The Child Wife. Reid Mayne
words escaped him, as he stood crouching behind a point of rock that abutted far out from the line of the cliff. Beyond it was the cove in which the young ladies were bathing – the negress keeping but careless watch as she sat upon one of the ledges.
“Chaste Dian!” exclaimed the sportsman; “pardon me for this intrusion. Quite inadvertent, I assure you. I must track back,” he continued, “to save myself from being transformed into a stag. Provoking, too! I wanted to go that way to explore a cave I’ve heard spoken of. I came out with this intention. How awkward to be thus interrupted!”
There was something like a lie outlined upon his features as he muttered the last reflection. In his actions too; for he still loitered behind the rock – still kept looking over it.
Plunging in pellucid water not waist-deep – their lower extremities only concealed by the saturated skirts that clung like cerements around them – their feet showing clear as coral – the two young creatures continued to disport themselves. Only Joseph himself could have retreated from the sight!
And then their long hair in full dishevelment – of two colour, black and gold – sprinkled by the pearly spray, as the girls, with tiny rose-tipped fingers, dashed the water in each other’s faces – all the time making the rocks ring with the music of their merry voices – ah! from such a picture who could comfortably withdraw his eyes?
It cost the sportsman an effort; of which he was capable – only by thinking of his sister.
And thinking of her, he loitered no longer, but drew back behind the rock.
“Deuced awkward!” he again muttered to himself – perhaps this time with more sincerity. “I wished particularly to go that way. The cave cannot be much farther on, and now to trudge all the way back! I must either do that, or wait till they’ve got through their game of aquatics.”
For a moment he stood reflecting. It was a considerable distance to the place where he had descended the cliff. Moreover, the track was toilsome, as he had proved by experience.
He decided to stay where he was till the “coast should be clear.”
He sat down upon a stone, took out a cigar, and commenced smoking.
He was scarce twenty paces from the pool in which the pretty dears were enjoying themselves. He could hear the plashing of their palms, like young cygnets beating the water with their wings. He could hear them exchange speeches, mingled with peals of clear-ringing laughter. There could be no harm in listening to these sounds, since the sough of the sea hindered him from making out what was said. Only now and then did he distinguish an interjection, proclaiming the delight in which the two Naiads were indulging, or one, the sharper voice of the negress, to warn then against straying too far out, as the tide had commenced rising.
From these signs he knew he had not been observed while standing exposed by the projection of rock.
A full half-hour elapsed, and still continued the plunging and the peals of laughter.
“Very mermaids they must be – to stay so long in the water! Surely they’ve had enough of it!”
As shown by this reflection, the sportsman was becoming impatient.
Shortly after, the plashing ceased, and along with it the laughter. He could still hear the voices of the two girls engaged in conversation – at intervals intermingled with that of the negress.
“They are out now, and dressing,” he joyfully conjectured. “I wonder how long they’ll be about that. Not another hour, I hope.”
He took out a fresh cigar. It was his third.
“By the time I’ve finished this,” reflected he, “they’ll be gone. At all events, they ought to be dressed; and, without rudeness, I may take the liberty of slipping past them.”
He lit the cigar, smoked, and listened.
The conversation was now carried on in an uninterrupted strain, but in quieter tones, and no longer interspersed with laughter.
The cigar became shortened to a stump, and still those silvery voices were heard mingling with the hoarse symphony of the sea – the latter, each moment growing louder as the tide continued to rise. A fresh breeze had sprung up, which, brought shoreward by the tidal billow, increased the noise; until the voices of the girls appeared like some distant metallic murmur, and the listener at length doubted whether he heard them or not.
“Their time’s up,” he said, springing to his feet, and flinging away the stump of the cigar. “They’ve had enough to make their toilet twice over, at all events. I can give no more grace; so here goes to continue my exploration!”
He turned towards the projection of the cliff. A single step forward, and he came to a stand – his countenance suddenly becoming clouded with an unpleasant expression! The tide had stolen up to the rocks, and the point of the promontory was now full three feet under water; while the swelling waves, at intervals, surged still higher!
There was neither beach below, nor ledge above; no way but by taking to the water.
The explorer saw that it would be impossible to proceed in the direction intended, without wading up to his waist. The object he had in view was not worth such a saturation; and with an exclamation of disappointment – chagrin, too, for the lost time – he turned upon his heel, and commenced retracing his steps along the base of the bluffs.
He no longer went strolling or sauntering. An apprehension had arisen in his mind that stimulated him to the quickest pace in his power. What if his retreat should be cut off by the same obstacle that had interrupted his advance?
The thought was sufficiently alarming; and hastily scrambling over the ledges, and skimming across the stretches of quicksand – now transformed into pools – he only breathed freely when once more in the gorge by which he had descended.
Chapter Three.
The Two Poetasters
The sportsman was under a mistake about the girls being gone. They were still within the cove; only no longer conversing.
Their dialogue had ended along with their dressing; and they had betaken themselves to two separate occupations – both of which called for silence. Miss Girdwood had commenced reading a book that appeared to be a volume of poems; while her cousin, who had come provided with drawing materials, was making a sketch of the grotto that had served them for a robing-room.
On their emerging from the water, Keziah had plunged into the same pool – now disturbed by the incoming tide, and deep enough to conceal her dusky charms from the eyes of any one straying along the cliff.
After spluttering about for a matter of ten minutes, the negress returned to the shore; once more drew the gingham gown over her head; squeezed the salt spray out of her kinky curls; readjusted the bandanna; and, giving way to the languor produced by the saline immersion, lay down upon the dry shingle – almost instantly falling asleep.
In this way had the trio become disposed, as the explorer, after discovering the obstruction to his progress, turned back along the strand – their silence leading him to believe they had taken departure.
For some time this silence continued, Cornelia taking great pains with her drawing. It was a scene well worthy of her pencil, and with the three figures introduced, just as they were, could not fail to make an interesting picture. She intended it as the record of a rare and somewhat original scene: for, although young ladies occasionally took a sly dip in such solitary places, it required a certain degree of daring.
Seated upon a stone, as far out as the tide would allow her, she sketched her cousin, leaning studiously against the cliff, and the sable-skinned maid-servant, with turbaned head, lying stretched along the shingle. The scarped precipice, with the grotto underneath; the dark rocks here overhanging, there seamed by a gorge that sloped steeply upward – the sides of the latter trellised with convolvuli and clumps of fantastic shrubbery, – all these were to appear in the picture.
She was making fair progress, when interrupted by an exclamation from her cousin.
The latter had been for some time turning over the leaves