The House on the Beach: A Realistic Tale

hen she heard the thunder of the waves hard by. She fancied it had been a most agreeable dinner to her father and Mr. Herbert Fellingham-especially to the latter, who had laughed ver

st is exceedingly so," s

most unromantic liqui

Van Diemen, puzzled by

a little like his ol

ingly," said M

irical last night," Ann

d him I thought he was

rd gentleman for my tutor; and I know you accepted French and Engl

ruction money could procure; and if she says you

rse!" Mr. Fellingham rejo

nman's pronunciation; of how, like somebody else's hat in a high wind, it descended on somebody else's head, and of how his words walked about askin

her father, and d

ved that he was enjoi

fun; upon which Van Diemen sai

ould with

wine!" Van Diemen burs

'm in a shocking bad t

bili

went grumbling, complaining of Mart Tinman's incredulity abou

nature of her father in his friendships, and his indisposition to hear a sati

t burlesque. He's as distinctly made to

"and papa has been told that he is not

rize him

happy to be in England to

not touch

h so much impo

nman's wine," observed Mrs. Crickledon, who had come i

shed, for Mr. Van Diemen Smith had gone to lay down his poor aching head

r. Tinman from the lips of Mrs. Crickledon. He subsequently strolled

too much," sa

ever, he was naturally bound to ans

!" Mr. Fellingham said to Annet

not to laugh at

outside, and one has to remember half a dozen great names to right oneself. And Englishmen are so funny! Your father comes here to see his old friend, and begins boasting of the Gippsland he has left

en you came to the drawingroom. Perhaps the wine did affect poor papa, if it w

to be social meetings in E

nearly as enthusiastic as I was on b

he chiwal-glass! And that good fellow, the carpenter, Crickledon, who has lived with the sea fronting him all hi

one-of a real Englis

gland a few months you

tin

ev

will be quite c

eel it when I was three years old, going out to Australia; but it would

he could with the wind in his teeth, "I love the

nt England to be love

is in yo

ndifferent o

ract, but a latent spite at Tinman on account of his wine, to which he continued angrily to attribute as unwonted dizziness of the head and sl

titled widow, Lady Ray, as she had heard, and to other ladies young and middle-aged in the neighbourhood, why should he not, if he wished to marry? If he was economical, surely he had a right to manage his own af

is thoughts of her reduced her to the conditi

After a while he sniffed the fine sharp air of mingled earth and sea delightedly, and he strode back to the town late in the afternoon, laughing at himself in scorn of his wretched susceptibility to bilious impressions, and really all but hating Tinman as the cause of his weakness-in the manner of the criminal hating the detective, perhaps. He cast

and Mr. Tinman as to payment for the chiwal-glass. She was commissioned to offer half the price for the glass on her father's part; more he would not pay. Tinman and Phippun sat with her in Cri

that he should pay a penny. Phippun vowed that fr

istress, and Fellingham postpon

pained by Mr. Fellingham's cruel jests. It was monstrous, Fellingham considered, that he should draw on himself a se

not worthy the name of Englishman; and I do like you, or I should n't have given you leave to come down here after

't sign the treaty

augh and think I know the aim of it. I'll meet what you like except sc

inman!-the ridiculous! Pray pardon me; but the donkey and his looking-glass! The glass was misty! He-as particular about his reflection in the glass as a poet with his verses!

iemen, pointing his accents-by which is produced the awkward

rneyed back to London a day earlier than he had