Fred Vincy

“ It so happened, however, that the name had hightened Winny's color, and her father, looking at her with an admiring and affectionate smile, said:
"Fifty, Winny! well, in throth, I don't wonder at it, or a hundred an' fifty, if they were in the parish."
Winny took advantage of his smile.
"There, father dear, don't be angry with your poor colleen; she'll do better than to marry riches with misery. Thank God, and you, father, she will have more than enough without coveting Tom Murdock's share." And she held up her beautiful lips, and looked in the old man's face with eyes swimming in tears. ”

“ A few evenings after the meeting at Gretta's, Uncle Fred came in, and, pulling Winnie's ears according to his custom, said:
"I think it's my turn to treat, Winnifred; at least Kitty says it is. She and I were out boating yesterday, and she suggests that I take you and the other Joans for a row Friday evening."
"Oh, Uncle Fred," cried Winnie, "that will be grand! I'll tell the girls about it to-morrow. Who all are to be invited?" ”

“ The Honorable Gerald then cantered.
“I shall have to work very hard to make it a success, I expect,” said Winnie.
But Mr. Boldre hastened to reassure her.
“No, dear Miss O’Wynn, I don’t think so. Just be your own sweet, natural self all the time. It will come more easily to you than to a trained actress.”
Winnie smiled into his dull but avid eyes.
“Does it sound very greedy if I ask how much you would pay me, please?” she cooed. “It seems so—so mercenary to bring money into such a beautiful story, and I would much rather not. Only one has to, in a way, hasn’t one?” ”

“ Viney's teeth showed unamiably through his grin. "Ah," he said; "I'll be here to-morrow with that, same time!"
"What?" It was Dan's honour that smarted now. "What? Won't trust me with ten, when I offer, free an' open, to trust you with forty? O, it's off then. I'm done. It's enough to make a man sick." And he turned loftily away.
Viney's grin waxed and waned, and he followed Dan with his eyes, thinking hard. Dan stole a look behind, and stopped.
"Look here," Viney said at last. "Look here. Let's cut it short. We can't sharp each other, and we're wasting time. ”

“ Like most quiet men, the Honorable Gerald was prone to do the right thing at the right time. He perceived that there seemed to be no urgent reason for his continued presence there. He was well aware that Winnie had a living to earn like himself—he, too, being poor if blue-blooded, and horses being hardy feeders in these days of expensive oats—and he desired to put no difficulties in the way of her earning it. He rose.
“Well, I'll be canterin’, Miss Winnie. I know you will like to talk business. You will drive Miss O’Wynn to Lady Fasterton’s place after, eh, Boldre? ”

“ And Winifred slipped her kind little hand lovingly into that of her friend.
Jack gave the small fingers an appreciative squeeze.
"There's only one thing I'm sorry about," he whispered shyly, "and that is that when we go to England to live we won't see you any more, not unless you come over there to see us some time."
"Perhaps we shall," said Winifred hopefully. "If we do will you ask us to stay at your castle?"
"Of course, and—I say, Winnie, when I grow up—I shall be able to walk like other people then, you know—I'll come over here to see you, and—and I'll marry you if you want me to. ”

“ You have planned a wicked thing, Mr. Boldre!” cried Winnie with a rather effective sob.
“You will have to prove that!” snapped Boldre.
Winnie opened the door.
“Come in, please, Beryl,” she said, and turned to Boldre as the distinguished-looking Beryl entered.
“Do you know this lady, Mr. Boldre?” asked Winnie almost brokenly, and flew to Lady Fasterton’s ready arms.
“Oh May, May, take me away! I have never been so badly treated in my life!” she seemed to sob. “Are all men wolves?”
Mr. Jay understood then, and he put up his hands in a perfect fury of irrepressible admiration. ”

“ Then Vince returned to the boat, thrust down his hand and drew out his jersey, Mike taking hold of one end to help him wring it out.
They had neither of them spoken for some time; but at last Vince said: “We shall have to pay old Joe for the mending of the boat.”
“I say, Vince,” said Mike, in a low, husky tone, “oughtn’t we to be thinking about something else? It was very near, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” said Vince, with a passionate outburst, “I was thinking of something else;” and he threw himself down upon a huge piece of wave-worn granite and hid his face on his arm. ”

