After all, it was rather said it was in the forenoon, I think ?" natural!" Hugh could not but be struck by the " I thought at the time that the loss of coincidence of Mr. Frost's harping on the your heart to the special young lady I had particulars of Lady Tallis's death, in the in view, would lead to trouble. But it may same way in which his mother had harped be that I was wrong. To go back for a on them last night. moment to the business I sent for you upon : " Why, Mr. Frost," he said, abruptly, " is am I to understand that your definite it a matter of any importance at what hour answer to the proposition is ' no' ?" Lady Talks died ?" "'No, thank youP at the very least," Mr. Frost was in nowise disconcerted by said Hugh, smiling. Then he added the question, but answered with a complex seriously: "If you would prefer that I frown on his knotted forehead, and a shrewd should take a day or two to consider of the smile on his closed lips. " It may prove to matter " be so, indeed, Hugh. It is astonishing on '' I should certainly think it advisable." what small hinges an important matter may " Then I will do it. I don't -wish to seem sometimes turn." pig-headed. I will talk over the matter at Hugh could not resist an uneasy feeling, home, and let you know my final decision in like the first cold touch of suspicion, as he two days. But I must add that you must recalled his mother's manner of the previous not expect me to give a different answer evening. What was there—what could from the one I have given already." there be—to suspect ? He did not know. " In two days ? Good. The Parthenope But the cold touch was there, at his heart. 148 [January 15,1870.] ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [Conducted by

" Well," he answered, " if it he of impor­ " And to say truth, Mr. Frost, I do not at tance, I believe I can set the matter at rest. all comprehend you." She died " "I have no taste for mystery, I assure " Stop, Hugh ! Wait a minute. Things you. Nor for Quixotism. It is, perhaps, of this kind are easily said, but not easily not difficult to throw away other people's •unsaid." fortunes with a high-and-mighty flourish. " Unsaid! I do not understand you." I am a plain, cynical kind of man; and I " I mean that in a case where accuracy is should think twice before I did so." of vital importance, a person not previously No twinge of conscience prevented Mr. warned of this importance may speak Frost's handsome face from being scornful thoughtlessly an inaccurate word to which or weakened the contemptuous force of his he will stand committed, and which may shrug, as he said those words. produce a great deal of mischief." Hugh was pained and uneasy. His "But I " mother, then, had seen Mr. Frost! And " So," proceeded Mr. Frost, speaking she had been guilty of something like through Hugh's words, " so I will, if you deception, in suppressing the fact! This, will allow me, explain to you how very to Hugh, was an almost intolerable thought. important, to others, it is that you should Yet he would not ask any questions on this weigh your words carefully." point, of Mr. Frost. After a pause he said: Point by point Mr. Frost went over the " I honestly do not know what you mean, or story he had told to Mrs. Lockwood. Hugh what you would have me do. I can but fixed his eyes on him while he spoke, with a speak the truth !" candid, undisguised expression of wonder. " Oh, of course," answered Mr. Frost, Mr. Frost did not look at him often, al­ dryly. " The truth by all means ; so soon though from time to time he met his eye as you are quite sure what is the truth. openly and steadily. But he took a sheet The other party intend to litigate." of ruled paper that lay on the table before "To litigate?" him, and, as he spoke, occupied his fingers "They intend to litigate, I lelieve (un­ in folding it over and over, with accurate derstand I am not acting for the soi-di- care to make the creases correspond with sante Lady Gale. Lovegrove is Miss Des­ the blue ruled lines. mond's trustee and qua si-guardian, and When Mr. Frost had made an end of his there would be a certain indelicacy in one story, he leaned back in his chair and of the firm appearing on the other side); began twisting his folded paper into a they intend to litigate, unless' they find spiral form. beforehand by testimony as to the period of " Now," said he, " are you quite sure you Lady T.'s death, that they haven't a leg to know at what hour Lady Tallis died ?" stand on !" Hugh passed his hand over his Hugh nodded his head gravely and forehead. Mr. Frost watched hirn keenly. slowly before he answered, " She died in " There are circumstances in this case," time to make that marriage a good mar­ said Mr. Frost, "which would render the riage, if her death were all that was publicity of litigation peculiarly painful. necessary to do so." Miss Desmond's position would be most The twisted paper in Mr. Frost's hands, distressing." was suddenly rent in half throughout its Hugh continued to rub his forehead with folded thicknesses. the air of one trying to resolve a painful " Indeed ? You speak very confidently, problem. but your answer is not categorical And Mr. Frost got up and stood in his fa­ the evidence may be conflicting. Your vourite posture with his back to the five- mother thought differently on this point." place. He averted his gaze from Hugh, " My mother ! If my mother thought and played with his watch-chain. "My differently, she was mistaken. And by own impression is," he said, " that Lady T. leading questions it may be possible to elicit died at amore convenient time for her niece's an answer of whose bearing the answerer is fortunes than you seem to think. Mrs. not fully aware." Lockwood, when I saw 1KM- yesterday " Leading questions ! You speak as Perhaps she did not mention having seen though I had some advantage to gain by me ? Ah ! Well, it was quite a confidential disproving this marriage ! What in Hea­ interview—Mrs. Lockwood was of opinio! ven's name, do you suppose it matters that if the thing rested on her testimony, to me ? I don't quite comprehend you, and that of the servant, it would comerigB Hugh." for Miss Desmond." Charles Dickens.] VERONICA. [January 15, 1870.] 149

Hugh got up from his chair and stood likely or unlikely. The marriage either opposite to Mr. Frost, looking at him with can be proved or it can not," said Mr. a very stern face. And his voice was louder Lovegrove, folding back his Times news­ than usual as he answered : " But the thing paper so as to read it more conveniently, wrill rest on my testimony. And I have and giving it a sharp tap with the back of already told you to what effect my testimony his hand. will be." And he walked out of the office " I would not for the world, that the girls without another word. heard this repulsive story mentioned," said Mr. Frost stood without moving for some Mrs. Lovegrove. time after Hugh was gone. Then he " I don't see how you're to keep it from clasped his hands over his head wearily. them," replied her husband. " They hap­ "It may be," thought he, "that the mar­ pen to be spending the day out, to-day : but riage on shipboard was begun earlier than I that is only once in a way. They will be fancied. People are so vague about time. at home to-morrow, and you can't prevent We must make proper inquiries. But, by people chattering." Jove, it will be a wonderfully close run !" And, indeed, it was not long before the Miss Lovegroves were informed of the CHAPTER IV. GOSSIP. decease of Lady Tallis Gale's husband; and " I DON'T believe a word of it!" said Mrs. had heard of the person who claimed to be Lovegrove. his widow ; and of the large fortune depend­ " My dear !" remonstrated her husband. ing on the issue; and of a great many " I do not," repeated Mrs. Lovegrove, details respecting the innermost thoughts distinctly. Then she added, " Now I put it and feelings of the parties concerned. to you, Augustus, does this thing stand to The Lovegroves' servants knew the story. reason?" So did the Frosts'. So did the little maid- " It may not stand to reason, and yet it of-all-work at Mrs. Lockwood's: and she may be true, mamma. When a woman is retailed the relishing gossip to the green­ in the case, things very often do not stand grocer's wife, and to the baker, and to the to reason : but they happen all the same," milkman: and like a rolling snow- ball, the observed Augustus Lovegrove, junior. tale grew in the telling. There had been for some time past, a tone Mrs. Lovegrove, after her declaration of of bitterness and misanthropy observable in unbelief, sat and pondered on the extra­ this young gentleman's language and man­ ordinary caprice of fortune which was said ners. He also frequented matins with in­ to have occurred. flexible punctuality, and dined off boiled She did not believe it. No ; she did not greens and bread, on Wednesdays and believe it! But she should like to hear a Fridays. This severe self-discipline and few more particulars. It was really a long mortification was attributed by his mother time since she had called on Mrs. Frost. and sisters to a disappointed attachment to Heaven forbid that she, Sarah Lovegrove, Miss Desmond. But no word was ever should be the one to bring dissension be­ spoken on the subject in the family when tween partners! Poor Mrs. Frost's weak Augustus was present. vanity was objectionable. But, not for that " Why, yes;" said Mr. Lovegrove, gravely. would she abstain from paying her due "As regards men or women either, many civility, so long as such civility were not things happen which one can't exactly say incompatible with principle. Sarah Love­ stand to reason." grove had ever been considered to possess " I have been told," said Mrs. Lovegrove, a masculine intelligence, superior to the making her upper lip very long, "that my petty foibles of her sex. intellect is too logical for a woman's. If it The upshot of Mrs. Lovegrove's medita­ be so, I cannot help it. But, I repeat, I can tions was, that she sent for the fly which not believe that that man;" here Mrs. was hired out from an adjacent livery stable, Lovegrove shuddered ; " committed such a and was driven in state to Mr. Frost's horrible act of injustice at the very brink of residence. the grave." It was a good opportunity. Her daugh­ "I don't see anything surprising in it. The ters were absent; and she would run no man had been committing horrible acts of risk of contaminating their ears with the injustice all his life; and there was no reason details of a kind of story with which, alas ! to expect him to become a changed man at elder persons were obliged to be acquainted the last moment. Besides, it is not a question in their journey through the world ! of what anybody thinks, or of what seems Mrs. Lovegrove always arrayed herself 150 [January 15,1870.] ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [Conductedby with especial care for a visit to Mrs. Frost. aware that they were obtrusive, that they Her toilet on this occasion was a matter of attracted the eye to every movement of her more hesitation and mental debate than she hands, and that she could not so much would willingly have acknowledged even to as raise her handkerchief to her face with­ herself. At one moment she would resolve out demonstratively exhibiting two yellow to adhere to the strict principles that usually glaring patches. regulated her attire, and that resulted in the But Mrs. Lovegrove was not one of those general sad-coloured effect of it; at another, whose emotions are quickly translated into she would be tempted to relieve the leaden the expression of their faces; she seated dulness by a bright bow of ribbon or a herself opposite to the mistress of the house flower. She was divided between a desire with a stern countenance. to vindicate the strength of her intellect by " You have got Mr. Frost back again," showing herself to be above the frivolities she said, after the first greetings were over of fashion ; and a secret fear of Mrs. Frost's "How is he?" satirical glances, and, possibly, speeches. " Well, really,"rejoined Mrs. Frost, "you Mrs. Lovegrove never confessed to her­ ought to know better than I do ! You self that she was afraid of Mrs. Frost, and people at Bedford-square have more of his certainly the latter had no suspicion of the company than I have." fact; but spoke to Mr. Frost of his partner's "But he is at home generally in the wife as " that self-sufficient, wooden-headed evenings, my dear, is he not ?" asked she woman." Nevertheless Mrs. Lovegrove of the peacock's feathers. was by no means self-sufficient enough to "Sometimes. But in the evening J am be indifferent to the opinion of Mrs. Frost. often out." And she concealed more feminine gentleness "Out?" and timidity under her hard exterior, than " Yes. I am never sure whether he will had ever entered into the composition of the be at home or not, and so I do not put off beautiful Georgina : which is not, however, my engagements." saying much. " Well; I wouldn't stir if I were in your It was about half-past four o'clock in place. I would give up fifty engagements the afternoon when Mrs. Lovegrove's fly for the chance of having a long evening drew up at the door of Mr. Frost's house. with Mr. Frost." Mrs. Lovegrove was ushered into a small, " I am sure Mr. Frost would be im­ shady drawing-room where she found the mensely obliged to you, Betsy! I'll tell hostess talking with a lady whose appear­ him," said Georgina, with a languid smile. ance struck Mrs. Lovegrove with amaze­ All this time Mrs. Lovegrove was sitting ment, mingled with disapproval. The silent, "with her yellow gloves folded in her visitor wore a brilliant costume made in lap. She felt very uncomfortable. She the most girlish mode; and on the top of a had thought to find Mrs. Frost alone, and heap of false hair whose excessive quantity to have drawn from her some word about displayed a sovereign contempt for pro­ the business which had so excited her bability, was perched a small Avhite hat curiosity. But Mrs. Lovegrove was not adorned with peacock's feathers. As the recklessly indiscreet: she would not have face beneath the hat must have faced at thought of touching on the topic before a least sixty summers, the contrast between stranger, although she would have thought it and its head-gear was startling. it fair to find out, if she could, all that Mrs. " Oh !" exclaimed Mrs. Frost, in a tone Frost knew about it. And now here was that said plainly, Who would have thought. this simpering old woman, in whose pre­ of seeing you ! " How do you do, Mrs. sence she could not say a word, and whose Lovegrove ?" dress Mrs. Lovegrove was inclined to con­ Mrs. Lovegrove suddenly became con­ sider a disgrace to a Christian country. scious as she sat down, of the disagreeable And, besides, neither Mrs. Frost nor her fact that her gloves were of a staring guest seemed to take any notice of her ! yellow colour, which stood out objection­ The simpering old woman, however, very ably against the leaden hue of her gown. •unexpectedly turned round just as Mrs. She had hesitated long before putting on Lovegrove was thinking these thoughts, these gloves, but had at last, decided on and said in a brisk, good-humoured manner: wearing them as being the only spot of "Now I w.inl you to present me to Mrs. brightness about her attire. And now, Lovegrove, Georgina," when she saw Mrs. Frost's fine eyes lazily IYI is. Frost somewhat ungraciously com- inspecting them, she became painfully plied. Charles Dickens.] VERONICA. [January 15, 1870.] 151

