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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 -#■ ■n one of showi ni manufa James HARRIS $ Co, 99 YONGE STREET. rORONTO MMJ^E^FSCTl^mMMS Fl ine - -F. urs. We make a specialty of Ladies' Fine Gar- inents and guarantee a perfect fit at moderate prices. Intending pur- chasers would be amply repaid by sendi ng for one of our large, ha ndsoine Illustrated Catalogues, shoggng ove r one hundred different styles of Furs manufactured by us. JAMES HARRIS 5i G9. ©3 "ITong-e Street, - tp^r^^^^^^ **»S. — Iinj)vrters of Ladies' Silk Ridina Hats and Velvet Hunt' • I /ermilyea Corset Go. 246 A 248 SPADINA AVENUE, ME ILin NORTH OF fUEEN STREET, Manufaofur^ to M§a9ur§ MORE HEALTHY FIT BEHEB WEAR LONGER MORE ELEGANT THAN ANY OTHKRS. 9oI« ManufiactuMN Vermilyta PtUnt Salf-Fiiti^g, Vermilyta Pattnt SpiralSteelHtalth, The Corliss PATXNT ABDOMINAL Either side or back lacing. Recommended by Leading^ Physicians, PATRONIZED BY THE LEADING FAMILIES. (RETAIL ONLY.) ^ 100 Agents at Work in Ontctrio, BBWAKIB OF UNAUTHOBIZED AGhENTa measures Taken at Factory and Filed for Refereno€r Corsets Forwarded to all Parts of Canada. CALL AND LBATE' TOUR MEASITRl. GOOi l.lfc 4 _ f a; eA 1 The 8 • A (Go, 0000 BOOKS BY THE MOST POPULAR AUTHORS. E, ftnufkctiir«M ^M Pattnt 5sIf.Fittii,g, •a Pattnt teelHtalth, T NAL BTS, or back ^ians. ES. fenc€^ rv CHOICE COPYRIGHT FICTION SERIES. 1 BAhelierasade. By Florihob Wardkm 80a t From th« Other Side. By the Author or Olive Vwrooe iOo. t. Mona'a Choice. By Mm. Alkz- AVDBR 80o. 4 Marvel. By Thb Duoubss 80o. ft A Life Interest. By Maa. A'.iix- ANDBR 800. e ▲ False Start. 1^ Hawlbt Smart 80o. 7 The Passenger flrom Scotland Yard. By h. p. Woob 80o. 8 Kin£ or Knave. By R. E. Pran- OlbbON 80o. t A Real Good Thing. By Mrs. Edward Kbknabd SOo. 10 The Wrong Bead. By Major Arthur Oriftitus SOo. U "Chris." By W. E. NoBRifl SOo. It A Glorions Gallop. Bt Mrs. Edward Kbnkard 26o. 18 The Devil's Die. By Grant Allbh 8Cc. 14 Old Blazer's Hero. By David CURIBTIB MuRRAT SOo. It Breezie Langton. By Car. Hawlbt Skabt SOo. 16 The Heir of Linne. By Robb&t Buchanan SOo. IT By Blisadventnre. By Frank Barrjctt SOo. 18 A Dead Past. By Mrs. H. Lovbtt Oambron SOo. 10 BeautifalJim, By JohnStramob WiNTKR SOo. 50 Beyond Compare. By Ghab. Gibbon SOo. 51 The Honorable Mrs. Vereker. By Tub Duchbsb SOo. m The Mystery of «*. Turkish Bath. By Rita 86a 28 Bootle's Children. By John Stramor Winter S6a 24 The Pride of the Paddock. By Capt. Hawlbt Smart 26a 26 In All Shades. By Grant Allbn 80a, 26 Killed in the Open. By Mrs. Edw. Kemnard 80a t7 The Girl in the Brown Habit. By Mrs. Edw. Kbnnard SOo. SB The Death Ship. By W. Clark RUBBBLL SOo. Sft A Crack County. By Mbb. Edw. Kbnnard SOa 80 Logic Town. By Sarah Tttlbr.. SOo. 81 Straight as a Die. Bgr Mbs. Edw. Kbnnard SOo. 8i The Beckoning Hand. ^ Grant Allen 80a 88 The Rogue. Br W. I, Norsu. .. 80«. 84 A Flight to Franoe. By Ju 86 A Witch of the miisl' b/Flob- ENCB Warden 80 The Biaddozes. By Jbam Mid- DLEUAS 30& 87 A Crown of Shame. By Flor- BNCB Mabrtat SOe. 88 The Ladies' Gallery. By Jus- tin McCarthy and Mbs. Camfbell Praed 40a 88 The Man Hunter. By Dick Donovan 80a 40 Long Odds. By Capt. Hawlev Smart 30a 41 The Match of the Season. By Mrs. Albxandbr Frasbr.. . . 30a 42 Englishman of the Bno Cain. By the Author or Pa»»t- yer from Scotland Yard 30a 48 In Exchange for a Soul. By Mar\ Linskill 30a 44 Dolly. By Justin McCarthy 26a 46 St. Cuthbert's Tower. By Florbnob Wardbm . 80a. 40 A False Scent. By Mrs. Alex- ander . 26e 47 John Herring. By Rbt. S. Baring Gould 40a 48 Landing a Prise. By Mrs. Edw. Kknnard 30a 40 The Girl trom Malta. By the Author op The Myatery of a Hanaom Cab 30a 60 Mehalah. l iy 8. BABiira Gould. . . 40a 61 Lightly Lost. By Hawlry Smart 30a 62 The Pretty Sister of Jose. By Frances Hodgson Burnbtt 26e. 68 The Fog Princes. By Florence Wardmk SOo. 64 Under a Strange Mask. By Lieut. Frank Barrett SOo. 66 Harvest. By John Stranob Win- ter 300, 66 Lord and Lady Piccadilly. By The Earl of Dbsart 30a 67 The Last Coup. By Hawlky Smart 30a 68 A Troublesome GirL By The Duchess 26a 69 A Little Fool. By Johm Stkahgr Winter 26a 60 Under Which Lord. By Mrs. E. Lynn Linton SOa 61 Seventy Times Seven. By Adsunr Serbbant 30a 62 Mr. Stranger's Sealed Paket. By Hugh MoColl 30a 68 The Duchess of Rosemary Bgr B. L. Vabsbom nn SALE AT ALL iO^STBRkS, 0R MAILED PR.E Of MSTA4E UPM RE9SIPT OF PRICE tf •7 YONQE «< ^^^ TOIMMTO. The Singer Manufacturing Company (Thx Sewing Machine Masbrb of the Woru>). After Making and Selling Over 8,000,000 Machinefl HAVE JUST PBODLCED THB^BB BNTII^BLY DIPPBI^ENIP jSEOJ FAMILY SeUJI|NG MACHIjSeS The Oscillator. The Vibrator. THE BEST FAMILY SEWING MACHINE FOR ALL PURPOSES The Automatic. (Single Tbrcmd) 18 ONE OF THESE LATEST LIGHT RUNNING SINGERS Ir) hlecfar)f , Sori^egier)! ir)ef WopI^ With our NEW (Patented) Stand, And all the Latest Attachments and Modern Improvements. BRANCHES la cTcrjr city in Canada and Ike W«rl 'two. f CONTENTS. BOOK I. THE METAMORPHOSIS OF MISS LII-LIAN TRAVKRS. Chapter u u tt it W I. — The Purchase at Vedder's, - n.— The Peeping Eve of the Ponce de Leon, - - . . . III.— The Widow's Fluttering Pulse - IV.U" For Women who Suffer ! " - V. — The Marvellous Record of Hauser Oglethorpe, - . - von 7 i8 26 41 VI.— "Why Not?" - - 50 64 BOOK II. THE BOYHOOD OF LILLY TRAVERS. Chapter VII.—" Ah ! Naughty Boy— What Shall I Christen You ? " - - - 79 VIII. — The Hop at the Ponce de Leon, 91 IX.—" My Man, Jane," - - 108 ** X. — " Have I, like Frankenstein, Raised up a Monster to Destroy me ? " 122 ti u CONTENTS. FAGS Chapter XI. — " Good-by, Bessie ! " - - - 143 " XII. — The Monster Becomes Danger- ous, 150 •• XIII. — Doctor Fred Would Like a Kiss, 164 BOOK III. THE WONDERFUL ADVENIURES OF MR. LAWRENCE TALBOT. Chapter XIV.— Wild Oats, 181 " XV. — Floating Garments from the Ockla- waha, ... - ig^ " 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 I M i i A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. BOOK I. The Metamorphosis of Miss Lillian Fravers. CHAPTER I. THE PURCIIASK AT VKUDER'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- ern 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 th^ first four months of the year, to make this i e 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 ? " " Ain't no price marked on it — but five doUars'll do ! " ' I'll take it ! " " Five dollars for tkaf ! " cries a bright, laughing voice in Miss Travers' rhell-like ear. 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 ? " ** No," replies the saleslady ; " it's been on that shelf ever since I came 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 Travefs 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 stuffed rattler? It's the largest in the world — it's twelve feet long and as big as a boa con- strictor." ** 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 ? " lO A FJ.ORIDA 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 ! " cries Miss Travers excitedly. " I have bought it ! Don't you dare try and take it from me ! I — I 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 ?T-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- line de soie about her lithe and charming figure and A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. II the 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 Northeyi 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 C6rdova. Lillian Travers thinks the sparkling scene very beautiful after New York snow and cries enthusi- A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 13 . astically, " Isn't this worth thirty-two hours in a rail- road train, Bess ? " " Oh ! just look at that steam yacht ; can you read its name ? G-a-d-a — the — the Gadabout ! — » what a funny name — but what a darling boat ! Her owner must be very rich — and I hope young," cooes Bessie, her blue eyes devouring the graceful craft lying at anchor some hundred yards from the shore. " Rich, but not young," remarks Miss Travers sententiously. " I know Mr. Remington quite well. You can see for yourself. — He's landing now." She points to a naphtha launch which is depositing its passengers upon a litrle wharf nearly opposite the two young ladies. "Oh, the gentleman papa is going to sell thQ phosphate lands to," cries Miss Bessie ; for her father. Major Calhoun Benham Horton, has given up any animosity he may have felt toward North- erners at the close of the war, in the delight of sell- ing them phosphate properties ; the Southern eye being as quick to see and the Southern hand as deft to catch the almighty dollar as those of their per- haps shrewder but no more eager brothers of Con- necticut and Massachusetts. As she says this, a gentleman is passing through the crowd of boatmen that gather round him eagerly offering their craft for the various pur- poses of pleasure, fishing and excursion, about the inlet. Arriving at terra firma the yachtsman sees the two young ladies, and, taking off his hat po- litely to Miss Travers, whom he knows very well, is introduced to Miss Bessie. 14 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. A moment after the Southern girl whispers to the Northern one : " You were quite right ; he is 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 ? " "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 ? " exclaims the gentleman, astound- ed — " a locksmith to unlock the alligator's jaws ? " "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 ? " " 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 — whatcver'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 ! " 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 i6 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?" 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 ? " *' Certainly," replies Lillian in a set tone of voice, aL 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. 17 ** 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," replies the artisan ; but after deluging the awards 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 astonishe 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." i8 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. So chatting together, the two girls walk straight to the Alameda and arc 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 Alcazdr with its ceaseless fountain and tropical plants ; be- yond, the Villa Zorayda looking like oome 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 hejit by a sea breeze that gently moves and rustles '-'?' '':^ A FLORIDA KNCHANIMENT. 19 the foliage of the luxuriant vegetation ; brighten this all with lovely American women — make it music. 1 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 Arn^y signed by Jefferson Davis. He bows to the young lady with punctilious politeness and welcomes her to St. Augustine and Southern hospi- tality with the grace of a modern Bayard. " Egad ! " 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 ! " Then wishing to turn the converration — 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. Remingcon? 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 Travcrs ; and the three stroll into the court-yard of that beautiful building, where the major cries out sans cdnfmonie to a dark-colored gentleman in gorgeous yellow livery, knee breeches and silk stockings, " Here, boy, chairs for the ladies ! " — 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 thQ 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 indulges A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 31 >» in a few minutes of brown study. Miss Bessie has probably less on her mind, and keeps her bright eyes pretty well occupied noting robes and millinery; directing, however, a few veiled glances at such of the masculine portion of the assemblage, as find favor in her sight — there being plenty of men to choose from scattered about in costumes varying between the bright flannels of the tennis-court and the sombre black broadcloth of gentlemen from the prairies. After a few minutes of this, Miss Travers is sud- denly roused by Bessie's hand upon her arm and Bessie's whisper in her ear, " Hush. Don't look up too quickly — don't appear to notice her — but see that girl on the veranda of the second story of the hotel. I have been watchng her for five minutes, and her face has expressed love, hatred, jealousy, despair, — and she's just lovely in all of them." "Who is she? — Ah!" ejaculates Miss Travers. For her eyes are resting upon a very beautiful girl, who, partly screened from observation by the heavy columns of the Spanish arches of the balcony that faces the court-yard, on the main building of the Ponce de Leon, is glancing diagonally across the garden into one of the open windows of the left wing of the building. " See," whispers Bessie. " A moment before, her eyes had love in them ; now they have despair. What a gallant he must be to agitate her so ! " " He— who ? " " The man she is looking at, of course ! " cries Bessie. For at this moment the young lady they are dis- 22 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 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 ! " "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 ! You know I cannot 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 ofif 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, jealousy and despair." A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 23 The next instant she in standing in the young lady's place gazing upon the same veranda, and beside her is Lillian Travers with passion, jealousy and despair also in her heart, leaning against the selfsame column and uttering the same sad despair- ing sighs of the former watcher. Fortunately Bessie is too occupied to notice her companion's agitation. " Isn't he lovely," she ejaculates ; " and isn't she a stunner ? " For upon the little balcony to which she devotes her attention, is seated a beautiful wom'an opposite a very hand- some man. The lady is perhaps five and twenty and looks her age, but no more. As the graceful yet mature devel- opments of her figure are outlined by the clinging yet flowing drapery of a beautiful semi-tropical morning toilet, they seem perfection in their careless pose and languid ease. One pretty foot in light, silken hose, and dainty slipper is tapping nervously the veranda. One white hand ornamented, not covered, with rings and bracelets is resting pensively upon the arm of the chair in which she lounges. The other, which cannot be seen, may be — probably is — in the grasp of the g ntleman seated beside her. Her eyes, which are of a brilliant, metallic steel blue, are glancing vivaciously at him, and her rosy lips, parted in smiles, show the white pearls between them as she apparently utters a word or two to the cavalier beside her. He, however, is doing most of the talking — undoubtedly earnestly, probably passionately ; his gestures being those of devotion and persuasion, and his eyes having in them a reckless fire. He is ,..- 24 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. II ill! I'll!'' nearly six feet tall, of slight yet handsome propor- tions, and has a kind of off-hand insouciance in his attitude, as if he felt he had his battle well in hand. His forehead is high and would be noble were it not contradicted by his other features ; for his eyes, though beautiful, are careless, reckless, insincere ; his nose, though dominating, is not delicate, and his handsome mouth, under his long drooping mustache shows passion rather than love ; a face that would scarcely be true to wife, maid or widow — certainly not to wife. His figure and bearing are of that manly recklessness, jovial good humor and dashing, devil-may-care coolness — perhaps impudence — that makes deadly war upon female hearts, — the face of an Adam whom Eves will love and run after for all time, and who for all time will betray his despairing Eves. " Isn't Fred lovely," cries Bess, after drinking in this scene with open eyes. " You'll meet him at the hop to-morrow night. Dr. Frederick Cassadene. Isn't he beautiful ! Why don't you answer me ? Are you so love-struck that you've lost your voice ? ** and she turns round, but to her astonishment dis- covers that she is alone ; that Lillian Travers has silently deserted her. At this she muses to herself : " I wonder what is the matter with Lilly ; " then gives a sort of stifled, frightened gasp : " Can she be smitten like that other girl ? " and so meditatively finds her way to the court-yard below, with its laughing crowd, dreamy music, bright sun and happy faces. But nowhere can she find her companion of the morning, for Lillian Travers, staggering and stunned with misery, has faltered through the palm-swept i ,1,, A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 25 ^ti alleys of the Ponce dc Leon and crossed the crowded Alameda into the more lonely plaza of the Alcazdr, where only the hum of voices from the crowd comes floating to ker. 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 fianc^ is a doctor. — A woman who gives her heart should give her faith." — Next she cries ^ut in feminine logic, ** 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 ker — 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. ■1 iM ■A 26 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 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 ? — My doctor Fred ? — if it should be " and clinches her pretty fist — then sniffs at the fountain and mutters, " What horrid sulphur water ! — This place is not healthy!" and almost tottering to the Alameda calls a carriage and gasps, " Miss Oglethorpe's place — Sunny Grove —Quick!" 