The Poor Girl

Front matter

Four Shillings and Sixpence, or (post free) Five Shillings : Volume One of the MAGAZINE OP SHORT STORIES, ANECDOTES. ADVENTURES. READINGS AND RECITATIONS. CONTENTSi— TALES. An Appalling Secret The Beautiful Countess A Cruel Slander Awfully Suspicious Both Loved Him Dearly The Bride's Resolve The Day of Reckoning The Death Warrant The Fakir's Vengeance Led Away A Devoted Prince A Kensington Mystery Leila The Actress Leslie's Fortune A Modern Mephistopheles A Most Remarkable Case My Special Engine My Midnight Burglar The Mistakes of a Night A Moment of Folly The Princess Natalie More than Chance The Secret of the Garden Room Something Advantageous The Pursuit of a Secret A Rash Pboposal The Torn Letter Winifred Vaughan Was He Justified? The Scourge of the Highway The Severed Hand A Wife Won at Cards interesting Complete Tales.)

(And FIFTY-FOUR other deeply RECITATIONS. Comic Miseries Curfew must not Ring To-Night Gemini and Virgo A Case of Conscience Menagerie Man's Tale Wife, Children, and Friends The Twins The Quaker and the Highxvayman (And TWENTY-FIVE other excellent Recitations, Serious and Comic.) Familiar Quotations Verified, Epigrams, Authenticated Ghost Stories, and a Supplement, useful to Everybody, ENTITLED : "DAYS AND DATES." Giving at a glance, without calculation, the Day of the Week for any Date in the present Century. The publishers of this Magazine are to be congratulated upon having launched a periodical which cannot fail to steadily increase its number of readers. All its contents are good, and the Magazine will always be a welcome fireside companion. — Leicester Journal. London : E. & H. BENNETT, 20, Bedford St., Strand.

Four Shillings and Sixpence, or (post free) Fivt Shillings : Volume Two of the MAGAZINE of SHORT STORIES, ANECDOTES. ADVENTURES. READINGS AND RECITATIONS. CONTENTS i— TALES. At His Enemy's Mercy Bob Rattlin's Yarn The Child Actress The Curse of Her Life Two Strings to Her Bow The Amethyst Necklace Conditionally Engaged An Error of Judgment The Flying Highwayman For Ever and for Ever Kali the Goddess Faith Answereth Unto Faith For Love of an Actress A Horrible Night The Invisible Witness One Winter's Night An Irresistible Temptation The Jasper Cross A Page from Life's Volume The Queen's Belfry Merely Pastime A Question of Sanity Romance of a Railway Journey A Terrible Confession A Mess-Room Scandal Mrs. Payne's Duel In the Rajah's Palace " Rank " Madness A Wicked Love A Wilful Girl's Career The White Hand A Slender Clue (And SIXTY-FIVE other deeply interesting Complete Tales.)

Chapter I

-_ D you, ye poor, who still lament your fate, Forbear to envy those you call the great ; And know, amid those blessings they possess, They are, like you, the victims of distress ; While Sloth with many a pang torments her slave, _?Yar waits on guilt, and danger shakes the brave. — C rabbi. Tn a great old-fashioned street at the Westmid of London, contiguous to Hyde Park, there yet may be seen a great old-fashioned mansion. It stands upon its own grounds ; it is screened from the vulgar gaze hy a thick •vail, at either end of which are two massive wooden gates. These it was the custom to throw open wide on the arrival or departure of a member of the family, or of distinguished visitors ; humbler persons were compelled to have a sort of interview with an individual in bright golden plush garments, all garnished with a binding which very much resembled coach-trimming, at a wicket formed in one of the _rreat gates, and were either admitted with a semi-suspicious air if they had a legitimate claim to enter, or were unceremoniously requested to go about their " bizzyness" if they had anything of a forlorn look in their outward appearance, or happened to produce a letter from a piece of smudged newspaper, and prayed the " gentleman " in the golden plush to deliver it to his gentleman.

