Mine Own Familiar Friend, etc

Front matter

VOL. Ill BY THE HON. MRS. ALFRED MONTGOMERY. " For it was not an enemy that reproached me ; then I could have borne it : neither was it he that hated me ; then I would have hid myself from him. But it was thou I my guide and line acquaintance." IN THREE VOLUMES. vol. m. LONDON: HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1872. 27k right of Translation u reserved. LONDON : PRINTED BY MACDONALD AND TUGWELL, BLENHEIM HOUSE.

Chapter I. Entanglements

rpHE whole of the day following that evening ■ spent at the Wren's Nest Adelaide was hi a state of mind which required no external ob jects to amuse or interest. It was enough to be lazily alive, and breathe the warm air. She lay dreaming the whole day, and when evening approached she took her guitar and sang. The house rang with the full rich melody of her velvet voice, and the native servants lingered in the corridors, and behind the open doors, as they went about their work, to catch the sounds. Mr. Snowden was to be absent till the day B VOL. ■2 MINE OWN FAMILIAR FRIEND. following. He had left home after his party. Adelaide had laid aside all anxiety about Sam's instalment in his new place. Indeed, she had well-nigh forgotten the circumstance ; it had so dwindled in importance before the overflowing joy of her own restored security in Charles's affection, and the sort of unreasoning persuasion which possessed her that for the future all would go smoothly.

The whole of the day sped on calmly and tranquilly. She had no hankering for immediate intercourse again with Charles. She had enough to think of and dream about without hearing his voice for that one day, and he told her he was going to ride to a distant part of his plantations, and should be away from home all that day, and probably that night. Mrs. Oswald sent up a note to inform Adelaide that little George, the baby, was doing well, presuming that she might be anxious to hear. " I promised your inamorato, my dear, that I would look after the poor little creature till he should return, which, judging from his intense impatience to see you again, I imagine will not be later than to-morrow. Will you come down to Wren's Nest in the evening, if your father can spare you ? Bring your guitar, for he wants to hear that song of ' Let my life be bright as the ocean's spray,' which he assures me you have never sung to him.

I told him I believed the words to be your own, as well as the music. You will see by all this that we had a five minutes' chat about you after you were borne away from us in your litter last night." Adelaide crumpled up the note in her hand, aud let it drop on the pavement by her side. She was not particularly troubled about the baby, whether he were ill or well. But she began to sing her song over again with fresh power and delight. Night came on, and she retired to her room. Long Jack took his nightly prowl round the house to see that all was safe, and picked up the crumpled letter where Adelaide had let it fall. He smoothed it out in the palm of his hand and spelt its contents. Inamorato was an unknown B term to Jack ; but he knew Mr. Falkener's baby's name was George, and he thought the rest quite plain enough for his purpose.

So, folding it up carefully, he concealed it in his pocket, as a convenient weapon for future emergencies. The next morning Adelaide resolved on spending a long day at the Wren's Nest. Her father's return was uncertain. Besides, she had none of the habits of a dutiful daughter, who would wait at home to receive her father. She would sing while Mrs. Oswald accompanied her, and in the evening Charles was sure to appear. She sent down to her friend to propose this, and the answer came entreating she would spend the night there, as there seemed no certainty about Mr. Snowden's movements. The proposition was accepted, and Adelaide, taking Nursie with her, set out for the Wren's Nest. Early in the afternoon, just as the delicious sea-breeze which blows over the land and miti gates what would otherwise be the hottest time, was beginning to be felt, Mr. Snowden returned to the Cedars.

He was a little put out at finding no one at home to receive him. Not even Nursie, whose presence, as regarded his own personal comfort, was of more importance to him than his daughter's. But he liked to find Adelaide at home. It was pleasant to meet that lovely face as he entered the house ; and if she were only in good-humour she had plenty to say, and said it well. Finding himself entirely alone, Mr. Snowden was seized with a feverish activity, inducing him to set about something serious. Certain things wanted looking to. He had noticed dis crepancies in the house, in the . stables, in the dependencies ; and this was a good opportunity, a little unlooked-for leisure in which to go well into them, and set his house in order. For this object Jack was called in to aid, and master and man set forth on their round of minute set ting to rights — always the most irritating of occupations, even under the most propitious cir cumstances ; and on a hot Jamaica afternoon, when you have been already rather put out, quite fatal to the temper of anybody short of a tried saint.

