A Rebellious Heroine | Page 9

thoroughly miserable that I do not care who sees me or what the world
thinks of me. I think it is very inconsiderate of Mr. Harley to open his
story on an ocean steamer; and, what is more, I don't like the American
line. Too many Americans of the brass-band type travel on it. Stuart
Harley said so himself in his last book of foreign travel; but he sends
me out on it just the same, and expects me to be satisfied. Perhaps he
thinks I like that sort of American. If he does, he's got more
imagination than he ever showed in his books."

"You must get to the other side in some way," said Mrs. Corwin. "It is
at Venice that the trouble with Balderstone is to come, and that
Osborne topples him over into the Grand Canal, and rescues you from
his baleful influence."
"Humph!" said Marguerite, with a scornful shrug of her shoulders.
"Robert Osborne! A likely sort of person to rescue me from anything!
He wouldn't have nerve enough to rescue me from a grasshopper if he
were armed to the teeth. Furthermore, I shall not go to Venice in
August. It's bad enough in April--damp and hot--the home of malaria-
-an asylum for artistic temperaments; and insecty. No, my dear aunt,
even if I overlook everything else to please Mr. Harley, he'll have to
modify the Venetian part of that story, for I am determined that no pen
of his shall force me into Italy at this season. I wouldn't go there to
please Shakespeare, much less Stuart Harley. Let the affair come off at
Interlaken, if it is to come off at all, which I doubt."
"There is no Grand Canal at Interlaken," said Mrs. Corwin, sagely; for
she had been an omnivorous reader of Baedeker since she had learned
the part she was to play in Harley's book, and was therefore well up in
geography.
"No; but there's the Jungfrau. Osborne can push Balderstone down the
side of an Alp and kill him," returned Miss Andrews, viciously.
"Why, Marguerite! How can you talk so? Mr. Harley doesn't wish to
have Balderstone killed," cried Mrs. Corwin, aghast. "If Osborne killed
Balderstone he'd be a murderer, and they'd execute him."
"Which is exactly what I want," said Miss Andrews, firmly. "If he lives,
it pleases the omnipotent Mr. Harley that I shall marry him, and I
positively--Well, just you wait and see."
There was silence for some minutes.
"Then I suppose you will decline to go abroad altogether?" asked Mrs.
Corwin after a while; "and Mr. Harley will be forced to get some one
else; and I--I shall be deprived of a pleasant tour--because I'm only to
be one of the party because I'm your aunt."
Mrs. Corwin's lip quivered a little as she spoke. She had anticipated
much pleasure from her trip.
"No, I shall not decline to go," Miss Andrews replied. "I expect to go,
but it is entirely on your account. I must say, however, that Stuart
Harley will find out, to his sorrow, that I am not a doll, to be worked

with a string. I shall give him a scare at the outset which will show him
that I know the rights of a heroine, and that he must respect them. For
instance, he cannot ignore my comfort. Do you suppose that because
his story is to open with my beautiful self on board that ship, I'm to be
there without his making any effort to get me there? Not I! You and the
children and Osborne and Balderstone may go down any way you
please. You may go on the elevated railroad or on foot. You may go on
the horse-cars, or you may go on the luggage-van. It is immaterial to
me what you do; but when it comes to myself, Stuart Harley must
provide a carriage, or I miss the boat. I don't wish to involve you in this.
You want to go, and are willing to go in his way, which simply means
turning up at the right moment, with no trouble to him. From your point
of view it is all right. You are anxious to go abroad, and are grateful to
Mr. Harley for letting you go. For me, however, he must do differently.
I have no particular desire to leave America, and if I go at all it is as a
favor to him, and he must act accordingly. It is a case of carriage or no
heroine. If I'm left behind, you and the rest can go along without me. I
shall do very well, and it will be Mr. Harley's own fault. It may hurt his
story somewhat, but that is no concern of mine."
"I suppose the reason why he doesn't