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 Viot argue well for Doctor Fred when he makes his afternoon call upon his pretty fiancee ; as Miss Lillian Travers had but an hour ago a very lively curiosity as to its contents. CHAPTER in. rV- THE WIDOW 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 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 27 orphan daughter of a New York banker, she has no near relatives, save the lady to whose house she is driving, and though her own mistress has not been, until the last few days, the mistress of her own fortune ; for her father, having a mortal dread of his beautiful child's wealth making her the prey of some matrimonial fortune-hunter, had provided in his will that all his property, both real and per- sonal, should remain in trust for his daughter and her descendants, only the income from it to be used for their support and maintenance. If, however, Miss Travers remained unwed until her twenty-fifth year, the property should then pass into her sole possession and unlimited control ; the testator apparently thinking that Lillian's wisdom at that age would protect her from an unwise mar- riage. This provision had for some time after her father's death apparently been unnecessary. Miss Travers* heart being invincible to masculine ad- vances ; until the preceding summer, chancing to spend a few days at the Grand Union, Saratoga, she had met Dr. Frederick Cassadene, who was acting as the physician at that celebrated hotel. Called in to see her professionally, to treat some passing ailment, his prescriptions had been beneficial to her health, but his charms of manner and con- versation had been fatal to her heart. It was a case of love at first sight on her side — probably on his; for this medical gentleman's attachments to pretty women were not so permanent as ardent. Under these circumstances Lilly's visit to Sara- toga had been extended to the end of the season, li! " • !i i ■;! 28 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. ::3 m I 1 ,1,1 I III!! and when she left that watering place, Doctor Fred's 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 expose 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. Wi it until next spring ; then if you wish A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 29 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 fiancee 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 joy, 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 ¥> A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. HIT,,,; glance at the niece, for these two are great chums and confidants, and Miss Connie has had Lilly's 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 ? " "Oh, nothing," says the girl, reddening; then femarks 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 ? " • To which Miss Constantia replies : " There is nothing peculiar connected with t/tat casket, though I believe there is a very extraordinary story linked with the other one! " " The other casket ! What ot/ier casket ? " " 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 I-illy, 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 ENCHANTMENT. 31 A 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 Dver there," exclaims Lilly with an excited start, the boy's re- marks at Vedder's in r;jgard to her purchase flying into her mind. " Yes," continues Miss Constantia, unheeding the interruption ; *' his sufferings during the shipwreck and gale 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 sternly. " 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, 1 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 young 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 i^ 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 safifron-hued attendant who is very ipris with a col- ored gentleman of Sixth Avenue, New York, who is at present acting as the second waiter of the Ponce iiHii A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 33 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 gazyig 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 !«ghtly : " 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 KNCHANTMENT. " Humph ! you'll tell 'cm 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 ! " 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 ! " 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 unhappy as I thought of you in lonely St. Augustine." " Of course — very lonely St. Augustine ; there were few visitors here until the last week, out then " here Fred checks himself suddenly. " But for the last week you've do pretty well," laughs Lilly. Then she says sadly, perhaps point- edly : " The Gadabout arrived here a week ago ? " and gives a little sigh. " Oh — ah ! That's where the land lies," thinks this medical Machiavelli and remarks, " Yes, that yacht brought me a patient — a friend of yours : Mrs. Love- joy "—and hoping to carry the war into Africa con- tinues rapidly: " But your secrets, ma belle? — You needn't fear confession — you have a merciful judge — A FLORIDA ENCHANTMKNT. 35 your beauty shall plead in mitigation of your follies. You've been indulging in a little flirtation — eh ? ** 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 Fll never make you weep again!" and means every woid he says as he looks at his beauti- ful sweetheart. *' Very well," she .vhispers, glowing under his attentions. " You forgive me ? " " Of course — I could forgive you much more than that ! I have forgiven much more to-day ! " " To-day — how have I offended ? " He looks carelessly innocent as he puts the question. " Ask your own heart ? " "My heart tells me nothing but that I love you!" " 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 o;' he will haye an un- comfortable time between his beautiful fiancee 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 nlan has loved her." " Who ? " 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 'ight coming into her eyes, though she turns them away from his tte'i' A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 37 laughs, y in his e an un- ic6e and head he )ne that :ially the be j cai- man has ried you stay out ly. But, )ractising self as a [h. Men irl gasps, y man on h at Mrs, yet I pre- nrtan has anxiety, nchalance sband." things ! " ef. Then over her ming into from his 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 ! " Then 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 ! " " 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 never take a hint ! " " A hint of what ? " " A hint of anything sensible. Don't you know a girl never likes to tell her /«// age to her lover " — cries Lilly desperately. " Oh, how hard you make it ! A week ago I was — " 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 Jupiter! " "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 ■an 1 ''":>{ 38 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. .: H smiles and laughter when I groaned ' Four years was a long time to wait * — when you mocked my impatience by " But she interrupts him, crying, " Don't reproach me — I only thought ycu would be delighted by the surprise — I ** " And you deceived the man you love ? " And Fred would be very stern with her, but the girl having gotten over her confession regains her spirits and laughs, ** That wasn't very difficult — 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 cf 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? — You don't know our Florida evenings " — then looking at his watch cries, " Nearly six o'clock, — what will my patients think? — 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 ? " 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 a little squeeze which makes his sweetheart very happy. A FLORIDA ENCHAxNTMENT. 39 "What time?" " How will eight do?" "So late?" "Well, half-past seven — you'll have your tea over by that time." *' Yes, and something ready to show you — I'd for- gotten all about it — it's a curiosity," and she tells him of her purchase at Vedder's — then asks, "Are you an antiquarian ? " " I'd be anything to sit beside you," cries Fred. — " No, your aunt can't soe us " — for they are at the gate now, r^nd he is anxious for a kiss. "There! No more till the evening." And with a little laugh Lilly escapes from him and drawing up her white skirts to clear the plants covered with evening dew, runs lightly along the path, making a lovely but fleeting picture of floating robes and twinkling feet and exquisite ankles and blushing face upon which her lover gazes with admiring eyes and mutters — " By Jove ! how charming ! and mine too ! All mine — youth, beauty and fortune. Lucky boy. Doc- tor Freddie ! " Then whistling a merry air, he turns his steps toward the centre of St. Augustine, for he loves Lilly Travers very dearly, and is happy in his love, just at this moment. A few minutes after, as he passes the San Marco, the lights of which are already twinkling in the dusk of the evening, Doctor Fred thinks iniipa- tiently, " By George ! it's a pity I had not known of Lilly's coming into her fortune, before ! This complication with Mrs. Lovejoy may be inconven- ient, if she should discover " — he gives a long, con- 40 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. ■ 'ili ii 1 1 1 ; 1 ' 1 I ti 1 i . 1 1 1 wm l\IM HI lii ^^'■^ templative whistle, but a moment after mutters to himself : " I've had two girls on the string before — I guess I can handle this pair, even though both are heiresses, and one is a widow ! " and with this steps briskly on to the Ponce de Leon, where his servant, waiting for hjm in his ofifice, informs him that Mrs. Lovejoy is very ill. " How do you know that?" he asks hastily. " She has sent for you three times within the hour, sir." "Oh, is that all?" he says, with a relieved smile, and strides up to the magnificent suite of apart- ments on the second floor, occupied by the rich New York widow, to find her playing invalid in a coquettish tea-gown, evidently donned for his con- quest and undoing. Here he's received with playful words of reproach at his professional neglect, but with such alluring smiles and captivating graces that Fred Cassadene very shortly forgets the physician in the gallant and loses from his capricious mind all thought of the beautiful girl with whom he has just been discussing their wedding day, and thinks only of the beautiful blue eyes that are gazing into his, and the lovely pulse that he has felt half a dozen times to see if it fluttered, and found it flut- tering every time. But, if any one had accused him of treachery to his fiancee, even at this moment, he would have denied it indignantly, for Fred Cassa- dene's nature is perfectly irresponsible. Though come to man's estate, in matters of the heart he is still a grown-up boy, and has a boy's knack of loving all pretty women — the one nearest to him, the best. A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 41 CHAPTER IV. "FOR WOMEN' WHO SUFFER!" 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 mey *• 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 ! — 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 9ight, though not by name. I recognized him as a gentle- iman I had often seen driving about St. Augustine, jduring the last two months. My attention had Ibeen 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 ? " asks Miss Travers [eagerly. "Which do you like best, tea or coffee.?" says :the aunt, as they seat themselves at the table. 42 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. :'il!!ci! I W^^ M " With whom did you see Doctor Free} driving ? '* ** 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, SL-izing both note and bou- quet, at the same moment. " Look, auntie, lovely roses from Doctor Fred ! Lsn'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, 43 pouts, and there are tears in her eyes, for she is reading the following: Ponce de Leon Hotel. St. Augustine, Florida. February 1st, 189I. My darling Lilly : Horror of horrors 1 I'm just called to attend a desperate case of snake-bite, about four miles from here, out on the Tocoi 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, Fred. P. S. I'll give you the kisses in person to-morrow, 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 ! ** responds Miss Connie dryly. " But the dear fellow will be here to-morrow 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 44 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. !'i::|M!|I f:mM- ' the lad turns to go, she suddenly cries " Stay! '* and sitting at her desk, writes one of the sweetest, loveHest, 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 ? " " Noth— nothing ! " " 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. Tm very comfortable — I — Aunt Connie ! why do you tease me so ? Don't you see I 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 ! " " 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. " Did I do that ? " This is attempted surprise by the sufferer. i% ':! .1 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 45 ** Yes, you did at tea, twice — no, three times! " '* Well, whom did he ride with ? " cries the girl anxiously — almost savagely. *' 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 ! " remarks the old diplomat with a knowing smile. " And so have you ! She was the person you saw Fred driving with, before I came here ! " 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 ? " " 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 a woman who has profited by sixty years of heart-breaking spinsterhood, I tell you, Lilly, don't remain single, as I am ! Marry and believe ! " " 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 t^he 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 ! " 46 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. t !i'. " Have the faith of the martyrs ! " gasps Lilly. Then she mutters : "You think all women are mar- tyrs?" — a kind of horror coming into her beautiful eyes. ** Most wives are ! " remarks Miss Connie senten- tiously. "What wretches men must be !" 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 I could 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, for A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 47 inie senten- .a 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. 4t A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. So, if Mr. Gustavus Duncan makes his appearance, after his duties are over at the Ponce de Leon, you need not hesitate to give him your undivided at- tention." ** Yes, I 'spects Gus is comin' over, but I've heard strange 'ports 'bout him roun' town to-day, an' ef he don't give an explanashun of hisself, he'll heah somethin' startling ! " remarks Jane, with a savage sort of snarl, as she retires from the room. "Ho! ho, she's happy too!" mutters Lilly, sti- fling a nasty little laugh that is not pleasant, com- ing from one who is young and should be happy. As she says this, she drinks hurriedly a cup of tea, which is much too scalding to please her, and cries vivaciously, " That settles my nerves ! Now I am equal to my antiquarian investigation !" Then picking up the ebony casket, once more, she looks at it meditatively, and thinks, " If this should be the one old Kauser told about — the one that would make him rich — the one that would make a woman a man ! " next gasps, " What an absurd idea — uncanny — weird — awful ! " But curiosity is always potent in woman, and Lilly puts the little key she has obtained from the lock- smith into the old wards, and clicks back the lock of the box in a hurried, nervous, desperate way, and so lifting up the lid, within is a little package, done neatly up in brown paper, and sealed. After a moment she lifts it out and it seems won- derfully heavy, if entirely manuscript. The outside of the packet bears an inscription, and reading the time-stained characters carefully, she gives a little shriek, and drops the affair as it A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 49 ems won- wcrc red hot into her lap with a shudder, for she has read : • " To be '" opened ! otivcyed to my family^ by the finder , un- Hauskr Oolktmorpk." The signature is that of her f^reat-grandfathcr — whose picture has been grinning at her in the dining- room — the old sea-dog and slaver, Hauser Ogle- thorpe himself. After a pause to calm her nerves and thinking excitedly, " Can it be that I am to know the secret my ancestor spoke about, or was it as Aunt Connie thinks but the jabbering of a senile imbecile?" Lilly's curiosity again dominates her and breaking the seals she opens the packet. Its contents are two documents, both stained by age — one short, apparently a memorandum, the other of much greater length, and carefully wrapped up in them a little glass vial, its stopper sealed with wax — within it she can easily perceive four amber-colored beads or seeds, each one about the size of a small grape. Their glazed outlines have a peculiar phosphorescent gleam about which the lamplight plays, giving them the varying hues of the rainbow. 7\s she turns the vial in her hand these seem to leap about and play with one another as if instinct with life and vitality. Upon the bottle which holds them has been pasted a slip of paper which bears this curious — perhaps uncanny inscription : For Women who Suffer. Ha ! ha ! ha ! ill 50 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. CHAPTER .V. THE MARVELLOUS RECORD OF THORPE, HAUSER OGLE- " 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 18 13. Being pursued by the English sloop of war. Fal- con, 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 f^tte 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 jilace I am bound for! The paper finishes with two or three imprecations so horrible in their blasphemous intensity that the A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 51 JSER OGLE- girl drops it witli ri gdsp ; but fired by curiosity, after a little time picks up and deciphers the longer document wh/ch is headed : Record of my Marvellous Discovery of the Tree of Sexual Change. and drops it with a cry of mocking unbelief. Bu*- gazing at the document again gives a little gasp of wonder — for it continues in a kind of weird presti- digitation : That's what I kni:w 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 j'' E. anci latitude 7° ,5' N. and 1 soon succeeded in obtaining a cargo of slaves from a barracoon in charge of a couple of Portuguese, paying, however, a jood 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 !!!