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.
All the young ladies to whom he was introduced had fathers and mothers in
the prime of life who bade fair to outlive the handsome colonel himself by
many years, and ever so many brothers and sisters.
Indeed, large families seemed to be the rule in that neighborhood, and
only daughters who were heiresses the exception that could nowhere be
found.
It was strange that in all his search for a girl with expectations the
colonel had never thought of Odalite.
But, then, she was only sixteen years of age, and she looked much younger.
She seemed to be merely the eldest child among children.
One day early in December an event occurred that opened his eyes. A letter
arrived from foreign parts that gave the whole family, and especially
Odalite, the greatest pleasure. She ran about with it open in her hands,
and read it to her parents, to her sisters, and even to her governess.
Col. Anglesea, in his self-absorption, took not the slightest interest in
this family jubilee and felt not the least curiosity concerning the letter
which had caused it.
But Mr. Force, in the generous exuberance of his nature, wished to share
his pleasure with all others, and so, joining his guest in a walk over the
frozen fields that winter morning, he smiled and said:
"We have just received a letter from my ward and cousin, Midshipman
Leonidas Force, who has been at sea for the last three years, but is now
homeward bound and is expected to arrive in time for Christmas; and then I
should not wonder if we should have to celebrate a New Year's wedding," he
added.
"Ah! So the young gentleman is engaged. And who is the young lady?"
inquired the colonel, making an effort to appear interested.
"Why! is it possible you don't know? I thought everybody knew!" exclaimed
the father, looking surprised.
"But I, you must remember, am a comparative stranger, and I am ignorant."
"Well, then, of course, the lady in question is my eldest daughter, a very
little lady as yet."
"Miss Force! Why, she is a mere schoolgirl! She must have been a little
child when he went away, if he has been gone three years," said Col.
Anglesea, in surprise; and then he fell into musing.
"She is sixteen now, and she was thirteen when he sailed. Of course there
was no formal engagement between them then--there could not have been, you
know; but it was understood! You see, sir, it is a family matter! The
children have been brought up together with a view to their future union.
They are certainly very fond of each other. Their marriage is a very
desirable one on every account. As I have no son, my eldest daughter will
inherit this manor--one of the oldest and largest in Maryland, and one
which has been in the family since the first settlement of the province,
more than two hundred years ago, when Aaron Force, who came over with
Leonard Calvert, received a grant of the land--a thousand acres, then. We
have not lost an acre in all these generations, but rather gained a third
more. There are fifteen hundred acres now. All this must 'fall to the
distaff' and go out of the family unless my daughter should marry her
cousin, Leonidas Force. He also has recently inherited a considerable
estate, joining this, and, like this, with a long sea front. It is not
always that young people submit to be guided by their elders in the matter
of marriage, but I am happy to say that my boy and girl have very readily
taken our views of the case and will follow them. So they will probably be
married very early in the new year, and the old ancestral estate will not
pass out of the old family name."
"I see," said the colonel, "and I heartily congratulate you on the
prospect."
Then he fell into deep thought. Presently he said:
"She has not seen her lover for three years, since she was a child?"
"No, not since she was thirteen."
"When is he expected to return?"
"About Christmas."
"Ah, yes! You told me! She is very young to be married."
"Yes; but we do marry our girls very young when everything else is
suitable--as in this case," smiled Mr. Force.
"But after three years of separation from the youth whom she parted with
in her childhood, may not your daughter have changed her mind?"
"Oh, no!" earnestly replied the father.
"But you cannot know this until the young pair meet again. Suppose now,
for instance, that when Miss Force sees the youth she may not like the
idea of marrying him? What, in such a case, would be your line of
policy?"
"I should have no policy. My dear daughter's happiness should be my first
consideration, and the marriage could not go on."
"Exactly. That is just what I should expect of you," said the colonel,
approvingly.
"Good fellow!" thought, honest Abel Force, admiringly.
"But such is not likely to be the case, colonel. She is quite fond of him
as he is of her."
"Quite so," assented the colonel, as they turned and walked toward the
house.
On reaching it, Mr. Force went in; but Col. Anglesea excused himself, and
remained on the outside. He wanted to walk up and down.
Here was the very heiress he had been in search of right under his eyes
all the time, and he had never seen her. He had thought her a child of
about fourteen years of age, and here she was sixteen, and considered
marriageable.
How precocious these young American girls were, to be sure! How very early
they were married!
At this point the colonel lighted a fresh cigar, strolled out upon the
frozen lawn, and sat down on a rustic seat, under the branches of an old
yew tree, from which he had a view of the bay, that here spread out from
the foot of the hill to the distant horizon.
It was not, however, to look at the prospect of nature before his eyes,
but to contemplate the prospect of the future in his imagination, that he
sat there, and smoked and reflected.
"The game is in my own hands," he said to himself. "The daughter is
governed entirely by the mother, whom she adores. And she must appear to
act from her own free will and for her own pleasure, in order to obtain
the consent of her father, who, forsooth, will sacrifice his own family
ambition to his child's happiness.
"This is the third of December," he mused, "and the young fellow is
expected to be home at Christmas. There is no time to be lost. I must turn
the screws on my lady. There shall be a New Year's wedding at Mondreer,
but Mr. Leonidas Force shall not be the happy bridegroom."