Слике страница
PDF
ePub

SPENCER CARLTON'S LOVE STORY,

CHAPTER I.

MAMMA, I do think that the

report Aunt Julia heard must be true,' said Laura Carlton to her mother, looking up from a long foreign letter she had for some time been busily engaged in reading.

'What report, my dear?' asked her mother, who was equally absorbed in the fashionable intelligence' contained in the Morning Post.' Your aunt hears so many reports that I never place much reliance on them.'

'Of course I mean all she told us about Spencer-that is the only report of the smallest interest to me,' replied Laura, rather provoked at her mother's indifference. 'Annie Travers has written to me from Rome, and at the end of her letter asks me if she is to congratulate me on my new sister, whose extreme beauty is a constant topic of conversation now at Rome.'

'Spencer would certainly have told us himself if it had been true, my dear,' replied Mrs. Carlton, looking rather perturbed. 'Let me hear again all that Miss Travers says.'

Laura obeyed, and Mrs. Carlton listened attentively.

--

'I had almost forgotten, Laura, what your aunt did say that Spencer was épris with a lovely American girl, who was supposed to be rich, was it not? I never gave it a thought. Spencer has been so often épris with lovely girls before now.'

'Yes,' said Laura; but he has written so seldom, and his letters have been so unsatisfactory, that I have an instinct that this is true; and you will allow that my instincts are generally right, mamma.'

'I really scarcely know what to think,' returned her mother. 'If this girl is both rich and beautiful, as your aunt says, it is probably the best thing dear Spencer could do. I will write at once to your aunt, and inquire more, and especially whether she heard the report from any reliable authority.'

VOL. XV.-NO. LXXXVIII.

Laura stood gazing through the window long after her mother left the room. There was nothing attractive in the bleak, dreary landscape before her, made yet more dreary by the slight sprinkling of snow which had already covered the ground. Yet Laura gazed on it that day with an inexpressible feeling_of affection. She loved the widespreading valley, the old trees under which the deer were grouped, the tall elms near the house in which, from her earliest infancy, she had watched the rooks building their nests; the terraced garden upon which the windows of the room in which she lingered had been made to open, so that in summer they almost entirely lived in it. This

garden was both the pride and delight of her mother's life; and now she might perhaps be called upon to part from it all! It might be passing into the hands of anotherone to whom it could not have the slightest interest! She might have to uproot all the bright and pleasant things that had gathered round her young life, and try to plant them in another home. But would they bear to be thus transplanted? would they not wither and die in another soil? No place, she fondly thought, could ever be compared with this; and, indeed, Etheridge Castle was a beautiful old place, which had been the property of the Carltons for several centuries.

Mrs. Carlton had lost her husband many years, and had been left with a son and daughter, to whom she entirely devoted herself, and who were the one comfort and support of her widowhood. Spencer was the eldest, and. of him it is enough to say that he thoroughly fulfilled the idea of one 'who was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.' He had distinguished himself at Cambridge, and his early manhood was full of promise. He was tall and handsome, with that combination of strength and tender

Y

ness which is so especially attractive to women. His mother was mistaken in saying that Spencer had so frequently lost his heart to pretty girls,' for beyond an occasional momentary fascination, when the advances were more on the lady's side than on his, no woman had even taken his imagination captive, much less his heart. But this year his sojourn at Rome effected a great change; and though he had not as yet confided his secret to any one, there was not a thought of his heart or fibre of his being that was not given up to the keeping of another.

He had been at a ball in the house of one of the Italian noblesse, and, having become rather weary of the aimless life he was leading, was standing at the doorway speaking to an old friend of his intention to leave Italy rather earlier than usual and return to England, when a young girl came up the wide marble staircase leaning upon her mother's arm. Spencer Carlton gazed at her with a sort of wonder. He had never imagined that the earth contained anything so exquisitely beautiful as that girl's face.

'What is the matter?' asked the old General to whom he had been speaking, as Spencer Carlton stopped short in the midst of a sentence. 'What do you see?'

"Who is that?' he whispered, as the lady and her daughter passed them.

'That girl? Her name is Ellerton, I believe. She is the beautiful American that every one is raving about. Surely you have seen her before?'

'Never. Who is she? Do they live in Rome?'

'I believe they are only just come. No one seems to know anything about them. Some say the girl is an heiress, others that she has not a sou, and that her mother has brought her here in the expectation of her making a great marriage. There seems to be something rather mysterious about them.'

'Can you get me an introduction to them?'

'I dare say I can. Why, my dear fellow, you seem "struck all of a heap," as we used to say, and look

as if you were in a dream. Here is La Contessa Callino. She knows every one. We will ask her to get you an introduction to these American ladies.'

'Are they here alone? Has she no father or brother?'

'Which do you mean-madame or mademoiselle? I really do not know. I will take you to the contessa to make your own inquiries,' replied the General, considerably surprised at Spencer's manner. 'Come with me.'

'Not yet another time, perhaps,' he said, in a low voice, with a strange misgiving in his heart, and feeling as if some invisible power was holding him back from rushing on to his destiny.

'Why, God bless my soul, Carlton, you are suddenly bewitchedmesmerized! I don't know what has happened to you. Are you dreaming? If you want to be introduced to these Americans, it can only be done now; I am not going to stay here for ever, if you are.'

She

Spencer Carlton made no reply, but followed General Wenlock into the next room, where the Contessa Callino was chattering, as only Italian ladies can chatter, to a group of men that surrounded her. received him most graciously, and at once acceded to his request, though she warned him that Mrs. Ellerton was very chary of increasing her English acquaintance. 'Still, for you,' she said, with a bow and a smile which could have but one, and that a most flattering, interpretation.

What is the use of her having such a beautiful daughter, if she only wants to shut her up?' said the General, bluntly; and she must like to know English people better than foreigners.'

'Do you expect me to take that as a compliment?' answered the Contessa, laughing. 'However, I will forgive it, and will show my generosity by introducing your friend to this new beauty at once. Here they are; going down to the supper-room, I suppose.'

She took Spencer Carlton up to Mrs. Ellerton, and introduced him.

« ПретходнаНастави »