"IT WAS ALL I COULD DO TO GUARD MYSELF FROM THE FURIOUS LUNGES OF THE COUNT."
[ "A PRINCESS IN GREEN AND TAN."]
THE STORY OF A BLOOMSBURY SENSATION.
By Arthur Preston.
Illustrated by A. Rackham.
Never did my prospects seem worse or more gloomy than in the winter of 188-.
I had returned to England from a five years' sojourn in the more unsettled parts of British Columbia, after an unsuccessful pursuit of fortune in that land of gold, mountains, and timber. It was at Felixstowe—that charming watering-place, where my people then had a house—that I first came into relation with those who were afterwards to exercise such influences for good or evil on my life.
I was walking round the place renewing my acquaintance with the English life, when I was confronted with the most beautiful face I have ever seen. It belonged to a young girl of eighteen or nineteen, quietly dressed in a green walking-skirt and tan jacket, while her blue eyes looked out from under a mass of golden hair, in turn surmounted by a sailor hat.
As her eyes for a moment met mine, I was conscious of that magnetic thrill which I was told afterwards my mistress exercised on all those with whom she came in contact. She was accompanied by a lady somewhat older than herself, and whom, from her likeness, I mentally set down as being, if not her sister, at any rate her near relative. As soon as I conveniently could, I turned round and followed them, and noticed them enter a house which—as a perusal of the Felixstowe visitors' list, hastily bought and perused, informed me—was at present occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Delaine.
I was both astonished and delighted at this, as this Mrs. Delaine was a person upon whom my mother had by mutual friends been asked to call.
That very afternoon, I determined, should obtain for me at least a bowing acquaintance with her. Alas for my dreams! Our ring at the bell produced a man-servant, who stated that Mrs. Delaine was away from home, and he did not know when she would return. From then on I haunted the walks about Felixstowe, meeting my divinity over and over again, but never once could I see that she betrayed the least knowledge that these frequent momentary meetings were anything but the results of accident.