A Seaside Romance

Chapter I

' In the Spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin's breast ; In the Spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest ; In the Spring a livelier iris changes on the burnished dove ; In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love." Tennyson. " How perfect this is," murmured Lionel Arundel one Spring morning, as he stood on the deck of a yacht, and gazed over the water sparkling in the rising sun. The scene was certainly most lovely. The bright water was bubbling and gurgling around the keel of the vessel, like the laughter of a little child. The rising sun was throwing golden B STELLA : A SPRING IDYLL. 2 gleams across it, over to the beach, where it made the sand and pebbles shine like diamonds ; and brought out lovely green tints from the small forest of pine trees that edged the shore.

The village of Fouras, which the young man could just see behind the pines, was not much to boast of either in size or beauty, was often very dirty and not unfrequently evil-smelling ; but of that he knew nothing. Seen for the first time from the deck of the vessel, and glorified by the sun, it seemed to him simply the most exquisite spot he had ever beheld. As he stood there, his erratic gaze was caught by a white turret peeping up among the pines ; a flight of steps from the beach evidently led up to it. " Some old castle, I expect," he said to himself, " I think I will go over and see." No sooner thought than done. Telling one of the men to lower him a boat, Lionel jumped lightly in. As he pushed off, an elderly grey-headed servant appeared at the gang-way, and said, anxiously, " Hadn't you better let me go with you, sir, you may get tired ?

" " Nonsense, Adams, I'm all right now, will you never remember that a fellow can get well after an illness ? " " But you won't go too far, Mr. Lionel," pleaded the man, earnestly. STELLA : A SPRING IDYLL. 3 " Only over to that place opposite ; I want to see what that old tower is. I shall be back before Sir Lionel is up, so dear MarJia, don't trouble about me." Adams shook his head laughingly at his young master's insolence, and stood watching him lovingly as he pushed off, enjoying with almost a woman's enjoyment every detail of the boy's beauty. From his Italian mother, Lionel Arundel had got the great pathetic dark eyes, glossy wavy hair, and oval-shaped, olive-complexioned face ; and from his English father, the tall well-knit figure and broad shoulders. A serious illness had induced his grandfather to take him a yachting cruise.

They had gone down the English Channel, passed Belle-Dieu and La Rochelle and had now weighed anchor in the little Bay of Fouras, a small out-of-the-way village, some seven miles from Rochefort. Filled with joyous thoughts and the bliss of being alive, that is so great a pleasure to the young, especially when recovering from an illness, Lionel Arundel rowed on, all unconsciously, to meet his fate. On reaching the shore he fastened his boat to an iron ring, evidently placed there for that purpose ; indeed, a smartly-painted little boathouse stood not far off ; and then he sprang up the stone steps two B STELLA : A SPRING IDYLL. 4 at a time. They led into a small wilderness of trees and shrubs. Although the rustic gate was open, it was easy to see that the grounds were private, even had not an old board, which was nailed against a tree, borne on its worm-eaten surface the words, " Defense d'entrer."

Disregard ing this palpable proof that he was trespassing, and not even preparing an apology, as is the way with some people while committing that sin, Lionel sauntered on, admiring the pretty tangled pathways, the half-ruined flag-staff, the broken down summer-house covered with creepers, each and all bright with sunlight and sparkling with the morning dew. Mounting up a few steps, he came upon a clump of larger trees than any around, and suspended from two of them was a hammock of sail-cloth. " How jolly," muttered our explorer. " I love a hammock, and the view from this one must be fine." He hastened his steps towards it, and pushing aside the branches that hung over, started back with a cry of amazement, for two large blue, star like eyes looked at him from out a mass of tangled, curly, golden hair.

" Oh, you lovely, lovely thing ! " said Lionel under his breath, afraid to move lest the beautiful vision should vanish into air. How long the two might have remained thus STELLA : A SPRING IDYLL. 5 spellbound one cannot say ; the charm, however was suddenly broken by a low growl, the snap of strong white teeth, and Lionel felt a stinging sensation of pain in his left hand. " Oh, Apicius, mechante, va ! " cried the owner ofthe starry eyes, springing out from the hammock with a grace and ease that spoke of long habit. " I am so sorry, so very sorry," she said, standing in front of the young man, who tried in vain to collect his senses before the bewildering loveliness of the mistress of Apicius. " You cannot forgive ? "added the girl, her rose-bud baby mouth drooping sadly as she turned as if to leave him.

