The Midnight Queen [70]
on the
swarming floor, and shook off, with out a shudder, the hideous
things that crawled over her rich dress. She had scarcely looked
at Sir Norman since she began to speak, but he had done enough
looking for them both, never once taking his eyes from the
handsome darkening face. He thought how strangely like her story
was to Leoline's - both shut in and isolated from the outer
world. Verily, destiny seemed to have woven the woof and warp of
their fates wonderfully together, for their lives were as much
the same as their faces. Miranda, having shook off her crawling
acquaintances, watched them glancing along the foul floor in the
darkness, and went moodily on.
"It was three years ago when I was fifteen years old, as I told
you, that a change took place in my life. Up to that time, that
miserable dwarf was what people would call my guardian, and did
not trouble me much with his heavenly company. He was a great
deal from our house, sometimes absent for weeks together; and I
remember I used to envy the freedom with which he came and went,
far more than I ever wondered where he spent his precious time.
I did not know then that he belonged to the honorable profession
of highwaymen, with variations of coining when travelers were few
and money scarce. He was then, and is still, at the head of a
formidable gang, over whom he wields most desperate authority -
as perhaps you have noticed during the brief and pleasant period
of your acquaintance."
"Really, madam, it struck me that your authority over them was
much more despotic than his," said Sir Norman, in all sincerity,
feeling called upon to give the - well, I'd rather not repeat the
word, which is generally spelled with a d and a dash - his due.
"No thanks to him for that! He would make me a slave now, as he
did then, if he dared, but he has found that, poor, trodden worm
as I was, I had life enough left to turn and sting."
"Which you do with a vengeance! Oh I you're a Tartar!" remarked
Sir Norman to himself. "The saints forefend that Leoline should
be like you in temper, as she is in history and face; for if she
is, my life promises to be a pleasant one."
"This rascally crew of cut-throats, whom his villainous highness
headed," said Miranda, "were an almost immense number then, being
divided in three bodies - London cut-purses, Hounslow Heath
highwaymen, and assistant-coiners, but all owning him for their
lord and master. He told me all this himself, one day when, in
an after-dinner and most gracious mood, he made a boasting
display of his wealth and greatness; told me I was growing up
very pretty indeed, and that I was shortly to be raised to the
honor and dignity, and bliss of being his wife.
"I fancy I must have had a very vague idea of what that one small
word meant, and was besides in an unusually contented and
peaceful state of mind, or I should, undoubtedly, have raised one
of his cut-glass decanters and smashed in his head with it. I
know how I should receive such an assertion from him now, but I
think I took it then with a resignation, he must have found
mighty edifying; and when he went on to tell me that all this
richness and greatness were to be shared by me when that
celestial time came, I think I rather liked the idea than
otherwise. The horrible creature seemed to have woke up that
day, for the first time, and all of a sudden, to a conviction
that I was in a fair way to become a woman, and rather a handsome
one, and that he had better make sure of me before any accident
interfered to take me from him. Full of this laudable notion, he
became a daily visitor of mine from thenceforth, and made the
discovery, simultaneously with myself, that the oftener he came
the less favor he found in my sight. I had, before, tacitly
disliked him, and shrank with a natural repulsion from his
dreadful ugliness ness; but now, from negative dislike, I grew
swarming floor, and shook off, with out a shudder, the hideous
things that crawled over her rich dress. She had scarcely looked
at Sir Norman since she began to speak, but he had done enough
looking for them both, never once taking his eyes from the
handsome darkening face. He thought how strangely like her story
was to Leoline's - both shut in and isolated from the outer
world. Verily, destiny seemed to have woven the woof and warp of
their fates wonderfully together, for their lives were as much
the same as their faces. Miranda, having shook off her crawling
acquaintances, watched them glancing along the foul floor in the
darkness, and went moodily on.
"It was three years ago when I was fifteen years old, as I told
you, that a change took place in my life. Up to that time, that
miserable dwarf was what people would call my guardian, and did
not trouble me much with his heavenly company. He was a great
deal from our house, sometimes absent for weeks together; and I
remember I used to envy the freedom with which he came and went,
far more than I ever wondered where he spent his precious time.
I did not know then that he belonged to the honorable profession
of highwaymen, with variations of coining when travelers were few
and money scarce. He was then, and is still, at the head of a
formidable gang, over whom he wields most desperate authority -
as perhaps you have noticed during the brief and pleasant period
of your acquaintance."
"Really, madam, it struck me that your authority over them was
much more despotic than his," said Sir Norman, in all sincerity,
feeling called upon to give the - well, I'd rather not repeat the
word, which is generally spelled with a d and a dash - his due.
"No thanks to him for that! He would make me a slave now, as he
did then, if he dared, but he has found that, poor, trodden worm
as I was, I had life enough left to turn and sting."
"Which you do with a vengeance! Oh I you're a Tartar!" remarked
Sir Norman to himself. "The saints forefend that Leoline should
be like you in temper, as she is in history and face; for if she
is, my life promises to be a pleasant one."
"This rascally crew of cut-throats, whom his villainous highness
headed," said Miranda, "were an almost immense number then, being
divided in three bodies - London cut-purses, Hounslow Heath
highwaymen, and assistant-coiners, but all owning him for their
lord and master. He told me all this himself, one day when, in
an after-dinner and most gracious mood, he made a boasting
display of his wealth and greatness; told me I was growing up
very pretty indeed, and that I was shortly to be raised to the
honor and dignity, and bliss of being his wife.
"I fancy I must have had a very vague idea of what that one small
word meant, and was besides in an unusually contented and
peaceful state of mind, or I should, undoubtedly, have raised one
of his cut-glass decanters and smashed in his head with it. I
know how I should receive such an assertion from him now, but I
think I took it then with a resignation, he must have found
mighty edifying; and when he went on to tell me that all this
richness and greatness were to be shared by me when that
celestial time came, I think I rather liked the idea than
otherwise. The horrible creature seemed to have woke up that
day, for the first time, and all of a sudden, to a conviction
that I was in a fair way to become a woman, and rather a handsome
one, and that he had better make sure of me before any accident
interfered to take me from him. Full of this laudable notion, he
became a daily visitor of mine from thenceforth, and made the
discovery, simultaneously with myself, that the oftener he came
the less favor he found in my sight. I had, before, tacitly
disliked him, and shrank with a natural repulsion from his
dreadful ugliness ness; but now, from negative dislike, I grew