" Miss Boyce—Mrs. Lovegrove." "Oh, well," said Mrs. Frost, "if Miss "lam an old friend of Mrs. Frost's," Desmond cares about the person who went said Miss Boyce, " and I don't approve of abroad with Sir John Gale, I suppose she the fashion of not introducing people." will find it more satisfactory that her "Everybody is supposed to know every­ friend should have been duly married to body else," said Mrs. Frost. him." Mrs. Lovegrove quite understood that "But, my goodness, Georgina, you don't she, who lived in Bedford-square, was not appear to understand the case," said Miss included in the "everybody." But she Boyce, impetuously. merely bowed rather grimly, and said " No, I dare say I do not," replied Mrs. nothing. Frost, with a shrug which said plainly, " Oh, but that's a very nonsensical sup­ "and I don't care to understand it." position, my dear," returned Betsy Boyce, Miss Boyce chattered volubly, pouring waving her hand up and down contemp­ out statements, some of which were true, tuously. " That rule can only apply to a some founded on fact, and some as airily very limited and exclusive circle indeed: unreal as the " baseless fabric cf a vision." _ and not to your ' everybody,' nor my She had heard something of a will left by 'everybody' either!" Sir John Gale; but that part of her in­ Mrs. Lovegrove felt quite grateful to this formation was very vague and confused. odd little person; and began to think that Some people had told her that Miss Des­ her gay petticoat was not quite so short as mond would inherit a million of money; she had at first supposed. others declared that the vicar's daughter " Well; and isn't this a queer business would have it all; a third story was that about Sir John Tallis ?" proceeded Miss Sir John had bequeathed the bulk of his Boyce, without the least circumlocution. wealth to a newly-discovered relative of Mrs. Lovegrove, being uncertain how his in Naples. much the other woman knew, shook her " But how in the world did you hear all head mysteriously, and said, "But is it all this ?" asked Mrs. Lovegrove, during a true that we hear ?" breathless pause in Miss Boyce's talk. " All true ? I should suppose not. Miss Boyce was rather flattered by the Very few things that one hears are all true. question. But I believe there is no doubt that the " Oh, my dear soul," she answered, man is dead—died rather suddenly I was smiling shrewdly, " although I do not told—and that he has left a tangle of know quite ' everybody,' I have a con­ trouble behind him. Unravel it who can !" siderable circle of acquaintance neverthe­ " What has he left ?" asked Mrs. Frost. less. And as to hearing, I never wonder She had been leaning back in her chair at people hearing of things; I'm only calculating how many yards of some fine puzzled when they don't hear of 'em ! The old point lace that she had seen, would world is veiy small after all. And I de­ suffice to trim her purple velvet gown, and clare to you that I often solemnly thank wondering whether Mr. Frost's business in Providence that I have no episode in my Naples had gone well enough to make him life to hide, either for my own sake or any generous with his money. one else's; for I protest on my honour the " My goodness, Georgina ! I say he has fable of the ostrich burying his head in the •. left misery and worry and vexation, and, sand, is a trifle to the sort of thing I perhaps worse, behind him." observe in the world, where, positively, " How do you mean ?" people will tie a bit of a gauze veil over " How do I mean! Why only think their noses, and fancy that nobody can see what a dreadful position that poor dear through it !" girl, the nicest, sweetest creature, Maud Mrs. Lovegrove returned to Bedford- Desmond will be placed in ! They say square, primed with intelligence which, like that that young woman, the vicar's daugh­ a good wife, she was minded dutifully to ter—I'm sorry to say I have a very bad share with her husband. opinion of her, and had from the first But he met her first words with a grave moment I saw her handsome face—claims admonition, to say as little as possible on to be Sir John's widow. And Maud Des­ the subject of Sir John Tallis Gale's mond was brought up with her as a sister. affairs. The vicar is her guardian. Poor Lady Tallis "Frost brings a queer account of the was her.aunt. I never heard of such a state of the case. There is, it seems, a horrid entanglement." will. But if the second marriage be proved 152 [January 15, 1870.] ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [Conducted tiy

valid, the will is, of course, waste paper," long by twenty feet thick, black, with a said Mr. Lovegrove. hairy mane one cubit in length, and flaming " My dear Augustus, let me under­ eyes. The monster " puts up his head on stand ! Who inherits the property under high like a pillar, and catches any men the will?" and devours them." He also treated of a " The last person one would expect to blue and yellow sea-serpent forty cubits inherit it: Miss Desmond !" long, though hardly as thick as the arm of Mrs. Lovegrove's maternal thoughts flew a child ; it " goes forward in the sea like a back to her son. If Maud should prove to line." Becoming more precise as to places be an heiress, and if she could be induced and dates, the worthy archbishop narrated to like Augustus! that in the month of August, 1532, a vast She said a word or two on the subject to monster was thrown on the coast of Britain her husband. But Mr. Lovegrove's feeling near Tinmouth (which might be either on the matter was not quite in harmony Tynemouth or Teignmouth). The creature with her own. was ninety feet long and twenty-five feet "Augustus is a capital fellow," said the thick; it had thirty ribs on each side, father, " but I don't believe he has a mostly twenty-one feet long each; it had chance in that quarter." three bellies and thirty throats: its head ' Why not ? He would be a husband was twenty-one feet long; and it had two any young woman ought to be proud and fins fifteen feet long each. thankful to win!" As to sea monsters, whether called ser- " I suppose most mothers say the same of pents or not, there has been a plentiful their sons, Sarah. But put the case that crop of them, believed in, if not verified. our Dora were to come into a great fortune, Dr. Rimbault has drawn attention to a would you think such a young man as broadsheet printed in 1704, which purports Augustus a fitting match for her ?" to be " That's quite different " A most Strange but True "Aha! It is, is it?" Accouxi " Be so good as not to interrupt me, Mr. Of a Very Lovegrove. I mean—I mean—that I don't LAEGE SEA MONSTER! know where to find such another young found "in a Common Shore in New man as Augustus. I'm sure any girl might Fleet-street, in Spittle Fields; where at go down on her knees and thank Heaven the Black Swan Alehouse thousands of for such a husband as Augustus." people went to see it." The broadsheet " Did you go down on your knees and tells us that, " Herein you may see the di­ thank Heaven when I proposed to you, mensions of the same Surprising Creature, Sally ? I don't much believe in the girls with the various conjectures of several able doing that sort of thing." men concerning what may be the omen of And then Mr. Lovegrove retired behind this Creature's leaving the sea, and groping his newspaper, and no more was said on so far underground : the Common Shore the subject between the husband and wife. where it was found running above two miles before it emptied itself at Blackwall." Those of us who are old enough to re­ SERPENTS AT SEA. member Bartlemy Fair may be able to call to mind many Surprising Creatures and ONCE again, we have lately been called Large Sea Monsters which would have upon to believe that there are such crea­ done to pair off with the one exhibited at tures as sea-serpents, despite the assertions the Black Swan. of naturalists that a serpent is not adapted Dampier, when he visited NOAV Holland to a watery life. Mariners are strongly a hundred and forty ye ..->, saw, off the disposed to resist and resent the dictum of coast, what he considered to be water- the naturalists. They point to numerous serpents about four feet long, and as thick recorded instances; and they consider it' as a man's wrist; some yellow, with dark unfair that the statements of sharp-eyed brown spots, some black and yellow captains and seamen should bo received mottled. In 1750, according to an ac­ with scepticism and ridicule. count in the Gentleman's Magazine, a Olaus Magnus, who was Archbishop of lisherman on the Danube, near Linz, Upsal three centuries and a half ago, was plunged into the river to have a, bathe. a famous believer in such things. He After a (live, his long stay under wator spoke of a sea-serpent two hundred feet alarmed his companions, who proceeded to Charles Dickens.] SERPENTS AT SEA [January 15,1870.] 153