The movement roused Lionel. " Don't go, don't go, I implore you ! " he gasped out. "I was only startled. I didn't know " " Your hand bleeds," she interrupted in a distressed tone. " Let me wash it and bind it up. Come with me." Still in a state of bewilderment, Lionel followed the tiny figure of the girl, who, clad in some pale green soft material, tripped lightly before him, like a veritable fairy of the woods. Reaching a small streamlet that ran through a part of the grounds, the girl knelt down, dipped her handkerchief in the water, and brought it to Lionel. He silently held out his hand, around which she quickly STELLA t A SPRING IDYLL. and gently bound it, then asked, "Does it hurt now ? " " No," he cried with great energy, shaking back his wavy hair, and awakening from his lethargy, " I can only apologise for so rudely coming into private grounds ; but I am a stranger here, and it looked uninhabited.

Your dog did well to teach me manners. " Apicius is not a dog," answered the girl, a smile bringing out some dimples around her mouth. " Viens ici, toute de suite, vilaine," and a handsome ruddy-brown animal, with bright eyes, pointed nose, and bushy tail, sprang out of the hammock and ran up to her. " Why, it's a fox," cried Lionel in amazement. " No, I mean a wolf." "Neither," laughed the young girl. "It is a jackal. She is generally very good and gentle, but greedy, dreadfully greedy, that is why we call her Apicius." " Oh, indeed ! " said Lionel, cudgelling his brains vainly for a moment to remember who Apicius was, while he watched the tiny, graceful form before him holding in her arms her curious pet. He felt he ought to go, but never were duty and the common laws of good manners so ruth lessly ignored asno w. " I am tired with rowing over from that yacht," STELLA I A SPRING IDYLL. 7 he said, mendaciously.

" Will you be angry if I rest awhile beneath the shade of these beautiful pines ?" " Oh no, do stay," she answered, " a little farther up, if you can walk so far, is a view so lovely that you will be pleased to see it." Side by side they mounted a few grassy steps, while Apicius trotted after them, letting her tail trail on the ground. Two or three old trees with branches intertwined, shaded a rustic seat over looking the bay. The scene was indeed worthy of all praise, but Lionel's soul, which a short half hour before had been satisfied with Nature, now turned his eyes from all her beauties, to gaze with ill-con cealed admiration and delight at his companion. She, quite unconscious of his scrutiny, pointed out with evident pride, the various points of interest around them, particularly the old castle on their left, of whose dungeons and secret places she spoke with bated breath ; and told him where, not far from the castle, was the little stone from which Napoleon I. stepped on leaving for File d'Aix, when taken prisoner by the English on the 8th of July, 1815.

She was very careful about the date. " The very stone he put his foot on has an iron band around it to protect it," she explained, " but his name, which was carved on it, has been nearly worn away by the waves." STELLA : A SPRING IDYLL. The young man listened with deference, caring nothing about Napoleon, but a great deal for the charming little narrator. " Do you live here ?" he ventured to ask. " Yes, I have always lived here, all my life. " Really ? But surely you are English ?" " Yes, but I do not know England. My mother died at Rochefort. I cannot remember her, but I have a painting of her ; she looks like a saint." " And your father ?" questioned Lionel, feeling desperately ashamed of himself, yet unable to resist the temptation to learn more of this lovely little creature. " He lives here since my mother's death, but he does not go out much, he loves to study, and often I do not see him for days together."

" Poor child, how lonely you must be." " Not so, I have my pets to look after and my lessons to do for the professors that come from Rochefort to teach me, and Nanette shows me how to cook and to sew." "Who is Nanette ?" " My bonne — how do you say ?" she asked, knitting her brows together, and looking at him with her lovely eyes, that filled him with a mad desire to catch her in his arms and run off with her. " You mean nurse," he commanded himself STELLA : A SPRING IDYLL. 9 sufficiently to answer. It was all so new, so delightful, that it is little wonder if the young man felt still half bewildered. He leant back in his seat, nearly closed his eyes, and listened to the sweet voice that had such rare music in it, the little foreignisms making it but the more bewitching. " Yes, nurse," she repeated.

" That is all my life, now tell me of yourself. How did you come here, say ?" " In that yacht anchored out there," answered Lionel, " I had been ill, and my grandfather, with whom I live, brought me for a cruise, to set me up again." " It must be very nice to have a yacht," said the girl. " Nanette says that if my dot is large enough, some one may marry me who could keep a yacht." " Merciful Powers," ejaculated Lionel, staring at her with his great eyes wide open in speechless amazement. " You think it would take too much money?" she asked, mistaking his meaning, " but I am clever and can cook, and make my own clothes, with Nanette's help. I should not mind how little I lived on, if I could go out in a yacht sometimes." A wild desire flew through Lionel's head to take her then and there to the yacht that lay bathed in STELLA : A SPRING IDYLL. 10 the sunlight out yonder.