The mansion itself, built of brick, possessed a massive portico of an elevation after the style of the Temple of Jupiter, with massive pillars of white stone, and a perron formed of slabs and steps of blue- Veined marble. Thisporticowasapproacbed by a spacious forecourt covered with fine '.'ravel, and rolled as hard as asphaltum, j excepting the carriagedrive, which was'; paved with small square blocks of Scotch ! i granite in a semi-circle, extending from the j 1 ■■ntrance of the portico and round back to the gates again. The grand hall, lofty, No. 1 (with which are given away No. 2, a cham page Engravings, and a Specimen Numbe with a .stained-glass dome and of extensive) proportions, had in it two white marble staircases, with noble balustrades of the same material, one on each aide, ascending to the apartments above.

In the daytime the hall was lighted by the glass dome, through panes of ground and coloured glass of the most brilliant and delicate hues. At night it was illuminated by a series of octagon lamps, having transparent clouded and rose-tinted globes, set in massive branches of ormolu, richly ornamented. In this hall there ruled and reigned a porter, who, though he weighed over fifteen stone, was not a fat man ; he was braced and trussed, walked heavily, with a strong tendency to be in-knee'd, but he was not fat. He gleamed in golden plush, gazed plethorically over a stiffly-starched white cravat, and when he sneezed shook a cloud of white powder out of hair naturally red, but artificially converted into the hue of yellow sand, largely dashed with patches of white. As his conversational powers, when he was in the humour, were of an inviting kind, his realms were frequently invaded by a swarm of ineffably-indolent gentlemen, all of whom appeared as if they had been lolling out of window in a snowstorm.

They, too, wore the golden plush uniform, and displayed some well-made calves, which were sheathed in fine white cotton stockings, and they indulged in what may be fairly termed " airy " conversation, which they kept up with much animation and for lengthened periods, during those hours when they were supposed to be severely fatiguing themselves in doing nothing at some other portion of the building. This hall, with its polished pillars and pilasters of Sienna marble, and its other elegant adornments, may be said to have furnished a fair example of what was to he found within the mansion itself. There were noble galleries of pictures and nau/ Coloured Plate " Cinderella,' two FuU r of the " Magazine of Short Stories "J. THU P00K GIHL. statuary, libraries, saloons, chambers, ante chambers, morning-rooms, boudoirs, and bed-chambers almost innumerable.

His daughter, of wlm ustence he had only a faint impression while she was a child or mere girl, was, after she was brought out, admitted to his presence "ii his reception-days, and to private audiences when she wished to request a favour, or he desired to make to her BOme personal com munication. She rarely saw him bv accident, unless, when in the train of her haughty mamma, she met him in the scions of their noble and distinguished acquain tances. They were all furnished in the highest style of elegance and luxury, and nothing was wanting which art could supply or personal comfort require. This mansion, which bore the name of Plantagenet House at the time this story commences, was in the possession of Pierre point Spencer Neville Plantagenet, a gentleman of patrician descent and of consi derable wealth.

Indeed, he was described in the Court Guide as of Plantagenet House, the Carlton and AVyndham Clubs, London ; of Beachborough Abbey, Kent ; Audley Grange, Southwell, Notts; Stud leigh Manor, Wareham, Dorsetshire ; Amersham Park, Bucks ; Raby Hall, Wilts ; and the Elms, Herts. Mr. Plantagenet was a proud and a haughty man. He prided himself upon having royal blood in his veins, upon his possessions, and upon his riches. He prided himself upon having a wife, who numbered among her relatives two dukes, three marquises, three or four earls, a viscount or two, a swarm of honourables, and who was herself a lady of title in her own right. He likewise prided himself upon having a daughter, an only one, who had just reached her twentieth year, who was heautiful in face and graceful in form, and who possessed that lofty mien, those truly v.atvician characteristics wliich stamped ijir as one of many descents.

