BRIGHTON YEARS AGO
“You may never have occasion to read these lines, yet I come to my task
from time to time to prepare them for you.
“Let me resume:
“I never was reconciled to my lonely life at Weirdwaste, but as the
years passed on, and I grew toward womanhood the solitude and monotony
of my surroundings pressed more and more heavily upon my health and
spirits.
“My father in these years seemed almost to have forgotten me. He was
with my mother on one of the islands of the Grecian Archipelago—for her
health. My little brother—now a well-grown schoolboy—was at Rugby. You
see, our family of four was scattered.
“About this time my health and spirits became so seriously affected that
Dr. Alexander thought it necessary to call my father’s attention to the
fact. He wrote to him, and in due time received an answer.
“It was something to this effect:
“‘As you recommend the south coast, you will please take the girl to
Brighton, and take suitable lodgings for herself and her attendants.
As she is no longer a child she must have more advanced teachers. Miss
Murray may be retained as her companion or chaperon, but a French
governess must be engaged for her.
“‘I leave all this to you. Our good vicar will be able to assist you.
“‘My son will join his sister at the seaside for the midsummer
holidays. Draw on me for the necessary funds.’
“The prospect of any change filled my soul with delightful
anticipations.
“It was now the middle of June. By the first of July I was established
in delightful lodgings on the King’s Road, facing the sea.
“We had the whole of the first floor, consisting of a suit of eight
rooms—drawing room, dining room, schoolroom, bathroom and four bedrooms.
“I was delighted with the gay vision of life and motion all around me;
there seemed to be a perpetual gala.
“The splendor of the view from my front windows was not all the splendor
of sea and sky; it was fleets of gayly decked craft, of all sizes and
shapes, from the queenly yacht to the pretty little rowboats; and the
pier, with its bazaars of toys, trinkets and jewelry; the bathing
houses, the frolicsome children in the surf or on the sands, the
brilliant crowds on the esplanade, the bands of music, the magnificent
shops, with displays of sumptuous fabrics and splendid jewels, not to be
surpassed in those of Paris or Constantinople.
“In fact, to me, who had never been in a town before—to me, coming from
lonely and dreary Weirdwaste—Brighton was a dazzling, bewildering scene
of light, life, gayety, splendor and magnificence.
“And if it was all this viewed only from the front windows of my
lodgings, what was it, let me ask you, afterward, when my schoolboy
brother and his friends came, full of high spirits, to make the most of
our opportunities?
“On the second day after our installment at our lodgings we were joined
by the French governess who had been engaged for me.
“She was a small, dark, middle-aged woman, with black hair, and sharp,
black eyes. Her name was De la Champe—Madame de la Champe. Her last
place had been in the service of a duchess, whose last daughter having
just been married, madame found herself under the necessity of seeking a
new engagement, and had found one through the vicar’s answer to her
advertisement.
“I did not like her, though she came so highly recommended. But my
prejudice against the Frenchwoman was not the slightest drawback to my
intense enjoyment of my new and delightful surroundings.
“On the fourth day after our arrival we were joined by my brother and
his friend. My brother was then a bright lad of twelve, looking older
than his years, because he was really a very precocious boy. He greeted
me with the warmest affection, and promised me a ‘jolly old time.’ His
friend was Angus Anglesea, a young man eight years his senior, who,
however, had formed a strong attachment for the bright lad, and taken
him under his protection.
“Angus Anglesea was at this time about twenty years of age; with a form
of medium height, slender and fair, with light hair and mustache, and
blue eyes. His appearance and manners were pleasing and attractive.
“I could not have believed any evil of him then.
“On the day after the arrival of my brother and his friend, the good
doctor, who had accompanied us to Brighton, took his leave, after having
warned my teachers that their office was, for the present, a sinecure,
and that there were really to be no lessons for the next three months,
or until my health should be fully reëstablished.
“After the doctor left our days were given up to enjoyment—walks on the
esplanade, sails on the sea, bathing in the surf, drives along the
coast, rides over the downs, saunters on the pier—a perpetual recurrence
of delightful recreations, each one enhancing the pleasures of all the
others.
“It seemed paradise to me. My brother lived with us, of course. Angus
Anglesea had lodgings near us, and came every day to join in our
amusements.
“The Eleventh Hussars were stationed at Brighton Barracks then, and the
officers were often on parade. Anglesea was not at that time in the
army. He received his commission afterward; but he knew a number of the
officers, and introduced some of them to me. My French governess or my
English teacher was always at my side on these occasions.
“So three enchanting months passed.
“My brother’s holidays were over, and he was now to go to Eton. My
father’s London solicitor was charged with the duty of making all the
arrangements for his entrance into college.
“On the fifteenth of September he left me, with the promise to return
and spend the Christmas holidays with me, for I was to winter at
Brighton.
“Angus Anglesea remained at Brighton. Friends and neighbors of his
father’s, in Lancashire—the Earl and Countess of Middlemoor, with their
only daughter—had arrived at their seaside home on Brunswick Terrace,
and Anglesea had remained to see them. Even then he was reported to be
engaged to the Lady Mary.
“Soon I heard that young Anglesea had left his lodgings and accepted the
invitation of the earl and countess to make their house his home during
his sojourn at the seaside.
“After this we did not see so much of young Anglesea.
“He came but seldom to our lodgings, and never joined us in our walks on
the seaside. Whenever we chanced to meet him, he was in the company of
the Middlemoors, either driving or walking with them.
“If Brighton had seemed to me the paradise of life and light, splendor
and gayety, in the summer months, when the season was at its lowest ebb,
what was it, if you please, in the early autumn, when the tide of wealth
and fashion set in?
“No words of mine can describe my impression of it, my delight in it.
“The bijou of a theater and the elegant assembly rooms were opened for
the season. The ‘paradise’ was one panorama of brilliant crowds. It was
like nothing real to my simplicity.”