"Oh--er--let me introduce you," said Flushington, with a vague notion that this was the right thing to do; "Mr. Lushington--Mrs. (no, I don"t know her name)--my aunt ... my cousins!"
The young man, who had just been about to retire, bowed and stared with sudden surprise. "Do you know," he said slowly in an undertone to the other, "do you know that I can"t help fancying there"s some mistake--are you sure that"s not _my_ aunt you"ve got hold of there?"
"Oh," whispered Flushington, catching at this unexpected hope, "do you really think so? She seems so certain she belongs to me!"
"Well," said the new-comer, "I only know I have an aunt and cousins I"ve never seen who were coming up some time this week--do these ladies happen to come from the Colonies, by the way?"
"Yes, yes!" cried Flushington, eagerly; "it"s all right, they belong to you; and, I say, _do_ take them away; I can"t bear it any longer!"
"Now, now, what"s this whispering, Frankie?" cried the aunt; "not very polite, I must say!"
"He says," explained Flushington, "he says it"s all a mistake, and--and you"re not my aunt at all!"
"Oh, indeed, _does_ he?" she replied, drawing herself together with dignity; "and may I ask who is this gentleman who knows so much about our family--I didn"t catch the name?"
"My name is Lushington--Frank Lushington," he said.
"Then--who are _you_?" she demanded, turning upon the unfortunate owner of the rooms; "answer me, I insist upon it!"
"Me?" he stammered, "I"m Francis Flushington. I--I"m very sorry--but I can"t help it!"
"Why--why--then you"re no nephew of _mine_, sir!" cried the aunt.
"Thank you very much," said Flushington, with positive grat.i.tude.
"But," she said, "I want to know _why_ I have been allowed to deceive myself in this way. Perhaps, sir, you will kindly explain?"
"What"s the good of asking _me_?" protested Flushington; "I haven"t an idea why!"
"I think I see," put in her genuine nephew; "you see, there isn"t much light on the staircase outside, and you must have taken the "Flushington" over his oak to be "F. Lushington," and gone straight in, you know. They told me at the lodge that some ladies had been asking for me, and so when I didn"t find you in my rooms, I thought I"d look in here on the chance--and here you all are, eh?"
But the aunt was annoyed to find that she had been pouring out all her pent-up affection over a perfect stranger, and had eaten his lunch into the bargain. She almost feared she had put herself in a slightly ridiculous position, and this, of course, made her feel very angry with Flushington.
"Yes, yes, yes!" she said excitedly, "that"s all very well; but why did he deliberately encourage me in my mistake?"
"How was I to know it _was_ a mistake?" pleaded Flushington. "You told me you were my aunt from Australia; for all I know Australia may be overrun with my aunts. I supposed you knew best."
"But you asked affectionately after Samuel," she persisted; "you must have had some object in humouring my mistake."
"You told me to ask after him, and I did," said Flushington; "what else could I do?"
"No, sir," she said, rising in her wrath; "it was a most ungentlemanly and heartless practical joke on your part, and--and I shall not listen to further excuses."
"Oh, good gracious!" Flushington almost whimpered; "a practical joke!
_me_, oh, it really is _too_ bad!"
"My dear aunt," Lushington a.s.sured her, "he"s quite incapable of such a thing; it"s a mistake on both sides; he wouldn"t wish to intercept another fellow"s aunt."
"I wouldn"t do such a thing for worlds!" protested Flushington, sincerely enough; he would not have robbed a fellow creature of a single relation of the remotest degree; and as for carrying off an aunt and a complete set of female cousins, he would have blushed (and, in fact, did blush) at the bare suspicion.
The cousins themselves had been laughing and whispering together all this time, regarding their new relation with shy admiration, very different from the manner in which they had looked at poor Flushington; the old nurse, too, was overjoyed at the exchange, and now declared that from the minute she set eyes on Flushington, she had felt something inside tell her that her Master Frank would never have turned out so undersized as _him_!