The further they went and the more they investigated, the more obvious did it become that Sam had been summarily dismissed at a most awkward moment. He had had several jobs in hand of importance to the security and convenience of the household, and, what was of almost more importance, of the stables and de pendencies. The locks had actually been taken off some of the doors for the purpose of being cleaned or mended. And Sam had been sent away before they had been put on again. Mr. Snowden was. greatly annoyed, and kept ap pealing to Jack, first for sympathy in his an noyance, and finally for some counsel as to what could be done. " What has become of that infernal rascal, Jack % Do you know where he is gone to ?" "Me supposes he could be found, if Massa wants him back again." "What are you talking about ?

How could 1 have a fellow like that tampering with my locks under pretence of mending them ? I should want a body-guard to go round with him, and see he was up to none of his tricks. At the same time it is a terrible nuisance not having a carpenter and blacksmith at hand. I know of no one without sending twenty miles to fetch him."' " Sam not far off, if Massa like to have him for the job, and Mr. Falkener told Sam he could job about when he not want him." " Mr. Falkener told Sam ! — what the deuce has Mr. Falkener to do with where Sam goes and what he does f" " Mr. Falkener took Sam straight away into his service as soon as Massa dismiss him. Miss Dinah very cock-a-hoop and pert about it, and no doubt Miss Dinah 11 be there too." " Did Mr. Falkener know why I had parted with them both?" " Oh !

Massa, me not know — me never ask — no business of Jack's. Mr. Falkener asks no questions of Jack. Perhaps find it useful to have one of Missy's maids handy." " If you go on with these hints and inuen does, Jack, you will drive me mad. What does it all mean ? Why can't you speak out ?" It was not in Jack's nature to be clear and succinct, and his round-about cloudy state ments had the effect of lashing Mr. Snowden into a perfect fury. He thought it very un gentlemanly of Falkener to have received Sam at once into his own service without the slight est reference to himself. They were upon too intimate and familiar a footing for his doing so not to look like a grave slight, almost an in sult, put upon a man of a higher standing in Jamaica than himself, and old enough to be his father. It was not any business of Jack's to investi gate Mr. Falkener's reasons, and it would very materially have interfered with his own little plans of private revenge had he been com pelled to acknowledge that Mrs. Oswald had anything to do with Falkener's conduct in the matter.

It would have robbed him at once of the delicious morsel of sweet revenge which he was rolling under his tongue morally, and sucking with more gusto than the bear does his own paws. Jack would have found it very difficult, aud perhaps dangerous, to hint to his master that his daughter and Falkener were upon more than friendly terms ; but with the crumpled letter that had fallen from Adelaide's careless hand safe in his pocket, it was not ne cessary to use many words, for there was the proof. Jack had no real reason for supposing that Dinah's services were called into requisition for carrying on what he represented as a regular intrigue ; but then it was so plausible an asser tion — it fell so entirely within the limits of pro bability that either she was, or might be, made use of — that he did not hesitate so to represent it to his master.

Moreover, had not the two circumstances so aptly fitted in of Mr. Snow den's indignation about Sam's entering Falke ner's service, and the fact that he was Ade laide's inamorato, it might have been possible to bring him round to view with approbation the latter part. After all, Mr. Falkener was now far from being a bad match for a girl with Adelaide's prospects. In addition to the Ja maica estates, there was his father's property in England, and it was known that the elder man had just contracted a very good marriage. Snowden had been vaguely suspicious while Annie was alive, because he thought any non sense of that kind would put real business out of Adelaide's head. But Falkener was free, and might in time have been acceptable, had it not been for the extreme indignation Mr. Snow den felt at what he looked upon as an ungen tlemanly slight put upon himself, at the same time that Falkener was carrying on a clandes tine intrigue with his only child.

Snowden was at all times a very touchy man, and in this instance he had an uncomfortable sense of being, in point of fact, very much Fal kener's inferior. He knew that Falkener's manners and appearance entitled him to shine in a class of society where he would never be more than the rich, clever, but very vulgar attorney. So long as he could assume the superiority of the older and (so far as Jamaica and actual possession were concerned) the wealthier man, he had been pleased rather to patronise Charles Falkener, and had often given him the advantage of his own greater experience as regarded the management of his property. But Charles, by his one act respecting Sam, had shown an independence of all consideration aud deference which almost amounted to insult. And Mr. Snowden's ire was in exact pro portion to his wounded pride.

