ALEXIA A L E X I A MARY , ABBOTT CHICAGO A. C. McCLURG AND COMPANY 1889 COPYRIGHT, BY A. C. MCCLURG AND Co. A.D. l88o. PREAMBLE. I COULD not fill one page with the ro- mance of my own life, to save that prosy existence ; it is as empty of any such claim upon public attention as a stubble-field is barren of wheat. One reason for this may be that I have another self, a friend, whose joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, have been more than mine, and have left me no time for private ventures of my own in those lines. For this man required more looking after than a child, and was not half so tractable. He used to remind me great, handsome, impossible fellow that he was of nothing so much as a splendid, full-rigged, A I clipper ship, lack- ing a course and a captain. When such a craft slips her cable, and takes to the high seas, somebody must steer. I used to act vi Preamble. as sailing-master sometimes, when I saw the vessel making straight for big rocks or sunken reefs ; and although I did not always see the danger in time to prevent the ship from being badly strained, actual wreck was averted while I had the helm. Certain chapters in this man's history have not been without their pathos, and cannot fail, as I guess and hope, to interest the human, those who sin and are sorry, and sin and are sorry, and sin and are sorry yet again. So, as I know that he would never put pen to paper, to jot down one word himself, I, Felix Farley, the awkward scribe, attempt the task, making this pre- face both my apology and plea. A L E X I A. i. WHEN Geoffrey Trevor was thirty years old, he committed an act a crime I was nearly going to call it of which I could not have suspected him, and for which I never forgave him. He became engaged to be married. If he had fallen in love first, a not un- common preliminary, nobody would have been more rejoiced than I, for in that case marriage might have been his mak- ing. But he had done nothing of the kind ; I knew it, and he knew I knew it. There was no pretence of love about the matter. If you ask what was the motive for this absurd deed, I do not refer you to his flimsy reasons, which were no reasons at all, but I answer simply, I don't know. 8 Alexia. My experience, I may say here, has taught me, that for rash, unthinking perform- ances of this description, you may com- mend yourself, as a rule, to gentlemen who have nothing on earth to do but to plan them. That was Geoffrey's case to a turn. There are men whom Fortune has bored to the verge of extinction with her favors ; and Geoffrey Trevor was one of these. Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and half-a-dozen fairy godmothers, he had been surfeited with sweets, until his appetite had first palled, then perished, by what it had fed on. And if the laying down of his life (I quote his own sentiment now) had not involved more loathing, in antici- pation of the nuisance it would have en- tailed upon others, than the bearing of it already did, in fulfilment, to himself, he would have been, not glad exactly, for pri- mary emotions were gone for him, but willing enough to shuffle it off, and have done with it. Hardly the tone of a rapturous wooer, if I understand such things. Helen Courtice, a magnificent, proud creature in Geoffrey's set, happened to be Alexia. 9 the girl he chose thus to " honor." I say happened, for there would have been equal fitness in the selection if it had fallen upon any one of twenty others, all of the same pattern, with whom Geoffrey had been in the habit of spending much time before his latest season of misanthropy had set in. I was fearfully shocked when I heard this news about Geoffrey, and at first I re- fused to believe it. For it was not three days since Geoffrey had come to me in one of his blackest, bitterest moods. He said that he believed his blood was drying up in his veins ; that he felt no sensations, either of pleasure or of pain ; that he neither liked nor disliked anything nor anybody ; that he was incapable of feeling hungry or thirsty, hot or cold ; that with the excep- tion of a kind of instinctive clinging to me and tobacco and sleep he might as well be a mummy ; and that if he had had spirit enough to wish a wish, he should wish he was one. And with these jocund words, he had thrown himself upon my sofa, in a favorite attitude, his hands clasped behind his head, eyes shut, and an io Alexia. expression of utter weariness upon his face. He meant, or thought he meant, every syllable of this chant of woe. He was get- ting into the worst kind of way ; and this thing must be stopped. "Now come, Geoff Trevor," I said to him, severely, " I am about worn out with this nonsense ; you talk like a fool, and you will be one soon, if you keep on. The matter with you is that you 're spoiled by good fortune ; you have always had too much time, too much money, too much looks, and too much