|illli^ i!ifp 52 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. iiii I 'Vi all men — a most unusual circumstance ; and 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 T 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 secret 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 111 I' i; A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. $3 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, t 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 :;iii'! Mil!!!';! ;i !ll|i iii'i A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. the cliffs, which seemed to have no opening, being covered with heavy verdure, tropica! plants, and great trees the branches of which came down to the water to meet the mangroves growing in the shal- low places. Parting the branches of one of these trees that grew to the water s edge and forcing the boat in, under Quassi's guidance, a narrow cleft was dis- covered, cut straight through the solid cliffs, that ;e above us hundreds of feet. Though the Water was deep, the opening was so narrow, that as we en- tered this defile, the sun was cut off above us, the water grew dark to the view and the blackness of night came over us. There was scarce room for the play of the oars in my gig between the rocks, and a strong current setting out to sea made our progress very slow. Bats, disturbed by us, flapped their wings over our heads ; serpents, coiled upon the branches of the trees that grew out from the sides of the cliff, hissed at us as we passed beneath them. To encourage my men, who wanted to turn back, I went into the bow ot the boat, conning it myself through the passage, and after four hours of hard labor, the sunlight came to us again ; — we had passed through the cleft of overhanging rocks, and found a lagoon opening before us in weird loveliness. Its shallow waters, made black by African mud, ended in swamps on every side save that on which we entered it. These were bordered by ccine-brakes filled with serpents and crocodiles — and the heavy forests beyond resounded with the jabberings of monkeys diversified and made terrible by the roars of lions and cries of elephants. A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 5S 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 th** 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 readied the island, which was but one hundred feet long by half that width, and upon it for the first time I saw the " 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 sue- 56 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. \ h: ii ij!! iiii M[ IMi m Hi,- ceedin^ years — a party of picked men came from the village in canocn 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, — one thousand moons thereafter. While listening to his yarn 1 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 eyes!" cried Bill Jones, a strapping sailor who pulled bow oar in my gig. ** One of them little things turn me into a woman ? " 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 ENCHANIMENT. 57 om the ds, and i-house le tree fter. ing the he time for the ver the em hav- -gave a cunning tsvvain's ck with d I not ^l that I eyeballs, hideous uld have bringing 1 shore — 2gro, and LIS power know, strapping 2 of them i before I le amber , his eyes Then he imsclf be- hind the foliage as if timid and .ishamed ; wliile wc gazed open-mouthed upon iiiin,- for his screams were no more those of the hoarse sailor, but those of a shrill-voiced woman, and he simj)ered and giggled and looked at us in coquetry. Then his maiden an- tics made us laugh until the tears rolled down our cheeks, for Bill Jones was by no means a priin-man- ncred prude — ir. 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 others 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. — 'BU^ 58 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. \\:i'"'M ':V' •III. The boatswain also likiiig 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, in gathering wood for the fire accidentally picked up one of the seeds ; and curiosity coming upon me, a woman, I had eaten it, and found myscif once more a man, and as such the Spanirird'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 bo./ oar — I coiiimanded 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 CliaHj^e. ) But rapid as had been our labors, the night had come upon us moie quic'dy. Safe navigation of the lagoon in the darkness was impossible, — wc 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 th( uj>ht and built a hu;je bonfire so that light might give them courage ; and I ordered them to construct a pyre astly, used the seeds, his equals orever, had the savage ply in love ering wood the seeds ; I had eaten and as such shing under ne of whom d the other im to hold itered a seed and as such Jing, though V of stalwart ling the boat eds we gath- ? of Sexual le night had gation of the e, — wc must g. Then the ing properties : th( uoht and ht give them jtruct a pyre t A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 59 .i ro;md 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 ! " Another second and the crew had silently manned the boat, — but on looking round for Quassi he had disappeared. Iioned as he was, the old man had wriggled himself into the chicket, and we had no time to search for him, for the paddles of ,the canoes sounded very near. 6o A FLORIDA ENCHANTMKNT. So tos.sinpj a brand from the fire into the f)ile of light wood that we had built about the sacred tree I gave my orders in a whisper and we moved away into the darkness ;— and just in time, for we had not gone a cable's length when we saw by the light of the burning Tree of Sexual Change, that, blazing up, illuminated the weird scene, ten canoes glide up to the island shore. Then I guessed what had made the old man grin when he saw the tree was ripe for harvest. — He knew that that night a party from his tribe, headed by their Obi men, would come to harvest after a thousand moons of waiting the precious seeds. As the wild niggers sprung on shore I heard a voice shriek to them in their lingo, and by their answering yell of hideous dismay and rage knew that Quassi had told them their gods had been insulted, the secret of their tribe ravaged from them and their Obi tree polluted and destroyed — and shuddered as I thought of their revenge. My men, hardened ruffians as they were, trembled as they heard the awful wail and hideous screams as they pulled away, I setting the course as nearly as possible to the entrance of the lagoon by the red glow from the burning tree that cast its light to show us to its avengers whose eyes are like those cats at night, the darkness of their forests develop- ing nocturnal vision. So they were after us ! My gig — a quick racing boat — flew through the waters, jostling many a sleep- ing crocodile and narrowly missing a hippopotamus that was tossing the water from his ugly snout. But strong as we rowed, the savages paddled their light A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 6l canoes more strongly. " Throw over everything," I wliispcrcd, ** 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! hy 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 astonishm.ent, 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. . 'M 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 ; i 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 bit 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 ii. 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. «9 ving they to burn he higher us, Jones I, he's bit jailor, and of West river-jack, >r us also ; ong, turn- low could r from us, before we our dying lassi, came Idered as I gony by a on with a le Spanish I body and with mon- ed beneath )ath we fol- the ground ough dense nward. sea brought d: "We've gh to make 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 officer. He soon saw my signal, and by the next day I 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 Firejly, 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 ! " 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 ' SllH ' her- self ; " the record having made a^strangc impression on her. She tries to shake it off exclaiming, *' Pooh! one would think I believe this likely sea yarn ! " Then the shining amber seeds catching her eye \X'\ A FLORinA ENCHANTMENT. 65 which she has mes to shudder r its pages, she man — and very ^a-dog's leering h and strained ^ lips. contemplation It a Rider Hag- ible *Shi<:' her- ngc impression ig, " Pooh ! one yarn ! itching her eye she seizes the vial, wraps it up in the manuscript, and placing the package in her pocket, looks out through the open windows upon the moonlight that is falling upon the waters of Matanzas Inlet with its banks shadowed by nioss-beardcd oaks and cypress, and thinks, '' Had I better tell this to Aunt Connie? It will put the old kidy in a marvellous state of excitement." Next impressed by the weird moon- light effects of the landscape she murmurs, " This country with its wondrous flowers that blossom when we should have snow, its cypress trees and reptile-haunted swamps, seems to me uncanny, also," and gives a little shudder and sneers : " I feel creepy myself." Suddenly she mutters, " This story is too much for my nerves!" and would turn away and run upstairs to her aunt's bedroom and break in upon that lady's fascinating novel and tell her that she has a more wondrous tale than is often seen be- tween yellow-backs, — when she hears the sound of excited conversation on the veranda outside, and Jane's voice comes to her in agitated tones: " Oh, laws a' massy, dis am awful ! Oh ! oh ! oh ! " and in deeper answer is returned : " It's gospel ; take my camp-meetin' oath, it's gospel, Jane ! " To which her handmaid returns excitedly : ** Oh ! my poor young missus ! " Throwing open the French windows that lead to the veranda, Lilly looks quickly out, her face filled with feminine anxiety, and whispers : " What's the matter ? Is it burglars ? " Burglars from her earliest childhood have been one of Lilly's bugaboos. 66 A FLORIDA ENCHANFMENT. ';;i!i» " 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'rri, 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. Theoi she says slowly, ■" and Stella was drowned also ? " and there are tears in her eyes as she thinks of the beautiful womaa 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 of 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 cident, as I Eton's steam ^r. Reming- right. But yacht was inded at this says slowly, ere are tears 1 womaft she lis morning, by de gal- th a wave of ) indicates a usiastically. after her like is excitedly. ir voice and yells : " Doan' yo' tell her, Gus. Yo* '11 break her heart. You doan' know what yo' 's doin'." But this makes Lilly very eager — perhaps anxious. She mutters : " Doc' ? — what doc' ? " *' 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 !— 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 — " 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 ? " " Sartin ! Didn't I stan* behin' 'em at dinner to- 6d A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. M'H ■- 1,11 if day, and wasn't dey talkin' all de 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-bite ! — 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 ! 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 'bout de how de vvd bless I'o', Miss arangue, nc. She ling and here was me I ig laugh, iblc aud- )r refuge, rattler ? " da ! Oh, iling, and ihrieking, r, the girl set, hard n't either o-night ! " :lutch the proffered ^rs " No ! o to your iiis — espe- lie dining- ire of old 3 literally ^s to her she cries id laughs 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— rhas 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 ? — My God ! — I must have some drug to destroy thought — for a little while ! " As she docs 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 ^'ght 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. i;,:;iM:ji;. ■' '.;li mil 4 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 suffer 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 " f/tt should be true ! " — 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 ENCIIAX rMENT. 71 it, she stag- room wring- life without m, I should ly own sex, le and take 5, to juggle d love him g as I live. seeds may lout him?" to her beau- rue / " — and Tjplate what fingers, one ing a pair of m, she gasps is the " seed- seems to be r throat, giv- passes them, of her brain, ies there half run through irob and even I waves — and to her leave herself — and hem room. — jenly become nd her nerves hness to defy sensation. She feels sleepy, not as if aiTectcd 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 anythiiiLj else on earth. She mutters " I think I'll turn in ! " and hastily undresses — no longer with dainty care and careful folding of garments — but 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 Ihe bed, for burglars ! — Burglars be blowed," and her lovely eyes look astonished at this remark. A minute afterwards her breath becomes long drawn and legular, and sleep coniCs upon her, but anyone standing by her and looking at her glorious wavy dark brown locks that cover her pillow v/ould have heard her coral lips murmur, ** I'll bet Fred had a bang-up time to-night — with that fetching little widow ! " A very quaint and curious speech to come from the lips of a jealou.; maiden about her lover and her rival. # « * « 4f The next morning Jane entering her mistresir's chamber somewhat later than usual, finds her diffit cult to awake — an unusual thing, for Lilly's slum- bers are always of the lightest. Then an astonished expression comes on Jane's ,-y*' m 72 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. l!i in ! face and she mutters : " Laws n massy ! ef she ain't snorin*. — Reckon she must have been up all night in a jealous spasm. She looked like Lady Macbeth a doin' de cake walkin* ack last night, when she heard of Doc* Fred's inconsequency ! " So on tiptoe, this dusky African maiden, who loves her mistress with the faithful love of a dog, trips from the room, fearing her footfalls will awaken L Hy '^ tvcrs to thought and suffering. An hour u! awards she conies in again to find Miss hiAy \< suli snoring. Becoming alarmed, the girl shakes the sle,:;^;ing figure, and presently Lilly's eyes open and gaze upon her with slow reluctance. *' Why doan* yo* get up. Miss Lilly ? It's almos* ten o'clock." For this attention nhe is greeted with two very savage snarls — which astonish her, for Lilly is usually a very sweet-tempered girl, even when her slumbers are disturbed. " Yo'se been snorin' too — though I never heard yo' do dat befo' ! Please get up, Miss Lilly ! " says the persevering handmaid. Then her mistress's voice comes to her: "Con- found you ! You tell a story — I don't snore ! " " Laws ! Miss Lilly ! talkin* that way. What ails yo' this mornin' ? But yo' did snore, I de- clares." " Well, I don't believe a word of it ! " is the reply. " Now go and fix my bath." * " And yo* voice is so hoarse and coarse, yo'd better let me fix yo* a warm one, yo'se taken a bad cole. Dis Florida night air can't be trusted," re- marks Jane in considerate tones. r. A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. n ! e{ she ain't up all night .ady Macbeth rht, when she maiden, who iove of a dog, footfalls will suffering. again to find g alarmed, the resently Lilly's )W reluctance, y ? It's almos' with two very • Lilly is usually 2n her slumbers I I never heard :iss Lilly ! " says 3 to her: "Con- )n't snore ! " at way. What did snore, I de- it ! " is the reply. :oarse, yo'd better 'se taken a bad : be trusted," rc- •• No warm baths ! " says the girl sharply ; then she shocks her servant again, for she remarks briskly, "You think I'm a spring chicken?" " Oh, Lawd ; how curious you does talk ! " ** Perhaps I Jo," answers Lilly, with a contempla- tive smil*^ ; '• I feel a little peculiar this morning. I — I believe I have haci some extraordinary dream in the night. I cannot remember it exactly." After kn*' ting 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? T'-^re's a funny vision for you," says Lilly, and gives i ; :as- ant laugh. "Yes, indeedy?" an^-wers Jane; " I': likv to be one myself. That Gus is driving me to desperation, he is," — and would go on with melancL y 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 ? " for porr Lilly at this moment ffl 74 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT, l!''!!!!'! '' :\ i jijiii.j I . 