Her aspect would, indeed, have qualified her, if appearance were alone the one thing need ful, to have assumed the imperial purple, and to have shared the throne of a monarch The Lady Henrietta Blanche Louisa Lechraere St. Pierre Plantagenet was as proud and unapproachable as her husband, except to those to whom in secret she chose to unbend ; who they might happen to be was a secret known only to her and to them. She was fond of gaiety, and, until her daughter came out, indulged her taste for pleasure to an ample extent. She was an elegant and a handsome woman, and, notwithstanding her ineffable loftiness of carriage and manner, lively and animated. She had her train of admirers always thronging about her when in society, and this train did not sensibly diminish when her daughter, as tall as her herself, made her appearance iu society, and at once attracted a corps of younger sons and marrying men, who were sniffing about for large dowries with the maidens whom they would be obliged for such con siderations to attach to their households as their wives.

As the Lady Henrietta, although she had a daughter of seventeen, did not feel herself to be any older than she had done some eight or ten years previously, she con tinued her career unchanged, merely giving to her daughter a hint that it was plebeian to notice or to make remarks upon the con duct of the members of the circles in which she mixed, and by her own behaviour show ing that, as she took but little notice of her daughter before she came out, so she troubled her with but very little of her care or attention afterwards. They certainly went to Court, to receptions, to parties, the opera, to concerts and such enter tainments together, and returned together; but Lady Henrietta imposed no restraint on her daughter's liberty of movement, and certainly her daughter did not woo her control. who reigned over an empire as vast as any upon which the sun ever shone.

Mr. Plantagenet was, in short, proud of himself, his name, his descent, of all he possessed, and breathed no other atmosphere. He was never affable ; he was dignified and condescending, but his courtesy was of the most frigid kind, and that duke who was offended at the presumption of his wife when she made a timid offer to kiss him was not a prouder man. Mr. Plantagenet was also a punctilious man. He was the slave of ceremony, he was governed by the laws of etiquette, and he compelled his household to he governed by them likewise. This daughter, her only child, was named Constance Ada Edith Henrietta Planta genet ; but the first was the only Christian name by which sh-3 was addressed by her parents, or which she used when signing He treated his wife as if she were a queen, and not his wife.

He had daily in terviews with her at regular intervals, and occasionally appeared in public with her, r.$t often. her name. THE TOOK GIHL. 3 Constance Plantagenet, although a tall girl, with a commanding figure, was vet exceedingly graceful in her movements: her step was like that of a gazelle, and her action not " less ethereally light." Her skin was as white as alabaster, and so transparent that the blue veins could he traced beneath it, hut so delicately as to enhance the beauty of the ivory whiteness rather than to detract from it. Her features were very regular; her hair a dark polished brown, almost a black ; her eye brows thin and exquisitely even ; her eye lashes, long and curved at the tips, might he taken for black ; but her eyes were blue, so richly, brilliantly blue, that the adjective was sure to rise uppermost in the mind of those who attempted to look steadfastly at them.

Constance permitted to accompany her upon one occasion when, being in delicate health, she went down without her parents to Beachborough Abbey, the oldest and most dreary seat her father possessed ; and Shelley was the only maid respecting whom Constance appeared to be anxious if she happened not to be in the way at any moment she might require her services. Fanny Shelley was a very prettv girl, with brown hair, rich brown eyes, "and a very fair skin; but she was exceedingly staid and quiet in her demeanour, and when any of the gentlemen in the golden plush intimated to her that she was "a mos' enteresten _ creechure," she might perhaps faintly smile, hut she made no reply, and kept out of their way. AVliatever might be the amount of liking which Constance entertained for her, there was no doubt that she was devotedly attached to Constance, and waited upon her incessantly, from the moment her eyelids upraised, long after the morning's sun was up in the heavens, until, weary, they closed again, only too often when the dawn was breaking.