attention. You 're moping and whining now because the last doll is stuffed with saw-dust, I suppose. What is it, a horse you 've bet on, or a girl you 're deceived in ? For Heaven's sake, write a book ; ' get religion ;' fall in love; go into politics, do something to get yourself out of this slough, or upon my word, old boy, you '11 be found dead of nothing but the dumps ! " He was lying motionless, in the old atti- tude, on the couch. I went on. " I wish, with all my heart, you were as poor and as ugly as I am ; you 'd have to go to work, then, and women Alexia. n would n't trouble you any more. A month of severely-let-alone-ness at the Club, when you 're languidly looking for Mrs. Van Ux- em's scented summons to her Metropolitan Arcadia, would make you open those blase orbs a little; and a few snubs would per- haps give you a zest for your next invita- tion, if you ever got one. As it is, your table is piled high at this moment with notes of urgency, I dare swear ; and it bores you even to execrate the writers, while you concoct civil answers." I said all this with what I meant for a stinging sneer. I seldom talk so much at a time, and stopped to take breath, for I had by no means finished, when Geoffrey took his hat, and walked toward the door, saying, " I suppose you are sick of my everlasting moaning ; but you 're the big- gest bore I have to contend with when you talk against time." I hoped he was angry, for a good quarrel would have been a tonic for him ; but he lounged back, and threw himself into a big chair, with apathy written all over him. I was preparing another verbal torpedo, when he spoke again. 12 Alexia. " Politics ! " he muttered, " politics ! Did n't I try electioneering one year, and did n't it take me three months to get the dirt off my hands, and six, off my soul, if it 's ever come off, which I 'm not so sure of ? If there is a clean calling, show it me, and I '11 begin on it to-morrow. I don't know one. I have tried writing, as you know, and failed. I tell you, Felix, men- tally I am a corpse." " Well, you can't learn an honest trade then, any more than a dishonest ; and the only advice I can give you is to come and read law in my office again, and make up your mind to stick to it." He had made beginnings before, but had always gone away, or something, and given it up. Geoffrey shook his head. "It's no use," he said, " to try to do anything for me, old man, but I won't come here and make a nuisance of myself again." Well, we talked nearly all night, but I could do Geoff no good ; he had strange fancies about himself and his moods, and was altogether in a worse condition than I had supposed. I could see that it was all f Alexia. 1 3 owing to his lack of training, and listless life, and that he had no real mental disease. He was sure he had one of an alarming kind. I fell asleep in my chair at last, and when I woke up, I heard the wheels of his cab driving away. You may now conceive my amazement at hearing, only three days after this orgy, of Geoffrey's choice of an " honest calling." He sauntered in soon to tell me of it, or to hear what I had to say. Of course he knew I had heard. I never minced matters with Geoffrey Trevor, but always spoke my mind out flat' to him ; and that was one reason, I think, for his liking me. " They all lie to me but you, Felix," he used to say; "if you ever do it, my last hope is gone." I had occa- sion afterward to wonder if he was always implicitly truthful to me. Well, Geoffrey came in one day, soon after the announcement of his strange per- formance, trying to look very easy and casual, but I soon bowled him out of that. " You 're not engaged, are you, Geoff? " I burst forth the very first thing, before he 14 Alexia. had time to open his mouth, thus ridding him of all embarrassment in beginning, at least. " Yes, I am," he said, reddening, " and to a charming girl too. Won't you wish me joy, my boy, eh ? " I never saw such hang-dog mirth in my life ; he looked like a sheep-stealer. " Sit down ! " I said, in a voice like thun- der. " Are you in your senses ? Don't you know that after all you have told me about yourself, you are committing a crime in rushing into a thing like this pell-mell, even if it were decent to do it in any case ? A man in your mental state if what you have told me is true has no right to marry. Suppose one of those 'numb' fits comes on, such as you have told me about, last- ing for days, during which time you have absolutely not one particle of human sym- pathy, nothing but disgust for your kind, what 's your wife going to do then ? Are you about to sacrifice a woman to your whims, or disorders, or whatever they are ? " Geoffrey was white and angry. He stopped me. " I have told you always to Alexia. 