Her Evil Behaviour

Chapter I. At The Sign Of The Golden Harp

EY Dear Zoe, — We have arrived. I Ml will try to describe to you what we have arrived at. We are at the fishing village of Widdringham. The village consists of two or three of the dirtiest houses imaginable, a church, a post-office, and one public-house. We live at the public-house, and we are to live here for three whole months. Dost thou like the B picture ? I have no time to say more, as Avhat post there is goes out immediately. So ' good-bye.' " Yours for ever, " Nina." " There," says the author of this short epistle, as she stamps and addresses the envelope — " There is another half-hour got through, at any rate." She is sitting beside the Avindow of a small, dismal, badly furnished room — a room that has evidently only been furnished once, and that a very long time ago. The carpet is choco late coloured, patterned in cinnamon ; the walls are papered Avith paper that has once been chocolate and cinnamon too.

Over the mantel shelf hangs a large picture, which resembles an old master, to the extent of being utterly un pronounceable both in design and texture. There are also present peacocks' feathers and bunches of " dothering-grass," and pieces of spar and bottles of sand. On a horse-hair sofa at the end of the room opposite the window lies a fair colourless woman, Avith the habitual look of ill-health Avhich belongs to some persons, Avhether they are Avell or ill. She has been lying perfectly still for the last hour, watching the movements of her young sister. Noav she sighs, and moves restlessly. " Do you think, Nina," she asks, Avearily, " that Ave might have tea ? " " I am going to the post," answers Nina, " but I won't be a minute, and I'll order the tea to be ready Avhen I come back. But it's not four o'clock yet, and I don't see what on earth Ave are to do with ourselves till it's time to go to bed."

The invalid does not trouble herself to look so far into the future. " I am very thirsty," she says in a repining voice ; and then adds, " Have you been Avriting a letter ? " Yes." " To Avhom ? " To Zoe." B " Oh, you ought to haA-e Avritten to Aunt Elizabeth," grumbles the elder sister. " It's all the same thing." Nina does not take the trouble to dispute any point Avith her sister Flora. Flora has the advantage, or disadA'antage of being fifteen years her senior, and is married into the bar gain ; so the subject is alloAA'ed to drop Avhilst Miss Fettis goes aAvay to post her letter. Nina is a girl Avho is never seen at a dis advantage. You neA-er meet her Avearing yesterday's collar, or an old pair of gloves. She makes the best of herself every where and always. To cross the road and go to the post in the smallest fishing village in England, she goes to her room and attires herself in the daintiest raiment.

She has on a blue cambric goAvn, and she supplements it with a beautiful lace fichu. She dons a large hat coA-ered Avith lace and deep crimson roses, and draAvs on a pair of pale grey gloves ; then she takes a blue parasol and goes downstairs. Her attire looks a little out of place as she crosses the sandy floor of the very small inn where they are staying. She flashes into the sunlight and walks slowly along the uneven pavement. Widdringham is dull, dreary, and uninte resting, and entirely given over to the dominion of fishers and sailors. It boasts a magnificent beach, Avhich extends for miles, and there its attractions begin and end. But a clever doctor, who has for years attended Mrs. McAlister, Nina's invalid sister, once scented the air of Widdringham, and pronounced it the purest and most bracing in England ; and it is his dictum that has brought these two women to try the invigorating power of the sea-breeze.

Nina posts her letter, and looks up and down the dirty little street. There is nothing to be seen save one or two women sitting on their door-steps mending nets. A few children play in the gutter, and a lean dog trots about in vague hopes of a bone. The one shop AvindoAV contains an enticing assortment of articles ; three bonnet shapes, a hay fork, a cheese, ribbons, tape, eggs, a serA-ant's cap, and a lobster. Nina looks at all these things before she crosses the road, and leaves the grimy pathAvay for the grass-tufted hillocks near the beach. Here she stumbles over the uneven turf, and occasionally sinks over the tops of her delicate shoes. The breeze catches her large hat, and flutters the end of the snowy fichu. She sinks down, and speaks in a regretful tone, though only to herself : " We came yesterday, and Ave are to stay three months.

