The Child Wife. Reid Mayne

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СКАЧАТЬ the sort of thing would delight the vieux sabreur, now that the Mexican affair is ended, and he’s once more compelled to sheathe his revolutionary sword. Come in! Who the deuce knocks at a gentleman’s door at this unceremonious hour?”

      It was not yet 5 a.m. Outside the hotel could be heard carriage wheels rolling off with late roisterers, who had outstayed the ball.

      “Surely it’s too soon for an emissary from Swinton? Come in!”

      The door opening at the summons, discovered the night-porter of the hotel.

      “Well! what want you, my man?”

      “A gentleman wants you, sir.”

      “Show him up!”

      “He told me, sir, to give you his apologies for disturbing you at so early an hour. It’s because his business is very important.”

      “Bosh! Why need he have said that?” Dick Swinton’s friend must be a more delicate gentleman than himself!

      The last speech was in soliloquy, and not to the porter.

      “He said, sir,” continued the latter, “that having come by the boat – ”

      “By the boat?”

      “Yes, sir, the New York boat. She’s just in.”

      “Yes – yes; I heard the whistle. Well?”

      “That having come by the boat, he thought – he thought – ”

      “Confound it! my good fellow; don’t stay to tell me his thoughts secondhand. Where is he? Show him up here, and let him speak them for himself.”

      “From New York?” continued Maynard, after the porter had disappeared. “Who of the Knickerbockers can it be? And what business of such importance as to startle a fellow from his sleep at half-past four in the morning – supposing me to have been asleep – which luckily I’m not Is the Empire city ablaze, and Fernando Wood, like a second Nero, fiddling in ruthless glee over its ruins? Ha! Roseveldt?”

      “Maynard!”

      The tone of the exchanged salutation told of a meeting unexpected, and after a period of separation. It was followed by a mutual embrace. Theirs was a friendship too fervent to be satisfied with the shaking of hands. Fellow campaigners – as friends – they had stood side by side under the hissing hailstorm of battle. Side by side had they charged up the difficult steep of Chapultepec, in the face of howitzers belching forth their deadly shower of shot – side by side fallen on the crest of the counterscarp, their blood streaming unitedly into the ditch.

      They had not seen each other since. No wonder they should meet with emotions corresponding to the scenes through which they had passed.

      Some minutes passed before either could find coherent speech. They only exchanged ejaculations. Maynard was the first to become calm.

      “God bless you, my dear Count?” he said; “my grand instructor in the science of war. How glad I am to see you!”

      “Not more than I to see you, cher camarade!”

      “But say, why are you here? I did not expect you; though strange enough I was this moment thinking of you!”

      “I’m here to see you – specially you!”

      “Ah! For what, my dear Roseveldt?”

      “You’ve said that I instructed you in the science of war. Be it so. But the pupil now excels his teacher – has gone far beyond him in fame. That’s why I’m here.”

      “Explain yourself, Count!”

      “Read this. It will save speech. You see it is addressed to yourself.”

      Maynard took the sealed letter handed to him. It bore the superscription:

      “Captain Maynard.”

      Breaking it open, he read:

      “The committee of German refugees in New York, in view of the late news from Europe, have hopes that freedom is not yet extinguished in their ancient fatherland. They have determined upon once more returning to it, and taking part in the struggle again begun in Baden and the Palatinate. Impressed by the gallantry displayed by you in the late Mexican war, with your protective kindness to their countrymen who served under you – and above all, your well-known devotion to the cause of liberty – they have unanimously resolved to offer you the leadership in this enterprise. While aware of its perils – as also of your courage to encounter them – they can promise you no reward save that of glory and a nation’s gratitude. To achieve this, they offer you a nation’s trust. Say, sir, are you prepared to accept it?”

      Some half-dozen names were appended, at which Maynard simply glanced. He knew the men, and had heard of the movement.

      “I accept,” he said, after a few seconds spent in reflection. “You can carry that answer back to the committee.”

      “Carry back an answer! My dear Maynard, I come to carry you back.”

      “Must I go directly?”

      “This very day. The rising in Baden has begun, and you know revolutions won’t wait for any one. Every hour is important. You are expected back by the next boat. I hope there’s nothing to prevent it? What! There is something?”

      “There is; something rather awkward.”

      “Not a woman? No – no! You’re too much of a soldier for that.”

      “No; not a woman.”

      As Maynard said this a strange expression came over his countenance, as if he was struggling against the truth.

      “No – no!” he continued, with a forced smile. “Not a woman. It’s only a man; indeed only a thing in the shape of one.”

      “Explain, captain! Who, or what is he?”

      “Well, it’s simply an affair. About an hour ago I slapped a fellow in the face.”

      “Ha!”

      “There’s been a ball to-night – in the hotel, here.”

      “I know it. I met some of the people going away. Well?”

      “There was a young lady – ”

      “I might have known that, too. Who ever heard of an affair without a lady, young or old, at the bottom of it? But excuse me for interrupting you.”

      “After all,” said Maynard, apparently changing his tack, “I needn’t stay to tell you about the lady. She had little or nothing to do with it. It occurred in the bar-room after the ball was over, and she in her bed, I suppose.”

      “Leave her to one side then, and let her sleep.”

      “I had gone into this bar-room to take a drink, by way of night-cap, and was standing by the counter, when I heard some one making rather free use of my name. Three men were close beside me, talking in a very fast style, and, as I soon discovered, about myself. They had been imbibing a good deal, and did not chance to see me.

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