'if; Til ' is gaspjiifj 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 aitounded at the noise she makes. ♦' An' fix yo' bath ? " " 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 Hauser'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, " C'-eat 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 another soul is inside of her and her true spirit has wandered into A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 7$ that she is what calmer, in a voice of indcd at the id her attend- ,m the apart- ;hed concern, Dund from the o her bureau, ,way the night wondrous tale, ore her stands )us seeds danc- oof that it's no staring in it to I great physical [pon her. No ; wondrously ex- ing a threat of a bolder light tioning eyes that God ! can it be nks down upon gular and varied lan frame. For t stuns as well as s another soul is las wandered into rs -4 space — but so perfect a recollection of the Lillian Travers of yesterday and of every preceding event in Miss Travers' liie 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 hcah." " Neither crazy nor sick, Jane, but better than I have ever been before," remarks her mistress orac- 7<5 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. Wl \ ularly. " By the by, don't you tell aunt any con- founded nonsense about what 1 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 rode 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 arc 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 Jhat 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 marvellous transformatioij she still has sufficient womanhood to shrink aghast. The little Lillian Travers k/t 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 la entirely absorbed in self — a much more comfortable and contented state of feeling. A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. ;; int any con- said to you )u;* and she ce most other ment. sits down to placed on a ly that makes me, get out." 3, astonished. re. Your fuss- hat crank has next instant ith herself jhat ist temper her Of femininity, would be peril- Dm the immedi- nsformatiou she shrink aghast, r thinks, " Only what it is like— jain.— And love w nature bursts d thing, and I'll d shows her that grossed in Fred jsorbed in self— a ed state of feeling. But the business of the day is before her, and with a don't-care gesture, she throws off the many difficulties of the thorny path into which she has entered and begins rapidly dressing ; a sudden and acute curiosity having come to her to test how it will feel to wander about the streets and enjoy her new sex. Her toilet is not an easy one, and she anathe- matizes the tight corset that trammels her lithe movements ; and she finds it necessary to make use of certain artifices to give to her figure even a portion of the beautiful, rounded outlines that had made it graceful and lovely the day before. Just as this is completed, Jane comes in suddenly and says : " Mrs. Stella Lovejoy and Miss Bessie Horton has jes' been heah ; but I tolc 'em yo* wasn't well." " Well ? I never was better in my life. The girls haven't gone away, have they ? you numbskull ! " cries Lillie anxiously and savagely. " They's jes' goin'. I — I didn't 'spose you'd want to see de beautiful widow," gasps Jane apolo- getically, remembering the incidents of the night before. " Beautiful widows are just in my line, Janey ! Skip down-stairs and tell the girls to stop at once — I'll be with them in a minute." "Yo's out ob yo' head — I neber saw yo* speak so befo', Miss Lilly," cries her astounded hand- maiden. " No, but you will from now on " — then pausing at her own rashness, Lilly suddenly says : " Jane, I "3as> m 78 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. IHnmt have concluded to throw off care and forget Doctor Fred and be happy without him. — Ffy 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 Boyhood of Lilly Travers. CHAPTER VIL " Ah ! Naughty Boy— What Shall I Christen You?" She swoops down-stairs, but her long, trailing skirts have become awkward to her, who yesterday in these same chnging garments, was the poetry of motion, and grace itself. Giving her traiUng 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 Norton. " 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 "'"'Tl' 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 u lovely wild flower in the light muslin dress of girlhood — Stella in some fleecy 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 hear. — 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. 8l 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 car, muttering — " It was my turn first — you sha'n't slight me altogether." F^hting to subdue the tender feelings that are in her, Miss Travers grants the plump little blonde's ilemand, 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 82 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. the best kisser 1 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 me-in that ! Of course I don't ! I don't know what I am talking about ! " and sits down covered with 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 vivaciousl)* 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 roop", return always to Lilly, an inquiring and wondering look in them. Once or twice their glances meet, and though the widow's droot) under the bolder looks of the young lady, Lilly gets uneasy herself and wonders in a nervous fer«inine 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 Bess- ;, anc^ she says toi herself: '* The dear little girl! Funny I never tlu ught her so lovely before ! " for Bessie as she sitsl A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. S^ )r girls ! '' then voice is heard s, " No, I don't i*t know what I vered with rosy rves to conceal s which are like irst kiss— for if Bessie's sweet y rosebuds have Darling Bessie 1 " , which has fallen ►ics of the day. it the lovely time g, and Aunt Con- Ids that has been ages. eyes, though she the roon-, return wondering look in 5 meet, and though jlder looks of the jrself and wonders Can she suspect ? " her aid, she thinks, s a little girl I went ;, anc' she says to Funny I never or Bessie as she sits 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 snakebite by this time," remarks the supposed invalid <>;lancing at Mrs. Lovejoy maliciou.ly and rather enjoying teasing a pretty woman after the taste of average masculinity. At this the widow blushes and I'>oks uncomfort- able, and Lilly, eyeing her, knows thy> Doctor Fred has told her of the lie that he had writien, and were it last night, she would hate — Aa^e — 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 tie boot that is making her heart beat very rapidl} Then she continues aloud : " Of course . shall see Doctor Fred to-day. He is going to tal me to the ' hop * this evening," and astonishes herself by being annoyed because she sees she has pla* ted a dagger in the widow's heart, and wuiulcrs, " What the deuce can Stella see to like in Fred, anyway ? I should think I would be more in her style." 84 A FLORIDA ENCHJVNTMENT. ■I\'V, A moment after the visitors rise to go. As they shake hands, Doctor Cassadene is an- nounced and enters to receive two fearful shocks to his manly vanity — which as usual in his sex is very great and exceedingly touchy. Lilly shakes hands nonchalantly with the Doctor, and says : ** He x do, Fred ! " in a careless way that startles them all, for though she intends it to be sim- ply the welcome of one man to another, it has given both Bessie and the widow a sudden intimation, judging from a feminine standpoint, that she is engaged to the Doctor, and intends in this way to announce her coming union to the handsome man who is standing before them. He responds to her salutation in an uneasy, embarrassed way, and is then introduced to Miss Constantia who receives him rather frigidly. A moment after Bessie, having made her adieux, turns to the door, and would go on her way alone, but Lilly, actuated by some sudden emotion, says promptly : " Let me escort you," offering her arm with the grace of an avenue Adonis. This Bessie takes very readily, giving her escort quite a shock as she remarks : " What an unusual treat ! Why, Lilly, you're as attentive as if you were a — a gentleman, this morning." Mrs. Lovejoy is about to follow them. The Doc- tor gallantly says : ** Let me put you in the car- riage," and gets one of the shocks of his life. For actuated by an unknown, yet potent feeling, the widow suddenly returns : ** Lilly has another arm at liberty — she will do for both me and Bess ! " and slips her pretty gloved A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 8S TO. jadene is an- rful shocks to lis sex is very h the Doctor, cless way that ds it to be sim- er, it has given en intimation, It, that she is in this way to handsome man esponds to her way, and is then receives him lade her adieux, 1 her way alone, ;n emotion, says Dffering her arm riving her escort ^hat an unusual -ntive as if you them. The Doc- you in the car- of his life, et potent feeling, y she will do for ler pretty gloved 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 ? " and looks complacently on he* :;.'^lf, for verily the joys of young manhood are e-'t ,ding 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 tov^ards 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 fianc6 — 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 ? Dead, I presume — most of your patients usually die." ** If you will let me explain, Lilly," mutters the 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 ! " IT. A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 87 earing on the ' in a horrified i come to you e been some- w go to your X whistUng— it • Miss Travers Frederick sits Ls wounded his lan has some- t knows of his that he has an lis mind. Lilly id boy, did you vith that pretty direction of the stounded. h. And how's ;ad, I presume — y," mutters the putative young ^self ! " and with 35 into a roomy nannish attitude ished silence, ce me to the ball p, Freddie, and :v.- But Cassaden j*s love, like most men's, is increased by the lady's coldness. He says : " You speak to me that way. 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, jnst 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 no/ 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 FU ever learn to fib in that glorious man- ner," when she finds herself in his arms, and then kiss ! — ktss/ — 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; i „■»■ 88 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. but the cigar-pcrfumcil mustache is pressed again and again upon her lips that now shrink from it (or 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 I " 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 a heart-broken voice, putting her into momentar)' panic as he mutters, " Your conduct is very unnatural." "Unnatural? How?" gasps the girl. "You were indifferent to mc 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, ■J. A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 89 sscd again from it lor must play coming to id, but does ; turns from 3ld— cold ! " s flame, he ; the love of ar promised r masculine would have i before, but , he becomes i\ly coldness, Dfoken voice, he mutters, girl. " You /hy shouldn't girl I worship letically; and lirt's eyes, for II Lilly's throat and chest. "You e cries : »» f. may suspect a Connie makes iss Constantia, I want you to cxamir You notice how hoarse she is ? " " 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 swctheart'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 fiancee, 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 undeigo some most tender and horrible carc.ses 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. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // .g«^' ^^ „f the distant or- Miss Connie out of tn ^^^ ^^j^^^ ^ - d W.^^^.^ ^^^ ^ ^^ ,„ leads all o-' Ger^^^^l^^-jZ, ,er million 1 the fellah who mames ncr j„ mu,s This evening ^^^.^^ *f!l.,i^e cannot assume all the not suit the erratic L'"y-;f;„„, boast and brag to privileges of the sex, ^^^ '^'^^^^, ean't stroke her Z feUows of her conqne^t^ ^^ ^^^^^^.^ ^^^, mustache in a knowing «>^"^^^„ ,ittle Bessie un- U mentioned, she ""*'t,r way through enviou de^her arm and elbow her w J ^.^^ ^ ^„„ tains and put ^^ J, .'uilling glance in her eyes V.is rivals. , ^^narted escorted by - ^' so, as Miss Horton has deP-t;_ ^^^_^ other young g^^'^f;;^:,': angelic glances tho. . Lilly looks ,W'* I'y "°,^ he old major is also at ^ery well pleased to see t ^^^^^^ ,^ :sE --«''»• "•'""•" ilHiil ■it. pened to bump as if she wou\d ,ded, I «n tell leat boy !-H°^' .ers her ^'ith as Van Favors who ,„'t she give it to r million'." , coming to M.SS ,nt and prim spin- tain things that do „not assume all the boast and brag to ^e can't stroke her when Stellas name ling little Bessie un- 'through envou arriage with a sof ,c glance in her eyes. Estill only a reckless ;<,erness to show ofi ;dV his fellows and .arted escorted by a"" r carriage, upon wn angelic glances thoug A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 107 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 ad a swallow-tail. — That widow, Oh ! — And Bessie, H ! " these exclamations stand for sighs of ecstasy. She would perhaps run on in this strain indefi- itely, did not a faint sob from the other side of the little hedge that cuts her off from another path ^ome wafted to her ears. I It is a woman's and as such appeals to the mas- ine heart. All the boy in Miss Travers is up to to the assistance of beauty in distress, when a ntleman's voice comes to her ears from the same ot, and it is one that makes her hesitate and use — the one that was like* music to her but yes- rday — Doctor Fred's ! It says very politely, " Rosa, I am astounded at is outburst. — How can I help myself ! " and Lilly ows the lady he addresses is the one that looked anguish on his attentions to Stella the day be- te. j' How can you help it?" the girl repeats, " How you help it? You haven't even asked me to ice once to-night — when before Mrs. Lovejoy ^. 11 '^ .liii:; !i}p;i A FI>^R1I>A ENCHANTMENT. -iwpre so dinerent. ^ .. It- only two weeks ago--otJy , uttle at '' MissTravers rises and waU^oft^^^^^ the thought that she .s gawKy ^^^ ^^^^ j ering to herself in -e ^t t ^^^ ^^ serted, " And V^^'^^'t^y^ features like her-1 m a f appealing, entreating creaU. ^^.^ ^.^^ "J^er different article now^ recollection of f do the V^eart-breaking An ^^^ ^^^^^^.^^ ^^ and makes it easy ^ , • ygry nignt. ,. V, c\.p determines to do tms y minutes -^t t::oJ: m, ioms ^-t-rntpLti^Cassade'ie they areready ^°'y^\^Z^lor.<^^t with a somewhat coming up ju^t about this mo ^.^ ^^^^^^ j »,i vet tr umphant iook ^ ^j^o annoyed yet t .^ ^^^ ^^^ .^frWe fellahs to receive a very moonlight?— W^ le was the young lady mtn^^.. :,e having a -S^^' '^7 "o^n from the gentlem « This U --;t,l. d snort of horror from Miss addressed anj a sub^^^ ^^ ^^^.^ ^^,,.^, Connie as tney g ^ CHAPTER IX. «iMY MAN, JANE." fi-nm the ball, the A.P so they all f^^^JZ^ that sh, -"* - nX taVoc- Fred in very glum an, says very Uttle, ana A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 109 moody silence also, though the emancipated one does talking for the three. She is in very high spirits, Bessie having promised to come and spend the next afternoon with her. This makes her very happy, and she rattles on, making some very peculiar remarks for a young lady. " Fred, old boy, didn't we give the girls a treat to- night ? " she says enthusiastically. " Lilly, you astound me," interjects Miss Connie severely ; — the gentleman addressed however listens in glum silence. " Do you know — Frederick my chappie — I have only envied you twc things this evening ; otherwise, I flatter myself I had a leetle the best of you," con- tinues the late Miss Travers airily. "Indeed? What were they?" — curiosity has opened the Doctor's mouth. ** Well, first, your enjoyment of your cigar on the veranda; and, second, the privilege you had of meandering towards the bar between dances. But I'll catch up to you — mighty shortly ! " " Lilly, those are terrible words for a young woman," cries her aunt in horror, and is delighted to find the drive over and the carriage standing at the entrance to their house. The two are assisted to alight by Doctor Fred, jand Miss Connie, bidding him " Good-night " and [thanking him for his escort, goes into the house. Lilly would follow her, and is saying " Adieu," rhen Fred's hand clasps her arm determinedly— [most roughly. He whispers : *• Before you go in, want a word with you." fl^ '\\\ m J: I 'I'i I ; Hill liji:- ' IIO ;, FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. Ililli! . Oh ! haU a ^o^^^-fZ^^^tTli 'the veranda; ..Then come ''"""'^'Lr's sight and hearing. ,e shall be out of the dnver g ^ ^ ^^^ y„„ ..Certainly, ^.f V^^J^ ..^^^ ^^o « your case dying for a smoke! « V ^^„.^ „ffer .t?-Oh rU^VU ioi", y;- ^,, Lilly roguishly. how stmgy '. reu." , je ol tne They have passed to the otn j; leasure. now and Fred turns upon her m s ^^^ ^ ,, "°.This last request of you^ ' ,^,, perform- Ur " is in line wu" / . u u,, cnch un- says «t""^y' Xe Perhaps you wish by such ances th.s evening. ^ff,,t,on. ladylike conduct to =^1^" ^ .. ^^^ answers. After .ryouhaveguessed t Fred ^^^ good fellow • this. I only wish °,^;;ifriends-nothing mor. to another go<"l ;;^^°^, ^.^Ues-" claim the privilege do not even — l^e"^ of sisterhood. astonishes her. The reply she receives aston ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ .. And do you thmk to dest' y^ V^ ^^^^ pranks? L"ly- - ivl^e eyes of love thou ' :,it— you can t deceiv „ ^j,g poct ;'ou pUy your P---L t/girl who is passi- ■ in longing tones; fo^ « ^^ j^;^ ^han ever, away from him seems dear .^ ^ ^„,,„, '^.. Don't talk n°"^^"^^: Jftor me ever to beco UUe way. " It is impossible y°"' '"'''[ . have you known this?" gasps the n .. How long have you _ .. Since yesterday even ng^^^^„.„g.. -f, ..Ah, it is al**y'/TJeenfor that unforto ^^^^^^^--yofm^tpS-^-^^--" occurrence, for my r NT. of the veranda, and hearing. 1 see you are ,„-t offer it ?