The Three Miss Kings 1

The Three Miss Kings 1

The Three Miss Kings

An Australian Story

 

Author: Ada Cambridge

CONTENTS

 

 

I. A DISTANT VIEW

II. A LONELY EYRIE

III. PREPARATIONS FOR FLIGHT

IV. DEPARTURE

V. ROCKED IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP

VI. PAUL

VII. A MORNING WALK

VIII. AN INTRODUCTION TO MRS. GRUNDY

IX. MRS. AARONS

X. THE FIRST INVITATION

XI. DISAPPOINTMENT

XII. TRIUMPH

XIII. PATTY IN UNDRESS

XIV. IN THE WOMB OF FATE

XV. ELIZABETH FINDS A FRIEND

XVI. "WE WERE NOT STRANGERS, AS TO US AND ALL IT SEEMED"

XVII. AFTERNOON TEA

XVIII. THE FAIRY GODMOTHER

XIX. A MORNING AT THE EXHIBITION

XX. CHINA _v._ THE CAUSE OF HUMANITY

XXI. THE "CUP"

XXII. CROSS PURPOSES

XXIII. MR. YELVERTON'S MISSION

XXIV. AN OLD STORY

XXV. OUT IN THE COLD

XXVI. WHAT PAUL COULD NOT KNOW

XXVII. SLIGHTED

XXVIII. "WRITE ME AS ONE WHO LOVES HIS FELLOW-MEN"

XXIX. PATTY CONFESSES

XXX. THE OLD AND THE NEW

XXXI. IN RETREAT

XXXII. HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF

XXXIII. THE DRIVE HOME

XXXIV. SUSPENSE

XXXV. HOW ELIZABETH MADE UP HER MIND

XXXVI. INVESTIGATION

XXXVII. DISCOVERY

XXXVIII. THE TIME FOR ACTION

XXXIX. AN ASSIGNATION

XL. MRS. DUFF-SCOTT HAS TO BE RECKONED WITH

XLI. MR. YELVERTON STATES HIS INTENTIONS

XLII. HER LORD AND MASTER

XLIII. THE EVENING BEFORE THE WEDDING

XLIV. THE WEDDING DAY

XLV. IN SILK ATTIRE

XLVI. PATTY CHOOSES HER CAREER

XLVII. A FAIR FIELD AND NO FAVOUR

XLVIII. PROBATION

XLIX. YELVERTON

L. "THY PEOPLE SHALL BE MY PEOPLE"

LI. PATIENCE REWARDED

LII. CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

THE THREE MISS KINGS.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER I.

 

 

A DISTANT VIEW.

 

 

On the second of January, in the year 1880, three newly-orphaned

sisters, finding themselves left to their own devices, with an income

of exactly one hundred pounds a year a-piece, sat down to consult

together as to the use they should make of their independence.

 

The place where they sat was a grassy cliff overlooking a wide bay

of the Southern Ocean--a lonely spot, whence no sign of human life

was visible, except in the sail of a little fishing boat far away.

The low sun, that blazed at the back of their heads, and threw their

shadows and the shadow of every blade of grass into relief, touched

that distant sail and made it shine like bridal satin; while a certain

island rock, the home of sea-birds, blushed like a rose in the same

necromantic light. As they sat, they could hear the waves breaking and

seething on the sands and stones beneath them, but could only see the

level plain of blue and purple water stretching from the toes of their

boots to the indistinct horizon. That particular Friday was a terribly

hot day for the colony, as weather records testify, but in this

favoured spot it had been merely a little too warm for comfort, and,

the sea-breeze coming up fresher and stronger as the sun went down, it

was the perfection of an Australian summer evening at the hour of which

I am writing.

 

"What I want," said Patty King (Patty was the middle one), "is to

make a dash--a straight-out plunge into the world, Elizabeth--no

shilly-shallying and dawdling about, frittering our money away before

we begin. Suppose we go to London--we shall have enough to cover our

travelling expenses, and our income to start fair with--surely we could

live anywhere on three hundred a year, in the greatest comfort--and

take rooms near the British Museum?--or in South Kensington?--or

suppose we go to one of those intellectual German towns, and study

music and languages? What do you think, Nell? I am sure we could do it

easily if we tried."

 

"Oh," said Eleanor, the youngest of the trio, "I don't care so long as

we go _somewhere_, and do _something_."

