"Then you're a villain!"
"Nonsense, Mary; be reasonable."
"Reasonable, Captain Armstrong! I am reasonable, and I am telling you
the truth. You are a villain!"
"Why, you foolish girl, what did you expect?"
"That you would be an officer and a gentleman. Once more, is it true
that you are going to be married to that lady?"
"Well, you see--"
"Answer me, sir."
"Oh, well, then, yes, I suppose I am."
"Then I repeat it, James Armstrong, you are a villain!"
"What nonsense, you fierce-looking, handsome termagant! We have had our
little pleasant chats and meetings, and now we'll say good-bye
pleasantly. I can't help it. I have to marry; so you go and do the
same, my dear, and I'll buy you a handsome wedding-dress."
"You cowardly, cold-blooded villain!"
"Come, come, my good girl; no more strong words, please don't spoil a
pleasant little intimacy by a vulgar quarrel."
"Pleasant little intimacy!"
"Why, what did you expect?"
"That you were wooing me to be your wife."
"A captain in the King's Navy marry the daughter of an old wrecker, the
sister of as utter a smuggling scoundrel as can be found about this port
of Dartmouth!"
"When a girl gives her heart to the man who comes to her all soft words
and smiles, do you think she remembers what he is? It in enough for her
that she loves him, and she believes all he says. Oh, James, dear
James! forgive me all I've said, and don't send me adrift like this.
Tell me it isn't true."
"There, that's enough. You knew as well as I did that there was nothing
serious meant, so now let's bring this meeting to an end."
"To an end?"
"Yes; you had no business to come here. But, as you have come, there
are five guineas, Mary, to buy finery; and let's shake hands and say
good-bye."
Captain Armstrong, a handsome man with a rather cruel-looking,
thin-lipped mouth, took five golden pieces from his great, flapped,
salt-box-pocketed waistcoat, gave the flowing curls of his wig a shake,
and held out the money to the dark, black-eyed woman standing before him
with her sun-browned cheeks lightly flushed, her full, red lips
quivering, and a look of fierce passion distorting her handsome gipsy
countenance, as she held out a well-shaped hand for the money.
"Come, that's right, Mary," said the captain. "You are going to be
reasonable then. One, two, three, four, five--well, yes, I'll give you
another guinea for being so good--six."
As he spoke he dropped the golden coins one by one into the woman's
hand, smiled, glanced quickly at a door behind him, and caught her in
his arms.
"There, one more kiss from those ripe red lips, and then--"
_Spank_!
As sharp a backhanded blow across the face as ever man received from an
angry woman, and then, as the recipient involuntarily started back, Mary
Dell flung the golden pieces at him, so that one struck him in the chest
and the others flew tinkling across the room.
"Curse you!" cried the captain, in a low, savage voice, "this is too
much. Leave this house, you low-bred shrew, and if you ever dare to
come here again--"
"Dare!" cried the woman as fiercely. "I dare anything. I've not been a
sailor's child for nothing. And so you think that a woman's love is to
be bought and sold for a few paltry guineas, and that you can play with
and throw me off as you please. Look here, James Armstrong, I wouldn't
marry you now if you prayed me to be your wife--wife to such a cruel,
mean coward! Faugh! I would sooner leap overboard some night and die
in the deepest part of the harbour."
"Leave this house, you vixen."
"Not at your bidding, captain," cried the girl, scornfully. "Captain!
Why, the commonest sailor in the king's ships would shame to behave to a
woman as you have behaved to me. But I warn you," she continued, as in
her excitement her luxuriant glossy black hair escaped from its comb and
fell rippling down in masses--"I warn you, that if you go to church with
that lady, who cannot know you as I do, I'll never forgive you, but have
such a revenge as shall make you rue the day that you were born."
"Silence, woman; I've borne enough! Leave this house!"
"You thought because I was fatherless and motherless that I should be an
easy prey; but you were wrong, Captain Armstrong; you were wrong. I am
a woman, but not the weak, helpless thing you believed."
"Leave my house!"
"When I have told you all I think and feel, James Armstrong."
"Leave my house, woman!"
"Do you think you can frighten me by your loud voice and threatening
looks?" said the girl, scornfully.
"Leave my house!" cried the Captain for the third time, furiously; and,
glancing through the window as he spoke, he changed colour at the sight
of a grey-haired gentleman approaching with a tall, graceful woman upon
his arm.