Oh, my dear Zoe ! " It is not an attractive prospect for a girl accustomed to a good deal of society and a great deal of admiration. Three months in a small fishing village, with an invalid sister for company, and not a stranger to captivate. Nina is fond of strangers, and considers it her best amusement to make a good impression upon persons she has neA'er seen before. But here it is most unlikely that any stranger worth captivat ing Avill ever appear. " If I lived in a novel," soliloquizes Miss Fettis, looking rather sadly at her Regent Street shoes, " some very nice looking young man Avould come along here just noAV. He Avould slip his foot, break his leg, and fall senseless beside me. I should at once with great presence of mind bring him to his senses, run for a doctor (I don't suppose there is one, by the Avay), take the interesting hero to the Harp, and nurse him Avith much tenderness and care.

When he was convalescent, Ave would come out here, and he Avouldbringoutpocketvolumes of poetry,and read in soft, thrilling tones, whilst I Avould produce some delicate embroidery and Avork — and drink in his words with rapture. That is Avhat happens in novels," says Nina, as she rises and saunters back to the inn ; " but in real life legs do not break so easily or so conveniently. Flora and- 1 will most probably not see a single human being except each other till we part at the end of three months. That is, if I live so long, Avhich in a desert like this seems improbable." Mrs. McAlister is sitting at tea Avhen her sister returns. Not the cup of tea and tiny morsel of cake Avhich constitutes a light after noon refreshment, but the solid meal forming a substantial stepping stone betAveen dinner and supper in a land where late dinners are unknoAvn.

A dressed crab decorated with parsley holds the place of honour, and a large jar of strawberry jam attracts the lazy flies ; t\Aro hot tea cakes, cut bread and butter, dry toast, a plate of rasp berries, and a saucer of shrimps fill up the hospit able board. " I Avonder Avhy it has occurred to Mrs. Green to imagine that you and I eat as much as six men," says Nina, carrying her cup to the windoAv ; " she must give us credit for such powers of diges tion as no mortal woman Avas ever blessed Avith." " Yes, indeed," answers the invalid, regarding the banquet Avith disgust. " The sight of the things is enough to take away all one's appetite for a Aveek. And I never can eat anything in the hot Aveather," she goes on plaintively. " If I were only as strong and as well as you, Nina, I think I should never have a care.

For, after all, health is the greatest blessing in the world, and no one deserves so much compassion as a person Avho is always as ill as I am." Nina has heard all this so often before that she may be forgiven for not paying any particular attention to it. She makes no reply, only stares intently at the great blue flood spreading aAvay to the horizon. Her reverie is interrupted by the opening of the door to admit Mrs. McAlister's maid, who stands holding doubtfully in her hand one of those yelloAv-broAvn envelopes which strike awe into the nervous heart. " A telegraph for you, ma'am," says this young person, in a whisper, as if certain of bearing evil tidings. " I looked in at the shop, and found it lying there. They said they knew I Avas your maid, and," — " How did they find that out, I Avonder," breaks in Nina, as her sister reads the telegram ; " and what Avould have become of it if you hadn t gone in ; Avould it have lain there till doomsday ?

Well, Flora, Avhat is it ; is it from Edinburgh ; is your house on fire, or has there been a burglary ? " " No, nothing of the sort, but you are going to get your wish." " I am very glad of that. Which Avish ? " " Why, you were Avishing that somebody Avould come. Allan is coming to-morroAv, and he is going to bring Mr. Malcolm with him ; so you Avill at least have somebody to speak to." Nina tAvists the tassel of the blind-pull doubt fully. " I shall be glad to see Allan," she answers slowly, " but I don't like Mr. Malcolm much. He may be improved by noAV, as I haA'e not seen him for tAvo years ; perhaps I shall like him better than I did then." " I thought you and he Avere quite fond of each other." "Fond of Bruce Malcolm! My goodness, Flora, Avhat next ! " " Well, you flirted with him outrageously."