If only his grandfather — " Something is put up," said the gill. Her eyes following the direction of his, had seen a white flag hung over the bowsprit. " A signal for me to go back," replied the young man, feeling as though he had been rudely awak ened from a pleasant dream. " I cannot go yet. Tell me your name, you beautiful child." " I am not a child, I am sixteen years old," said the ancient maiden, standing before him in her graceful Loveliness. " And my name is Stella Iris Ingold." " Stella ! fitting name for you, you bright star of the morning," thought Lionel to himself, adding, aloud : " You will allow me to come again ? Oh, do not say no, I could not bear it ! " " I shall like always to see you," she answered with childlike frankness. " Come when you like, and if I am not at my lessons or helping Nanette, I will come and sit with you.

But I do not yet know how you call yourself." " Lionel Arundel, can you say it ?' She repeated the name carefully, with a little foreign intonation that charmed him. " I must go now I suppose," he said, regretfully, as the flag was again violently agitated. Rising, STELLA : A SPRING IDYLL, 11 he bared his head and held out his hand with a bold yet pleading look. "Oh, you will shake hands," cried the girl delightedly, " I have never shaked hands before with anyone, show me how you do it." Lionel, nothing loth, took her small white hand in his, and initiated her into the mysteries of hand shaking, and if he went at once into the higher branch of that art, one must forgive him, considering the state of his feelings. "Good-bye, good-bye," he cried, leaving her a last with a rush, or he felt sure he should never get away.

Springing down the steps and into the boat, he stood up, oar in hand, and waved his hat to the tiny figure in pale green, with the tangled mass of golden curls, and the great, innocent baby eyes. Of Apicius, who was evidently seeking what she could devour, nothing was visible but the burning red of her bushy tail.

Chapter II

" Spirit of the past ! Look not so mournfully at me yvith thy great tearful eyes ! Touch me not with thy cold hand ! Chant no more that dirge of sorrow, through the long and silent watches of the night.'' Hyperion. Sir Lionel Arundel was pacing up and down the deck of his yacht in deep thought. He was a tall, striking looking man, and although his hair and pointed beard were white as snow, he showed no other sign of age. The dark eyes were as keen and bright as those of a young man, and his figure strong and upright as a dart. To the ordinary world, Sir Lionel was one of Fortune's favourites. Coming into a large and unencumbered estate, while still in the flower of his youth, and married to a beautiful and charming woman in his own rank, he had appeared to go through life with fewer trials and sorrows than most men.

It is true his STELLA : A SPRING IDYLL. 13 only son had bitterly disappointed him by marrying an Italian singer, but as he died of a fever a year after, and the young wife, broken-hearted, followed him very soon, leaving a baby of a week old, the mesalliance was soon forgotten, especially as Sir Lionel and Lady Arundel lived a most secluded life. The only other child, a girl, had married quite to her parent's wishes, and was now a widow with grown up sons and daughters. Old Lady Arundel, a gentle, sweet-tempered woman, had never recovered from the double blow of her son's marriage and death. Like many a mother, her love for her boy amounted to a passionate adoration. When he confided to her his secret marriage, distressed and grieved as she was, she consented to break the news to Sir Lionel, and tried to soften his anger before the two met.

But the Baronet, wounded alike in his love and pride, refused to see or acknowledge the young wife ; and his stern, haughty indignation, meeting with a will as stubborn as his own, the father and son parted in anger, never to meet again. Lady Arundel wept and prayed in vain, and sought relief from her sorrow in aiding the poor and sick among her tenants. Sir Lionel kept his grief shut up in his heart and gave no sign. He never mentioned his son's name, but he would lock himself up in his library for hours together, neither reading nor STELLA : A SPRING IDYLL. writing, only brooding over the past; his bright, happy nature became cold, stern, and unapproach able. Then came the news of the birth of a son, followed immediately by a letter from the doctor, announcing the death of the young man, enclosing a few lines written in his last moments, imploring protection for his wife and infant.

Sir Lionel at first refused to take any notice, but the wife dying a few days after her husband, the child was left alone among foreigners. Mr. Arundel had spent his brief married life in travelling about Italy and France, always hoping to be recalled by his father ; it was near Rochefort that his son was born, and he and his wife died. The chief obstacle thus being removed, the Baronet went himself to France and brought back the baby heir. He had refused Lady Arundel's earnest prayer that Lionel, and his wife, should be lain with his own people in the Arundel vaults. " He, if you like, but alone," he answered roughly, but his wife would not have them separated, those two, who for love of each other had suffered so much, and loved so well that even death could not part them. Sir Lionel, on his return from France, had com manded that the child should be brought up in a STELLA : A SPRING IDYLL. 15 manner befitting his rank.