“ I didn't see that she had much to complain of, with that big house of hers and plenty of servants and her own money and Carey-Holt's to pay the bills.
"But if Fred had wanted to do something with his money," she persisted "there're his own niece and nephew aren't there? I don't believe in going outside one's own family," she added, "and no more do you."
So that was her point? She was jealous of the Tyrrells, and she wanted Vignolles's money to go to her own brood and not to be frittered away outside. ”

“ The rising wind as a sudden gust swept through the grove of willows, roused her from these thoughts, and she found old Winny Braddon, hard-featured and keen-eyed, lingering near, with anxiety depicted in her face.
"The winter is setting in early, surely," said Constance; "we are not out of autumn yet, Winny, and see how dark the evening has become!"
"En hâv perkou gwâv, my mother used to say, old Cornish for 'in summer, remember winter,'" replied Winny. "A sad night it will be for the poor fellows on board ship, ma'am, I fear." ”

“ It will be great fun and I shall go to work at once. No, I shall not go to see the inter-scholastic games to-morrow. I shall have a solid quiet afternoon to myself while you girls are skylarking, and I shall have to work like a house on fire on every Saturday I can get to make my essay the success which I mean it shall be.”
From this decision we could not move her, though it greatly disappointed Milly, who desired that Mr. Van Silver should meet Winnie. Mrs. Roseveldt had returned from the South, and had consented to chaperone the girls, Mr. Van Silver taking us out on his handsome coach. ”

“ One is little enough to be a girl, but the other is taller, even, than Miss Adelaide.”
“It is Snooks,” Winnie exclaimed. “Just like her to come spying and speculating here to see what we are up to.”
“If that’s so, Miss Noakes has bigger feet than I ever gave her credit for,” Polo replied; “and she wears boots too.”
“Then those cadets have actually dared!” Winnie exclaimed, and Milly gave a little shriek. “Oh, that horrid Stacey Fitz Simmons!”
“Hush!” commanded Winnie. “We will make them wish they had never been born. Oh, I will manage these gay young gentlemen. Go back to your post, Polo. ”

“ We know what these are to us; but we cannot know the secret pleasures God gives to Winny, nor the opportunities of usefulness that comes in her way. I happen to know that, by her patience and her firm belief in what I have just said to you, Winny is exercising an influence on her friends and neighbours that makes her life one of the most useful as well as the most happy, for she is quite sure that she is doing God's will as she lies there on her couch, and what higher life can anyone desire? Our Winny is one of the happiest girls I know," concluded the lady.
"She always seems happy," said one. ”

“ With the view that this little sketch should at least be free from serious error, I made, the other day, a special pilgrimage to Vince's birthplace—the pleasant town of Farnham in Surrey. I stood before the lowly cottage in which he first drew breath; I sat in the little room where his father and his mother taught him practical lessons of truthfulness and sympathy; I looked into the little plain deal cupboard his father made for him, in which he stored the books he loved so well and studied so intently. ”

“ He had said a few words to one of the men, who went up into the back of the cavern while the other waited; and Vince noted that there was a splashing sound round the corner of the buttress which supported one side of the great arch, so that he was not surprised directly after to see the prow of a boat appear, to be run in and beached upon the sand.
Vince looked up inquiringly when the smuggling captain came and stood before him; but the man did not speak—he only glared down, apparently with the idea that he was frightening the lads horribly. ”

“ Cynthia declared. [105] “It will be the best joke of the season. What time does he usually arrive?”
“He said, in telling one of the class, that he always leaves the Kit Kat at half past eleven, and reaches the street door of the turret on the stroke of twelve.”
“Delightful!” exclaimed Winnie. “Fortune favors our plans. What fun it will be!”
It was thought best not to admit Milly into our confidence, for fear that she could not keep the secret. All went well. We played our tricks and Winnie told ghost stories, but it seemed as if midnight would never come. ”

“ He is!" cried Winnifred, deeply moved. "Here on her knees she blesses him. And now," she added, "we must part. Seek not to follow me. One who has aided a poor girl in the hour of need will respect her wish when she tells him that, alone and buffeted by [Pg 17] the world, her one prayer is that he will leave her."
"He will!" cried the Unknown. "He will. He does."
"Leave me, yes, leave me," exclaimed Winnifred.
"I will," said the Unknown.
"Do, do," sobbed the distraught girl. "Yet stay, one moment more. Let she, who has received so much from her benefactor, at least know his name." ”