fish him up with their nets. They found not bring the ship into pursuit, in the *up IIJ-L him with one arm and one leg entangled in actual state of the wind: so he and his catches •- the root of an old tree. As they were officers observed the animal through their endeavouring to disengage the body, " they glasses. The nearest approach it made to perceived a serpent of a prodigious size the ship was about two hundred yards; at fixed to the left breast, which so terrified which distance the eye, mouth, nostril, them that they cried out. Upon this the colour, and form, were distinctly visible. monster left his prey, and after hissing in Some of the officers at once called it a sea- acta, a most terrible manner, threw himself into serpent ; others deemed it to be rather of a .u^ ]!;• the water." Peron, in his voyage to New lizard than serpent character, for its move­ ' Holland about the close of the last century, ment was steady and uniform, as if pro­ soberly talks like a naturalist on the subject pelled by fins, and not by any modulatory Jiti?n °f sea-serpents. He says that they " are dis- power. The evidence in this case, has ad i_ ! tinguished from land serpents by their tail, always appeared to us, to be very strong, which is flat and oar-shaped, and by their as to the certainty of something remarkable narrower body, which resembles that of an and answering the description, having been : eel, and terminates below almost in an angle. indubitably seen. The other occurrence They are of very various and sometimes in 1848 we shall notice presently, for a extremely brilliant hues; some have an special reason. cl uniform colour, such as grey, yellow, In 1855 the American newspapers were whether ci green, or bluish; others have rings of busy with an account of a sea-serpent or blue, white, red, green, black, &c. Some water-snake fifty-nine feet long, which ap­ i again are marked with large spots, dis­ peared on a lake near New York. He was posed with less or greater regularity; harpooned and killed with great difficulty. - while others are distinguished by very The head was as large as that of a full-grown small specks, elegantly distributed over the calf; at about eight feet from the head the body." According to his account, these thickness was twelve inches ; but at about creatures, of whatever kind they may have the middle of the length the thickness been, varied from three to ten feet in swelled to two feet. The body was tapered length. Faber, an Icelandic naturalist, off to'the end, which ended in a broad fin. ': Skti was making a voyage near the entrance of Double rows of fins were placed alternately the Baltic in 1829; and the man at the along the belly. The eyes were large and ions helm gave him an account of a sea-serpent staring, with a transparent membrane which had been seen about two years attached to the lids, protecting the eye without impeding the vision. There were TOHMfl; : before. While fishing near Thunoe he jjjpfi^; observed the head of a large creature lying no gills. The mouth could stretch so as to uresafsf3 (lu^e on the surface of the water, and in take in an object half a yard in diameter. inavbefr' c-^ose proxinuty to the boat. The head was The sides and back were dusky brown; like that of a seal, though the animal evi­ the belly dirty white. Although sinuous dently did not belong to that species. A like a snake, there were hard knot-like ie Cm* protuberances along the back. Such was aiming' as- gull flew towards the monster, and made a pounce upon it, when the huge creature the story, which it is open to us to trust or raised its body "at least three fathoms into not. the air, and made a snap at the bird, which Eleven years ago, Captain Harrington sent to the Times an extract from a journal ? Ore* flew away in terror." The animal was n described as being " about twice the thick­ kept by him on board the Castilian, during nich * ness of a boat's mast," and as having ared a voyage from Bombay to Liverpool: the j one fJ«; throat. original journal was sent to the Board of There were two English captains who Trade. The extract relates to an occurrence 0 described the sea-serpent in 1848 under on the 12th of December, 1857, when the circumstances of tolerably minute detail. ship was about ten miles from St. Helena; Her Majesty's ship Daedalus, in August of and certainly nothing can be more like an that year, when on the passage from the honest belief in the truthfulness of what he Capo of Good Hope to St. Helena, came is saying, than the following words of i d', near a strange-looking creature which was Captain Harrington: " While myself and moving rapidly through the water against officers were standing on the lee-side of a cross sea; with such velocity, indeed, that the poop, looking towards the island, we the water was surging under its chest as it were startled by the sight of a large marine passed along at the estimated rate of ten animal, which reared its head out of the miles an hour. Captain M'Quhae could water within twenty yards of the ship; 'of- =P =4 154 [January 15, 1870.] ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [Conducted by r when it suddenly disappeared for about was voyaging in the South Atlantic, when, half a minute, and then made its appear­ on the 9th of July, the ship was followed ance in the same manner again, showing us for nine days by a (so-called) sea monster, distinctly its neck and head about ten or ninety feet long by twenty-five or thirty twelve feet out of the water. Its head was broad. The animal struck the ship g0 shaped like a long nun-buoy; and I sup­ forcibly as to make it vibrate, and blew pose the diameter to have been seven or much water. " The captain, fearing lest eight feet in the largest part, with a kind the animal might disable the rudder, did of scroll or tuft of loose skin encircling it his utmost to get rid of his fearful anta­ about two feet from the top. The water gonist, but without success. After it had was discoloured for several hundred feet received more than a hundred musket balls, from its head, so much so that on its first a harpoon, and a long iron bar, blood wag appearance my impression was that the seen to flow from various wounds, so that ship was in broken water, produced by some at length, from loss of strength, the monster volcanic agency since the last time I could swim behind our vessel no longer, and passed the island ; but the second appear­ we were delivered of it. By its violent blows ance completely dispelled these fears, and against the copper sheathing, the animal's assured us that it was a monster of extra­ skin had been damaged in several places." ordinary length, which appeared to be The readers of a New Zealand news­ moving slowly towards the land. The ship paper, in August, 1864, were in breath­ was going too fast to enable us to reach the less haste to know about a sea - serpent mast-head in time to form a correct which was said to have made its appear­ estimate of its extreme length; but from ance in the sea thereabout. The length was what we saw from the deck we conclude given at an enormous amount; and as the that it must have been over two hundred animal moved along with great rapidity, feet long. The boatswain and several of the its body appeared many yards above the crew, who observed it from the topgaUant surface of the water. But the strange forecastle, state that it was more than thing was, that the animal bore exactly the double the length of the ship, in which form and look of a well-rigged vessel. case it must have been five hundred feet. Good: the newspaper had had its joke, Be that as it may, I am convinced that it for the monster was a smart brigantine belonged to the serpent tribe; it was of a called the Sea Serpent. Yet the joke dark colour about the head, and was scarcely proves, or disproves, much. covered with several white spots. Having The latest claim to attention in matters a press of canvas on the ship at the time, I of this kind was put forth in a narrative was unable to round-to without risk, and contained in the London newspapers a little therefore was precluded from getting another before the recent Christmas. On the 23rd sight of this leviathan of the deep." Now, of November, 1869, the barque Scottish this precise description, whatever we may Pride, was sailing in the Atlantic, when think of it theoretically, was endorsed by Captain Allen, seated in his cabin, was sum­ the chief and second officers of the ship, moned on deck by the second mate. He William Davies and Edward Wheeler. found the crew looking over the starboard Admiral W. A. B. Hamilton, in a brief com­ side of the vessel into the water, very intent ment on this extract, adverted to the fact upon something. This something proved that sight only, and that a mere passing to be a (so-called) sea-serpent, about sight, is just the kind of testimony " which twenty-five feet long and of proportionate naturalists may be slow to receive as evi­ thickness, with a very large and flat head, dence of any new fact; nevertheless," he two bright scintillating eyes at the outer adds, " the practised vision of the Castilian's edges of the head, and a tawny yellow commander should go for something.'' We belly. The back was covered with large decidedly think so. Captain Harrington scales, like those of the crocodile, about responded : " I could no more be deceived three inches in length, which hooked toge­ than (as a seaman) I could mistake a por­ ther to form a kind of impenetrable armour. poise for a whale. If it had been at a great When tho creature disappeared by plung­ distance it would have been different; but ing head downward, the body described a it was not above twenty yards from the circle like a hook, thus exposing a tail that ship." tapered off to a sharp point. There was a In the same year (1858), according to baby serpent by its side, only a few feet in the Amsterdam Courant, Captain Bijl, in length, but similar in shape and colour. command of tho Hendrik Ido Ambacht, Not seeming to like tho proximity of the Charles Dickens.] A PRAYER IN THE CITY. [January 15,1870.] 155

ship, mother and child speedily disappeared. Captain F. Smith, determined to know Captain Allen called them sea-serpents he- more about the matter, launched a boat, cause he had no other name to give them. in which he sent off his first officer and Perhaps it may be not undesirable to bear four men. They got close to the head, this circumstance in mind, and to remember the monster taking no notice of them, but that in cases of testimony such as those of ducking its head repeatedly, and showing Captain M'Quhae and Captain Harrington, its great length. They secured a line to it is a thing—not a name—that is insisted it, and slowly dragged it towards the ship, on. where it was hoisted on board. The What are we to think of these and similar monster looked very supple, and was com­ narratives ? It will not do to set down all pletely covered with large barnacles. Pre­ the narrators as knaves or fools ; nor will sently it was found to be simply a gigantic it do to believe that the men really saw all seaweed, twenty feet long by four inches that they supposed they saw. Some middle diameter, the root-end of which appeared course is needed. A conjecture has been when in the water like the head of an hazarded that, in one particular instance, a animal; while the motion produced by the serpent may have escaped from a ship in sea caused it to seem alive and active. Here which it was being conveyed to some again, naturalists sitting in their studies at menagerie, and have launched itself into ease, and calmly thinking of the blunders an element unsuited for it; but in which on the seas, must not make too much of it may have survived a few days. Then the seaweed. And why ? Because nobody it has been supposed that, in many cases, took it for a sea-serpent, or even reported a marine animal of well-known kind, but it as such. of specially large size, may have been mistaken for a kind of serpent. The A PEATEE IN THE CITY. porpoise, the sword-fish, and other sorts LONDON, 1869. may be named, which give a little colour An, me ! the City groaneth at my feet, to this supposition. With regard to the And all the crowd, oh God, is faint with woe; porpoise, there is one narrative exceedingly Help have I none nor any message meet. curious, which seems to throw a gleam of Teach me that I may know ! light on the nature of some of the very Behold the little children everywhere, long sea-serpents. A few years ago, a But not the little ones of old I knew; Eledglings they seem, when all the woods are bare, gentleman was sailing in his yacht, off the Elowers, where there falls no dew. north coast of Scotland. He saw in the Whose are they P for the parents heed them not, sea what looked like a sea-serpent, a suc­ And men are all too busy as they pass; cession of undulations of a black substance Their place is with tho shameless and the sot, swimming in the sea, and extending several Lost in the huddling mass. hundred feet in length. The motion was The fair green fields, wherein the cowslips come, The streams whereby the tasselled grasses wave: exactly like the up-and-down contortions of These are as lands unknown; the garret home a snake, or eel: certain portions alternately Must hold them to the grave. appearing above and sinking beneath the The song of birds, that in sweet seasons mate, water. But on closer examination, the And fill the pleasant May-time with delight; object resolved itself into a vast number of Shall never reach these little slaves of fate Wrapped in their smoky night. porpoises following (as is often their custom) closely in the wake of each other, and Yet have they guests that will not be denied As warders ever waiting at the door, swimming in a straight fine. Their alter­ Grim Fever, with lank Famine at her side, nate pitching, head and tail, gave so exactly These, and a thousand more. the appearance of the wriggling motion of See how the sunshine trembles on its way, a large serpent, as easily to suggest a very So dark are all these alleys in the shade; erroneous estimate of the matter : though Oh God, to think our palace builders stay, So near, yet undismayed ! # here again it is to be borne in mind on the other hand that a shoal of porpoises is a We pile the marble for the rich man's tomb, We hang the satin at my lady's head; i W very common fact to all seamen. Another Why, then, are human lives within the gloom test was obtained by the officers of the Less cared for than the dead ? Pekin, while on a voyage from Moulmein The babbling stream of fashion comes and goes, in 1848. One day they saw a singular- And every bubble finds some fool to follow; But the great tide that heaves to speechless woe

