The Lady of the Shroud by Bram Stoker (book series for 10 year olds .txt) đź“•
"Sorry. But, of course, you don't understand such things." Then he went on talking before father had time to say a word.
"Let us get back to business. As you do not seem to follow me, let me explain that it is BECAUSE I do not forget that I wish to do this. I remember my dear mother's wish to make Aunt Janet happy, and would like to do as she did."
"AUNT Janet?" said father, very properly sneering at his ignorance. "She is not your aunt. Why, even her sister, who was married to your uncle, was only your aunt by courtesy." I could not help feeling that Rupert meant to be rude to my father, though his words were quite polite. If I had been as much bigger than him as he was than me, I should have flown at him; but he was a very big boy for his age. I am myself rather thin. Mother says thinness is an "appanage of birth."
"My Aunt Janet, sir, is an aunt by love. Courtesy is a small word to use in connection with such devoti
Read free book «The Lady of the Shroud by Bram Stoker (book series for 10 year olds .txt) 📕» - read online or download for free at americanlibrarybooks.com
- Author: Bram Stoker
- Performer: -
Read book online «The Lady of the Shroud by Bram Stoker (book series for 10 year olds .txt) 📕». Author - Bram Stoker
wonder if they take them with them to bed! Well, the instant after I
stood amongst them every rifle in the place was aimed straight at me.
Don’t be alarmed, Aunt Janet; they did not fire at me. If they had I
should not be writing to you now. I should be in that little bit of
real estate or the stone box, and about as full of lead as I could
hold. Ordinarily, I take it, they would have fired on the instant;
that is the etiquette here. But this time they—all separately but
all together—made a new rule. No one said a word or, so far as I
could see, made a movement. Here came in my own experience. I had
been more than once in a tight place of something of the same kind,
so I simply behaved in the most natural way I could. I felt
conscious—it was all in a flash, remember—that if I showed fear or
cause for fear, or even acknowledged danger by so much as even
holding up my hands, I should have drawn all the fire. They all
remained stock-still, as though they had been turned into stone, for
several seconds. Then a queer kind of look flashed round them like
wind over corn—something like the surprise one shows unconsciously
on waking in a strange place. A second after they each dropped the
rifle to the hollow of his arm and stood ready for anything. It was
all as regular and quick and simultaneous as a salute at St. James’s
Palace.
Happily I had no arms of any kind with me, so that there could be no
complication. I am rather a quick hand myself when there is any
shooting to be done. However, there was no trouble here, but the
contrary; the Blue Mountaineers—it sounds like a new sort of Bond
Street band, doesn’t it?—treated me in quite a different way than
they did when I first met them. They were amazingly civil, almost
deferential. But, all time same, they were more distant than ever,
and all the time I was there I could get not a whit closer to them.
They seemed in a sort of way to be afraid or in awe of me. No doubt
that will soon pass away, and when we know one another better we
shall become close friends. They are too fine fellows not to be
worth a little waiting for. (That sentence, by the way, is a pretty
bad sentence! In old days you would have slippered me for it!) Your
journey is all arranged, and I hope you will be comfortable. Rooke
will meet you at Liverpool Street and look after everything.
I shan’t write again, but when we meet at Fiume I shall begin to tell
you all the rest. Till then, good-bye. A good journey to you, and a
happy meeting to us both.
RUPERT.
Letter from Janet MacKelpie, Vissarion, to Sir Colin MacKelpie,
United Service Club, London.
DEAREST UNCLE, February 28, 1907.
I had a very comfortable journey all across Europe. Rupert wrote to
me some time ago to say that when I got to Vissarion I should be an
Empress, and he certainly took care that on the way here I should be
treated like one. Rooke, who seems a wonderful old man, was in the
next compartment to that reserved for me. At Harwich he had
everything arranged perfectly, and so right on to Fiume. Everywhere
there were attentive officials waiting. I had a carriage all to
myself, which I joined at Antwerp—a whole carriage with a suite of
rooms, dining-room, drawing-room, bedroom, even bath-room. There was
a cook with a kitchen of his own on board, a real chef like a French
nobleman in disguise. There were also a waiter and a servant-maid.
My own maid Maggie was quite awed at first. We were as far as
Cologne before she summoned up courage to order them about. Whenever
we stopped Rooke was on the platform with local officials, and kept
the door of my carriage like a sentry on duty.
At Fiume, when the train slowed down, I saw Rupert waiting on the
platform. He looked magnificent, towering over everybody there like
a giant. He is in perfect health, and seemed glad to see me. He
took me off at once on an automobile to a quay where an electric
launch was waiting. This took us on board a beautiful big steam-yacht, which was waiting with full steam up and—how he got there I
don’t know—Rooke waiting at the gangway.
I had another suite all to myself. Rupert and I had dinner together-
-I think the finest dinner I ever sat down to. This was very nice of
Rupert, for it was all for me. He himself only ate a piece of steak
and drank a glass of water. I went to bed early, for, despite the
luxury of the journey, I was very tired.
