Aurora Floyd

he shrine of friendship, and drove Francis Maldon from Windsor to Beckenham, in order that the young cornet might make those anxious inquiries about the health o

er people. It would have been far pleasanter to the captain to dawdle away the day in his own rooms, lolling over those erudite works which his brother officers described b

young Oxonian rather than an officer who had fought and bled at Inkermann. The young men who breakfasted with him in his rooms trembled as they read the titles of the big books on the shelves, and stared helplessly at the grim saints and

lbot. That cold gray eye struck a silent awe into the hearts of men and women with its straight, penetrating gaze, that always seemed to be telling them they were found out. The colonel was afraid to tell his best stories when Talbot was at the mess-table, for he had a dim consciousness that the captain was aware of the discrepancies in those brilliant

men who repel the warm feelings of others in utter despite of themselves, he

had walked down to Cornwall without shoes or stockings, to fall at her feet, and sob out my sins and sorrows in her lap, and ask her to mortgage her jointure for the payment of my debts. But I have never asked anything of her, dear soul, except her love, and that she has been unable to give me. I suppose it is because I do not know how to ask. How often have I sat by her side at Bulstrode, talking of all sorts of indifferent subjects, yet with a vague yearning at my heart to throw myself upon her breast, and implore of her to love and bless her son, but held aloof by some icy barrier that I have been powerle

He wanted some spontaneous exhibition of innocent feeling which might justify him in saying "I am beloved!" He felt little capacity for loving on his own side, b

it a lonelier place for the lack of me. I wonder whether my children would love me? I dare say not. I should freeze their young affections with the La

cast eyes, fringed with golden-tinted lashes; some shrinking being, as pale and prim as the medi?val saints in his pre-Raphaelite engravings,

hen he entered the long drawing-room at Felden Woods wi

sunlight. That sunlit figure came back to Talbot's memory long afterward, after a stormy interval, in which it h

odest droop in her white eyelids. But, undemonstrative as usual, Captain Bulstrode seated himself near the piano,

andle-light beauty; her hair wanted the sunshine gleaming through it to light up the golden halo a

was in any way different from other girls he had known, and whether the purity of her delicate beauty was more

en window, holding the collar of an immense mastiff in

ing within herself whether she had been seen, or wh

a big bark, and s

" she said; "qui

th year, when he was a blundering, big-headed puppy, that sprawled upon the table during the little girl

istance from the captain and her cousin, twirling a straw hat in her hand and staring at her dog, who seat

ude that bespoke complete indifference to her visitors, Aurora's be

empress with a doubtful nose, it is true, but an empress who reigned by right divine of her eyes and hair. For do no

ying on her lap. Again he perceived that abstraction in her manner which had puzzled him upon the night of the ball. She listened to her visito

"and no doubt considers me a 'slow party' be

other young ladies talk, that she knew all they knew, and had been to the places they had visit

nd would make an admirable wife for a country ge

erland, where she had been during the pr

," he asked, "wa

hool in Paris with th

ne is being educated there - a Miss Trevyllian. She has been there for three or four years. Do you remembe

s, I remember her," answe

for a few moments there w

is my cousin,"

dee

you were very

, y

as she spoke of Miss Trevyllian. It seemed as if the subject was utterl

Trevyllians of Tredethlin," he thought, "because they can boast of nothing better than a few hundred acr

oom while the officers were seated ther

st. Of course you will dine with us. We shall have a full moon

he young officer knew that the heiress and her fifty thousand pounds were not for him; but it was scarcely the l

ially as it had been given, and with less than hi

-room, where they found Mrs. Alexander Floyd sitting at the bottom of the table. Talbot sat

d to her at every pause in the conversation, and could scarcely withdraw itself from her for the common courtesies of life. If she spoke, he listened - listened as if every careless, half-disdainful word concealed a

natural to her on other occasions. The eager watchfulness of Archibald Floyd was in some measure reflected in his daughter; by fits and starts, it is true, for she generally sank back into that moody abstraction which Captain Bulstrode had observed on the night of the ball; but still it was there, the same

carcely fail to be ambitious - ambitious and revengeful, rather than over-susceptible of any tender passion. Did she lose half her fortune upon that race she talked to me about? I'll ask her presently. Perhaps they have taken away her betti

t stretched far away upon two sides of the house - the gardens

ander and her daughter suited their pace to his, while Aurora walked before

she not?" Talbot asked Lucy, afte

pride - I mean with regard to servants, and that sort of people. She would as soon talk to one of those gardeners as to you or me; and you would s

said Mrs. Alexander; "she is the

ked. He was wondering how Aurora came to have those great,

fe belonged to a L

ving more corporal correction from the sturdy toe of his master's boot than sterling copper coin of the realm - if he could have known that the great aunt of this disdainful creature, walking before him in all the majesty of her beauty, had once kept a chandler's shop in an obscure street in Liverpool, a

a rustic bridge, where Talbot stopped to rest. Aurora was leani

profile against the sunlight; not a very beautiful profile certainly, but for the long b

vorite?"

e about the other night -

N

y sorry t

im, reddening angrily

you were interest

oyd was near enough to hear their conversation, and, furthermore, that

r father's name into the Gazette, and yet he evidently loves her to distraction; while I-" There was something so very pharisaical in the speech that Captain Bulstrode would not even finish it mentally. He was thinking, "This

Wickham that Maister Floyd and his household were going to dine; but not altogether an empty or discordant peal, for it told the hungry poor of broken victuals and rich and delicate meats to be had almost for asking in the servants' offices - shreds of

, and who was passionately attached to his cousin Aurora; and whether it was owing to the influence of this young gentleman, or to that fitfulness which seemed a part of her nature, Talbot Bulstrode could not discover, but certain it was that the dark cloud melted aw

ken out, and the winter was gone at last. Talbot Bulstrode bewildered his brain by trying to discover why it was that this woman was such a peerless and fascinating creature. Why it was that, argue as h

ling down the Cydnus; she is like Nell Gwynne selling oranges; she is like Lola Montez giving battle to the Bavarian students; she is like Charlotte Corday with the knife in her hand, standing behind the fri

trode seemed to look back at the merry group about the heiress as he might have looked at a scene on the stage from the back of the boxes. He almost wished for an opera-glass as he watched Aurora's graceful gestures and the play of her sparkling eyes; and then, t

nse of its charms, slow to come, and quick to pass away. There are so many Lucys, but so few Auroras; and while you never could be critical with the one, you were merciless in your scrutiny of the other. Talbot Bulstrode was attracted to Lucy by

m the cradle. She had never seen unseemly sights, or heard unseemly sounds. She was as ignorant as a baby of all the vices and horrors of this big world. She was ladylike, acco

of the great doors, the little party assembled on the terrace to see the two officers depart, and the b

nth or so," he said, as he shook hands with the captain, "bu

oyd, the young Etonian, had gone down the steps, and were admiring Captain Bulstrode's thorough-bre

immering in the uncertain light, the delicate head of the bay horse visible above her shoulder, and her ringed white hand

erstood every word that Aurora said to them - that they worshipped her from the dim depths of their inarticulate souls,

impure, I do not think that mastiff would love her as he does; I do not think my thorough-breds would let her hands meddle with their bridles; the dog would snarl, and the horses would bite, as such animals used to do in those remote old days when they recognized witchcraft and evil spirits, a