“ Viney's mouth opened a little, but with no grin; and for a minute the two sat, each looking in the other's face. Then said Viney, with a certain shrinking: "No, no; not that. It's hanging, you know; it's hanging—for both."
Dan laughed—an ugly laugh, and short. "It ain't hanging for that," he said; "it's hanging for gettin' caught. An' where's the chance o' that? We take our own time, and the best place you ever see for a job like that, river handy at the end an' all; an' everything settled beforehand. Safe a job as ever I see. Look at me. I ain't hung yet, am I? ”

“ The bell rang for breakfast and Adelaide and I walked along together, pausing to slip the note under the studio door. It would not go quite through, a little end protruding, but that did not strike us as of any consequence. I had descended one flight of stairs when I found that I had forgotten my geometry and I hastened back to get it. I met Winnie before I turned into the corridor. “Hurry,” she exclaimed, “Snooks is just leaving her door; she will mark you for tardiness.” I flew along at the top of my speed, but on reaching our corridor I saw a sight which suddenly arrested my footsteps. ”

“ He cast a despairing look about him as though meditating flight, gulped, and——
“I love you,” he said in even, emotionless tones like one talking in his sleep, and he reached over and seized her hand as though it were a foot-ball which the opponents had fumbled. The girl’s face was suddenly averted and her shoulders trembled.
“Will you marry me?” continued Winnie, pale, determined. Then he dropped her hand, emitted a monstrous sigh of relief and awaited the storm. Mildred turned. Her cheeks were crimson and her lips were trembling, but her eyes never faltered. ”

“ A good many people came in to kiss Winnie that night, and she said “good-bye” to them all, not “good-night,” though she could hardly have told why.
Papa and mamma stayed on, and nurse; and Dr. Howard seemed to come in the middle of the night.
“Mamma,” said Winifred once, “I am very happy, I haven’t any pain—I’m so glad God takes care of little things—swallows, you know—and children. He will take care of me, I know.”
“My darling is not afraid to go to Him, then?” asked the mother very gently. ”

“ I have seen too much of his ways, and heard too many of his words, ever to like him, father; there is no use in trying to make me, for I never can."
"But, Winny jewel, you have hardly answered my question yet. Are you secretly promised, Winny, to any other young man that you're afeard I wouldn't like? that's the plain question. The truth now, Winny,—the truth, Winny!"
"No, father, certainly not. Tom Murdock is the only man that ever asked me."
"Was there ever anything betune you an' young Lennon, Emon-a-knock, as I have heard you call him myself?" ”

“ It's simply a deliberate sacrifice.'
'There's every hope that Miss Argles will never let him go,' said Vincy. 'One has to be very firm to get away from her. Oh, ever so firm, and obstinate, you can't think! How many times a day she must be reproaching Bruce—that will be rather a change for him. However, anything may happen,' said Vincy soothingly. He still maintained, for he had a very strong sense of propriety in matters of form, that Aylmer ought to go away. But Edith would not agree. ”

“ I say, what a lot he does know!”
“No wonder,” said Vince, who was parting the heather and peering down beneath: “he’s always reading. I wish he was fonder of coming out in a boat and fishing or sailing.”
“So do I,” said Mike. “We’d make him do the rowing. Makes us work hard enough.”
“I don’t see why he shouldn’t help us,” continued Vince. “Father says a man ought to look after his body as well as his brains, so as always to be healthy and strong.” ”

“ Now, as it happened, eating was one of the dolt's weak points, and he readily consented to accompany them. Without loss of time, they made their way back to where Fred and Hans had been left.
"Hullo! who vos dot?" ejaculated the German youth as they hove in sight.
"This is a boy we picked up along the stream," answered Tom, and then drew the others aside and told his story.
"What are you going to do next?" questioned Fred seriously. "It is certainly too bad Sam and Dick are prisoners. ”

“ People say it is old Lady Naseby whom he affects; but I don't think so; neither does Winny. You will probably have heard much of this kind of gossip from Lady Estelle herself. She certainly got your Malta letter, and one from the camp before Sebastopol--so Winny, who is in her confidence, told me. You only can know if she replied--Winny rather thinks not; but I hope she may be faithful to you as Oriana herself.
"I heard all about poor Caradoc's affair from Dora; but Winny has refused another offer of marriage--a most eligible one, too--from Sir Watkins Vaughan ”