Jack had cal culated his diplomatic plot with the astuteness of a Macchiavelli. He might not have been able to put it into the best of language, but it needed only to fall back on the subtle instincts of his half savage nature, to arrive at a just appreciation of the circumstances of the case, which no amount of civilization could have improved. At the same time, however, that he allowed himself to excite Mr._ Snowden's passions to a considerable extent, he very wai-ily kept back certain circumstances. He knew the danger of plunging down the whole depth at once. It might lead him too far. It might be impossible to recede. And he had nearly a match for his own cunning in the character of his young mis tress. Besides, had he said all he knew and hinted at all his coarse imagination wrongfully suggested, he knew he might create a reaction in the father's mind.

Mr. Snowden might sus pect Jack of exaggeration, and if he had been found out as untrue in any one statement the whole fabric might have fallen to the ground at once. Therefore Jack made no allusion to moonlight meetings beneath the catalpa tree. It would not be to his advantage to insinuate that Adelaide had ever actually transgressed propriety. It was quite enough for his purpose to make Mr. Snowden furiously angry with Falkener, and greatly displeased with any en couragement Adelaide might have given him. By saying no more than would lead to this he reserved a second string for his bow in the gratitude he might claim from Adelaide for not having openly aspersed her fair name. There fore he simply drew from his breast-pocket Mrs. Oswald's letter to Adelaide of the evening before, and silently laid it before the father's indignant eyes.

After that he shrouded himself in a silent delicate reserve, which testified a sort of intelligent sympathy with his master, without appearing to glance even in thought at other and far more terrible possibilities. Snowden was a man of very violent temper and strong emotions. He stormed, he fumed, he raved. At length, when he had torn up and down the room at least half a hundred times, suggesting aloud to himself first this mode of vengeance and then that, resorting in imagination to horsewhips and cudgels as regarded Fal kener, and suiting the action to the thought, he sank down on a chair before his writing-table, and prepared to execute a letter. There were several sheets blotted aud bleared before he pro duced any epistle exactly to his taste. When finished, it ran as follows : — " Sir, — I consider that you have acted in a very ungentlemanly and I may say black guardly way, in taking my former carpenter Sam and his thievish daughter at once into your service, without the slightest reference to me and to the grounds of my dismissal of these servants from my establishment.

Of course you can employ whom you please, and hire all the rogues in the country if it be any satisfaction to you. But there are certain things to be observed between gentlemen, and as you have failed in these you have forfeited your claim to being one. That being my opinion you will not be surprised if for the future I decline hav ing any intercourse with you. And should I on any occasion have reason to suspect that you are forcing a continuance of your most objec tionable attentions on my daughter, I shall visit your intrusion with a thorough good horse whipping. " J Snowden.' Mr. Snowden considered this a very toneddown letter. It had nothing of the thunder and blazes which irradiated the discarded sheets strown on the floor at his feet. A long period of Jamaica life had eliminated the cautious and wary attorney out of him, and had sub stituted the bluster and swagger of the moneyed man.

But the above production was a sort of compromise between the two. A servant was sent off post-haste with the letter ; and then Mr. Snowden addressed him self to the still more difficult task of writing one to Adelaide at the Wren's Nest, to recall her immediately to her own home. He dared not expose himself to a regular scene with Ade laide ; and he was partly ashamed to do so before Mrs. Oswald, or with her knowledge ; while a lingering admiration for that lady made him indulgent towards her as regarded the part she seemed to have taken in the transaction. The following was the result of all these mixed motives : — " My dear Adelaide, — I want you home immediately, on a matter of importance, and of a very disagreeable nature. I consider myself as very badly used by Mr. Falkener in the question of Sam and Dinah.

I do not know how far you and Mrs. Oswald are acquainted with the circumstances, but tell that lady, with my compliments, that I cannot allow you to meet Mr. Falkener at her house, where I am led to suppose he is a frequent visitor. " Your affectionate father, " J. Snowden.: This note was to be given by no less trusty a messenger than Long Jack, who was ushered, at his particular request, into Mrs. Oswald's presence, that he might deliver it with his own hands. He accompanied the carriage that was to take back Adelaide ; and he could not resist the satisfaction of watching for himself the countenance of his young mistress when she should read the letter. In this, however, he was disappointed. Adelaide did not lose her presence of mind. She read the note, and then r desired Long Jack to bring round the carriage in half an hour, and meanwhile to inform Nursie that she was going home.

The door closed upon Long Jack, and then Mrs. Oswald, looking up from her drawing to Adelaide's pale stern face, ventured to ask, " My dearest child, is anything the matter 1 Is your father ill 1 Why are you going so soon to leave me?" Adelaide rose from her chair, and, silently laying the letter before her hostess, began pacing the room. When Mrs. Oswald had read the letter, Adelaide paused in front of her friend, and the two women looked for a moment silently into each other's faces. "Do you suppose from this, Adelaide, that your father is very angry ?" "Considering the insult he puts upon you and me both, Georgiana, in ordering me out of your house at a moment's notice, he must be so angry as to have forgotten what is due to you as a lady, and entirely to ignore what he must C VOL. expect from me after thus summarily ordering me home."

