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Copyright, 1891,
by
A. C. (RENTER.
All rights reserved.
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CONTENTS.

BOOK I.
THE METAMORPHOSIS OF MISS LILLIAN TRAVERS-
PM!
CHAPTER I.—-The Purchase at Vedder's, - - 7
“ II.-The Peeping Eve of the Ponce de
Leon, - - - - - 18
“ III._The Widow’s Fluttering Pulse, - 26
IV.-“ For Women who Suffer ! " - 41
l
V.--The Marvellous Record of Hauser
Oglethorpe, - - - ~ 50
' VI.-“ Why Not ?" - - - . 5‘
BOOK II.
\
THE BOYHOOD OF LILLY TRAVER5~
CHAPTER VII.-“ Ah ! Naughty Boy—What Shall
I Christen You?” - - - 79
“ VIII.--The Hop at the Ponce de Leon, 9|
“ IX.—“ My Man, Jane," - - - 108
“ X.-“ Have I, like Frankenstein, Raised
up a Monster to Destroy me P” 122


6 CONTENTS .
FAB
CHAPTBR XL—“Good-by, Bessie ! " - - - 143
“ XIL—The Monster Becomes Danger-
ous, - - - - - - go
" XIII—Doctor Fred Would Like a Kiss, 164
BOOK III.
THE WONDERFUL ADVENTURES 0!" MR. LAWRENCE
TALBOT.
CHAPTER XIV.—Wild Oats, - - - - - [81
" XV. —Floating Garments from the Ockla-
waha, - - - - 193
“ XVI.—Doctor Freddie plays the Virtuous
Detective, - - - ~ 214
XVII. —A Duel among the Orange Trees, 230
XVIII.--The Horrible Metamorphosis of
Doctor Frederick Cassadene, - 242
“ XIX—“ I’ve Come for that Seed," - 252





A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
BOOK ‘1.
THE METAMORPHOSIS 0F
MISS LILLIAN TRAVERS-
CHAPTER I.
THE PURCHASE AT VEDDER'S.
“ YES, right there !--The one between the rattle-
snake’s fangs and the alligator’s skin." ‘
“ Oh! the little black box,” remarks the sales-
woman.
“ Yes—the ebony casket,” says Miss Lillian Trav-
ers to the woman who presides behind the counter
in that portion of Vedder's extraordinary museum,
which is devoted to commerce in the form of dis-
posing of Florida curiosities and horrors, to North.
em tourists. These crowd the place now, for it is
the beginning of February of the year 1891, and
already many have escaped from wintry winds and
snowy blasts, to throng St. Augustine, bask in its
sun, and drink in the mild orange-scented breezes,


8 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
that prevail the first four months of the year, to
make this place a paradise to lovers of tropic scenes
and nursers of failing lungs.
“ This thing? " exclaims the woman in an aston-
ished tone of voice, for she has been expecting a
liberal order in sharks’ jaws, manatee-skins, and
bead-work, from her customer, and is rather sur-
prised at the young lady's selection.
“Yes,” rejoins Lilly Travers hurriedly; “how
much is it P "
“Ain’t no price marked on it—but five dollars’ll
do ! "
“ I’ll take it ! " .
“ Five dollars for that ./ ” cries a bright, laughing
voice in Miss Travers’ shell-like car. This is from
pretty Bessie Horton, who being a resident of St.
Augustine, is showing Lillian the sights of the town.
“Five dollars for an old moth-eaten, cobweb-cov-
ered black box, without any key to its lock ! "
“Hush!” whispers the New York girl, to her
lively companion. “ That’s the reason I want it; it
hasn’t been opened for a long time—there may be
something in it." Then she turns to the woman
who is about to wrap up her purchase, and says:
“ Do you know where that thing came from P ”
“ No," replies the saleslady; “it’s been on that
shelf ever since Icame here. I told Mr. Vedder
that I didn’t think it was any good keeping it there,
as nobody would buy it; but he said, ‘This is the
shop to sell odds and ends! Always find a cus-
tomer for everything, some time or other.’ "
“Can I see Mr. Vedder?" inquires Miss Lilly
eagerly.


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT» 9
" Oh, he’s gone out for the afternoon; he’s over
on Anastasia Island, hunting rattlesnakes—our
stock’s pretty low."
Here their conversation is broken in upon by a
juvenile, high-keyed voice crying to the ebbing and
flowing crowd: “Walk in now, ladies and gents.
The animals in the back yard—the ’gators in the
water trough—and the snakes in the snake-room.
Our new diamond-back rattler is about to eat a
squirrel. Please walk in to the feed, and don’t faint
if the moccasin hisses!”
This harangue calls forth from various ladies
stifled exclamations of horror, emphasized by viva-
cious feminine shudders. But Lillian Travers takes
Vedder's boy aside and says nervously to him :
“What do you make such horrid remarks for?
One would think you like to frighten people."
“ So I does," grins the youth solemnly, “ when the
old man’s out. Wouldn't you like me to show you
our stufled rattler? It’s the largest in the world—-
it’s Itwelve feet long and as big as a boa con-
stricter.”
“ No,” replies the young lady with a little stifled
cry; “ but I‘would like you to tell me if you know
where this little black box came from?” She has
the article in her hand.
“ Oh," answers the boy, “ that was taken out of the
sand on ’Stasia Island, a couple of miles below the
light-house—about five years ago. I was a kid at
the time.” He is only about fifteen as he makes
the remark. “ And it’s been lying up there ever
since.” He points to the dusty shelf.
“ No one has opened it P"


'9 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
“ No one, as I knows on. We ain't had any time
to bother, as there warn’t no key. Perhaps dey
don't want it sold.”
“ It is already sold 1 ” cries Miss Travers excitedly.
“ I have bought it! Don’t you dare try and take it
from me! 1—1 have paid for it!" which she has
already done, and clinging to her prize, she rushes
out into Bay Street, as if fearing she may be pur-
sued, and her treasure taken from her.
“ Why did you pay five dollars for such a worthless
thing P—and you are really frightened that they will
take it away from you,” laughs pretty Bessie Hor-
ton, as she follows her companion.
“ Don’t you see," answers Lilly hurriedly, as she
walks along the unpaved street, drawing in the fresh
breeze that is blowing from the open waters of the
Atlantic, over Matanzas Inlet, as if she enjoyed it.
“ Don't you see, Bessie, that this is perhaps a dupli-
cate of the ebony cabinet on Aunt Constantia’s
parlor table, which is considered one of our family
heirlooms? That’s the reason I paid five dollars
for it."
“Yes—I remember I’ve seen it on Miss Connie’s
table," acquiesces Bessie.
“ I would have paid fifty, if they had had the
sense to ask me," continues the possessor of the box
eagerly,—-for Miss Lilly Travers, when she is twenty-
five will come into a very pretty New York fortune.
At present she is considered twenty-one by her
friends, and hardly looks even that age as she trips
gracefully along with cheeks reddened in the sea
breeze that is tossing her delicate laces and mousse-
linc de soie about her lithe and charming figure and


A FLORIDA EN CHANTMENT. ll
giving passing glimpses of a pair of pretty feet and
charming ankles perfectly booted and hosed.
But if her figure, which, though tall, is exquisitely
graceful and feminine, is alluring to the eye, Lillian
Travers' face is even more so. Though an Ameri<
can, there is almost a foreign piquancy in her laugh-
ing lips and sparkling eyes. These last are dark,
grand and scintillating, but at times of wondrous
softness and tenderness,—indicating that when this
young lady loves she loves deeply, passionately
—even jealously. The whole effect of her counte-
nance would be softly feminine, were it not for a
Grecian nose, as delicately chiselled as that of a.
classic statue, but with a peculiar dilation of the
nostril that gives to it whenever her pride is
deeply wounded a haughty, even aggressive, firm.
ness.
She is in direct contrast to the pretty Southern girl
who trips beside her trying to keep step with the
longer and firmer stride of her Northern companion;
for Miss Bessie Horton is a plump little blonde,
with golden hair and violet eyes and a rounded
figure whose graceful outlines and exquisite contours
go straight to the masculine eye and enslave the
masculine heart. She has the soft, cooing speech
that is peculiar to Southern women, and is a mem-
ber of an old Florida family who make their home
at St. Augustine, her father owning considerable
orange lands and phosphate properties in the south-
ern portion of that State.
Miss Travers, on the contrary, is an importation
direct from New York. Her father had been a
Wall Street banker, though her mother was a


12 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
member of the Oglethorpe family, one of the best
known in Florida, descendants from the grand old
governor of colonial times. At present she is
visiting her aunt, Miss Constantia Oglethorpe, a
maiden of some fifty-five summers and winters, who
lives near the shell-road in a pretty villa that, sur»
rounded by orange-trees, palms, and cacti, faces the
blue waters of Matanzas Inlet.
Upon this lovely piece of water the girls are gaz-
ing as they pass along Bay Street and enjoy its
picturesque beauty. Faced as this street is by old
buildings on one side, that give it an air of anti-
quity and romance, enlivened by its crowds of white.
sleeved, bare-armed boatmen at each of the little
wharves that run out into the limpid waves—embel-
lished by its Northern tourists and a few Southern
planters and orange growers—dotted by shining
negroes and yellow-skinned mulatto boys; and
fringed on the other by the rippling waters of the
bay, which are made lively by sail and fishing boats
and bright yachts whose white wings have brought
them from the far North in search of perpetual
summer; under the azure sky and soft warm sun it
is like the Riviera in April, though no mountains
are back of it to give it grandeur, nor antique pal-
aces to lend it romance. Out on the blue ripples is
a steam pleasure ship whose millionnaire owner has
fled from winter to seek abstraction from business
in pursuit of game and fish on Southern rivers, or
beautiful women in the gardens of the Ponce de
Leon or balconies of the Cérdova.
Lillian Travers thinks the sparkling scene very
beautiful after New York snow and cries enthusi_


14 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
A moment after the Southern girl whispers to the
Northern one: “You were quite right; he it too
old for anything except giving me a sail on his
yacht." For Stockton Remington is a man who is
sixty and has spent two-thirds of his life in fighting
for a fortune in Wall Street, and his face shows
signs of the struggle.
“This is an unexpected pleasure," he remarks,
“ my dear Miss Travers. I had supposed you could
not run away from New York gayeties.”
“ Oh," replies Lillian lightly, “ when Lent begins,
New York functions cease, and I come to Florida.—
I arrived on the ‘ special ' last evening.”
“Ah, in search of fun?" remarks Mr. Reming-
ton.
“Perhaps,” answers the young lady, though her
countenance grows serious as she utters the word.
“ Bound for the centre of town P ”
“Yes. I have just been to Vedder’s and made a
purchase, and am now in search of a locksmith,”
says Miss Travers smiling.
“ A locksmith P ” exclaims the gentleman, astound-
ed—“a locksmith to unlock the alligator's jaws P "
“Oh no; I have just bought this little black box,
and want to find out what is inside of it,” returns
Lillian, holding up the article for inspection.
“ May I carry it for you P "
“Not for worlds—its contents may be very pre-
cious," laughs Miss Travers.
“The article does not look very promising," re-
marks Remington examining it—“I hardly think
you’ll get your money’s worth.”
“ Oh yes, I will ! " answers Lilly gayly.


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. Is
“ Of what? "
“ Curiosity—romance—whatever’s inside it "—-
returns the girl, and they pass up Cathedral Street,
chatting on the various subjects peculiar to the
time and place. At the corner of St. George Street
Miss Travers says: “ We must bid you good-by,
Mr. Remington, for the locksmith’s.”
“You are not stopping at any of the hotels, Miss
Travers?" queries the yachtsman. “I must know
your address. The Gadabout is lonely! You must
make up a sailing party for me soon."
“ No ;——with my aunt, Miss Oglethorpe, just off
the shell-road, where I shall be delighted to see
you.”
“ I shall undoubtedly drive on the shell-road,” re.
sponds Mr. Remington gallantly. “ At present I
am on my way to the Ponce de Leon to see Mrs.
Lovejoy."
“ Stella Lovejoy? ” asks Lilly eagerly, with a shade
of apprehension in her voice, which has been laugh-
ing a moment before. _
“Certainly, the pretty widow. She came down
on the Gadabout as my guest and as chaperon for
my party, with Mr. Wilkes and Miss Key of Balti-
more. Now, having grown tired of sea-life, the
whole crowd have deserted my ship for more roomy
quarters at the Ponce de Leon. There’s gratitude
for you l" answers the yachtsman with a grin.
“ Mr. Wilkes," cries Miss Bessie suddenly,—-“ Mr.
Charley Wilkes?”
“ Yes.”
“ Why, he is the young man to whom father
sold the orange grove on Indian River. He comes


16 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
here every winter. He isn’t a New-Yorker,—-—he’s
a Floridian. He’s too consumptive to be a New-
Yorker! " laughs the Southern girl. Then she says
with a pretty pout: “ Of course he is devoted to the
beautiful widow.”
“ He was, on the yacht," replies the gentleman
sententiously; “but on shore "—here he chuckles
slyly and remarks impressively—“ there is a doctor."
“ A doctor! Who P ” asks Miss Travers sud-
denly, turning to Remington who notes with aston-
ishment that the young lady’s eyes have somehow
grown quite sad.
“ Oh, I never tell secrets," the New-Yorker says
pointedly.--Then as if to cut off further questions,
he raises his hat, and remarks suggestively, “ Shall
I give your regards to Mrs. Lovejoy P”
“ Certainly,” replies Lillian in a set tone of voice,
as Remington turns towards the Ponce de Leon,
wondering what the deuce affects Miss Travers, who
is believed in New York society to be heartless, as
she has never given her heart away to any of its
beaux or social lions, though many have sought it——
for her beauty is great and her fortune will be large
when she is twenty-five.
“ And now, the locksmith’s,” laughs Miss Bessie.
“ I am dying to see what is in the ebony box.”
“Ah! the locksmith’s,” ejaculates Lilly, as if she
had suddenly remembered something—an absent-
minded mood that remains with her until they reach
the artisan’s place of business.
After a few moments’ examination and some
minutes employed in fitting a key to its wards, the
workman remarks: “ The lock is rather rusty.”


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. I7
“Rusty! I should think so,” cries Bessie. “It
perhaps has not been opened for a hundred years.”
“ It works as if it hadn’t been opened for a thou.
sand,”_rep1ies the artisan; but after deluging the
wards with oil and working the key about in the
lock with his vise-like hands for some little time the
bolts finally yield to his strong fingers and spring
back. He is about to open the lid, when Miss
Travers, who has been gazing at him in a preoc-
cupied manner, suddenly gives a gasp, seizes the
box and astonishes both the locksmith and Miss
Bessie as she exclaims : “ Not now! There may be
a secret inside it—a secret for which I paid five
dollars. Please do the box up in paper; I'll take it
home with me for examination there."
“And I am not going to see what is inside that
box now! If they are jewels—I 'shall expect a
present," pouts Bessie with curious eyes, for the
girl has been letting her imagination run riot on
the contents of the old casket and would not be
surprised if it disclosed the wealth of Golconda in
diamonds and rubies.
“Not until we get to my aunt's, anyway—and
then perhaps I shall want the secret all to myself,"
returns Lilly, who has apparently awakened to what
is passing around her and thrown off any cloud that
may have been on her mind. “Then, perhaps, if
you are a good girl ”
“ Oh, I'll be very good," laughs Bessie; “ with
a secret ahead of me, I am always to be relied upon.
Suppose we go to the Ponce de Leon and listen to
the band; it makes me feel romantic and poetic
these sunny mornings.”

2


18 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.

rv-“‘A"'r'W'—_ . . r n -ww wrr v
So chatting together, the two girls walk straight
to the Alameda and are soon standing in Old Spain
where Miss Lillian Travers gets one of the shocks
of her life.
CHAPTER II.
THE PEEPING EVE OF THE PONCE DE LEON.
THE young ladies are between the two great
hotels of St. Augustine—the Cordova, with its
Moorish windows, square turrets and narrow arches,
and the Ponce de Leon, whose Spanish-domed
towers and sloping tiled roofs in the architecture
of Seville or Valencia are embowered in its gardens
of orange and palm and flowering shrubs. Imme-
diately facing them is the square of the Alcazar
with 'its ceaseless fountain and tropical Plants; be-
yond, the Villa Zorayda looking like some Grana-
dan villa from which the Emirs of the Moorish
Kingdom issued five hundred years ago to sack
Andalusian villages and carry off the maids of fair
Castile to Eastern harems.
Through this scene of the Old World passes the
Alameda which is all of the modern; its asphalt
pavement, covered with prancing steeds and liveried
equipages; its stone sidewalks peopled with bril-
liantly dressed men and women displaying the
toilets of Paris and New York.
Arch this scene with a bright blue sky, without a
single cloud; light it up by a tropic sun, temper its
heat by a sea-breeze that gently moves and rustles


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 19
the foliage of the luxuriant vegetation ; brighten
this all with lovely American women—make it
musical by the light laughter of people who live
but for pleasure, mingled with the soft melodies of
a brilliant band playing one of Verdi's love songs,
and you have what the two young ladies look upon
this morning in St. Augustine,—-this old town of the
Spanish conquistadores, now rebuilt and revivified
by a modern conqueror of finance and oil.
After a short pause of contemplative enjoyment,
Miss Bessie, to whom the scene is much more
familiar than to Miss Travers, hurries her com-
panion along, stopping occasionally to greet a pass-
ing friend, Lilly also recognizing one or two Northern
visitors.
A moment after Miss Bessie says: “Oh my!
Here’s papa.”
And Miss Travers finds herself warmly greeted
by an old-time Southern gentleman of semi-military
manner and semi-planter dress ;—for Major Calhoun
Benham Horton prides himself upon always remem-
bering that he once held a commission in the Con.
federate Army signed by Jefferson Davis. He bOWS
to the young lady with punctilious politeness and
welcomes her to St. Augustine and Southern hospL
tality with the grace of a modern Bayard.
“ Egad l ” he remarks; “ Miss Lillian, those North-
ern roses on your cheeks look so charming, that if
I were—ahem !—slightly younger, I should certainly
think of giving Bess a stepmother."
At this Miss Bessie gives a little pout and mut-
ters—“You'd better not—not even Lilly!" Thea
wishing to turn the conversation—for Miss Horton


20 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
lives in horror of her father in his gallantry to the,
fair sex giving her a stepmother to rule her—she
says: “ Have you seen Mr. Remington? He’s just
come ashore from his steam yacht."
“ No. Is Remington here?” asks the major, hur-
riedly. Then he continues: “I must see him at
once. Those phosphate lands he wrote me about
are almost disposed of to an English company, and
if he does not move in a hurry, Johnny Bull will for
once in his life get ahead of the Yankees.”
“Mr. Remington is probably in the Ponce," re-
marks Miss Travers; and the three stroll into the
co"*t-yard of that beautiful building, where the
major cries out sans cirdmanie to a dark-colored
gentleman in gorgeous yellow livery, knee breeches
and silk stockings, “ Here, boy, chairs for the
ladiesl”—-and darts for the office, or the billiard-
room, or the bar, or some other place usually fre-
quented by masculine humanity, in search of the
Northern capitalist. A moment after the two girls
are provided with camp-stools, Miss Travers’ quarter
of a dollar soothing the colored servant’s vanity that
has been deeply wounded by the major’s “ Boy!"
Then they listen to the music of the band from the
loggia, and look over the lovely garden with its
gushing fountain—hemmed in on all sides by these
modern buildings of old-fashioned Spanish archi-
tecture, making it look like the patio of some great
Chilean house or Mexican hacienda.
The soft Southern air and dreamy melodies bring
contemplation to Miss Travers. She sits looking
at the little ebony box which the locksmith has
done up in paper, as it lies on her lap, and indulge:


32 A FLORIDA ENCHANTME'NT.
cussing leans against the pillar of the veranda as if
overcome by some cruel emotion.
“I wonder who she is," babbles Bessie. “ She
must be awfully in love with him."
“ In love with him i”
“Yes ; of course—the gentleman that girl adores—
Suppose we run up to that balcony and take a peep
ourselves."
“ Do you think it would be precisely fair?” re-
marks Miss Travers.
“ Yes—if he's handsome ! Come on l You know
Icannot go alone, but together we can Wander up
nonchalantly and carelessly. He must be a lovely
fellow, to produce such potent emotions. Quick, or
it will be over'."
Thus adjured, after a careless refusal or two,
Miss Lilly, who is a woman and also curious, follows
Bessie into the hotel, and a few minutes after they are
on the balcony, chatting in apparent carelessness.
The rustle of their dresses—perhaps the sound of
their voices—reaches the object of their solicitude,
who has been gazing intently upon a little Moorish
balcony that communicates with one of the suites
of apartments in the right wing of the building.
The moment she sees them, her face by a mighty
effort becomes placid, calm—perhaps even careless;
and a second or two after she saunters off the
Veranda into the rotunda, humming in apparent
nonchalance the air the band is playing.
“ A wonderful actress,” whispers Bess enthusiasti-
cally. “ Perhaps she may be a real one. Now, let
us see this Romeo who was the cause of her passion,
’palousy and despair."


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. Is


alleys of the Ponce de Leon and crossed the crowded
Alameda into the more lonely plaza of the Alcazar,
where only the hum of voices from the crowd comes
floating to lzer. The music of the distant band
seems a requiem of hopes never to be realized—of
love that perchance has passed away,—and she sinks
on a bench screened by a spreading oleander, where
the splashing fountain murmurs in her ears the
despairing refrain: “ He whom I loved and trusted
-who was to have been my husband—has forgotten
me! ”
She writhes under this thought, and mutters-
“ Fred—Fred—Fred!” as if to call her careless
lover back to her." Then pride comes to her, and
self-esteem tells her that if Mrs. Stella Lovejoy,
whom she has easily recognized as a New York
acquaintance of hers, is a rich and beautiful widow,
she Lillian Travers is a rich and beautiful girl—and
she says reassuringly to herself : “ Of course, it was
a professional call—I should remember my fiancé
is a doctor.—-A woman who gives her heart should
give her faith.”—Next she cries out in feminine logic,
“i Who was that horrid jealous girl who was spying
upon him ?—I’ll—I’ll make Fred give me a satis-
factory explanation as to lzer—I’ll—He must have
got my note by this time, he must know I’m in St.
Augustine—He’ll be at my aunt’s this afternoon
I must hurry home and dress—I’ll try and show
him I’m not jealous—jealousy seems despicable in
a man’s eyes—There was no man gazing in agony
from that veranda at Stella Lovejoy,-—then says
desperately, “ Oh, if I could love like a man !" rising
from her seat to go in search of Bessie.


t A noqu ENCHANTMEN‘I'.
But turning her eyes toward the Ponce de Leon
she catches sight of that young lady deeply engaged
with Mr. Wilkes, and this gives her mind another
wrench—“ Even that creature,” she thinks contempt.
uously, for Wilkes is not a noble looking biped, “is
a man, and has forgotten Mrs. Lovejoy in Bess's
bright eyes. And yet Remington said he had been
cut out of the beautiful widow's affections by a
doctor."—Here her heart gives a throb of agony
and she cries savagely, “ What doctor P—My doctor
Fred P—if it should be " and clinches her pretty
fist—then snifi's at the fountain and mutters, “ What
horrid sulphur water l—This place is not healthy! ”
and almost tottering to the Alameda calls a carriage
and gasps, “ Miss Oglethorpe’s place—Sunny Grove
~>Quick l"
So, getting in, she is driven to her aunt’s home
in so gloomy, meditative and sighing a mood that
she entirely forgets the box that lies carelessly
upon her lap. ,An abstraction that does not argue
well for Doctor Fred when he makes his afternoon
call upon his pretty fiancée; as Miss Lillian Travers
had but an hour ago a very lively curiosity as to its
contents.

CHAPTER III.
THE wmow’s FLUTTERING PULSE.
HER indifference to the object lying in her lap is
not surprising; for Lillian Travers is running over
in her mind the events of the last six months. The


28 a FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
and when she left that watering place, Doctor Fred’l
engagement ring sparkled on her white hand.
During the first of the winter the Doctor had fol-
lowed her to New York and pressed her for an early
marriage, stating very candidly that his means were
only the uncertain income derived from a practice
in Saratoga during the summer months, and an
equally precarious attendance upon invalids in St.
Augustine during the winter exodus of Northern
tourists to that celebrated resort. This exposé of
his financial inequality with the New York heiress
had been made with seeming ingenuousness but
with great ingenuity; for Doctor Cassadene knew
that Lillian loved him well enough to take him,
rich or poor, and be only happy that her wealth
could add to the prosperity of the man she
adored.
At his request Miss Travers had immediately in-
formed him of the peculiarity of her father’s will,
and had been delighted at the generosity of his
reply; for he had implored her to marry him imme
diately, saying that he loved her too well to post“
pone the happiness of being her husband for the
pleasure of being rich.
She loved him more than ever as she answered,
“ Had we not better wait until I am twenty-five?
~—-~then I can lavish upon you the principal, not the
interest, of my fortune, Fred.”
“Fancy the horror of waiting four years!” he
had muttered. Whereupon she had given him a
roguish smile and remarked demurely, “Perhaps
the four years will run around sooner than you
think. Wait until next spring; then if you wish


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. @


to marry me immediately, you may have my hand
as you have my heart now.”
A few days after this promise, the Doctor had
departed for St. Augustine, carrying the kisses of
his beautiful fiancée upon his lips, and two months
later, Lilly Travers had suddenly taken the—
“ Florida Special " to visit her aunt, following the
man she loved, with a great gladness in her heart
and a rapturous surprise for him in her mind.
Perhaps it is this that causes her to murmur as
she drives up the pretty avenue of orange trees,
“ Fred, if you knew the revelation I have in store
for you, the confession I have to make to you—you
would be waiting for me on that porch—now ! ”
As she says this, she steps out of the carriage and
is welcomed by her aunt, Miss Constantia Ogle-
thorpe, with the soft words and tender kisses an old
lady gives to a young one who is very near her
heart. They sit down to lunch and Miss Connie
remarks, “ You did not eat anything for breakfast,
Lil, and have no appetite now—perhaps this letter
may improve it,”—and smilingly produces a little
note that Lilly, clutching with a cry of j0y, tears
quickly open.
With hasty perusal comes sunshine and content.
She says: “ Auntie, he is coming this afternoon at
three. He reproaches me for not telegraphing him.
Then he could have met me at the train.”
“Ah!” replies Miss Constantia; “then I shall
soon see the Doctor Fred of your letters, Lilly,
Bessie Horton knows him slightly and says he’s
very handsome—and you told me the same, I be-
lieve, last night."—-Here the aunt gives a roguish


'fl A FIDRIDA ENCHAN'I'MBNT.
glance at the niece, for these two are great chums
and confidants, and Miss Connie has had Lilly'l
secret in her keeping almost from the time it was a
secret.
A moment after, Lilly cries impulsively: “And
to think that I doubted "—she checks herself.
“ To think that you doubted what P "
“Oh, nothing," says the girl, reddening; then
remarks suddenly, as if to turn the conversation,
“ Aunt Connie, tell me the story of that old ebony
casket—the little one in your parlor—the family
heirloom.-—It has a romantic history, has it not P ”
To which Miss Constantia replies: “There is
nothing peculiar connected with that casket, though
I believe there is a very extraordinary story linked
with the other one! ”
“ The other casket l What otker casket P "
“Why, there was once a duplicate of the one in
the parlor," replies Miss Connie, smiling at her
niece’s eagerness. “ Both of them belonged to my
grandfather, old Captain Hauser Oglethorpe.”
“Ah! the great sea-dog of our family, the one
whose picture I am looking at," says Lilly, glancing
at the portrait of a bronzed and wind-battered tar
whose wicked face seems to leer into hers from a
gilt frame on the opposite wall of the dining room.—
She can’t stand the gaze of this man on canvas, and
her drooping eyes fall upon the little bundle she has
brought home with her, which is standing upon the
side-board.
“Yes,” continues her aunt, who, like most old
ladies, is always eager to tell a story of the past.
“ During the war of 1812, when my grandfather and


A FLORIDA ENCHAN TM EN T. 3 I
your great-grandfather returned from a voyage to
Africa, where I believe, my dear"—here she
laughs a little—“ he had been for a cargo of slaves,
though that is omitted in the family annals, he was
pursued by a British sloop-of-war, the Falcon, and
his vessel, the Firefly, was wrecked about a mile or
two below the lighthouse over there”—she points
to the one that towers above Anastasia Island.
“A mile or two below the lighthouse over there,”
exclaims Lilly with an excited start, the boy’s re-
marks at Vedder’s in regard to her purchase flying
into her mind.
“Yes,” continues Miss Constantia, unheeding the
interruption; “his sufferings during the shipwreck
and g'ale,were such that his mind was shattered.
As a child I can remember old Grandpa Hauser, and
he was then a gibbering idiot, in his dotage and
nearly ninety years of age. He was always crying
and pointing to that island, and saying that in the
other casket, lost forever beneath the ocean, was
what would make him very rich and some woman
very happy.”
“Some woman very happy! ” ejaculates Lillian.
“ Why, all women are happy—any woman that is in
love—any woman who is loved."
“Ah! you are certain of that, my dear?” remarks
her aunt, a sad light of the past coming into her
eyes. “ Don’t be too sure. The poor old imbecile
had some curious ideas, however, for he said ‘it
would make that woman a man ' ! "
“Make the woman a MAN! What an absurd
idea! " And Miss Lilly giggles merrily.
“Yes, it is an atrocious thought—one in which


32 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
only a strong-minded woman would indulge,” says
Constantia stemly.
“ I wonder how I would look as a boy," cries her
niece, rising and strutting about; for Fred's letter
has made her vivaciously happy.
“ Dumpy,” remarks Connie sententiously.
“ Dumpy! I—dumpy? Why, I am quite tall—-
five feet six and one-half inches.”
“That is very well for a girl,” replies Constantia,
“ but I’ll warrant you would not think Doctor Fred
tall with that number of feet and inches.”
This puts another idea into the you'ng lady’s head
and she mutters to herself, “ Then, if I were a man,
I could not love a man,—I could not love Fred.
Awful! ” Next she gives a playful little shudder,
glances at her watch and exclaims, “ Half-past two.
I must run up and dress for him. Doctor Fred
does not like to be kept waiting. Physicians love a
punctual patient.”
“ Or sweetheart," suggests Constantia.
This is drowned by Lilly’s joyous laugh as she
runs up to her room, and cries to her mulatto maid,
“ Jane—you’ve only twenty-five minutes to make me
good-looking,” forgetting, in her anxiety to achieve
an effective toilet, the purchase that had occupied
so much of her thoughts during the early morning.
“ Bless yo heart, yo’s a Venus already. What
more dos yo want—I knows what’s de matter wid
yo. Doc Fred’s coming, Honey—I felt jus’ the
same when my Gus was here last night "—says her
saffron-hued attendant who is very eprz's with a col-
ored gentleman of Sixth Avenue, New York, who is
at present acting as the second waiter of the Ponce


