Shifting Winds: A Tough Yarn by R. M. Ballantyne (best free ebook reader txt) đ
- Author: R. M. Ballantyne
Book online «Shifting Winds: A Tough Yarn by R. M. Ballantyne (best free ebook reader txt) đ». Author R. M. Ballantyne
This state of affairs between Sir Richard and herself did not augur much for her prospects; but then she was a very strong-minded woman, and had hopes; whereas Sir Richard was a very weak-minded man, and had no hopes of any kind worth mentioning, being perfectly satisfiedâgood, easy manâwith things as they then stood.
Miss Martha Puff was niece to Miss Flouncerâage apparently sixteen. It struck me, as I sat looking at her placid face, that this young lady was well named. Her pink round visage was puffed up with something so soft that I could scarcely venture to call it fat. Her round soft arms were so puffy to look at, that one could not help fearing that an accidental prick from a pin would burst the skin and let them out. She seemed so like trifle in her pink muslin dress, that I could imagine a puff of wind blowing her away altogether. She could not be said to be puffed up with conceit, poor girl; but she dined almost exclusively on puff paste, to the evident satisfaction of my gallant son Gildart, who paid her marked attention during dinner.
Miss Puff never spoke except when spoken to, never asked for anything, never remarked upon anything, did not seem to care for anything, (puff paste excepted), and never thought of anything, as far as I could judge from the expression of her countenance. Gildart might as well have had a wax doll to entertain.
âTo what unfortunate piece of good fortune does your brother refer, Miss Stuart?â asked Sir Richard when Miss Peppy had concluded her observations in regard to it.
âIs it possible that you have not heard of it?â exclaimed Miss Peppy in surprise. âWhy, the town has been ringing with it for a fortnight at least, and those odious creatures, the gossips, (who never come near me, however, because they know I will not tolerate them), have got up all sorts of wild stories, showing that the man must have got the money by foul means, though I donât know, Iâm sure, why he shouldnât have got a surprise as well as anybody else, for the unaccountable and astonishing way in which things do happen in this world, at least to human beings, for I do not believe that cows or sheep or horses ever experience them; the want of expression on their faces shows that, at all events they never leave their offspring at peopleâs doors, and then go away withoutââ
âYouâd better tell Sir Richard what piece of news you refer to, my dear,â interrupted Mr Stuart, somewhat testily.
âAh yes, I was forgettingâ(a little more fowl, Captain Bingley? May I trouble you again, Sir Richard? thank youâa leg, if you please, I know that the Captain prefers a leg)âwell, as I was sayingâlet me see, what was I saying?â
âYou had only got the length of forgetting, maâam,â observed the baronet.
âAh, to be sure, I was forgetting to tell you that Mrs Gaff has fallen heir to ten thousand pounds.â
Sir Richard exclaimed, with an appearance of what might have been mistaken for surprise on his face, âIndeed!â
Miss Flouncer, to whom the news was also fresh, exclaimed, âYou donât say so!â with strong emphasis, and an immensely swan-like undulation of her body.
âIndeed I do,â continued Miss Peppy with much animation; âMrs Gaff, the fishermanâs wife, has got a fortune left her amounting to ten thousand pounds, which, at five per something or other, as my brother tells me, yields an annual income of 500 pounds.â
âBut who left it to her, and how?â asked Sir Richard.
âAh, who left it, and how?â echoed Miss Flouncer.
âWhat a jolly thing to be left five hundred a year!â whispered Gildart. âWouldnât you like some one to leave that to you, Miss Puff?â
âYes,â said Miss Puff.
âHave you any rich East Indian uncle or aunt who is likely to do it?â inquired Gildart with a desperate attempt at jocularity.
âNo,â answered Miss Puff.
These two wordsâyes and noâwere the utmost extent to which Miss Puff had yet ventured into the dreaded sea of conversation. I could perceive by the fagged expression of his face that the middy was beginning to lose heart.
âBrother,â said Miss Peppy, âyou had better tell Sir Richard how it happened. I have such a memoryâI really donât remember the details. I never could remember details of anything. Indeed I have often wondered why details were sent into this world to worry one so. It is so surprising and unaccountable. Surely we might have got on quite well without them.â
âWell, you know,â observed Gildart in a burst of reckless humour, âwe could not get on very well, Miss Stuart, without some sorts of details. Ox-tails, for instance, are absolutely necessary to the soup which we have just enjoyed so much. So, in like manner, are pig-tails to Chinamen.â
âAy, and coat-tails to puppies,â added Kenneth slyly, alluding to a bran new garment which the middy had mounted that day for the first time.
âPerhaps,â interposed Miss Flouncer, âafter such bright coruscations of wit, Mr Stuart may be allowed to go on with hisââ
âWittles,â whispered Gildart in Miss Puffâs ear, to the alarm of that young lady, who, being addicted to suppressed laughter, was in horror lest she should have a fit.