" But send him out of the house, never let me see him." Lady Arundel obeyed him as regards the last clause, but she could not part with the little one. She placed him and his nurse in the rooms that had been deserted for so many years, and which were situated in a distant wing of the Court ; finding her greatest pleasure in the daily visits she paid the baby. The Baronet never asked what had become of the child, never mentioned his namer his wife waited patiently and in silence, trusting to time to soften his heart. But years passed by before an accident brought about the meeting she so longed for, yet dreaded. When the boy was six years old, the Baronet, pacing up and down the picture gallery one morning, gave a smothered cry as he was confronted by a beautiful child, who looked up at him frankly and fearlessly.

A little haughty movement of the head, a characteristic of the Arundels, told him at once who the boy was, but he asked him his name and where he lived. " I am called Lionel Arundel, and I live here." " Live here, since when ? " was the astonisned question. " All my life." " Indeed, then perhaps you can tell me who I am ?" STELLA : A SPRING IDYLL. " Sir Lionel Arundel," replied the child, gravely, " and my grandfather." " Who told you that ? "Gran did. Gran says you will love me too one day, only I must be grown up first." " Do you often see — Gran ? " asked Sir Lionel, looking down at the little velvet-clad figure, with a curious sensation tugging at his heart. "Why, yes, every day for hours and hours," answered the boy, with wide open eyes. The thought of his wife's secret love and care for her grandson, saying nothing all these years for fear of annoying him, made him experience another pang of remorse.

Dismissing the boy, he continued to pace up and down in deep thought. At luncheon that day, he said calmly to the foot man : " Go and bring down Mr. Lionel." Lady Arundel started violently, then sank back in her chair, speechless from emotion. Adams stared at his master in utter amazement. The order was repeated in a cold tone of command, that sent the man quickly out of the room. Going over to his wife, who was half fainting, Sir Lionel said with a smile as he kissed her gravely, " I discovered your secret to-day, or STELLA : A SPRING IDYLL. 17 rather he discovered himself. An Arundel must not be kept hidden in his own house." " Forgive me," she murmured, " I could not bear to part from him." Here the door opened and Adams entered, leading the boy, who darting to his grandmother's side, cried in a tone of delight, " Then I'm grown up now, Gran !"

From that day, the Baronet himself watched over the child, and gave him all the love that his son's behaviour had turned to bitterness. But his manner was always cold and stern, he seemed to be afraid to show how much the boy had twined himself around his heart ; so Lionel the younger turned instinctively to his grandmother, who lavished on him all the warmth of affection the boy's southern nature demanded. His grandfather he respected but feared : his grandmother he adored. It was her death, coming just after a successful Oxford examination, that had thrown the young man into a dangerous fever, and had kept him for many weeks ill and depressed. The Baronet, who had feared to lose both wife and grandson at the same time, had taken the doctor's advice, and had cruised about in the hope that change of scene might restore the young invalid ; he had his own reason for coming to this particular spot, which will be given later on.

The doctor's idea had proved successful, as c STELLA : A SPRING IDYLL. the days passed by, though Lionel did not by any means forget his grandmother, still Time, the great Restorer, softened the passion of his grief, and with the buoyancy of youth and returning health, he found life very well worth living in this beautiful spring time. Sir Lionel's thoughts were evidently of the boy now, for he stopped in his walk up and down the deck, to listen with a half smile, half frown to a clear voice that rang out, amid the splashing of the oars in the water, the words : " Oh, how delightful ! oh, how entrancing !" They were sung in Lionel's beautiful tenor. " From this drear thraldom, now to be free A moment's pause as he looked around, probably to see how near he was to the yacht, then went on ; " With wildest joy my heart is dancing, Dancing so madly, now with glee."

" I think your young master's lungs are strong enough to please even you, Adams," remarked the Baronet, turning to the old servant, whose devotion to the boy had been only second to Lady Arundel's herself. Sir Lionel would sometimes speak disparagingly of his grandson, on purpose to see Adams endeavour to protect the boy and yet remain STELLA I A SPRING IDYLL. 19 perfectly respectful to him. Now he smiled to see how eagerly the man went over to the gangway to await the boat. " Hullo, Martha, you there, it's all right." It was many years back that Lionel, then an Eton boy home for the holidays, had nicknamed Adams by the feminine sobriquet of Martha. " Because he's always fussing so about a fellow, just like an old woman," he had explained. " Is Sir Lionel up yet ? " he called out. " Yes, luckily for me," answered his grandfather, "or I should have had a bad chance of repose, with the disturbance you have been making on the water."