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
de Leon and one of the glories of its dining
room.
“ Nevertheless Venus will indulge in a new
dress ! " replies Lilly and places herself under Jane's
deft hands with such good results that when half
an hour afterwards Dr. Fred Cassadene springs from
a carriage and enters Miss Connie’s parlor he thinks
he does see a Venus, and ejaculates to himself—-
“ Great Powers! I’d forgotten how lovely Lilly
was!” In truth Lilly Travers might cause rapture
to any masculine heart as she floats towards him,
some bright shimmering gauzy dress clinging to and
draping her graceful figure, a love light in her young
eyes and tender kisses on her rosy lips.
Over this beautiful vision the reckless young doc-
tor goes into a lover’s transport, forgetting that a
beautiful patient is impatiently awaiting another
professional visit from him at the Ponce de Leon
Hotel. For Fred Cassadene generally loved best in
his careless way the woman whose eyes he was
gazing into. After a few minutes of mutual rapture, '
the conversation passes from the romantic to the
every-day concerns of life, that affect lovers as well
as other people. Then, this gentleman, who has
learned to read a woman’s mind much more ac‘
curately than he diagnoses a patient's disease, noting
that his sweetheart’s manner is a trifle embarrassed,
thinks to himself, “ If she suspects I'll set myself
right before she opens the battle,” and cries lightly:
“ Ha ha! you've a secret, Lilly."
“Yes; two,” says the girl, emphasizing this re-
mark with both a pout and a blush, as if one were
pleasant and the other not so agreeable to her.
/


34 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
“ Humph! you'll tell ’em to me of course. No
secrets from your loving Fred—who has none from
you." And Mr. Assurance looks severely upon Miss
Innocence who blushes nervously.
“ Then let us go into the garden l ” mutters Lilly.
“ I don’t want to be at home to anybody but you,
Fred, on this our first meeting for nearly two long
months! ”
“ Yes—it did seem an awful time to me here in St.
Augustine," returns the gentleman as he follows her
into one of the orange alleys that leads to a summer
house overlooking the blue waves of Matanzas Inlet
—“ But for you in gay New York, the balls, parties,
opera—Eh, naughty Lilly 1 ” and he makes his sweet
heart happy by giving the pink shell she calls her
ear a dainty pinch.
“ Pooh! I didn’t go to any! Not a function this
season,” whispers the girl with a blush. “You
would not have been there—and I was unhappyas I
thought of you in lonely St. Augustine."
“ Of course—very lonely St. Augustine; there
were few visitors here until the last week, but
then—--" here Fred checks himself suddenly.
“ But for the last week you’ve done pretty well,’
laughs Lilly. Then she says sadly, perhaps point-
edly: “The Gadabout arrived here a week ago?"
and gives a little sigh.
“ Oh—ahl That's where the land lies,” thinks this
medical Machiavelli and remarks, “ Yes, that yacht
brought me apatient~a friend of yours: Mrs. Love-
joy "—and hoping to carry the war into Africa con-
tinues rapidly: “ But your secrets, ma belle .P—You
needn’t fear confession—you have a merciful judge—-


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
your beauty shall plead in mitigation of your follies.
You’ve been indulging in a little flirtation—eh P "
At this his sweetheart cries, “Oh, Fred—for
shame! "in indignant tones and wounded voice—and
with flashing eyes, confronts him—hitting him harder
than she guesses as she says, “ Do you think so
meanly of me as to suppose I could flirt with any
man with your engagement ring upon my finger?"
and flashes the diamond in his face to make him
ashamed of himself—for a moment—his impulses
good or bad seldom last longer.
He cries quickly, “ Forgive me-don’t cry and
break my heart "—for tears of wounded pride are in
the girl's eyes," then utters impetuously, “Don’t
cry, and I’ll never make you weep again i " and
means every word he says as he looks at his beauti-
ful sweetheart.
“Very well,” she whispers, glowing under his
attentions.
“ You forgive me ?”
“ Of course—I could forgive you much more than
that! I have forgiven much more to-dayl ”
“ To-day—how have I offended P " He looks
carelessly innocent as he puts the question.
“ Ask your own heart? ”
" My heart tells me nothing but that I I".
You I”
“You are sure? "
“ Sure as that I love you!”
“ Then you have something to forgive me,”
whispers Lilly, made radiant by his declaration, and
she tells him the incident she had witnessed in the
morning at the Ponce de Leon. Next, being Very


36 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
happy to get the thing off her mind she laughs,
“ And I was so jealous, Fred."
This gives her lover an opening.
He suddenly thinks any jealous tendency in his
sweetheart must be crushed or he will have an un-
comfortable time between his beautiful fiancée and
the lovely widow. With this idea in his head he
says, “Jealous, Lilly ! " in a wounded tone that
makes her start, and then pronounces judicially the
following oration: “ You must learn not to be jeal-
ous, you must understand that a medical man has
certain duties—I presume after we are married you
will be uneasy if I go to the club—if I stay out
late of nights when my patients call me away. But,
Lilly, this will not do for the wife of a practising
physician—you must learn to control yourself as a
man would. You must have a man’s faith. Men
are never jealous.”
At this extraordinary statement the girl gasps,
“ Men never jealous? ”
“At least very seldom. Did you see any man on
that balcony at the Ponce gazing in anguish at Mrs.
Lovejoy?” he asks with a smile. “ And yet I pre-
sume some men think her handsome-—one man has
loved her.”
“ Who P ” ejaculates Lilly in sudden anxiety.
" Her husband !” replies Fred in careless nonchalance
-—“ she’s a widow, she must have had a husband."
“ Oh, Fred! How curiously you do put things ! ”
murmurs Miss Travers with a sigh of relief. Then
she whispers, a beautiful blush flashing over her
mobile features and a soft tender light coming into
her eyes, though she turns them away from his


A FLORIDA ENCHAN'I'MENT. 37
glance and droops her head—“ I’ve something else
to tell you, my own—something I came all the way
from New York to tell you—I’ve got all my prop-
erty ! "
She is interrupted here by an astounded “ What ?"
from the doctor; but continues excitedly, “ Yes—all
--bonds, securities, money in bank—real estate!"
'l'hen blushes and hides her head upon his shoulder
and whispers, “ You remember what you asked me in
New York. There's nothing to stop our— " she goes
on desperately, “ our marriage now i "
“Impossible! " cries Fred in an astonished voice,
for he hardly can believe her. “Your father's will
said you couldn't come into possession till you were
twenty-five—and you're only twenty-one and don’t
look that."
But here a greater surprise comes to him—perhaps
a shock; his sweetheart gives him a glance of femi~
nine reproach and mutters, “ Men can nevcr take a
hint!"
“A hint of what P ” ‘
“A hint of anything sensible. Don't you know a
girl never likes to tell her full age to her lover "—-
cries Lilly desperately. “ Oh, how hard you make it!
A week ago Iwas—" She cuts the awful sentence
short by hiding her face again on the astounded
Frederick's shoulder.
But he finishes the sentence for her by ejaculat-
ing, “ You—you were twenty~five, by jupiterl "
“Y-e-s! " This is a sigh from under his chin
where Lilly’s head is.
“ Ah, now I understand," he goes on after a
second’s pause—-“ that was the meaning of your


38 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
smiles and laughter when I groaned ‘ Four years
was a long time to wait '——whcn you mocked my
impatience by ”
But she interrupts him, crying, “ Don’t reproach
me—I only thought you would be delighted by the
surprisev-I "
“ And you deceived the man you love?"
And Fred would be very stem with her, but the
girl having gotten over her confession regains her
spirits and laughs, “ That wasn't very difl'icult—look
at me! I don't appear more than twenty-one;
do I?”
Then glancing at her the doctor is appeased. He
cries, “ My Heaven! How beautiful you are—my
own, my promised wife ! " and seizes her to his
breast, as her tender arms close round him and she
pleads to him with kisses.
After a series of confidences and raptures, and
almost naming the wedding day, Cassadene with
medical prudence and lover’s care says—“I must
keep you from the evening fog—where’s your wrap,
Lil P—You don’t know our Florida evenings "—then
looking at his watch cries, “ Nearly six o’clock,--what
will my patients think P—I’ must be going," and
Lilly, hanging on his arm as happy as any girl the
sun is shining on, strolls towards the house.
“ Won't you come in and see my aunt P " suggests
the young lady.
“ Not now—~what'll my patients do? ”
“ Of course you'll come this evening! "
“ Well, I should rather think so," says Fred, with
alittle squeeze which makes his sweetheart very
MPPY-


A FLORIDA EN CHANTMENT. ‘I
CHAPTER IV.
“FOR WOMEN wno surreal"
MISS LILLY comes in, her face covered with
smiles of happy hope.
“ Aunt Connie,” she says playfully, “ Doctor Fred
did not have time to be introduced to you this after-
noon. He had so much to tell me."
“ So it seems," replies the old lady grimly, for in
matters of etiquette she is as punctilious as a Span-
ish grandee and thinks herself slighted in her future
nephew-in-law having visited her house without
going through the ceremony of presentation to its
mistress.
“ But he will be here again this evening, and then
you will be able to judge how handsome he is,“
mutters Lilly apologetically.
“ Oh, I have already seen him."
“ Indeed l—Where ? " queries the niece.
“ Walking up the path with you this afternoon,“
answers the aunt rather savagely. “ Then I discov-
ered I knew Doctor Cassadene very well by sight,
though not by name. I recognized him as agentle-
man I had often seen driving about St. Augustine,
during the last two months. My attention had
been called to him by the beaut ” the old lady
checks herself suddenly and cries, “ But come in to
tea, Lilly, at once."
“ By the beautiful what P " asks Miss Travers
eagerly.
“ Which do you like best. tea or coffee?" says
the aunt, as they seat themselves at the table.


43 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
“ With whom did you see Doctor Fred driving P"
“ With his patients, I presume," is Miss Connie's
unsatisfactory response. “ Tea or coffee? "
“Tea ! " replies Lilly desperately, knowing she
will get no further information until she has informed
her relative on this point.
A few minutes after she tries to turn the conver-
sation/to the matter once more, but to her chagrin.
Constantia deftly refuses the subject, apparently
having made up her mind to discuss Doctor Cassa
dene no further with her niece, at present.
‘ So the meal runs along, Lilly dividing her atten-
tion between old Hauser Oglethorpe's picture, which
still leers at her from its frame, the clock on the
mantel-piece, and her purchase, which is yet on the
sideboard, in exactly the same state in which she
has brought it home from Vedder's Museum. The
clock, however, receives most of her attention.
It is now striking seven, and Lilly’s thoughts are
turning to the half hour when Doctor Fred will again
be by her side, when a rap is heard upon the hall
door, and one of the servants answering it, ushers
in a messenger boy, who carries a magnificent bunch
of roses, and a note, in a well-known handwriting.
“ For me !" cries Lilly, seizing both note and bou-
quet, at the same moment. “ Look, auntie, lovely
roses from Doctor Fred! Isn't he a darling boy?"
and smells the perfumed buds in so caressing a
manner, that Miss Connie says significantly, “ Don't
mistake the gift for the giver! "
But even as she does so, pauses in her laugh, for
Lilly, having torn open the envelope and glanced
over the note, gives a cry of disappointment, then


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. a
pouts, and there are tears in her eyes, for she in
reading the following:
Power on Loan Horn.
8r. Auous'rma, From
February mt, I891.
My manna Lruxz
Horror of horrors! I'm just called to attend a desperate case
of snake-bite, about four miles from here, out on the Tocol road.
I must leave immediately. as the snake was a rattler, or moccasin,
and every instant is important.
I send with this an invitation to the hop at the Ponce to-
morrow evening, to which of course I will take you.
Also send a bunch of flowers, all my love and ten thousand kisses-
Yours forever,
FIE-D.
\.
P. 5. I’ll give you the kisses in person to-mormw, with interest.
“What is the matter? asks Miss Connie, for
Lilly’s face is now almost despairing.
“This,” cries the girl, impulsively holding the
letter before her aunt’s eyes. But suddenly with-
drawing it she remarks: “I’ll paraphrase it, dear
Connie. He is called suddenly away, to attend a
patient on the Tocoi road, who has been bitten by
a snake. Of course he had to leave instantly."
“ Of course l " responds Miss Connie dryly.
“But the dear fellow will be here tomorrow
morning to make his apologies,-—and by the by,
he has sent me an invitation to the hop at the
Ponce de Leon," continues Miss Travers as if mak-
ing excuses for her absent lover.
“Any answer?” interrupts the messenger boy,
' who has been gazing open-eyed at Lilly's beautiful
face and stunning gown.
“No,” replies that young lady hastily: but as


q A FIDRIDA ancnamem.
the lad turns to go, she suddenly cries “ Stay! " and
sitting at her desk, writes one of the sweetest,
loveliest, dearest notes a girl has ever penned to
her lover. One that would make that reprobate
blush with shame, if he could read it, but Dr. Fred-
erick Cassadene has other occupation this evening.
This being despatched, and the boy made happy
by a liberal fee, Lilly, after reading the note over
again, curiously enough gets the blues. She tries
the piano and sings a pretty love melody, and that
brings tears into her eyes. .
She wanders about the house, and fidgets her
aunt, who has just become interested in a new
novel, until that long-suffering female looks up and
says: “ What’s the matter with you P ”
“ Noth—nothingl "
“ Yes, there is ! Since you came here last night,
you are not the comfortable girl you used to be a
year ago.”
“Yes, I am. I’m very comfortable—I—Aunt
Connie! why do you tease me so? Don’t you
seel have got enough to worry me?" and tears
trickle down her fair cheeks.
“ Now I know what’s the matter with you ! ” cries
Connie sternly. “ You are jealous l ”
“I—jealous! What makes you think that?”
mutters Lilly indignantly, though nervously.
“ If you are not jealous, why did you try to pump
me about the people Doctor Cassadene rode with,
before you came here—Eh?” growls Miss Con-
stantia.
C‘ Did I do that?" This is attempted surprise
by the sufferer.


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMEN'I‘. Q3
“ Yes, you did at tea, twice—no, time times! "
“ Well, whom did he ride with?” cries the girl
anxiously—almost savagely. I
“ There! you're bothering me about it again. I
suppose you are jealous of the beautiful widow who
has been at the Ponce de Leon for the last week ! ”
“ Stella Lovejoy! ” cries Lilly suddenly.
“ Ha—ah! you have said it i " remarks the old
diplomat with a knowing smile.
“ And so have you i She was the person you saw
Fred driving with, before I came here l ” gasps
Lilly, growing very pale.
“Yes,” replies Constantia, shortly. Then seeing
what a terrible effect this revelation has upon her
niece, she goes on: “ Haven't you faith in Fred P”
“ Lots ! ” cries Lilly enthusiastically, and then more
slowly: “ He—he needs lots.” This last with a
little sniffle in her voice.
Whereupon Miss Connie astonishes her niece
by ejaculating: “So does every man!" then says
oracularly: “ As awoman who has profited by sixty
years of heart-breaking spinsterhood, I tell you, Lilly,
don't remain single, as I am! Marry and believe 1"
“ Everything? "
“Everything,” returns Miss Elder Spinster. “If
your husband says he has been detained until two
in the morning by business, swallow it! If he de-
clares that he has been at his club until three—don't
ask him which Club ! If he swears he was locked out
and struggled to get into the front door all night,
DON'T DOUBT IT! Have the faith of the martyrs—-
believe in miracles! It is the only way to be a
happy wife ! "


fl A FIDRIDA ENCHANTMENT.-
“Have the faith of the martyrs!” gasps Lilly.
Then she mutters: “ You think all women are mar-
tyrs P"-—-a kind of horror coming into her beautiful
eyes.
“ Most wives are l " remarks Miss Connie senten-
tiously.
“What wretches men must be i " is Lilly's shud.
dering answer to this awful statement.
“ Not at all! They are what nature made them
--selfish animals, and as nature has been very kind
to them," remarks her aunt with a grim smile, “they
do the best for themselves, and have a pretty good
time in this world. Ours will come in the next, my
dear ! "
At which her niece astonished her, for she cries:
“ I can't wait! I have too impatient a disposition.
I—I believe I’d like to be a man, aunt ! "
Whereupon the aged spinster raises up her hands
in horror, and ejaculates: “ Thank heaven! you are
of a nobler nature than our tyrant, man. Love
your Doctor Fred, but love him blindly, and-
please—please let me read my novel ! "
With that, she takes her precious book with her,
and departs, leaving Lilly muttering to herself:
“Love Doctor Fred—love him blindly! If he rides
with that widow again, I shall hate Doctor Fred
and hate him blindly!" then cries, “No, no—” in
horror at the thought. “I love him, for I am jeal-
ous. It is awful !—awful! If Icould but remember
Aunt Connie's instructions and Fred’s advice—if I
could only love in the selfish, careless way men
do, and be happy!" As she says this, her eyes
fall upon the picture of old Hauser Oglethorpe, f0!


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 47
the foregoing conversation has taken place in the
dining room. The small cunning cruel eyes of the
canvas seem to grin and leer at, and mock her.
This,makes her remember the purchase of the
morning, and she thinks, “ I’ll drive Fred out of my
mind, and become at least placid, by investigating
the contents of the little box,” and so picks it up.
But as she does so, her eyes are turned once more
to the picture on the wall, and now it seems to have
a broad grin upon its countenance, and she mutters
to herself, “ Absurd !' My nerves are running away
with me ! The idea of a picture grinning ! ” Then
shaking her finger at it, she forces herself to say:
“ I’ll not open this in face of you, sir,” and passes,
box in hand, to the parlor. ‘
Here, sitting down near the little table that holds
the old ebony casket, the family heirloom, she re-
ceives another shock ; for as she takes off the
wrapper from the one purchased at Vedder's, she
perceives that barring sea water and the stains of
exposure to weather, the two are identical, and
drops the one she' has in her hands, with a start,
beside its duplicate.
At this moment the voice of her maid, who comes
in with a tray covered with tea-things and sand-
wiches gives her confidence.
Jane says to her, “ Honey, ef yo’s goin' to sit up
late, I thought a cup of tea would be refreshin' to
yo’. Yo’ aunt has gone to bed with her novel, so I
was afeared yo’d be lonely."
“ Tea is just what I want, Jane,” returns her mis-
tress. “ You can put it on the stand over there, and
I shall not require you any further this evening.


w l MRIDA ENCHANTMENT.
CHAPTER V.
THE MARVILIDUS RECORD OF HAUSER oom-
THORPE.
“FOR women who suffer,” quotes Lilly—with a
bewitching little shudder, and turns to the perusal
of the first and smaller document.
This has apparently been hurriedly written. Its
paper is yellow with time and stained with sea
water, and is covered with a peculiar, cramped hand-
writing. This she manages to decipher, but only
by taking the utmost care, and even then very
slowly. It reads:
October 15th, in the Year of Our Lord 1813.
Being pursued by the English sloop of war, Fal-
am, and in danger of wreckage and losing my ship
off the coast of Florida,—-I, Hauser Oglethorpe, of
the Parish of St. Mark, Carolina Plantations, in order
to increase the worldly goods of my kindred and
make them rich, give to them the following mar.
vellous statement written at my leisure on board
ship, fearing some such fate as has come upon me.
It will not be believed, but it is the Devil’s own
truth, so help me Beelzebub!
I have not much more time for writing, as that
accursed British sea tramp has already opened fire
upon us unarmed slavers with his long thirty-two,
for which may they all go to Davy jones' locker
and their infernal souls go to the place I am bound
for! . . . . . '
The paper finishes with two or three imprecations
so horrible in their blasphemous intensity that the


A FLORIDA EN CHANTMENT. 51
\
girl drops it with a gasp; but fired by curiosity,
after a little time picks up and deciphers the longer
document which is headed:
Rzoord of my Marvellous Discovery of the T rec of
Sexual Change.
and drops it with a cry of mocking unbelief. But
gazing at the document again gives a little gasp of
wonder—for it continues in a kind of weird presti‘
digitation:
T HAT'S WHAT I KNEW YOU'D DO—YOU’D DROP
THE PAPER AND SAY IT WAS AN INFERNAL SAILOR’S
YARN. READ TO THE END—THEN TRY A SEED!
On this voyage to the West Coast of Africa,
after being driven by contrary winds to take refuge
between Quorra, or the mouth of the Niger River,
and Bonny, on an excursion after both white and
black ivory, I was compelled by the presence of an
accursed British frigate to slip my cables in the
night. I sailed N. by W. about 150 miles, taking
refuge from the observation of my enemy between
the islands that stud the lower part of this coast,
and the main land, in anchorage too shallow to per-
mit entry by the frigate, and confident that I and
my crew of fifty sturdy Yankee tars could give ac-
count of any boats that they might send against me.
The longitude of this place is about 5° E. and
latitude 7° 35' N. and I soon succeeded in obtaining
a cargo of slaves from a barracoon in charge of a
couple of Portuguese, paying, however, a good price
for them in beads, muskets and ammunition. Chanc-
ing to notice one of the coffles of slaves as they came
on board, to my astonishment I perceived they were


52 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
all men—a most unusual circumstance ; arm on ques-
tioning one of my Portuguese factors,I was told the
astounding story that they came from A TRIBE OF
NATIVES WHO WERE ALL MEN.
Not believing such bosh, I shouted, “ One thou-
sand pounds of ivory against a hundred niggers that
story is a marine’s yarn!" Judge of my astonish-
ment when my wager was promptly taken up.
To settle this, the Portuguese trader and I made
a journey to the village of the tribe, located where
the hills come down to join the lowlands, one day’s
march in the interior. May I be cat-hauled if I
hadn't lost my bet! The tribe were all men—be-
yond peradventure!
On investigation I found they recruited their
ranks by capturing women from the surrounding
tribes, and these women, extraordinary to tell, soon
after entering the village became men also-every
man jack of them—or every woman jack of them—
whichever you like to put it.
Quassi, the chief of this singular gang, was a
wily nigger. I tried to get his wondrous seci'et
out of him, but he only muttered that spirits would
punish him if he told; for these sacrilegious brutes
have an extraordinary superstition that evil will come
to them if they reveal the mighty secret they possess.
But it was a mighty secret I had determined to
know. I made Quassi drunk—then plied him with
questions, but he only jabbered, ‘ Who wants to be
woman when can be man ! ’
Disappointed in milder means, by the use of the
all-potent fire-water, I inveigled Quassi to the coast,
the creature going with me very simply, thinking


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMEN'I‘. 53
me his friend; and carrying him on board my ship,
I ordered him to tell me his secret, but in the surly
manner of these dogged blacks he muttered that
misfortune would come to him if he did.
I told him misfortune would come to him if he
didn’t, and turning him over to my boatswain, an
athletic Spaniard with the temper of Old Nick,I
ordered him four round dozen at the gang-way with
the cat-o’-nine-tails, and a brine dip afterwards.
Under the persuasion of my athletic warrant officer
the wretch gave up his secret. There was a tree,
he sobbed, the seeds of which changed men to
women, and vice versa, women to men. No man
ever ate one, but all the women of his tribe did.
I ordered him to take me to this wonderful tree,
at which the wretch cried out he would be cursed
forever by his Obi if he did,-—but another two dozen
at the gang-way persuaded him to do my bidding.
Next day we set out—I, my boatswain, and four
stalwart seamen—in my gig, carrying with us a
week’s provisions; for Quassi in his gibbering way
had made known to me it was a three days’ jour-
ney to the object of my desires. The surly savage
I carried manacled with me in the stern of my boat.
As we left the ship I clapped a pistol to his head
and told him as he loved his life not to betray me.
Under my boatswain’s persuasions, he guided us to
a two days’ journey up the coast, to where the cliffs
come down to the sea, and then began to tremble
and pray to his gods, as nearly as I could make out,
in his lingo, to forgive him what he was doing.
I clapped the pistol to his head and persuaded him
again, and under his direction my gig was turned for


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 55
About two miles from us the sun—even now
sinking behind the mountain tops—rested on a
beautiful island, which Quassi pointed out as the
end of our journey, and sunk on his knees and jab-
bered petitions to his deities to forgive him for dis
closing the sacred secrets Of his tribe.
Inspired by the news, my men gave way readily
and the boat surged through the calm waters, once
in a while colliding with a crocodile, for all the
beasts and reptiles and fishes about here knew so
little of man that they did not fear him. Under the
stalwart strokes of my crew, before the sun had
sunk, we reached the island, which was but one
hundred feet long by half that width, and upon it
for the first time I saw the
I “TREE OF SEXUAL CHANGE,"
the most beautiful plant upon which the sun has
ever shone—the most curious that ever human eyes
have gazed upon. Its long stems rise to the height
of fifty feet, covered with graceful leaves of a
supernatural green and crimson blossoms of such
marvellous beauty and size that our eyes could
hardly be withdrawn from their loveliness. Even
the perfume of its flowers had a wondrous effect.
As we breathed we seemed to become effeminate
and our natures milder, and even our cruel Spanish
boatswain became softer in his language and less
savage in his blasphemy.
This tree, Quassi informed me, blossomed and
seeded but once in a thousand moons~the sacred
periods Of its harvest being carefully kept by the
Obi men of his tribe.
At these times carefully watched for through suo


56 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
.s
l .
ceeding years—a party of picked men came from the
village in canoes to harvest the precious seeds, and
these were then kept guarded in the tribe’s obi-house
for the use of future generations until the tree
bloomed again,-0ne thousand moons thereafter.
While listening to his yarn II was inspecting the
tree, and cried : “ Here’s luck; we’ve struck the time
of harvest—once in a thousand moons;” for the
pods were ripe and opening, and dropping over the
ground the amber-colored seeds.
At this announcement, my crew—all of them hav-
ing discovered the secret on our journey—gave a
cheer, and into Quassi’s eyes came a cruel, cunning
gleam that spoke of vengeance for the boatswain’s
cat-o’-nine-tails that had scored his old back with
many a sore welt and burning blister. Had I not
been too much interested in the tree—fool that I
was—I would have noticed his gleaming eyeballs,
that had become red by suffering, and the hideous
grin that showed his white teeth, and would have
known what they meant.
Securing the boat, the crew landed, bringing
Quassi with them, and we stood upon the shore—-
myself, five white men and one grinning negro, and
before us was the tree, in whose wondrous power
we as yet scarcely believed but soon would know.
“Blow my eyesl” cried Bill Jones, a strapping
sailor who pulled bow oar in my gig. “ One of them
little things turn me into a woman P” And before I
could stop him—he had bolted one of the amber
seeds and stood looking at us astonished, his eyes
rolling, half in fear half in amazement. Then he
suddenly uttered a bashful cry and hid himself be


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
hind the foliage as if timid and ashamed; while we
gazed open-mouthed upon him,—for his screams
were no more those of the hoarse sailor, but those of
a shrill-voiced woman, and he simpered and giggled
and looked at us in coquetry. Then his maiden an-
tics made us laugh until the tears rolled down our
checks, for Bill Jones was by no means a prim-mam
nered prude—in fact, so inspired the rest of us men
with curiosity that, idiots that we were, we all did
eat a seed, save the Spanish boatswain, who swore
nothing would make him become a woman, espe-
cially when there would be five fat, lusty and healthy
wenches on the same lone island as himself.
And soon we all became women, and thought
ourselves beautiful and had wench’s airs, graces, feel-
ings—and walked down to see our reflections in the
limpid water and ask ourselves if we were not love-
ly. And after that we five did look lovingly upon
the boatswain, for he was the only white man among
us,—and so grew jealous of each other, and fought
with each other, that the boatswain might be our
own best fellow, scratching and tearing each other’s
hair,—while he, our lord and master, looked on and
laughed, crying in a jocular way: “ Go it, Poll !
Scratch her, Sue! Ho ho! This is a rare harem
for the boatswain of the Firefly—I have as many
wenches as an Arab sheik! ”
Upon this scene Quassi looked with grins of
pleasure, hoping, as I afterwards knew, in his cun-
ning African mind, that the boatswain would eat a
seed, so he could conquer all of us; for the four
sailors and myself, having become women, were
timid and would not encounter man in battle.—


58 a FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
Theboatswain also liking the situation vastly, used
his power over us and forbade us to eat the seeds,
so that we might become men again and his equals
and masters.
Thus we might have continued there forever, had
not I, in preparing his evening meal for the savage
boatswain, with whom I had fallen deeply in love
and of whom I was much afraid, it! gathering wood
for the fire accidentally picked up one of the seeds;
and curiosity coming upon me, awoman, I had eaten
it, and found myself once more a man, and as such
the Spaniard’s captain.
Striding up to him as he sat languishing under
the attentions of two handsome girls—one of whom
had been the coxswain of my boat and the other
pulled the bow oar—I commanded him to hold
each of the four women while I adminiStered a seed
to them.
Recognizing that I was myself again and as such
his commanding officer, he did my bidding, though
sulkily, and a few minutes after my crew of stalwart -
men, under my orders, was quickly loading the boat
with several bags full of the precious seeds we gath-
ered hastily from the wondrous Tree of Sexual
Change.
But rapid as had been our labors, the night had
come upon us more quickly. Safe navigation of the
lagoon in the darkness was impossible,——we must
wait upon this island until the morning. Then the
men, made superstitious by the astounding properties
of this unnatural tree, grew timid at the thought and
built a huge bonfire so that light might give them
courage; and I ordered them to construct a pyre


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 59
round the Tree of Sexual Change, to be lighted as
we left the island, for I feared other adventurers and
discoverers and wanted a monopoly of the won-
drous seeds so that women would beg me for them,
and queens and princesses cringe to me the gruff
old sailor and the treasures of the earth be poured
upon me by beauties who longed to be beauties no
more—only simple men.
I served out extra rations of rum at six bells;
then taking our bite of hard tack and salt horse, we
all lay down to sleep together. But I could not
close my eyes, which was fortunate, otherwise I
would not have been writing this.
As nearly as I could make it out, about three
o'clock in the morning, old Quassi became restless
in his irons (for we still kept him securely bound
and chained), and his restlessness made me suspi-
cious. Looking at him by the flickering light of
the camp-fire, I could see that he was listening in-
tently. I opened my ears also, but heard nothing, -
savage senses beating civilized senses. He appar-
ently heard something which pleased him, because
he began to chuckle to himself and grin and chant
and laugh in an uncanny manner,—and listening
again I heard a sound that made me start up and
wake my men; and cry, “ The splash of paddles on
the lagoon—the savages l ”
Another second and the crew had silently manned
the boat,-—but on looking round for Quassi he had
disappeared. Ironed as he was, the old man had
wriggled himself into the thicket, and we had no
time to search for him, for the paddles of the canoes
sounded very near.


