Shifting Winds - Robert Michael Ballantyne (poetry books to read TXT) 📗

with open-mouthed admiration. I observed, too, that Kenneth Stuart was gazing at her with such rapt attention that I had to address him several times before he heard me!

This I was not surprised at, for I remember to this day the feelings of pleasure with which I beheld my pretty niece, when, having lost her father and mother, poor dear! she came to find a home under my roof, and it was natural she should inspire admiration in a young man like Kenneth.

My family and the Stuarts had become acquainted only a few weeks before the events of which I am now writing, and this was the first time that the young people had met. They were not altogether unknown to each other, however, for Lizzie had heard of Kenneth from the fishermen, who used to speak with interest of his horsemanship and his daring feats in rescuing drowning people from the sea during the storms that so frequently visited our coast, and Kenneth had heard of Lizzie, also from the fishermen, amongst whom she was a frequent visitor, especially when sickness entered their cots, or when the storm made their wives widows, and their little ones fatherless.

I had set my heart on seeing these two married. My dear wife, for the first time in her life I believe, thoroughly agreed with me in this wish. I mention the fact with unalloyed pleasure, as being what I may term a sunny memory, a bright spot, in a life of subdued though true happiness. We neither of us suspected at that time what bitter opposition to our wishes we were to receive from Kenneth's father, who, although in many respects a good man, was very stern--unpleasantly stern.

Having done all that could be done for the wrecked people, Lizzie and I returned to our residence in Wreckumoft at about four in the morning.

Kenneth insisted on walking with us, sending his man home with his horse, which Lizzie patted on the neck, and called a noble creature. It was quite evident that Kenneth wished that he himself was his own horse on that occasion--so evident that Lizzie blushed, and taking my arm hurriedly urged me to go home as it was "very late."

"Very early would be more correct, my dear," said I, "for it is past four. You must be tired, Lizzie; it is wrong in me to allow you to subject yourself to such storms. Give her your arm, Kenneth."

"If Miss Gordon will accept of it," said the youth approaching her promptly, "I shall be--"

"No, thank you," said Lizzie, interrupting him and clinging closer to me; "I am not in the least tired, and your assistance is quite sufficient, uncle."

I must confess to being surprised at this, for it was quite evident to me that Kenneth admired Lizzie, and I was pretty certain--so was my dear wife--that Lizzie admired Kenneth, although of course she never gave us the slightest hint to that effect, and it seemed to me such a good and reasonable opportunity for--well, well, I need not bore you, reader, with my wild ideas, so peculiarly adapted it would seem for the twentieth century--suffice it to say, that I _was_ surprised. But if truth must be told, I have always lived in a state of surprise in regard to the thoughts and actions of women, and on this particular night I was doomed to the unpleasant surprise of being received with a sharp rebuke from Mrs Bingley, who roundly asserted that she would stand this sort of thing no longer. That she had no notion of being disturbed at such unearthly hours by the noisy advent of a disagreeably damp and cold husband, and that if I intended to continue to be an agent of the Shipwrecked Mariners' Society, she would insist upon a separate maintenance!

I was comforted, however, by finding a good fire and a hot cup of coffee in the parlour for myself and Lizzie, provided by our invaluable housekeeper, Susan Barepoles, a girl who was worthy of a better name, being an active, good-looking, cheerful lass. She was the daughter of the skipper of one of our coal sloops, named Haco Barepoles, a man of excellent disposition, but gifted with such a superabundance of animal spirits, courage, and recklessness, that he was known in the port of Wreckumoft as Mad Haco.

Much exhausted by one of the hardest nights of toil and exposure I ever spent, I retired to my room and sought and found repose.


CHAPTER FIVE.


THE BREAKFAST PARTY AT SEASIDE VILLA.

The morning after the storm was bright and beautiful. The breakers, indeed, were still thundering on the shore, but otherwise the sea was calm, and the sun shone into the breakfast parlour of Seaside Villa with a degree of intensity that might have warmed the heart of an oyster. It certainly warmed the heart of the household cat, which, being an early riser, was first down-stairs, and lay at full length on the rug, enjoying at once the heat of the glowing fire which tinged its brown back with red, and the blazing sun which turned its white breast yellow.

Presently a dark cloud entered the room. It sat on the brow of George Stuart, Esquire, of Wreckumoft, the head of the family. Mr Stuart walked up to the fire and turned his back to it, as if to offer it a deliberate insult, while yet he accepted all the benefit it could afford him on that cold December morning.

The cat being in his way, he moved it out of his way with his foot. He did it roughly, but he did not exactly kick it, for he was not a cruel, or naturally unkind man.

Having disposed of the cat, and looked twice at his watch, and blown his nose three times--the last twice unnecessarily--Mr Stuart rang the bell with violence.