With the quiet, reserved manner of Fanny Shelley, there was also a peculiarly pensive, nay, somewhat of a troubled look-, as though she had some unpleasant secret in trust, which she dared not reveal, and which yet was a grievous burden to her ; hut as she never referred to it herself, no one ever took notice of it to her, or mentioned it in her hearing. It was noticed — as it was sure to be by the other servants — that Shelley could and did go away for a holiday whenever she pleased, and that sometimes she would stay away for a month together. Whenever she was absent, Miss Constance always appeared fretful and impatient, was very difficult to please, and those who waited upon her were very glad to see Shelley's quiet and pretty face hack again, in order that the peevish ill-humour of her young mistress might abate.

Matters went on in this fashion until Constance entered upon her twentieth year, and a rumour then went suddenly through the household that she would shortly be married to a marquis, who, though thirty years her senior, considered himself to be as sprightly and as young as he was when he was twenty-five, and quite eligible for marriage. Whether Mr. Plantagenet thought so too was a matter of little consequence, as long as he was satisfied that his daughter should share a marquisate created in the middle of the fifteenth century, and hardly Her character she had formed her self — what was really her nature she alone knew. What her thoughts were of her parents and others with whom she came in contact she never permitted to escape her ; unless, perhaps, a flash of the eve, or a curl of the lip betrayed that she felt an unusual amount of scorn.

The only individual who had been able to obtain an insight into her character, or who had any real knowledge of her disposition, was her foster-sister, Fanny Shelley, who was of the same age, and had been brought up with her for her to treat, play with, scold, tease, pinch, heat, abuse, or love, as she would her doll. She had been her companion in childhood, and as she grew up became her personal attendant. She accompanied her to her first school, an establishment of very high class, and remained with her until she returned to her home, to finish there her education under "professors of eminence." Then Lady Henrietta ordered her to be dismissed ; but Constance went into such a frantic passion on hearing the order, that she became ill and kept her bed. She threatened to starve herself to death if Shelley was taken from her, and Lady Henrietta, who was much amazed and shocked by such a peculiarly pleheian ex hibition of feeling, gave way, and permitted Shelley to be retained, on condition that no second exhibition of a like nature should be permitted to obtain.

Whether Constance was really attached to Fanny Shelley or not was perhaps a question, for she never treated her, at least outwardly, in other manner than as a humble dependent. But there was, how ever, one fact, and that was that Shelley was the only maid whom Constance suffered to be alone with her for two or three hours together. Shelley was the only maid whom TUB POOR GIRL. sigh to quit her lips — there was no one present but herself — and she sought her own room. one creation behind the premier marquis ; particularly, too, as the wealth and possessions of the marquis were equal to his own. Constance was alone in hers. She had locked herself within on reaching it. She unhanded her hair and suffered her long tresses to stream down, she parted them from her temples and flung them behind her shoulders.

She took off her bracelets from her -wrists ; she unfastened her dress. The rumour, indeed, was founded upon truth. The Marquis of Westchester had met with Miss Plantagenet at the mansion of a duke, and was so much attracted by her appearance as to make an offer of his coronet and his hand, and Mr. Plantagenet accepted it, as though no other person had any voice in the matter. After an interview with the marquis, Mr. Plantagenet communicated to Lady Hen rietta the offer he had made. " I cannot breathe," she ejaculated, as she passed her long, taper fingers over her white throat. " I feel as if I should be stifled. My brain beats. There is a ring in my ears which deadens every other sound, and my eyesight seems to grow dim. It cannot be that I am about to swoon." The latter suggested that there was a disparity in years.

She thought the marquis a little too old. Mr. Plantagenet closed his eyes with a stately air, and responded that it was not a fault, at least with the marquisate. He reminded her that the object of his choice for the possession of his daughter's hand was not a subject upon which he deemed it needful to confer with her or any other person, and he requested her to communicate with Miss Constance Plantagenet what he had already made known to her, and to direct her to name a day and hour when she would receive the Marquis of Westchester, and hear from his lips the proposition he had already made to him. Lady Henrietta obeyed. She sent for Constance, and briefly informed her of the marriage intended for her. She smiled as she mentioned the marquis's name. " He is older than you, Constance," she observed ; " but, as Mr. Plantagenet remarked, seniority is not a fault in the marquisate, and when 3-ou find yourself a marchioness, wearing almost a premier title, the years of your husband will be a matter of trifling consequence to you."