15 speak freely to me, Felix, but even you can't insult me. Everything I have told you about myself is true, of course ; from living like an imbecile, I have grown to be one. I have looked after my own comfort so keenly that I have overshot the mark ; but I am going to lead another life altogether. My mother was anxious that I should marry Helen Courtice ; my relations all wish it now; so do hers." I was glad to find him so thoughtful of his relations ; he usually alluded to them as " brutes ! " " Helen is a beautiful woman ; she has accomplishments, is sweet-tempered, and likes me. The noble passion we neither of us affect, to any extent ; but as I believe there is really no such thing, it would be only a pretence if we did. We have as great a liking for each other as persons have when they marry, I suppose. As for the attacks of which I spoke to you, and which you have seen fit to ridicule, occu- pation will be a cure for them ; and you may be very sure that no woman under my protection shall suffer from my neg- lect. I shall try to make a good husband. 1 6 Alcxia. As I have never seen one, it will be a novelty to create the part." " Geoff," I shouted, " for Heaven's sake go and break this fearful thing off! Tell her you have made a mistake, or she has ; tell her anything ; but don't pile guilt on your unhappiness. Don't make a hopeless fool of yourself ; don't wreck two lives ! The girl will get over it now ; but never if you marry her. And O Geoff ! think of your misery ! Come, give it up ! " And I seized his arm. He gave a quick little laugh of impa- tience, and shook me off nervously. "Very flattering all this, to the lady," he said. " I am the luckiest man about, to win such a prize ; everybody says so. She may throw me over when she finds what a dullard I am, but I have ceased to have any right to act, even if I wished it ; and of course I don't." I tried him at other points ; but he had a parry for every thrust. I could have roared for very unhappiness. As for bet- tering his blues, or whatever they were, he had simply jumped from the frying-pan into the fire. What could bore you more, if you come to that, than to be tied to a Alexia. 17 woman you neither love, respect, nor ad- mire particularly, only like " as much as most persons like when they marry ! " It was horrible ! After Geoffrey Trevor's and Helen Cour- tice's engagement had been discussed to infinity, and dined to death, and buried in flowers, and everything had quieted down, and Geoffrey was behaving beautifully, the young woman made the worst move she could possibly have acquitted herself of, un- der the circumstances, she went abroad. They had been engaged then about three months, and there really seemed to be a prospect of their being happy, after a fash- ion, in time. Helen flirted still, and always would do that ; but Geoffrey never minded a bit, and could have had the same privilege himself, I dare say. He was devoted to her, and for a restless woman of fashion, she seemed contented. Geoffrey drove with her, rode with her, walked with her, dined and "balled" where she would, without flinching. He spoke of her to me in affec- tionate enough terms, and seemed proud of her beauty. It was generally conceded that he was a pattern lover ; and he seemed 1 8 Alcxia. to be growing cheerful, and quite like other men, when that little fool started up a Eu- ropean trip ! " It 's ages since I was in Paris," she said ; " why can't we go over and spend May and June there, and go to Homburg for July and August ? Mamma would like nothing better ; my cousins the Lorimer men will go ; the Leonards are already there ; you will like it, Geoffrey, of course ; and " Geoffrey shook his head. "Do you mean to say you won't go, Geof- frey Trevor? May I be allowed to ask why, when you know very well you haven't an earthly thing to keep you here ? Oh, that stupid old house ! That can wait, I 'm sure. Do you really mean you wont go, Geof- frey ? " And Helen looked black and cross. Now Geoffrey was, for the first time in his life, employed upon something which absorbed him. He was building a house for Helen, and was putting his whole heart into the work. I could have killed that girl for not seeing or for not caring, rather how important this occupation was to Geoffrey, and how much good it was doing: him. But she had never under- Alexia. 