The Queens Cup

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The Queen's Cup

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Title: The Queen's Cup
Author: G. A. Henty

Release Date: December 31, 2005 [eBook #17436]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
QUEEN'S CUP***
E-text prepared by Martin Robb

THE QUEEN'S CUP

by
G. A. Henty.
Chapter 1.
A large party were assembled in the drawing room of Greendale, Sir
John Greendale's picturesque old mansion house. It was early in
September. The men had returned from shooting, and the guests were
gathered in the drawing room; in the pleasant half hour of dusk when
the lamps have not yet been lighted, though it is already too dark to
read. The conversation was general, and from the latest news from
India had drifted into the subject of the Italian belief in the Mal Occhio.
"Do you believe in it, Captain Mallett?" asked Bertha, Sir John's only
child, a girl of sixteen; who was nestled in an easy chair next to that in
which the man she addressed was sitting.
"I don't know, Bertha."
He had known her from childhood, and she had not yet reached an age
when the formal "Miss Greendale" was incumbent upon her
acquaintances.
"I do not believe in the Italian superstition to anything like the extent
they carry it. I don't think I should believe it at all if it were not that one
man has always been unlucky to me."
"How unlucky, Captain Mallett?"
"Well, I don't know that unlucky is the proper word, but he has always
stood between me and success; at least, he always did, for it is some
years since our paths have crossed."
"Tell me about it."
"Well, I have no objection, but there is not a great deal to tell.

"I was at school with--I won't mention his name. We were about the
same age. He was a bully. I interfered with him, we had a fight, and I
scored my first and only success over him. It was a very tough fight--by
far the toughest I ever had. I was stronger than he, but he was the more
active. I fancied that it would not be very difficult to thrash him, but
found that I had made a great mistake. It was a long fight, and it was
only because I was in better condition that I won at last.
"Well, you know when boys fight at school, in most cases they become
better friends afterwards; but it was not so here. He refused to shake
hands with me, and muttered something about its being his turn next
time. Till then he had not been considered a first-rate hand at anything;
he was one of those fellows who saunter through school, get up just
enough lessons to rub along comfortably, never take any prominent
part in games, but have a little set of their own, and hold themselves
aloof from school in general.
"Once or twice when we had played cricket he had done so excellently
that it was a grievance that he would not play regularly, and there was a
sort of general idea that if he chose he could do most things well. After
that fight he changed altogether. He took to cricket in downright
earnest, and was soon acknowledged to be the best bat and best bowler
in the school. Before that it had been regarded as certain that when the
captain left I should be elected, but when the time came he got a
majority of votes. I should not have minded that, for I recognised that
he was a better player than I, but I fancied that he had not done it fairly,
for many fellows whom I regarded as certain to support me turned
round at the last moment.
"We were in the same form at school. He had been always near the
bottom; I stood fairly up in it, and was generally second or third. He
took to reading, and in six weeks after the fight won his way to the top
of the class and remained there; and not only so, but he soon showed
himself so far superior to the rest of us that he got his remove to the
form above.
"Then there was a competition in Latin verses open to both forms.
Latin verse was the one thing in which I was strong. There is a sort of

knack,