" Isn't it lovely ! perfectly lovely ! " cried the young man, gazing over the bay to the beach, from which he could see the grey turrets of the enchanted palace that contained his princess. " The sun will be intolerably hot presently," was the Baronet's only reply. " Let us breakfast." With a lingering look across the water, Lionel followed his grandfather, to where breakfast was laid under an awning, that was very agreeable even at so early an hour in the day, for although Lionel had been up several hours, the clock only struck eight as they sat down. Still somewhat dazzled by his adventure, the c — STELLA : A SPRING IDYLL. 20 young man could hardly remain still or eat anything, much to Adams' distress, who pressed fish and cutlets in vain upon his young master. He feared a relapse as he gazed at the brilliant complexion and bright eyes that, together with no appetite, must surely mean fever.

So it did, but not the fever old Adams dreaded. Nevertheless, the effects of the one are often quite as fatal as the other. " I am going into Rochefort to-day," said Sir Lionel, as they rose from the table. " Will you come, Boy, or do you prefer to flaner by yourself? " " Boy," as his grandfather often called him, rapidly thought out the fact that he could not well pay another visit across the water immediately, so consented to go. The boat was again ordered, and this time two of the men rowed them over. " Is there anything especial in that direction that you nearly break your neck to see ? " asked Sir Lionel, as his grandson twisted himself in a most uncomfortable attitude to gaze at the beach. Muttering something about grey towers and green fields, Lionel tried to behave in a more rational manner.

On landing, they went to the small inn near by, STELLA I A SPRING IDYLL. 21 to see what sort of vehicle they could get to convey them to St. Laurent, the nearest railway station ; for at that time Fouras did not boast, as it does now, of a miniature train, that fusses and puffs into the village like a child's toy. " The place hasn't altered a bit," murmured Sir Lionel, as he led the way up the beach, through the small pine wood, on to the road that glared white and dry in the sunlight. " Were you ever here before ? " asked the young man. After a moment's hesitation, his grandfather replied, shortly, " Yes, some twenty years ago." "When I was born ! " cried Lionel, thoughtlessly, and then was silent. Being so used to speak of his father and mother to Lady Arundel, he sometimes forgot that the subject of his birth was to be ignored in his grandfather's presence.

Bitterly the old man resented any reference to the time that had taken his son from him, in a way worse to him than death ; he hated any recollection of the beautiful Italian girl, who had won his boy's heart by her marvellous singing ; ruthlessly he had forbidden his grandson's taste for music, inherited from his mother, to be cultivated. He might take away .the instruments, and forbid his learning, but he could not kill the glorious STELLA : A SPRING IDYLL. voice, that as a child had thrilled many a heart, nor the love of music that was part of his life. Out of deference to his grandfather's wishes, the boy never played or sang when at home, but during his school and college life, he had given full swing to his love for music. At college he was known by the sobriquet, " The Nightingale," and no dinner was considered successful without him.

" Your birth was not so remarkable an era that I should date from it," answered Sir Lionel, coldly, to the young man's remark. Lionel bit his lip in mortified silence for a moment ; but soon his sunny nature forgot the snub, and he laughed aloud when two middle-aged women passed them, and staring at him one cried aloud to her companion : " del ! Quel beau garcon ! " " And he sings like an angel," answered the second woman, " I heard him on the water this morn." The Baronet frowned. " I wish you would learn to keep your tongue between your teeth, Boy. You will be having pence offered to you some day." Lionel only laughed as he followed his grandfather into the one small inn Fouras boasted of. A stout, handsome woman came forward to see what the gentlemen wanted. STELLA : A SPRING IDYLL 23 "Good morning, Madame Mion.

I hope you are well," said Sir Lionel in French. The woman gave a start, stared at him for a moment, then cried, excitedly, " Is it possible Monsieur has come back again after all these years. And did the child " " Hush ! " said the Baronet, drawing the woman aside. " The boy knows nothing, but I wished to see the place once more ; in fact, I wish to have the bodies removed to England. You have taken care that the grave has been kept in order ? " " Without doubt," said the woman. "I go myself every Sunday to say a prayer for the poor young things. Is that the child, Mon sieur ? " "Yes," replied Sir Lionel, curtly. " Ciel, quel beau gargon!" said Madame Mion, in the same words as the fisherwomen of the morning. Lionel, meanwhile, had gone into the yard and looked about him curiously. The cook, white cap on head, and large white apron tied before him, was preparing some fowls for the spit ; and with him the young man entered into conversation.