19 stood, nor tried to understand, one thing about Geoffrey. She took all his devotion for granted, and gave him nothing, or very little, in return. As for her, there was nothing to understand about her ex- cept her selfishness and her worldly am- bition. Yes, and her obstinacy, I forgot that, for Helen was like a mule when she had set her head she had no heart upon doing a thing. " You know how dull the summers are here, Geoffrey dear," she said, plying another weapon, " even at Newport. I 'm sure I hate it, with the same everlasting women scanning one's gowns ! And of course this year, just be- fore I get my trousseau " (here she slid her hand into Geoffrey's and managed to blush a little), " I sha'n't have any new ones." " Then they won't scan you," answered Geoffrey. " If it 's a question of gowns, you shall have a thousand, if you will stay at home and be married, like a good girl, and won't go away and leave me." I think he was positively afraid to let her go. " This is the first time I have ever tried to do a piece of real work, Helen," he said to her, earnestly, " and I must not leave it, es- 2O Alexia. pecially in this state. I beg you will see the thing sensibly." Whether Helen saw it sensibly or in- sensibly, she went. Geoffrey, firm in his refusal, saw them all off, a jolly, careless lot, and came to my rooms that night, thoroughly discouraged, and about as bad as ever. Alexia. 21 II. T FOUND there was a feeling if a * fashionable set can be said to have feeling, a kind of ripple, at any rate of disapproval of Helen Courtice's con- duct, in leaving Geoffrey at this juncture and going away for the summer. It was not so much disapproval, either, nothing so moral, as a sense that she had done a foolish thing for herself. Geoffrey Trevor was known to be a pe- culiar man, although no mortal but me knew how peculiar, and it would not be easy for any woman to hold his affection, except at the short end of the lever. She was very silly to leave him behind, her friends said, even if she did want to flirt with Max Lorimer all summer, how silly they all one day would find out ! I was lunching with Geoffrey at the Club, about a fortnight after Miss Courtice had sailed away, when Geoff's cousin Murray 22 Alexia. Trevor, the only relation he knew much of, came up to us. He was looking for Geoff, he said ; one or two men had told him that Geoff was getting hipped and sour. " I want you to go down to Quartz with me to-night, my boy," he said. " No noes taken and no questions asked." Quartz Point was a small peninsula, well known to yachtsmen, but sparsely inhab- ited, where Murray had a house. "Laura has ordered me to bring you, and if I ap- peared without you, I should n't be let in. So meet me at the station, at five o'clock sharp ; if I don't find you, I shall miss the train, and come up after you." Geoffrey laughed, and said he should n't be there. I persuaded him to go, however, and he went. The day after Geoffrey had gone down to Quartz Point with his cousin, I met him coming from the train. He said he was going down again that night, and he drew a very attractive picture of the rough beauty of the place, all rocks and shin- gle and surf on one side, the sea side, he said (I had never been there) and on the other the old fishing town of Quartz Alexia. 23 Head, with its irregular outline, stretching the length of a bold bluff, and overlooking the basin, or harbor, which lay between the Point and itself. The sunset over and behind the old town was marvellous ; and there was a perfectly lovely young girl, granddaughter of Murray's old fisherman, who rowed them over the harbor the night before, and back this morning, when they went to take the train at Quartz Head. I should have guyed him about the girl, it was so uncommon a thing for him to notice one in that condition of life, but any earthly object which could rouse interest, to say nothing of enthusiasm, in Geoffrey, was a godsend, and I would not for the world have discouraged him ! I did not see Geoffrey very often at this period ; but when I did, he was always just "running down to Quartz," or just "running up from Quartz." He stayed down three or four days at a time, often, and once he stayed a week, I believe. I noticed the most wonderful improve- ment, or series of improvements, in Geof- frey, whenever I saw him. He looked the image of health ; his eyes were eager and 24 Alexia. animated ; and he walked off like a boy. I had never seen him so in my life before ; and I began to be curious to visit a place which could work such miracles. He was wild about Quartz Point ; it was all kinds of beauty combined, he told me ; that is to say, not the Point itself wholly, but taking in all its surroundings. The most charming spot he had ever seen. Now Quartz Point was by no means an unknown region, although I, who stick to my books, and who seldom sail, had never happened to see it. It was hardly twenty miles from town, and was well known, as I have said, to yachtsmen, possessing, as it did, a safe little harbor with neither bar nor tide-way, so much frequented by them, in fact, as to have a yacht club- house upon it. Geoffrey must have been there a hundred times, before this year. "Why is Quartz Point so surprisingly new to you ? " I asked him ; " it 's not possible these are your first visits there?" Oh, he said, he had been there sailing, of course, and had anchored in the harbor, and had dined at the Club ; but he had never stayed Alexia. 