Mrs. Severn: A Novel Vol. 1 (of 3)

PROLOGUE. AT ROCOZANNE JERSEY'It's very good of you to have met me Ambrose.''But very unnecessary?'Mr. Severn laughed consciously but re-covered himself by spreading his broad palm below his nostrils and smoothing with a slow downward movement the close-cut moustache and beard that concealed his lips and chin. It was a new habit but the growth also was new and Ambrose was surprised to find that it took ten years from his age.'Well you know I told you not to meet me.''You did and you don't say for civility's sake what you don't mean. There are some folk who believe in a system of formal introductions in Heaven itself. If you'd wished for company to St. Brelade's you would have left the point to my notions of propriety. However I'll reassure you. I am going into town with the returning train.''I'll wait and see you off.''And do as you please about driving. If you prefer to walk the dog-cart will wait for me.''Thanks I should prefer to walk' said Mr. Severn.They had reached the end of the platform and now turned back towards the bay. Its waves were tossing with spray-crested edges into which gulls with the sun on their wings were dipping. In the distance a vista of sun-rays streamed over St. Helier's lying low along the shore with its fortified heights in shadow against the blackness of a storm sweeping up from the West. It was high tide and Elizabeth Castle was surrounded by a rolling sea. A curve of yellow sand with here and there a martello tower marked the coast-line. The air was full of the rush of the waves and the sough of a rising wind.'If ever I marry I don't think I shall act on your experience of the previous forty hours' said Ambrose Piton as they strolled back to the train with a few more leisurely people. 'A drive of five miles from your Yorkshire moors at Old Lafer to the nearest station Wonston I suppose—a rush down England to Southampton ten hours' pitching in a dirty sea by our caterpillar of a train to St. Aubin's here and finally a three miles' walk. By Jove you must be feeling rather done up.''Oh no I'm accustomed to such journeys. I did precisely the same with the exception of this final walk when I came out to Jersey five months ago and had the good fortune to fall in with Miss Hugo. You'll probably not be a man of fifty overwhelmed with other people's business when you marry Ambrose. It's this walk to Rocozanne that amuses you' he added with a genial smile. 'You think it inconsistent with a lover's ardour that I should not go as fast as your good mare would take me. The truth is I want an hour's leisure. When one marries a second time and is my age and it is a young girl who is good enough to take one the responsibilities are much greater than when two young people marry; one has more misgiving you know about one's wife being happy. Since I won Clothilde I have scarcely had time to realise my good fortune. Through this journey I've struggled with correspondence that would be arrears of work if left over next week. And now a walk will freshen me up and adjust my thoughts to a proper balance since to-morrow please God I shall be married. My age must be the excuse for what yours takes for lukewarmness.''I don't think you lukewarm' said Piton bluntly. 'But I'll tell you what sir you at fifty are more simple-minded than I at twenty-five.''Simple-minded? How? I don't understand.'CONTENTSAt Rocozanne JerseyOld LaferA Midsummer EveningBorlase is Absent-mindedJoy and Sorrow join HandsOver the HillsCynthia MarloweAt the Mires'Sin the Traveller'LettersOpinions at Lafer HallNew Lights on old SubjectsCounter-Opinions at Old LaferScilla reasons with Hartas