" It is very provoking, Addy. I wonder how he first found it out ? I think it will blow over, dear — I do indeed. Only I am so vexed for the pain to you ; and I cannot bear thus losing your dear society, though I am persuaded it is only for a time." " I do not think it will blow over, Georgie. Things don't blow over with my father. If you mean that my father's foolish touchiness will not ultimately prevent my being your guest when ever you are kind enough to invite me, you are right. I shall manage that, aud you will help me. But this incident has raised a barrier which Charles and I shall find it difficult to undermine." " I have every reason to be very much hurt myself, Addy, at the tone of Mr. Snowden's note. What right has he to imply that Mr. Falkener is a frequent visitor here, and to order you out of my house at a minute's notice, as if it were not a fit place for you to be in ?"

" Of course he has no right, Georgie ; and he will find out that he has been guilty of worse than a crime, for he has made a mistake. Meanwhile I am afraid I have a deal of trouble before me. Nothing will appease my father's anger at what he considers a slight put upon him by Charles. But Charles and I must and will meet, and must and will marry !" " What do you propose doing, my poor child ?" asked Mrs. Oswald. "First, dear Georgie, I intend doing what looks so much like an act of submission that it surprises even myself. I intend going home, as you perceive. I might insist on remaining here (if you would good-naturedly keep me). But I can act on my father better by facing him than by appearing to brave him out at a distance. There is, however, one thing which fills me with misgiving. Long Jack knows Charles and I are great friends, and Long Jack was sent with this note and delivered it himself.

Has he roused my father's apprehensions, do you think?" 0 " I hope not, for your sake, my dear Addy, though I never could understand Mr. Snowden's being averse to your marrying Mr. Falkener. Still, as there is now this ill-feeling towards him, you will have to be careful. By-the-by, Adelaide, what did you do with my note to you last night ?" The blood rushed to Adelaide's cheek, and she replied hesitatingly, " I cannot remember. Let me see — where was I sitting? If I dropped it in the verandah, my enemy Long Jack will have picked it up." " And taken it to your father ?" " You may depend upon it that is what has happened, Georgie. How am I to meet so many troubles at once ? Do advise me, my dear friend, what shall I do ?" " First, Addy, I think you are very unwise in allowing yourself to have an enemy in Long Jack.

Creatures like that are better friends than foes. Never make an enemy of a member of your own household. If he or she becomes one, get rid of him at once." " That would not be easy, Georgie, so far as Jack is concerned. My father would never part with him. I have tried it and failed." " Then try and make him your friend." " How can I eat so much dirt, Georgie, dear?" " Never mind, it will all count in the peck we must all eat before we die ; and which, in the case of women, is sometimes a peck and a half." " Can't you help me, Georgie, out of this mess ? You know you have your own crow to pick with my father." " Trust me for doing that, my dear. To morrow morning early he will receive a little note from me demanding an interview in my own house. He will probably speak to you about it. Give him to understand that I am exceedingly hurt at the tone of his letter to you, and at his calling you away so suddenly and unceremoniously.

Frighten him thoroughly. I will do the rest." The two women embraced and parted. On her way back to the Cedars Adelaide ex plained to Nursie all that had happened. She anxiously inquired of her whether she had found Mrs. Oswald's letter in the pocket of the dress she had worn on the evening before ; and on Nursie answering in the negative became more than ever convinced it had fallen into Long Jack's hands. Arrived at home Adelaide quietly went to her own room to take off her bonnet, and then, with equal quiet and perfect self-possession, entered her father's study. He was standing up as she came in, looking flurried and rather nervous. She confronted him with a grave countenance, and said, " Why have you sent for me in this extraordi nary way ? What has happened ?" If Joe Snowden was a bully he was also a coward, and he was generally a coward before Adelaide's imperious and haughty manner.

There was, therefore, no refuge for him but at once to go off into a towering rage, and that feat he accomplished to perfection. He stormed and raved against Falkener, and about Sam, and finally about Adelaide's encouraging Falkener as an admirer, which, he added, he never would hear of at any time, under any circumstances, and particularly after the personal af front to himself. Adelaide sat quietly down in her father's arm chair by his writing-table, thereby cutting him off from that haven of rest, and leaving him to bluster up and down the room as long as there was any wind in his sails. But after he had said the same thing over and over again, each time with fresh expletives, there remained no more to say ; and Adelaide still sat quietly watching the opportune moment for putting in a word.