âAllowed to go on,â repeated Miss Flouncer blandly, âwith his tale of this unfortunate piece of good fortune, which I am sure Sir Richard is dying to hear.â
âIt can hardly be called a tale,â said Mr Stuart, âbut it is a curious enough circumstance. You remember Stephen Gaff, Sir Richard?â
âPerfectly. He is the man who appeared in the village of Cove rather mysteriously some months ago, is he not?â
âThe same,â returned Mr Stuart; âand it was he who accompanied Haco Barepoles in my sloop, which he persists in naming the âCoffin,â although its proper name is the âBetsy Jane,â on that memorable voyage when Haco sailed her into port on the larboard tack after she had been cut down to the waterâs edge on the starboard side. Well, it seems that Gaff went with him on that occasion in consequence of having received a letter from a London lawyer asking him to call, and he would hear something to his advantage.
âYou all know the way in which the people were taken out of the sloop by the steamer which ran into her, and how they were all landed safely except Gaff and his son William, who were carried away to sea. You are aware, also, that the steamer has since then returned to England, telling us that Gaff and his boy were put on board a barque bound for Liverpool, and that this vessel has never made its appearance, so that we have reason to believe that it has perished in one of the great storms which occurred about that time.
âWell,â continued Mr Stuart, helping Mrs Bingley to a glass of sherry, ânot long ago I had occasion to send Haco Barepoles to London, and he bethought him of the lawyer who had written to Gaff, so he called on him and told him of his friendâs disappearance. The lawyer then asked if Gaffâs wife was alive, and on being informed that she was, he told Haco that Gaff had had a brother in Australia who had been a very successful gold digger, but whose health had broken down owing to the severity of the work, and he had left the diggings and gone to Melbourne, where he died. Before his death this brother made a will, leaving the whole of his fortune to Stephen. The will stated that, in the event of Stephen being dead, or at sea on a long voyage, the money should be handed over unconditionally to his wife. About three weeks ago the lawyer came here to see Mrs Gaff, and make arrangements and inquiries, and in the course of a short time this poor woman will be in possession of ten thousand pounds.â
âIt will be the ruin of her, I fear,â said Sir Richard.
âNo doubt of it,â observed Miss Flouncer, emphatically.
âIt is always the way,â said my wife.
âDâye think it would ruin you?â whispered Gildart.
This being an impertinent question, Miss Puff blushed, and made no reply.
âYou need not be at all afraid of Mrs Gaff being ruined by prosperity,â said Lizzie Gordon, with sudden animation. âI have seen a good deal of her during her recent sorrows, and I am quite sure that she is a good sensible woman.â
âWhat sorrows do you refer to, Miss Gordon?â asked Sir Richard.
âTo her husband and sonâs sudden disappearance, and the death of her brother-in-law John Furby,â replied Lizzie. âUncle, you can tell more about the matter than I can.â
âYes,â said I; âit has been my lot to witness a good many cases of distress in my capacity of agent for the Shipwrecked Marinersâ Society, and I can answer for it that this has been a very severe one, and the poor woman has borne up against it with Christian fortitude.â
âHow did it happen? Pray do tell us about it,â cried Miss Flouncer, with an undulating smile.
âHow does it happen, Miss Flouncer, that you are not already acquainted with these things?â
âBecause I have been absent from home for more than two months, and, if I mistake not, Sir Richardâs ignorance rests on somewhat similar foundation.â
Miss Flouncer smiled and undulated towards the baronet, who, being thus pointedly appealed to, smiled and bowed in return, and begged that I would relate the facts of the case.
I observed that my son Gildart pressed Miss Puff to attempt another tart, and whispered something impertinent in her ear, for the poor thingâs pink round face suddenly became scarlet, and she puffed out in a dangerously explosive manner with suppressed laughter.
âWell then,â said I, addressing myself to Miss Flouncer, âa month or so before the lawyer brought Mrs Gaff tidings of her good fortune, her brother-in-law John Furby was drowned. The brave fellow, who, you are aware, was coxswain of our lifeboat, and has helped to save many a life since he was appointed to that post of danger, went off in his own fishing-boat one day. A squall upset the boat, and although the accident was seen from the shore, and several boats put off at once to the rescue, four of the crew perished, and Furby was one of these.
âThe scene in Gaffâs cottage when the body was carried in and laid on the bed, was heartrending for the woe occasioned to poor Mrs Gaff by the recent loss of her husband and little boy was, as it were, poured upon her head afresh, and for some time she was inconsolable. My good niece went frequently to read the Bible and pray with her, and I believe it was the blessed influence of Godâs word that brought her at length to a state of calm resignation. What made her case worse was the fact, that, both husband and brother-in-law being taken away, she was left in a state of absolute destitution. Now, at this point she began to feel the value of the noble institution of which I have the happiness of being an honorary agentâI mean the Shipwrecked Fishermen and Marinersâ Society. Poor Furby had been a member for several years, and regularly paid his annual sum of three shillings. Stephen Gaff had also become a member, just before starting on his last voyage, having been persuaded thereto by Haco Barepoles, who is a stanch adherent and advocate of our cause. Many a sailor has Haco brought to me to enrol as a member, and many a widow and fatherless child has had occasion to thank God that he did so. Although Gaff had only paid his first
Comments (0)