-X3a " 156 [January 15,1870.] ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [Conducted bv

Oh, idle prompting of the idle mind ! and most stirring enterprises. In Resolu. That dares not pierce the veil that shrouds our lot; tion Cove, in Nootka Sound, where Cook How shall the foolish swimmer hope to find Pearl, if he diveth not ? records that he laid his vessel up for repair,

•:-:•; From every side the voices call us now, I disinterred the bricks of the armourer's " Come up and help, for we are well-nigh spent; forge, vitrified and fresh as if it had been The deeps are closing, and we know not how built but yesterday. The lordly Spanish The succour shall be sent. Dons who once held Nootka, had left their " We yet are brothers, though the primal stain Make labour seem a never-ending ill; traces in cannon balls and milled dollars, And through the shadows, sorrow more than gain, occasionally dug up on the site of the old Shall keep us brothers still. fort; and the Indians still remembered by *r " We ask for hearts tho' busied beating yet, tradition the story of their surrendering it We ask for hands, yet warm, to bring us aid; These are the gifts that busy souls forget, to Vancouver, and no historian could have These are the debts unpaid." told it in quainter words : " The men be­ Surely our riches are not where we think, gan to cultivate the ground and erect a And the kind thought is more than all our store, fort and stockade, when one day a ship Give me the children's laugh; the guinea's chink came with papers for the head man, who Is failing more and more. Therefore, oh God, I tread this City street, was observed to cry, and all the white men With sadness that is not a foolish grief; became sad. The next day they began And from thine heavens I hear my message meet moving their goods to the vessel." The " Take heart—I bring relief." grandson of old Moquilla, whose name occupies so prominent a place in the re­ THE FREE TRAPPER. cords of those stirring times, still ruled Nootka, when with a solitary companion WHEN I first visited the Pacific slope of I paid it a visit for the first time, after the Rocky Mountains, I was fortunate he had murdered the crew of a trader, six enough every now and again to come months before. This visit I am likely to across some little link which connected me remember for some years to come, for it with the past. It was a splendid region yielded me the dismal satisfaction of hear­ into which I had wandered. Everywhere ing a lively discussion on the (to me) rather it was patched with noble primeval forests, interesting question, whether it would not varied with snowy peaks, and rapid rivers as be better for State policy to cut off the yet unnamed : a region long interesting to heads of myself and friend, on the principle the naturalist, as well as to the mere lover of that headless men are not apt to tell tales. the stirring life of the fur trader. Was it That the "ayes" were in the minority in not in this region where that most veracious Moquilla's council, this record is the proof. of travellers—Captain Lemuel Gulliver, of Vancouver's name they pronounced quite London—whilom of Laputa and Lilliput, distinctly, and I still found in Puget located the wondrous land of Brobdingnag, Sound a last connecting link between his and where the old Greek Pilot, Juan De day and ours, in the person of an old chief. Fuca, was sent to fortify the strait which What thoughts must have been running bears his name, in case—vain thought!— through the mind of that old man as he the English should pass from the Atlantic glanced over the wonderful story of the I to the Pacific ? It was in this land that seventy years which had come and gone, Cook won some of his laurels, and that since John Vancouver sailed with his John Vancouver grew famous. It was the stately ships up Puget Sound, I know not; scene of Lewis and Clarke's famous adven­ for the leathern countenances of the In­ tures, and is better known to the general dians, like dead men, tell no tales. The reader as the country which Washington medals that Lewis and Clarke distributed Irving invested Avith a most delightful among the Indians at the mouth of the romantic interest through his Astoria, and Columbia River, could still be sometimes The Adventures of Captain Bonneville. seen in the Chinook lodges, though that To me, the North-west had even a deeper tribe had long disappeared, with all the charm, for I visited it at a time, the like Columbia and Willamette tribes, from their of which can never come back. For years old homes. Old Astoria voyagers I some­ I wandered over many of the wildest and times came across. The son of that Pierre least known parts of the country, and was Dorion, whose escape with his heroic Indian IW fortunate enough, in the midst of many mother, after the murder of his father, is so misfortunes, to be the companion of some graphically portrayed by Irving, was mj of those who have helped to make its his­ fellow-traveller lor weeks together, before! tory ; and to mingle in many of its wildest knew how historically interesting he was; v Charles Dickens.] THE FREE TRAPPER. [January 15, 1S70.] 157

' and the grandson of one-eyed Concomoly, castoreum ! If the trapper were ordinarily chief of the Chinooks, the marriage of successful, he would load his horses with ' whose daughter to the factor of Astor is so the " packs" of beaver skins, and make for - amusingly related, trudged side by side the "rendezvous :" generally some trading with me for many a summer's day. Cap- port, or sometimes some quiet valley where \ tain Bonneville was not, to me, as he is to game and grass abounded. Here, the many, a shadowy abstraction, invented traders would meet the trappers, busi­ :-- by the novelist, on which to hang many a ness would commence, and the winter quaint tale of love and war; but was a would be spent in riotous living and de­ - hearty, genial veteran, no way backward bauchery. Duels were common; the - to fight his battles over again, when he general bone of contention being the got a ready listener. relative merits and reputation for virtue ::'. It was in the palmy days of the fur of the respective squaws. Every trapper 1 an trade, when beaver was thirty shilhngs or had his wife selected from one of the two pounds per pound, and a good beaver Indian tribes with whom he was on ordi­ ; skin would weigh a pound and a quarter, narily decent terms, and to whom he was ••-:\- or when Rocky Mountain martens worth united in Indian fashion. To be a trapper's J . three or four guineas apiece piled on either bride was looked upon, by an Indian or re side of it was the price of a trade musket, half-breed damsel, as the height of all \ worth fifteen shilhngs, that the free trapper good fortune ; and a pretty life she led her place i« flourished. He trapped for no particular husband. Nothing in the trader's stores imss, i company, but was courted by the bourgeois, was too fine or too expensive for her; and next to being decked out herself in all - : as the head men of the traders were called, fci of all, and sold to whom he pleased. In sorts of finery, her horse was her object of : solicitude. She was always fretting and ; - the summer these men would start out in -1 £ bands, and, as convenient places for their running away to her tribe, with her infa­ business presented themselves, would drop tuated husband in hot pursuit; or some­ . - off in twos and threes, with their squaws times she would, to the scandal and delight of the gossips in the rendezvous, elope ftoi an<^ borses, until they came to some great with some Indian buck, or more favoured - valley, when they would set their traps in trapper. the streams, and if sport presented itself, j- ton _'.-' ..camp there for the whole summer. Their Often, these men, even despite the ex­ camp usually consisted merely of an Indian orbitant charges of the traders and their • -; .leather lodge, or some brush rudely thrown winter debauches, made large sums; but r- together. If the neighbourhood were in- they never saved. Indeed they thought tested by Indians they would have to keep themselves lucky if they were able to ' concealed during the day, as it was rarely "pull through the winter," and enough re­ ~ /that some high-handed act, or the jealousies mained to them to start out for another " of business, did not render a meeting be- summer's campaign. Even that didn't ®0iaatween the trappers and redskins a matter of trouble them much ; for a good trapper of ~ life and death. For the same reason he would acknowledged reputation had never any - generally visit his beaver traps at night, trouble—to such an extent had competi­ ifol:: and, fearful of the echo of his rifle alarming tion gone, and so large were the traders' cc*31 the prowling savage, would subsist on profits—in getting credit for all he wanted. sailed fheaver flesh: even though buffalo, elk, Trappers were not in the habit of insur­ zi-'deer, or antelope were abundant in the ing their lives, otherwise learned actuaries uinces o| neighbourhood, and the Rocky Mountain would no doubt have been able to tell ill DO tfcgoat and sheep skipped on the cliffs us exactly what were the risks of their i round his haunt. Beavers, either smoked business; but some western statistician tie 10 ir fresh, formed the staple article of estimated the life of the Rocky Mountain • >od of these mountain men ; and to this trapper at an average, after he had fairly [cfj, tiff-lay a beaver's tail is looked upon as a entered the business, of only three years j nits orime luxury. " He is a devil of a fellow," and a half! His life was continually in ^Cyou will hear old grizzled hunters remark danger from Indians, from hunger and thirst, from exposure and mode of life. TOyarf of some acquaintance of theirs : "he can flftlTOt two beaver tails !" And I quite agree While floating down some turbulent river in his " dug-out," or travelling through ^sj]eri«-n the estimate put upon a man who could r-jjjjfatlifdevour so much of what is about as easily a Rocky Mountain pass in the depth of Xj09, f*nastioated, and not half so digestible, as a winter in an endeavour to reach the rendez. vous, he carried his life in his hands. He JI0I ucss of whipcord seasoned with train oil and =4K 158 [January 15, 1870.] ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [Conducted by disappeared from the rendezvous some " Snakes ain't no sucsuuhn 'countcount;; buuuti iuf ye winter, and little was thought of it. He want to get the meanest pizen-bad lot of A:>- might have gone to some other trading Injuns, just trap a fall down to the Washoe port. But by-and-by the news oozed round country, just !" And immediately after- among the squaws, and they told their wards you would hear some other man give husbands how such and such a tribe of exactly an opposite opinion. On closer ob­ Indians killed him; and then his horse servation you would generally find that would be seen, and anon his rifle, and the lauded tribe was the one he had lived perhaps, years after, his bones, surrounded longest among, to which his squaw he- by his greasy beaded leather hunting-dress, longed, or which was the easiest to strike would be found as the trappers were look­ a bargain with; for generally speaking, ing for beaver by the banks of some name­ these mountain men are a very unreason­ less stream. Then some of his companions able set when speaking on Indian matters. would vow to avenge his death, and the Old Jim Baker's opinion on Indians is first Indian of that tribe would suffer for it, worth quoting: not only "for its inherent if met alone in the woods or other solitary truth, but also because it expresses toler­ place. The Indian would be avenged in ably well, the general opinions entertained like manner by his friends, and so in this by the mountain men regarding their savage manner the endless vendettas of the West associates. Quoth Jim: originated, and stiU go on. " They are the most onsartainest var­ It may be asked, what could tempt men ments in all creation, and I reckon tha'r to follow such a business ? There was a not mor'n half human; for you never seed charm in the thorough freedom and inde­ a human, arter you'd fed and treated him pendence of the life, which attracted men to to the best fixins in your lodge, just turn it. Few of these adventurers, I believe, round and steal all your bosses, or any ever seriously intended to follow the call­ other thing he could lay his hands on, ing for life when first they wandered " away No, not adzackly. He would feel kinder West." They probably intended making grateful, and ask you to spread a blanket a little money, and then settling down to in his lodge, ef ever you passed that a-way. a quiet life tilling the soil. But in nine out But the Injun, he don't care shucks for often cases that time never came. Either you, and is ready to do you a mischief they never could scrape enough together, as soon as he quits your feed. No, Cap, or children grew up around them and it's not the right way to give um presents united them with strong bonds to their to buy peace; but ef I war guv'ner of savage mode of life. Most of them lived these yeer U-nited States, I'll tell you what and died trappers. I have known a few of I'd do. I'd invite una all to a big feast, them go back after many years to the and make b'lieve I wanted to have a big settlements, but soon return again to their talk : and as soon as I got um all together, wild life, disgusted with the dull con­ I'd pitch in and skulp half of um, and ventionalities of society ; the ways of then t'other half would be mighty glad to civilised life and cities looked ridiculous to make a peace that would stick. That's them, and they were half " pizened with the way I'd make a treaty with the red- the bread, the bacon, the sarse, and the bellied varments ; and sure as you're born, mush" of a Western farmhouse. Yet a no­ Cap, that's the only way. It ain't no use tion seemed to prevail that the trappers were to talk of honour with them, Cap; they long-lived. So they were, when they had a haint got no such thing in um; and they fair chance. But the Indians cut it rather won't show fair fight, any way you can fix short. Some of the trappers whom I know, it. Don't they kill and skulp a white man, are old men, and it has been my lot to know, when-ar they get the better on him ? The among others, such men as the celebrated mean varments ! They can't onderstand Kit Carson, Jim Baker, Jim Bridger, and white folks' ways, and they won't learn others. Such men were almost universally um; and ef you treat um decently, they Americans; and though they were not at Hi ink you're afeard. You may depesS all inimical to the female Indian, yet they in­ on't, Cap, the only way to treat Iiijunsisto variably entertained implacable feud against thrash um well at fust; then the balance some particular tribe. They had also their will sorter take to you and behave them­ favourite tribe, against whom it was rank selves." sedition to say a single word. " Crows kin Of Jim Baker many a good story is be trusted," an old fellow would say round told, but about the last I heard (the very the camp, his mouth filled with tobacco: last, I am afraid, I ever shall hear) of him Charles Dickens.] THE FREE TRAPPER. [January 15,1870.] 159