" Ah, I Avas a fool in those days, and flirted with anybody and everybody. I am more particular noAv." " He is very well off," says Flora reflectively, " and you would be an exceedingly lucky girl if he really took a great fancy to you." " I dare say," replies Nina, with supreme care lessness ; " but somehoAV one never falls in love with the right person. The honest, rich, respectable young man, with a house of his own filled Avith solid furniture, is never the right man in the right place." " You are spoilt by living in that awful set that Uncle Layton always contrives to gather about him ; and you will continue to run about after a lot of young men without a penny among them, till you find some day that you are alone in the world, without a single human being to take any notice of you." " No doubt.

And that will be very sad. At the same time one can't marry everybody Avho Avants to marry one." " Girls always think that everybody is anxious to marry them," cries Flora, Avith de cided spite in her tone. " But really and truly, Bruce Malcolm in Edinburgh is considered a very great catch." " Is that so ? It doesn't say very much either for the taste of the girls or the status of the young men. If he is the best man, Avhat can the others be like ? " " That is all very Avell, but it is much easier to laugh at a man like that than to get a man like that to marry you ; and you are only uncomplimentary to him because he is Allan's friend." " Not at all. Allan and I always get on very Avell, and I should get on Avell Avith his friends if they Avere nice ; but from Avhat I remember of Bruce Malcolm he was not at all nice.

And noAV let us go and walk on the beach." But a Avalk upon the beach is not altogether to Mrs. McAlister's taste. She has arrived at that point in the history of her long illness Avhen it is much easier to lie upon the sofa, and be waited upon, than to make any effort of such a nature as a long walk, or even a short stroll upon a soft sandy beach. So she declines to move, and Nina is compelled either to sit gazing hopelessly out of the window, listening to her sister's languidly spiteful remarks, or to Avalk alone in the evening sunshine. She prefers the latter, and is soon pacing up and down beside the little curling white waves that turn over so lazily at her feet. She is soon so deep in thought, that even had the stranger Avhose absence she Avas deploring this afternoon arrived upon the scene, she would probably have been quite unaware of his presence.

Some of us have pleasant thoughts always ready to rush into our minds Avhen we are left alone ; some of us again when we are left to our own thoughts would much rather push them away from us, and fill our minds with neAv impressions. Nina Fettis is one of the latter. When she begins to think she begins to solve a gloomy problem. But when the moon has arisen, and Flora has sent her maid Emmet to desire Miss Fettis to come in for fear of taking cold, the problem is still unsolved. Supper on the same magnificent scale as tea is spread for the two women, Avho regard it Avith disdain, and Avho yawn themselves into a state of hopeless fatigue, in the mere effort to pretend that they are not thoroughly tired of their sur roundings already. When Nina gets into her bedroom she sits and stares at her own face in the looking-glass for an hour Avithout really seeing Avhat she looks at.

Chapter II Malcolm

nTsi-T ERE we are, Malcolm, at the most be- C^-~ nigh ted place in creation, and by Jove there's my bonny little sister-in-law waiting for us." So speaks a broad shouldered, sandy haired Scotchman, to a much slighter, more refined looking companion, as they alight at the Widdringham station. Bruce Malcolm pretends to be mightily busy fussing over his port manteau. For the last two years he has been longing for a sight of his friend's bonny sister-in law, and noAV that she is close beside him he dare scarcely raise his eyes to look at her. Nina comes forward with a bright smile of Avelcome. " Well, child, Ave\-e come to share your exile and solitude. You remember Malcolm, of course. How well you're looking, Nina. Your eyes are as bright as stars. What sort of a trap have you brought for us to drive over in ?