25 with Murray before, nor seen the place to any advantage. " Murray is quite lord of the land, and the townspeople worship him. They are most interesting studies, those rough old fishermen, Felix. The sailing is perfection ; I have n't seen a fog yet, con- trary to tradition. [Well, he would, if he waited long enough.] And as for the sun- sets, Italy never produced a patch upon them." Geoffrey Trevor an enthusiast ! I should expect the sunset to fall on him next ! We had few and short opportunities for conversation in those days ; but by and by I got nearer the gist of it. " What do you think I have been doing this morn- ing ? " he asked me once, coming into my office. " Oh, tell," I said ; for I hate guessing. " Buying a dress" he answered. " For Mrs. Trevor ? " Murray's wife, I meant. " No." " Well, then ? " " For a little girl." " How big a little girl ? " I was getting suspicious. 26 Alexia. " Oh, I don't know ; sixteen or seven- teen, perhaps." "Ah, indeed. And how do you happen to be selecting young ladies' wardrobes ? Rather new business for you, is n't it ? " " It is n't a young lady I mean she 's not grown-up, exactly ; she 's the grand- daughter of Murray's fisherman and facto- tum, old Iron. [Hm ! the perfectly lovely young girl who had rowed him over the first night he had gone down !] Such a character he is too, Felix ! I wish you could hear some of his speeches. Laura has them by heart. What do you suppose he said to her the other day ? ' Mrs. Tree- vor,' he said, rolling his tongue out, and drawing it in again, and smacking his lips, - all this between every two sentences, ' my wife hes hed the eye-complaint, an' now she 's got the spinal disease ; an', Mrs. Tree-vor, ef you was to set two boat- loads of gold before that woman, she could not unbutton her shoes ! ' ' I laughed very much at this ; partly be- cause it amused me, partly to encourage Geoff, and mostly for joy at seeing the change in him. Alexia. 27 But the little girl of seventeen and the dress, I wanted to hear more about them. So I asked Geoffrey if the infant he had bought the dress for was as amusing as her grandfather. " Oh," he exclaimed hastily, and a look I did n't know came into his face, " she 's of another race altogether ; a being from another world ; an Undine with her soul, in one way an enigma ; in a second, a per- fectly transparent, simple creature." I had seen artless country girls before, and knew what they were like. I could n't help smiling in my sleeve at this cynic, caught by cunning. "She was sent to her grandfather by his son, a miserable, sneaking scamp, who had disappeared before that, for years, the only kind thing he had ever done for his father." " Except sending Undine," I broke in. The autocrat frowned. " Do you want me to go on, or not ? " " Why, I want you to go on, of course, ' Mimosa/ " I retorted. " I am deeply thrilled." And I was. I was glad to see that he 28 Alcxia. was coming round to be like other men, and was making an ass of himself. A silly little giggling country wench might well bear a bruise or two for this. "Well, this wretch," Geoffrey went on, watching me rather sharply to see that I did n't chaff him again, " was sentenced to prison for thieving, or something, about ten years ago, and sent the child to the grandfather, who was so poor then he was almost supported by the town. The mother was unable to keep her, I suppose, or dead, or sentenced to jail too, perhaps. I don't know. Old Iron had never heard that his son was married even, until this child came to him." " Perhaps he was n't," I remarked dryly. "Perhaps not," Geoff sighed. "The poor girl's pedigree is of the darkest, I judge. The father has probably died, for he has never turned up." " The girl is beautiful, you say ? " " She is not only marvellously lovely in face, but in character. She has quick in- telligence, acute sensibilities, wit, and a sweet nature. She is merry at times with- out being noisy, sad at others without Alcxia. 29 being solemn. As for her beauty, I never saw such eyes, to begin with, eyes so full of soul and sympathy and earnestness, to say nothing of their actual splendor ! She has the voice of an Englishwoman, and a smile like the sunrise. I am abso- lutely not exaggerating, Felix, and you know how fastidious I am." Fastidious ! I should say he was ! A voice pitched a quarter of a semitone too high would disgust him with a woman, or the faintest glimmer of a gleam of imper- fection in manner. But of course he was not comparing this rowing-girl with town- bred ladies, only speaking of her as a type apart. Yet listen to him now ! " I used to think it was with women as with music and drawing, and all those things. Every year there are better methods, and performers have to keep up with the times or drop out. They have to compete with the best talent going. A woman who does n't look after her looks, so to speak, constantly, has no show with the others. So, naturally, you don't expect to find your own sort of beauty the beauty which alone