Alone on a Wide Wide Sea, Vol. 2 (of 3) — John Shaqi
Alone on a Wide Wide Sea, Vol. 2 (of 3)Russell, William Clark
General
Alone on a Wide Wide Sea, Vol. 2 (of 3)
Russell, William Clark
English fiction -- 19th century; Sea stories
The mother and daughter were together; the mother knitting, and the
daughter reading or seeming to read. The girl looked very pale. There
was a haggard air about the eyes as though she had not slept, but her
smile of greeting was one of inexpressible sweetness, and when I took
her hand she drew me to her and pressed her lips to my cheek. The
mother also received me with as much warmth and kindness as though we
had been old friends.
I seated myself by the side of Miss Lee, and after the three of us had
conversed for awhile, Mrs. Lee said:
‘Alice has made out a long list of names. You will be surprised by her
industry and imagination, for she has had no book of names to help
her,’ and opening a desk that lay upon the deck she extracted a number
of sheets of note paper filled with names--female Christian names and
surnames written in a delicate hand in pencil.
I held the sheets of paper in my hand;--there was a faint odour of rose
upon them; I knew not what that odour was--I could not have given it a
name; yet it caused me to glance at Alice Lee with some dim fancy in my
mind of an autumn garden and of an atmosphere perfumed by the breath
of dying flowers. Was this dim fancy a memory? It came and went with
subtle swiftness, but it left me motionless with my eyes fixed upon the
sheets of paper in my hand.
‘We will go through those names together,’ said Alice Lee, ‘and until
your memory enables you to fix upon your real name I have chosen one
for you. If you do not like it tell me, and we will choose another.
Miss C---- is hard and unmeaning--I cannot call you Miss C----.’
‘What name have you chosen?’ I asked.
‘For your Christian name,’ she answered, ‘I have chosen Agnes. It is a
pretty name.’
‘It is Alice’s favourite name,’ said Mrs. Lee.
I repeated the word Agnes, but no name, not the strangest that was to
have been suggested, could have been more barren to my imagination.
‘If Sir Frederick Thompson is to be believed,’ said Mrs. Lee, ‘you
undoubtedly belong to the Calthorpe family, whoever they may be, for I
am sorry to say I never before heard of them.’
‘Does he continue to say that I am a Calthorpe?’ said I.
‘Yes,’ she answered; ‘he offers to wager any sum of money that you will
prove to be a Calthorpe.’
‘I am sure he is mistaken,’ said Miss Lee. ‘How would it be possible
for him to recognise a likeness in you when your face was almost
concealed by a bandage? And besides, is it not certain that the
terrible sufferings you have undergone have greatly changed the
character of your face? You may resemble the Calthorpe family now, but
you could not have resembled them before your sufferings altered you,
and therefore Sir Frederick Thompson must be mistaken.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account