At last when she saw her father men tally and physically exhausted, aud very much in the position of a ship after a storm, rolling helplessly in a ground swell, she condescended to speak. " I have, of course, nothing on earth to do, father, with your quarrel with Mr. Falkener about Sam. If I chose to take up such trifles as those, I should have equal reason with your self to be indignant. After all, Sam was only your out-door servant, and a man you were not often brought into contact with ; whereas Dinah was as good as my own maid. I do not know that Mr. Falkener has taken her actually into his house. But in providing for the father he has equally provided for the girl, who we have every reason to believe has grossly injured us." " Why, you fool," burst in the indignant father, " don't you see that is the gist of the whole question?

That sneak Falkener is after you, and he has just taken Dinah into his pay that he may get at you." " Gently, gently, father ; I cannot allow you to speak to me in this way of Mr. Falkener, nor to insinuate such things respecting myself and Dinah. Mr. Falkener has only just lost his wife, and you are in a great hurry to make him in love with some one else. But supposing Mr. Falkener were attached to me, there could be no sort of occasion for employing Dinah or anyone else for his purposes. Mr. Falkener, till you chose to pick this silly quarrel with him, was your friend and your guest. If he chose to pay his addresses to me, and I to accept them, there was nothing to prevent his doing it without any assistance from a low, half-negro girl like Dinah." " Perhaps you are going to deny, with your cool, plausible ways, that Falkener is making love to you ?

Perhaps, with your hypocritical nonsense about his wife, whom he neglected and hated, being only just dead, you mean to make me believe he is not in love with you. But you can't do it, I tell you ; I know better, and I have the proofs in my hand." " Will you condescend to show me what proofs you have, father?" said Adelaide, very coldly. " This — this," uttered Mr. Snowden, hoarse with rage, and with his large, coarse hand he smoothed the crumpled letter out before her. Adelaide glanced at it with a low supercilious laugh, and taking it up, said, " What nonsense ! Do you mean to say you take every silly expression used by one woman in writing to another as a solemn statement of a fact ? Can't Georgie Oswald and I have our small feminine jokes together, without your taking it up in this way, and bringing forward our little notes like documents in a court of justice ?

Really I've no patience with such twaddle ; you disgust me with my home, with you, and with myself, with such scenes and such nonsense. Do you imagine that I don't see Long Jack's influence throughout the whole affair?" As she spoke, she rose haughtily and stood before him. Mr. Snowden was getting the worst of it, and perceived it. But, resolved to stick to his point, he said, " Is that man in love with you, A delaide, or is he not?" " Really, father, if you want to know, I think you had better ask him yourself. That is, if you cousider doing so quite the most delicate and dignified course you can adopt. Mean while, until you have ascertained that point to your own satisfaction, I want to know upon what pretence you expect me to discontinue my visits to Mrs. Oswald ? That is, always suppos ing she will contiuue to receive me after the gross insult you have put upon her."

" What insult have I put upon her ? I don't know what you mean." " The insult of summoning your daughter to leave her house at a moment's notice, as if she had the plague ; just because you have got up some vulgar quarrel about a carpenter, with which she has nothing whatever to do. Mrs. Oswald is much offended ; and, in short, if we are to go on in this style, there will soon not be a house in the neighbourhood with whose inmates we shall be on speaking terms. It comes to this, father : I can't bear it any long er. You have never given me the advantages other girls in my position in Jamaica consider themselves entitled to, and I now claim them at your hands. Send me to England ; I have had enough of this." Joe Snowden staggered back as she spoke, and caught at the back of a chair for support.

Adelaide was the only creature in the world he loved, and her, in his coarse, rude way, he adored. Moreover, his habits of drinking had reduced his nerves to a very shattered condition, and he could not meet a sudden shock with the splendid self-possession of the grandly developed and finely-constituted being before him. The bare idea of his daughter's leaving him, except by forming some good marriage in the colonies, had never struck him as possible ; and now to hear it proposed by herself, and with that look of determination and defiance he knew so well, made him feel as if the very ground were giving way beneath his feet. "Addy, you are too hasty — you are indeed," he began to stammer forth. " You take up things with such vehemence, and never will listen to reason." "Well, father," she replied, with a returning smile, or half a smile, for she saw she was al ready gaining her ground, " I think the vehe mence has been more on your side than mine.