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. ’ 6!
canoes more strongly. “Throw over everything,” I
whispered, “except the precious seeds. They will
make our fortune forever if we carry them away."
Then overboard went everything except our arms,
one small keg of biscuit and our water cask. Thus
lightened, the savages overtook us more slowly,
though they were almost fatally near, when Bill
jones, the bow man, screamed. out, “ We are at the
cliff, Cap’n—I think I see the opening! By jove!
we’ve struck it right.”
Then the men made the ash blades of their oars
bend with a mighty sweep, and a shock nearly threw
me out of the boat; for in the darkness we had mis-
taken the passage and dashed against the solid
cliff. '
The next instant we were all struggling in the
water and arrows from the savages flying among us,
their war clubs striking us—the light from the most
marvellous of God’s plants that we had impiously
fired lighting up the lake to show us to our ene-
mies. Being an expert swimmer, I took a long dive
and turned towards the marshy shores Of the lagoon,
where I made a landing and found myself followed
by the Spanish boatswain, who swam like a fish,
and Bill JOnes, the active bow oar of my gig. To
my astonishment, the boatswain carried one of the
smaller sacks of the precious seeds in his hand.
He had clenched it even under the arrows of the
savages and the waves of the crocodile-haunted
lagoon.
Silently we pressed through the swamp, its sicken-
ing miasma mingling with the early morning air, for
the sun was just rising,—and sneaked through the


62 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
thick jungle, the cries of our pursuers showing they
had found our trail.
Still we struggled on, the sun coming up to burn
us; when, just as we were about to reach the higher
ground and leave the swamp slime behind us, Jones
shrieked out a horrid cry, ‘ My God, Cap’n, he’s hit
me!’ And looking back I saw a dying sailor, and
beside him one of those awful serpents of West
African marshes and damp ground, the river-jack,
the bite of which is death.
To remain meant capture and death for us also ;
and the boatswain and myself hurried along, turn-
ing our steps toward the sea, which now could
not be more than a mile or two away from us,
though we had a range of hills to climb before we
would reach it. Ere we lost sight of our dying
comrade, the savages, headed by old Quassi, came
up to him, and looking backwards I shuddered as I
saw the vindictive nigger finish Jones' agony by a
smash from a war club and then bound on with a
whoop of joy in pursuit of me and the Spanish
boatswain in vengeance for his tortured body and
his outraged deities. \
Through a dense forest of trees filled with mon-
keys, whose horrid jabberings as we passed beneath
them gave signal to our enemies of the path we fol
lowed, we struggled along, running where the ground
permitted, but most times clambering through dense
underbrush, yet all the time struggling onward.
Then the murmuring of the distant sea brought
hope to us, and the boatswain muttered: “We’ve
pulled through the trip—with seeds enough to make
us nabobs.”


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 63
But even as this left his lips the wood resounded
with a mighty roar, a yellow, tawny beast flew
through the air and struck the Spaniard to the
ground with its big claws, and the white fangs of a
lioness whose two cubs were playing in the pathway
sunk themselves into the neck of the sailor as he
uttered his death shriek.
The bag of precious seeds was torn to pieces in
this awful struggle of man and beast, and the amber
pellets tossed hither and thither were trampled into
the black mould and swampy undergrowth. Almost
struggling with the lioness myself, in my despera-
tion I quickly gathered what I could of the sacred
seeds, for Quassi and his gang were now upon me.
They were only four; but four of these magic things
were enough if I could escape !
_ The lioness was barring the pathway to my pur-
suers, and snarling in their faces, they did not dare
to dispute the way with her, and so with gasps of
joy I hurried to the beach, which by a blessed fore-
thought I had ordered to be patrolled by a boat
under the command of ‘my second ofi'icer.
He soon saw my signal, and by the next dayI
was on board my ship, minus the crew of my gig
and the Spanish boatswain, but having in my pocket
the four wondrous seeds in the little vial I have
marked “ For Women Who Suffer," which mean to
me four fortunes; for rich women as well as poor
ones suffer the pangs of their weak, down-trodden
sex, and I can sell them to the princesses and queens
of the world.
Within half an hour of getting on shipboard—-
our cargo being all below the hatches—we weighed


64 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
anchor and put (to sea; for Quassi’s whole tribe
would soon be upon us to avenge the insult to their
gods in the destruction of the tree that blooms
once in a thousand moons to make such women as
are blest by eating of its seeds masculine and happy.
This story will not be believed by the average
man, or average woman, either, but to these facts I
swear as I am now a living man and was for one
short hour a woman and very beautiful and very vain.
HAUSER OGLETHORPE,
of the Parish of St. Mark, Carolina Plantations.
Given on the 27th day of August,
Anno Domini 1813, upon the
American Bark Firzfiy.

CHAPTER VI.
“WHY NOT?"
AS Lillian finishes the manuscript, which she has
read eagerly—intently ; pausing at times to shudder
at the old man’s cruelty, disclosed by its pages, she
exclaims: “ Hauser Oglethorpe a woman—and very
beautiful l ” and thinking of the old sea-dog’s leering
picture in the dining-room, a harsh and strained
laugh comes from between her pretty, lips.
This is succeeded by a pause of contemplation
when she suddenly ejaculates, “ What a Rider Hag-
gardish story! I feel like the veritable ‘ SHE ’ her-
self ; ” the record having made a strange impression
on her.
She tries to shake it 05 exclaiming, “ Pooh! one
would think I believe this likely sea yarn ! "
Then the shining amber seeds catching her eye


66 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
“ No, miss, it ain't burglars, it's only Gus! ” is the
reply. In the moonlight she sees the mulatto girl,
in a state of great excitement, listening with open
mouth and open eyes to some extraordinary news
that her lover, Gustavus Duncan, has brought from
the Ponce de Leon.
“ No, ma'm, it isn't burglars," says that gentle-
man; “ dar's been a terr’ble accident down on de bay."
“ An accident?" cries Lilly, and steps out on to
the veranda to hear all about it.
“Yes, Miss Travers; dar's been an accident, as I
befo' explained to you,-—on Mr. Remington's steam
yacht, de Runabout.”
“ Nothing’s happened, I hope, to Mr. Reming-
ton,” says Lilly quickly.
“No, miss; Mr. Remington he's all right. But
it's de widder."
“ The widow—Mrs. Stella Lovejoy?"
“ Yes ;-—a boat takin’ her to de yacht was
drowned."
“A boat drowned!" gasps Lilly astounded at this
extraordinary statement. Then she says slowly,
“ and Stella was drowned also? " and there are tears
in her eyes as she thinks of the beautiful woman she
has seen in health and loveliness only this morning.
“ No, Miss Travers; she was saved by de gal.
lantry of a gent,” remarks Gustavus, with a wave oi
his hand similar to that with which he indicates a
chair to a guest of the Ponce de Leon.
“ The noble fellow ! ” cries Lilly enthusiastically.
“Yes; de Doc’, he plumped right in after her like
a porpoise, an’ pulled her out," adds Gus excitedly.
But here Jane suddenly lifts up her voice and


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 67
yells: “ Doan’ yo’ tell her, Gus. Yo’ '11 break her
heart. You doan’ know what yo’ ’5 doin'.”
But this makes Lilly very eager—perhaps anxious.
She mutters: “ Doc’ P—what doc’ P "
“Doctah Fred Cassadene," answers Gus—and
the secret is out. The young lady grows very pale
and places a little trembling hand on the railing of
the veranda to steady herself as she whispers:
“Fred there !—” Then she cries out suddenly:
“ No! he was with a patient on the Tocoi Road.
Impossible! He was called away to a desperate
case of snake-bite.”
“ Snake-bite? Ha ha—ho ho l—he he! "—This
is a hideous chuckle from between Gus's white
teeth.
“Doan’ you tell her—you’ll break her heart;
doan’ you tell her,” shrieks Jane.
“ He shall tell me now! ” cries her mistress in
an awful voice, and striding up to the disconcerted
second man in the dining-room of the Ponce de
Leon, Lilly says sternly—“ I want all your news.
Don’t dare prevaricate ! ”
“ Well—” answers Gus in a sheepish manner
‘3‘" well, de Doc’ was goin’ on a moonlight sail
with de widder."
“And the—-the snake-bite—what of that?"
gasps the girl, a sudden dread coming into her
countenance.
“ Dar wan’t no snake-bite. De widder ain’t got
no snake-bite. Doc’ Fred was wid her at dinner
an’ took her off right from de table to de boat.”
“ You are sure P "
“ Sartin l Didn’t I stan’ behin' ’em at dinner to-


68 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
day, and wasn't dey talkin' all cle time 'bout de
boat-ride dey was going to have—and how de
moonlight was becoming to widders. Lawd bless
yo’! dar w'an't no case of snake-bite.”
“Oh Lawdy! what’s de matter with yo’, Miss
Lilly? ” breaks in Jane suddenly upon the harangue,
for the girl's face has become an awful one. She
has put her hand to her heart, and is reeling and
staggering. Then she suddenly cries: “ There was
a case of snake-bitel—the snake has bitten me ! "
The next instant she bursts into a jeering laugh,
for her words have struck terror to her sable aud-
itors, and Jane has bounded upon a chair for refuge,
and is screaming: “ Oh massy! Is it a rattler?"
And Gus crying: “A snake on the veranda! Oh,
Lawdy ll Lawdy ! ” has sprung over the railing, and
chancing to land in a thorn bush is now shrieking,
“ I’se been stung too!” A moment after, the girl
stops these demonstrations. She says in a set, hard
voice, “The snake was a metaphor! Don’t either
of you dare to tell what has happened to-night! "
then staggers, and would fall, did she not clutch the
curtains of the window; though to Jane’s proffered
assistance and words of love, she mutters “ No!
don’t dare to come near me to-night ! Go to your
lover and tell him to say no word of this—espe-
cially to Doctor Cassadene! "
So passing to her chamber she crosses the dining-
room, and as she does so beholds the picture of old
Hauser Oglethorpe, which now seems to literally
laugh and chuckle at her, and this brings to her
mind what she carries in her pocket, and she cries
to him: “For women who suffer!” and laughs


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 69
s
back at the canvas man; for at this moment, jeal-
ousy, despair, and the agony of knowing that the
man she loves has lied to her and deceived her for
the smiles of another—has made this poor stricken
creature almost insane.
Then getting to her bedroom she sinks upon a
chair, and thinks: “ How can I endure the agony
of this night P—My God !—I must have some drug
to destroy thought—for a little while ! ”
As she does so, she feels the vial in her pocket
press against the woodwork upon which she is sitting,
and drawing out the manuscript and tossing it on
one side, by the mellow light of her lamp, which has
been lit for her coming, she gazes at the sparkling
seeds that dance and flash, roll over and play, and
juggle with one another in the yellow beams, and
sighs—“ If this would only take away my jealous
woman’s heart—to make me cold—indifferent—self-
ish—as men, our masters, who torture us by mak-
ing us love them!”
Then, breaking the sealing wax that surrounds
the glass stopper, she uncorks'the bottle, from
which a faint, delicious odor comes, and sits look-
ing at the seeds and conning over in her mind
the marvelous story of the old slaver, and quotes
poor Quassi, “Who would be woman when can be
man?” An astounded look comes into her eyes,
and she mutters, “ My Heaven, if this wondrous tale
is true! If I took one and became a man, what kind
would I become? an ‘ out and outer,’ a ‘ throughbred,’
to play with women—to break their hearts, to make
their love and truth a curse to them—like Fred
does me ? ”


70 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
Here her agony becoming too potent, she stag.
gers to her feet and totters about the room wring-
ing her hands and gasping, “ What is life without
him—and I a woman? Were I a man, I should
love him no more! If I remain in my own sex,
he will come to me, and again cajole me and take
my feeble female heart into his grasp, to juggle
with, until I forget his treachery—and love him
again and so sufi'er on and on so long as I live.
NEVER!!! What do I care! These seeds may
give me death—but what is life without him?”
With this—a kind of ecstasy comes into her beau-
tiful eyes and she cries “ [fit skauldbé true I "-and
desperately, as if not daring to contemplate what
she is doing, seizes between two white fingers, one
of the amber-colored seeds, and opening a pair of
as rosy lips as were ever kissed by man, she gasps
in awful voice, “WHY NOT?" and tosses the “seed-
of-sexual-change ” into her mouth.
Its effect is horrible—appalling—it seems to be
alive—to have wings and fly down her throat, giv-
ing her tonsils an awful twinge as it passes them,
and springs straight to the centres of her brain.
She reels and sinks upon the sofa and lies there half
dazed, half stunned—electric thrills run through
her and make her muscles tingle and throb and even
her bones to creak under their subtle waves—and
sensations indescribable and unknown to her leave
the ether about her and become part of herself—and
others pass away from her to give them room.-—
After a time her mind appears to suddenly become
more logical than it had been before, and her nerves
to grow stronger, and have more toughness to defy


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 71
sensation. She feels sleepy, not as if affected by a
narcotic, but simply as if her mind were easy and
content, and burdened by no despairing jealousy,
because she loves herself better than anything else
on earth.
She mutters “ I think I'll turn in!” and hastily
undresses—no longer with dainty care and careful
folding of garments—4but with reckless untidy haste,
tossing her boots to one corner of the room, her
stockings to another, firing her garters on the man.
telpiece, and throwing the other articles of her-ap-
parel in reckless disorder over floor and furniture.
Then she springs into bed, with a dashing bound,
and rolling herself up in the clothes says, “ By Jove,
that’s the first time in my life I didn’t squint under
the bed, for burglars l—Burglars be blowed," and her
lovely eyes look astonished at this remark.
A minute afterwards her breath becomes long
drawn and regular, and sleep comes upon her, but
anyone standing by her and looking at her glorious
wavy dark brown locks that cover her pillow would
have heard her coral lips murmur, “ I’ll bet Fred
had a bang-up time to-night—with that fetching
little widow ! " i
A very quaint and curious speech to come from
the lips of a jealous maiden about her lover and her
rival.
a» a- I- a- *
The next morning Jane entering her mistress's
chamber somewhat later than usual, finds her diffi
cult to awake—an unusual thing, for Lilly’s slum-
bers are always of the lightest.
Then an astonished expression comes on Jane’s


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 73
“NO warm baths!” says the girl sharply; then
she shocks her servant again, for she remarks briskly,
“ You think I'm a spring chickenP”
“ Oh, Lawd; how curious you does talk! ”
“ Perhaps I do,” answers Lilly, with a contempla
tive smile; “I feel a little peculiar this morning.
I—I believe I have had some extraordinary dream
in the night. I cannot remember it exactly.”
After knitting her brows in thought for a second
or two, she cries out in sudden excitement: “Oh,
yes I do! Jane, I'll tell you all about it ;——it’s a
corker! jane, I dreamed last night I became a
man! What do you think of that? There’s a
funny vision for you," says Lilly, and gives a pleas-
ant laugh.’ Y
“ Yes, indeedy P " answers Jane; “ I’d like to be
one myself. That Gus is driving me to desperation,
he is,”—~and would go on with melancholy account
of her wrongs, did not the smile on her mistress’s
face at this moment become a horrified giggle, and
Miss Travers, with an astounded, “Well, I’ll be
hanged ” sink down among the bed-clothes,
rolling over in them as if to conceal herself from
view.
For this young lady, chancing in a lazy way to
fold her arms over her bosom, has suddenly discov-
ered, in place of the usual rounded billowy softness,
a massive masculine chest that would do honor to
a Yale rusher ;--and recollection, astonishment,
horror and trepidation have fallen upon her.
“ Massy ! what’s de matter with you, Miss Lilly?”
cries her attendant—“sayin’ cuss words, too! Is
yo’ out of yo’ head P ” for poor Lilly at this moment


74 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
is gasping and uttering yelps of surprised astonish-
ment and panic terror.
After a little Miss Travers recollects that she is
still alive anyway and becomes somewhat calmer.
She cries: “'Get out of the room ! " in a voice of
such deep contralto that she is astounded at the
noise she makes.
“ An' fix yo’ bath P "
“ Yes; anything—fix my bath.” And her attend-
ant having withdrawn reluctantly from the apart-
ment with exclamations of astonished concern,
Lillian Travers gives one desperate bound from the
bed and staggering in a dazed way to her bureau,
picks up the paper she had tossed away the night
before. There it is—old vHauser's wondrous tale,
in his cramped characters; and before her stands
the vial with its three little miraculous seeds danc_
ing in the yellow sunlight to give proof that it’s no
hallucination of her wandering mind.
She gives one look at the mirror, staring in' it to
see if her face betrays aught of the great physical
change which has somehow come upon her. No;
her features are the same—only wondrously ex-
cited and astonished, and containing a threat of
coarseness in the near future, for a bolder light
seems to gleam in the staring, questioning eyes that
look upon her as she gasps, “ Great God! can it be
possible? I am a man!" and sinks down upon
her knees, a prey to the most singular and varied
sensations that ever rent a human frame. For
at last she knows the truth! and it stuns as well as
horrifies her. At times she thinks anothersoul is
inside of her and her true spirit has wandered into


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMEN'I. 1
space—but so perfect a recollection of the Lillian
Travers of yesterday and of every preceding event in
Miss Travers’ life comes home to her so clearly that
she knows she is the same spirit, though man instead
of woman.
After the first horror of this knowledge there comes
an exalted sense of supremacy, a feeling that the
world is now hers from which to choose her amuse-
ment and her career in life, and this gives promise to
her—excited and nervous as she still is—of a happy
future. She turns an inward gaze upon herself, she
is apparently well, strong, and certainly hungry—and
sits in a kind of dreamy contentment gazing vacu~
ously about her.
“Yo’r bath is ready, Miss Lilly," remarks Jane
and calls her from herself.
“I’m so hungry I think I’ll take my breakfast
first,” says the putative Miss Travers, for the first '
time in her life discovering what a masculine appe-
tite really is. And Jane departing on her errand, her
mistress takes advantage of her absence to put very
safely away the vial with its three precious seeds and
the curious record of old Hauser.
This is hardly done when Jane steps briskly in
with the breakfast.
“Ah! That coffee smells good—Jane, you’re a
brick! "
“ Miss Lilly, is yo' crazy?” cries out the maid to this
repetition of the curious language that has caused
her so much astonishment during the morning.
“ ’Cause if you is, I want to get out ob heah."
“ Neither crazy nor sick, Jane, but better thanI
have ever been before,” remarks her mistress orac'


76 ' A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
ularlv. “ By the by, don’t you tell aunt any con-
”qunded nonsense about what I have said to you
this morning. Here’s fifty cents for you," and she
tosses her attendant a coin, thinking, like most other
men, that money is stronger than sentiment.
Then donning a robe de chambre she sits down to
the smoking breakfast, which Jane has placed on a
small table, and does justice to it in a way that makes
her handmaiden open her dusky eyes.
After a little Miss Travers says, “ Jane, get out.”
“Get out? what fo’?” asks her maid, astonished.
“ I’m going to dress ! "
“ Of course, I always helps you! " _
“ But you are going to do so no more. Your fuss-
ing would make me wild. Get out ! "
And so Jane departs wondering what crank has
come upon her young missus. The next instant
Lilly begins her toilet, communing with herself that
great'caution and self-command must temper her
conscious possession of manhood. Of femininity,
a small amount yet remains, else she would be peril-
ously near immediate exposure. From the immedi-
ate revelation of her marvelous transformation she
still has sufficient womanhood to shrink aghast.
The little Lillian Travers left in her thinks, “Only
for to-day I will be a man, to see what it is like—
and then go back to my old self again—And love
him—” but here suddenly her new nature bursts
forth. “Never! I’m in for a good thing, and I'll
clinch to it! ” for her peace of mind shows her that
if, as a woman, she was entirely engrossed in Fred
Cassadene, as a man she is entirely absorbed in self—a
much more comfortable and contented state of feeling.


78 a FLORIDA ENcHANTMEN'r.
have concluded to throw off [care and forget Doctor
Fred and be happy without him.—Fly down and
tell the girls to remain one second—Stay, I’ll catch
them myself!" and Lilly strides down hastily to
the parlor to receive and inflict new and wondrous
sensations.


BOOK II.
THE Bovnoon 0F LILLY TRAVERS.
CHAPTER VII.
“AH! NAUGHTY BOY—WHAT SHALL I CHRISTEN
You P "
SHE swoops down-stairs, but her long, trailing
skirts have become awkward to her, who yesterday
in these same clinging garments, was the poetry of
motion, and grace itself. Giving her trailing jupe,
which at this moment gets under her feet, almost
throwing her down, a very vicious and masculine
. yank, Lilly enters the parlor, from which through
the half open door, comes the staid voice of Con-
stantia, mingled with the more vivacious tones of
Stella Lovejoy, and the delicious Southern babble
of Bessie Horton. '
“I hardly think she’s got over the effect of her
railroad journey,” remarks her relative, apparently
apologizing for her niece’s laziness.
“ Why, she was as bright as an oriole,” murmurs
Miss Bessie, “ when we went to Vedder’s yesterday
morning."
“I have counted on Miss Travers for our hop


80 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
to-night,” says the widow. “You don't think she
will disappoint me ? "
“ Hardly ! ” mutters Constantia grimly, turning her
glasses upon Mrs. Lovejoy, and thinking: “ No
wonder Lilly is jealous of her." As she says non-
chalantly: “ My niece has only got the blues."
“Not this morning, aunty ” cries Lilly, breaking
in upon this scene. Then giving Miss Connie a
loving but careless kiss of relationship, Miss Travers
lifts up her eyes, and gives an astonished gasp as
she gazes upon Stella Lovejoy and Bessie Horton,
for it is the first time she has ever seen the won-
drous loveliness of women with masculine eyes.
The two are in delicious contrast: Bessie looking
like a lovely wild flower in the light muslin dress of
girlhood—Stella in some fieecy creation of Worth's
that makes her exquisitely developed figure a series
Of curves of beauty, as she rises languidly to receive
Lilly’s greeting.
“ The blues Of which your aunt accuses you, seem
to have changed into a cold. You’re very hoarse,
my dear," remarks the beautiful Stella.
“Not half as hoarse as you should be, from your
moonlight ducking last night. Doctor Fred pulled
you out in great shape, I bean—Rather romantic, I
imagine," remarks Lilly, in easy enjoyment of Mrs.
Lovejoy’s embarrassment at her adventure being
known to her rival, for as such she regards Miss
Travers—especially as she thinks uneasily, “ She is
not jealous, therefore she feels sure of her position
with Cassadene.”' ‘
“ Oh, you know of our unfortunate accident,"
murmurs Stella, and she extends her hand to Lilly


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 8I
and then to stop further discussion of the moonlight
episode nonchalantly holds up a luscious rosy mouth
to be kissed, for she is one of those women who
always kiss other women.
A pair of dark brown eyes gaze into the radiant
blue ones ;--the invitation is accepted suddenly,
ardently !—-Lilly’s coral lips press those of the beauti-
ful widow ;—a thrill—an ecstasy—an electric shock!
Stella’s lovely face becomes rosy with sudden
blushes; she turns away and sinks into her chair,
uttering a kind of lingering, longing sigh.
As for Lilly, though somewhat prepared, the sen—
sation she experiences is much more potently soft,
tender and exquisite than she expected. This first
kiss of man to woman.
Her hand seems to linger longingly, perhaps car-
essingly, on the widow’s rounded shoulder, as she
turns away towards Bessie, who has cried in girlish
enthusiasm : “ My turn next!” For these two hav-
ing known each other from childhood, kiss at sight
in the careless, easy way peculiar to girls.
At first Miss Travers seems inclined to disregard
this demand. She turns away as if about to sit
down, but Bessie’s face is thrust before hers and a
wounded voice is in her ear, muttering—“ It was my
turn first—you sha’n’t slight me altogether.”
Fighting to subdue the tender feelings that
are in her, Miss Travers grants the plump little
blonde’s demand, and apparently produces a great
sensation on that young lady, for she ecstatically
cries: “ just one more!” and gives the tall brunette
another salute that comes from the very bottom of her
heart and goes on enthusiastically, “ Lilly, you are
6


82 A FLORIDA ENCHAN'I‘MENT.
the best kisser I ever saw—boys or girls!" then
suddenly pauses—for Miss Connie’s voice is heard
in reproving tones “ Bess ! "
Whereupon the maiden stammers, “No, I don’t
mean that ! Of course I don't! I don't know what I
am talking about ! ” and sits down coveredwith rosy
blushes.
The laugh attendant upon this serves to conceal
the putative Miss Travers’ emotions which are like
those of a Romeo after Juliet's first kiss—for if
Stella’s salute has caused rapture, Bessie’s sweet
lips red and dewy as two morning rosebuds have
brought ecstasy.
She sinks into a chair, muttering “ Darling Bessie! ”
and hardly heeds the conversation, which has fallen
upon the ordinary woman’s topics of the day.
Bessie running on vivaciously about the lovely time
she expects at the hop this evening, and Aunt Con-
nie giving Lilly a receipt for colds that has been
transmitted to 'her from the dark ages.
But all this time, Stella's lovely eyes, though she
forces them to wander about the room, return
always to Lilly, 'an inquiring and wondering look in
them. Once or twice their glances meet, and though
the widow’s droop under the bolder looks of the
young lady, Lilly gets uneasy herself and wonders
in a nervous feminine manner, “ Can she suspect?"
But masculine logic coming to her aid, she thinks,
“ Pooh! Suspect a miracle? As a little girl I went
to school with her ! ”
Then her eyes turn to Bessie, and she says to
herself: “The dear little girl! Funny I never
thought her so lovely before ! ” for Bessie as she sits


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 83
prattling away, an unknown happiness in her heart,
one pretty foot and ankle carelessly peeping from
under her dress, makes a very lovely picture to
masculine eyes, though she does not know that they
are upon her.
Shortly after this, Miss Connie produces a sensa-
tion. She says suddenly: “ Lilly, I shall insist upon
your calling in a doctor!"
“ A doctor—for what? ”
“ For your cold. It is awful. Your voice is
hoarser than I have ever known it."
“ Perhaps you had better send for Doctor Cassa-
dene. He must have finished his case of snake-bite
by this time,” remarks the supposed invalid glancing
at Mrs. Lovejoy maliciously and rather enjoying
teasing a pretty woman after the taste of average
masculinity.
At this the widow blushes and looks uncomfort-
able, and Lilly, eyeing her, knows that Doctor Fred
has told her of the lie that he had written, and were
it last night, she would hate—Irate—HATE her ; but
now, this morning, noting the wondrous loveliness
of her former rival she thinks: “ No wonder Fred
is spoons on that catchey Stella—George ! what an
ankle! " sneaking a peep at a delicious little boot
that is making her heart beat very rapidly.
Then she continues aloud : “ Of course I shall see
Doctor Fred to-day. He is going to take me to the
‘hop ’ this evening,” and astonishes herself by being
annoyed because she sees she has planted a dagger
in the widow’s heart, and wonders, “ What the deuce
can Stella see to like in Fred, anyway? I should
think I would be more in her style."