 

"What do you think, Elizabeth?" pursued the enterprising Patty, alert

and earnest. "Life is short, and there is so much for us to see and

learn--all these years and years we have been out of it so utterly! Oh,

I wonder how we have borne it! How _have_ we borne it--to hear about

things and never to know or do them, like other people! Let us get

into the thick of it at once, and recover lost time. Once in Europe,

everything would be to our hand--everything would be possible. What do

you think?"

 

"My dear," said Elizabeth, with characteristic caution, "I think we are

too young and ignorant to go so far afield just yet."

 

"We are all over twenty-one," replied Patty quickly, "and though we

have lived the lives of hermits, we are not more stupid than other

people. We can speak French and German, and we are quite sharp enough

to know when we are being cheated. We should travel in perfect safety,

finding our way as we went along. And we _do_ know something of those

places--of Melbourne we know nothing."

 

"We should never get to the places mother knew--the sort of life we

have heard of. And Mr. Brion and Paul are with us here--they will tell

us all we want to know. No, Patty, we must not be reckless. We might

go to Europe by-and-bye, but for the present let Melbourne content us.

It will be as much of the world as we shall want to begin with, and

we ought to get some experience before we spend our money--the little

capital we have to spend."

 

"You don't call two hundred and thirty-five pounds a little, do you?"

interposed Eleanor. This was the price that a well-to-do storekeeper in

the neighbouring township had offered them for the little house which

had been their home since she was born, and to her it seemed a fortune.

 

"Well, dear, we don't quite know yet whether it is little or much,

for, you see, we don't know what it costs to live as other people do.

We must not be reckless, Patty--we must take care of what we have, for

we have only ourselves in the wide world to depend on, and this is

all our fortune. I should think no girls were ever so utterly without

belongings as we are now," she added, with a little break in her gentle

voice.

 

She was half lying on the grass, leaning on her elbow and propping her

head in her hand. The light behind her was growing momentarily less

fierce, and the breeze from the quiet ocean more cool and delicious;

and she had taken off her hat in order to see and breathe in freedom.

A noble figure she was, tall, strong, perfect in proportion, fine in

texture, full of natural dignity and grace--the product of several

generations of healthy and cultured people, and therefore a truly

well-bred woman. Her face was a little too grave and thoughtful for

her years, perhaps--she was not quite eight-and-twenty--and it was

not at all handsome, in the vulgar sense of the word. But a sweeter,

truer, kinder face, with its wide, firm mouth and its open brows, and

its candid grey eyes, one could not wish to see. She had smooth brown

hair of excessive fineness and brightness (a peculiarity of good blood

shared by all the sisters), and it was closely coiled in a knot of

braids at the back of her head, without any of those curls and fringes

about the temples that have since become the prevailing fashion. And

she was dressed in a very common, loosely-made, black print gown,

with a little frill of crape at her throat, and a leather belt round

her by no means slender waist. Her feet were encased in large and

clumsy boots, and her shapely hands, fine-skinned and muscular, were

not encased at all, but were brown with constant exposure to sun and

wind, and the wear and tear of miscellaneous housework. The impetuous

Patty, who sat bolt upright clasping her knees, was like her, but with

marked differences. She was smaller and slighter in make, though she

had the same look of abundant health and vigour. Her figure, though it

had never worn stays, was more after the pattern of modern womanhood

than Elizabeth's, and her brilliant little face was exquisite in

outline, in colour, in all the charms of bright and wholesome youth.

Patty's eyes were dark and keen, and her lips were delicate and red,

and her hair had two or three ripples in it, and was the colour of

a half-ripe chestnut. And altogether, she was a very striking and

unmistakeably handsome girl. She, too, wore a black print gown, and a

straw sailor hat, with a black ribbon, tilted back on her bead, and

the same country-made boots, and the same brown and gloveless hands.

Eleanor, again, with the general family qualities of physical health

and refinement, had her own characteristics. She was slim and tall--as

slim as Patty, and nearly as tall as Elizabeth, as was shown in her

attitude as she lay full length on the grass, with her feet on the

edge of the cliff, and her head on her elder sister's knee. She had a

pure white skin, and sentimental blue eyes, and lovely yellow hair,

just tinged with red; and her voice was low and sweet, and her manners

gentle and graceful, and altogether she was one of the most pleasing

young women that ever blushed unseen like a wild flower in the savage

solitudes of the bush. This young person was not in black--because, she

said, the weather was too hot for black. She wore an old blue gingham

that had faded to a faint lavender in course of numerous washings, and

she had a linen handkerchief loosely tied round her neck, and cotton

gloves on her hands. She was the only one of the sisters to whom it had

occurred that, having a good complexion, it was worth while to preserve it.