-0h 'lide ot the house severe displeasure^ Miss Travers, he our other pertorm- , wish by such un. affection." he answers. A" "one good fellow .s ;__nothing more. \. claim the privilege ishesher. oy my love, by these Til the more tor you , eves ot love though , iJV- cries the Doctor I l^irl who is passing to him than ever. ° Lilly in a business. ^orrlil'ever to become ,„ this?" gasp- th^""-'" . ^ " Then ^« Uv evening. * f.r that unfortim^ite .en for tnai. j ity^my neglect, it V J A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. Ill will — would you now have been my sweethep»'t — my love — my Lilly of yesterday." " I should," says the late Miss Travers. *' Then I'll retrieve myself. I'll make you forgive me. In spite of yourself, I'll make you marry me tvithin the month / " With this audacious masculine threat, Doctor Fred is about to stride from the veranda ; but a light though firm grasp is on his arm and a laughing voice cries, " That is impossible, I love another — shesdi darling!" And Lilly passes into the house leaving him astounded and confounded. After a time however he thinks the ** she " is a slip of the tongue, but goes ofT in a very bad humor to the Ponce de Leon where he finds Mrs. Lovejoy still seated on the veranda with some ladies and gentlemen, and the widow's blue eyes have a very soothing effect on this bird of passage. This interview has taken hardly a minute, and *illy stepping into the house finds Constantia [waiting her with v/ords of reproof. " You have broken with Doctor Fred ? " she says. " Yes." "And that was the way you took to do it.-^" *' Yes ! " Lilly is delighted at her aunt's taking lis view of her eccentricities. *' Then, you have made a fool of yourself," cries ie old lady, i" And why?" ["Because you are not now the kind of a girl sn fall in love with." Why not ? I have had plenty of devotees." f* Yes ; you have had them, but you have 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 waitei this evening — I saw you ; you needn't attempt to deny it, your glove is torn even now from your violence ! " 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 ! I — I am dis-gus-ted ! " and a burst of tears closes this harangue. 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 ! " This sends her into a profound meditation as to A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. "3 :ation as to her future course — and tliinkiiif^ of I^c.sr>, 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 maidtii 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 ^ particcps criminis 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 ?" Lilly says sternly. " Yes, miss ; — {sob) — " I knows dat ; " — {sob) — " but I couldn't go to sleep, I'se so wretched ! " {sob — sob — sob f) , " Come in here and tell me what's the trouble with you," cries her mistress sharply, smothering a laugh, 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 Antoiiiyet dat works in de ha'r-dresser shop in de 114 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. M >l!j Alcazar ; — a low down Spanish nigger, dat's what she is. Some day I'll get desp'ret an* razor him — I will ! " ** No you won't," says Lilly sharply. " And I won't have such talk from you. You arc jealous, that's what's the matter with you." " Jealous l—Weil, 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 he 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! " mutj ters Jane with a guffaw. " Very well ; have I been jealous of him since] Haven't I been light-hearted, — gay, — happy ? " A Florida enchantmknt. nS 41 Yes ; yo's bt'cn too almighty uppish, Miss Lilly." " Very well ; open your mouth and be the same! Would you lii\ till her mistress says angrily : " What amuse? you so?" ** Tse 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 ! " " Giis 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 — I 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 'iil' A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 121 it amuscF you ink of telling ade Gus feel so o kiss me, I'se 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 4e 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 ? " sullenly. *' To-morrow morning. — You may go to packing my trunks now. — Leave one oper> for me !" "Well, Miss— Mr., 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. 122 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. CHAPTER X. 9 " HAVE I, LIKE FRANKENSTEIN, RAISED UP A MONSTER TO DESTROY ME?" 111-. Y>' I' ill;!-. I 1 M ^l m 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 ! " 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 hie treachery in taking Stella for the moonlight sail. " Well," remarks Miss Constantia. " T 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 ■i;i!i 1 itt !'J.^' ' '■■ 2NT. A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 123 RAISED UP A ME?" js her aunt pen- I hope you will ;o unladylike last heart — ran away —my happiness." e's old arms go ^e niece's waist, assadene has not ith him now, and sobbing way she lady the record of ry in taking Stella ;ia. " T have only it I do not trust ow, Lilly." ear from widows," nfidently. " I am \g North again. I at now that is all i better. I — I can't 5 a counterfeit tear r that she is going eal one. ;hing you can do," y, for even in this ittingly let fall one 4 ■ ■• V" 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 naving 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 124 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. lii ; I lii 'III!, r:tJ docs impatiently some ten minutes before the girl is due; Miss Bess having quite a long drive into town from her father's orange groves and house, some three or four miles up the San Sebastian. Astonishment and joy ! the late Miss Travers finds Miss Horton is fully as eager as she is for the meet- ing, and Bessie's horses and negro coachman come into sight just as Lilly reaches her front gate to take an anxious, longing glance up the road for their appearance. With a gentleman's ready politeness Lilly steps to the carriage, and saying to the coachman : " You needn't drive in ; I'll take care of Miss Bessie now," assists the sweet little lady to the ground and mut- ters into her ear : " You darling — ten minutes ahead of time! " " Yes ; my horses were very fresh and I told Nicodemus he needn't hold them — I like to drive fast, when I have pleasure ahead of me. — Ah ! going to play the gentleman again. How nice ! '* — for Lilly has offerer' her arm, masculine style. The little gloved hand goes confidingly into the nook made for it ; and they stroll up the walk to the house. Arriving at the portico, Bessie gives a piteous pout and whimpers: " I don't like you this morning." " Don't like me?" Miss Travers gives a horrified and reproachful stare. " No ; you haven't kissed me." " H-ah ! — Wouldn't you like me just as well if I didn't ? " asks Lilly contemplatively. " No ! " — imperiously. " Kiss me or I shall hate you ! ENT. A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 125 before the girl long drive into ovcs and house, 1 Sebastian. liss Travers finds is for the meet- coachman come er front gate to he road for their cncss Lilly steps :oachman : " You ^iss Bessie now," ground and mut- :en minutes ahead resh and I told \ — I like to drive f me. — Ah ! going How nice ! " — for uline style. The jly into the nook the walk to the ; gives a piteous ^ou this morning." s gives a horrified e just as well if I me or I shall hate . f,.»a " 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 /tere — 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 >; V . N I • % ! Ifil m it m 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 manner 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 ? — 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 v:^. ENT. rprise me ! ** and goes away, leav- ntcnded depart- eycs have been n laughing, but lose mouth goes terrible news. only been here ing away ? The and getting up • throat suddenly jaculates Connie, ve set her to cry- loats in the door- st Florida houses tarly always open. Just leave her to istressed damsel, ment has been so d.' orange vistas — in no answer. She it of this elusive lifts up her voice e ? — Darling Bes- adjectives appar a broken-hearted ipe vines that en- to see you — go d think you loved A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 127 me by the things you call me — but acts are — (sob). By this time Lilly has 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 love mc " — (sob — sob — sob). " Yes, I do," says Miss Travcrs with energy. Then she cries out desperately : " Come, get up at once. Your performances arc 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'lip. I li lii; I.' K ' i! iili ■ ItlBi ■111 HI il||(- |lli.!a'- ,,:■ . " I — I swear it I " 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, " Too alluring ! Too beautiful ! " ai;d un- able to stand the fascination of the picture, destroys It , for she plucks Bessie out of the hammock bodilj by force. Then she says : " Come. Let us take drive about the town, and then " " And then, I suppose," pouts Bessie, " papa wil| take me home." ** Not immediately," remarks Miss Travers ; " hj shall stay to dinner, and then we will inveigle hii into a game of cards," — for she knows the major] weakness. Thus the two walk about chatting while Co^ stantia's carriage is being made ready for them ; 4ENT. A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 129 ones of such de- ieves, and suffers ying in the ham- lovely face upon orange blossoms nock, twists them ely head, and toss- e orange blossoms rs' brain, cause her it orange blossoms cture, and it is too ting for masculine re with its rounded, lerfully outlined by e ankles robed in rtion are flashing in uslin dress, as she Miss Travers' head, beautiful ! " and un- the picture, destroys the hammock bodily ,me. Let us take a ill :4 ts Bessie, " papa w 5 Miss Travers ; " he ve will inveigle him . e knows the major's chatting while Con- le ready for them; a few minutes of this and Miss Rcssic, whose agile mind hops from subject to subject as a bird from twig to twig, suddenly says : " Oh ! 1 forgot — Fancy I I forgot ! " ••Forgot what?" •• Forgot to ask you about the box you bought at Veddcr's ? What was in it ? — something romantic, I am sure. You seem to have been a different girl since you got it," cries Miss Morton. Then gazing on the blushing emancipated one she continues, " I know there was something in 't, 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 ? " — for Miss ravers has grown very pale. A moment after, however, she forces herself to y, " There was nothing in it when I opened it. essie, you must believe me if you want to be my riend. Do you believe me ? " " Certainly, I do ! Rather than quarrel with you *d believe you if you told a lie.'* 130 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 'I "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 Did gentleman, as if she were anxious to gain his respect and confidence. Constantia, who has opened her eyes several times A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 131 t» )limentary, opened it some great tie won't tell She cries — is here." blonde into us and mas- " You don't r companion, ternoon — the len she opens DJect. Dleasant after- ugustine, and id see a swim- d come home, ippy one, were ho has driven rirls* entreaties - finally is in- hough he says ards, the puta- ry attentive to nxious to gain es several times 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 sh ^t of the major's wounds the emancipated one most deeply. — There has been a two-headed cow on exhibition on Bav Street, the ex-Confederate has seen it and his not thought he had got his quarter's worth, and tells hi^: wrongs, asserting that the two-headed critter hasn't trains enough tc run one animal ; and thus being started upon the subject he runs on in a most uncompli- mentary way about dime-mu'^^eum 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 pattering un- noticed for an hour, is now pouring down in tor- rents, and the wind is howling through the mag- nolias, palm and orange trees. 132 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 'lij:: m in " Great Goliah ! " mutterr 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 round to 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 irom 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 bed." " I — I think she had better have the wingtroom," IT. A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 133 :ntleman, strid- t! The roads tarpaulin ? " ms : " Do you your daughter rht as this? I the stable and »* V. but they bring Ltive Miss Trav- and frightened, mes in enthusi- : I caii go down ng and see the stands aloof ner- me, and staring Ltion on her face tie major having ive manner, Miss :o the answering )rton to the blue ;— light it." And ix-Confederate is r cigar and night- ^ died av;ay when ce, says in tones ugh not intended : you and go to c the wing«-room, 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 Travcrs' 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- 134 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. .." *! f !i: iiii .'!': Hi; I Mil; ' ui :^' ■■:!;! .'.''!! I fellow. However," here she becomes pathetically sarcastic, " I will most willingly excuse you, though you know you are telling fibs by the wholesale. You wish to be alone, you selfish thing — that settles the question, Miss Travers ! " This Miss Horton em- phasizes by a formal courtesy. This remark is made in the hall in front of Lilly's apartments, which consist of one big room, full of old-fashioned furniture, and beyond it a dressing closet which is generally occupied by Jane, but is now suspiciously silent. On the right hand of Miss Travers' apartment is the wing- room, a door con- necting it with Lilly's chamber. Striding into this wing-room, Miss Travers lights the lamp and says : " This is where you are to stay, Bess." " So I cannot hear you snore } " " Certainly. So, go to bed ! and now — good- night." " If you don't kiss me good-night, I'll stay where I am." Bessie, not having followed her guide, is still in the late Miss Travers* chamber and seems loath to leave it. " Very well — there ! " — the " tAere " is a short and savagely intense kiss. " I've kept my promise, now keep yours," mutters Lilly. " Disappear ! I've] got some packing to do before I go to bed." With this after a playful struggle she pushes] Bessie into the wing-room, and steps back into her own apartment, in spite of her little sweetheart's reproachful eyes at being thus deserted. Closing the door softly, Lilly sits down before a freshly mad( fire to meditate in its flickering light upon whal iiii NT. les pathetically Lise you, though wholesale. You -that settles the [iss Horton em- a front of Lilly's big room, full of nd it a dressing [ by Jane, but is ght hand of Miss )om, a door con- iss Travers lights e you are to stay, and now— good- Tht, I'll stay where jd her guide, is still ,er and seems loath here " is a short and 3t my promise, now " Disappear ! I've go to bed." truggle she pushes steps back into her r little sweetheart's J deserted. Closing before a freshly made ng light upon what A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 135 I 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- ttiously to the door she listens. Bessie is sobbmg 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" 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 rision, for Bessie has thrown off her gown and inbound her tresses and is beautiful as a dream, her )londe hair flowing over shining shoulders and white rarments. *' Bessie, you know I've got some packing to do,'* ^^Jasps Lilly retreating but gazing. ,' " Yes. Let me help you ! " , •; ** No — you'll only be in my way. It will take me hour. Go to sleep and " "And when you've finished packing ypu will me to bed with me ? " savagely. " Yes ! " desperately. " Very well," says the girl tossing her hair about d making it gold in the lamplight. " It's a bar- n, though I don't trust you. That * Yes ' of urs was a kind of wail." nd Lilly turning from the lamplit beauty into dim light of her own room mutters to herself : ^^or one night for my little sweetheart's sake I'll ^\iik' once more a woman ! " and a chill of fear runs sm' 136 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. •1 j 1 : ■ ■ 1 . I J JV M I! IJ! ! « 111 ^'v* 'l!^ ■iiiilii !!' ii'i, over her that manhood may never come again an the happiness of wooing her own sweet Bessie t lost to her forever. But even as she thinks this there is a little patt< of unshod feet upon the carpet, and a soft voic comes to her, " Lilly, I hate to trouble you but I'l — Fm laced so tight, I can't undo myself withoi my maid. Where's yours ? " "Jane ! " This is a horrified gasp from Mii Travers. " Of course Jane — she's in there ! " and thoug Lilly hurriedly cries, " You — you mustn't awal^ her," Bessie has the door open and looking in say " There is no chance of my waking her — Jane hi gone out." " Out ! " and Lilly is at the door gazing on ht man Jane's unoccupied bed and wondering whs new embarrassment the untutored masculine mail servant may bring upon her, gadding about t( streets of St. Augustine. " I suppose by your not wishing me to awc Jane, you intended to do me the kindness yourse Lilly, please help me, I'm tied up so tight? treats Bessie. So over corset strings with flushed cheeks, shinj eyes, thumping heart and fingers made clumsyl haste the late Miss Travers toils, and Bessie smi] in her face sees admiration and laughs, " Don't think I've a pretty figure ? " " You'd have a better one if you didn't lace il tight," answers Lilly, with masculine devotio[ hygiene. ' Why, what's come over you ! " says Bel MENT. A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 137 jr come again and n sweet Bessie be .re is a little patter t, and a soft voice rouble you but I'm ,do myself without ,d gasp from Miss -here 1 " and though you mustn't awake and looking in says, aking her- Jane has e door gazing on her and wondering what ored masculine maid- r, gadding about the wishing me to awake tonishcd pique. — " You used to be a wasp-waist oursclf, and now lecturing; — you talk like an idiot an ! Besides, I'm not laced tight — behold me ! " ith this she gives a little shadow dance in front of he fire that displays by its ruddy gleams such lithe races of pose and figure and glimpses of general fairy eauty that the putative Miss Travers writhes under its allurements and mutters hoarsely "Be still!" But Bessie answers, *' Say I haven't a pretty figure now — mean one! " and would continue her ^'' pas de fascinatioji,'' did not her companion with tormented yes cry " Stop ! " so imperiously that the figurante ives a startled pause and asks, " What's the matter ?" "Nothing!" answers the emancipated one ortly. — •' But sit down on the sofa. — Be quiet — I %ant to talk to you — I'm — I'm going away to-mor- pspw." This last sadly. ,fi" Do you suppose I've forgotten that ! " murmurs jlfessie softly; then she says archly, "Say I've a ptetty figure and I'll sit down ! " " Darling, you've the loveliest in the world," cries !