AC dBooks

"See that?" he cried. "I told them I could make this old island hum."
On a great stone pier that stood deep into the bay, a crowd of people
were waiting for the arrival of the steamer.
"That's nothing," said my father. "Nothing to what you see at the height
of the season."
As soon as we had drawn up alongside the pier, and before the passengers
had landed, four gentlemen came aboard, and my heart thumped with the
thought that my intended husband would be one of them; but he was not,
and the first words spoken to my father were--
"His lordship's apologies, sir. He has an engagement to-day, but hopes
to see you at your own house to-morrow morning."
I recognised the speaker as the guardian (grown greyer and even less
prepossessing) who had crossed with the young Lord Raa when he was going
up to Oxford; and his companions were a smooth-faced man with searching
eyes who was introduced as his lordship's solicitor from London, a Mr.
Curphy, whom I knew to be my father's advocate, and my dear old Father
Dan.


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