was from General Marcy. He had then these " mountain cocks." His famous ride established himself in a trading port or of seven hundred miles, from Santa-Fe in store at the crossing of Green River, where New Mexico to Independence in Missouri, he did a pretty lively trade with the carrying despatches regarding the outbreak Indians and emigrants. He was prosper­ of the Indian war in the former county, ing until he was opposed by a Frenchman, was by no means the most extraordinary of who of course stirred within Jim the most his deeds. The distance was accomplished bitter animosity, until it culminated in a ces­ in seven days from the date of starting. sation of all social intercourse between them: When he arrived at his destination the in fact, the Celt and the Saxon " cut" each saddle was found stained with blood, and other, though I do not suppose there was the rider so exhausted that he had to be Ten; another white man within a couple of lifted off his horse. Notwithstanding the hundred miles. At the time of General great reputation of the man for deeds of Marcy's arrival, this professional hatred daring, the reader may be at first surprised , ! had reached such a point that he found that Carson was by no means formidable •™ Baker standing in his doorway, with a in strength. On the contrary, I remember loaded and cocked pistol in each hand, him as a little man, about five feet four -- "pretty drunk and intensely excited. I inches in height, stout and rather heavily dismounted and asked him the cause of all built, but with a frame alert and active. : this disturbance ? He replied, ' That thar His hair was light brown, sprinkled with yaUer-bellied toad-eatin' parley-voo over grey, thin and long, and thrown behind thar, and me, we've been bavin' a small his ears. He was very quiet in his manner chance of a skrimmage to-day, we have, and spoke in a soft, low voice, such as I Cap.' I remonstrated with him upon his have frequently remarked is the case with - - folly, but he continued: ' The sneakin' men who have passed an exciting life. - polecat! I'll raise his har yet; I'll skulp Towards the close of his life, Carson be­ ~'~- '••• him, Cap, ef he don't quit these yearcame e " Colonel" of irregular cavalry in New diggins.' It appeared that they had an Mexico. He had been frequently married altercation in the morning, which ended in to Indian wives, and was married a few a challenge: when they ran to their re­ years before his death to a New Mexican. do TOI i! spective cabins, seized their revolvers, and His children seemed to share both the from their doors, only about one hundred spirit of their father's and their mother's E yards apart, fired at each other. They race. One of his daughters, whom I re­ I fjr f then retired into their cabins, took a drink member (since dead), was a remarkably . "_v of whisky, reloaded their pistols, and re­ handsome woman. On one occasion, a half- newed the combat. This peculiar duel civilised " Texan Mustang" insulted her. ; had been maintained for several hours Instantly the woman's blood was up, and when I arrived, but, fortunately for them, before the bystanders could interfere, she 'y(j[':the whisky had produced such an effect had " cleaned out" the ruffian so effectually be wp UV0ZL their nerves that their aim was very with a bowie-knife, that I question if he u gg unsteady, and none of their many shots ever recovered from his wounds. Kit died Brhad taken effect." The general, being an last year, aged sixty. His deeds are re­ sr,: old friend of Jim's, took away his pistols, corded in many books and boys' tales of j'£: and administered a severe lecture to him. adventure, with various exaggerations: '',[:• He acknowledged that when the whisky though the life of the man required no such . gij'was in him he had "narry sense." embellishments. 3 , Perhaps the most celebrated of all the l bat-^oc^y Mountain trappers, was Kit Carson One scarcely less famous was old "Peg- S& iti—^° wbose exertions Fremont was deeply leg Smith:" so called to distinguish him ^ ,, .indebted, when caught in the winter snows, from the numerous Smiths of the West on f' ^though the old man used to sometimes account of a wooden leg, which he had ^complain that the " Pathfinder" was rather worn ever since anybody remembered him. ^ too stinted in the acknowledgment of his Old Pegleg's day was over before I knew iotl /.services. Born in Kentucky, he came at him, and all I remember of him was as 0Mfa ,:an early age to this wild region, and his a garrulous old fellow in San Francisco, no way backward to "take a drink" when Lkiname was soon known among the records he found any one willing to invite him. d "e of border warfare and dauntless deeds. His adventures formed the subject matter , His narratives were full of interest, and of a book published some years ago ; and a f withal related with great modesty—a if I recollect rightly, an article-about him W 'Characteristic by no means common to all appeared in one of the English magazines, =5* 160 [January 15,1870.] ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [Conducted by

about the same period. On one occasion I write of Albert Pfeiffer as he was four old Pegleg came down to a frontier years ago. For all I know to the contrary brandy port, and there in a few weeks he is still living : one of the last and bravest not only spent all the earnings of the of the mountain men. past season, but had also run so far in Another specimen of the mountain man, debt that his fine white horse, which had was an old fellow whom I may call Seth been his companion for years, was placed Baillie. Seth was rather an intelligent in pawn in the trader's stable. It was in man, and during our rambles I used to be vain that Smith begged its release. Plead­ amused to hear his opinions on men and ing proving vain, Pegleg tried to get pos­ things, all of which he pronounced with the session of the stable key, but that attempt utmost confidence, though his education (as also proved futile, until at last all pacific far as book learning was concerned) was methods failing, he resorted as a last ex­ hmited, and his range of observation equally pedient to force. Waiting until the trader so. Still, like all Western folk, he looked was asleep, he hopped to the stable-door, upon himself as "particular smart," and a applied his loaded rifle to the keyhole, and " right smart chance" of an " argifier." in a crack blew the lock off. In another In the rough settlement of the Willam­ crack the trader, aroused by the noise, was ette, in Oregon, I had been asked to on the ground; but only just in time to stand umpire in the following case. One see his debtor careering joyously on the day an old settler's boy had come home back of the white horse over the prairie, from the backwoods district school, and waving his cap, and galloping at such a told his parents that the sun was many rate as to put pursuit out of the question. millions of miles away from the earth. The A remarkable man, but one much less father was a school guardian, and was known, was Albert Pfeiffer. Like Carson, horror struck at what he styled, " sich in­ he was in the irregular Mexican cavalry; fidel talk;" so the poor schoolmaster was indeed, he was lieutenant-colonel of the discharged. " Who was ever thar' to same regiment. He was a man of a very measure it, I'd like to know!" the old singular appearance. His red beard grew farmer remarked to me when telling of the in patches, the intervening space appearing atrocious "infidel talk" of the quondam burnt and discoloured. This was owing to schoolmaster. Thinking the story would his having been poisoned by some of the amuse Baillie, I told it him: without, Indians' arrow poisons years before. He however, venturing an opinion on the wore blue goggles to shield his weak eyes : merits of the case. Mr. Baillie remarked, yet, though they were weak, they were " he rayther thought the old 'coon's bright, clear, and quick. His face was head was level on that air question." He almost ghastly in its signs of suffering, and proceeded to give his reasons for the he walked stiff, with a cane, being scarred faith that was in him : "I once heern talk- with nearly twenty wounds, carrying in like that afore, down to the settlements. his body some Indian souvenirs of bullets, One fall I was down thar' to do tradin', and bearing two frightful marks where an and when settin' in the store thar' I heern arrow had pierced directly through his a kind uv half schoolmaster talkin' like body, just below the heart. A native of that. Sez I to him, ' Mister, do you say Friesland, he came to the United States the 'arth is round?' 'Wal,' sez lie, kind some thirty years ago, and during all that o' laughin' like, ' men uv science say so. time served as an Indian pacificator, fighter, 'Men uv science,' sez I, 'be darned. I and trapper: or as a guide to passes in the know a sight better. Did you ever come mountains known only to himself and the across the plains ?'* 'No,' sez the school­ Indians. An acquaintance of mine used to master. 'Then,' sez I, 'you don't know relate an anecdote of Pfeiffer. They had nothin' about it; for I com'd across the started on a tour together, and as they plains and see'd so far furncnst me, you rode along, " the colonel" gave him various cOnldn't see no furdcr. Neow, ef the directions how to behave in case they were 'arth war round, heow would that have attacked by Indians; finishing by saying, in his slightly broken English : " And now, bin ? Neow, once afore I heern a darned don't forget, if me be wounded, you kill me fool, like you' (sez I to the schoolmaster, at once, for I will not fall alive into dere and the boys in the store larfed like mad), infernal hands: dey torture one horribly. 'talk like that, and I didn't say much.but And if you be wounded, I kill you, you see. went to hum, and put a tatur on a stump Don't fail!" * Prairies on the Eastern side of the Kocky Moun­ tains.

