Her Mother's Secret Part 3

"Because I was so surprised and delighted to see you, Friday!" he replied, with gay defiance.

"I should think the sight of me would blast your eyes!"

"Don't swear, Friday! At least, don't swear in that way. 'Blast your eyes'

is a low, seafaring phrase. I know it is provoking to have me come, when you had got away so far and felt so secure! Well, it was as great a shock to me! By Jove! we looked at each other for a moment like a pair of ghosts! Didn't we? But talking of 'blasts,' I don't mind confessing that the sight of you did nearly strike me blind, but it was through your dazzling beauty! By Jove, Friday, you are ten thousand times handsomer now than you were when you turned the head of His Royal----"

"Be silent! If you dare to name that devil to me again----"

"Quite so! I am dumb! I am mute. But don't use strong language, Friday! It is bad form. You must have picked up the habit in America."

"Look you here, Angus Anglesea! Mr. Force intends to invite you to visit us at our country house, down in Maryland."

"He has invited me. Deuced kind of him! And I have accepted the invitation," put in the colonel, twirling his light mustache.

"You will not go. You will have the decency to avoid the roof of an honorable man."

The colonel's face flushed crimson. His brow darkened with anger. For a moment he lost even the superficial semblance of a gentleman, and showed himself a ruffian in tone and manner.

"Look you, my Lady Elfrida! You take a dangerous tone toward me who holds your fate in the grip of his hand!" he exclaimed, stretching out his arm, and working his fingers. "Yes, and who would not hesitate, under provocation, to tighten that grip to your destruction. But there! We should serve, not ruin, each other. Now listen to me, Friday. If you will behave yourself, I will hold my tongue. Otherwise----But I need say no more. You understand me."

"I understand you to be an unmitigated villain!" muttered the lady, fiercely, between her clenched teeth--"an incarnate fiend!"

"You flatter me; you do, really. You elevate my self-respect. How I shall enjoy your conversation at--at----What is the name of your princ.i.p.ality or grand duchy down in Maryland? I am told that your great plantations down in the South are quite equal in wealth, population and extent of territory to our lesser European sovereignties. What is the name of the place to which I am invited, and where I intend to go?"

"Why do you wish to know the name of our happy home? Why do you wish to enter our Eden, like another serpent, to destroy it?" exclaimed the lady, beside herself with fear and wrath.

"There you go again, Friday! You will not drop that bad habit of flattering a modest man to his face. I declare you will make me vain."

"Why do you wish to trouble me? Why do you wish to come to Mondreer?" she inquired, wringing her hands.

"Oh, ho! You have come down from your tragics. Mondreer, is it? And why do I go? Well, to be frank with you, I go to browse upon

"'Fresh fields and pastures green.'"

"I understand. You think the simple, honest, country gentlemen will be easier prey for your gamester's snares than are the men you meet at public resorts. And you mean to swindle and fleece them," scornfully replied the lady.

Again the man's face flushed with anger, but he controlled his temper, and laughed, saying:

"What a genius you have for compliment, Friday! You should have been a courtier, where your talents might have been turned to the best advantage; or a king's favorite. Ah! but there we tread on delicate ground, do we not?"

"I warn you, Col. Anglesea, not to drive me too far! For sooner than submit to your insults, I will throw myself upon my husband's mercy, and claim his protection against you."

"Oh! You will go to him, and tell him that 'tale of old times' of which you were the heroine? And in his love he will forgive you. And so far so well. But, then, suppose I also should tell that little story to _all_ and sundry? How would it be then?" sneered the man.

"Oh! fiend! fiend!" breathed the woman through her white lips and closed teeth.

"Quite so. You only do me justice. I shall enjoy your conversation at Mondreer."

"And you go there to rob my husband and our unsuspicious neighbors at the card table. But you will be disappointed. Mr. Force does not know one card from another, and his friends seldom or never play."

"What barbarians must be the people of your princ.i.p.ality, Friday! I must really go there as a missionary to teach them the arts of civilized life.

Ah! in good time. Here comes his serene highness. Let us smooth our ruffled plumage, else he may be asking inconvenient questions," whispered the colonel, as Abel Force smilingly approached them.

"Ah! You here, colonel? That is right. We'll all go down to tea together.

I feel really so delighted to have met with an old friend of my wife that I cannot bear to lose sight of him. We must leave here on Monday. Now, my dear colonel, could you not arrange your affairs so as to accompany us? If your plan of travel would admit of your giving us the pleasure of your company on our return journey, we should be really delighted, you know.

The hunting season will soon be on, and I could show you some fine sport,"

said Mr. Force.

And then seeing his eldest daughter enter the room, he drew her arm within his own and smilingly waved his hand to the colonel to take Mrs. Force and lead the way to the tea room.

But the lady refused to see the signal, took the arm of her governess, Miss Meeke, and went on, the colonel walking persistently beside her.

"What do you hunt in your grand duchy, sir? Buffalo? Bears? Wolves?"

inquired the colonel, when they were all seated at the table.

"No," laughed Mr. Force, good-humoredly. "You would have to go a thousand miles to the west for that game, colonel. We hunt just what you do in England--with a difference--we hunt foxes and hares, and sometimes deer.

Oh, we will show you! You will think yourself back in old England. Come.

Shall we consider the matter settled?" cordially demanded Mr. Force.

"Thanks very much. I shall be too happy to make one of your traveling party. I will go."

CHAPTER IV

A DANGEROUS GUEST

"Remember," said the munificent Marylander to his new acquaintance, when they were about to start, "my wife's old friend is my guest from the moment we leave this hotel."

Which words being translated into practice, meant that Mr. Force, from the time the party left the Cataract House, paid all the colonel's traveling expenses from Niagara to Mondreer--even though they lingered at several pleasant stopping places and took the Adirondacks on their way.

The frank and obliging colonel not being afflicted with any delicate sensibilities, made not the slightest objection to having all his bills paid by his host, nor felt the least hesitation in borrowing all the money he wanted, using various pretexts of delayed remittances, and so forth, all of which excuses the straightforward and unsuspicious Marylander believed, feeling well pleased to be his guest's banker.

It was the first of October when the travelers finally reached Mondreer.

Arrived there, Col. Anglesea took possession of the mansion with the most engaging condescension and continued to borrow money of his host with the most charming affability.

He had, besides, a frank, bluff, soldierly manner, which pleased the country neighbors and won their confidence. He easily ran into debt at the country stores and pleasantly won money at cards from the simple, young men who thought it an honor to lose their cash to such a very great nabob and very fine gentleman.

Meanwhile he kept a sharp lookout for rich young men to fleece and some rich heiress to marry.

Abel Force, in his frank, cordial, unsuspicious hospitality, gave hunting breakfasts, dinner parties and oyster suppers in honor of his English guest, and invited all the best people in the county to meet him.

Col. Anglesea, from his pleasing person and agreeable manners, entertaining conversation, and fund of information and anecdote, became very popular in the neighborhood, and the county gentry feasted and lionized him to his heart's content.

But the longed-for heiress did not seem to be forthcoming.