"Well," said the aunt, mollified at last, "you must forgive us for having disturbed you like this, Mr. a--Flushington" (the unfortunate man murmured that he did not mind it _now_); "and now, Frank, my boy, I should like the girls to see _your_ rooms."
"Come along then," said he. "Will you let me give you something to eat?--I"ll run down and see what they can let me have; and perhaps you"ll kindly help me to lay the cloth; _I_ never can lay the thing straight myself, and my old bedmaker"s out of the way, as usual."
The girls looked dubiously at one another--they were frightfully hungry still; at last the eldest, out of pure consideration for Flushington"s feelings, said, "Thank you very much, Cousin Frank--but your friend has kindly given us some lunch already."
"Oh!" he said, "has he though? That"s really uncommonly good of you, old chap."
But Flushington"s modesty did not allow him to accept undeserved grat.i.tude. "I say," he whispered, taking the other aside, "I gave them what I could, but I"m afraid it--it wasn"t much of a lunch."
Lushington made a mental note that he would repeat his invitation when he had got his cousins outside. "Well, look here," he said, "will you come and help me to row the ladies up to Byron"s Pool--say in an hour from this--and we"ll all come back and have a little dinner in my rooms, eh?"
"Yes, Mr. Flushington, do--do come," the girls all entreated him, "just to show you forgive us for taking possession of you like this."
But Flushington wriggled out of it somehow. He couldn"t come, he said uncomfortably; he had an engagement. He had nothing of the kind, but he felt that he had had quite enough female society for one day.
They did not press him, and he was heartily glad when the last of his temporary relations had filed out of his little room, leaving him reminiscences of a terrible half-hour which caused him to be extremely careful for months after not to lunch without ascertaining previously that his outer door was securely sported. But never again did a solitary hungry aunt invade his solitude.
_THE SIREN._
Long long ago, a siren lived all alone upon a rocky little island far out in the Southern Ocean. She may have been the youngest and most beautiful of the original three sirens, driven by her sisters" jealousy, or her own weariness of their society, to seek this distant home; or she may have lived there in solitude from the beginning.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
But she was not unhappy; all she cared about was the admiration and worship of mortal men, and these were hers whenever she wished, for she had only to sing, and her exquisite voice would float away over the waters, until it reached some pa.s.sing vessel, and then every one that heard was seized instantly with the irresistible longing to hasten to her isle and throw himself adoringly at her feet.
One day as she sat upon a low headland, looking earnestly out over the sparkling blue-green water before her, and hoping to discover the peak of some far-off sail on the hazy sea-line, she was startled by a sound she had never heard before--the grating of a boat"s keel on the pebbles in the little creek at her side.
She had been too much absorbed in watching for distant ships to notice that a small bark had been gliding round the other side of her island, but now, as she glanced round, she saw that the stranger who had guided it was already jumping ash.o.r.e and securing his boat.
Evidently she had not attracted him there, for she had been too indolent to sing of late, and he did not seem even to have seen her, or to have landed from any other motive than curiosity.
He was quite young, gallant-looking and sunburnt, with brown hair curling over his forehead, an open face and honest grey eyes. And as she looked at him, the fancy came to her that she would like to question him and hear his voice; she would find out, if she could, what manner of beings these mortals were over whom she possessed so strange a power.
Never before had such a thought entered her mind, notwithstanding that she had seen many mortals of every age and rank, from captain to the lowest galley slave; but then she had only seen them under the influence of her magical voice, when they were struck dumb and motionless, after which--except as proofs of her power--they did not interest her.
But this stranger was still free--so long as she did not choose to enslave him; and for some reason she did not choose to do so just yet.
As he turned towards her, she beckoned to him imperiously, and he saw the slender graceful figure above for the first time,--the fairest maiden his eyes had ever beheld, with an unearthly beauty in her wonderful dark blue eyes, and hair of the sunniest gold,--he stood gazing at her in motionless uncertainty, for he thought he must be cheated by a vision.
He came nearer, and, obeying a careless motion of her hand, threw himself down on a broad shelf of rock a little below the spot where she was seated; still he did not dare to speak lest the vision should pa.s.s away.