•tf =&) Charles Dickens.] THE FREE TRAPPER. [January 15,1870.] 161

outside my lodge. Neow, in the mornin', hunter being famous. " They come," thattatur was just whar' I put it. Neow, Baillie remarked, " in their store clothes, ef the 'arth had turned round, whar' ud biled rags, and satin waistcoats, with lots that tatur hev' bin ?' But he didn't say of provision and whisky (which ain't to be notbin', but giv' a kind of laugh. ' No,' sez laughed at though), though a hunter takin' I, ' ef the 'arth turned reound thar' would pro-vision into the mountings with him is be the tallest scatterin' uv the nations you the greatest notion I ever heern on. Afore ever did see. No, mister,' sez I,' the 'arth's they camp at night, they load their rifles, as flat as a pancake, and I know it.' And in case of bars; next mornin' they fire 'em with that hevamoozed." off, in case they're damp; and that, cap'n, tis educa- Baillie had been a good deal employed as as you know, don't bring the deer within a guide to emigrants (or, as he called them, mile or so of the camp. Going out, they " emigranters"), for whom he had a see nothin', and swear there ain't no game supreme contempt. The only job of that areound. They then take a few drinks of iff snap.' sort he ever looked back upon with plea­ old rye, which makes them talky, and then sure was the piloting of a troop of United they begin somethin' about the darn 'lec­ States cavalry for service in the Indian tion ticket, or to shootin' at marks. 'Bout war of 1855. He greatly admired the this time they get hungry, and so back to 1'wingcK " smartness" of the major in command, camp, and afore their supper is over, it's bad (E and the way he settled a troublesome ac­ dark. They then load their shootin' irons - I count. They had lost a waggon here, and again—and so the same old game goes on. RfDfl sold a horse there. A soldier had sold or Darn me ef it don't, cap'n ! When it's bartered his carbine now and then ; and, in about time fur them to go to hum, I tell fact, their accounts were in such a state 'em to hold on, and not to fire, and so I go shied."! that to present a report and to account for out and shoot 'em a varment of some sort schools everything to the quartermaster-general apiece to show when they go back to the was impossible. At last they came to the settlements as their shootin', they mean­ Columbia River, and to a place where there while pickin' berries and talkin' 'lection. was a good deal of dry timber. "Are I guess they like that about as well. Then they don't wash their faces for a day, tear [ft there any falls about here, Baillie ?" the major asked. Oh, yes; the falls of the their store clothes a bit, and go back to a tie stti Columbia were not over a mile. " Well, the settlements as big as a dog with a tin it"pinio n then," the major thought, "we'll build a tail, and jest about as nat'ral—darn 'em !" yiieia raft; the road's pretty bad." On the raft Baillie in his day had endured many ;:e i • was placed a broken Avaggon, a three- hardships He had made meals on many legged mule, five or six broken carbines, anomalous things from the animal and m • :lll an empty cask, and a few more such vegetable worlds, including a pair of old i: valuables. The major wished to guide it mocassins, sage brush leaves, grass-hoppers, jjjj jjfj along with ropes, and, though Baillie and beaver skins; and had more than i j0 j,;-assured him that the current was so strong once eaten his horse from under him; , (jjthat this was impracticable, he insisted. but he declared that an old carrion crow [;i At last the men shouted that they could was the most unpalatable article he ever hold on no longer. "Well, then, let go !' dined on.* In reference to this (and the lister. phrase he also applied metaphorically to ;;: wawaos thmce answer; auanud Over the falls in a many things in life, which though not un­ ;-vi few minutes went the raft and its contents. if ' The major cussed a small chance for bearable, are yet scarcely to be wished for) \ , show sake," Baillie remarked, " but arter a he used to say, " I kin eat crow, cap'n, '^(i,while he winked, and sed to me, ' I guess but darn me, ef I hanker arter it!" w ^.that's an A. Q. G\* way o' squarin' ac- The fall of beaver sounded the death knell 7°,, f counts!' Everything—and something more, of the old free trapper. One day a pestilent ^ ,too—that was missing, got scored opposite fellow discovered silk to be a substitute for fa* 'to it in his book: ' Lost on a raft in the the napping of "beaver hats," and so '. jj0!'Columbia River!'" beaver was " quoted " at a reduced figure. Tf* But of all the men Baillie knew, those for That 'Change announcement, simple as it I * .^whom he had the greatest contempt were was, may be said to have echoed through tlif-1! the " shootin' gentlemen." Sometimes, * In this he agreed with the late Prince Lucian t la'* when he went down into the settlements, Bonaparte, who remarked on one occasion that in all i'i $1 he was asked to act as guide to parties his ornithological expeditions in America, he had been \0Ko£ town sportsmen, his character always able to make a " comfortable meal " on any­ as a thing he came across, " except a Turkey buzzard and { 0ftk Assistant quarterinaster-general. an alligator." 4 162 [January 15, 1870.] ALL THE TEAR ROUND. [Conducted by

the Rocky Mountain region, and to have There is no difference in the weight of destroyed a class of men, who, with all luggage allowed to the different classes. their faults, were a manly and a generous The third-class passenger may take his race. Beaver has now fallen to about five thirty kilos : the first-class passenger can shillings per pound, and is hardly worth take no more than thirty without pay. trapping. The business of trapping has ing an extra charge; and it is this fallen almost entirely into the hands of extra charge on excess of luggage which half-breeds and Indians, who pursue it seems to have provoked your contri- after their stolid and lazy fashion. A few butor's anger. The registration fee of free trappers like Baillie, still pursue the ten centimes is irrespective of distance1 business, more, however, from old habit it has to be paid at every act of registration than for any real profit they derive from it. however short the journey, and you pay no Most of them are scattered, or have taken more, however long it is, always supposing up some of the employments which the that you keep within the regulation allow­ spread of the white settlements have brought ance of sixty-six pounds per traveller. to their lodge doors. They have become Moreover, for a party travelling together small traders, or store-keepers, farmers on from the same point of departure to the the borders of civilisation, or hangers-on of same destination, one act of registration trading ports living on the memories of the suffices. Their luggage is considered as past. The new impetus given to civilisa­ a whole, and the aggregate weight divided tion will soon clear them off entirely, and between them. If one member of the party the place which once knew them will know has less than thirty kilos of luggage, ano­ them no more. ther may exceed that weight to the same amount. If, however, one member of that party intends leaving the train at any TWO SIDES TO LUGGAGE. intermediate station, his luggage must he registered separately, and he cannot re­ IN the paper on the " Physiognomy of ceive or give the benefit of any average Luggage"* are these statements: " It is of weight. But while all keep together, not too much to say that what takes place all goes smoothly; at least such is our in the baggage offices all over the Continent own experience. I lately was one of a is an organised system of cheating." And party of four who went from Paris to " All this is a scandal to foreign ' admini­ Avignon—a tolerably long stretch; and strations,' especially on the French lines, the only charge for our luggage, registered where the favourite device is to add about together, was the fee of one penny. ten francs to the charge for a set of tickets Everybody has a perfect right to travel taken together." with as much luggage as he pleases; Now, the facts, within the knowledge of but everybody has not the right to cry the present writer, connected with passen­ "stop thief!" and accuse honest men of gers' luggage on French railways, are these : swindling, when he is made to pay for ex­ Luggage, like everything else in France, cessive luggage. It is not impertinent to except diamonds, is weighed by kilos, their say that a moderate amount of luggage multiples, and subdivisions. The French adds greatly to the ease and pleasure of are not at present blessed with troy, avoir­ travelling. Some extra allowance must be dupois, and apothecaries' weights. The made for ladies ; but a great many useful word " kilo" is the popular abbreviation and necessary articles may be taken, and of kilogramme, a thousand grammes, the yet not exceed sixty-six pounds. "gramme" being the unit of weight in the We went, last summer, to the Pyrenees, Metrical System of Measures and Weights. via Montpellier and Perpignan, two young The kilo is equal to two pounds avoirdupois Ladies, a servant, and self. We were travel­ and a trifle more than a fifth over. ling for health. The ladies contented them­ Now, every traveller, besides the personal selves with five dresses each in their trunks, effects which he takes with him in the besides a proper provision of under-clothing- railway carriage, has the right to thirty Servant and self needed less variety of kilos of luggage gratis (a little over costume; so we easily kept our luggage sixty-six pounds—just enough to turn the under the joint allowance of one hundred scale), on the payment of the registra­ and twenty kilos, or two hundred aflj tion fee of ten centimes, or one penny. sixty-four pounds ; and never at a single

* See ALL TIIE YEAR. EOUND, Now Series, vol. iii., station were AVC charged mere than the p. 39. regular fee of one penny for the whole =£b> Charles Dickens.] TWO SIDES TO LUGGAGE. [January 15, 1S70. ] 163

during an extensive tour of more than two With the coupon, the tickets are returned months. Only, as the rolling stone does to him, mostly stamped on the back sometimes gather moss, we picked up so " Bagages." He then need take no more many odds and ends by the way, and in thought of his luggage until his journey's Paris especially, that we found on starting end. Even if he has to change trains, he -, from that city that our luggage did slightly is relieved of all care or trouble with his exceed the prescribed allowance; and for luggage. At the destination, he has to ...- the excess we were charged eighty centimes, wait till all the luggage is removed from including the registration, without its rais­ the train into the baggage-room, where, on ing in our minds the suspicion that we had presenting his bulletin, he is put in pos­ rhereby been scandalously swindled. session of his property. When you can The mode of proceeding with luggage at travel with no more luggage than the bag* a French station is this. You first take or small portmanteau you can thrust under . . your party's tickets, of whatever class. If your seat, you avoid having to wait for a servant travels second or third class, his the general distribution of the registered ticket counts all the same in the allowance luggage, which in large towns is often "of luggage. By arriving early at the station, tiresome, and a considerable loss of time. you secure an early turn for the registra- To prevent any mistake on the part of J tion of your luggage ; and by so doing, you travellers who can read French, on the can always manage, even in Paris, to back of each bulletin is printed, " Every "escape "confusion," and quietly proceed, traveller is allowed thirty kilogrammes of ;when all is arranged, armed with your luggage. The luggage will be delivered in c - '!tickets and register of lup-eragre, to thewait- exchange for this bulletin, which is avail­ . ^ rug-room, without fever, perspiration, or able solely for the journey indicated. If, -palpitation of the heart. Those who make on the arrival of the train, one or more of - % point of reaching the station at the last the colis entered on the said bulletin are : - - minute with cartloads of luggage, ought missing, the traveller is expected to inform iiaturally to expect confusion. the station-master immediately, to give With your tickets you proceed imrne- him a detailed list of their contents; and ks i^tely to the baggage-office. The produc- the station-master, in exchange for the pre­ T;i :.; :ion of the tickets is required not only to sent bulletin, will give him a declaration -"-calculate the total weight of luggage to stating the number and weight of the colis . .vhich the party is entitled carriage free, which have failed to be delivered. The .:... out also to prevent packages which ought company declines all responsibility respect­ .:.;--;o be sent by goods' trains from being ing luggage claimed tardily and at variance •.:.- massed off as passengers' luggage. When with the above conditions. Travellers who rour turn comes, your luggage is weighed wish to leave their luggage at the station, --'_. ..)y means of a steelyard. The weigher immediately after the arrival of the train :. _:houts to the clerk in the luggage-office, should change them bulletin for a receipt 'So many colis or packages, weighing so stating the number and the weight of the jtjgsnany kilos." The tickets acquaint the packages left." lerk with the number of travellers and As soon as a traveller's luggage exceeds heir destination. After registration, he the thirty kilos, new conditions are entered glands you a bulletin or coupon, headed upon. The excess pays, not only according ^vith the name of the office, the date of de- to weight, but in proportion to the distance .:. larture, the number of travellers, and the to be traversed; so that it is easy for a i; Lestination. On this are entered, besides the heavily-laden family party, taking a long m, ^^be r of registration, the number of colis, flight, to incur the ten francs which roused Lj/beir joint weight, and the sum charged. your contributor's indignation, without Y\i^he joint weight does not exceed thirty their being the victims of a fraud. Never­ llos per passenger, the sum charged is theless, heavy excesses of weight are ,:cver more than ten centimes, or one charged at a somewhat lower rate than "•any. The traveller sees his luggage small ones. For instance, an excess of five ^'V weighed, he has the statement in black kilos is charged about sixty-five centimes, for the distance between Boulogne and Ht »';lld Wtite in his ^ands of wiiat ^ weighs n Paris, while an excess of one hundred kilos *f,; dhow much he has paid, and were he ce ea e pays about ten francs sixty-five centimes. kr^ ^ d) he could have his lusT^a^o»"t>ve re- ''''-'bed at the end of his journey, and pro I say "about," cautiously, because the uce against the persons who have cheated figures are taken at a station a few kilo­ BJ0I* ,-im evidence in them own handwriting. metres north of Boulogne ; but the error, if r for 164 [January 15, 1870.] ALL THE TEAR ROUND. [Conducted bj 9-

