Clare Avery: A Story of the Spanish ArmadaHolt, Emily Sarah
History
Clare Avery: A Story of the Spanish Armada
Holt, Emily Sarah
Great Britain -- History -- Tudors, 1485-1603 -- Fiction; Historical fiction
That _caballero_ speedily discovered that he had addressed his last
compliment to any of the young ladies at Enville Court. Henceforward he
only saw them at meals, and then he found himself, much to his
discomfiture, placed between Jack and Mistress Rachel. To pay delicate
attentions to the latter was sheer waste of frankincense: yet it was so
much in his nature, when speaking to a woman, that he began to tell her
that she talked like an angel. Mistress Rachel looked him full in the
face.
"Don John," said she, in the most unmoved manner, "if I believed you
true, I should call on my brother to put you forth of the hall. As I
believe you false, I do it not."
After that day, Don Juan directed all his conversation to Jack.
He was not very sorry to leave Enville Court, which had become no longer
an amusing, but an uncomfortable place. In his eyes, it was perfectly
monstrous that any man should object to his daughters being honoured by
the condescending notice of an Andalusian gentleman, who would one day
be a grandee of the first class; utterly preposterous! But since this
unreasonable man was so absurd as to object to the distinction,
conferred upon his house, it was as well that an Andalusian gentleman
should be out of his sphere. So Don Juan went willingly to London.
Friends of his parents made suit for him, and Elizabeth herself
remembered his mother, as one who had done her several little
kindnesses, such as a Lady-in-Waiting on the Queen could do for a
Princess under a cloud; and Don Juan received a free pardon, and leave
to return home when and as he would. He only broke one more heart while
he remained in England; and that was beneath any regret on his part,
being only a poor, insignificant grocer's daughter. And then he sailed
for Spain; and then he married Dona Lisarda; and then he became a
Lord-in-Waiting; and then he lived a wealthy, gorgeous, prosperous life;
and then all men spoke well of him, seeing how much good he had done to
himself; and then he grew old,--a highly respected, highly
self-satisfied man.
And then his soul was required of him. Did God say to him,--"Thou
fool"?
CHAPTER NINE.
TOO ABSTRUSE FOR BLANCHE.
"Hear the just law, the judgment of the skies!
He that hates truth shall be the dupe of lies;
And he that _will_ be cheated to the last,
Delusions strong as Hell shall bind him fast."
_Cowper_.
"I did conceive, Mistress Blanche," said Mr Tremayne one morning, as
the party rose from the breakfast-table, "that you would with a good
will see the picture of Clare's grandsire, the which hangeth in my
study-chamber?"
"Oh ay, an' it like you," responded Blanche eagerly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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