I awoke in the grey of the morning, and came on deck. We were close
to the coast. Rupert was on the bridge with the Captain, and Rooke
was acting as pilot. When Rupert saw me, he ran down the ladder and
took me up on the bridge. He left me there while he ran down again
and brought me up a lovely fur cloak which I had never seen. He put
it on me and kissed me. He is the tenderest-hearted boy in the
world, as well as the best and bravest! He made me take his arm
whilst he pointed out Vissarion, towards which we were steering. It
is the most lovely place I ever saw. I won’t stop to describe it
now, for it will be better that you see it for yourself and enjoy it
all fresh as I did.
The Castle is an immense place. You had better ship off, as soon as
all is ready here and you can arrange it, the servants whom I
engaged; and I am not sure that we shall not want as many more.
There has hardly been a mop or broom on the place for centuries, and
I doubt if it ever had a thorough good cleaning all over since it was
built. And, do you know, Uncle, that it might be well to double that
little army of yours that you are arranging for Rupert? Indeed, the
boy told me himself that he was going to write to you about it. I
think old Lachlan and his wife, Sandy’s Mary, had better be in charge
of the maids when they come over. A lot of lassies like yon will be
iller to keep together than a flock of sheep. So it will be wise to
have authority over them, especially as none of them speaks a word of
foreign tongues. Rooke—you saw him at the station at Liverpool
Street—will, if he be available, go over to bring the whole body
here. He has offered to do it if I should wish. And, by the way, I
think it will be well, when the time comes for their departure, if
not only the lassies, but Lachlan and Sandy’s Mary, too, will call
him MISTER Rooke. He is a very important person indeed here. He is,
in fact, a sort of Master of the Castle, and though he is very self-suppressing, is a man of rarely fine qualities. Also it will be well
to keep authority. When your clansmen come over, he will have charge
of them, too. Dear me! I find I have written such a long letter, I
must stop and get to work. I shall write again.
Your very affectionate
JANET.
From the Same to the Same.
March 3, 1907.
DEAREST UNCLE,
All goes well here, and as there is no news, I only write because you
are a dear, and I want to thank you for all the trouble you have
taken for me—and for Rupert. I think we had better wait awhile
before bringing out the servants. Rooke is away on some business for
Rupert, and will not be back for some time; Rupert thinks it may be a
couple of months. There is no one else that he could send to take
charge of the party from home, and I don’t like the idea of all those
lassies coming out without an escort. Even Lachlan and Sandy’s Mary
are ignorant of foreign languages and foreign ways. But as soon as
Rooke returns we can have them all out. I dare say you will have
some of your clansmen ready by then, and I think the poor girls, who
may feel a bit strange in a new country like this, where the ways are
so different from ours, will feel easier when they know that there
are some of their own mankind near them. Perhaps it might be well
that those of them who are engaged to each other—I know there are
some—should marry before they come out here. It will be more
convenient in many ways, and will save lodgment, and, besides, these
Blue Mountaineers are very handsome men. Good-night.
JANET.
Sir Colin MacKelpie, Croom, to Janet MacKelpie,
Vissarion.
March 9, 1907.
MY DEAR JANET,
I have duly received both your letters, and am delighted to find you
are so well pleased with your new home. It must certainly be a very
lovely and unique place, and I am myself longing to see it. I came
up here three days ago, and am, as usual, feeling all the better for
a breath of my native air. Time goes on, my dear, and I am beginning
to feel not so young as I was. Tell Rupert that the men are all fit,
and longing to get out to him. They are certainly a fine lot of men.
I don’t think I ever saw a finer. I have had them drilled and
trained as soldiers, and, in addition, have had them taught a lot of
trades just as they selected themselves. So he shall have nigh him
men who can turn their hands to anything—not, of course, that they
all know every trade, but amongst them there is someone who can do
whatever may be required. There are blacksmiths, carpenters,
farriers, saddle-makers, gardeners, plumbers, cutlers, gunsmiths, so,
as they all are farmers by origin and sportsmen by practice, they
will make a rare household body of men. They are nearly all first-class shots, and I am having them practise with revolvers. They are
being taught fencing and broadsword and ju-jitsu; I have organized
them in military form, with their own sergeants and corporals. This
morning I had an inspection, and I assure you, my dear, they could
give points to the Household troop in matters of drill. I tell you I
am proud of my clansmen!
I think you are quite wise about waiting to bring out the lassies,
and wiser still about the marrying. I dare say there will be more
marrying when they all get settled in a foreign country. I shall be
glad of it, for as Rupert is going to settle there, it will be good
for him to have round him a little colony of his own people. And it
will be good for them, too, for I know he will be good to them—as
you will, my dear. The hills are barren here, and life is hard, and
each year there is more and more demand for crofts, and sooner or
later our people must thin out. And mayhap our little settlement of
MacKelpie clan away beyond the frontiers of the Empire may be some
service to the nation and the King. But this is a dream! I see that
here I am beginning to realise in myself
Comments (0)