\'^j vourseli 'Isllly, tenderness and admiration fighting with each Kuiciness y sitSiii • 1 the led up so tight ? en- flushed cheeks, shinmj ingers made clumsy by oils, and Bessie smiling ;nd laughs, '' Don't yo if you didn't lace it s masculine devotion t 'n .er youl" says Besst er in her voice. * Well, having convinced you I'll sit down ! " th a purr of content Bessie cuddles herself in a ite beauty-ball upon the sofa, whiK: Miss Travers somehow appears afraid of being too near this uring loveliness sits in a chair and watches the ight play about her charmer's golden hair and w soft shadows about her fair young head. second after Lilly says suddenly, " Bess, you Id like a lover?" Pooh! " says Miss Beauty " I've had lots! " 138 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. Mil' ii i! ' ' !i«i ;i> „ ; ;;i m ":i:!' • m ■'ifl! M. " Lots ! " Miss Travers gasps — " you're — you'n only eighteen ! " " Certainly lots — I began at five. Don't yoi think I'm a catchy girl ? " returns Bessie. — " What i funny thing you are — you were angry a second ago now you're laughing ! " and Miss Blue-eyes look; amazed. " You're a cute little puss who should have a — i husband ! " mutters the transformed one. ** Yes, a husband might do ! " sighs Bessie contem platively. — " Boy lovers are such unsatisfactory creatures. — But a husband. — Now if you had a brother, Lil ! " " Wouldn't a cousin do ? " cries out Miss Traven in joyous tone. " Y-e-s — perhaps '* " Perhaps what ? " *' Perhaps if he looked like you ! " " He does look like me." " Ah, he exists ! — a real cousin." And Bessie fliej on excitedly : " Tell me all about him — like you- he must be awfully handsome — what's his name ?- How old is he ? — Pshaw ! you're making up a fai^ story — I never heard you had a cousin before— " But I have," says Lilly confidently. " He's aj a young Englishman, a distant cousin. — You knc I've some English relatives on my father's side." " Yes — what's his name ? " " Lawrence Talbot." The words come slo) from Miss Travers' lips as if she must be very c^ ful to make no mistake. " That's a nice name," babbles Bessie. " Telll all about him ! " (■'viijiii lENT. _-" you're— you're A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 139 five. Don't you Bessie.—" What a igry a second a^o, ss Blue-eyes looks should have a— a ncd one. ighs Bessie contem- such unsatisfactory Slow if you ^^^ * esout MissTravers )U i» in " And Bessie flies )out him-like you^ -what's his name ?- I're making up a fairy cousin before — - Infidently. " He's a-- ,t cousin.-You kno. , my father's side. words come she must be very care- )bles Bessie. And in the firelight with a tremble in her voice as if she were pleading her own cause, not another's, the late Miss Travcrs 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. " Sand 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 do you ! " says Bessie. *' And why not ? " ** Oh, he won't boss me about as you do, Lil — u're such a lovely tyrant ! " ■^ " Then I'll earn 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 ! " d two soft white arms close about the putative ss Travers and fresh sweet lips press upon her mbling ones and give her courage to i;nake her rifice, as Bessie trips away to bed. he instant she is alone, with a sigh of resigna- ^ y but determined mien and eye, Lilly is at her " Tell mfi^ "p^el case in which she has locked up the sacred wilds. slowly' ' iN 1^' A 1.XORIDA ENCHANTMENT. seeds and record ^'^"""^"yi^My think, she may For a moment, she trcmb "i, y ^^^^ ^^y_ have carelessly left J- f '^V . ji^,„a for«etfulness in some temporary fi "^ --^^ ' .^ous contents m have secreted the v.al .md .ts l some other hiding spot. hurried— anx- "she flashes up her '-P-,^,.:f;,l her unpacked ious-trembling search-tumbl. g ^^^ ,^. .^^. things with careless speed ^nd ^^^^^^ ^,^^ Upon th.s Bess.e s^vo c ^^^^^^^^. ^^ r" UP- she gro^t" Why aon-t you come to for, SO l-n' ^'''" ^ ,j M bed ?_l-m-l'm cold ^.^.^^„,. she .s , This sends a sh.verthrougl^^^^^^^^, ^^^^ at her search agam. A ^" ^^„„ks. Into have packed the seeds m one ^^^.^ ^^^^^^,,^ her locked-up boxes she plu g^ ^ ..^^ ^.^^^ ,, arranged contents fly out gj^, j^ bendmg tossed one way, bon-'s the o* ^^^^ ^^^.^^^ down anxiously mto a .aatog ^^^^ ^^^ p^^. from the next roorn m acey J ^^ , ., alyzed horror and whispers B g .Burglars. "--^"^^^ 'j,;, 3teps on thereof of the "A burglar; 1 hear ms ^r veranaa-Listen-Oh mercy • ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^f ,,;, For at this momen m>xe ^^^ ^.^^^^ drops a heavy tread .s heard .. rm going to scream^ desperately-" Vou 1 " S*"P ■ ■; """" Not a word' "-and perhap alarm the house ! Not ^ ,^^^jy ^ anxious to play ^^^ h-o^befo ^^ ^^ ^j ine. and perchance makmg '1; J4T. A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 141 icntl The vial, Liir 1 thinks she may lock ; she may, nd fori^etfuhiess ious contents in OS hurried— anx- >ver her unpacked dess noise, .s from the next , proNvlintv about lon't you come to is T ravers. She is .ought! Jane may her trunks. Into Their carefully a jiffy robes are ^ er.— She is bending when Bess springs light robe and par- irglars 1 , on the roof of the ith the sound of rain- tside the window. desperately-'' Vou'll ,Q^(li"— and perhaps -e such a lovely hero- hrewd guess as to the s. 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 ! " "Don't — for do Lawd's sake! Don't! I'sc 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'sc 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 ler voice in expostulation Miss Travers has dashed Hack into her own room and locked the door between md is standing in judgment over the errant Jane. *' Now," she says in an awful voice, '* where have rou been ? " " Jus' round a leetle, Miss— Mister Lilly ! " " Round a little? — What have you been doing?" ** Gurl huntin' ! " says Jane stolidly ; then she rins towards the room into which Bessie has just -disappeared and mutters, " Yo's been doin' some- ^Jpiing in dat way ' 142 A FLORIDA EN<"HANTMENT. 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 officers 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 ? — 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 is squeezed *' Keep your pcrs. "Now an. You say ou done?" the servants' n he seed me ed him on till ere was quite \ to see how out de second room, de one lly uneasily, jumped on Gus ^ital. He said espairing voice *, irethose seeds?'* isks the abigail uble ! " and she u I " Lilly stam- cactly where you me alone. I'sc so cold and wet and scared I can't think of nothin' else — VVhat'll dcy do wid me when dey cotch me ? Golly ! what'll do jidgc say when he finds I'se a man I — 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 destioy me ? " y^ou take one and you I will not— ads Lilly, who is ;eds. Please le^ CHAPTER XL **GOOD-BY, Bessie!" But the thought of the major's future rage is Iriven out by his daughter's present one — Miss 144 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. Bessie's tones show she is irt an awfvA 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 m ? ** she stam- mers in fuiy. *• 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 difcipline 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 neednt — 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. 145 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 .ihe gasps out, ** You — you wouldn't reproach me — if — if you knew ! " " Knew what ? " Bessie's blue eyes cjpcn with interest. '* That Jane's going to be arrested in the morn- »» ing. " Arrested ! For what ? " Bessie's blue eyjs 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 them ? " — Here Miss Travers gives a despairing sigh as she surveys her ravaged bo> es. " 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, whu 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 —Jane's coming ! " cries Lilly in an uneasy tone. 10 ^ K..OR11.A ENCHANTMENT. , IMI arcss-1 love packing and 1 sec „ M, right, 1 11 ar<.ss 1 ,^^^ some divine ^^'^'fj^,^:,^. floor-and with over the display of miUmcry this departs to ^-"^ -;"^°r; ^ ,„d Miss Travers are A few minutes after as J ai j^^; Horton working over the -P-J;^J^;';t of the evening makes her reappearance i -^ ^^^ ^j^^ ^^f^, before, and cuddhng up ma wa^m P ^_^^^^^ ^^^^ looks on and "'t---^^;'^^,r„o,„i„g sun shining to sleep, to awake w.th ^^^ i,,^d. ,pon her and makmg a ha^o ^^^^ ^^^ ,^ Lilly is s.ttmg by her s g ^^^^^ somethmg loveliness. In her eye '« -J^ ^^^^,_ she mur- that appeals to dear 1' ^^ «^ j,^ ^ you treat me „,urs-" l-I love you L . th g J ^.^^ ^^ badly. ^ourethefi-tg.r ^,, going away! me that I didn t hate. Kiss me." vUrorously but sadly. Miss She is accommodated v.gorou y ^^^ ^^^^ Travers- boxes ar . all corded and s PP ., ^^^^ ., young lady, lookmg at he ^.^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^„,, breakfast time, and m a .readytogo.down-sta,rs. expressmen arrive As they get ^o Jf ^""^g^,, J that putative to carry away L'Uy ^ ^^f ^ ; j„^„ ^nh my young lady says severely, Ja , S, boxes to the tr^n ^^^.^^.j^, .. she'll be Whereupon bessit wi t- arrested." ^^^^er has already pre . No-I think not. V ^^^ ^ea,,ni vented that, I hope J-^/^.^f Js^^^^^ him walking about 1 askea Miss Travers. -m :(:* A FLORIDA ENCHANT:v1ENT. 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 rive. " Come back soon, Lilly," says Constantia, trying o smile. " Bess, what are your eyes so red for? " asks the ajor, raising his hat. " I should think they would be red — " replies his arling, " I stayed up all night I " " Good Scott— What for ? " " Helping Lilly pack ! " M At this the major gives the late Miss Travers a "'•V 1 '* 1 i!!:: A TLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. v!y s.va.o'ana re^^^n^ ^^^ tl Jwi J,. T^ut tV^e^Xha lot to Ly and havdly ten minutcs-and L "y h*' ,^ talking of Lavv- knows how to say \^^° \^^^^^ ^^ys petulantly- .ence Talbot so mu h that Bes^^ y ^^^ ^^^ .. Put him away till nexi ^^^^^ something for you are coming back— an you — " For me ? ** ... < silent Bessie ' ? " .yes. Tellmehow youlke a-le^^^^ ^ ,.^^^^ and slipping from round her w ^^ ^^.^.^_ gold chain she shows t° LJlV ^ ^ ^,^^,, eyes and ^f Vipr own face witn smiiu»& ture of her ow ^^ .^ _ a .Hc^nt golden hair and says . s ^"''^^' •". rncT' and Lilly kisses first the picture but they are at the station. ^^^^,^ ^^^^^^^^^ Here they find J;"f!"J^'„„ her face-and tak- . ^ith a fnghtene-', dod^ look o . „ j.,, stand, my man I onoarently impressed. ''^^^'r^^TILle-oEuily-andsheand .< Now leave us alone . ^^^^^^ Bes. have a tender b""^?;^ ^'^^ ^^ father to let me .'Next time you g°^°"° ;^^ ^„, you've fled so go with you-I would this "n; ^^*^y ^^, .. . Voull fuddenly '." says Bess--^h- she."^^, ^^^ ^^^p^„, come back, Lil, sure in month ^^^^ ^^^^.^ ^^^ ion grows very sad as sne A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 149 mourn for Lilly Travcrs — 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 grow 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 ! " 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 md ice. Miss Travers w ives a last adieu and then steps ;iiil ■■'■■*i|| Jli'S'll' A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. J ^^l^ptcs- -Wonder It ive into her stateroom ""^ m^f .'f ,^i,,„ ^mUmg of the overdone I'=i^''<^"f ^ "^ ' ' ared the only path to sacred seeds that have d W ^^J !. You're on the departed ---'^-^0; the f nee. Ind that's theside Lawrence Talbot side ot tn ^^^ ^^^^^„ that leads to the mm.ster-I rather^ g ^^^^^^^ r "^^''^XT^a^s^h:: beTon^e Lawrence Tal- is because Lilly irav^i bot." CHAPTER XII. THE MONSTER BECOMES DANGEROUS. THE next day, a^usU is ^^^^^^^^^ the Pennsylvania Railroad ler y ^^^ L called Lillian Travers and whatj^^^ ^^^ ^.^^^^ Rouser, into that great city. 1 ^^ ^j^^^ L athirty-three l-^^r^Sa Special "- is wearisome, and Miss 1 rav trip, that are not precautions to take d'.r.ng t^'S trip ^^^^^ ^^^ Lcessary to ordinary travellers B ^^^^^^^^ - has been compelled ^-^^l^^J^ -,^„e, who, though and suspicious eye ''P"" ^^^^'^jy, ^o the stateroom, confined as -lo^^y/VlIbut dangerous attempts to has made sever^urtie but da^g^^^^^ ^j:: :ttS:rto t^s .bantic ..in, to .o. after the special wants of worn - ^^^^^.^ ^^^^^^^_ These, with two or three ot ^^ ^^^ ^„swering ances of her putative maid, s ^^^.^^^ .^^^ promptly "Yes, sir and No, s A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. iSt portunc times, havL, put Lillian into a nervous frame of mind. She kno-.vs :'.he has made an unwise move, in trans- forming her faithful maid-sci vant 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, I 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 jstablishment. An omelet, steak, and some of your ;ofIee and rolls, are all that I shall want here. More jlaborate meals I shall get at a restaurant," for she mows the fewer servants in the house, the greater ifety to her secret. Then Miss Travers goes up-stairs, and after get- ig a shock from many of the pretty feminine arti- 5s in her dainty boudoir, that remind her of th« A ,.XORmA ENCHANTMENT. ti,^. womanhood that w. ^ ., ^^ f^„. words says to Jane wiU>mascu-s-ry^^^^^^ before you go to ixcl, n . are still to be a woman. j ij, - .. That ain't possible, M^-^^f ,^ ,^ the outside ..You are still to «/A'<"-'^^^'"'"''"' «'°''^<^-" .n.dc down Sixth Abonue wid " What-no P--<;"^X;als what a han'some .youn" de boys, no showm fj^'^ i,e having appar- man I is?'' mutters Jane rudu y, ^^ ^^^^^^ ,. ^ antly laid out (or h,n.se -hf f ^„ ^^^ ^ork as high old spree upon his hrs '-' r;;rin I td you to •. probacy not till we leave New York." ,,,.„„ent, J.'me turns away At this di^appomtmg statemen^. J ^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ in disgust, his master add mg . ^^ ^^ ^^, ^ to bed now; V^l^lZtZ,. And don't you ■ have lots to do m the m b situation. call me Mr. Lilly -^^^^''IJ^ZTjZ hurriedly and .. No, sir-yes, miss, answer j disappears. Iravcrs, who has appar- The next morn.ng, M.ss 1 a ^^^^^^ ^^ ently made up her mind what to , with energy and "P'^^- ^^^ <,,ieet- a ring that she She drives to T^^^y^^J^^, .,4. This being sent knows w=ll make i5ess..e. hear, g ^^^^^^^ ^^ . home to her later m the day , s ^^ ^^^^^ ^ Horton with a little "ote^say mg , ^.^^ ^,,, you this in icturn for the siknt ^ ^^^^ ^ ^ tee it has engraved on It • ^ ^^i^ot as well the by, L. T. stands for L.wrenc A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 153 s, who has appar- ao, sets about it ,cV, a ring that she d This being sent 'forwards to Miss . Dear Bess, I send Bessie; Vou wiU H.from L. T.'— Wy ,nce Talbot as well as Lilly Tr.ivcr.s. — Why not consider it an engage- ment ring from him ? " Meantime she has called upon her l.iwycr, 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 furthdr informa- tion. This she picks up def.tly, 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 clu' , 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 .0 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, I still being willing to make a sacrifice for speed in IS4 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. .»■:! 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 masculin': 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 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 155 me. I'll try and make myself comfortable upon your liberal donation." And the two lau^h and shake hands together, and have a very pleasant time, one with the othet . 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 ! ' 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 they 156 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. can require from Mr. Talbot, as she will be out oi 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, Florida," and is in Bessie's pretty and feminine handwriting. It reads: '- 'ti.' jif St. Augustine, February 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 impulse — and 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 t)eautiful 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, the 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 KNrHAyXMKXT. 