" For the Widdringham station is quite three miles from the village of the same name. " The only trap in the place, Allan ; a very high dog-cart, Avith a very unpleasant horse, terribly given to kicking and running aAvay." With which encouraging speech she leads the Avay to the conveyance in question. They soon settle themselves. Mr. Malcolm in front,' beside the driver, Nina and Allan behind ; an arrange ment made by Nina, much to Mr Malcolm's disgust. He sits Avatching the hills groAving purple in the soft evening air, and the many coloured trees Avaving and Avhispering in the distance. It is not all cold, grey barren shore, this part of the coast. There are patches of fertile beauty on the far aAA-ay hills, and the thick hedgerows boast myriads of little pink MALCOLM. 17 and yellow floAvers.

The jaded man of business looks gratefully at the beauties of nature around him, and listens to the chatter of the voices be hind. No music could have the poAver to charm him as the light conversation of Miss Fettis and her brother-in-law, simple and frivolous as it is. " And what do you do all day ? " enquires Allan of Nina. " How does Flora manage to amuse herself ? " " We never amuse ourselves ; we get up, and we have breakfast, and Ave long for our letters and the paper, but we don't get them till the middle of the day. I go out and bathe some times, and Flo reads and works all the morning. We are obliged to dine early ; the Harp will have nothing to say to late dinners. Then in the afternoon we talk or write letters, or stroll on the sands, and have tea, and so on, and so on. " It doesn't sound very lively for you, child " It isn't, but it's a change, you know, and Flo is so glad to have me Avith her." c: " It's getting quite chilly to-night," observes Malcolm, turning to join in the conversation.

" Have Ave much further to go, Miss Fettis ? " " Only about a mile. I like the chilliness, don't you ? It is always fresh and cool on the north-east coast. In the south last week we Avere fried." " Then I expect you like Edinburgh," cries the Scotchman at once. " Prince's Street has always a cool side." What a bore Scotch people always are about Edinburgh, thinks Nina, impatiently. But she only says — "Edinburgh is a detestable place, I think. The last time I Avas there I was quite scorched up Avith the heat, and the time before frozen to death with the cold." This was a rash speech to make to two Scotchmen, but Nina is rather a rash young Avoman, and cares absolutely nothing for the opinion of these two companions. Allan McAlister surveys her curiously, MALCOLM. 19 though he has heard speeches like this before.

But Bruce Malcolm looks decidedly aghast at this blasphemy. Edinburgh ! Modern Athens ! A detestable place ! And he loves this girl, and Avishes her to go and live there with him. He turns away, and as he stares at the sandy, shingly road before him, he feels that his love-making may not be the smoothest in the Avorld. But he has come to " put it to the touch," and one never knows what may happen. During his meditations the erratic steed lands his freight safely at the door of the Harp. Allan's first rush is upstairs to his delicate wife. And this leaves Bruce Avith the fair arbiter of his fate, who is giving slight and hasty instructions about the luggage. Nina is a little uneasy at her lover's presence. Two years ago she fancied this man Avas in love Avith her, and being endoAved Avith a decided talent for flirtation, gave him a certain amount C of encouragement, but in the middle of their flirtation her attention Avas diverted to another admirer — she had many of them — and her feeling for the young Scotchman turned first to boredom, and then to dislike.

Noav she wishes for no more love-making from him, and devoutly trusts that he has relapsed into a similar frame of mind. She is a little afraid, and tries a very careless off-hand manner as the best means of disposing of him. " There," she cries, with a laugh, as they stand at the inn door, facing the sea. " You will see that morning, noon, and evening. You will hear it all night, you will smell it at all hours, and at the end of your fortnight's visit you will hate it." " I'm very fond of the sea," he ansAvers, simply. " And I suppose Ave can go inland when Ave wish." " Of course, but Ave never get rid of the sea." Mr. Malcolm begins to think that he will not ask the momentous question to-day, nor to- MALCOLM. 21 morrow. He will probably find it better to wait for many days. Nina knows, Avith a woman's instinct, Avhat is passing through his mind, and her great anxiety being to evade the question altogether, she puts an end to their tcte-a-tete by suggesting they should go upstairs to Mrs. McAlister.

