The Ashiel Mystery | Page 3

proposed to her inside the first two minutes of their
encounter, she accepted him almost as promptly, and with very nearly
as much enthusiasm.
"I want to talk to you about the child, little Juliet," she said, a day or
two later. "Or rather, though I want to talk about her, perhaps I had
better not, for I can tell you almost nothing that concerns her."
"My dear," said Sir Arthur, "you needn't tell me anything, if you don't
like."
"But that's just the tiresome part," she returned, "I should like you to
know everything, and yet I must not let you know. She is not mine, of
course, but beyond that her parentage must remain a secret, even from
you. Yet this I may say: she is the child of a friend of mine, and there is
no scandal attached to her birth, but I have taken all responsibility as to
her future. Are you, Arthur, also prepared to adopt her?"
"Darling, I will adopt dozens of them, if you like," said her infatuated
betrothed. "Juliet is a little dear, and I am very glad we shall always
have her."
In England, the news of Lena Meredith's engagement caused a flutter of
excitement and disappointment. It had been hoped that she would make
a great match, and she received many letters from members of her
family and friends, pointing out the deplorable manner in which she
was throwing herself away on an impecunious young baronet who
occupied an obscure position in the Consular Service. She was begged

to remember that the Duke of Dachet had seemed distinctly smitten
when he was introduced to her at the end of the last season; and told
that if she would not consider her own interests it was unnecessary that
she should forget those of her younger unmarried sisters.
At shooting lodges in the North, and in country houses in the South,
young men were observed to receive the tidings with pained surprise.
More than one of them had given Mrs. Meredith credit for better taste
when it came to choosing a second husband; more than one of them
had felt, indeed, that she was the only woman in the world with an eye
discerning enough to appreciate his own valuable qualities at their true
worth. Could the fact be that she had overlooked those rare gifts? For a
week or so depression sat in many a heart unaccustomed to its presence;
and young ladies, in search of a husband, found, here and there, that
one turned to them whom they had all but given up as hopelessly
indifferent to their charms.
Unconcerned by the lack of enthusiasm aroused by her decision, Lena
Meredith married Sir Arthur Byrne, and in the course of a few months
departed with him to his post on the Black Sea; where the baby Juliet
and her nurse formed an important part of the consular household.
The years passed happily. Sir Arthur was moved and promoted from
one little port to another a trifle more frequented by the ships of his
country, and after a year or so to yet another still larger; so that, while
nothing was too good for Juliet in the eyes of her adopted mother, and
to a lesser extent in those of her father, it happened that she knew
remarkably little of her own land, though few girls were more familiar
with those of other nations. Nor were their wanderings confined to
Europe: Africa saw them, and the southern continent of America; and it
was in that far country that the happy days came to an end, for poor
Lady Byrne caught cold one bitter Argentine day, and died of
pneumonia before the week was out.
Sir Arthur was heart-broken. He packed Juliet off to a convent school
near Buenos Ayres, and shut himself up in his consulate, refusing to
meet those who would have offered their sympathy, and going from his
room to his office, and back again, like a man in a dream.

Not for more than a year did Juliet see again the only friend she had
now left in the world; and it was then she heard for the first time that he
was not really her father, and that the woman she had called "Mother"
had had no right to that name. She was fifteen years old when this blow
fell on her; and she had not yet reached her sixteenth birthday when Sir
Arthur was transferred back to Europe.
"Your home must always be with me, Juliet," he had said, when he
broke to her his ignorance of her origin. "I have only you left now."
But though he was kind, and even affectionate to her, he showed no
real anxiety for her society. She was sent to a