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 85
hand under Miss Travers’ arm, who looks back at
Fred with mocking eyes, as she takes the two beau-
ties out to their carriage.
They are at the gate, and Stella says laughingly:
" I must have another one of your pretty kisses,
Lilly!”
“ And I, too!” cries Bessie, not to be outdone.
Whereupon the putative young lady kindly ac~
commodates them both with an enthusiasm that
astonishes them, and putting them blushing, laugh-
ing and very beautiful, into their carriage, would
lift her hat if she had one on her head, after the
manner of a Fifth Avenue swell, as they drive away.
Then she suddenly says to herself in an affrighted,
reproving yet reflective manner: “Ah, naughty
boy! ” and gazing at her shadow on the sunlight
of the walk murmurs, “I wonder what I'll christen
you P” and looks complacently on herself, for verily
the joys of young manhood are exceeding great!
A moment after she gives out a low, affrighted
“Wh-e-w! if Aunt Connie only knew she’d go out
of her head! ” then turns with merry laugh towards
the house.
But at the threshold a fearful scowl comes over her
mobile features. She hesitates and mutters : “ I sup.
pose Fred’ll want to kiss me. My heaven, how
sickening!" and a shudder runs over her. Then
her face grows very determined and she cogitates:
“If he does I’ll fix him ! ” and with this threat to
her own dear sweetheart of yesterday, she strides
into the house whistling in easy abandon, “The
girl I left behind me " !
A very few bars of her music brings Miss Connie


86 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
to her. That outraged spinster appearing on the
portico whispers, “ Whistling, Lilly?” in a horrified
tone, next remarks severely, “ What’s come to you
this morning ?—Your manners have been some-
thing awful for a young lady. Now go to your
fiancé—I hope he has not heard you whistling—it
would be quite a shock to him.”
Taking her aunt’s advice the late Miss Travers
steps into the parlor where Doctor Frederick sits
alone and sulking. Mrs. Lovejoy has wounded his
pride; besides, this young gentleman has some-
how an intuition that his sweetheart knows of his
defection on the night before, and that he has an
uncomfortable interview before him.
Such ideas are soon driven from his mind. Lilly
says in easy nonchalance : “ Well, old boy, did you
have a high old time last evening, with that pretty
widow?” and nods her head in the direction of the
departed Stella.
“ Yes, you see ” gasps Fred, astounded.
“Oh, her beauty is excuse enough. And how's
the patient with the snake-bite P Dead, I presume-4
most of your patients usually die.”
“If you will let me explain, Lilly,’
Doctor.
“Oh, no need of that,” says the putative young
lady. “I know about how it is myself ! " and with
these extraordinary words, she flops into a roomy
chair, assuming such an easy and mannish attitude
that her lover stares at her in astonished silence.
“ What time are you going to take me to the ball
—Eh? Why don’t you wake up, Freddie, and
answer i ”

,
mutters the


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 87
But Cassadene’s love, like most men’s, is increased
by the lady’s coldness. He says: “You speak to
me that wayl You refuse to hear my apologies
——my excuses. We have been parted twelve long
hours, and as yet not one kiss, my darling! ” and
approaches her with outstretched arms, to play
the engaged and ardent lover, but finds her very
coy.
She artfully eludes several strategic moves on his
part, and then, he being on the point of victory,
suddenly cries out in a desperate tone: “,Not a kiss,
Fred, until you have explained the snake-bite."
“My heaven ! ” he bursts out.——“ How can I ex-
plain it, except that after writing you that note, just
as I was mounting to gallop to my patient, a man
rode up to the hotel and told me that there was no
need of my going there. The man had not been
bitten by a snake—it was simply the scratch of a
thorn brush in the swamp that he had supposed the
stroke of a water moccasin, and had nearly died
from fear, not poison."
“Ah, that was the reason!" mutters Lilly, as-
tounded at this audacious and ingenious lie, which
had been carefully prepared by Doctor Fred in case
of his perfidy being discovered. She is thinking, “ I
wonder if I'll ever learn to fib in that glorious man.
ner,” when she finds herself in his arms, and then
kiss l—kissl—K-I-S-S !--the agony has begun!
She groans inwardly, and struggling turns so savage
and scowling a face over the Doctor’s shoulder that
could he see it despair would be upon him. She
wants to clutch the brawny throat in front of her,
and choke it with all her newly acquired muscle:


88 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
but the cigar-perfumed mustache is pressed again
and again upon her lips that now shrink from it for
the first time.
Then a sudden consciousness that she must play
her part, in order to preserve her secret, coming to
her, she tries to be the Lilly Travers of old, but does
not do it very well, for a moment after he turns from
her muttering : “Your kisses are cold—cold—cold ! "
Then her very iciness adding to his flame, he
cries out desperately, “Can you doubt the love of
the man who would die for you? Your promised
husband!” and goes into many other masculine
rhapsodies and extravagances that would have
seemed lovely to her but twelve hours before, but
now make her laugh.
As she bursts into a sneering snicker, he becomes
very angry and growls at her: “ Not only coldness,
but derision ! " next goes on in aheart-broken voice,
putting her into momentary panic as he mutters,
“ Your conduct is very unnatural.”
“ Unnatural? How?" gasps the girl. “ You
were indifferent to me last night. Why shouldn’t
I be, indifferent to you to-day?"
“ Some women might, but not the girl I worship
—the girl I adore," he returns pathetically; and
there are real tears in the great big flirt’s eyes, for
her indifference makes him desperate.
Then he frightens her terribly as he cries: “ You
are not the Lilly Travers of yesterday." ,
At this, fearing that perhaps he may suspect a
miracle—she is delighted when Aunt Connie makes
her appearance.
“ Before you go, Doctor,” says Miss Constantia,


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 89
“I want you to examine Lilly's throat and chest.
You notice how hoarse she is P "
“ Examine me! ” gasps her niece, all in a tremble,
“My heavens!" exclaims Fred, suddenly; for
he has been too agitated and excited up to this
moment to note anything but his sweetheart’s in- ,
difference. “ What a cold you have! Allow me."
But she draws back from him with an affrighted
“No! no! "—and shudders with burning panic
blushes.
“ As your physician, my dearest,” remarks the
doctor tenderly.
“ This is absurd delicacy in such a case," says her
aunt; but to Lilly’s relief, Doctor Fred remarks,
after looking at her attentively: “I do not think
her cold is at all serious.” Then he adds rather
maliciously: “ I am sure from the way she whistled
a few moments ago that her lungs are not affected,
and as she seems to be rather anxious to avoid my
attentions both as physician and lover this after.
noon, I shall not force them upon her." _
For this he gets such a heartfelt, grateful and
almost loving “ Thank you” from his fiancée, that
joy flies into his eyes, and Miss Connie, having de-
parted with a sniff of contempt at her niece’s absurd
prudery, Doctor Fred falls to again rapturously
and forces the putative Miss Travers to undergo
some most tender and horrible caresses at his hands.
For she is desperately afraid of his physician’s prac-
tised eye giving him some suspicion of the extraor-
dinary change that has taken place in her, and tries
to play the sweetheart and the woman who has
parted from him but yesterday.


w A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT-
“ Ah, now you are my own once more!” He has
seized her and is lavishing kisses upon her. “ You
have missed me, haven’t you, darling? A little
jealous, eh, but she couldn't be long angry with
her Freddie, could she ? " Then he cries out, “ My
precious one, you look pale and unlike yourself.
Come to the light.” Upon this Lilly tries to droop
her eyelids in the old, submissive way, which is for-
tunate, as they veil two very savage looking optics
as he leads her to one of the open French windows
of the room.
“ Now, look me in the eyes! ”—-he playfully
chucks her under the chin. “ You have been griev.
ing for me—jealous and all that foolishness, my pet!
(kiss) Those lovely shadows below your delicious
eyes mean that—don’t they, my sweetheart P”
“ YOU BET THEY DON’T! ! ! ” is the fierce rejoinder
spoken in so savage a whisper that he staggers back.
After a moment, however, attributing it still to
some remnants of the aforesaid jealousy he renews
the attack, and suddenly gives her a fearful shock, for
he says: “ Darling, you must name our wedding day!”
“ Not now! For God’s sake, not now!" she
stutters.
“ Well, then, my angel, to-morrow—you must tell
me when you will make me the happiest man in
Florida.—Don’t forget—I will call for you at half-
past eight this evening.” SO, with a few more en-
dearments which yesterday she would have loved
but to-day she hates, Doctor Fred goes away in a
very happy and contented mind, remarking to him<
self sotto wee : “ The widow may cut up rough, but
Lilly is mine anyway."


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 9!
And she stands staring after him wondering to
herself : ‘
“ How did I endure his suffocating and nauseating
kisses? O-o-ugh! Name the wedding day? This
is the deuce of a joke on Fred !—If he knew? Ha!
ha! hal—ho! ho! hol—he! he! he!"
These are such masculine guffaws that Aunt Con-
nie runs out upon the veranda where she is standing
and asks her very savagely if she is crazy !

CHAPTER VIII.
THE HOP AT THE PONCE DE LEON.
“ ANOTHER thing I will tell you,” continues Miss
Constantia, after this outburst is over,—“ is that you
do not go to the hop this evening."
“ Not to the hop P " remarks Lilly piteously,
thinking of how lovely Stella ,and Bessie will look
arrayed for that entertainment.
“ Not with that cold."
“ I am going, cold or no cold. Besides, my voice
is much better," and she attempts by raising her
vocal pitch to give herself some of the tones of yes-
terday that made her voice so liquid, brilliant and
beautiful.
“ Well, anyway,” remarks Miss Constantia, “ you
are not going to the ball in a low-neck dress; with
that cold a decolleté gown would be death ! I know
your Parisian gowns—and I don’t care if you have
a pretty neck and shoulders."
This is a very pleasant suggestion to Lilly, who


92 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT-
has been in somewhat of a quandary as to what will
be the best thing to wear on this occasion for the
more efl'ectual concealment of deficiencies.
“ Very well, auntie," she says dutifully; “ I think
I'll wear my black lace robe, brightened up with
flowers of some kind. It is quite high enough at
the throat to cover the trouble. Now, a favor to
me—you must go with me, you dear old auntie, and
play chaperon this evening."
“ In my day," remarks Miss Constantia severely,
“ a girl did not need a chaperon when she went with
the man whom she was going to marry. I am down
on these foreign notions; but if it will give you
any pleasure for me to go with you, I shall be
delighted. Perhaps Major Horton will be there
also."
“ Of course he will,” cries Lilly. “ He must be
there with his daughter."
At this the old lady's eyes twinkle eagerly, for
Miss Constantia Oglethorpe has a very tender spot
in her time-worn heart for the dashing major of the
passed-away Confederacy.
“ Very well," says the niece shortly; “ that is set-
tled," and feels relieved, for she knows that her
aunt’s presence will be certain safety to her from
any lover-like attentions that Fred may feel dis-
posed to inflict upon her during the journey to and
from the entertainment.
Half an hour after this Lilly goes for a drive,
which she enjoys immensely, and coming home en~
thusiastically cries out: “I never thought there were
so many beautiful women in the world before!"
and goes into such rhapsodies over the ladies of St.


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 95
and—well, to other men’s eyes-your bewitching
shoulders and arms. I do not mind other men's
sweethearts being dressed that way, but I want my
own dear love’s dress high—even to the throat.”
“If it pleases you,” grumbles Lilly, “respect it,
——and don’t rumple it."
“So I will,—going to the ball,” says the Doctor;
“but coming home "—he gives a longing sigh.
, “ I have provided for that," remarks Miss Travers
archly; and she points to Miss Connie, now enter-
ing the door arrayed in her best black silk.—“ Be-
hold my chaperon!” at which her sweetheart be-
comes very sulky and she thinks she hears him
swear under his breath.
A few seconds after they are rolling away towards
the Ponce de Leon. As the carriage leaves the
shell-road to travel over the oasis of asphalt in the
centre of the town, the conversation, which has lan-
guished, becomes more rapid, and here Miss Lilly
brings rapture to Fred’s heart.
She remarks sententiously: “You know the mis-
erable dearth of men at all watering-place hops,—I
presume there will be fewer of these masculine dei-
ties here than farther north.”
“ Oh, don’t fear,” remarks her fiancé ; “ you will
have plenty of partners to haul you about.” Then
he continues: “I by no means approve of young
ladies dancing with every man they meet at such
public assemblies."
“ Neither do I,” says Lilly, and gives her sweet.
heart a sudden rapture, for she whispers: “ Fred,
I have determined to give the ladies a treat this
evening."


96 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
“ What do you mean?"
“I’m going to dance only with girls. Will that
please you P"
“Please me, darling!" and he gives her hand in
the convenient darkness a tender squeeze. “You
will dance with no men this evening?”
“With none,” answers the girl determinedly;
whereupon Miss Connie, awaking from a meditation
on her ex-major of the Confederacy, remarks sud-
denly:
“ Lilly, don’t talk such nonsense. It is perfectly
unnatural for girls to dance with each other, when
good-looking, able-bodied fellows are about."
“Very well, aunt; tO-night I am going to be un-
natural," says her niece prophetically.
Then amid flashing lights, the hum of voices, the
babble of fountains and cadence of the distant or.
chestra they roll into the covered driveway of the
Ponce de Leon.
While Doctor Cassadene is carefully assisting
Miss Connie out Of the carriage, Lilly quietly
opens the door and steps out on the other side,
agilely dodging a team which is driving up after
them, and thinking with delight, “ I'm taking care
of myself just like a man ! "
“You didn’t wait for my assistance," remarks
Fred, biting his mustache in annoyance as he
sees her performance.
“No. I am trying to accustom myself to doing
without it.”
Unheeding her significant reply, a moment after
he is by her side whispering: “ You are very unkind,
but I forgive you,” and offering his arm, which the


A. FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT' m
“ Yes-devoted enough to dance with awoman I”
answers Lilly craftily, “if you will let me. You
know how scarce men are here. To-night I am
going to devote myself to your—to our sex. Will
you dance with me ?”
“Y-e—s!” sighs the widow. Then she says sud
denly, her eyes beaming brilliantly: “ Such devotion
to our sex should be rewarded—you shall have two,"
and leaves Lilly delighted; for though not now
jealous of Fred's attentions to Mrs. Lovejoy, she
has suddenly become worried at Mrs. Lovejoy’s
fondness for the Doctor.
"I wonder if I could not cut Fred out—why
shouldn’t I? I believe I could, if she only knew,"
thinks Lilly and utters a playful but malicious
laugh.
The next instant the widow is obliterated from
her heart. Miss Connie whispers, “ Why don’t you
help that poor child with her shoes?” and with
throbbing pulse she gazes at Miss Bessie Horton,
who in charming disarray is seated upon a chair in
the corner of the room coquettishly struggling with
a satin slipper—and making too bewitching a pictp
ure for masculine eyes.
Unmindful of torn laces and feminine screams the
late Miss Travers forces her way through the crowd
of indignant beauty and is beside her love of loves.
As Lilly gains Miss Horton’s side that young lady
conquers her foot-gear.
“ I have been gazing at you for the last five min-
utes, and you haven’t even noticed me, Lil,” mut-
ters Bessie, anger in her tones and pique in her
voice. Then she says inquiringly: “Just look—-


[m A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
Don't you think my slippers match my dress beam
tifully? " Casting her eyes down, the putative Miss
Travers is enthralled and whispers, “ You have the
prettiest feet, Bess, in the world.” And so they are,
this evening, arrayed in the delicate hosiery and
fairy slippers of a toilette dz ball.
“I didn’t ask about the feet,I asked about my
Slippers l" pouts Bess.
“ You're altogether too lovely for anything!”
cries the late Miss Travers overcome.
“ I'm delighted you think I'm all right," answers
Miss Horton easily, and a moment after asks: “ Did
Doctor Cassadene come with you ? " perhaps a little
too eagerly. “ He is going to dance with me."
“Yes!” says Lilly snappily. Then she remarks
contemplatively: “ You must not give him any
more dances."
“Why not—if he asks for them? He is very
handsome, and men are very scarce ”--this last with
a little defiant moue.
“ And for that reason,” says Lilly,“ I am going to
take pity on you; I am going to dance with the
girls this evening.” Then assuming the attitude of a
cavalier and the drawl of a dandy she lisps, “ May I
have, the—aw—honah of a aw—turn with you this
evening, Miss Horton?” and pretending to stroke
an imaginary mustache becomes suddenly red and
then very pale, for she finds her upper lip has some-
how grown very rough and exceeding fuzzy during
the day.
“ Certainly; take all you want," cries Bessie with
such enthusiasm that Lilly forgets her alarm in the
joy of Bessie’s friendship.


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. IOI
A moment after her companion gives her a start
by saying: “ You have not told me yet what was in
that casket you bought at Vedder’s! Why, how
red you are, Lilly! Here’s my powder puff!"
But Miss Travers suddenly points across the room
whispering, “ That is the girl we saw in the balcony
-—you remember P—the one that was looking at
Doctor Cassadene ! Do you know her name P"
“ Oh yes,” babbles Bess, “ I made a point of
inquiring about her. She’s Miss Rosa King of
Charleston.—She met Dr. Fred last month and
hates Mrs. Lovejoy.—I)on’t you think Stella is per-
fectly lovely?”
“ She is very nice.’
Miss Travers.
“ Mr. Wilkes introduced me to her yesterday, and
she has been very kind and attentive to me all
day,” rattles on Bessie. “ I think she is perfectly
charming.”
“Charming! She’s adorable,” answers Lilly with
so much enthusiasm that Bessie returns reproach-
fully:
“Well, I don’t like her as much as I do you any.
way." An answer that makes Lilly’s glances very
ardent.
Under them her companion grows restless and
suddenly remarks, “But we are missing all the danc-
ing, Miss Connie is beckoning impatiently to us,
and I suppose my father and Dr. Fred have been
savagely pacing the corridor outside for the last ten
minutes.”
Thirty seconds after they are in the hallway of
the giant hotel where Miss Lilly finds Bess’s predic-
This last diplomatically from '


IOZ A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
tion is true—and the major and Dr. Fred both in
very bad tempers.
So they all go down together through the great
corridors into the rotunda, and so to the dining-.
room of this huge caravansary.
This has been turned into a ball-room for the
evening, though only a portion of its parquet floor
is used for dancing, the rest being occupied by spec-
tators, for whom seats have been arranged. In one of
these chairs Miss Connie is made comfortable, and
Miss Travers, taking Bessie under her protecting
wing, strolls about the ball-room, which is only
fairly filled, the season at this Florida watering-
place being still in its infancy.
Even now, however, there is quite an assemblage
'of women, though the dress suits of gentlemen are
very few and wide apart, producing a dismal prospect
of masculine companionship in the dance, to the
numerous ladies who are strolling about in pretty
evening costumes.
The music is just breaking into a waltz, and
Cassadene overtaking Miss Bessie and her com-
panion, remarks with the easy assurance Of mascu-
line proprietorship: “Miss Travers, my dance, I
believe,” and is astonished and disconcerted at her
answer.
Lilly with a provoking smile returns: “ You for-
get the promise I made you.”
“ The promise to dance with no other gentleman
but me ?--of course I remember that I "
“I beg your pardon—the promise to dance with
#0 gentleman this evening.”
“Not even me?” The astonishment of this


A FLORIDA‘ ENCHANTMENT. :03
Adonis would be ludicrous were his face not so pit-
eous-for Fred always wants most what he cannot
get.
“ Certainly not. I am a man—I mean a—a woman
of my word.” And Lilly’s voice and manner would
be very dignified did she not get confused over the
last part of her speech.
“ Yes, she has promised to dance only with girls
this evening, Doctor Cassadene,” breaks in Bessie,
“and I’ve got four of them.” - And before Fred
can make reply, the twb young ladies are in each
other’s arms whirling away to the soft strains of the
“ Estudiantina.” Bessie whispering in her compan-
ion’s ear: “ How beautifully you guide-just like a
man! Your arms seem so strong and firm and you
never seem to hesitate like other girls when bumped
about in a crowd."
A few moments after they stand by Miss Connie’s
side taking a little breathing spell, and Mrs. Lovejoy,
turning from Mr. Remington, says suddenly: “ Lilly,
have you forgotten your promise—my turn next."
Unheeding Bessie’s reproachful: “ Why, our dance
> is not finished yet,” Miss'Travers whirls the widow
in among the waltzers with as much grace and
vigor as any of the dress-coats that are perform-
ing beside her, and with such effect that Stella's
eyes droop as her feet keep time to the music,
and she whispers to her partner: “I could dance
with you forever, if you were only a man. Your
waltzing will make many a young lady happy this
evening—Oh,'y0u madcap l ” for Lilly has answered
this eulogium by a sudden almost involuntary but
fervid squeeze.


104 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMEN I.
“Yes,” whispers the putative Miss Travers, em
thusiastically—for the music is in her soul and the
perfume from the delicate bouquet in Mrs. Love-
joy’s hands is in her nostrils and her arm is clasping
her willowy waist,-—“I intend to give the girls a
treat this evening.”
And so she does, making many a fair one, who
has been lamenting the dearth of gentlemen, for-
get for a few short, blissful moments that she is
not dancing with a claw-hammer coat and that a
black broadcloth sleeve is not around her waist.
But she devotes most of her time to dear little
Bessie, who, despite numerous applications from
the other sex, gives Lilly about all the dances she
wants. In one of the pauses of their exercise,
Miss Travers mutters partly to herself, “And to
think that I should ever enjoy dancing with a girl.”
“ Yes, it is funny! " cries Bessie, impulsively. “ I
like it also—give me another turn.”
And the two fly about in each other’s arms till the
major, Bessie’s father, remarks sarcastically: “ You
girls are mighty hard on the boys this evening.”
With the widow, however, Lilly dances only twice ;
for Mrs. Lovejoy has command of all the gentlemen_
she wishes and though she likes to dance with Lilly,
she also likes the satisfaction of showing that she
can have all the masculine devotion she desires.
As for the men, there are many of them about
her during the evening, for Miss Travers has a repu-
tation for both beauty and wealth; sugar plums
which always attract the masculine portion of hu-
manity. But Lilly refuses them all in so off-hand
and careless a style that Miss Connie whispers re


A FLORIDA EN CHANTMEN T. 105
provingly to her several times during the evening,
and young Mr. Wilkes, the Northern orange grower
from Indian River, upon being introduced and his
request for a turn refused, walks off savagely to the
bar-room to forget his chagrin in the flowing bowl.
and meeting some other gentlemen there, descants
upon the Northern heiress’s hauteur, remarking,
“By jove! fellows; I merely asked her to dance
with me once, and she looked as if she would knock
me down—hang me if she didn’t ”--a remark that
is more truthful than Mr. Wilkes imagines as he
makes it.
But the evening is not all triumph to the recently
emancipated. Old Remington who is somewhat of
a cynic and philosopher remarks to old Horton,
“ Isn’t Lilly Travers changed? I saw her a year ago
at one of the Patriarchs’ in New York, and she was a
perfect dream of beauty—and now by all the phos.
phates in Florida! she’s a gawk—that what she is!”
“In truth, age does not improve any of us,” re-
turns the major sadly—“ I knew her aunt when she
was a girl of eighteen. She was the loveliest creature
in St. Augustine. I and young Pinckney of Charles-
ton fought a duel about her."
“ And then ” Suggests the Northerner.
“ Then,” says the Floridian, “ she would have
neither Of us~and now———-” he looks over at Miss
Connie’s prim and rather gaunt figure and spectacled
eyes and gives a reflective sigh.‘
“ Did you see that P” whispers Adams Winthrop
Dunbar of Beacon Street, Boston.
“ What P—my dear chappy!” lisps Prescott Cad
Chowders, of Fifth Avenue, New York.


106 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT-
“ That Travers girl—a waiter happened to bump
against her, and she clinched her fist as if she would
floor the darkey—she’s strong-minded, I can tell
you i"
“ YaaHnd strong-armed—my dear boy i--How
she twists that widow about—steers her with as
much power as Harvey de Witt Van Favors who
leads all our Germans this year. Won’t she give it to
the fellah who marries her and her million ! ”
Some of these floating remarks coming to Miss
Constantia’s ears make that ancient and prim spin_
ster very savage with her niece.
This evening also there are certain things that do
not suit the erratic Lilly—she cannot assume all the
privileges of the sex, she cannot boast and brag to
her fellows of her conquests—she can’t stroke her
mustache in a knowing manner when Stella's name
is mentioned, she can’t take darling little Bessie un_
der her arm and elbow her way through envious
swains and put her in her carriage with a soft
squeeze of the hand and a killing glance in her eyes.
-For the late Miss Travers is still only a reckless
boy and has a young blood’s eagerness to show off
and triumph over and be envied by his fellows and
his rivals.
So, as Miss Horton has departed escorted by an-
other young gentleman to her carriage, upon whom
Lilly looks with by no means angelic glances though
very well pleased to see the old major is also at his
daughter’s side, and the hop being nearly over, these
Ponce de Leon dances being generally early and
hungry ones as the hotel provides no supper for its
guests, Miss Travers strolls out into the beautiful


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. IO]
court yard to sit among its flowers, listen to the
babble of its fountain and hear the hum of the
last expiring waltz of the orchestra.
This she does alone, for women wander about
these Florida hotels in the free and easy manner
peculiar to this Southern town that for three short
months seems on a continuous picnic.
Solitude is pleasing to her, she wants to think
over the excitement of this first evening of her boy-
hood, in which she has been so happy.--She thinks
as she sits beneath a magnolia and shaded by its
leaves—-“ To-night would have been perfect—if I’d
had a swallow-tail.—That widow, OH !—And Bessie,
AH!" these exclamations stand for sighs of ecstasy.
She would perhaps run on in this strain indefi~
nitely, did not a faint sob from the other side of the
little hedge that cuts her off from another path
come wafted to her ears.
It is a woman’s and as such appeals to the mas-
culine heart. All the boy in Miss Travers is up to
go to the assistance of beauty in distress, when a
gentleman's voice comes to her ears from the same
spot, and it is one that makes her hesitate and
pause—~the one that was like music to her but yes-
terday—Doctor Fred’s! ’
It says very politely, “ Rosa, I am astounded at
this outburst.—-How can I help myself l” and Lilly
knows the lady he addresses is the one that looked
in anguish on his attentions to Stella the day be-
fore.
“ How can you help it?” the girl repeats, “ How
can you help it? You haven’t even asked me to
dance once to-night--when before Mrs. Lovejfly


108 A FIDRIDA ENCHANTMENT.
came and that gawky Travers girl got here—you—
were so different—Oh Fred, can’t you remember ?—-
It's only two weeks ago—only-——"
Miss Travers rises and walks off—smiling a little at
the thought that she is gawky now, and then mut-
tering to herself in sneer at the sex she has det
serted, “ And yesterday I was one of those sigh-
ing, appealing, entreating creatures like her—I’m a
rather different article now.—From this time on
I do the heart-breaking."—And the recollection of
this scene hardens her against her erstwhile lover
and makes it easy for her to give him his conga—
which she determines to do this very night.
She strolls in, joins her aunt, and in a few minutes
they are ready for the drive home, Doctor Cassadene
coming up just about this moment with a somewhat
annoyed yet triumphant look on his handsome face
to receive a very free and easy “ Hello, Fred, who
was the young lady in the moonlight ?—We fellahs
are having a night of it—ain’t we?"
This is answered by a frown from the gentleman
addressed and a subdued snort of horror from Miss
Connie as they go down to their carriage.
CHAPTER IX.
“In! MAN, JANB.‘
AND so they all drive home from the ball, the
aunt so savage at her niece’s eccentricities that she
says very little, and Doctor Fred in very glum and


II!) A FLORZTJA ENCHANTMENT.
" Oh half a dozen—I'm not sleepy! "
“Then come round the corner of the veranda;
we shall be out of the driver’s sight and hearing."
“ Certainly. Light your cigar ? I see you are
dying for a smoke! If you have tWo in your case,
I'll-“I’ll join you l—You—you don't offer it ?—Oh
how stingy! " remarks Lilly roguishly.
They have passed to the other side of the house
now, and Fred turns upon her in severe displeasure.
“ This last request of yours, Miss Travers,” he
says sternly, “is in line with your other perform.
ances this evening. Perhaps you wish by such un-
ladylike conduct to alienate my affection."
“ You have guessed it, Fred,” she answers. “ After
this, I only wish to be to you as one good fellow is
to another good fellow—friends—nothing more. I
do not even "—here she smiles—“ claim the privilege
of sisterhood."
The reply she receives astonishes her.
“And do you think to destroy my love, by these
pranks? Lilly--I—I love you all the more for your
spiritwyou can’t deceive the eyes of love though
you play your part very nicely ! ” cries the Doctor
in longing tones; for now the girl who is passing
away from him seems dearer to him than ever.
“Don’t talk nonsense," says Lilly in a business-
like way. “It is impossible for me ever to become
your wife."
“ How long have you known this ?” gasps the man.
“ Since yesterday evening.”
“Ah, it is always yesterday evening.” Then he
whispers: “If it had not been for that unfortunate
occurrence, for my stupidity-my neglect, if you


112 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
changed. No man would love such a girl as you.
It would not be natural. You are too bold. You
are not retiring. You clenched your fist at a waiter
this evening—J saw you; you needn't attempt to
deny it, your glove is torn even now from your
violence l " And looking down Lilly sees her aunt's
remark is true,--During the evening her growing
hands have made her gloves a torture to her, and
now one has burst in a disreputable rent under the
increasing strain.
“You would have knocked him down, had you
dared,” cries Miss Connie in continuation. “You
are a tom-boy—that’s what you are, and to think
only yesterday you seemed so different—so womanly
--so lovable! 1—1 am dzs-gus-ted/ ” and a burst of
tears closes this harang'ue. ,
Her niece’s “ Now, don’t cut up rough, old lady! ”
“Just go easy, will you, a little while,”--and other
masculine expressions of penitence produce new
spasms in her aunt. She retires weeping to the
solitude of her chamber.
A moment after Lilly runs up to her apartment,
throws herself into a chair and mutters:
“ I’ve had a pretty good time myself, but others
don't seem to enjoy me as much, barring the widow
and Bess.-—This can’t last long. I shall be dis-
covered. My woman’s nature is being kicked out of
me by masculine impulses.”
Then she glances at the glass and laughs at her-
self, remarking, “I shall soon have to shave! I
hardly think I can ever persuade Aunt Connie and
Jane that I’m a bearded woman l ”
This sends her into a profound meditation as to


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 11
her future course—and thinking of Bess, she mutters,
“ I’ll never go back to the trammels of young lady-
hood—I love and can tell my love—unchained by the
shackles of maiden modesty "—and so goes to ponder.
ing upon the best method of carrying out her plans.
One thing strikes her at once. Jane will certainly
discover her secret soon.—She turns this matter
over in her mind and after a little bursts into a
laugh and cries, “ A gentleman should have a valet.”
At this moment her meditations are broken in
upon' by a groaning and wailing and gnashing of
teeth and she hears a subdued : “ Oh, Gus ! yo’ break
my heart," coming from the dressing-room, that is oc-
cupied by Jane. The next instant she laughs: “ I've
struck it. I’ll make her a particeps crimz'nz's in my
offence of becoming a man !”—and with masculine
promptness proceeds to act upon her idea.
She opens the door and finds her dusky abigail
dressed and seated upon the bed in a state of darky
frenzy.
“ Didn’t I tell you to not wait up for me P” Lilly
says sternly.
“ Yes, miss ;—-(:ab)—“ I knows dat ; ”—(sob)--“ but
I couldn’t go to sleep, I'se so wretched l ” (sob—sob—
.rob !)
“ Come in here and tell me what’s the trouble with
you,” cries her mistress sharply, smothering alaugh,
for she has made a shrewd guess as to what is the
matter.
“ It’s dat Gus feller, dat’s what it is. He’s busted
my heart!” answers Jane, and entering she gushes
forth in rage, “ He's been cuttin' up shines wid dat
Antoinyet dat works in de ha’r-dresser shop in de
8


I14 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
Alcazar;—a low down Spanish nigger, dat’s whi
she is. Some day I’ll get desp’ret an’ razor him—
I will i "
“ No you won’t," says Lilly sharply. “And I
won’t have such talk from you. You are jealous,
that's what’s the matter with you."
“Jealous l—Well, isn’t dat ’nuff? ”
“Jealous! And I’ve got a remedy for it! Do
you think you’d like to take something soothing to
the wounded female heart?”
“If yo' could give me somethin’ as would make
me close my eyeballs in sleep—and keep me from
goin' plump out of my head, I’d go down on my
knees to bless yo’, Miss Lilly! ” sobs her maid.
“ Then,” remarks Lilly, unlocking her jewel case
and producing the vial with its three precious seeds,
“ Open your mouth ! "
“ Is dat med’cine? ”-suspiciously.
“Yes; medicine for jealousy. Take it, and you
will be all right." And this fair intruder on the
domain of man selects one of the sacred African
pellets.
“ Yo’ sho’ tain’t pizen ?”
“ Nonsense! I took one last night myself. Wasn't
I jealous of Doctor Frederick then?" answers the
mistress, and she places the seed in a glass and adds
a few drops of laudanum from her travelling medi-
cine case, for she fears the vigor of Jane’s lungs after
she experiences the effects of the weird pill.
“ Y-e-s ; yo’ was, jealous to death yo' was! '3 mut-
ters jane with a guffaw.
“Very well; have I been jealous of him since?
Haven’t I been light-hearted,—-gay,—happy? "


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMEN'I'. Us
“Yes ; yo’s been too almighty uppish, Miss Lilly."
“ Very well ; open your mouth and be the same!
Would you like it with a little whiskey ? ” and Miss
Travers cunningly adds the spirit. “ Open your
mouth!"
And as jane unable to withstand the temptation
obeys, she skilfully flips the seed, whiskey and lau-
danum down the capacious opening, which gaps be-
fore her, nearly large enough to take in a cannon-
ball. This closes upon the amber pellet and then
suddenly flies open again to give out one long-drawn
awful howl of astonishment and terror! It would
give out a succession of these did not at this mo-
ment a pair of white and delicate but vise-like and
desperate hands clutch her throat.
“ What am de mattah wid me? What's got hold
of my insides? It’s pizen! It’s pizen! dat's what
it is, sho’ l-I’se gone—-I’se dead ! " gasps the hand-
maiden in struggling gurgling whispers.
“ Hang you!” whispers the late Miss Travers;
“ if you don’t stop screaming, you’ll alarm the housa
Stop! or I’ll throttle you I " and the white, desper-
ate, vise-like hands give Jane’s dusky throat another
savage pinch.
“ Laws! Yo's as strong asaman—yo’ is—oughl "
gasps the dusky abigail being propelled at this mo-
ment by the powerful arms of the putative Miss
Travers into a chair. '
“Yes; wouldn’t you like to be a man ? Honest,
now—tell me the truth.”
“Ob co’se—I’d like to be a man, de bes' in do
worl’! Did yo' ebber see a Woman dat wouldn’t be.
cf she could—'cause I ain't."