satisfies you, I mean 30 Alexia. out of your own sphere. But here comes a girl who has none of the adjuncts we think indispensable ; out in the sun and wind all day long ; wears an old flannel gown of no color at all, just sewed together by a country dressmaker, I should think ; still the most beautiful girl, out and out, I ever saw. By Jove, Felix, I can't find a flaw in her ! " " She must be amazing, then ! I wish I could see her. Is that her grandfather's real name no, it can't be ! Iron f It 's too absurd ! " "I don't know no yes I believe so. I don't talk to her much about her de- scent, naturally; but somebody Murray, I dare say told me the grandfather was of foreign stock, Portuguese, I think, and his own name in that language meant iron ; so they called him by it, as a joke first, and then it gradually grew to be his name. Solomon Iron, his name is," he continued; "awful, isn't it?" " Monstrous. What 's the name of the girl ? " " Alice ; but the Sisters have given her the name of Alexia. It's the Greek for Alexia. 31 Alice, and suits her wonderfully. I call her by it." " Then she is not an only child ? " " Yes, she is ; I said so, did n't I ? They would n't be apt to ship a numerous family, one by one, in that mysterious way." " But you just said her sisters called her Alexia." " No, no, stupid ; tJte Sisters of charity, or mercy, or whatever they are ; both, in this case, I should think. There are two of them, a kind of offshoot of some English city sisterhood, doing mission work in the town of Quartz Head. And they have taught this girl for years." "Oh!" I began to see. "She's a Catholic, of course ? " "A Catholic, but not a Roman Catho- lic ! [This with mock dignity.] These are sisters of the Anglican Church, tJtc true church ; what you in your igno- rance call the Episcopal, my boy. It 's the High Church movement, you know, priests and vestments and Eucharistic lights and confession, and all the rest of it." 32 Alexia. "And have you gone to this church, or chapel, or whatever it is?" " I ? Oh yes, I go often. It 's so pretty and solemn and interesting [O Geoff! what a combination !], and I sing a little, to help them out, as they 're not rich enough to have a choir. Yes, I go ; I 'm rather regular." He never put his nose inside a church at home. " Oh, you are ? You and ' Alexia ' sing out of the same hymn-book, I suppose?" " Oh, keep still, Felix," he retorted ; " what a fool I am to tell you anything about the girl ! I shall never hear the last of it ! " But / did ; for he would n't open his lips on the subject again ! Alexia. 33 III. IT was my fate, it seemed, always to be worrying about Geoffrey Trevor. Those few weeks I had been easier, see- ing him so improved ; and now that I knew the cause of the change, I was more bothered than ever ! He was interested, through and through, in this young girl, whose beauty had been only the pioneer, I knew, in attracting him ; for Geoffrey was no slave to looks, with nothing behind them. He was interested, now that he found himself, as he believed, a help and benefit to a human being ; it was the work he had always, unknown to Geoffrey Trevor, been wanting. Here it was at his hand, and he was happy. A dangerous edged-tool kind of happiness for the girl, that was all. Yes, this Undine with her soul, what of her ? Was anybody looking after her ? It was evident I had been mistaken in my 3 34 Alexia. estimate of her : she was no ogling, rustic lass, with her clumsy wiles, I might have known no such could have held Geoffrey's attention for a minute, but she was mistress of no practised arts, that was plain ; and the disadvantage, in this un- equal contest, was all hers. For Geoffrey, though in no sense a deceiver, except of himself, had not been a keen observer of the world's tierce and carte, without learn- ing a few passes. We do some things unconsciously. Of course I foresaw the inevitable, if indeed I were not looking back upon it ; for the more I thought it over, the more I felt convinced that the inevitable had come to pass already. Undine would be, at any rate, if she were not then, in love with her Huldbrand ! I have not described Geoffrey ; he was a tall fellow, handsome and manly. And although I have repre- sented him largely in his sulks, I was the only person to whom he showed this gloomy side ; to the world he was a singu- larly attractive, more, a fascinating man. He had a fetching, tender, intense way with women, put on, I used to tell him ; Alexia. 