Constance, always very pale, might have appeared a little paler on receiving this communication, but she betrayed no sign that she had heard anything to move her ordinary equanimity. She merely inclined her head, and said — " I will turn this proposition over in my mind, Lady Henrietta, and I will send a note to papa, informing him when I shall be prepaied for an interview with the marquis." As she concluded, she glided from the /00m, leaving Lady Henrietta alone. The latter looked after her with a long, grave, and thoughtful look, and muttered — " She will marry the marquis, but Well, what does it matter, love is the folly cf a child, and marriage is its tomb." She shrugged her shoulders, permitted a She seized a bottle of eau-de-cologne. poured a quantitj' into her hands, and bathed her temples with it.

It seemed to revive her, and she rose up and paced tin room. " It must he done," she muttered between her teeth ; " it must be done. There is no way of escape or evasion — none, none, none !" She buried her face in her hands, and sunk upon a chair, and gave way to a violent paroxysm of emotion. This burst of feeling did not last long. She rose up and bathed her eyes in rose water. She removed from her features, as well as she was able, all traces of emotion. and then, unlocking her chamber door, she threw over her shoulders a loose wrapper, and seating herself before her toilet glass, she rung a bell, and murmured — " I have been schooled not to feel, or at least not to betray what I feel; let me discover how far I have profited by the lessons I have received." A maidservant appeared. Constance saw her face in the glass as the girl entered the room.

It was not the person she expected. "Send Shelley to me," she said, petulantly. The maid retired, and almost immediately afterwards a young girl entered the room, dressed with scrupulous neatness. Her face looked unusually prett)-, and her beautiful glossy hair banded plain across the temple, and surmounted by a small lace cap, smart and tastefully made, set it off to unquestionable advantage. As soon as Constance perceived her she said , slightly increasing the rapidity of her tone — " Close the door behind you, Shelley, and turn the key in the lock. I wish to talk with you privately. You understand P" The girl slipped a small brass bolt which was beneath the lock, and fastened the door. She then glided back to the side of her young mistress, and stood there silent and motionless. words were said cannot adequately he described.

She knew of what terrible significance they were to the girl to whom they were addressed, and she instinctively uttered them with a force and articulation which not only rendered every word pain fully distinct, but made the girl's nerves thrill with horror. She impulsively clasped her knees, and cried — Constance looked steadfastly in her face for a minute, and then she said — " Sit at my feet, Fanny, listen to me attentively, and speak only in reply to questions I may put to you. Understand me, I do not want advice. I do not intend to listen to any timid objections, or sug gestions, or apprehensive prophecies. I wish you only to hear what I shall have to say to you, and to comply, without shrink ing or wavering, with the request ! — no ! — the supplication! — the prayer I shall put to you !"

" Oh, Miss Constance !" murmured Fanny. But Coustance stayed her with an im patient gesture of the hand. She threw her long hair back from her temples with both hands, and then, drawing a deep breath, she went on — " Fanny, you are my foster-sister. We both in infancy drew nourishment from the same fount, and though I am high-born, of proud descent, and have royal blood in my veins, and you are entirely plebeian in birth and blood, yet I feel that being reared together upon the same bosom has implanted within me a feeling for you, as though you were — no, not merely kith or kin, but a part of mj'self — a meaner — no, no, Fanny, do not let me wound your feelings by heedlessness, for I have need now of all your goodwill — I mean, perhaps, from the difference of our positions in life, a humbler part of myself, but still a part.

I know not how ft is, but the distance between myself and those who attend upon me seems immeasurable. You, as you have ever been — my toy, my creature, my slave, the object of my caprice, whim, ill-will — you seem to be allied to me by some influence which has made you essential to my existence. I feel that if you had not been constantly in my eyes, at my side, within my reach, I should have died long since. You know how essential you have been to me. My life — for there are certain conditions of life without which existence to one like myself would be impossible has been in your hands, is in your hands, will be, for I am about to part with you, Fanny, and for ever." The girl uttered a cry of surprise and pain, and ejaculated, instinctively — " It is impossible !" " It is possible, and must be, Fanny.