Mrs Niven entered.

"Why is breakfast not ready?" said the master with asperity.

"Breakfast _is_ ready, sir," replied the housekeeper with dignity.

"Where is my sister, then, and the rest of them?" The questioner was partly answered by the abrupt and somewhat flurried entrance of the sister referred to.

"What's the meaning of this, Peppy?" demanded Mr Stuart with a frown.

"My dear George," said Miss Peppy, bustling about actively, "I really _am_ sorry, but you know things can't always be just as one would wish, and then when things _do_ turn out occasionally as one would _not_ wish, and as one had no expectation of, and, so to speak, without consulting one at all, (dear me, where _is_ that key?)--and when one can't help things turning out so, you know, it's really too much to--to--you know what I mean, brother; come now, be reasonable."

"I do _not_ know what you mean, Peppy," (the lady's name when unabbreviated was Penelope, but as she never was so named by any one, she might as well not have had the name at all), "and," continued Mr Stuart, emphatically, "I would advise _you_ to be reasonable and explain yourself."

"Dear George, how _can_ you," said Miss Peppy, who talked with great volubility, and who never for a moment ceased to bustle about the room in a series of indescribable, as well as unaccountable, not to say unnecessary, preparations for the morning meal, which had already been prepared to perfection by Mrs Niven; "you surely don't forget--things do happen _so_ surprisingly at times--really, you know, I _can not_ see why we should be subjected to such surprises. I'm quite sure that no good comes of it, and then it makes one look _so_ foolish. Why human beings were made to be surprised so, _I_ never could understand. No one ever sees pigs, or horses, or cows surprised, and they seem to get through life a great deal easier than we do, at all events they have less worry, and they never leave their children at their neighbour's doors and run away--what _can_ have got it?--I'm quite sure I put it there last night with the thimble and scissors."

Miss Peppy thrust her right hand deep into that mysterious receptacle of household miscellanies her pocket, and fingered the contents inquiringly for a few moments.

"What are you looking for?" inquired her brother impatiently.

"The key of the press," said Miss Peppy with a look of weariness and disappointment.

"What key is that in your left hand?" said Mr Stuart.

"Why, I declare, that's _it_!" exclaimed his sister with a laugh; "there _is_ no accounting for things. My whole life is a series of small surprises and perplexities. I _wonder_ what I was born for! It seems to me so ridiculous that so serious a thing as life should be taken up with such little trifles."

"What's that you say about trifles, aunt?" asked Kenneth, who entered the room at the moment, and saluted Miss Peppy on the cheek.

"Nothing, Kennie, nothing worth mentioning," (she seated herself at the table and began to pour out the tea): "it seems that you have been saving more lives last night."

"Well, yes, at least I saved _one_," said Kenneth, with a look of mingled pride and pleasure; "stout John Furby, the coxswain of the new lifeboat, was knocked overboard and nearly drowned. Bucephalus and I chanced to be near the spot at the time, so we managed to pull him out between us."

"I don't like Bucephalus," observed Miss Peppy, stirring her tea with her egg-spoon by mistake.

"Don't you, aunt--why?"

"Because he's so big and strong and fierce. I wonder you can take pleasure in riding such a great cart-horse, Kennie."

Miss Peppy at this moment discovered her mistake in regard to the egg-spoon, and rectified it, observing with a look of resignation, that there _was_ no accounting for the way in which things happened in this world.

"Don't call my Bucephalus a cart-horse, aunt," said Kenneth, beginning to eat languidly; "true, he is uncommonly big and strong, but then I am unusually big too, so we're well matched; and then his limbs are as delicately turned as those of a racer; and you should see him taking a five-barred gate, aunt!--he carries me over as if I were a mere feather. Think of his swimming powers too. John Furby is not the first man he has enabled me to drag out of the stormy sea. Ah! he's a noble horse-- worthy of higher praise than you seem inclined to give him, believe me."

"Well I'm sure I have no objection to the horse if you have none, Kennie, and it's a good thing for a beast to be able to save human lives, though why human lives should require to be saved at all is a mystery that I never could fathom; surely if men would only agree to give up going to sea altogether, and never build any more ships, there would be no more drowning, and no need of lifeboats and cork boots--or coats, I forget which--that enable them to walk on the water, or float in it, I don't remember which. I'm sure with all that I have to remember it's no wonder--what with ridiculous little trifles to worry one, such as keys, and thimbles, and scissors, when we should be giving our minds to the solemn realities of life--and then,--as if that were not enough for any woman's shoulders,--to have a little child left at one's door."

"Oh, by the way," interrupted Kenneth, "I had quite forgotten the child. Mrs Niven