:16 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMEN‘I‘.
“ Nor I either, Jane," remarks her mistress com
cordantly. “ It has been the universal desire of
your down-trodden sex, from the time they can
think."
“ Yes, an’ yo’down-trodden sex, too," returns the
dusky abigail rather sleepily, for the laudanum is
producing its effect.
But here, her mistress’s words come to her in such
a mysterious and awful manner that she wakes up
with a horrified start and rolls her eye-balls, and her
jaws shake and her teeth chatter, and she would
howl but is too terrified to do more than gasp, for
now Lilly remarks solemnly: “My downstrodden
sex yesterday—but, last night, Jane, an extraordi.
nary change took place in me—I became a man.”
Then she tells her, in as simple manner as she
can, the wonderful story of old Hauser Oglethorpe
and the extraordinary transformation that has been
effected in her by one of the amber seeds. '
“ An’ I took one ob ’em Obi-nuts too,” cries Jane.
“ Oh, Lawdy! Lawdy! Yo’ mean to tell me I'll be
a man to-morrow?"
“ Yes—or sooner."
“ Tain’t possible :-I know I'se goin' to die!
Golly! my insides is bein' uprooted.”
“ You are not going to die,—so make up your
mind to take it calmly. Supposing you had been
born so-—you would not have been frightened then,
would you ? Now, don’t be astonished."
"Astonished ? I’d be astonished now, I'd be
howlin', but I’m too sleepy to do—much camp-
meetin‘ business—to-night.”
“Yes, I have given you a narcotic—Now. to


118 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
if that is forgery. If so, I am going to do a good
deal of it in the next few days." '
Soon she jumps into bed and, turning various
problems over in her mind, goes to sleep murmuring:
“ Dear little Bessie. I wonder if she’ll think Larry
Talbot is a nice young fellow. I’ll give her a chance
to judge of him before long." And so dreams come
to her, and they are pleasant ones, for she laughs in
her sleep—to be awakened from them the next
morning by the sun shining brightly into her apart~
ment, and, springing up, she looks at her watch and
finds it nine o’clock and begins to think of Bessie.
Then she gives a sudden jump—for from the next
room is coming in a deep, masculine tone, sung
with emphasis and effect, and joyous enthusiasm :
' De Lawd am risen l
Bress de Lawd l
De Lawd am risen 1"
“All! That’s my man Jane!" says Miss Lilly
Travers and tips a knowing little wink to Mr. Law-
rence Talbot who returns it from the mirror.
The next instant the hosanna ends in a squeak of
terror, the door from jane's room flies open and that
new recruit to masculine ranks clashes in, one shak-
ing, trembling, flying mass of panic.
In another second she would be in the hall to
arouse the household, but, like a flash of lightning
Lilly pins her, and forces her into- a chair.
“ Let me get ’way from here-dc Obi’s workin’
too much on me—de debble's conjered me.—-I’se—-
I’se mose gwine! " gasps the dusky Jane struggling
vainly.


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 119
“Keep still until your senses come back! Are
you crazy—going on like this? Why did you say
you’d like to be a man if you didn’t mean it?"
“ I did mean it, Miss—Massa Lilly; but I didn’t
know it was goin’ to work so pow’ful—I was sing-
ing a jubilee for joy when I felt it—a big lump in
my throat—it’s goin’ to bust an' let out de life
blood—Honey, I'se most gone now.--Look at de
tumor,” and Jane exhibits a well-developed and
prominent Adam’s apple to Lilly’s relieved eyes.
“ Pooh! ” says the emancipated mistress. “ That’s
only a proof of manhood. All men have one. I’ve
one myself,” and placing her hand to her white
throat Lilly gives a start, for she has a very nice
little one also.
“ And did yo’ hear my voice?” returns Jane more
quietly—“ I’se got a debble of a cold.”
“ So have I,” says Lilly. “ Didn’t you notice my
contralto yesterday? Now you listen to me : don’t
sing. If you do, Aunt Connie will think there is a
man up here.”
“ An' so dere is, Miss—Massa Lilly—two ob
em,” retorts Jane, beginning to giggle, and recover-
ing her spirits rapidly after the volatile manner of
the negro. “ We’s bof in de same boat, praise
de Lawd."
“ Yes; and if we are to remain in the same boat,
don’t you speak of what has happened—not a word
to any one. jane, we might be arrested for walk-
ing about in women’s clothes ! Think of that l "
“Jailed ! Den my lips has de lockjaw ! " mutters
the masculine maid-servant, and after a moment
bursts into an uncdntrollable guffaw, keeping this up


120 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
till her mistress says angrily: “What amuses you
so ?"
“I’se jes’ thinkin’—whaugh—whaugh—’bout dat
Gus—how mad he’s goin' to be—whaugh ! whaugh!
whaugh ! ” and jane indulges in suppressed whoops
till the tears roll down her face.
“Great goodness, you didn’t think of telling
him ?”
“ ’Deed I did.—It would have made Gus feel so
cheap.—Tryin’ to be sweet to a man! "
“Gus is to know nothing about this business!
Throw him over. Let him be as angry as he
chooses, but hold your tongue to him!” whispers
Lilly in alarm. '
“ But ef he comes roun’ tryin’ to kiss me, I’se
sartin to slug him.”
“ Not at all—you must act like a modest, bashful
young woman," says the late Miss Travers sooth-
ingly.
“ Dat’s purtty hard now, Massa Lilly—1' means
Miss Lilly. Lawd! I don't know what I mean!
I’se so uppity, there’ll be no keepin’ me down.”
“Very well; get rid Of your surplus energy by
helping me to dress," cries the mistress sharply; and
Jane does so grinning and chuckling with darky
delight over the efforts she has to make to get her
master into his corsets and the groans and writhings
that he emits under her strong and vigorous ma_
nipulations as she draws the lacing together. All
this makes Miss Travers satisfied that the resolution
she has made the night before is the only safe one:
flight her only resource. She is now convinced that
even if accident does not disclose the marvellous


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 12!
transformation of her life, her man jane will do it
for her in some unguarded moment.
This causes her to make a foolish threat. She
says sternly: “ jane, do you like to be a man? ”
“ Yes’m ; I’se feelin’ fust rate ’bout it.”
“Then, do as I bid you, or I’ll give you one of
those Obi seeds and change you back into a woman."
“ Foh de Lawd’s sake, doan’ do it, miss—-
massa ! ”
“ I will, if you don’t do exactly as I tell you: you
are not to leave the house, on any account; you
must also stay as much as you can in my rooms
until we leave St. Augustine.”
“ When ’11 dat be P ” sullenly.
“To-morrow morning—You may go to packing
my trunks now—Leave one open for me!”
“Well, Miss—Mia, I’ll try to keep in; but I be
feelin’ so fine an’ uppity, I’d like to take a walk roun’
town.-—Doan’ yo’ think Malvina, Miss Constanshe’s
housemaid—is a kinder fine-lookin’ gal, miss? "
“ Don’t you dare think of girls,—until you have
left St. Augustine. If you do, you’ll be one your-
self—I swear it,” cries the author of jane’s muta-
tion.
“ Well, ma’am, I’ll do as yo’ orders,” mutters the
man Jane in a dogged and perhaps surly manner, as
Lilly steps down to breakfast to try and play her
part with Miss Connie who is waiting for her at the
table.


132 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
CHAPTER X.
"HAVE I, LIKE FRANKENSTEIN,I RAISED UP A
MONSTER TO DESTROY ME?"
SHE enters the dining-room, kisses her aunt pen-
itently and says: “Dear Connie, I hope you will
forgive me for being so foolish and so unladylike last
night ; but my heart—my breaking heart—ran away
with me. Fred has destroyed my—my happiness.”
“ My poor child l” and Connie’s old arms go
sympathizingly round her putative niece’s waist.
" What makes you think Doctor Cassadene has not
treated you properly?”
“ I--I know it. I’ve broken with him now, and
can tell you." Then in a half sobbing way she
relates to the sympathizing old lady the record of
Fred’s lying note and his treachery in taking Stella
for the moonlight sail.
“ Well,” remarks Miss Constantia. ‘f I have only
known Mrs. Lovejoy one day, but I do not trust
her. She is a very designing widow, Lilly.”
“ Oh, I have nothing more to fear from widows,"
says the girl of yesterday, quite confidently. “ I am
going away from here. I am going North again. I
-—I came down to marry Fred, but now that is all
over, and the sooner I go away the better. I—I can’t
stand it here." And she squeezes a counterfeit tear
from her eye-lids, but recollecting that she is going
to leave dear Bessie, makes it a real one.
“ Yes—I expect it is the best thing you can do,"
returns her aunt contemplatively, for even in this
short conversation Lilly has unwittingly let fall one


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 123
or two masculine expressions. “ When do you
think of going ? ”
“ To-morrow morning—‘ Florida Special.'—-I must
look after my tickets! ”
Whereupon Lilly proceeds to make her arrange-
ments as scheduled in her mind. She requests her
aunt to return her horses and carriage that she has
sent from the North and are now due in St. Augus-
tine—drives to the First National Bank, cashes her
check, and then to the railway ticket office in the
Ponce de Leon, where she engages a state-room in the
boudoir car that leaves for the North next morning.
This is easily done, as the rush in February is all
southward, the trains running out quite empty and
returning very full to this Florida watering-place.
Next a curious masculine idea having come into her
head, she goes to a gun store and purchases a small
revolver and has it loaded by the shopman who
shows her how to work the mechanism of the arm.
This stowed away in her pocket, she drives back
to her relative and falls to discussing with her aunt
her return to New York, receiving some unintentional
stabs from the dear old lady, who loves her as the
apple of her eye and appears very loath to part from
her, though in truth some of Lilly’s performances of
the preceding day have been very shocking and by
no means pleasant to this good old representative of
ancient etiquette:
But Lilly throws conscience to the winds. Her
one thought is—Bessie will be coming soon ./
So she steps into the front garden to be on hand
to welcome her beautiful little sweetheart—for such
she has got to calling Bessie in her mind. This she


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. I 25
“Then, I suppose I must,” mutters the late Miss
Travers; “ you are a wilful little despot,"—and she
gives her tyrant a playful buss. But one playful
buss brings on another, and before they go into the
house Bessie cannot complain of Lilly’s neglect.
Lunch is ready, and at this meal Miss Connie
opens her eyes at her niece’s gallant care of their
guest. She remarks playfully: “I believe in hos~
pitality, but, Lilly, Bessie will live if she doesn’t eat
strawberries and cream more than twice at a meal;
and my cake is good, I know ; but you will kill her if
you force her to eat another mouthful.”
“Yes,” mutters Bess, with a sigh of repletion;
“ I think I’ll do until supper-time ”--then she con-
tinues anxiously, “ Lilly hasn’t eaten anything."
“ No,” cries Connie, “ she has been doing nothing
but watch you. She had a good appetite when she
was here last, but now "—here the Old lady gives
a sigh, for she imagines that the broken engagement
and Fred Cassadene’s miserable behavior are the
causes of her beloved niece’s lack of appetite. Watch-
ing her opportunity she takes Lilly aside and says:
“ Don’t grieve so much for him. Perhaps when you
get away from here you will forget him and be
happier.”
“ Happier? I shall not, I am sure,” answers Lilly
with a sigh, thinking Of bidding Bessie adieu.
“When I am away from her—I—I mean here—I
shall be even more miserable."
“ Then you had better stay! ”
“ Impossible !—I dare not."
“ Dare not ! ” cries the aunt in rage and astonish-
ment. “ Do you love this miserable doctor so you


126 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
fear your heart again? Lilly, you surprise me ! ” and
with a snort of anger Miss Connie goes away, leav-
ing Lilly to break the news of her intended depart-
ure to the little blonde whose blue eyes have been
merry and whose mouth has been laughing, but
whose eyes now become sad and whose mouth goes
into a pout Of pain as she hears this terrible news.
She cries out: “You—you have only been here
two days. What do you mean—going away? The
season has not commenced yet; ” and getting up
from the table with a“ gulp ”in her throat suddenly
walks into the garden.
“ What’s the matter with her? ” ejaculates Connie,
looking from the parlor. “ You have set her to cry-
ing;” for the suspicion of a sob floats in the door-
way, which after the maniier of most Florida houses
in this beautiful spring climate is nearly always open.
“ Oh, I’ll fix her,” says Lilly. “ Just leave her to
me,” and runs to overtake the distressed damsel,
rather delighted that her announcement has been so
effective.
But Miss Horton has disappeared.
She looks for her through the orange vistas—in
vain. She cries out “Bessie!”—no answer. She
darts hither and thither in pursuit of this elusive
chick—without success. Then she lifts up her voice
and calls: “ Bessie ?—Dear Bessie P—Darling Bes-
sie?”—until finally some of these adjectives appar-
ently softening the secluded one, a broken-hearted
voice comes to her through the grape vines that en-
tirely screen a little arbor:
“ I am here, but I don’t want to see you—go
away; leave me alone! One would think you loved


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 127
me by the things you call me—but acts are "-
(sob).
By this time Lillyhas broken through the surround.
ing branches to find a bewitching but mournful
picture. Bess has thrown herself into a hammock
that has been swung in the little arbor for summer
uses and has given herself up to grief.
“ Go away; I don’t love you,” she mutters.
“ Oh, yes, you do,” answers Lilly desperately.
“ No, I don’t”-—(sob); “ you’re going away ”—<-
(sob) “ you don’t hire me ”—(sob—sob——sob). ’
“Yes, I do,” says Miss Travers with energy.
Then she cries out desperately: “ Come, get up at
once. Your performances are driving me crazy, "—-
as in truth they are, for Miss Bessie’s easy abandon
of grief in the hammock is full of most potent and
distracting allurements to Lilly’s masculine eyes.
“ Come, sit up,” she says; “ sit up and talk sensi-
bly. You know I’ve got to go away from here to-
morrow. It is impossible for me to remain.”
“ Not one more day?”
“Not a day—not an hour—not a minute! My
stateroom is engaged. The ‘ Florida Special' has got
to take me away. Come. Make the most of this after~
noon. Don’t make our parting too hard, for I "—
here the emancipated one, having got her arms
about the tempting one, cries out: “I am unhappy,
also ! " and her misery seems to soothe Bessie.
“ Ah! you're sorry. That makes our parting
easier. If you are unhappy to leave me, I know
you will come back to me. Promise, and I will be
a good girl, even a glad girl, this afternoon," purrs
the blonde fairy.


128 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
“ I--I swear it!" is uttered in tones of such de-
termination that even Bessie believes, and suffers
herself to be consoled; and still lying in the ham-
mock, she turns a tear-stained but lovely face upon
Miss Travers, and seizing some orange blossoms
that are growing over the hammock, twists them
into a wreath and crowns her lovely head, and toss-
ing others about her, says:
“ Do I look pretty?” And the orange blossoms
getting into the late Miss Travers’ brain, cause her
masculine mind to think of what orange blossoms
mean, and she looks upon the picture, and it is too
lovely, too entrancing, too inviting for masculine
eyes; for the girl’s exquisite figure with its rounded,
though maiden contours, is wonderfully outlined by
her attitude, and two adorable ankles robed in
gleaming silk and disclosing insertion are flashing in
and out beneath the white muslin dress, as she
swings in lazy motion.
The blood surges to the late Miss Travers' head.
She gasps, “ T00 alluring! T00 beautiful ! " and un-
able to stand the fascination of the picture, destroys
it; for she plucks Bessie out of the hammock bodily
by force. Then she says: “Come. Let us take a
drive about the town, and then ”
“And then, I suppose,” pouts Bessie, “ papa will
take me home.”
“ Not immediately,” remarks Miss Travers; “ he
shall stay to dinner, and then we will inveigle him
into a game of cards,"——for she knows the major's
weakness.
Thus the two walk about chatting While Con-
stantia’s carriage is being made ready for them; a


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. I”
few minutes of this and Miss Bessie, whose agile
mind hops from subject to subject as a bird from
twig to twig, suddenly says: “ Oh! I forgot—Fancy l
I forgot l”
“ Forgot what P "
“ Forgot to ask you about the box you bought at
Vedder’s? What was in it P—something romantic,
I am sure. You seem to have been a different girl
since you got it,” cries Miss Horton. Then gazing
on the blushing emancipated one she continues,
“ I know there was something in it, because your face
is so red.”
“ Pshaw ! ” jeers Lilly, attempting lightness ; “ you
saw the casket on our parlor table when you came
in yesterday."
“Yes!”
“ You saw it half an hour ago."
“Yes ; it was open.”
“ What did it contain?"
“ Nothing,”-—disappointedly.
“That is what I found.”
“Well, that is very curious," cries Miss Horton
in suspicious unbelief ; “ because I lifted that casket
half an hour ago, and it was not nearly so heavy
after it had been opened as it was before. Why,
Lilly, what’s the matter with you P "—for Miss
Travers has grown very pale.
A moment after, however, she forces herself to
say, “There was nothing in it when I opened it.
Bessie, you must believe me if you want to be my
friend. Do you believe me?”
“ Certainly, I do! Rather than quarrel with yol
I’d believe you if you told a lie.”
9


[w A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
“That is more blissful than complimentary,“
answers Lilly, with an attempted laugh.
“I expect Miss Connie must have opened it
before you,” says Bessie, “ and got some great
secret out of it—something so great she won’t tell
anybody else—I’ll ask her.”
This gives Lilly another shudder. She cries—
" Not now; we haven’t time—carriage is here."
With this she jumps the inquiring blonde into
the equipage in such a vicious, vigorous and mas-
culine manner that Bessie whispers, “You don't
want me to ask Miss Connie, do you ? "
“ Stop talking nonsense,” replies her companion.
“ Let us enjoy ourselves for this afternoon—the
last I’ll have with you for some time.”
This silences Miss Horton, and when she opens
her mouth again it is upon another subject.
So the two drive away to have a pleasant after-
noon in the pretty streets of St. Augustine, and
listen to the band at the Cordova, and see a swim-
ming contest in the Alcazar bath, and come home,
having spent a day that would be a happy one, were
they not to part on the morrow.
The evening brings the major who has driven
down for his daughter, but to the girls’ entreaties
Miss Connie adds her word and he finally is in-
duced to remain an hour or two, though he says
the night looks threatening.
After tea in the parlor they have cards, the puta-
tive Miss Travers making herself very attentive to
the old gentleman, as if she were anxious to gain
his respect and confidence.
Constantia, who has opened her eyes several time:


a FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. I}!
at Lilly’s deference to the rather dogmatic assertions
of the major, remarks aside to her: “ What’s come
into you ?—you’re as obsequious as if you were a
young gentleman with designs on Miss Bessie "—-
and wonders what brings so much color into her
niece’s cheeks.
But a chance shot of the major’s wounds the
emancipated one most deeply.—There has been a
two-headed cow on exhibition on Bay Street, the
ex-Confederate has seen it and has not thought he
had got his quarter’s worth, and tells his wrongs,
asserting that the two-headed critter hasn’t brains
enough to run one animal; and thus being started
upon the subject he runs on in a most uncompli-
mentary way about dime-museum freaks, of whom
he has apparently seen a goodly quantity, remark-
ing they are all frauds, and that living skeletons,
Siamese-twins, tattooed ladies, Circassian beauties
and bearded women should be all put under ground
as soon as born.
At this attack on bearded women Miss Travers'
face grows rosy and then pallid, and for her life she
can’t keep her fingers from her fuzzy upper lip.
She feels she is being called a dime-museum freak
and wonders what the major would say to a woman-
man demanding his adored Bessie's hand in mar-
riage, and sickens at the thought.
But the cards are now over and the major, rising
to go, perceives that his predicted storm has come
upon him-—the rain which has been pattcring un~
noticed for an hour, is now pouring down in too
rents, and the wind is howling through the III“-
nolias, palm and orange trees.


132 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
“ Great Goliah ! " mutters the old gentleman, strid-
ing to the window. “What a night! The roads
will be fearful. Can you lend Bess a tarpaulin?”
But Miss Connie hurriedly exclaims: “ Do you
suppose I’m going to let you and your daughter
pass out of my doors on such a night as this? I
have ordered your horses roundto the stable and
they are taken care of and warm now.”
These remarks are commonplace, but they bring
panic perspiration all over the putative Miss Trav-
ers’ forehead; her heart beats wild and frightened,
her finger tips grow icy.
“ Isn’t this lovely, Lil?" Bess chimes in enthusi~
astically. “If I stay here all night I can go down
with you to the train in the morning and see the
very last of you." ,
But Lilly is not responsive and stands aloof ner-
vously tapping on the window pane, and staring
out into the night to keep the agitation on her face
from notice. A moment after, the major having
yawned once or twice in 'a suggestive manner, Miss
Connie rings the bell and says to the answering
servant, “ Malvina, show Major Horton to the blue
chamber. A fire is made up there ;-light it." And
having said “Good-night" the ex-Confederate is
ushered away to enjoy his solitary cigar and night-
cap and then turn in.
His departing steps have hardly died away when
Miss Connie, addressing her niece, says in tones
that seem like thunder claps, though not intended
as such, “Lilly, take Bess with you and go to
Md.”
" l—I think she had better have the wingwoom,’


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENTH 133
answers Lilly nervously; then seeing a wounded
look in Bessie's violet eyes, she continues: “ Bess
would never be able to sleep in my room. My
maid’s snoring is something awful, and Jane, you
know, occupies my dressing room."
“ Oh, I don’t mind snoring, Lilly," says Bess un-
concernedly. “ Father snores, -—-you’ll hear him
yourself to-night ! ”
“Anyway, get along to bed, both of you," cries
Miss Connie. “Lilly, don’t forget you have got to
get up early to-morrow morning to catch that train.”
And the old lady having kissed them, goes away,
and Miss Bessie says~innocent words that make
the emancipated one very nervous :
“ This is jolly ! " she cries. “ Come along, quick—
dear! It is going to be a cold night, and I love to
cuddle." At this a sudden gleam of fire comes into
the late Miss Travers’ eyes and a fervid shiver seems
to fly through her body. “ Besides, you can tell me
all about the mysterious contents of the black box
that you seem to wish to keep to yourself so much "
—-whispers Bessie as they go up-stairs. “ Why don’t
you speak to me? You seem to be thinking about
something.”
“And so I am,” mutters Lilly sharply—“ think-
ing I am not going to keep you awake to-night by
snoring and kicking about as I always do in my sleep.
Which added to Jane’s performances in the next
room, means for you a sleepless night.”
“ Oh ! what a whop—" cries Bessie in a rage, check.
ing herself, however, on the last word and going on
in a plaintive voice, “I stayed with you last spring
when you were here, and you were a lovely bed-


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. I35
course she shall pursue with the self-willed little
beauty in the next room.
She is aroused from this reverie by a strange
sound from the wing-chamber, and stepping cau-
tiously to the door she listens. Bessie is sobbing in
a heart-broken way upon the other side of it; she
whispers softly: “ What’s the matter?"
“You—you know,” comes from the other side.
“I'm—I’m lonely here—in a strange room. How
mean you are! You've broken my heart.”
This reproachful pathos overcomes the late Miss
Travers. A sudden inspiration flying into her mind
\she opens the door, and stands dazed at the lovely
vision, for Bessie has thrown off her gown and
unbound her tresses and is beautiful as a dream, her
blonde hair flowing over shining shoulders and white
garments.
“ Bessie, you know I’ve got some packing to do,”
gasps Lilly retreating but gazing.
“Yes. Let me help you ! "
“ No—you’ll only be in my way. It will take me
an hour. G0 to sleep and ”
“ And when you’ve finished packing you will
come to bed with me?” savagely.
“ Yes! ” desperately.
“ Very well,” says the girl tossing her hair about
and making it gold in the lamplight. “It’s a bar-
gain, though I don’t trust you. That ‘ Yes ' of
yours was a kind of wail."
And Lilly turning from the lamplit beauty into
the dim light of her own room mutters to herself :
“ For one night for my little sweetheart’s sake I’ll
be once more a woman!” and a chill of fear runs


I36 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
over her that manhood may never come again and
the happiness of wooing her own sweet Bessie be
lost to her forever.
But even as she thinks this there is a little patter
of unshod feet upon the carpet, and a soft voice
comes to her, “ Lilly, I hate to trouble you but I’m
—I’m laced so tight, I can’t undo myself without
my maid. Where’s yours ? "
“Jane!” This is a horrified gasp from Miss
Travers.
“Of course Jane—she’s in there ! " and though
Lilly hurriedly cries, “You—you mustn’t awake
her,” Bessie has the door open and looking in says,
“There is no chance of my'waking her—jane has
gone out.”
“Out!” and Lilly is at the door gazing on her
man Jane’s unoccupied bed and wondering what
new embarrassment the untutored masculine maid-
servant may bring upon her, gadding about the
streets of St. Augustine.
“I suppose by your not wishing me to awake
Jane, you intended to do me the kindness yourself.
Lilly, please help me, I’m tied up so tight?”'en-
treats Bessie.
So over corset strings with flushed cheeks, shining
eyes, thumping heart and fingers made clumsy by
haste the late Miss Travers toils, and Bessie smiling
in her face sees admiration and laughs, “ Don’t you
think I’ve a pretty figure? ”
“ You’d have a better one if you didn’t lace it so
tight,” answers Lilly, with masculine devotion to
hygiene.
“ Why, what's come over you!” says Bess in


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. I37
astonished pique.--“ You used to be a wasp-waist
yourself, and now lecturing—you talk like an idiot
man! Besides, I’m not laced tight—behold me!”
With this she gives a little shadow dance in front of
the fire that displays by its ruddy gleams such lithe
graces of pose and figure and glimpses of general fairy
beauty that the putative Miss Travers writhes under
its allurements and mutters hoarsely “ Be still i "
But Bessie answers; “ Say I haven’t a pretty figure
now—mean one! ” and would continue her “for de
fascination,” did not her companion with tormented
eyes cry “ Stop!” so imperiously that the figurante
gives a startled pause and asks, “ What’s the matter P”
“ Nothing ! ” answers the emancipated one
shortly.—“ But sit down on the sofa.—Be quiet—I
want to talk to you—I’m—I’m going away to-mor-
row.” This last sadly.
“ Do you suppose I’ve forgotten that !” murmurs
Bessie softly; then she says archly, “ Say I’ve a
pretty figure and I’ll sit down !"
“ Darling, you’ve the loveliest in the world,” cries
Lilly, tenderness and admiration fighting with each
other in her voice.
“ Well, having convinced you I’ll sit down !”
With a purr of content Bessie cuddles herself in a
white beauty-ball upon the sofa, while Miss Travers
who somehow appears afraid Of being too near this
torturing loveliness sits in a chair and watches the
firelight play about her charmer’s golden hair and
throw soft shadows about her fair young head-
A second after Lilly says suddenly, “ Bess, you
would like a lover?” ‘
“ Pooh! ” says Miss Beauty “ I’ve had lots! "


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 139
And in the firelight with a tremble in her voice
as if she were pleading her own cause, not another's,
the late Miss Travers tells the present Juliet the sad
story of the absent Romeo. “ He has but few rela-
tives and is very well off—I am sure he will make a
good husband,” she concludes.
“ Oh, but he may not want me ! ”
“ He will want you ! ” says Lilly impressively.
“ He shall marry you! "
“ What a matchmaker you are ! " answers Bessie
lightly and then she laughs. “ Send your Lawrence
Talbot along and I’ll inspect him.”
“ Yes, he's coming from England—he’ll be in
Florida within a month. I’ll give him a letter of
introduction,” cries Miss Travers enthusiastically.
“ All right—but I sha’n’t love him half as well as
I do you ! ” says Bessie.
“ And why not ? ”
“Oh, he won't boss me about as you do, Lil-
you're such a lovely tyrant! "
“ Then I'll cam my title—” returns Lillian lightly.
“ Go to bed : get your beauty sleep and let me pack! ”
“ I won't! ” says the obedient one defiantly.
“ To bed ! or I revoke my promise! "
“ Oh, what a boss you are, Lil. But there! "
and two soft white arms close about the putative
Miss Travers and fresh sweet lips press upon her
trembling ones and give her\ courage to make her
sacrifice, as Bessie trips away to bed.
The instant she is alone, with a sigh of resigna-
tion, but determined mien and eye, Lilly is at her
jewel case in which she has locked up the sacred
seeds.


