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CHAPTER I. AUGUSTA AND HER PUBLISHER.
CHAPTER I. AUGUSTA AND HER PUBLISHER.
Everybody who has any connection with Birmingham will be acquainted with the vast publishing establishment still known by the short title of “Meeson’s,” which is perhaps the most remarkable institution of the sort in Europe. There are—or rather there were, at the date of the beginning of this history—three partners in Meeson’s—Meeson himself, the managing partner; Mr. Addison, and Mr. Roscoe—and people in Birmingham used to say that there were others interested in the affair, for Meeson’s was a
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CHAPTER II. HOW EUSTACE WAS DISINHERITED.
CHAPTER II. HOW EUSTACE WAS DISINHERITED.
There was a pause—a dreadful pause. The flash had left the cloud, but the answering thunder had not burst upon the ear. Mr. Meeson gasped. Then he took up the cheque which Augusta had thrown upon the table and slowly crumpled it. “What did you say, young man?” he said at last, in a cold, hard voice. “I said that you ought to be ashamed of yourself,” answered his nephew, standing his ground bravely; “and, what is more, I meant it!” “Oh! Now will you be so kind as to explain exactly why you said t
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CHAPTER III. AUGUSTA’S LITTLE SISTER.
CHAPTER III. AUGUSTA’S LITTLE SISTER.
When Augusta left Meeson’s she was in a very sad condition of mind, to explain which it will be necessary to say a word or two about that young lady’s previous history. Her father had been a clergyman, and, like most clergymen, not overburdened with the good things of this world. When Mr. Smithers—or, rather, the Rev. James Smithers—had died, he left behind him a widow and two children—Augusta, aged fourteen, and Jeannie, aged two. There had been two others, both boys, who had come into the worl
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CHAPTER IV. AUGUSTA’S DECISION.
CHAPTER IV. AUGUSTA’S DECISION.
On the second day following the death of poor little Jeannie Smithers, Mr. Eustace Meeson was strolling about Birmingham with his hands in his pockets, and an air of indecision on his decidedly agreeable and gentlemanlike countenance. Eustace Meeson was not particularly cast down by the extraordinary reverse of fortune which he had recently experienced. He was a young gentleman of a cheerful nature; and, besides, it did not so very much matter to him. He was in a blessed condition of celibacy, a
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CHAPTER V. THE R.M.S. KANGAROO.
CHAPTER V. THE R.M.S. KANGAROO.
It was on a Tuesday evening that a mighty vessel was steaming majestically out of the mouth of the Thames, and shaping her imposing course straight at the ball of the setting sun. Most people will remember reading descriptions of the steamship Kangaroo, and being astonished at the power of her engines, the beauty of her fittings, and the extraordinary speed—about eighteen knots—which she developed in her trials, with an unusually low expenditure of coal. For the benefit of those who have not, ho
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CHAPTER VI. MR. TOMBEY GOES FORWARD.
CHAPTER VI. MR. TOMBEY GOES FORWARD.
From that day forward, the voyage on the Kangaroo was, until the last dread catastrophe, a very happy one for Augusta. Lord and Lady Holmhurst made much of her, and all the rest of the first-class passengers followed suit, and soon she found herself the most popular character on board. The two copies of her book that there were on the ship were passed on from hand to hand till they would hardly hang together, and, really, at last she got quite tired of hearing of her own creations. But this was
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CHAPTER VII. THE CATASTROPHE.
CHAPTER VII. THE CATASTROPHE.
And so these two fair women talked, making plans for the future as though all things endured forever, and all plans were destined to be realized. But even as they talked, somewhere up in the high heavens the Voice that rules the world spoke a word, and the Messenger of Fate rushed forth to do its bidding. On board the great ship was music and laughter and the sweet voices of singing women; but above it hung a pall of doom. Not the most timid heart dreamed of danger. What danger could there be ab
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CHAPTER VIII. KERGUELEN LAND.
CHAPTER VIII. KERGUELEN LAND.