any, cannot be much more than a half­ bour zigzag, like gad-flies, and the Royal penny. Inside the luggage office, to help St. Arthur's and the Royal Burgee in full the clerk, hangs a sort of ready reckoner, uniform, and stuck over with innumerable giving the charges for a scale of weights flags, affected a sort of harmony for that in excess, from five to one hundred kilos, day only. to the different stations along the fine. So A gunboat from one of the great ports that here, again, the traveller, if cheated, was hovering undecidedly outside the har­ has a check to his hand. bour; the lieutenant was being pulled As to tickets, a reference to the " Indi- ashore; but even that " rubbishing fellow" cateur des Chemins de Fer" gives the price went straight for the stairs of the Royal of every ticket for every class from every St. Arthur's. The terraces of both clubs were station in France to every other. The tra­ covered with gentlemen in short jackets and veller can calculate, to a sou, the exact sum caps, and using glasses, with quite a quarter­ he has to pay, push it in at the wicket, and deck air. The start was early : about nine say " There !" Moreover, in most stations, o'clock. From the commodore's yacht those prices are conspicuously printed in came the gun, and the row of racers were black and white, on tall boards, in large "round" in a second, and ghding away out letters and figures that every one can read. of the harbour. The selfish cutter took Railways would rather be without lug­ her time, and rather "lounged" out. She gage, and yet they take a deal of trouble had on her racing suit, and when she about it; and it must be allowed that the got up her "balloon" sails, seemed to misadventures are few, in proportion to the swell like the snowy feathers of a huge immense mass daily conveyed. It is the swan. There was the local crack boat, luggage which most effectually puts a drag known indifferently to the sailors as the on the rapidity of railway travelling; not by Nigh-a-Bee, sometimes as the Knee-Oby, its weight or its cumbersomeness, but by the but which, in Hunt's List, was the'Mobe, time lost in getting it in and out at each 35 ; W. C. Jephson, owner. This gentle­ station. Consequently, several quick French man could hardly contain his disgust as trains will not take passengers, except for he looked at the intruder, who was aristo­ long distances: solely to avoid having to cratic R.Y.S., while he was only R. St. deposit their luggage. Thus, the train A.Y.C. There she was, a smart, coquettish, No. 3, which leaves Paris for Marseilles at thoroughbred thing, shooting out of the a quarter past seven P.M., will only take in, harbour before all the rest; but, " of up to Macon, travellers who go at least as course," there was the huge hulking Morna far as Valence. By this means, a grand rolling carelessly on behind, and getting up sweep is made, with no loss of time in another tremendous sail, though in the the delivery and reception of passengers' most leisurely manner. The rest went on packages. their way in straggling order—here, there, and everywhere, leaning over, awry, stiffly upright, or flying along half arching over, THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS. like graceful skaters. The course was one A YACHTING STORY. of many miles ; in a short time the graceful CHAPTER V. A HOLIDAY. craft were afar off, no more than a few MONDAY morning. A bright, fresh day yellowish specks dotted about, and the with a distant stiff breeze, which every spectators on shore had done with them for now and again caused a dark purple frown nearly the whole day. to pass over the sea very far away. The The Almandine, like a fastidious guards­ old sailors said this meant nothing, that man, seemed to think the affair " a bore,' "afore noon" it would be all right, with a and disdained to take the trouble of racing "good sailin'breeze." The harbour seemed at all. She lay in the centre of the har­ to have half the air of a nautical flower bour, tranquilly, as if reposing on a sort show—so many sails were fluttering in a of watery sofa, full of charming languor. sort of negligee toilette. A few more of Round her circulated innumerable g"1) these elegant ladies had dropped in during pleasure boats, all parasols and bright the night, and for the first race it was ribbons. Towards two o'clock, the terraces known that at least ten would start. Of of the Royal St. Arthur's and of to course the shabby, greedy Morna was Royal Burgee became crowded, and m among them. " Scandalous," many a band of the Sixth (Prince Regent's Own), mariner, his hands deep in his pockets' one circle of legs and jackets, with MP muttered. Little boats shot about the har­ at about the sloping angle of a row! Charles Dickens.] THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS. [January 15,1870.] 1G5

played " selections" under the direction of should move on, and not crowd in the Herr Spoffman. They had been brought doors." Miss Jessica's lips were contracted, by special train. The Royal St. Arthur's and to other people she looked as overbear­ were giving a dejeuner a la fourchette, ing as her father. Out on the terrace, they 4* in the boat-house, at four o'clock. The came among the gay company, where the commodore and vice-commodore of the Prince Regent's Own were drumming and Royal Burgee were, almost perforce, in­ clattering the eternal Trovatore, with infi­ vited ; and the members of the Royal nite noise. -.Burgee, though they hated it, still spoke In a moment Mr. Conway was beside . with pride of the invitation, and told each them, and was seized on, swallowed up in other at the house "that the commodore the vast greeting of the tremendous doctor, and vice ditto were over at St. Arthur's." who was him self family, daughter, wife, As the day wore on, the excitement in- all, and spoke for all. With a quiet inatten­ ^ creased, and the crowds gathered more tion, Mr. Conway put him aside and wel­ ..^thickly on the pier. Special trains began comed Jessica. She was all interest, all IN. to arrive from neighbouring manufacturing excitement. She had been looking out JL^towns. On the jetty and pier were the for him eagerly, as he saw. The doctor ,. usual " Fair" supernumeraries ; fellows became of a sudden submerged in business, • - , shooting for nuts, the roulettes, the carts calling out, looking for some one. " of spruce and ginger-beer. These familiars " Where's Colman ? Send him here, do ! take the race-course and the regatta on Has Sir Charles come ? Here, ma'am, be their circuit indifferently. The Cheap good enough, do. Don't crowd about the Jacks lectured But suddenly among the passage ; people can't get in or out," &c. -•-motley group appeared an open carriage, He was now in the boat-house, looking ; - -: -with a very large gentleman in a large hat after the dejeuner : now out of the boat- • —a bright girl beside him—who was calling house, looking after the great people, and M- ^out, in a loud voice, " Don't stop the way, all the while, not unnaturally, in a very tHMipleage—stand aside—we are in a hurry!" great heat. ler,¥iuiiNo wonder Doctor Bailey was eager, for " I am so glad to meet you," said Jessica. ie mi r.he could actually hear the voice of "that "What you thought of me I do not know. aw,low Buckley" close by, who was in the But there are people who try and ' draw \mi "midst of a ring on a granite stone, asking a out' my father, as they call it, and I . rest large crowd whether " their timbers were thought " irajek&secure and well caulked; whether their " You thought I could be so ill-bred, so liii Elopes were taut, and were they ready to ungentlemanly ?" said Conway, colouring. ail, femount the ship's side; up the glorious " I did," said she, fearlessly. " I tell the Be regangway of faith, and step on the quarter- truth always, though you may despise me, , 0Iilfr-ideck of the resurrection ?" and make yourself my enemy for ever." ,»ova,if Seeing faces turning away from him at " Well, you are independent, like myself. „yfjrjfche sound of carriage wheels, Mr. Buckley I should have made the same answer, I jjjjtogwent on. "Is that the way to put out suspect. And I like you the better for on the sea of righteousness, in purple telling me this. Look here; who comes . ind fine linen, and," with a slight confu- by ? You will tell me all the notables." i - sion of metaphor, " rolling in one's car- It was the doctor, and a short, spare, griage ? Is it by going down to riot, and wiry, grey gentleman, in a white coat and drink, and eat, and be filled, and make blue tie, and with a tall young lady on . jjl-itnerry, like the swine, that the God-fearing his arm. She was dressed to perfection, s^mariner fits himself for his work ?" &c. and a certain good taste about her made 0: Thus did the low Buckley make the her face handsome. It was Laura the , ePidoctor serve as a text and homily. What HEIRESS, and though the majority there • lid the latter care ? There he was, getting were above everything mean, yet the ^P° ilown at the door of the Royal St. Ar- presence of so much wealth unconsciously gtf^mr's' and> striding in with his daughter fluttered them all, and numbers of necks m, ijjjn his arm. " Keep back these people, and heads were twisted and craned " to get ®® policeman," he said. " There's really no a good view." People even reverently made ' •gettin ^fittinrgr intir+on one'^vna'sa ow^-nr-nn houselinnuo. Sir Charles way and drew back with an awe they were I inr ,j.—he has come, I suppose ? eh, Bowles ? ashamed of, but could not resist. If all of us cr0# Seen the prince about ?" were saints, money would force this homno-e. Thus he passed in, pushing his way with The doctor was their grand chamberlain. nany a "Let me pass, please! People " See here, Sir Charles. That's the Alman- 166 [January 15, 1870. ] ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [Conducted by dine, Lord Formanton's, you know, fine m and he gave out orders right and left vessel. I had the son and his friend, the to others, dragging this partner about, and Prince of Saxe-Groningen, to lunch with me. clutching at young men. " Here, you-, Most gentlemanly fellow. Ah ! by the way, get somebody and take 'em in." Then Sir Charles, here he is. Conway, allow me. his eye fell on Miss Panton, and he seized Sir Charles Panton—Miss Panton." Mr. Conway and eagerly " hauled" him Conway, perfect gentleman as he was, to her side. As for his own daughter, what could give a rebuke, or be insolent even, did it matter what became of her ? Con- iltiii w with his face. He conveyed by his cold bow way, now that fate was inexorable, offered that he had not desired this introduction, himself for duty with perfect compla, and conveyed it to all the parties concerned. cency. But he could see the unconcealed " I hope Doctor Bailey," he said, turning dissatisfaction, the open colour, of the lady to Jessica, " will not ask me to make any he was thus obliged to leave. This sort more acquaintances. I make it a point to of character, clear as crystal, which dig. be disagreeable, and a Miss Mammon I dained to conceal, was really new to him, never can stand." and quite inviting. "I am delighted," said Jessica, enthusi­ With his new companion he was quite a astically. " My father thinks them the different person. He became the conven­ greatest people in the world, and is always tional gentleman of parties and amusements, asking them, or wishing to be asked by asked with apparent interest as to her balls them. You saw how she looked at me. and parties, and talked in the usual per­ She is empress over this part of the country. sonal way of bis own movements. One thine i But I am not under her, and disdain her she saw clearly, he was not in the least im­ rule, and would die before I would submit pressed by her acknowledged sovereignty, to her. And she knows it." " I see you know those Baileys," she " How you and I shall agree," said Con­ said, pettishly. "Very pushing people." way. " It is refreshing to hear such inde­ He had never met so fretted a voice. pendence. I am independent, too, of all " I like her," said Mr. Conway, with an the world, except of a certain good but affected warmth, " so much. She is charm­ rather ambitious person, whose name is ingly natural, and full of honesty. She is to Formanton." be pitied with that intrusive father, who " Oh, your father ?" should have been chamberlain at a little "Yes. My poor mother, last and only German court, not an English clerffvnian." one of all my friends, left me to him. "I know nothing of them," said she, I am his while he lives, as much as a serf haughtily; " nothing whatever. Of course used to be in Russia. But for this I should we exchange visits, and that sort of thing, ';•- have married ten, fifteen years ago, and but I do not wish to go beyond it." done something. As it is, I have been " So I have heard," said Conway, smil- I leading an actor's life, instead of doing ing. " They have told me already that something useful. Now I have grown olcl, Miss Panton is queen of this country for and the best part of life is gone. But I miles round. They speak with distending -- have made a promise, and must stick to it. eyes, and gaping mouths, of her vast wealth, * Stick to it!' Is not that a refined speech ? and gold and jewels. I am sure it must Even in English, where I used to be rather amuse you. But these poor people can't ' nice.' You see the decay ?" help it, you know." It must have been time for the dejeuner, " And these people I suppose have been for Doctor Bailey was bustling people about, telling you all this ?" and giving loud orders, causing angry faces "These people?" repeated Mr. Conway, to be turned round as he stood on dresses wishing " to take her down" a little. " Oh, and roughly pushed past ladies. He was Dr. Bailey and his daughter, Miss Bailey. always hot and angry when he stood on a I see, I am getting on the thin ice. Yon lady's dress, or dragged it from her waist. know a stranger cannot be, nor is he ex­ • " Such things ! A man can't walk. I pected to be, posted up in the little ven­ really must ask you, ma'am, to stand out of dettas of a place like this." the way. No one can get by." The pettish look she gave him, gavehin "Rude bear!" "Savage!" wore the pleasure afterwards to think of. "la ven­ whispered rejoinders. There was another ded a, with them ! I repeat they are out­ lady of rank present, whom the doctor him­ side our circle. It is barely an acquairij self had described as "a broken-down ance. You might as well say I have :1 honourable," whom he was obliged to " fake vendetta with that sailor there.'" Charles Dickens.] THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS. [January 15,1870.] 167