35 but when he cordially admired, as he did this poor waif, it would be natural. How could she withstand him, even his looks, his manner ? I can't describe Geoffrey's features ; I don't even know the color of his eyes, but I do know that they were declared to be dangerously effective organs of vision. And I have heard women use the same extravagant terms in speaking of his appearance which he had employed in depicting that of his wonderful new- found beauty at Quartz Head, at least, such of them as might be applicable to manly charms, or adapted in such a man- ner as to make them so. There was sharp suffering ahead for Geoffrey, who was always a fierce penitent when the mischief was done. Nobody ever slammed the barn-door as hard as he after the horse was stolen, or ran so hotly in pursuit of the abducted steed when he was convinced it had actually gone. When he found out that he had this innocent young thing's heart concealed about his person, his old misery, which after all was general and impersonal, would seem like happiness, compared to the new. When 36 Alexia. he realized as he would be the very last to do that he had led this girl on, and from his own tale, he was doing this at a hand-gallop, what pangs would not be his forever more ! What would Geoffrey do, when he found out what he had done ? He would marry the girl in a minute, if he could, for Geoffrey was noble in expiation, but he could n't, because he was as good, or as bad, as married already ; and he would be quite as conscientious about his duty to Helen as he had been reckless in rushing into it, more so, if anything ; for he had never loved Helen, and owed her reparation for that, to begin with. What a miserable muddle it was ! My head ached worrying over it, and wonder- ing what in fury was to be done. I was in for it, that was a foregone conclusion ! I never was in a scrape of my own in my life ; I have n't the "go," or whatever is necessary, to get into them ; but hang me if I had ever been out of Geoffrey's ! I was profane at this epoch ; nothing but strong language kept me up. Some men (they say), take to strong Alexia. 37 drink when they are bothered ; I always content myself with "big, big D.'s" of another description. The effects are more transient, and they do not, as a rule, bear witness against themselves. I carefully arranged to run against Mur- ray Trevor, quite by accident, of course, and I congratulated him upon the change in Geoffrey. "He does look better, doesn't he?" he said, with a quick smile. Murray's smile, I found, was quicker than his perception. " He 's as happy as a king down at Quartz, and quite the boy again. Only he never was a boy, so it has all the charm of fresh- ness to him. He 's an eccentric chap, very, is n't he ? Goes off by himself all the time, and has queer notions. I can't say I understand him ; and I can't say I 've ever liked him, until this year. But then I 've never known him. My wife was vexed at Helen Courtice's leaving him in the lurch, so she thought we 'd better look after him a bit. You know he 's awfully ' gone ' on Helen, and was blue as death at first. But he 's looking up a bit now." Looking up! I should say he was. Then 38 Alexia. Murray knew nothing of the maiden with the Greek name, and the Portuguese grand- father ? If Geoffrey had been sly about the thing, I should be less lenient toward him. " He said the fisher-people over at Quartz Head interested him," I ventured to say cautiously ; " especially one old man and his family, Iron, or some such name. He was telling me amusing anecdotes of them." " Oh, yes, old Iron is a kind of servant of ours, a queer, superannuated fisher- man. Laura and I discovered Quartz Point years ago, when it had only a light- house and one other on it ; and the first object we spied was old Iron, sitting on a rock, all doubled up, like a chimpanzee. We got him to row us across the harbor, and he 's been doing it, off and on, ever since. He has a grandchild, who ferries for him, now he 's got so old ; the Sisters of the convent have looked after her and kept her in all these years. She's the handsomest girl you ever saw, and intelli- gent, and lovely altogether ; quite a char- acter in the little town, and has a hard history." Alexia. 39 " Geoff said she was very beautiful." " Oh, Geoff was regularly stunned, when he first saw her ; he raves about her. And no wonder, either, she 's so remark- able. Now look here, Farley," he said, stopping short, " you 've never seen our little bluff, have you ? Well, come down with us on Saturday, and see it for your- self. We '11 go down early and go out sailing, and I '11 show you all the points, including the village beauty, Mrs. Trevor, of course, I mean," he added, laughing. " It 's quiet as death, and in a way primi- tive, but that you '11 like, as we do. And Laura will be awfully glad to see you." I was n't sure how awfully glad Geoff would be to see me, but I said I would go, with much joy. It was just what I wanted. I did n't see Geoffrey again until we found him swinging his legs over the edge of Blynn's wharf, at Quartz Head, on the Saturday. He was smoking, and looked the picture of calm content. I fancied he had not been away from the place for some days. Geoffrey, I am sure, did not suspect why I had come to Quartz; my intimacy with 4