140 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
The key is in the lock—Astonishment! The vial,
seeds and record are all gone—Despair !
For a mpment, she tremblingly thinks she may
have carelessly left the key in the lock; she may,
in some temporary fit of caution and forgetfulness
have secreted the vial and its precious contents in
some other hiding spot. '
She flashes up her lamp and makes hurried—anx-
ious—trembling search—tumbling over her unpacked
things with careless speed and reckless noise.
Upon this Bessie’s voice comes from the next
room in protest. “What are you prowling about
for, so Lil ? " she growls.—“ Why don’t you come to
bed ?—I’m—I’m cold.”
This sends a shiver through Miss Travers. She is
at her search again. A sudden thought! Jane may
have packed the seeds in one of her trunks. Into
her locked-up boxes she plunges. Their carefully
arranged contents fly out. In a jiffy robes are
tossed one way, bonnets the other.—She is bending
down anxiously into a saratoga when Bess springs
from the next room in lacey night robe and par-
alyzed horror and whispers “ Burglars ! ”
“ Burglars, nonsense ! ”
“A burglar; I hear his steps on the roof of the
veranda—Listen—Oh mercy! ”
For at this moment mixed with the sound of rain-
drops a heavy tread is heard outside the window.
“ I'm going to scream ! ”
“ Stop ! ” mutters Lilly desperately—“ You'll
alarm the house! Not a word! ”--and perhaps
anxious to play the hero before such a lovely hero-
ine, and perchance making a shrewd guess as to the


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. I41
truth, the late Miss Travers produces her newly
purchased weapon—and springing to the window
she throws it open and claps the pistol to the in-
truder’s head—whispering, “ Speak, or I shoot l"
“ Don’t—for de Lawd’s sake! Don’t! I’se
Jane!” gasps a voice outside.
“ Jane ! " echoes Lilly.
And Bessie gasps in admiration, “ How brave you
are !—You're like a man ! ”
“ Nonsense,” mutters Miss Travers. Then she
cries, “ Come in, you hussy ! " and her handmaiden
in dripping dress and muddy boots totters in and
horrifies her.
She says, “ I’se got clean away.”
“Got away—from whom, Jane?”
“ De constable! "
“ Why, what have you been doing?” This is in
Bessie’s voice and puts Lilly into instant action.
In a second she has dragged the white-robed one
into the wing-chamber, crying, “ With that window
open—you’ll catch your death of cold~Get into
bed!” And before the astounded Bessie can lift up
her voice in expostulation Miss Travers has dashed
back into her own room and locked the door between
and is standing in judgment over the errant jane.
“ Now," she says in an awful voice, “ where have
you been P "
“ jus’ round a leetle, Miss—'Mister Lilly .
“ Round a little P—What have you been doing P”
“ Gurl huntin’ ! ” says jane stolidly; then she
grins towards the room into which Bessie has just
disappeared and mutters, “Yo's been doin' some
thing in dat way "
fl


[42 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
She gets no further. The last word is squeezed
back into her throat by Lilly's clutch. “ Keep your
tongue quiet or I’ll—fix you ! ” she whispers. “ Now
answer my questions as quickly as you can. You say
the oflicers are after you—what have you done? ”
“ Well, I kinder wandered round to the servants’
quarters of de Ponce, and Gus Duncan he seed me
and wanted to make up, and I kinder led him on till
he tried to kiss me and den ”
“ And then? "—says Lilly anxiously.
“Then I let him have it good. Dere was quite
a crowd round and it did me proud to see how
“’sprised dey was at a woman laying out de second
man in de Ponce de Leon dinin’-room, de one
what shows de folks to der chairs.”
“ Did you injure him ? ” queries Lilly uneasily.
“ No marm—I means sir—I only jumped on Gus
a few times.—He’s gone to de hospital. He said
he’d get a warrant for me!”
“ A warrant ! ” mutters Lilly in a despairing voice;
then she cries suddenly,“jane, where arethose seeds?”
“ Dem seeds P—Am dey gone?” asks the abigail
--“ Oh Lawdy! Lawdy! More trouble ! ” and she
would raise her voice in lamentation.
“ None of that for me—you—you ! ” Lilly stam-
mers in rage. “ Now just tell me exactly where you
put them."
“ I didn't put ’em nowhere!”
“ jane, if you're afraid I’ll make you take one and
become a woman again, I swear to you I will not—-
only I must have the seeds !" pleads Lilly, who is
very anxious now.
“ I don’t done nothin’ wid de seeds. Please let


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 143
me alone. I’se so cold and wet and scared I can’t
think of nothin’ else—What’ll dey do wid me when
dey cotch me? Golly! what'll de jidge say when he
finds I’se a man l—Oh, camp-meetin'!" and Jane
gives a guffaw which is answered by a gasp from
Lilly, to whom these words strike terror.
With Jane arrested the secret is sure to come out.
She says hurriedly—“ Go into your room and change
your damp things. You’ll be put in the chain-gang or
sent to the convict-camp if they catch you.”
“ De convict-camp!” gasps jane, her face dusky
with horror, for she has heard of the monstrous
cruelties of these hells of justice.
“ Yes—your one chance is for me to get you out
of St. Augustine this morning ”-—answers Lilly,
glancing at the clock which points to two. “ Get
clean things on and help me pack my trunks.”
And jane departing—the late Miss Travers gives
a shiver of misery. An angry voice comes from
behind Bessie's door, and her sweetheart is rattling
the handle of the lock savagely and calling her
names, and she thinks, “ jane arrested—My secret
discovered—My God! the major—! what will he
do ? ”—and shudders with fright and mutters—
“My Heaven, am I like Frankenstein? Have I
raised up in Jane a monster that will destroy me?”

CHAPTER XI.
" GOOD-BY, BESSIE! "
BUT the thought of the major's future rage is
driven out by his daughter's present one—Miss


144 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
Bessie's tones show she is in an awful temper. She
now cries, “ If you don’t unlock this door in one
second I shall scream—‘Murder/ ’ ” this 'is a faint
yell.
Anything but publicity. Miss Travers throws
open the portal, and wounded affection and insulted
pride stand in front of her. Miss Bess is in an awful
state.
“ How—how dare you lock me in?" she stam-
mers in fury. “ My—my own father wouldn’t dare to
lock me in! One would think you—you were Miss
Prince--” The lady last mentioned is her former
schoolmistress and about the only being who rep-
resents discipline to this young beauty, who has
been petted and humored by her doting father
ever since her dying mother placed a blue-eyed baby
in his arms.
“ Well,” says Lilly, who has heard of this school
tyrant before, “ suppose you imagine me Miss
Prince for to-night, and go to bed;” here Miss
Travers tries a ghastly smile.
“ I--I could never imagine you Miss Prince,”
mutters Bessie savagely.
“ And why not?"
“Because I was afraid of her, and—you don't
frighten me a little bit! ” '
“ Please go to bed—if you don’t I won’t kiss you
in the morning,” murmurs Lilly, attempting a bribe.
“You won’t! you needn’t—you SHA’N’T kiss me
in’ the morning—You shall never kiss me again,"
cries Bessie. “You lock me in—you go prowling
about so I can’t sleep—you won’t come to bed—
you’re the meanest thing on earth—~I—I wouldn’t


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. r45
treat—you—so ! " and rage turns to tears that
touch Miss Travers to the heart.
Her voice grows very tender and her eyes grow
very sad and she gasps out, “You—you wouldn’t
reproach me—if—if you knew! "
“ Knew what P” 'Bessie’s blue eyes open with
interest.
“That Jane's going to be arrested in the morn-
ing.”
“ Arrested ! For what?” Bessie's blue eyes blaze
with curiosity.
“ For thrashing his—her sweetheart Gus Duncan,
the second man in the Ponce de Leon dining-room,
because he wanted to kiss her.”
“ What—that highfalutin darky who waves you
to a seat—Jane whipped him / Oh, my! How—-
how lovely!” and Bessie, who sees this grand dark
mass of conceit and hauteur coming to grief, in her
vivacious imagination, becomes very merry.
“Oh, you laugh! It’s funny to travel without
one's maid—~and—and look at my trunks—How
shall I ever pack themP”—Here Miss Travers gives
a despairing sigh as she surveys her ravaged boxes.
“ Why, what ever made you toss your things out
in that way? ”
“ I thought I—I had lost some diamonds,” mut-
ters the emancipated one, who has learnt to fib
during her two days’ manhood.
“And you’ve found them?”
“ Yes.”
“Very well, I’ll help you pack ! "
“ Not in that costume—you’ll catch cold. Jane’s
-]ane’s coming! ” cries Lilly in an uneasy tone.
to


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 147
“Then Jane’s all right ! ” laughs Bess, who has a
great opinion of her father’s general potency.
This idea is borne out by the major’s entering the
breakfast room just as the ladies sit down and re.
marking: “ Miss Lilly, that hundred dollar bill of
yours soothed the wounded Gustavus’ feelings—He
will not swear out a warrant, though he swears that
he’ll never marry Jane.”
This news so relieves Miss Travers that Bessie
thinks her spirits are too good for the occasion and
remarks reproachfully: “Why, you are happy and
yet are going away ! ” Which brings tears to Miss
Connie's eyes and to Lilly’s also, for she knows that
her aunt will never again see the niece she has loved
so well ;—and as she parts from the dear old lady,
she embraces her and seems loath to tear herself
away from her arms, for it is to her like—the parting
of death.
But trains wait for no man nor woman—and
Lilly and Bessie find themselves in the carriage
ready to drive to the depot; Miss Connie and the
major remaining behind—they thinking the girls
will have some confidences to make during the
drive.
“ Come back soon, Lilly,” says Constantia, trying
to smile.
“ Bess, what are your eyes so red for? " asks the
major, raising his hat.
“ I should think they would be red—” replies his
darling, “I stayed up all night!"
“ Good Scott—What for?”
“ Helping Lilly pack 1 "
At this the major gives the late Miss Travers a


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. I49
mourn for Lilly Travers—for they will never meet
again.
She says, attempting lightness: “I’ll send Law-
rence Talbot down to replace me—Bessie, you will
love him for my sake—Good-by ! " for the conductor
has called “ All aboard! ”
“ Tell me you'll come back soon!" and two blue
eyes grew desperate.
“ I’ll~ I'll try."
“ That won’t do—You’ll run off to Europe or
something awful if you don’t-promise—Promise ! ”
“ All aboard for the last time l ” The bell of the
locomotive IS clanging its warning.
“ You must go now, Bess." Lilly has got her to
the platform of the car. Their lips meet in a rage
of kisses and Bessie is on the wooden walk of the
station trying to keep up with the moving car and
crying, “ Promise you’ll come back soon! "
“ If possible! "
“ Promise. Don’t go away and not promise. The
train’s moving so fast ! ”
“ I’ll send Lawrence Talbot to "
But here Bessie stops running, fire flashes from
her eyes, she stamps her little feet and clenches her
dear little hands and gives Miss Travers a shock, for
she screams out, “ I hate Lawrence Talbot. There!
You hear me! I HATE LAWRENCE TALBOT! "
And so the train parts Lilly Travers forever from
Bessie Horton as the locomotive turns its face from
Florida, the land of sunshine, and dashes on its fiery
path for far-away New York and February snow
and ice.
Miss Travers waves a last adieu and then steps


ISO A FLORIDA ENCHANTMEN'I‘.
into her stateroom and meditates: “ Wonder if I’ve
overdone Lawrence Talbot;” then thinking of the
qacred seeds that have disappeared, the only path to
departed womanhood, she mutters, “You’re on the
Lawrence Talbot side of the fence, and that’s the side
that leads to the minister—I rather imagine the reason
that Bessie Horton thinks so much of Lilly Travers
is because Lilly Travers has become Lawrence Tal-
bot.”
_-_._.
CHAPTER XII.
THE MONSTER BECOMES DANGEROUS.
THE next day, as dusk is falling upon New York,
the Pennsylvania Railroad ferry boat brings what
is called Lillian Travers, and what is named jane
Rouser, into that great city. The two are very tired,
for a thirty-three hours railway journey, even on that
most luxurious of trains—-“ the Florida Special ”—
is wearisome, and Miss Travers has had a great many
precautions to take during this trip, that are not
necessary to ordinary travellers. Besides these she
has been compelled to keep a very wary, watchful
and suspicious eye upon her man Jane, who, though
confined as closely as it is possible, to the stateroom,
has made several furtive but dangerous attempts to
enter into a flirtation with the pretty quadroon
stewardess attached to this sybaritic train, to look
after the special wants of women.
These, with two or three other erratic perform-
ances of her putative maid, such as his answering
promptly “ Yes, sir” and “ No. sir ” at various inop


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT, Isl
pncune times, have put Lillian into a nervous frame
0\' mind.
She knows she has made an unwise move, in trans-
forming her faithful maid-servant Jane, into her un-
ruly man “ Friday." That though Jane intends to
be faithful to her interests, and keep the secret, still,
instead of a prim lady’s maid, she is now a head-
strong, wild and harum-scarum darky boy, with that
peculiar addition called down South “ nigger-
brains,” at this time peculiarly dangerous to her
from its idiotic logic and extraordinary syllogisms.
During the last few hours of the trip, she has
got to thinking Jane once more “ her monster " and
likening herself to Frankenstein in his unfortunate
experiment. She therefore welcomes the sight of
633 Fifth Avenue, her old family mansion, which is
at present in charge of the cook, a darky woman
of wondrous potency with canvas-back ducks, and
woful avoirdupois. This lady of color has been
left in charge of the house, Miss Travers wisely
thinking the cook the nucleus of all domestic bliss.
This servitor, having been notified by telegraph,
admits Miss Lilly and her maid.
“ I am only going to remain for a few days,
Dinah,” remarks Lilly, “ so I shall not add to my
establishment. An omelet, steak, and some of your
coffee and rolls, are all that I shall want here. More
elaborate meals I shall get at a restaurant," for she
knows the fewer servants in the house, the greater
safety to her secret.
Then Miss Travers goes up-stairs, and after get-
ting a shock from many of the pretty feminine arti
cles in her dainty boudoir, that remind her of the


153 ' A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
refined femininity that she had—but has no more; of
the womanhood that was—but is not, turns, and
says to Jane with masculine severity: “ A few words
before you go to bed, my man. First of all, you
are still to be a woman."
“ That ain't possible, Mr.--Miss Lilly."
“ You are still to appear a woman to the outside
world."
“What—no promenade down Sixth Abenue wid
de boys, no showin’ de gals what a han’some youn’
man I is?" mutters jane ruefully, he having appar-
antly laid out for himself what might be called “ a
high old spree " upon his first visit to New York as
a gentleman.
“ Not until I tell you to ; probably not till we
leave New York."
At this disappointing statement, Jane turns away
in disgust, his master adding: “ You had better go
to bed now; you are tired out. So am I, and I
have lots to do in the morning. And don't you
call me Mr. Lilly again, as you value your situation.”
“ No, sir—yes, miss," answers jane hurriedly and
disappears.
The next morning, Miss Travers, who has appar-
ently made up her mind what to do, sets about it
with energy and rapidity.
She drives to Tiffany’s and selects a ring that she
knows will make Bessie’s heart glad. This being sent
home to her later in the day, she forwards to Miss
Horton with a little note saying, “ Dear Bess, I send
you this in return for ‘ the silent Bessie.’ You will
see it has engraved on it ‘ To B. H. from L. T.'—-By
the by, L. T. stands for Lawrence Talbot as well


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. \‘53
as Lilly TraVers.—Why not consider it an engage.
ment ring from him P”
Meantime she has called upon her lawyer, and
incidentally looking over her securities, found a
good portion is in convertible bonds. This is satis-
factory to her. She asks that gentleman a few ques-
tions, and then departs in search of further informa-
tion. This she picks up deftly, in the course of the
next day or two, from various friends of hers-
brokers, real estate speculators, etc., by feminine
questions, aided by a masculine fixed purpose.
Some of her queries, however, are of a very
astonishing nature to be put by a Fifth Avenue
‘belle, and one of her friends, a stock broker, in-
cidentally remarks at his club, that he thinks
“Lilly Travers is going into business. By Jove!
the way she asked me about convertible securities,
unindorsed stock, and non-registered governments,
made me think she’d got Wall Street in her eye.
Perhaps she’s a coming Hetty Green, and’ll make
me her broker. I wonder how long it would take
her to get away with the million and a half that’s
been left to her by the old gentleman.”
And, in fact, Miss Travers seems to be bent upon
getting away with her fortune. She instructs her
real estate brokers to sell all her realty in New York.
They open their eyes at her orders, but do her bid-
ding, Miss Travers being her own mistress, and any
conveyances she may make perfectly valid and good.
This is very shortly done, for New York realty
well located, is a very convertible asset, and though
she loses a slight percentage upon its actual value,
still being willing to make a sacrifice for speed in


‘54 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMEN'I
transfer, she gets it in a surprisingly short space of
time, the lawyers making the examinations of title,
being spurred on by a liberal douceur, accompanied
by the statement that Miss Travers wishes to
hurry the business as much as possible, on account
of her intended departure from New York. These
transfers are made and the money paid into Miss
Travers' account.
Meantime she has converted all registered secur-
ities into cash, and has abstracted the stones con'
tained in the family jewels from their old settings,
for she wishes to obliterate everything that can
tend, by any means whatsoever, to the suspicion
that Lilly Travers has been generous to Lawrence
Talbot.
She looks in the glass each morning, into the
smiling, bold, and rapidly becoming masculine face
of the young gentleman who nods back at her, and
says: “ I’m going to treat you very well, my young
man, for Bessie’s sake. You shall be very rich—
almost as rich as Lillian Travers was. I can’t give
you real estate; that would force you to be identi-
fied, and you are unknown to every one but me. I
can’t make a will in your favor, for it might be
disputed by envious relatives, who would say I was
insane to leave to you—even handsome fellow that
you are—my property, from my kindred. Conse-
quently, I’ve got to give you unregistered govern-
ment bonds, my boy, and you can re-invest them
carefully for yourself and Bessie.”
And then the handsome young gentleman smiles
back at her, and says: “Thank you, Miss Travers.
You’re uncommon good to an unknown fellow like]
fl


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. r 5 5
me. I’ll try and make myself comfortable upon
your liberal donation." And the two laugh and
shake hands together, and have a very pleasant time,
one with the other.
Until suddenly, some new idea coming into the
young lady’s mind, she shakes her fist at the gentle
man, scowls at him, and says threateningly: “ If you
don’t treat Bessie well, look out for me! Lawrence
Talbot, Lilly Travers is going to be your mother-in.
law!" and so turns away laughing, to do a great
piece of work for the young gentleman this day.
She goes to the Central Safe Deposit Company,
and there engages one of the larger boxes, such as
are fitted with combination locks, paying the year's
rent in advance.
She enters her name on the books of the institu~
tion as requested and says:
“ I wish to make this deposit box open to myself
and one other, Mr. Lawrence M. Talbot. I shall
be away from New York, but Mr. Talbot will bring
a letter of introduction from me to you; he will
also give you the pass-word: ‘ My turn next l ’ This
is his signature ;” and she hands them a card,
upon which she has already written in as masculine
hand as she can command : “ Lawrence M. Tal-
bot.” /
She goes over these methods of introduction and
recognition, that Lawrence Talbot will have, with
the Safe Company’s officers, so that there can be no
mistake, telling them Mr. Talbot will also receive
from her the combination of the lock to the box she
has engaged, which will be an additional proof of his
identity. This shall be all the identification the,


I 56 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
can require from Mr. Talbot, as she will be out of
town, and he has no friends, she thinks, in America.
All this being very definitely and accurately set-
tled, through various brokers she converts her whole
fortune, with the exception of a few thousand dollars,
into unregistered U. S. Government bonds, and this
being done, in the course of a few days, she deposits
them in the box in the Central Safe Deposit Com-
pany, which is open to Mr. Lawrence Talbot, as
well as to herself.
All this has been accomplished with as much
speed as the transaction of the business will permit,
for she is spurred on by the following letter, that is
addressed “ Miss Lillian Travers " and post-marked
“ St. Augustine, F lorida,” and is in Bessie’s pretty
and feminine handwriting. It reads:
ST. Aucusnmz, Fefiruary 9th, 1891.
DEAR LILLY :
Your lovely, lovely present is here, and I have been thinking
about you all night ; not of my present, but of your letter. Some-
how I’ve cried over it. Its words were cheery but its tone gave me
the shivers! It seemed almost to say ‘Adieu !’ to me. It didn’t
say it, but it seemed to say it. But then, you know, I am a creature
of impulschand perhaps it didn’t say anything of the kind, except
to my excited longing for your quick return. Besides I have thought
over it all night, and have just got the clue, and I think you’re the
meanest creature in the world not to tell me about it before. I have
just been reading a Jacksonville paper which says in its horrid
society news that the beautiful and accomplished New York heiress,
Miss Lillian Travers, has gone to New York to order her trousseau,
for her approaching marriage with Doctor Frederick Cassadene, thl
distinguished and popular physician at the Ponce de Leon Hotel.
If this is so (and I don’t believe it) write me at once. Any way
I know the report will make that beautiful Mrs. Lovejoy very angry.
She is so very—but oh, I must be careful, especially if you’re en-
gaged to him. I’ll turn to another subject—myself. Perhaps you’d


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 157
like to hear a little bit about Bessie. Bessie is getting along very
well. She has a very nice time. She has lots of beaux—one of
them in particular, is very nice—so you needn’t send Mr. Lawrence
Talbot down here at all. But please come yourself, right oE—as
soon as possible, immediately—for I shall not be happy until I hear
your voice again. Papa was very angry at your keeping me up all
night, packing your trunks ; he has forgiven you by this time, at my
intercession, and sends you his love. I know Miss Connie does the
same also, and so do l—lots of it—from
Your loving
Bessm.
P. S.-How do you like “ the silent Bessie ” ? Is she behaving her
self well ? I send you the enclosed notice.
The newspaper clipping reads:
It is reported on the best authority, that Miss Lillian Travers,
the lovely and fascinating New York heiress, who has spent several
of her springs among Florida orange groves, is shortly to become a.
real Floridian, by marrying Doctor Frederick Cassadene, the very
accomplished and popular physician of the Ponce de Leon.
Our reporter mentioned this rumor to the Doctor, who smiled, and
looked as men always do, when they expect to become benedicts,
though he refused to commit himself. In support however, of our
statement, Miss Travers has gone to New York, suddenly, with the
intention it is understood, of ordering such a trousseau as only a New
York heiress can order. We presume some of these beautiful toi-
lettes will be seen in the parlors of the Ponce de Leon before the
season closes, as we understand that the wedding is to take place
before the end of March.
Over this notice Lilly bursts into laughter; but
Bessie’s remarks about beaux, and that Mr. Law-
rence Talbot’s appearance will not be necessary, give
her a fit of the blues, and the late Miss Travers
knows that masculine jealousy is as potent a factor
of misery and anxiety as feminine jealousy.
She is also incited to further speed by two or


l58 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
three ominous occurrences that have taken place,
from time to time, which indicate that if she does not
change from the feminine to the masculine mode of
life, of her own volition, Providence will change it
for her.
A moustache, day by day, to her dread, but also
to her pride, becomes beautifully developed. Not
daring to trust to a barber’s skill, she has been com-
pelled to try her own, and her first shave has been
a gory operation, and is not considered a success.
Besides this, on cashing a check the paying teller,
who knows her very well by sight looks up and
says : “ Ah ! personal application !”
“ What does that matter?” she asks.
“ Well, if you had not brought it in person, Miss
Travers, I should not have paid it.”
“ Is not my account good ? ”
“Perfectly—very good!” with a great emphasis
on the'very. “ But to tell you the truth, this signa-
ture does not seem to be exactly that of a woman."
“ Indeed?" she says, struggling to restrain the
agitation that, despite herself, flies into her face.
“ What is it then ? "
“ Why, it looks like the signature of a man."
“ Ah ! delighted to hear that ! ” she returns, forc-
ing a smile. “ I'm trying to make myself a business
woman, and a masculine handwriting will perhaps
assist me ! ”
But all these portentous incidents are as nothing,
to the dread and horror brought upon her by her
man Jane.
She has driven home one evening, after a hard
day's work in making her various business arrange-


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. ISQ
ments, when as she steps out of her coupe, about
nine o'clock in the evening, the night watchman,
chancing to pass by, salutes her.
He says respectfully: “ Miss Travers, can I say a
Word to you P”
“ Certainly l " she replies. Something in his tone
giving her alarm, and fortunately putting her on her
guard. -
He asks: “Have you a negro man i'. your em-
ploy?"
A sudden instinct prompts her to gasp “ Yes !—
my maid—” then getting confused she corrects
herself and murmurs : “I mean, my valet—my foot-
man. Why did you ask?”
“ Well, Miss Travers,” says the watchman, “ quite
often, early in the morning—a negro man lets him-
self into your house. I supposed he was some
sweetheart of one of your servants, but still I
thought it was best to ask. Now that I know he is
in your employ, it is all right.”
“I’m very much obliged to you," remarks Lilly.
“ Please take this for your care of my interests ; ” and
pressing a liberal tip into the watchman's hand, she
goes up the stairs, enters the house, and mutters to
herself these feminine words: “Damn him! It's
that infernal Jane, I know. I’ll fix him to-nightl"
That evening she kills time by a novel and think
ing of Bessie. At eleven o’clock, she investigates
Jane's room. That putative maid-servant is not in.
Then she sits down in her abigail’s apartment and
waits—and waits—and then waits.
As the clock strikes two, she gets what she is
waiting for—a sensation, and would scream, were


160 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
she a woman, but being a man, she stands, gazes
and gasps, for with a flippant air, and a smile of tri-
umph on his face, and two or three chuckles on his
lips, a typical Sixth Avenue darky dude enters the
apartment.
With flashing eyes Lilly cries: “What are you
here for? Out of my house this instant ! Are you
a sweetheart of Jane’s ?”
“Whaugh! whaugh!-I’se Jane hersel’!” cries
the dude and bursts into a guffaw. “ ’Clare to
goodness—oh Lawdy! yo' didn't know me, Mr.
Lilly.”
“I know you now! So you’ve been masquerad.
ing about in men’s clothes, night after night, to
destroy my secret, my happiness, my life!" .Lilly
mutters, a fearful intensity in her tones, and the
ferocity of despair in her manner. ,
“ Got to wear dis kind 0’ clothes, Mr. Lilly.
’Gin de law to wear any oder!”
“ Never you mind what the law is. My law is
that you are still my maid-servant, till I permit you
to assume the sex I gave you.”
“ Yo’ can’t turn me back into a woman agin, any
way, Mr. Lilly," remarks Jane, with a grin.
“ No, but I will send you to the Florida convict-
camp. I’ll get Gus to revive his warrant against
you."
“Guess dat wouldn’t go,” remarks Jane, with a
grin. “Gus’ll swear a woman whipped him—I’ll
prove I'se a man. Golly, I’se got yo’ dar. I'se been
gettin’ pints on de abenue."
" My Heaven! Have you told any one P ” gasps
Miss Travers, turning very pale.


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 16!
“ No—no—but I’se been gettin' pints without
tellin’, and I’se diskivered that I’se worth a thou-
san’ dollars a week, to a dime museum, as de
greatest freak on earth ! ”
“Very well!” cries Lilly desperately. “Go to
your dime museum, and tell them your story, and
they'll put you in an insane asylum—that's where
‘ the greatest freak on earth ' will land. Who would
believe you P ”
“ Believe me! They’se got to believe me i ” mut-
ters Jane excitedly. “ I’ll prove it by DE SEEDS! "
He makes an attempt to choke the last word in his
throat, but is too late!
With the power born of desperation, the late Miss
Travers is upon him. She has thrown him down.
Her hands are at his throat. She chokes him till
he is gray in the face. Then she mutters slowly:
“Give me those seeds, or I will kill you! Tell me
where they are ! ”
“ ’Deed, Miss Lilly——”
“ Never mind about your ‘ deeds ’--tell me where
the seeds are l” and she emphasizes her command
by producing her pistol.
“ Dey is hid in one of my 01’ stockin's in de bot-
tom of my trunk l—Please—please let me git some
wind ! "
“Very well—get them !” and Jane, who is appar- ,
ently subdued, sullenly fishes them out from this
odd receptacle, and Lilly once more has the little
vial with its two magic seeds in her possession that
sparkle in amber beauty. She looks on them
gloatingly—lovingly-~They seem to give her new
power.
It


[62 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMEN'I'.
“ Why did you take these?” she asks.
“'Cause yo' said if I didn’t behave myself yo'd
turn me back into a woman agin, and I wasn’t goin'
to habe one of dose things forced down my throat,
and I won’t habe it now. I’ll go away from yo’
fust," cries jane savagely.
“ Promise to obey me and I will promise to let
you remain as you are, though I don’t think you are
an improvement upon my obedient and faithful
maid-servant, jane. Any way you won’t have to
remain as my maid much longer. We leave New
York soon, and in a few days you shall be no
more my maid jane Rouser, but my man, Jack
Robbins! ”
“ An’ yo’, Miss Lilly, what’ll yo’ be?” mutters
Jane.
“ I shall be Mr. Lawrence Talbot! ”
This name evidently impresses Jane. He mut-
ters: “ ’Pears to me, as you habe done such mighty
high work for yo’self, yo’ could do a little better
fo’ me, Mis’ Lilly ? ”
“ No. jack Robbins is good enough for you,”
remarks the master, stemly.
Then, after a few more admonitions and direc-
tions, she goes away and carefully securing the glass
vial with its potent seeds in a little bag she hangs
about her neck by a thin golden chain she gets
ready for bed. While doing this a mocking smile is
on her lips, she sneers, “I wonder how much a dime
museum would give for me?” then shudders: “ My
monster, jane, will destroy me. Like Franken-
stein, I have raised him up to be my ruin !”
And this idea running in her head, she goes to


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 163
sleep, and has a fearful nightmare; and sees three-
sheet posters like the following, in gigantic type and
lurid characters covering all the city walls and bill-
mm MUSEWM.
LIQHTEFFALQF Au-‘Acssr







Juwnencz‘ru‘sor he. mama TRAVERBA
Only One More Seed. mm. mm axon!
Em
$3,000,000 Ofiered
itshmdo member or the Rothschild family bought ma‘p‘miqu
’ one and has just been voted into the ’
l, , v ,1“ RISIA N JOCKEY lellllsg
an nation wide: in New York‘toinauegotlutlon for £110wa I
QUEEN I "who, Wants to be 6*.
KING bef0re' she dim.“
“ PERFORMANCES
A m
N!
p-



In condunction with'
no Missing Link ma
' “The ma; all-W


164 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
CHAPTER XIII.
DOCTOR FRED WOULD LIKE A KISS.
ALL these considerations urge desperate haste.
Lilly forces the last few remaining preparations for
her departure, finding time, however, to initiate
her maid Jane into acting her man Jack. Every
morning, they rehearse.
Miss Lilly calls in authoritative gruff voice: “ My
shaving water, Jack ! "
“ Yes, Mr. Lawrence,” replies jane.
Or: “ Put cigars and whiskey on the table,
Robbins.”
“ Yes, Mr. Lawrence;' and Jane doing as she is
bid, places cigars, cigarettes and fiery spirits on the
table, which Lilly, by way of educating herself to
her new manhood, forces herself to indulge in,
though she hates the taste of whiskey, and the
cigars make her very sick.
One of these petites comedies is taking place when
she is startled by the cook bringing up to her an
epistle in a masculine hand which she easily recog_
nizes as that of her erstwhile fiancé. It is a hastily
written, impulsive letter, of the discarded suitor
style; full of wild outcries of wounded love, com-
plaints and reproaches. For, after the manner of
,his kind, Doctor Freddie has got to longing and
mourning and suffering for lack of the love he has
destroyed, and Lilly Travers now seems to him the
only woman who can ever make his life happy.
This he tells her in his letter, the conclusion of
which is so dictatorial that it is scarcely polite. It


A, FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 165
says: “If you do not return to Florida very soon,
I shall go to New York after you. You remember
my boast, Lilly—within four weeks you shall be the
bride of Yours till death, FRED.”
The first part of this epistle produces a smile;
the latter part causes consideration, even concern.
Doctor Cassadene hanging round the skirts of Miss
Lilly Travers will embarrass her preparations to
become Mr. Lawrence Talbot!
This is another motive for speedy departure
from New York, which place has been getting
gradually distasteful to her. She longs to enter
society as one of the sex into which she has grad-
uated, and cannot do it.
She has got to muttering to herself savagely: “ I
am tired of being a hermit."
As she drives down Fifth Avenue, she has fallen
into the habit of looking at the club buildings of
this most clubby street and thinking she would like
to sit in their windows, like other male bipeds, and
enjoy the feminine beauty that passes in parade in
front of them, while sybaritic man gaaes on, enjoy.
ing cigars, cocktails and other frivolities peculiar to
the sterner sex, that she is getting gradually to like
with the love of the manhood that has come to her.
Driving past the Manhattan, the New York, or
the Union, she mutters: “ I'll be put up there some
day; I’ll sit in that window and that chair myself."
She has a tremendous hankering after the de-
lights of Delmonicos’ café, sacred to gentlemen.
She has even wild ideas of donning some of Mr.
Lawrence Talbot's new clothes and “doing” Kos-
ter & Bial's, or taking a merry little spree on the


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 169
banks; these living waters that are liquid-ether as
they bubble from the grottos that give out the
purple tints; all seem of another and unreal, though
perchance a happier state, to this being, who, still
calling herself Lilly Travers, is living a life no other
being ever lived before.
But she has short time to gaze astonished,--the
train has scarcely run upon the little wharf before
the steamer blows its whistle, and freight and lug-
gage and passengers being hurried on board, the
pygmy Okalzumpka, her stern wheel revolving, is
gliding out from her landing, past “The Ladies’
Parlor " and “The Gentlemen’s Smoking-room ”—
fountains of weird, cloud-like water, but of earthy
name—and darting down this marvellous river,
whose silver stream within a few miles will be swal-
lowed in the slimy, blackish oozes of the swamp-
born Ocklawaha.
Water ethereal supports the tiny steamer, and
Lilly Travers, looking over its side, for a moment
grows dizzy and staggers back—thinking she is an
aeronaut; for the boat seems like a balloon with
air above her and air beneath her. A moment after
she calms her nerves, and standing on the upper
deck gazes at the panorama through which she
passes-dong vistas of cypress trees, rising from
this glassy water mirror like giant storks' legs to
their canopy of green and moss above.
Impressed by her strange position she thinks:
4‘ Like Ponce de Leon, who came to find youth, I
have come here to find manhood. He failed and
died. Shall I be disappointed also?”——and looking
at the clear, living stream upon which she is float-


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. I7!
ders: “ What cursed ill-luck has sent this love-sick
sop here to make my task more difficult P ”
Though she does not know it; her day’s delay in
Jacksonville, her additional lingering twenty-four
hours in Citra,—have brought this misadventure
upon her. ‘
Cassadene, glancing over the papers, has noted in
the society columns that Miss Lillian Travers, one
of the great catches of New York and the reported
fiancée of the dashing doctor of the Ponce de Leon,
is now in Jacksonville, accompanied by her maid;
that she in the next day or two is bound for Ocala
with the object of making the celebrated Ocklawaha
trip, for which she has already engaged a stateroom.
This has put a sudden idea into the Doctor’s mind.
He will meet the boat at Silver Spring also, and
Miss Travers, being on board, will perforce be com-
pelled to accept his presence, which she will not be
able to dodge, these steamboats being very small.
In the twenty hours’ run through romantic cypress
swamps and in the shadows of the great trees and
at night by the light of the burning pine knots, he
will again press his suit, and having been made
vain by his fortune among the fair sex, he has no
doubt he will once more be successful.
This is the reason that Doctor Fred, chewing his
mustache savagely, is now gazing upon Miss Trav-
ers, whose conduct again surprises him.
The boat has already plunged into the cypress
swamps. The crystal waters of the Silver Run have
been swallowed by the dark stream of the larger
river which cuts them off, sharp as a knife blade.
The steamer is now some miles down the Ocklawaha.