"No doubt," said he, gravely; " and my thought she will be in on the shore, when 8 life in this place has been only a day or so bang goes the cannon from the flagship. long. But as a mere fact of general ex­ She has won, and she whisks round con­ perience your illustration does not hold. temptuously. The very magnificence of Vjn plays, you know, the wicked lord often the demeanour of the unpopular craft - takes a horrid and unmeaning dislike to his extorts a cheer. « of bvirtuous tenant in a red waistcoat." After that, the evening closes in slowly, All this while two sullen eyes had been dropping its mantle gently over all, mak­ peri'^ bent on them from the opposite side of the ing the white grey and the sea leaden, ette>room, and he thus heard a voice beside him, and then dark. Lights begin to sparkle ; ,: Red waistcoats and virtuous tenants ! Do the distant music sounds like a faint hum. leave, J0XL bear Conway ? Let me warn you," he The two club-houses light up like blazing T\vi-added to her, "he has got all the re- lanterns, and the populace stand in crowds, ^ .,finements and metaphysics. I know him ; gazing at the fine company within, who md with these little smart things he makes are having their dance. Then, darkness i01 (^himself interesting. I know you of old, being well set in, it was time to expect ^'.-my dear friend." the fireworks. The whole surface of the "No you do not," said the other, coolly. harbour was covered with crawling boats, - That is much too highly coloured an ac and resounded with the chatter and laugh­ i • ii joant of our acquaintance. Pardon me if ter of exuberant voices. Lights flitted from [ am wrong, but you know very little about end to end of every yacht; and now and . ne, Dudley. Now, Miss Panton, come again a "blue light" flashed, showing rows of ".-_-.\nt o this place. I am sure you must be faces illuminated in that strangely pale light. : ired, and perhaps hungry." From the steps of the club-house was There was a vast clatter of plates, knives putting off the Almandine's barge, and ~md forks, and champagne explosion. The Mr. Conway had helped down Miss Jessica relatives of the district were not generally into the after portion. The gossips of the "'" \;accustomed to such rich and gratuitous little place had noted how " that cun­ ' entertainments. They flung themselves on ning girl was laying herself out for that he banquet with something like ravenous- good catch," as they called Mr. Conway. less. It was hard to hear a neighbour's By that light not much could be seen of oice through it all. the beauties, comforts, and luxuries of the Almandine. To the terrestrial visitor - E CHAPTER VI. " LOVE IJST HER EYES SITS nothing seems so complete and tempting ri " PLATING." as a well-appointed yacht ; and the fascina­ THE dejeuner was nearly over, and the tion is very much that of a baby house, oasts were being given ; the splendid and with its complete kitchens, bedrooms, &c, 1 said l?5ourteous commodore, who had done so for a little girl. Harbour visitants do not '}.-- nuch so splendidly for his club; our guess how odious it would seem on, say, the :. plendid queen; splendid noble prince; second day after going to sea, when a gale i^wi-mr distinguished and splendid guests, even is "on" and the waves high. Doctor ; ; . >ur rival Burgee commodore, who, if not Bailey was critical, and spoke as if in j u splendid, yet viewed athwart the sparkling mariner's orders alibis life. " Exceedingly jg poor ] uibbles of morning champagne, was decent nice and well appointed, nothing could be md worthy, and meant well. The Burgee in better taste. You are a true Formanton, -. 'esponded with almost grovelling gratitude, my dear Mr. Conway." md he should never, till laid in the cold As the fireworks now began to whiz and irth, "forget their kindness of that day." roar, the rockets bent, as it were, on blast­ • Then raging of cannon outside; rather ing the very welkin, while the distant 11 ushed faces stream out to see the yachts Catherine wheels whirled and blazed, and t) tli3:lroPl,i,,Sin- showered cascades of sparks, lighting up ]e thousands of spectral figures lining the pier, Oh, of course the shabby, greedy Morna, r aonster of snowy white, comes rolling in Mr. Conway w as talking with interest to }. :: irst, triumphant and contemptuous, the rest Miss Jessica. The two were leaning over i quarter, half an hour, hours behind! the rail, and he told her a great deal of his life and story. Such pastime there are -.'-. iVell into the harbour sails the vast yacht, plenty of selfish people to delight in, who --;_" itooping over, her dress ballooning out, would be autobiographical, "end on," for lie water falling away from before her in clays. In fact, our human nature prefers -.,- idges of snowy foam. She conies on and talking of itself to talking of any one else. \ »")n> growing larger every second, until it is

*» *£= 168 ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [January 15,1870.]

This amusement is generally mere vanity and credible. I am ashamed of myself, and of selfishness. But there are autobiographies them, when I think of it. Miss Bailey jj' we like to listen to, because they are natural almost the first I have met who disdains such and unselfish, and extorted, as it were, be­ behaviour, or, perhaps," he added, laughing cause we have a sympathy to extend to them. " does not think me worth the trouble." "After all this egotism," he said at the Here broke in the rude voice of the end, when the fiery letters, " WELCOME TO Doctor : " I think we must ask you for the THE ROYAL ST. ARTHUR'S " were burning boat, Mr. Conway. This has been all very out, and after some erratic squibbing and pleasant. And we shall certainly come hy pyrotechnical spluttering, all was darkness daylight and see your nice vessel." and silence, " after all this egotism, what The Doctor got down into the boat with can it be to you whether this be my turn of difficulty and grumbling. "Such an hi. mind ? Whether I be cold or calculating, convenient sort of arrangement." He felt or when once deceived, never let myself be cold about his great neck, and took his deceived again ? Whether if I suspected daughter's cloak as a sort of muffler, in anything in, say, a person who was 'my which he looked very grotesque. wife, I would disdain to question, to ask for In her own room Jessica sat long, before explanation, but work the thing out for my­ going to bed, ruminating softly, and smiling self, independent of all, as if I were alone in to herself, and finally walking up and the world ? I say, what is this to any one ? down, and talking to herself, with a sort But there you have my creed, such as it is." of exultation and forecasting of the future. "I understand you now," she said, "I see it," she said, "I see it coming. " perfectly ; and may I confess, too, that I He shall love me — nay, does love me! can admire such a character." I know it, plainly and truly, as if it "And you really do ? And you admire were a revelation, that he came into this standing alone, as it were, this having this world for me; that I shall fill np one's own for everything—opinion, counsel, for him that blank, desolate corner in judgment—no appeal: a blind unswerving his existence which for years has been confidence in oneself, not as a safe guide before his weary eyes. Yes, all this was by any means, but one more suited to me foreordained. As he told me his story— than any other could be ? There is self- and, oh ! how he told it—could I not see sufficiency for you !" my own place, and could have cried out, 'I " And, of course, you despise women should have been there !' He begins to see above all!" she said warmly, though he it, too. It is what I have been waiting for, could not see her cheeks kindling. and what he has been waiting for! And "I shall conceal nothing from yon," he he will ask me, I know, to be his. It is went on, " that is, if you still care to coming, as surely as to-morrow is coming." listen " In came her maid, and Jessica almost " Care to listen !" and her foot stamped, smiled at her own excitement. So that " I should tell you so if I did not. I like eventful day ended. to listen, though I know I shall not like what you tell me. But the vapid fools my Now Keadv, price 5s. 6d., bound in green cloth, father brings to the house, and who talk in THE SECOND VOLUME their insipid way of women—girls whose OF THE NEW SEEIES OF one thought is worth their whole nature— you won't tell me that you think with them ?'' ALL THE YEAR ROUND. " I shall tell you the truth. What the To be bad of all Booksellers. only being in the world that ever loved me left to me as her treasure and jewel box. MR. CHARLES DICKENS'S FINAL READINCS, I am an old man now, as the world goes, MESSRS. CHAITELL AND CO. have groat pleasure thirty years old and odd, and during those in announcing tbat ME. CHARLES DICKENS resumed his interrupted series of EAEEWELL BEADING! years it is inconceivable the picture of fe­ at St. Jamos's Hall, London, on Tuesday, January 11 > male character that has passed before me. and will conclude the same on Tuesday. "March 18. Not before me, but before Lord Formanton's The Readings will be TWELVE in NUMBER, ami none will take place out of London. son and heir. The history of adulation and All communications to be addressed to Messrs. abasement that I could give would be in­ CHAFPELL and Co., 60, New Bond-street, W.

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