As soon as Mr. Meeson, saved from drowning by her intervention, lay gasping at the bottom of the boat, Augusta, overcome by a momentary faintness, let her head fall forward on to the bundle of blankets in which she had wrapped up the child she had rescued, and who, too terrified to speak or cry, stared about him with wide-opened and frightened eyes. When she lifted it, a few seconds later, a ray from the rising sun had pierced the mist, and striking full on the sinking ship, as, her stern well o
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CHAPTER IX. AUGUSTA TO THE RESCUE.
CHAPTER IX. AUGUSTA TO THE RESCUE.
After breakfast—that is, after Augusta had eaten some biscuit and a wing that remained from the chickens she had managed to cook upon the previous day—Bill and Johnnie, the two sailors, set to work, at her suggestion, to fix up a long fragment of drift-wood on a point of rock, and to bind it on to a flag that they happened to find in the locker of the boat. There was not much chance of its being seen by anybody in that mist-laden atmosphere, even if anybody came there to see it, of which there w
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CHAPTER X. THE LAST OF MR. MEESON.
CHAPTER X. THE LAST OF MR. MEESON.
Augusta turned from the old man with a gesture of impatience not unmixed with disgust. His selfishness was of an order that revolted her. “I suppose,” she said sharply to Bill, “that I must have this will tattooed upon my shoulders.” “Yes, Miss; that’s it,” said Bill. “You see, Miss, one wants space for a doccymint. If it were a ship or a flag, now, or a fancy pictur of your young man, I might manage it on your arm, but there must be breadth for a legal doccymint, more especially as I should lik
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CHAPTER XI. RESCUED.
CHAPTER XI. RESCUED.
Augusta woke up just as the dawn was stealing across the sodden sky. It was the smarting of her shoulders that woke her. She rose, leaving Dick yet asleep, and, remembering the turmoil of the night, hurried to the other hut. It was empty. She turned and looked about her. About fifteen paces from where she was lay the shell that the two drunkards had used as a cup. Going forward, she picked it up. It still smelt disgustingly of spirits. Evidently the two men had dropped it in the course of their
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BEFORE THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE PRESIDENT. IN THE MATTER OF MEESON, DECEASED.
BEFORE THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE PRESIDENT. IN THE MATTER OF MEESON, DECEASED.
This was an application arising out of the loss of R.M.S. Kangaroo, on the eighteenth of December last. It will be remembered that out of about a thousand souls on board that vessel the occupants of one boat only—twenty-five people in all—were saved. Among the drowned was Mr. Meeson, the head of the well-known Birmingham publishing company of Meeson, Addison, and Roscoe, and Co. (Limited), who was at the time on a visit to New Zealand and Australia in connection with the business of the company.
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CHAPTER XIII. EUSTACE BUYS A PAPER.
CHAPTER XIII. EUSTACE BUYS A PAPER.
In due course the train that bore Augusta and her fortunes, timed to reach Waterloo at 5.40 p.m., rolled into the station. The train was a fast one, but the telegraph had been faster. All the evening papers had come out with accounts, more or less accurate, of their escape, and most of them had added that the two survivors would reach Waterloo by the 5.40 train. The consequence was, that when the train drew up at the platform, Augusta, on looking out, was horrified to see a dense mass of human b
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CHAPTER XIV. AT HANOVER-SQUARE.
CHAPTER XIV. AT HANOVER-SQUARE.
Eustace could never quite remember how he got through the evening of that eventful day. Everything connected with it seemed hazy to him. As, however, fortunately for the reader of this history, we are not altogether dependent on the memory of a young man in love, which is always a treacherous thing to deal with, having other and exclusive sources of information, we may as well fill the gap. First of all he went to his club and seized a “Red-book,” in which he discovered that Lord Holmhurst’s, or
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CHAPTER XV. EUSTACE CONSULTS A LAWYER.
CHAPTER XV. EUSTACE CONSULTS A LAWYER.
Augusta was leaning against the marble mantelpiece—indeed, one of her arms was resting upon it, for she was a tall woman. Perhaps she, too, felt that there was something in the air; at any rate, she turned away her head, and began to play with a bronze Japanese lobster which adorned the mantelpiece. “Now for it,” said Eustace to himself, drawing a long breath, to try and steady the violent pulsations of his heart. “I don’t know what to say to you, Miss Smithers,” he began. “Best say nothing more
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CHAPTER XVI. SHORT ON LEGAL ETIQUETTE.