157 like to hcor a little bit nbont Ilcssic. Ilcssio Is (retting; alonjj very well. She has n very nice lime. She ha-> lots of l)o;un— one of them ill particular, is very nice— so you needn't send Mr. Lawrence Talbot down here at all. ihu please come yourself. ri«;ht off — an soon as {wssible, immediately — for I shall not be ha|)py until I hear your voice ajjain. F'apa was very anjjry at your keepin{i^ me up all niyht. packing your trunks ; he has forgiven you by this time, at my intercession, and sends you his love. I know Miss Ounnie does the same alsK), und so do I — lots of it — from Your loving Hkssie. P. S. — How do you like ** the silent Bessie " ? Is she behaving hcr«» self well ? I send you the enclosed notice. The newspaper clipping reads : ruary Qth, 1 891. It is reported on the best authority, that Miss Lillian Travers, the loYcly and fascinating; New York heiress, who has spent several of her springs amon^ Florida orange groves, is shortly to become a real Floridian, by marrying Doctor Frederick Cassadcne, the very accomplished and popular physician of ihe Ponce cie L:'on. Our reporter mentioned this rumor to the Doctor, who smiled, and looked as meri 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 ^e 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 l?8 A FLORIbA 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 Hfe, of her own voHtion, 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 trj;- 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 s into her face. " What is it then ? " " Why, it looks Hke 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 dreaa 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. 159 ments, when as she steps out of her coup6, 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 ? ** " Certainly ! " she replies. Something in his tone giving her alarm, and fortunately putting her on her guard. He asks: "Have you a Tiegro man in your em- ploy?'* A sudden instinct prompts htr 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-night ! " 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 \ i6o 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 ivilly 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 o* clothes, Mr. L'lly. '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 ? " gasps Miss Travers, turning very pale. A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. I6l my one ? " gasps ** No — no — but I'se been gettin' pints without tellin', and I'se diskivercd that Tse worth a thou- san' dollars a week, to a dime museum, as de greatest freak on earth ! " " Very well ! " cries Lilly desperately. " Ga 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 ? " " Believe me ! They'se got to believe me ! " 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 ! " and she emphasizes her command by producing her pistol. *' Dey is hid in one of my ol' stockin's in de bot- tom of my trunk ! — 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. XI l62 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. ** Why did you take these ? ** she asks. " 'Cause yo* said if I didn't behave myself yo'd turn mc 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, Tack Robbins ! " "An' yo', Miss Lilly, what'U yo' he?" 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, sternly. 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 myself yo'd wasn't goin* m my throat, \f?iy from yo' romise to let think you are and faithful Novit have to Ve leave New \ shall be no ny man, Jack be?" mutters ne. He mut- \e such mighty a little better )ugh for you,'* )ns and direc- uring the glass bag she hangs :hain she gets locking smile is w much a dime hudders : " My Like Franken- rum ! id, she goes to sleep, and has a fearful nightmare ; and sees three- sheet posters like the followini^, in gigantic type and lurid characters covering all the city walls and bill- boards. 2^31551 ™aBs«Be THE FREAK OF ALL ACES! X JJLJEj WOMAN MAN! LAWRENCE TALBOT n^e LILLIAN TRAVER8. Only One more Seed l^eit. BID HIQH! $3,060,600 Offered A female member of ;be Rothschild family bought the preyiouf one and haa Just been voted into the PARISIAN JOCKEY CLVB. The richest widow in New Tork is in negotiation for the LAST Seed. Also a QUEEN who wants to be a KING before she dies, 3 A DAY In conjunction with Th« Miaalng lalnk and The Zfiving Skalofoa. 164 A FLORIDA ENCHAXTMENI, CHAPTER XIII. DOCTOR FRED WOULD LIKE A KIS". 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 t)\GSQ 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 fianc^. 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. i6s KIS". 3erate haste, parations for ■, to initiate [ack. Every f voice: "My ,n the table, 3ing as she is spirits on the ing herself to ) indulge in, ikey, and the ng place when up to her an e easily recog- It is a hastily scarded suitor ded love, com- the manner of longing and le love he has ms to him the bis life happy. conclusion of cely polite. It :> sayst "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 Cassadenc 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 gazes 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 tremendou:- hankering after the de- lights of Delmonicos' caf6, sa'^red 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 thq pir i ' ».- 1"^ i66 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. Bowery, and would do her will, did she not dread that such adventures might lead to the revelation of her secret. Actuated by these motives an'l impelled by a great longing to sec Miss Bess- Horton, Lillian Travers makes her final preparatJODa to depart Tor- ever from life as a woman and ent r upon tiie glori- ous manhood that is before he/, for which she longs as a cbilrl doo^ lor a new toj'. She surreptitiously expresses to Orlando in South- ern Florida two large trunks addressed " Lawrence Talbot, Esq., — to be retained till called for," and looks gloatingly at the name as the boxes are carted away. Her fortune, now almost entirely in non-regis- tered bonds, is in the vaults of the Central Deposit Company, ready to open to Lawrence Talbot's greedy hand, the moment he appears. She makes a last visit to that institution, and deposits every- thing of value that belongs tc Lilly Travers, save one little article that she cannot find it in her heart to give up ; for " The Silent Bessie " has been a great comfort to her in the absence of the chatter- ing one. She looks upon the beautiful face of the miniature that smiles at her from its surrounding circlet of pearls, and mutters to herself: " My little sweetheart, I'll take you with me. It will be a risk; but for your sake I'd risk everything but being a woman again ! " and so pockets it. The next morning, booked as Miss Lillian Trav- ers of New York, with three thousand dollars in large bills in her pocket-book, she takes passage on the Florida Special, accompanied by her maid Jane, ^^^ A FLORIDA KNCIIANIMENT. 167 he not dread he revelation in non-regis- sntral Deposit ence Talbot's She makes eposits every- T ravers, save It in her heart has been a ►f the chatter- ful face of the surrounding If : " My little will be a risk ; g but being a s Lillian Trav- and dollars in ces passage on her maid Jane, and, arriving at Jacksonville, stops at that thriving town. For, after a great struggle witii herself, she has made up her mind another parting with Miss Connie would be too dangerous as well as too pain- ful to her. She mutters to herself: '* LilliiM Travers has passed out of my loved ortes' lives. Let us see if Lawrence Talbot cannot make up her loss to them." She lingers in Jacksonville one day, fighting with the various emotions that are in her and seeming to hesitate at leaving every friend she has on earth and casting herself i'^ne upon the world with her new manhood for lier liy support. Then she desp. r.'eiy takes train for Ocala, having determined that ; 'v- will make the trip down the Ocklawaha Riv r, for a very curious idea has grad- ually formed iii.elf in the last few weeks in Miss Travers* mind in regard to that cypress-shadowed, alligator-haunted region, which she is now about to execute. She journeys leisurely by way of Palatka, and at Hawthorne changes to the Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad and passes down the eastern side of Orange Lake to Citra; remaining at this place over night and inspectir"' next morning, the beautiful orange groves that heie grow in the wild luxuriance of a forest, dotted with other trees to make them look the work of nature, not of man as they are, for the sweet oranges of the East have been budded upon the wild and bitter native trees ; r Florida, and the groves still have the irregularity . ^.iuty of the wild-wood. 1 68 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. She has an object in this app*.rent leisurely travel. She wishes to appear simply as being on a pleasure tour, so that when ill-adventure comes to Miss Travers the world will think it is accident, not de- sign. Hut this plan brings vith it delay and delays are dangerous. Leaving Citra, she finds herself at Ocala the same day, accompanied by the faithful Jane, who has grown very much excited during this trip and who frequently asks her with an agitaicd i^uffaw, " When is it comin* ? What time does de change take place ? When is we goin' to use de new clo'es ? " and other remarks that make her mistress nervous and excited also. Here she puts up at the well- known hotel which has been christened after this town. A sleepless night — the last she will pass in woman's night gear — and she is up early the next morning to take the train for Silver Spring. On this trip she brings with her only a small trunk which Jane easily carries, for the Ocklawaha boats have but limited accommodation for baggage in their staterooms, which are little bigger than Saratogas themselves. A few minutes of railroad and she looks on the fair^ beauty of the great Silver Spring, once thought the fountain-of-eternal-youth, to find which Ponce de Leon journeyed till he died — these wondrous living waters that spring a full-grown river from the earth. This dazzling stream that in its tossing ofttimes magnifies the things that lie on its sandy bottom and the fish that swim within Us crystal ; these weird half-tone shadows from ti*,. cypress on its A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 169 banks; these living' waters that arc liquid-ether as they bubble from the grottos tiiat give out the purple tints; all seem of another and unreal, tlu>ugh perchance a happ-ier state, to this being, who, still calling herself Lilly Travers, is living a life mo other being ever lived before. But she has short time to gaze astonislu-d. — 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 Okahumpka, 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 suppi>rts 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 — long 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 : " 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- 170 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. ing and which in an hour will become dark .ind turbid, wonders if this is allegorical of her coming change. Her meditation is broken in upon by a most unexpected contretemps. A masculine voice comes to her ears with a recognition that makes her start. It says : " How did you enjoy your New York trip, Lilly? Did my letter have any weight in causing your return ? " Turning round with a gasp of astonishment and dismay, she sees the stalwart figure of Fred Cassadcne, who is looking upon her with triumph- ant and longing eyes. A moment after there is some disappointment in his glance ; for curiously enough, the Miss Travers he is gazing upon seems to have deteriorated since he saw her last, and ap- pears not so graceful and not so beautiful as the girl who had given him back her troth, scarce a month before, in St. Augustine. He chews his mustache rather disconcertedly, as he mutters to himself, " By Jove ! how she has changed ! ** Then masculine vanity comes to him and he thinks : " Joy will bring back beauty to her. I'l) make her happy." iVi'ss Travers gives a startled ** You here !'* and then forces herself into the commonplaces of social recognition. A moment after the Doctor whispers in her ear, " You have suffered too ! " and is surprised and shocked, for the delicate Miss Travers replies savagely '' Rats ! " an expression she has learnt from Jane and cultivated for masculine use. On this, the disconcerted Frederick drawing back from her, she goes into meditation herself, and won- A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 171 dcrs : " What cursed ill-luck has sent ihis love-sick sop here to make my task more difficult ? " 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. Cassadcnc, 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 fiancee 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 thi- larger river which cuts them off, jharp ai a knife blade, 'he steamer is now sonic miles dowii the Ocklawaha. 1/2 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. Swinging round one of the narrow turns, the boat runs within a few feet of a cypress tree, one of the long branches of which is covered with crawling, slimy, venomous snakes, — the dreaded water-moc- casins of Florida. Several ladies on the upper deck shudder and cringe away from these reptiles, that seem almost near enough to be dangerous. But Miss Travers, unlike her sisters, gazes upon the slimy things with- out apparent outwaH discomfort, and seems to enjoy the vigor with which one of the negro deck- hands whacks them off the branch with a pole into the water. The Lilly Travers of a month ago would have shuddered and turned from this sight, though the young lady who is now gazing upon it seems rather interested in the darkey's assault upon the reptiles that open their cotton-mouths at him and show their fangs as they wriggle about in vain endeavors to dodge the blows from his far-reaching pole. The Doctor's vanity again deceives him. He thinks : " Lilly attempts to be masculine and used that frightful exclamation to so disgust me that I will not renew my suit ; for the dear girl knows ^hat if I once make serious love to her, she will be a goner." Then meditating : " I will give her a little rope. I will leave her alone for an hour or two. She will be sighing for me by that time," — he de- votes his attention to other things and consoles him- self with a cigar. WViile enjoying his Havana he keeps '-ne eye upon Miss Travers, who, he shortly discovers, is gazing at him in a longing way, which elates him greatly. A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 173 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 ( oming 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 threatls 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 ou by the sable deck-hands turning 174 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 lookinj^^ 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 their leafy 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 ben^s 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 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 175 on its course, come down with leck-hands as they Miss Travers and gives her a gloomy fit. She grows timid and shud- ders at the thought of losing her name, identity and kindred : and once her hand goes to the little vial that is still hanging closely held in its buckskin bag about her neck, and for one short moment she thinks: " Why not take one of the mystic seeds that have brought disquiet to me and return to the life I have led — the womanhood I have left behind me ? ** But even as she thinks this, the voice of Doctor Freddie, who is trying to make himself very agreea- ble to a pretty young lady from Cincinnati, comes to her and she pauses and muttt-rs : '' My Heaven ! — and love him again ? " Then suddenly dear little Bessie's face rises before her and she is strong to do the work she has planned for herself this iMght. The decks of the boat gradually become deserted, for it is getting late, and most of the passengers have squeezed into their staterooms, a rather diffi- cult job for fat people. A few, perhaps unprovided with sleeping accommodations which are limited upon these boats; or perchance, anxious to still look at the great moss-laden trees, as they move past jthem or hear the plantation melodies of the darkey crew — remain. Often as the boat makes sudden turns the cypress branches scrape its sides. Now [and then a warning cry is heard as some great limb sweeps the deck giving danger as well as romance fo this night. Looking at her watch, Miss Travers asks a carc- :ss question of a negro deck-hand : " What will be ^ur next landing ? " *' McBride's," he says ; " den yo* come to Gray's \\3X — and keep yo' eye out, miss, for de way we 1/6 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. twists 'bout, right dar. Den we come up to Enoch & 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 Sprinjr Landing is the place she has selected where the earth will know Miss Travers no more. Even as i>he thinks this, Doctor Fred is at her side. This gentleman has apparently got over his huflfiness 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 wh.spering " 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. m herself from him suddenly, with a force that aston- ishes the stalwart Frederick, and whispers in tones of deadly rage, " Hang you, sir, i{ 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 occu[)ied, and Fred Cassadene is carelessly .smoking a cigar near the gang-plank, looking at the 'abors of the night and ruminating over his ill-success with tli<' New Y«jrk heiress, — whon, a young ma'i in gray travelling suit, with a fishing-rod in his liand and attended by a darkey servant carrying a gun case and small satchel, passes quickly over the ga g-plank. The pine knot in the hand of a negro s nding on the landing for a mo- ment lights up th( face of the young man, though partially concealed by a slouched hat, and Cassadene gives