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. I73
He strolls up to her and murmurs in his sweetest
voice: “ Ah, Lilly! the old feeling is coming into
your heart. Your eyes have again a longing look in
them."
“Yes—for a cigar,” mutters Miss Travers snap~
pishly; and again disconcerted he retreats from her.
And this is true; for it is a hankering after his
cigar, not him, which has attracted the late Miss
Travers’ eager eyes. She.is gradually acquiring,
among her mannish accomplishments, a love for the
weed, and thinks a cigar would be uncommonly
pleasant, dare she but use one. This makes her
angry. and she says to herself: “ To-night, whether
he is on the boat or not !——To-morrow I will have
the privileges and rights of a man ! ”
Her unfeminine disregard, as Doctor Fred terms
it, of his feelings, has made that gentleman sulky
and surly, and, greatly to her relief, he does not
bother Miss Travers for some hours.
After a. time, at a little landing Lilly sees an
orange grove and stepping on shore gathers aided
by the lady of the plantation a branch covered with
juicy fruit and coming on board again goes to eat-
ing and tossing the peels over the side as the steam-
er pushes along under palmetto and cypress that
shadow her decks and make leafy arches overhead.
So Lilly putting Fred out of her mind gets to
looking upon and enjoying the panorama that un-
folds itself as the boat threads its way through
this foliage-lined stream, making turns innumerable,
and sometimes appearing to drive straight for the
cypress belt to plunge within its swamps, then sud-
denly poled off by the sable deck~hands turning


I 74 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
from it and bending, as it were, back on its course,
after the style of the letter S.
Next she notes the skill of the negro pilot as he
swings the craft on its course, and gets to looking
for alligators, a few of which she sees. Most of
them are not very large, though extremely wary, for
until a few years ago, sportsmen brought their rifles
and shooting-irons on deck and the boat’s passage
was marked by a fusillade on the inhabitants of the
swamp, so now the surviving alligators skulk away
from the path of the steamer and into the swamps
which lie for miles and miles on either side of the
river, a mass of submerged cypress, dense under-
growth and jungle, impenetrable to man and still
the haunt of the hunted “ gator.”
Thus the day wears on, Miss Travers making but
one appearance in the dining-room of the little
craft, for anxiety has taken away her appetite. And
now after passing two giant cypresses that graze
the boat on either side, early night falls upon the
river, for the great trees grow so thick together that
the declining sun cannot penetrate theirleafy screen.
After a little the noises of the swamp begin to be
heard in the stillness of the night ; and knots of fat
pine are lighted on the pilot-house to throw a glow
over the river by which the boat can feel its way
round the bends and sometimes in the trees torches
blaze in the hands of kindly darkeys to help the
pilots of the boat. -
At the little landings negroes come down with
blazing pine knots to light the deck-hands’as they
take on cargo.
This romantic scene impresses Miss Travers and


r 76 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
twists ’bout, right dar. Den we come up to Enoch
81 Collins’, an’ den Needle’s Eye, an’ after a little
while we’s at Orange Spring Lan’in'."
As his words come to Lilly's ear, her heart gives
a bound; for, ever since she has made some appar-
ently careless inquiries at Citra, Orange Spring
Landing is the place she has selected where the
earth will know Miss Travers no more.
Even as she thinks this, Doctor Fred is at her
side. This gentleman has apparently got over his
huffiness of the morning. Her very rebuffs have
made him more eager for her favor. In the dark-
ness he cannot see the change that has come to
this woman when he still loves in his own desultory
fashion, perhaps as well as he 'can love anybody—-
except himself. He pictures in his imagination the
girl he was once engaged to, and Lilly Travers in
the darkness of this night is as femininely beautiful
as the Lilly Travers of a month ago. He com-
mences to plead with her. He tells her how he
loves her, and, receiving no answer, his vanity whis.
pers to him, “You will succeed this time!"
“Dear Lilly," he continues, “you love me still.
You have stayed on deck so as to hear from me once
more the tones you used to love—the words you
used to drink in from my lips." Then the two
being alone and in the shadow, Doctor Fred fol-
lows a maxim he has laid down for himself: “ Strike
while the iron is hot.” He suddenly gives the puta-
tive Miss Travers a tender yet enthusiastic embrace,
and whispering “I love you,” would again feast
upon the lips whose sweetness he remembers..
But this young delicate lady, to his surprise, tears


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 177
herself from him suddenly, with a force that aston-
ishes the stalwart Frederick, and whispers in tones of
deadly rage, “ Hang you, sir, if you dare to touch me
again, I’ll knock you overboard to the alligators ! "
Then a sudden change seems to come over the
girl, and she says to her astonished, dismayed and
disgusted suitor: “ Forgive me.——Good-night, Doc-
tor Freddie. We shall be better friends when we
meet next.”
This idea seems to amuse her, for she passes
from his side and goes off to her stateroom, laugh-
ing an uneasy, mocking laugh, and this is the last
that Doctor Frederick Cassadene ever hears from
the lips of Lilly Travers.
Half an hour afterward, the boat pulls up at
Orange Creek Landing. There is quite a lot of
freight to put aboard, the deck hands are busy, the
captain and pilot occupied, and Fred Cassadene
is carelessly smoking a cigar near the gang-plank,
looking at the labors of the night and ruminating
over his ill-success with the New York heiress,—
when, a young man in gray travelling suit, with a
fishing-rod in his hand and attended by a darkey
servant carrying a gun case and small satchel, passes
quickly over the gang-plank. The pine knot in the
hand of a negro standing on the landing for a mo-
ment lights up the face of the young man, though
partially concealed by a slouched hat, and Cassadene
gives a momentary start ; then mutters: “ It's funny
I can’t get Lilly Travers' eyes out of my head.
Everyone I look at seems to have her optics!"
Then, he queries wonderingly : “ That young sports-
man must have kept himself pretty well boxed up


180 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
And though Bessie’s face has begun to be anxious
among St. Augustine orange groves and she some.
times mutters, “ Why don’t she write P" and Miss Con-
nie Ofttimes says, “ Lilly must have gone straight to
Havana, that’s the fad trip this year,——she’ll be back
soon," very little has been thought of Miss Travers'
disappearance—What’s one little girl in this great
world of ours—even if she be a beauty and an
heiress-save to those who love her?


BOOK III.
THE WONDERFUL ADVENTURES OF
MR. LAWRENCE TALBOT.
CHAPTER XIV.
WILD OATS.
SHORTLY after this—the Palatka train brings in
one evening to St. Augustine a dark-skinned, sun.
burnt young man who says to his servant, “ Jack, tell
the hackman the Cordova. Wilson always makes
everybody comfortable ! ”
In this gorgeous hostelry, Mr. Lawrence Talbot
soon finds himself very cosily housed, occupying two
of the small but pretty tower rooms that look out
on the Alameda, diagonally opposite the Ponce de
Leon. He is fortunate in securing these apart-
ments, but the season is drawing towards its close
and already travellers are commencing to turn their
faces in search of a new spring that will soon be
found in Virginia and North Carolina watering.
places.
It is altogether too late by the time Mr. Talbot
receives his trunks, for him to achieve a toilet and


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMEN'I‘. I83
addressed. Then he answers himself eagerly, “ Im.
mensely!” a longing light coming into his eyes
and his countenance growing vivacious, for sudden
thought suggests—“ Perhaps Bessie will be there,"
-—as he bounds up-stairs to encounter that joy of
budding manhood, his first dress suit.
Calling in his servant, he says: “ Jack, get out my
swallow-tail; I am going to christen it to-night,”
and soon finds himself arrayed in a well-fitting
evening costume that suits his lithe, though slight,
figure perfectly, having come from the hands of a
first-rate New York tailor. Looking at the glass,
Mr. Lawrence Talbot remarks: “I think this will do
the girls this evening; " and then mutters in sudden
joy: “ My first hop as a full-fledged man!”
A moment after he steps down-stairs, to find his
invitation waiting for him at the office. Then
shielded from the evening mist by a light overcoat
he crosses the Alameda, and entering the gardened
court-yard of the Ponce de Leon and passing its
sulphur-scented fountain, he strolls into that great
hostelry to see Bessie and not be over-pleased with
what his sweetheart is doing.
Having put away his hat and overcoat, he enters
the dining-room, where the dance is going on, and
joins the spectators.
It is the usual watering-place hop, that Lawrence
gazes on—the dancing ladies many, the dancing
men few.
As Lawrence's eyes rove over the assemblage
seeking his little sweetheart's pretty figure, his in-
quisitorial glances bring odd feelings with them.
Mr. Talbot sees acquaintances and intimate friends


184 a FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
of Lilly Travers, and would like to recognize and
speak to them, but dare not. Then he notices
some gentlemen who once bowed down at the
shrine of the late New York heiress’s beauty, and
mutters “ Wouldn’t they jump, if they but knew! "
Incidentally, among these he sees the stalwart form
of Doctor Fred, who is just entering the ball-room
with the radiant Mrs. Stella Lovejoy on his arm.
This lady appears even more beautiful than before
to Mr. Talbot, who divorced from the society of
women for the last two or three weeks, now hun-
gers for it with all a boy’s enthusiasm.
But even as he drinks in the widow’s beauty, a
voice beside him makes him start and blush with
joy. It is from blue-eyed Miss Bessie, and says to
the gentleman upon whose arm she is leaning:
“ Mr. Wilkes, your description of your orange
grove on Indian River gives me a yearning for
oranges ! "
“Ah, thank you,” remarks that gentleman excit-
edly. “Then,” he says with insinuation, “ you must
also like orange blossoms P”
“If the right man came with them!” answers the
young lady, and the blue eyes droop coquettishly.
Lawrence Talbot looks at this little scene, and
rage comes into his heart; he thinks savagely:-
“How dares Bessie talk of orange blossoms to
any man but me P—What a little flirt she is-—~for
of course she don’t care a copper for that idiotic
Wilkes.”
With this fires of masculine jealousy come into
his brain and make his eyes glare upon the offend-
ing orange grower. Mr. Wilkes however is $0


186 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
“ Pretty? Well, rather,” says Malcolm, who is a
man past middle age. “She is Miss Bessie Horton,
one of the belles of this place. Would you like to
be presented to her? Dancing men are scarce
about here, and you look as though you might
make yourself useful, Talbot!”
“ Miss Horton?" remarks Lawrence, as if trying
to recollect something. Then he says suddenly:
“Oh yes—Miss Bessie Horton; I remember. I
believe I have a letter of introduction to her in my
trunk at the hotel. I should be delighted if your
kindness would permit me to anticipate it this even-
ing." ‘
“ All right, my boy; I'll speak to her," answers
Malcolm, who is rather proud of his acquaintance
with this eligible young gentleman, whose clothes
and general get-up are unmistakably those of a
New York swell.
A moment after, the debutant in manhood sees
him speaking to Miss Bessie and her blue eyes get-
ting very big with sudden interest, as she hears that
Mr. Lawrence Talbot would like an introduction;
then his head buzzes; he is standing looking into
his sweetheart’s eyes and listening to her soft South-
ern voice and thinking her even sweeter, prettier
and more piquantly charming than the dear little
Bessie of old.
“ Mr. Lawrence Talbot?" she remarks, looking
him over. Then she says impulsively, “ Has Lilly
Travers ever spoken to you of me ?"
“ Very often,” replies the young gentleman eager-
ly. “ I have a letter of introduction to you from
her. I intend to present it to-morrow!”


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. r89
Lovejoy, who looks with kindly eyes upon Mr.
Talbot, and thinks he might make a new recruit
in her ranks of adorers and a pleasant foil to Doc-
tor Fred, and a card with which to draw out that
gentleman’s trumps in the game in which the widow
and he are playing. An idea which shortly after,
wards produces some curious complications in Mr.
Lawrence Talbot’s life.
Miss Bessie in her warm-hearted, impulsive, South-
ern way does the introduction business by the
wholesale, and Mr. Talbot soon finds himself once
more acquainted with many of Miss Travers' old
friends, having great difficulty in preventing himself
from treating the ladies with the familiarity that
Lilly was wont to do.
These peculiar actions of her escort coming under
Miss Bessie’s sharp eyes, she gives a little laugh and
Whispers: “ I am afraid you are a very bold young
gentleman.”
“ Indeed? Why P"
“ Oh, because—because you look so familiarly
affectionate at many of the ladies on introduction.”
A moment after she says : “ You must know my
father," and presents him to the Old major, who, ‘
learning that the young man has been in Southern
Florida, grows effusive about his phosphate proper-
ties in that region, telling him that he is forming a
company that will deliver an “A, No. I," eighty per
cent. fertilizer right on the Liverpool docks, for five
dollars a ton, and remarks: “ What do you think of
that P "
To which Lawrence, in bad judgment, replies: “ I
can't exactly tell—I am not a business man.”


I 90 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
“ Ha—ah ! Then we’ll teach you! America is a
business country. Perhaps you will make your for-
tune here! ” remarks the major patronizingly.
But Lawrence does not care for his future father-
in-law to imagine that his future son-in-law’s fortune
is yet to be made. He says airily: “ Oh, my an-
cestors did that for me long ago ! "
And so turning to Mrs. Lovejoy's attractive side
he leaves the future father-in-law impressed by the
tO-_be son-in-law’s wealth. For the major remarks
to Miss Bessie the first chance he gets in a playful
father’s aside: “ Has she caught a young and rich
beau, papa’s wise little girl?” playfully pinching
Miss Bessie’s pretty ear.
At which the girl says: “Pshaw! I have only
known Mr. Talbot ten minutes. What makes you
say such horrid things? Do you like to make me
blush ? "
But this conversation is interrupted by the atten-
tive Mr. Wilkes, who again makes his appearance
with some more remarks about oranges and orange
blossoms and takes the young lady to dance.
Looking upon this, as he is conversing with the
radiant Stella, jealousy again gets into Mr. Talbot’s
heart, and a moment after, the opportunity coming
to him, he takes Miss Bessie upon his arm and pro-
poses a little promenade in the big corridors of the
hotel. The girl assents so' readily to his proposition
I that this rash young gentleman becoming very bold,
thinks to take up his running where Miss Lilly
Travers left off—a mistake which brings its own
punishment with it.
After a few commonplaces, he twists the subject


194 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
his hat and offer his arm, as the beauty descends from
her victoria. Escorting her into the gardens, he
speedily has a couple of seats (for he has been lib-
eral, last night, with the servants of the Ponce de
Leon, and they remember him), and the two sitting
down amid flowers and sunshine listen to the band
playing in the loggia. In their conversation, Mrs.
Lovejoy soon discovers that this young gentleman
is a distant cousin of Miss Travers. This lady, she
at present considers her rival with the medical
Adonis, and becomes anxious for Mr. Lawrence’s
intimacy, thinking she may obtain from him infor-
mation of the Doctor’s position with that New York
belle, that may be of use to her.
A few minutes after remarking with an entranc-
ing smile: “The band has stopped work! " She
suggests, “Why not come up to my parlor, Mr.
Talbot? It is cooler there, and in a few minutes it
will be time for lunch, and you can be my guest.”
So in a very few moments Lawrence finds him-
self seated with the beautiful Stella on the very
balcony which Miss Travers saw occupied by Doctor
Cassadene and this dainty charmer when the first
pangs of wounded love came to Lilly’s heart to
make her on that eventful night turn away from
weak womanhood to obtain, perchance, weaker man-
hood. I
On account of Mr. Talbot, Mrs. Lovejoy and Doc.
tor Fred have had a lovers' quarrel the evening
before, and as Lawrence and she say sweet nothings
to each other on the balcony, this gentleman's card
being brought up to her, the widow returns “ Not at
home!”


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. ' 195
This makes Mr. Talbot very proud and conceited,
he thinking that his charms have literally floored
the handsome doctor in the very first round. He
strokes his not entirely completed mustache con.
templatively and meditates: “ I believe I could
capture Stella myself—for keeps, if I but wanted
her;” and thoughtlessly proceeds to put some nails
in Doctor Freddie’s amorous coffin in the easy way
that one gentleman rival does to another.
“ I believe you know my cousin Lilly, Mrs. Love-
joy,” he remarks casually.
“ Yes—slightly," replies Stella, forgetful of the
kisses she has placed on Miss Travers’ lips in the
very room into which they are looking—the one
that had been occupied as a dressing-room on the
occasion of the hop a few weeks before. Then she
says anxiously: “ The papers have given us rumors
that Doctor Cassadene is engaged to your cousin.
Do you know whether there is anything in it P"
“ Don’t know whether there is anything in it
MW,” answers Lawrence nonchalantly; “ but at
one time I am very sure the doctor was rather far
gone on la belle Travers. ”
“ At one time? What time P”
“ Oh, not so long ago."
“ You are sure?”
“Yes, ra-th-er certain, the words are drawled
out by the young neophyte in manhood. “ Just ask
him about the Ocklawaha boat three weeks ago.
Do l—-I want to hear what he says about it P ” and
Lawrence laughs. “ Ask him if he didn’t pester Lil
with his attentions until she actually threatened to
knock him overboard.”
.. We" ' -»
99
.' .M' “Hug”


196 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
“ A very curious threat for a young lady to
make," mutters Stella with pale lips, yet blazing
eyes.
“ Yes, my cousin was—I mean, is a very extraor-
dinary girl.”
“And she has made you very much her confi-
dant,” remarks Mrs. Lovejoy, eager to get more in-
formation, yet dreading what she may hear. Then
she says suddenly, “ Oh ! perhaps she was also inter-
ested in you.”
“ I never tell tales,” remarks Lawrence in the easy
vanity of his new-found manhood ; “ but why
ask me of other women? At present, I remember
only ”
“ Who?”-says the widow impulsively; for she
knows that at present she is in a very becoming posi-
tion in her lazy chair with a most alluring glimpse of
arm and a very slight but catchy peep of ankle in
view. Upon this Mr. Talbot,—who from the knowl-
edge bequeathed him of her sex by the late Miss
Travers, understands very well how to woo and win
women,— rises from his seat, walks deliberately over
to the fascinating, knock-every-thing-else-out-Of-
your-head picture before him, and is about to whis-
per, “ YOU.”
But at this moment, the fair Stella gives a sud-
den start, and cries: “ No, don’t answer that ques-
tion "—though her eyes droop under the ardent
glances of young Mr. Wild Oats.
“If not now, very soon," he murmurs. Then
he says laughingly, " Why didn't you let me anSWer
you ? " .
“Because I saw a naughty boy’s eyes were full


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 19’
of nonsense ! ” answers Stella rising and tapping him
with playful fan. “ Now we must have lunch. Will
you escort me to the dining-room?” As she says
this Lawrence Talbot sees a sight that makes him
start. From the selfsame balcony upon which Lilly
Travers suffered but six weeks before Doctor Freddie
stands and glares at him with jealous anguish; and
mocking laughter comes to Talbot’s lips.
“You seem very merry!" remarks Mrs. Lovejoy.
“ Have I not cause to be ! "cries Lawrence signifi-
cantly, and feeling very proud at having the prettiest
woman in the hotel to sit opposite him he takes
her to lunch to make other men jealous, especially
Doctor Frederick. This gentleman shortly enters
the dining-room, slight and insult in his soul and
hate and rage in his heart for this young popinjay
who steps so easily between the medical Adonis
and the woman he regarded as already conquered.
As for Lawrence, unheeding the lowering glances
which the unfortunate Cassadene gives him from
a neighboring table, he vivaciously and carelessly
chats over his meal with the pretty widow, thought-
less Of how his words about Miss Travers’ trip upon
the Ocklawaha may yet be brought back to him by
a man who hates him; careless, though he dearly
loves Bessie, yet will, after the manner of his sex,
scent forbidden fruit, the perfume of which is
sweet unto his nostrils.
Lunch being finished, he proffers his escort to Mrs.
Lovejoy for a drive to the base-ball grounds, near
the railway station, where two professional clubs
from great Northern cities are getting into early
spring training. Here they meet a number of other


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 199
bright with triumph. He ejaculates : “ I have
her! She can struggle—but I have her! ” and
hurrying through his dinner makes a wondrously
elaborate. toilet for the benefit of old Miss Con-
stantia Oglethorpe.
Thus, attired and embellished, this young sprig of
fashion about eight o’clock in the evening strolls up
the well-known walk that leads to his aunt’s house—
to receive a pang from conscience. He has not
thought much, in the excitement of his adventures,
of the sorrow that Lilly Travers’ disappearance will
bring upon those who loved her best. But now this
is to be brought home to him.
Forcing himself to remember who he is and to
forget what he has been, Mr. Talbot succeeds in
preventing himself from walking in unannounced
and giving Miss Connie 'the affectionate salutation
that Lilly was wont to bestow upon her dear old
relative.
He rings the bell and is shown into the parlor by
the brown Malvina, who tells him that Miss Ogle-
thorpe will be down in a minute, and leaves him sit-
ting in the very room in which six weels before his
marvellous change had been foreshadowed by old
Hauser’s narrative. There it is—the little ebony
casket—open as Lilly left it. He gazes at it in a
benumbed, dazed sort of way, for the memories it
brings to him would appall an older man.
' This reverie is suddenly broken in upon by Miss
Bessie’s voice in the hall. That young lady who has
just come in with her father, is saying: “Very well,
papa; if you have business in town this evening, you
may leave me here and come back for me ;—only,


200 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
don’t let your phosphate negotiations keep your
little Bessie out too late." A
A moment after the front door is closed by the
major’s retreating hand and the veranda echoes with
his departing footsteps, while Miss Bessie turns to
the servant and remarks: “ Malvina, tell Miss Connie
I am in the parlor;" and walking in, is surprised to
find Mr. Lawrence Talbot, who has risen with ex-
pectant pleasure on his face.
“ Ah! you have come. How good of you!” says
the young lady, who has apparently made up her
mind to forget her anger of the night before. She
smiles sweetly upon him and continues: “ I hope
you have left your advice behind, but brought your
letter of introduction. You might have driven out
to have delivered it today as promised ;—but I hear
there are very beautiful widows at the Ponce de
Leon ”——which shows that somehow she has learnt of
how Lawrence has passed his day; this town of St.
Augustine being rather small and gossip travelling
very rapidly about it.
“ Do you think your reception of me last evening
warranted my bringing you this letter to-day?”
remarks Lawrence, passing over the document in
question.
, “My reception of you was all you could ask,”
laughs Bessie; “ but my reception of your advice ”
—here she pouts a little,——“ my reception of all
advice is generally unsatisfactory to those who
give it. You will shortly discover that, Mr. Law~
rence.”
Then, opening the epistle from Miss Travers,
Bessie has no more eyes for anything else. This


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 201
pleases Lawrence who sapiently thinks, “ Is not love
for Lilly—love for me ! "
But here Miss Connie comes in to welcome him
very cordially, and say: “I am delighted to see you,
Lawrence—you will pardon an Old woman calling
you that, because I understand from Bessie you are
a cousin of Lilly’s, though she never mentioned your
name to me.”
“ A distant one,” murmurs the young gentleman
looking with very kindly eyes upon his aunt and
fighting down a sudden impulse to seize the dear
lady in his arms and give her one of Lilly Travers'
old-time kisses.
“ And yet,” goes on Miss Connie musingly, “ as I
look in your face, I know you must be some rela-
tive of Lilly’s. Why! you are as much like her as
man can be like woman.”
A minute after Lawrence making some uncon-
scious movement, she mutters : “ Lilly’s very gest-
ure! and—and—I have not heard from her for three
weeks,” and tears come into the dear old lady’s eyes
and produce pangs of conscience in the prodigal, for
whose return the fatted calf would be killed did his
relative but recognize him.
Then Constantia goes on eagerly to question Law-
rence about what he knows of her niece’s latest move-
ments, and some of her queries are more pertinent
than she imagines and give the young reprobate
pangs while answering them; for they run like this:
Does Lawrence know when Lilly will return to St.
Augustine? Did her niece appear well when he
last saw her? That Lilly seemed to have something
on her mind when she went away, and Miss Connie


202 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
hopes that is all over. Then she whispers: “As
her cousin perhaps you are already her confidant.
Did she say anything to you when you last met her
about Doctor Cassadene?"
' “ Oh! on that point,” remarks Lawrence easily,
happy to be able to remove Connie’s fears, “I can
assure you she cares no more for Doctor Fred than
I do,—which is very little.'_'
“ But where do you think she is now?” queries
Constantia anxiously.
“ She came to Florida some three weeks ago. She
should not be—very far—from here,” murmurs the
transformed one, struggling with a blush.
“Well, I have always said she went to Cuba.
That is the latest travelling fad," remarks Miss Con-
nie. “Though Bessie says she would have surely
visited us had she come within a hundred. miles of
St. Augustine! ”
“ But I know she was here,” cries Talbot im-
pulsively. “ I am almost certain she took the Ock-
lawaha trip about that time.”
“ Indeed ? " returns Miss Connie. “ I shall write
to the officers of that line of steamers in Palatka
to-night ; "—which she does this very evening, to
receive an answer some time after which produces
more effect on the young gentleman who is talking
to her than he at present imagines.
But at this moment they are startled by Bessie
Horton. That young lady having finished a second
perusal of the letter of introduction, suddenly hands
it to Miss Oglethorpe crying : “ Connie, read it your-
self. Every letter that girl has written to me since
she left for New York has had a meaning between


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 203
the lines. Tell me—does not this say ‘Adieu’ to
me P It does not put it in so many words, but I feel
‘ good-by’ as I read it. What has become of Lilly?"
“ Well," says Constantia, looking over the letter,
“ I do not see anything in it but a plain note intro-
duc'inga young gentleman "'—-here she looks at Law-
rence and laughs—“ whom Lilly recommends very
highly and seems to want to put before you as a
very desirable beau and perhaps as a ”
“You needn’t continue," interrupts Bessie with
sudden blush. “You read between the lines very
differently to what I do! ”
Then they fall into a general conversation which
lasts but a short half-hour, being broken in upon
by the return of the major, who has not found
the phosphate speculators that he expected to meet.
And Miss Connie, devoting herself to the ex-Confed-
erate, leaves Lawrence free to make himself agree-
able to the major’s daughter. So the two wander
out on the veranda together, into the light of a new
moon—a different one to that which shone upon
Lilly Travers and Bessie Horton one night in the
same spot, not two months ago. .
Then anxious to put off the look of anxiety that
is upon his sweetheart’s face (as this rapid young
gentleman has got again to calling Miss Bessie in his
mind) he remarks: “ Don’t you think you are a little
morbid in your views about Lilly P"
“ If you love her as I do, you would be as anxious
for her as I am," says Bessie. Then she continues
suddenly: “ And I suppose you love her very much,"
and a moment after smiles uneasily and inquires:
“ How much? ”


204 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
“ About as much as I do myself, " answers Law.
rence, the earnestness of truth in his voice. This
reply gains him Miss Bessie’s good graces.
She says hurriedly: “ Ah, you love her almost as
much as I do! ” and after this the conversation is
very pleasant, and some of the old look with which
she regarded Lilly Travers in the two days before
that young lady departed from St. Augustine,
seems to come into the girl’s eyes. After a little
she gets to telling Lawrence anecdotes about her-
self and Lilly and about the night the two girls
had spent together in the rooms up-stairs, where
Lilly dinged into her ears all evening—the name
of a young ,man—as she made her pack her
trunks.
“Yes, I know,” answers Lawrence, recollection
making his eyes bright and his heart beat fast.
Whereupon the young lady looks at him in as-
tonishment for a moment, and then says: “Lilly
Travers must think a great deal of you. She told
you everything—even that last unfortunate remark
I made about you. But we won’t think about that;
we’ll forget it! ” Then she cries imperiously, “ You
must try to make me forget it ! ”
“I will,” says Lawrence gallantly, and he keeps
his promise so well that their téte-d-tlte is only
broken by the major calling out in paternal chaff:
“Come in, Bess; it’s eleven o’clock. I must take
you home from your beau.”
“Oh, don’t mind what papa says!” whispers Bes-
sie with a blush. “ He thinks every young man that
talks to me adores me, and sometimes makes fearful
mistakes.”