I am going to be married." The tone, the emphasis with which those " Married ! No ! — no ! You are " Constance clapped her hand over the girl's mouth, and exclaimed, in an under tone — " Hush, Fanny ! are you insane ? Be silent, be calm — be stone ! I ask of you to listen, and not to volunteer any observa tions. The path I am about to take and its responsibilities are mine, not yours — mine ! — mine alone !" She became silent, a gush of emotion rushed up within her breast, but she stemmed the torrent. It required a desperate effort, but she controlled it. The in stant she felt that she could speak clearly, she said — " Fanny, when I was ill at Beach borough, when I hovered between life and death — and perhaps it had been well for me if I had died then — I lay one night, seemingly in a state of unconsciousness, but in reality with everything in the apartment painfully clear to my eyes, every sound startlingly distinct in my ears, every memory terribly vivid in my brain, I perceived you kneeling at my bedside.

I heard you pray for me. You spoke of your love for me, your devotion to me, and in the enthusiasm of the moment you offered up your life as a sacrifice, if by accepting it Heaven would spare mine. Fanny, in that solemn moment I know you were sincere. Does the devotion you then expressed still exist ?" "Oh, Miss Constance, do you, can you doubt it ?" returned Fanny, with her large brown eyes suffused with tears. " I am about to test it," observed Con stance, emphatically. " You have tested it," replied Fanny, earnestly, " you may test it still." " I shall," rejoined Constance ; " I shall, indeed, test it ! I am about to exact from you an unexampled proof of human devo tion. That 3rou can faithfully keep a secret — a terrible secret — I know. You have done this for me. I am about to ask you to do yet more.

There can be no real trust placed in any living creature who cannot be faithful except under a bribe. I shall not speak to you about payment, you know that any time you can command my purse ; indeed, I shall make such arrange- GIR... ments that pecuniary embarrassment can never overtake you. I have, however, implicit faith in your devotion to me, and so dismiss that point. I repeat to you that I am about to be married — married, Fanny, to an individual whom, mark me, you never saw, who you never will see, or seeing, must never know. You will hear the name of my intended husband ; of sourse there will be no secret in that. I will, therefore, be myself the first to communicate it to you — it is the Marquis of Westchester, Hush ! silence, girl ! remember where you are ; we may be overheard ! Are you mad ?

Fanny — woman, he silent, or I will suffocate you !" All these latter sentences were uttered in a low, vehement tone, because the girl abruptly displayed such hysterical emotion that Constance Plantagenet feared her shrieks would be overheard. She caught Fanny about the neck, smothered her face in her loose robe, and seemed indeed in her excitement as though she would have stifled her, had not she discovered, by the girl's powerless limbs and dead weight, that she had fainted. ception of the course I intend to pursue, and the path you will have to take. Go, leave me ; send Peronne to me. I am going out for a drive and I wish her to dress me." Fanny bent humbly to her, and with downcast eyes retired. On reaching the door and unfastening it, she turned and gave a timid glance at Constance, and observed that she was gazing at her steadfastly, sternly, and with an air of resolute determination upon her features which made her freeze to witness.

She hastened to her own room, and when there paced it with restless steps. She appeared excessively agitated, and several times moaned with anguish. At length, with a burst of emotion, she exclaimed : "I must induce her to change her teni ble determination. I must — I must — I will have courage and resolution ! I will dare her anger, for if anything can make her forego her wilful intention, surely that innocent face will do it." Hastily she threw on her bonnet and mantle, and she quitted Plantagenet House and hurried into the park. This she crossed, and made her way into the Bays water Road. After threading some retired streets she proceeded down one composed of small but respectable houses, and paused before one to see whether she was followed. Being satisfied upon that point, she drew from a pocket in her dress a latch-key, and with it opened the door, which on entering the house she closed noiselessly behind her.