Flora gives him a very kind and friendly greeting. She is fond of this friend of her husband's, Avhom she very often sees in her Edinburgh home, and she feels that his visits will make their stay here a little more lively than it had been before, so she receives him very sweetly, Avhile Allan and Nina sit and talk together on the windoAV-seat. Allan McAlister married Flora years ago, Avhen she and her little sister Avere first left orphans. The little sister was at once adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Layton, the uncle and aunt Avith whom she noAV lives, and the married one has dragged on a listless invalid -existence in Edinburgh, solaced by the goodness and attention of her husband, Avho, though neither very clever nor very interesting, is very devoted to the pining, languid woman he has chosen from the Avorld.

They are not a demonstrative couple ; they have but feAv ideas in common, and very little to say to one another. Lately it had entered Allan's head that it Avould be a pleasant arrangement if Nina could be induced to leave the Laytons, and make her home with them in Edinburgh. He means to suggest this to Nina at once, and with a good deal of obstinacy to back his thoughts, has quite determined to carry his plan through. As they gather round the supper table, Nina launches the ball of conversation, and Allan keeps it up ; Flora never talks, and Malcolm is far too much absorbed in looking at the object of his affection to say much on any subject. She looks very lovely to-night in her soft blue dress, Avith its white lace and knots of crimson ribbon, fair enough to grace admirably his villa, and with plenty of calm self-possession and MALCOLM. 23 gracious liveliness to entertain his Edinburgh friends.

There is certainly no girl in all the world but this, to whom he will offer his heart, hand, and Avorldly goods. Nina soon grows tired of entertaining her brother-in-laAv, and after a little desultory chatter round the open AvindoAV, she goes to bed. Flora at once follows her example ; the tAvo men of course go doAvnstairs to smoke. The small sanded entrance is deserted, all the inn company preferring the bar behind, from Avhich issues gruff guttural conversation and much noisy laughter. Outside the sea and sand are silvered Avith the flood of moonlight, and the silent invitation to step into the line of Avhite rays is not to be resisted. Allan and Bruce saunter slowly down to the edge of the waves. They smoke, at first in silence ; then a sudden Avish for sympathy Avells up in Bruce Malcolm's bosom, and he resolves to sound his friend upon the one subject noAV worth talking about.

He begins rather nervously, for he has all the lover's dread of hearing that his idol is somehow out of his reach. " Miss Fettis is the most charming girl I ever met, Allan." " I'm glad you think so. She's always been a pet of mine." " I Avonder she's not been married long before now." " So do I. But she's a bit of a flirt, I'm afraid — at least Flo says so." " One woman often says that of another, I think." " And generally Avith truth. I took my wife from the schoolroom, Malcolm, when she Avas a child of fifteen, and I always thank Heaven that I did so. She had neA-er known Avhat it was to flirt, or to be made love to by any man but me. She never thought of any man but me, and I think no man has so good a chance of happiness, as one whose Avife has never had the image of any other man imprinted on either her heart or her brain."

MALCOLM. 25 Malcom ponders for a feAV minutes on the schoolgirl Elora, Avho has, to his thinking, turned out such a very poor specimen of humanity, and then he says — " You think the man who marries Miss Fettis will not be her first love." " I don't say that ; but she is twenty-three, and she lives in London, where young men flourish and abound. And then her cousin Zoe ! Well, you've met Zoe Layton, I think." " Yes, I met her at Brighton, where I first met Miss Fettis." And what did you think ofher? " She is a flirt, I should say." " Nina loves her like a sister ; lives in their house, seldom leaves her, except to visit us. Birds of a feather, eh ? " " It sounds like it, but they may be very different for all that." " I am going to make a change in Nina's arrangements. We are going to have her to live Avith us."