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. as
To this, Lawrence answers with intention: " He
seems more discerning than his daughter.”
“ Oh, if you are going to talk to me in that way,"
says Bessie, “it is time for me to go ;” and she
passes into the parlor, pausing at the open window,
to toss over her pretty shoulder a glance that shows
she is not very angry at the gentleman she is leaving.
Driving home that evening, she remarks to her
father: “ I wonder if the young men were as nice
when you were a boy, papa P ”
“ Much finer," replies the major decidedly. “ In
my day the bucks and blades would fight for a
woman as well as love one." Here the veteran
chuckles to himself and continues: “ Young Tal-
bot seems tO have made a very favorable impression
on my little Bessie ; ” and gives her ear such a play-
ful pinch that little Bessie gives a playful little
squeal.
As for the young gentleman spoken of, he bids
Miss Connie an extraordinarily tender farewell for
one who has known her an hour or two, for he says
to his aunt: “ Do you know what I am going to
do P ”
“ No," remarks that lady, somewhat astonished at
the affection in his glance.
“ I am going to give you a kiss, and I am going to
adopt you as my aunt—for Lilly’s sake,” and does
so though Miss Connie is astounded.
She has a very tender heart, and something in this
young man's demeanor seems to have got very close
to it, and she mutters, returning his salute: “ You
have so many little tom-boy ways that remind me
of Lilly, my dear, that I adopt you as my nephew.”


206 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
So he goes away, murmuring to himself: “ The
nephew will try to make up the loss of the niece,"
and gets home to the Cordova in a very happy
state.
Here he is greeted efiusively by his man jack.
That sable worthy says : “ Yo’ did yo’self proud to-
day Mr. Lil—I mean Lawrence. Yo’ skooped in de
widder from de doc, I seed yo’. I’m doin’ a leetle
myself; I’se caught Gus's new gal—Antoinette of de
Alcazar—Gus’ld like to razor me, he would—And
by de way, Massa Lawrence, I’se been making queries
about heah, and twenty dollars a month may be good
wages for a 'maid but fifty’s 'bout de figure for a
gen'man’s body-servant. I rather cal’late my wages
has been riz by act of Pro’dence, Massa Lawrence.”
“ Yes—I rather think they have ! " assents Talbot.
--Then he says suddenly, “But keep the act of
Providence to yourself for heaven’s sake !" and so
goes to bed.
The next day Lawrence finds his way to the
orange groves on the San Sebastian, and passes a
very pleasant afternoon with Miss Horton. Where
he must have done some good for himself, as the
girl’s eyes look very tenderly after him as he drives
away.
So the days run on, Lawrence struggling to gain
her heart and forgetting everything but Bessie’s
smiles.
But devoting himself too closely to his work he
wounds some others. First young Mr. Wilkes whom
he succeeds in ousting from his sweetheart’s mind,
orange groves and all : and second Mrs. Lovejoy, who
is not accustomed to being neglected by gentlemen


208 A FLORIDA EN CHANTMEN T.
“ What's the matter—darling? "
“ Oh, gracious! I’ve lost the ring Lilly gave me
down that horrid fiddler’s hole.”
“ Never mind,” says Mr. Talbot grandiloquently,
“ I’ll get you another.”
“ Get me the same ./ ” implores Bessie, “ Lilly would
never forgive me, if I lost it. She will be coming
some day, to cry ‘Bess, where is that ring? "’ and
tears of appeal come into the blue eyes. Then Miss
Horton suddenly ejaculates: “ Look out! they’ll
bite you.” For Lawrence has pulled up his coat
sleeve and is digging with his hand into the den of
the fiddlers.
“ Pooh! ” remarks that young gentleman ; “they
are more afraid of me than I am of them ; ” and
after a little excavating with his cane in the sand
and groping around in the hole with his finger, he
finally brings out two fiddlers and the ring; the
fiddlers very much the worse for wear and the ring
as good as new, as he laughingly remarks.
“Oh, thank you,” says Bessie in an excited way.
“ How brave you are, to put your hand among
those awful things.”
“ I am delighted to be able to restore the ring,"
says Lawrence, taking her hand. “ How did you
come to lose it? ”
“ Well, Lilly didn’t seem to have the right meas
ure. Her second finger was the same size as my
big finger, and I suppose she selected it by her own,
and made some mistake.”
Of this statement Lawrence has no doubt, for he
remembers that Lilly Travers’ hand had grown very
rapidly just before sending the present, and easily


2 IO A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
“ You have been engaged before,” gasps Law.
rence, growing pale.
“ Yes ! "
“ My God ! "
“ When I was ten; that is the only time," mutters
Miss Horton. “ Little Willie Johnson said I was to
marry him, but he didn’t give me any ring." Then
Bessie commences to laugh, and says: “What makes
you so jealous, you foolish fellow; " and continues
. eagerly: “ Have you ever been engaged ? "
“ Never to a woman !” stammers Lawrence.
“ Well, then, you may commence with me,” says
Bessie archly.
So the two turn again to Miss Connie, who has
been enjoying a distant view of this scene, and Law-
rence remarks: “ I will leave her in your hands.
Her father will come for her soon. I believe there
are rings in jewellers’ stores in St. Augustine, but
none worthy of her. Bessie, would you like to wait
until I can go to New York for it ?"
“No; give me a moss agate, but don’t go away!”
answers Bess anxiously.
Then they walk down to the gate together, where
Lawrence entraps his sweetheart by asking: “ When
will you go to church with me?”
“ Next Sunday, with pleasure.”
“ Done ! ” cries the boy.
“ Oh l not to get married l" screams Bessie. “ I—I
don’t mean that." And looking at him with maiden
dignity she says: “Certainly not until you receive
my father's consent, Mr. Talbot. Besides—Lawrence,
I am going to wait until Lilly can be my bridesmaid.”
This brings dismay upon him and he cries eagerly:


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 217
to himself and his charming bride. Immediately
after this, from New York he will mail a letter,
written in his very best imitation of the late Miss
Travers’ feminine style and hand, to Miss Constantia
Oglethorpe, informing that lady that her niece is
well and happy and Of her intended immediate de-
parture for Europe.
This he fondly expects will eliminate any idea
from his aunt’s mind of her beloved niece being out
of the world and pave the way to his nuptials with
his charming sweetheart, which he determines shall
take place before the end of the Florida season, if
possible.
The details of these transactions having been set-
tled to his own satisfaction, he goes back to his room
in the Cordova, to find his trunks already locked and
strapped, and to think that his man Jack is turning
out a better valet than he had at first supposed to
be possible.
So the next morning, after liquidating his bill, he
drives to the “ Florida Special ” in company with his
man, to receive a most charming and delightful sur-
prise from his little fiancée, for that young lady, in
company with her father, is waiting for him at the
depot. His parting from her makes him curiously
happy, as she, in the sorrow of losing him for a
little while, promises that the next time this train
runs out for the North with Lawrence Talbot, he
shall take her with him as his very own—his bride.
The sun shines brightly as the train moves out
of the station, and Mr. Talbot is exceedingly con-
tent, and thinks the world before him is now very
easy, and does not know at this careless and happy


a FIJORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 2:9
This in the course of the day he transfers to an-
other box engaged in his own name in another safe
deposit company; and these securities being de-
posited for his own special use and benefit, he re-
marks to himself: “If Lilly Travers comes to life
now, she will be a very poor girl ; in building up my
own fortune I have wrecked hers.”
'A small portion of these bonds, however, he
sells and opens an account in a well-known bank,
leaving with them a thumping big balance for future
emergencies and the wedding trip that is now grow-
ing gradually nearer and more certain.
Then he turns his attention to Miss Lilly Travers’
affairs, and indites a letter in that young lady’s
handwriting to Miss Connie in St. Augustine, Lilly
stating that she has heard from Mr. Talbot the
anxiety felt for her by her relative, and writes to
reassure her. That' her maid Jane has confessed to
her that she tossed the garments over from the
Ocklawaha boat that night in her careless negro way
to avoid the trouble of carrying the worn-out things
along. Miss Lilly further states that she is going to
Europe for an extended tour and may perhaps even
visit Egypt and India and return via Japan and San
Francisco; consequently, her aunt is to put all
anxiety out of her head regarding her.
This letter Mr. Talbot himself posts in New York,
and then an emotional idea coming into his head——
that poor Bessie will feel slighted if Lilly does not
_write to her-he chuckles to himself at the thought,
and sends a very gushing girl’s letter, also in Miss
Travers’ handwriting and bearing Lilly’s signature,
to his sweetheart, giving a very good recommenda'


220 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
tion to himself and congratulating Bessie upon
the fine fellow she is going to get as a husband;
stating that Miss Travers cannot be present at the
wedding, on account of her immediate departure for
Europe, but that she sends through Lawrence a
present that will show her love for “ dearest Bessie "
and “dear Lawrence,”whom she hopes to meet in
Europe very shortly.
Looking over this, Mr. Talbot thinks he has
perpetrated a very sweet, practical joke upon his
fiancée, and sealing it hands it to his man John to
post ; for inspired with the delights that New York
offers to a wandering bachelor, he is anxious to go
to dinner with one or two gilded youths erstwhile
adorers of Lilly Travers whose re-acquaintance he
has made by letters of introduction to which he has
also attached Lilly Travers’ signature, this youthful
penman seeming like most other forgers to glory in
his art.
In company with these young gentlemen he has a
very astonishing and enjoyable and perhaps wild
evening, for he sees New York by gas-light for the
first time from the standpoint of a man of wealth
and fashion and it appears to him a very beautiful
though a wondrously wicked city: and leaves his
companions vastly delighted that he has never mar-
ried one of them.
The next morning finds him on a south-bound
train, with a very handsome present he has bought
at Tiffany’s to give in the name/of Lilly to his
sweetheart, and an engagement ring that he fondly
thinks will make Bessie open her clear blue eyes.
So on the evening of the fifth day from his do


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 323
walked down to the Cordova letter box, and not
being well up in the postal service of the hotel, has
asked Doctor Cassadene, who is lounging near, the
proper way of disposing of the epistle. That gen-
tleman, glancing at the envelope, has recognized the
welLknown writing of his lost fiancée, as he reads
the address, and after showing Jack the letter box
in which to deposit it, has asked excitedly, “ So,
Miss Travers is in town—after all I"
“ No, sah ! ” gasps Jack.
“ Why, she must be here! That letter is from her.”
“ No, sah! got de letter in New York. Mr. Tale
bot gave me dat letter in New York, to post. I for‘
got to put it in, sah.”
“Well then, Miss Travers is in New Yor .”
“ Certainly, sah! Miss Lilly Travers in New York.
—Saw her maid Jane der, sah—dc Hotel Buckin’-
' ham, sah. Mr. Talbot told me Miss Travers is gone
to Europe.” And having settled this matter in his
easy darkey way, Jack Robbins, nee Jane Rouser, de-
parts up-stairs, chuckling to himself triumphantly:
“ Reckon I had dat damn Doctor!"
He does not say anything about this, however, to
his master, thinking perhaps that it is just as well
not to confess he had forgotten to post the letter in
New York.
And to this thing being added other information
that Doctor Frederick now receives from the Ock-
lawaha boat company; this gentleman’s eyes open
very wide, as he says to himself: “ Can it be? The
infernal scoundrel!" A moment after he mutters,
“ Pshaw! Impossible! What motive l” But still
goes on thinking and putting two and two together


A FLORIDA ENCHAN TMEN T. 225
young gentleman shall call upon her that evening,
as she expects a few friends for a euchre party, and
idleness prompting this careless young man, who has
not yet learned enough of beauty to fly from it, he
accepts with alacrity her invitation.
So that evening about nine o'clock, sending up his
card, he is shown into the parlor of the widow’s ex-
tensive suite of apartments, where the servant asks
him to wait, stating that Mrs. Lovejoy will be with
him in a few minutes.
The euchre party apparently have not yet arrived,
and Lawrence idles his time away inspecting curios
and knicknacks about the room.
While doing so, he hears the servant announce to
Doctor Cassadene, who apparently has called in per-
son, that Mrs. Lovejoy is not at home, and with the
vanity of very young men smiles and mutters, “I
down Freddie every trip. He’s not even invited to
the euchre party."
The door has hardly closed upon the Doctor’s
retreat, before Stella proves to him that she is very
much at home, by coming in laughingly, and saying,
“ My party has disappointed me. You are the only
one! ” Then she adds: “ I am glad of it!” with
her tenderest smile.
“ And I, too ! ” returns Lawrence, for he is looking
upon a beautiful woman, who has made herself even
more radiant and dazzling than is her wont, for his
undoing, though in the innocence of his heart, Mr.
Talbot does not know it. “Your servant said you
were not at home, a minute ago," he continues.
“ Yes, not at home to anybody but you. I
thought as the euchre party had disappointed me,
Q


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 227
\
As he emphasizes this with his eyes, she ringsa
bell, and tea being shortly brought in, is poured out
by her, in the free and easy manner of an accom-
plished hostess, and gulped down in a nervous
excited way by the youthful Mr. Talbot, who sits
with uneasy eyes gazing at the alluring loveliness
which has been thrown before him, to make him
forget everything in this world, save the beauty of
Stella Lovejoy, so that the lady may have the
pleasure of hearing him speak some wild words of
love, and tell him what a naughty boy he is, just to
soothe her vanity —just to show him that all men
are as wax before her.
And this dashing, reckless young gentleman, who
has had no such experience before in his short
existence as a man, seems about to play the rble
expected of him.
His eyes look tenderly upon the gleaming picture
before him and grow wilder and wilder and flash
more and more fervidly as his Circe plies him with
the blandishments her experience has taught her
effective with youthful worshippers of her charms.
Her eyes seem misty with tenderness, she shows him
bashful blushes that enchant him and make him
lose his adolescent head.
Each pose she gives him of her lovely self seems
more beautiful than the one she moved from—she
tantalizes him with her varying graces. Once she
seems angry with him and pouts and turns her back
upon him, but it is to show the dainty dimples in
her shoulders—she laughs because her teeth are
pearls, she waves her hands because her arms would
make the lost ones of the Medicean Venus, she play-
a


228 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
fully shows him the step of the last new society fad
polka, but it is only that her little feet and adorable
ankles in their silk and satin adornments may com.
plete this boy’s conquest. And all the time by
subtle arts of look and tone and gesture, she says to
him “ I love you!" though not in words—and he
is as tinder ready to blaze up—when she applies the
spark.
“ Lawrence, play the gallant again ! ” she cries
“ and put my tea-cup away.”
He does so—their hands meet—their hands clasp
~—the tea-cup falls and is broken upon the hearth-
stone.
Lawrence's eyes seek hers that droop before his
impetuous glances; he hoarsely mutters : “ Stella—
my God! how beautiful you are! 1—" and in
another moment would show his temptress, by some
wild cry of passion, that Lawrence Talbot has for-
gotten the tenderest, dearest little sweetheart upon
this earth.
As for the widow, her eyes are triumphant. She
feels she has this fluttering, adolescent heart in her
grasp. But at this moment, dallying with her power
she destroys it. _
She whispers coquettishly: “ Why, what would
Miss Bessie say to this ? " and expects him to answer,
" What do I care what she says! ” or other- wild
Words that will give her triumph over the innocent
girl whose heart she would sacrifice to her vanity.
But with Bessie’s name, the charm is broken, the
string of passion is snapped.
Mr. Talbot turns deathly pale to his very lips and
gasps these astounding words—f‘ She would say 'I


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMEN'I‘. 23‘
ognized his rival, and his valet Jack Robbins, as
the two men who left the Okalzumpka that same
night at Orange Spring Landing.
Filled with the idea that there was something
mysterious in the Whole affair, more especially as,
after casual inquiry, he has discovered that the sup-
posed missing heiress was a cousin of young Talbot’s,
he has written to the Ocklawaha Boat Company, and
received from them a reply that makes him wrinkle
his brow very thoughtfully, for it states that no
person by the name of Lawrence Talbot travelled on
the Oka/zumpka from Silver Spring on that trip.
In fact, that no person by the name'of Lawrence
Talbot has ever registered upon any of their boats.
Doctor Fred utters a prolonged whistle on re-
ceiving this information, and mutters to himself:
“The fellow travelled incognito—surreptitiously.
Besides, he sneaked off the boat at an inconven-
ient place on the river, apparently not daring to
remain on the steamer till she reached Palatka.
Therefore this young man's presence on the boat
was for some purpose that he dared not disclose
to others—perhaps with some criminal intent. His
presence on the steamer may have had something
to do with the mysterious disappearance of his cousin
on that trip. Though what motive could the young
popinjay have had? ”
He has said this to himself several times. But
upon the knowledge being made public in St. Au-
gustine, that Miss Constantia had received a letter
from her niece in New York, Cassadene has put
from his mind this suspicion as being impracticable
for his purposes of revenge.


232 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
Though, seeing the letter addressed in his Old
sweetheart’s handwriting, in the hands of Mr. Tal-
bot’s servant, it has again revived in his mind, and
he has written to New York to the Buckingham
Hotel, where jack had stated Miss Lilly Travers
had stopped, for information of that young lady’s
movements. Furthermore he has also written a let-
ter to her New York lawyers, asking for information
as to the date of Miss Travers’ departure for Europe,
knowing that they will answer him, as these gentle.
men, he is confident, are aware of Miss Travers’ en-
gagement to him, and probably she has not taken the
trouble to tell them of the affair being broken off.
The answers to these letters have not yet arrived,
and at present he is in doubt as to what course he
shall take on this point with the young gentleman
whom he hates so cordially. But in investigating
Lawrence Talbot’s record, he has also learned of the
young man’s visit to Southern Florida, and inciden-
tally heard of the remark of his guide, that Lawrence
Talbot was the worst “ shooter” he had ever,seen,
and had never hit anything in a three weeks' sport-
ing tour, save the air.
This fact coming strongly into his mind on the
evening of the last terrible laceration of his vanity
and pride as a capturer Of women, and more par.
ticularly the beautiful widow of the Ponce de Leon,
it suddenly occurs to him that he can cover himself
with glory and honor, at comparatively little risk to
himself, by wiping his irritating rival out of his track
by means of the good old-fashioned duello—the cus-
tom of which has not yet entirely passed away from
Florida. An affair of this kind he fondly thinks will


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 233
make him quite a hero, and will probably reinstate
him thoroughly in the affections of the rich Mrs.
Lovejoy, upon whose hand and whose fortune he
has determined to make a desperate onset, ever since
he suffered the shame of a second refusal from the
New York heiress, upon the Ocklawaha boat.
Filled with this idea, the next morning Doctor
Freddie proceeds to put his bloodthirsty plan in
operation, and as usual in such matters, is very
cheerfully aided and abetted by the father of all
duels—his Satanic Majesty!
Mr. Talbot, aroused to bolt a hasty breakfast and
make a hurried toilet, by his faithful servitor, John,
goes to the depot,filled with the hope of again meet-
ing his sweetheart, but finds himself disappointed.
Her father, stepping off the train, greets him very
kindly, however, and says: “ My boy, you will have
to wait till to-morrow. Bessie couldn’t get through
her shopping as quickly as she expected.” Then
the ex-Confederate gives a sigh, for he knows his
daughter has contrived to spend the value of a good
many acres of phosphate land the preceding day in
Jacksonville, and he imagines that she will make
even a more aggressive attack on his check-book
when she has a full swing at the dry goods stores,
uncontrolled by his presence and advice.
The absence of his fiancée is not pleasing to Mr.
Talbot, who has got desperately anxious for a sight
of Bessie’s blue eyes, and he mutters several anath-
emas under his breath, as he and the major drive
back' to the centre of the town, where that gentle
man leaves his future son-in-law, and goes off on
business of his own.


234 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
So, Lawrence, in rather a huffy temper, wanders
into the Ponce de Leon billiard room, thinking he
will kill time over the green cloth, and having been
quite a feminine expert as Miss Lilly Travers, goes
to knocking the balls about in avicious and reckless,
nervous way, waiting for some acquaintance to come
in and indulge him in a game. This individual soon
makes his appearance, in the person of Mr. Wilkes,
the Florida orange grower, who doesn’t love Mr.
Talbot particularly well himself, but is very willing
to win a few dollars from the young man, who,
though he played well for a woman, is by no means
an expert for a man.
After a little, it chances that Doctor Freddie
Cassadene saunters in, his mind full of the purpose
that had entered it the night before. So sitting
down by the table, with this idea in view, he pro-
ceeds to make ill-natured, ill-mannered, and gibing
remarks about young Talbot’s performances with the
cue, laughing at his shots in a boisterous and sneer-
ing manner.
To these, after a time, this young gentleman, not
being in the best of tempers, vreplies quite warmly,
and with equally well intended witticisms, and finally
remarks to the doctor: “Why don’t you go up-
stairs? I don’t see what you can enjoy down here.
This is the gentleman’s department, and the lady’s
is more in your line.” Then he sneers, “ Have they
all deserted you? Is the big Adonis lonely?
Can’t he find a single sweetheart on the piazza? "
Which remark makes the Doctor chew his mus~
tache very savagely, for it reminds him of the dis-
eomfiture this young puppy, as he dubs him, has


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 24!
surreptitiously taken passage on the same boat, left
it in the middle of the night at Orange Creek Land-
ing.
Third, Since that time Miss Travers has really
never been heard of, though this same Lawrence
Talbot has brought a letter, purporting to come
from Miss Travers in New York, where Miss Travers
has not been ; therefore the letter is a forgery.
From all this he concludes that Lawrence Talbot
did murder his cousin, Lilly Travers, on the night of
February 28th, and that he has kept the secret of
her demise from her relatives and friends, by forged
letters purporting to come from his victim, and that
he had every motive for the act. For his cousin,
believing in his honesty and manhood, had for some
reason or other, left open to him her safe deposit
box, he perhaps having some small sum in it, so
that, Lilly Travers dead, all her wealth, securities,
and bonds were as free to this young man, as if they
were his own.
“ He must have used them as his own," concludes
the doctor, for Lawrence’s presents to Bessie have
been the talk of St. Augustine, and this young gen_
tleman has thrown his money away very recklessly
and extravagantly on all occasions.
Looking over the evidence before him. Cassadene
sighs: “ My Heaven! poor, poor Lilly!” and then
mutters to himself, dashing away a tear: “This
infernal monster shall pay for his dastard work!
I’ll hang the scoundrel as an assassin—not shoot
him as I Would a gentleman ! "
16


’44 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
accomplice john Robbins! Ah ! that brought you!”
cries the Doctor in triumph, for at his words Law-
rence has grown very pale, and sunk into a chair,
and there is a murmured “ Oh golly! Oh Lawdy!
I’se ’cused of suicide i " and a clashing together of
ivories, from “ the accomplice, John Robbins," who
has gone into an ecstasy of mingled laughter and
terror, in the next room.
“ What—makes—you—think that P" stammers
Talbot after a moment.
“ Think it—I know it! ” cries the Doctor. “ I can
prove it! I can hang you, you cruel monster that
murdered that poor girl, who would have loved me
if you had but let her live i "
But this is interrupted by a fearful giggle from
Lawrence.
“Quiet, you—you young fiend! ” biases Cassa-
dene.
“ Give me your proofs! " whispers Lawrence. “ I
would hate the man who had murdered Lilly Trav-
ers as much as you—yes—muclz mare I ”
“Very well! Here they are—convincing ones.
Only don’t try and come the sympathetic dodge—it
won’t work on me. I was on the boat that night i "
cries the Doctor. “I saw you get off at Grange
Spring Landing—you and your accomplice john.
You had the same suits of clothes on in which you
left St. Augustine for New Yor ." ‘
“I admit I was on the beat," remarks Lawnnce
candidly. “ I remember perfectly Miss Travers
threatening to knock you overboard, if you did
put your hand upon her shoulder agalli.”
“Ah, ha! you confeaai "


246 A FIDRIDA ENCHANTMENT.
ing the Doctor, he grows pale also, and murmurs.
“ Good heavens! What do you mean ?”
“ I mean that you are not accusing me of murdu
but suicide ! ”
“ Suicide? Ha ha i—ho ho !—he he!" and the
Doctor jeers him.
“ Yes, suicide ! " cries Lawrence desperately.
“ For I am Lilly Travers! "
“You, a man, assert that you’re a woman l " Cas
sadene gasps.
“ I can prove it i "
“ You tell this bosh to me—a doctor?"
“ Yes. Listen to me, ” and he rapidly gives Fred
the record of two or three interviews, that no one
but Lilly Travers could know.
But Cassadene turns this off with, “ Bah! She has
told them to you. She trusted you as her cousin,
and you murdered her! "
“Not at all! I SIMPLY TRANSFORMED HER INTO
MYSELFl "
“What gibberish are you giving me?" cries the
Doctor. “ Do you think you will escape by making
yourself out a lunatic?” Then he turns pale, for he
suddenly thinks he is in the presence of a madman
whose craze is murder.
“ I am as sane as you are! Don't bandy words!"
begs Lawrence appealingly. “Listen to me, Fred,
and believe." Then to his accuser’s astonishment,
he says: “ You remember the casket I spoke to you
about purchasing, at Vedder’s?"
“ Yes," says Cassadene, shortly, as anxious to put
a stop to what he thinks absurd palaver.
“ You remember how you deceived me by writing


248 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
the jury and they will put you in an insane asylum,
but never anywhere else. Keep the hand that
slaughtered my lost sweetheart away from me. I
am going to have you arrested i "
“ That you shall not do!" cries Lawrence desper.
ately. “ I can prove by one of these seeds—by trans-
forming myself into a woman_again, that though
now I am Lawrence Talbot, I once was Lilly
Travers.”
“Very well!" scofl's the doctor. “Take it!
Swallow it in front of me, and when you become
Lilly Travers again, I will love you as of old, and I
will marry you ! ”
But Lawrence, starting back, gasps: “ Marry you,
who make love to all women, and think as little of
breaking a girl’s heart as you would of destroying a
microbe—marry you—NEVER! and for that reason
I’ll never become a woman again! But you shall
not make this public! My God! What would
Bessie say? Her father would regard me as one ac-
cursed—she would look on me as weird—uncanny—
unnatural—she would not marry me. You shall
believe—by this i "
And opening the vial, Lawrence takes forth one
of the Obi-seeds of Hauser Oglethorpe.
“ You will take it P ” says Cassadene to Lawrence,
who is half minded, in his despair, to become a
woman again, for one short moment, to make this
man believe him.
But as he thinks this and shudders at it, looking
through the open curtains of the door to his bed-
room, he sees the stalwart Ethiopian his maid Jane
has developed into, and motions. and the negro


250 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT.
This scene would be weird and awful and crud
were it not for the hideous laughter of the negro,
who gufiaws: “ Golly ! S'pose we had been brought
up for murd'rin’ ourselves! Dat ain’t a possible crime,
is it, Mr. Lawrence?”‘and chuckles now and then,
“ What will de widder say to yo’, Missus Doctor!”
and other hideous samples of darkey wit and humor.
But there is a knocking at the door, and Lawrence
says: “ Open it! I think we have nothing to fear
from this lady ! " and bows politely to Cassadene, who
suddenly looks at him, and astonishes him by saying:
“ What a handsome young man you are ! " as the
major enters the apartment.
This gentleman starts upon seeing the Doctor, and
says : “ This visit to the gentleman I represent is so
out of time and place, that hearing of it from an
employee of the hotel, I found your second, and
brought Mr. Wilkes with me to take you away. I
demand your withdrawal from this room until you
meet my friend upon the field of honor. These
pistols, I think, Mr. Wilkes, will settle the business,"
and he produces two good old-fashioned duelling
pistols.
But here the Doctor rises from his seat, and says,
nervously: “ You are sure they are not loaded! I
don’t like to look at pistols ! They always make me
frightened. Their noise is quite shocking! " and
Wilkes and the major stare at each other astonished.
“ Why, you fire-eater ! ” cries the ex-Confederate.
“ Is the rage oozing out of the ends of your fingers?
You have come here to apologize, I suppose."
“ I didn't come here for that, but I am so nervous
about pistols and such things ; please put them


254 A FIDRIDA ENCHANTHENT-.
r
claims: “ Was it about a woman?" next, apparently
frightened, stammers: “ No, no; don’t tell me.”
“ It was about a woman," answers Lawrence.
“Ah! don't tell me."
“ It was about Lilly Travers," continues this young
man in nonchalant prevarication.
“ Ah !—he thought she loved you P” says Bessie.
“ No; Cassadene thought I had been instrumental
in preventing that young lady marrying him."
“ And you were ?"
“ Very much! I was the chief obstacle to his
leading Lilly Travers to the altar, and he knows 'it
now.” With this Lawrence gives a little laugh.
This is echoed by the young lady; who says: “ I am
very glad you prevented Lilly marrying the Doctor.
I think he is very insincere in his attentions to my
sex. Look at poor Stella Lovejoy at the Ponce de
Leon—how he has dallied with her.”
“Well,I rather imagine this deal has fixed him
with her also,” says Lawrence, his ripple of laughter
growing into a broad grin. Next he asks: “ But
Bess, how about the trousseau ?"-and continues
nervously: “Will it be ready in time?" For this
young man, in the presence of his vivacious fiancée,
grows very anxious for his coming happiness.
‘, “Y-e-s," murmurs Miss Bess, getting rosy with
blushes, and the two go into a conversation that only
lovers engage in who have passed the Rubicon of
courtship and whose wedding-day and wedding~bells
and orange blossoms are very near to them.
But before this takes place, a very curious adven-
ture happens to Mr. Talbot. Chancing to visit
Jacksonville one day on some errand for his sweet:


A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENTc 355
heart, he stops at the St. James Hotel, and while
there, word is brought to him that a lady Wishes to
see him in the parlor. He carelessly steps in, and a
tall, gaunt, masculine-looking woman with a hunted
look in her face, gathering her gown about her in an
uneasy way, rises and glares at him, whispering:
“ Don't you know mePI’
He almost staggers as he gasps: “ Doctor
Freddie! "
“Don’t mention my late name, dear,” she says,
giving him what she imagines to be a captivating
ogle. “ I dare not go back to St. Augustine, but I
waited around here, for I could not leave you. You
looked so beautiful to me that awful day you made
me a woman, that I have lingered about hoping to
see your loved face once more before you foolishly
wedded another and destroyed both our lives. For
the memory of our old love has come into my heart
to make me, as a woman, love you as a man."
To this Lawrence replies nothing, though his face
grows very white; and she goes on again in the im_
pulsive manner of woman’s self-sacrifice, and says:
“ If you will marry me, I will make you the best
wife in this world. I will complain of nothing. I
will be your slave—your idolater—your worshipper,
my own, my beautiful boy! You shall go to the club
and I will not reproach you if you stay out till the
morning hours. You shall have the love of a wife,
with the devotion of a slave. You are all that is
left for me now. Think how I love you ! ” And she
gives him loving glances that seem to him hideous
coming from this gaunt and masculine creature.
He shudderingly mutters: “ No ! no ! Impossible."




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