Protected by a crazy august guy legging

It is pointless to say that his plans on the young lady were of the most despicable kind, and that he addressed himself to the mother and girl as a solitary man. Aided by his benefits of cash, position, and individual appearance, he had ensured that the destruction of the young lady may be affected with next to no trouble; however he before long found that he had attempted no simple victory. Protected by a crazy august guy legging. The mother’s watchfulness never dozed, and the little girl’s common sense never bombed her. She respected Mr. James Smith’s tall figure and awe inspiring hairs; she showed the most reassuring favoritism for his general public; she grinned at his commendations, and reddened at whatever point he took a gander at her; however, regardless of whether it was sly or whether it was blamelessness, she appeared to be unequipped for understanding that his advances toward her were of some other than a good kind. At the smallest way to deal with unjustifiable commonality, she stepped back with a sort of disdainful amazement in her face, which totally puzzled Mr. James Smith. He had not determined on such an opposition, and he was unable to see his approach to conquering it. The weeks passed; the month for which he had taken the lodgings terminated. Time had fortified the young lady’s hang on him till his adoration for her added up to out and out captivation, and he had not progressed one stage yet toward the satisfaction of the awful reason with which he had gone into the house. Returning on board his yacht he announced that he had given up his intention of cruising to Sweden and that he intended to amuse himself by a long fishing tour in Scotland. After this explanation, he ordered the vessel to be laid up in the harbor, gave the sailing-master leave of absence to return to his family at Cowes, and paid off the whole of the crew from the mate to the cabin-boy. By these means he cleared the scene, at one blow, of the only people in the town who knew of the existence of his unhappy wife. After that the news of his approaching marriage might be made public without risk of discovery, his own common name being of itself a sufficient protection in case the event was mentioned in the Scotch newspapers. All his friends, even his wife herself, might read a report of the marriage of Mr. James Smith without having the slightest suspicion of who the bridegroom really was.

A fortnight after the paying off of the crew he was married to the merchant-captain’s daughter. The father of the girl was well known among his fellow-townsmen as a selfish, grasping man, who was too anxious to secure a rich son-in-law to object to any proposals for hastening the marriage. He and his wife, and a few intimate relations had been present at the ceremony; and after it had been performed the newly-married couple left the town at once for a honeymoon trip to the Highland lakes. Two days later, however, they unexpectedly returned, announcing a complete change in their plans. The bridegroom (thinking, probably, that he would be safer out of England than in it) had been pleasing the bride’s fancy by his descriptions of the climate and the scenery of southern parts. The new Mrs. James Smith was all curosity to see Spain and Italy; and, having often proved herself an excellent sailor on board her father’s vessel, was anxious to go to the Mediterranean in the easiest way by sea. Her affectionate husband, having now no other object in life than to gratify her wishes, had given up the Highland excursion, and had returned to have his yacht got ready for sea immediately. In this explanation there was nothing to awaken the suspicions of the lady’s parents. The mother thought Mr. James Smith a model among bridegrooms. The father lent his assistance to man the yacht at the shortest notice with as smart a crew as could be picked up about the town. Principally through his exertions, the vessel was got ready for sea with extraordinary dispatch. The sails were bent, the provisions were put on board, and Mr. James Smith sailed for the Mediterranean with the unfortunate woman who believed herself to be his wife, before Mr. Dark and myself set forth to look after him from Darrock Hall.