"Ah!" cried Mary Dell, as she read his excitement aright; "so that is
the woman! Then I'll stop and meet her face to face, and tell her what
a contemptible creature she is going to wed."
"Curse you, leave this house!" cried the captain in a savage whisper;
and catching his visitor roughly by the shoulder, he tried to pull her
towards the door; but the girl resisted, and in the struggle a chair was
overturned with a crash, the door was flung open, and a bluff, manly
voice exclaimed--
"Why, hullo! what's the matter now?"
"What's that to you?" cried the captain, angrily, as he desisted from
his efforts, and the girl stood dishevelled and panting, her eyes
flashing vindictively, and a look of gratified malice crossing her face,
as she saw the confusion and annoyance displayed by her ex-lover.
"What is it to me? Why, I thought there was trouble on, and I came to
help."
"To intrude when you were not wanted, you mean. Now go," snarled the
captain.
"No, don't go," cried the girl, spitefully. "I want you to protect me,
sir, from this man, this gentleman, who professed to love me, and who,
now that he is going to be married, treats me as you see."
"It's a lie, woman," cried the captain, who noted that the couple whose
coming had made him lower his voice had now passed after looking up at
the window, and who now turned again fiercely upon the woman.
"No, it isn't a lie, Jem," said the new-comer. "I've seen you on the
beach with her many a time, and thought what a blackguard you were."
"Lieutenant Armstrong, I am your superior officer," cried the captain.
"How dare you speak to me like that! Sir, you go into arrest, for this
speech."
"I was not addressing my superior officer," said the new-comer, flushing
slightly, "but my cousin Jem. Put me in arrest, will you? Very well,
my fine fellow; you're captain, I'm lieutenant, and I must obey; but if
you do, next time we're ashore I'll thrash you within an inch of your
life as sure as my name's Humphrey. Hang it, I'll do it now!"
He took a quick step forward; but the captain darted behind the table,
and Mary caught the young man's arm.
"No, no, sir," she said in a deep voice; "don't get yourself into
trouble for me. It's very true and gallant of you, sir, to take the
part of a poor girl; but I can fight my own battle against such a coward
as that. Look at him, with his pale face and white lips, and tell me
how I could ever have loved such a creature."
"Woman--"
"Yes, woman now," cried the girl. "A month ago no word was too sweet
and tender for me. There, I'm going, James Armstrong, and I wish you
joy of your new wife--the pale, thin creature I saw go by; but don't
think you are done with me, or that this is to be forgotten. As for
you, sir," she continued, holding out her hand, which her defender took,
and smiled down frankly in the handsome dark face before him? "I
sha'n't forget this."
"No," said Captain Armstrong with a sneer. "Lose one lover, pick up
another. She's a nice girl, Humphrey, and it's your turn now."
Mary Dell did not loose the hand she had seized, but darted a bitterly
contemptuous look upon her late lover, which made him grind his teeth as
she turned from him again to the lieutenant.
"Was I not right, sir, to say he is a coward? I am only a poor-class
girl, but I am a woman, and I can feel. Thank you, sir; good-bye, and
if we never meet again, think that I shall always be grateful for what
you have said."
At that minute there were voices heard without and the captain started
and looked nervously at the door.
"I'm going, James Armstrong," said the girl; "and I might go like this;
but for my own sake, not for yours, I'll not."
She gave her head a sidewise jerk which brought her magnificent black
hair over her left shoulder, and then with a few rapid turns of her
hands she twisted it into a coil and secured it at the back of her head.
Then turning to go, Humphrey took a step after her; but she looked up at
him with a sharp, suspicious gaze.
"He told you to see me off the place?" she said quickly.
"No," cried Humphrey; "it was my own idea."
"Let me go alone," said the girl. "I want to think there is someone
belonging to him who is not base. Good-bye, sir! Perhaps we may meet
again."
"Meet again!" snarled the captain as the girl passed through the
doorway. "Yes, I'll warrant me you will, and console yourself with your
new lover, you jade."
"Look here, Jem," cried the lieutenant hotly; "officer or no officer,
recollect that we're alone now, and that you are insulting me as well as
that poor girl. Now, then, you say another word like that, and hang me
if I don't nearly break your neck."
"You insolent--"
Captain Armstrong did not finish his sentence, for there was a something
in the frank, handsome, manly face of his cousin that meant mischief,
and he threw himself into a chair with an angry snarl, such as might be
given by a dog who wanted to attack but did not dare.