"With you! In Edinburgh! Oh, Allan, I'm so glad." " Why, Malcolm, do you really mean that you care for Nina in that Avay ? " " Care for her ! My dear fellow, are you blind ? I love her with all my heart and soul." "Thank Heaven for that. But, Malcolm, let us keep her a little while. My Avife has set her heart upon having the child Avith her. She only kept from asking Nina to live Avith us long ago, because she Avas afraid I might object to a third in our house. But I shall be glad enough to Avelcome her. Let us keep her a few months, Malcolm ; OA-er the winter, at any rate." " But I haven't asked her yet, and I'm afraid to do it too soon." " Don't be afraid, man. A fortnight in a place like this is long enough for twenty proposals. But if you cannot pluck up courage to do it here, I promise you plenty of opportunities Avhen we bring her home to Edinburgh.

Aye ! and no rivals either." MALCOLM. 27 " Thank you, Allan ; I knew you would be my friend. But if she doesn't care for me, your help Avill be of very little use." " Nil desperandum ; she is a woman, there fore to be won, and she is not engaged to any one else." " That's something, certainly." " At least, not that Flora and I know of. They walk up and doAvn the shore, which gleams under their feet like molten silver, for some time discussing this new and fascinating subject. Both men are more than satisfied Avith the picture of Nina installed as Bruce Malcolm's wife at the RoAvans, Morningside. Allan McAlister sees visions of this brilliant girl, as a useful companion for his sickly wife, and a pleasant help in those entertainments he is bound to give from time to time. Of course she will marry Malcolm, if the young man is only brave enough to take her heart by storm, and the arranging and carrying out of these little plans will add a neAv zest to the life at Widdringham for the next fort night.

" Now I Avonder Avhat plot those tAvo are hatching," says Nina to herself, as she Avatches them from her bedroom window. " Something of importance, I should think, judging by the look of Allan's back, and the despondent shakes of Mr. Malcolm's head. I only hope to good ness they are not talking about me." Bruce Malcolm spends a long dreary night in inventing schemes for proposing to Miss Fettis. His heroine spends a dreamless, happy, healthy night of good sound sleep. When the bright morning sunshine awakes them both, the young lady has consequently much the best of it. She appears at the breakfast table in the highest of high spirits, whilst her loA-er is exhausted Avith sleepless thought, and decidedly unequal to any Avarfare of Avits into Avhich she may lead him. But she lets him alone.

Nina is very much inclined to let every one round her alone just then, for she has come from London in a MALCOLM. 29 rather unfortunate frame of mind, OAving to various complications which have arisen during the last feAV months. Like most people Avho tread the primrose path with careless indis cretion, she has found thorns and briars sticking in her road, and her efforts to tread them all down have not been highly successful. She sits at breakfast Avith the two men (for Mrs. McAlister does not leave her room till later), and asks them idle questions about Edinburgh, and tells them scraps of news about her London friends. She never mentions those friends about Avhom she thinks day and night. But she tells them how Uncle Layton has got a new horse, and Zoe had lost the old fox-terrier she was so fond of; how the spring has been very gay, and Royalty rampant everyAvhere ; how she met at an At Home the newest and latest African explorer, and has been taken doAvn to dinner by the greatest new actor.

This last item of intelligence rouses Allan's indignation. " That's the worst of your London set," he says gruffly. " You are ahvays coming across actors, and authors, and painters, and a regular out-at-elbows lot." "It does no harm, Allan," says Nina reproach fully. " I don't say that all the talented men one meets are gentlemen, but they are nearly all interesting in a Avay." " Mr Layton is far too fond of that sort of thing," is Allan's next remark, given Avith great emphasis. " I always wonder Avhy he en courages a set of idle young fellows, Avith no thing but brain, to hang about his house, Avhen he might have a really nice lot of men, if he chose." Nina is silent. She has a particular reason for not showing the antagonism that she feels ; Bruce Malcolm joins in uneasily, " Perhaps he finds the brains more to his taste than the set you Avould recommend, Allan."