Stray Pearls | Page 9

but we neither of us sought the other; indeed, I believe it
seemed hard to me that when there was so little time with my father
and Eustace, they should waste it on these hunting stories. Only too
soon we were at Dover, and the last, last farewell and blessing were
given. I looked my last, though I knew it not at that dear face of my
father!

CHAPTER III
.
CELADON AND CHLOE

My tears were soon checked by dreadful sea-sickness. We were no
sooner out of Dover than the cruel wind turned round upon us, and we

had to go beating about with all our sails reefed for a whole day and
night before it was safe to put into Calais.
All that time I was in untold misery, and poor nurse Tryphena was
worse than I was, and only now and then was heard groaning out that
she was a dead woman, and begging me to tell some one to throw her
over board.
But it was that voyage which gave me my husband. He was not exactly
at his ease, but he kept his feet better than any of the other gentlemen,
and he set himself to supply the place of valet to his uncle, and of maid
to me, going to and fro between our cabins as best he could, for he fell
and rolled whenever he tried to more; sharp shriek or howl, or a
message through the steward, summoned him back to M. le Marquis,
who had utterly forgotten all his politeness and formality towards the
ladies.
However, our sufferings were over at last. My husband, who was by
this time bruised from head to foot by his falls, though he made no
complaints, came to say we should in a few moments be in port. He
helped me to dress, for Tryphena thought she was dead, and would not
move; and he dragged me on deck, where the air revived me, and where
one by one the whole party appeared, spectacles of misery.
M. le Marquis did not recover himself till he was on shore, and caused
himself to be assisted to the quay between his nephew and the valet,
leaving me to myself; but the dear viscount returned for me, and after
he had set me ashore, as he saw I was anxious about Tryphena, he went
back and fetched her, as carefully as if she had been a lady, in spite of
the grumblings of his uncle and of her own refractoriness, for she was
horribly frightened, and could not understand a word he said to her.
Nevertheless, as soon as we had all of us come to ourselves, it turned
out that he had gained her heart. Indeed, otherwise I should have had to
send her home, for she pined sadly for some time, and nothing but her
love for me and her enthusiastic loyalty to him kept her up during the
first months.
As to my husband and me, that voyage had made us as fond of one
another's company on one side of the Channel as we had been afraid of
it before on the other, but there was no more riding together for us. I
had to travel in the great coach with M. le Marquis, the three ladies, and
all our women, where I was so dull and weary that I should have felt

ready to die, but for watching for my husband's plume, or now and then
getting a glance and a nod from him as he rode among the other
gentlemen, braving all their laughter at his devotion; for, bashful as he
was, he knew how to hold his own.
I knew that the ladies looked on me as an ugly little rustic foreigner,
full of English mauvaise honte. If they tried to be kind to me, it was as
a mere child; and they went on with their chatter, which I could hardly
follow, for it was about things and people of which I knew nothing, so
that I could not understand their laughter. Or when they rejoiced in
their return from what they called their exile, and found fault with all
they had left in England, my cheeks burned with indignation.
My happy hours were when we halted for refreshments. My husband
handed me to my place at table and sat beside me; or he would walk
with me about the villages where we rested. The ladies were shocked,
and my husband was censured for letting me 'faire l'Anglaise,' but we
were young and full of spirits, and the being thus thrown on each other
had put an end to his timidity towards me. He did indeed blush up to
his curls, and hold himself as upright as a ramrod, when