CHAPTER XVI. SHORT ON LEGAL ETIQUETTE.
“Well, Meeson, what is it? Have you come to ask me to lunch?” asked Mr. John Short. “Do you know I actually thought that you might have been a client.” “Well, by Jove, old fellow, and so I am,” answered Eustace. “I have been to your brother, and he has sent me on to you, because he says that it is not the etiquette of the profession to see a client unless a solicitor is present, so he has referred me to you.” “Perfectly right, perfectly right of my brother James, Meeson. Considering how small ar
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CHAPTER XVII. HOW AUGUSTA WAS FILED.
CHAPTER XVII. HOW AUGUSTA WAS FILED.
That very afternoon Eustace returned to Lady Holmhurst’s house in Hanover-square, to tell his dear Augusta that she must attend on the following morning to be filed in the Registry at Somerset House. As may be imagined, though willing to go any reasonable length to oblige her new-found lover, Augusta not unnaturally resisted this course violently, and was supported in her resistance by her friend Lady Holmhurst, who, however, presently left the room, leaving them to settle it as they liked. “I d
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CHAPTER XVIII. AUGUSTA FLIES.
CHAPTER XVIII. AUGUSTA FLIES.
Of course, Augusta’s story, so far as it was publicly known, had created no small stir, which was considerably emphasised when pictures of her appeared in the illustrated papers, and it was discovered that she was young and charming. But the excitement, great as it was, was as nothing compared to that which arose when the first whispers of the tale of the will, which was tattooed upon her shoulders, began to get about. Paragraphs and stories about this will appeared in the papers, but of course
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CHAPTER XIX. MEESON v. ADDISON AND ANOTHER.
CHAPTER XIX. MEESON v. ADDISON AND ANOTHER.
The most wearisome times go by at last if only one lives to see the end of them, and so it came to pass that at length on one fine morning about a quarter to ten of the Law Courts’ clock, that projects its ghastly hideousness upon unoffending Fleet-street, Augusta, accompanied by Eustace, Lady Holmhurst, and Mrs. Thomas, the wife of Captain Thomas, who had come up from visiting her relatives in the Eastern counties in order to give evidence, found herself standing in the big entrance to the new
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CHAPTER XX. JAMES BREAKS DOWN.
CHAPTER XX. JAMES BREAKS DOWN.
The Registrar, not Augusta’s dear doctor Probate, but another Registrar, rose and called on the case of Meeson v. Addison and Another, and in an instant the wretched James Short was on his legs to open the case. “What is that gentleman’s name?” Augusta heard the Judge ask of the clerk, after making two or three frantic efforts to attract his attention—a proceeding that the position of his desk rendered very difficult. “Short, my Lord.” “Do you appear alone for the plaintiff, Mr. Short?” asked th
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CHAPTER XXI. GRANT AS PRAYED.
CHAPTER XXI. GRANT AS PRAYED.
Accordingly, Augusta was sworn, and Eustace observed that when she removed her veil to kiss the Book the sight of her sweet face produced no small effect upon the crowded court. Then James began his examination in chief, and, following the lines which he had laid down in his opening speech, led her slowly, whilst allowing her to tell her own story as much as possible, to the time of the tattooing of the will on Kerguelen Land. All along, the history had evidently interested everybody in the cour
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CHAPTER XXII. ST. GEORGE’S, HANOVER-SQUARE.
CHAPTER XXII. ST. GEORGE’S, HANOVER-SQUARE.
The Court broke up in confusion, and Augusta, now that the strain was over, noticed with amusement that the dark array of learned counsel who had been fighting with all their strength to win the case of their clients did not seem to be particularly distressed at the reverse that they had suffered, but chatted away gaily as they tied up their papers with scraps of red tape. She did not, perhaps, quite realize that, having done their best and earned their little fees, they did not feel called on t
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