a momenta- start ; then mutters : " It's funny I can't get Li' 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 12 1/8 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. < 1^ 'IB ■f in his stateroom this trip; £unny I haven't seen him, before." But the whistle of the boat sounds, the great stern wheel revolves and the Okahumpka is on her way again, while Lawrence Talbot and his valet, Jack Robbins, are tramping along the Orange Creek road towards Orange Springs ; but they do not stop at that little place, turning off instead to the north and making along the road that leads to the railway, some ten miles distant in that direction; for Mr. Talbot seems to have a desperate desire not to be seen in the neighborhood of the Ocklawaha River. And so they make the longest march young Mr. Talbot has ever made, for he is a delicate young gentleman as yet and has not met with the fatigues incident to manhood, nor many of its responsibili- ties which are shortly to come upon him ; and his man-servant, who wears his clothes in an awkward, ungainly, unaccustomed way, during one of the many stops — for they make many — says with a guffaw : "Golly, Mr. Lawrence! wouldn't we be skeert ef we was gals ? " " Yes," remarks Talbot, lighting a cigar to soothe the weariness of the way ; " a month ago. Jack, we would have died of fright, out here alone, with the owls hooting like that ! " Then he says suddenly, " What did you do with our clothes?" " Tossed 'em all overboard ! " " That's the proper place for *em ! " remarks the gentleman cheerily. " How any human being can wear the disgusting unhealthy corsets and street- sweeping gowns women will insist upon flaunting about in is more than I can see ! But we have a A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 179 haven't seen pretty good step to go before we reach Clark's Mill, — so trot along, my man ! " Then the two trudge sturdily on, and in the early morning find themselves in pine woods, here and there made bright by little lakes; but they still press on, until, foot-sore and weary, this young gentleman and his man-servant reach the railroad, where they take the first train for Southern Florida, arriving at Orlando. Here Mr. Lawrence Talbot finds his trunks ahead of him, and proceeds to make himself comfortable and apparently having plenty of money — hires a guide and explores the Kissim- tiee region in pursuit of game, without much luck, however; the " Cracker " who attends liim remark- ing on their return, one day in a bar-room in Kissim- mee, that young Mr. Talbot is tlie wt)rst '* shooter " for a human being he ever *' seed " ; that he has on'y succeeded, so far, in shooting the air. All this ti ne. '^he neophyte is hurriedly cultivating a hmdsome i.iustache and a well tanned skin, and leaning to become a shot and to handle his mascu- line muscles for all they are worth and is thorough- ly indifferent apparently to what is going on in the coun'.ry to the north of him ; though he sometimes wondbrs what the world says at Lilly Travers' being out o\ it. Curiously enough Miss Travers has not been missed as yet. The Okahumpka arrives at Palatka before sunrise. Doctor Fred bolts off to sleep and the Puinam House in a huff and a hurry, and when daylight comes upon the town the passengers have all left the steamboat, Miss Travers and her maid being supposed to be among them. l8o A FLORIDA PNCHANTMENT. And tlidugli Hcssic's face lias begun to be anxious among St. iVugustine orange groves and she some- times mutters, " Why don't she write ?" 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 Uie evening to St. Augustine a dark-sl > "ot, and asks s Constantia earn the last y concerned ate with her. er father, at of introduc- j her, as he bright with triumph. He ejaculates : " I have her ! She can struggle — but I have her ! " and hurrying through his dinner makes a vvondrously 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 weeks 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 Mios 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, ■■'.■i 200 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. don't let your phosphate negotiations keep your little Bessie out too late." 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 m^ade 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 to-day 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, Jessie has no more eyes for anything else. This .^,1 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 20I pleases Lawrence who sapiently thinks, " Is not love for Lilly — love for mc ! " 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," murm.urs 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 I.''--- 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 Cassadenc ? " " 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 th-e Ock- lawaha trip about that time." " Indeed ? " returns Miss Connie. ** I shall write It to the officers of that li|ielpf steamers in Palatka to-night ; " — which she cfee* 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 KNCHANTMENT. 203 ipersi "As r confidant, ast met her ;nce easily, lars, " I can r Fred than /?" queries ks ago. She lurmurs the 1. It to Cuba. «s Miss Con- have surely Ired miles of Talbot im- .ok the Ock- I shall write 's in Palatka evening, to ch produces ho is talking ;d by Bessie led a second Idenly hands read it your- to me sitice ling between the lines. Tell me — does not this say * Adieu' to me ? 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- ducing a young gentleman "-here she looks at Law- rence and laughs — ** whom Lilly recommends very highly and seems to want to put before you ns a very desirable beau and perhaps as a " "You needn't continue," interrupts Hessic 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 ? " " 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. h " About 4S 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 — :is she made her pack her trunks. ' "Yes, I know," answers Lawrence, recollection making his eyes bright and his heart beat fast. Whereupon the j oung 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 tete-a-tete 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. 205 To this, Lawrence answers with intention : " He seems more discerning than his daughter." " Oh, if you arc going to talk to mc in that way," says Bessie, " it ts time for mc 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 ? " " Much finer," replies the major decidedly. " In my day the bucks and bla cs 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?" " 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 docs 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.'* * 2o6 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 effusively 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 gLMi'man's body-servant. I rather cal'late my wages has been riz by act of Pro'dence, Massa Lawrence." " Yes — T 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 strugg'^ng 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 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 207 ;if : " The :he niece," ery happy man Jack. [ proud to- )oped in de ►in' a leetle inette of de ould.— And ; M '< B: i •■ r 1 ; !' mi I 'Hi?* >, >,, 2l8 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. moment that both he and his man Jack are wearing the two identical suits ol clothes in which they de- parted from the boat on the Ocklawaha River, some three weeks before, and that Dr. Freddie Cassadene, having incidentally come to bid adieu to a lady patient to whom he wishes to show particular atten tion, has put his eye upon these two same suits of clothes and has suddenly said to himself : " Jove ! I know where I first saw Lawrence Talbot. — He and his man left the boat at Orange Spring Landing that night on the Ocklawaha — the night Lilly Travers disappeared — the night she perhaps v/as drowned ! " For the rumor of Miss Travers* fate has travelled pretty quickly about the town and has reached Doc- tor Fred's ears. So this medical gentleman goes to turning this matter of Lawrence Talbot leaving the boat the night his cousin Lilly Travers disappeared, and some curious diagnosis of the case of the missing heiress coming into his mind, he writes a letter to the Ocklawaha boat company, the answer to which leads him in the course of time to an extraordinary- conclusion. Thoughtless of any links he may be weaving to connect himself with his earlier self, Lawrence Tal- bot arrives in New York, taking up his residence at a hotel, and the next day, giving the pass-word, " My turn next," and signing his name in the books of the Central Safe Deposit Companv, turns the combi- nation in the lock of the private box left open to him by the bounteous hand of Lilly Travers and proceeds to make himself the possessor of the wealth that young lady had deposited. A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 2ig caring ley dc- ', some iadene, a lady r atten suits of '* Jove ! He and ng that T ravers ivned ! " ravelled ed Doc- ing this )oat the* nd some heiress to the which ordinary laving to mce Tal- Idence at jrd, " My )ooks of [e combi- open to ^ers and le wealth 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, howeve-, 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- r \&M' 2 20 A FLORIDA ENCHAiN TMENT. mm 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 fof 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 fiancee, 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 dear blue eyes. So on the evening of the fifth day from his dc- A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 221 parture, Mr. Lawrence Talbot, accompanied by his man John Robbins, arrives once more in St. Augus- tine, to encounter more exciting adventures than ever dreamed of in his philosophy ; to learn that a man's life may be more free and easy than a woman's, but that it has dangers and anxieties such as seldom come to the other sex to make it bald. These troubles do not come upon him imme- diately. The first few days of his return are very rosy ones. Miss Connie has received her letter, and relieved of all anxiety about the fate of her beloved niece, thinks only of furthering the happiness of the young gentleman who journeyed all the v/ay to New York, to bring back peace to her mind. Seconded by this lady, in the course of a few days, Lawrence, though slightly opposed by the major, who thinks it would not be complimentary to Bessie, to let her go very easily, succeeds in getting his sweetheart to mention the day upon which she will make him her husband, without the assistance of the absent Lilly, as bridesmaid. Upon which Mr. Tal- bot gives her the present he has brought with him, purporting to have been sent by Miss Travers, and is very much astonished, and perhaps somewhat dis- mayed, to find that the artful letter he had forged to Miss Bessie has not yet arrived from New York. " You are sure you didn't get it ? " he asks anx- ioujly. " Certainly ! " answers the girl. *' You are positive she sent it ? " « Yes — she told me she did— in fact, I saw her write it," mutters this young man, who has got to chuckling at his own prevarications. h ! iv 1 222 A Fr.ORIDA ENCHANTMENT. But at the sa"ic time, the non-arrival of Miss Beii* sie's letter gives him an indefinable fear, and re- membering he had intrusted its posting to his dusky valet, he very shortly interviews that sable gentle- man on the subject. " Robbins ! " he says, assuming his most dignified and severe air. " I gave you a letter in New York to post. What did you do with it ? " " Posted it, sah ! " " No, you didn't ! " cries Lawrence angrily. " 'Deed I did, sah. I remember de box on Sixth Abenue. Dey was havin* a dog fight at de time, in de neighb'hood — ** but here Jack suddenly knows that he is lying, and remembers that in the excite- ment of the dog fight he had forgotten to post the letter, though he keeps on asserting : " 'Clare to goodness, I did, sah ! I posted dat letter, sah ! " and makes this assertion so often that Lawrence thinks it must be some error in the mail service that has produced this contretemps. This is apparently borne out by the fact that next day Miss Bessie, coming down the walk to meet him, in all the beauties of white muslin, brilliant ribbon- sash, and pretty slippers, waves a letter jubilantly and cries : " Lawrence, you were right ! Here's Lilly's letter written in her own dear hand. She didn't forget me qrJte as much as I had imagined ! " To this her lover returns conceitedly : " Didn't I tell you ! " and is quite contented over the matter. He would perhaps be somewhat less easy were he cognizant that his man Jack, with the best intentions in the world, has found the unposted envelope in his coat pocket, and desirous of rectifying his error, has A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 225 re he :ions In his L has 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 lounjring near, the proper way of disposing of tlie epistle. That gen- tleman, glancing at the envelope, has recognized the well-known writing of his lost fiancee, 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 ! " " *Io, sah ! " gasps Jack. " Why, she must be here ! That letter is from her." " No, sah ! I got de letter in New York. Mr. Tal- bot gave me dat letter in New York, to post. 1 for- got to put it in, sah." "Well then. Miss Travers is in New York." " Certainly, sah ! Miss Lilly Travers in New York. — Saw her maid Jane der, sah — de 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 ! " But still goes on thinking and putting two and two together 324 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. and finally writes to the Buckingham Hotel, New York, and also to the firm who had been Miss Trav- ers' lawyers. And an incident that occurs shortly thereafter, adds newer, stronger, and more deadly hate to the stock of malice and malignity that Doctor Fred has on hand for Mr. Lawrence Talbot. This comes about, as usual, through a woman. Mrs. Stella Lovejoy is not accustomed to being deserted by gentlemen, and resents defection in the ranks of her adorers as a personal slight. And though Mr. Talbot has made no deep impression upon her heart, and she loves the Doctor much bet- ter than her " naughty boy " as she calls Lawrence, partly in sarcasm, partly in affection, still the rumor that now floats about St. Augustine, that Bessie Horton has captured this handsome and rich young springald, makes her clench her beautiful hands, and swear she will get him back again, and make him love her, just to have the pleasure of saying " No " to him, and do another of her " great refusal acts " — a scene in which by force of habit she is past mistress. She has always been pleasant to Mr. Talbot, even in the moments of her chagrin at what she considers his slights, and making it her business she contrives to meet Lawrence on the Alameda one afternoon when he is trying to pass a longish day, his sweet- heart and her father being in Jacksonville, Miss Bessie being engaged in gathering up sufficient of a trousseau to take her to Europe ; Lawrence hav- ii:g proudly told her he would do the rest in Paris. At this encounter Mrs. Lovejoy suggests that the A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 225 , New Trav- eafter, to the ed has comes being in the And ression :h bet- /rence, rumor Bessie young is, and :e him "No" acts " s past even isiders itrives rnoon sweet- Miss ent of e hav- 'aris. at the 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, " 1 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 disappoi.-ted 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 tn anybody but you. I thought as the euchre party had disappoint^ed me, 15 226 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. we would have a pleasant evening together," and the widow's eyes grow drooping and tender, and those of Mr. Talbot grow flashing, bold, and daring, for in her costume this evening, Stella Lovejoy has a beauty that is almost not of this earth, but whether of Heaven or of Hades, young Mr. Tal- bot is too much fascinated to decide. All he knows is that she is marvelously lovely, as she nonchalantly motions him to a chair, and sinks down amid the 'cushions of a sofa, to make her very prettiest picture, which she does, for this lady is mistress of the art of fascination. She is in some white, shimmering, glistening robe — ^part ball dress — part negligee. The invention of some Parisian man milliner villain to give women domination over his sex. Her eyes, blue as tur- quoise, have the varying flashes of opal. Her polished shoulders and bare white arms gleam in the mellow lamplight, and the floating lace about her dress makes it fairy-like, though the rounded outlines it drapes are those of a statue. " Now, my boy," she says playfully, assuming the rdle of a v/oman old enough to flirt with this young gentleman, without damage to the hearts of either, " over a cup of tea we can pass a pleasant evening, one of the last I shall spend in Florida ; " and a slight sigh seems to float from her lips, which is echoed by her guest, who seems sad at the thought of her departure. A moment after she murmurs : " So you must try and make my recollection of it pleasant." " As you will do to me also," suggests Lawrence meaningly. A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 227 is the roung [ither, pning, ind a ich is )ught |jt try rencc As he emphasizes this with his eyes, she rings a 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 throv/n 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 rdle 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 01 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 ov the Medicean Venus, she play- m 'I ii i'} « ■ :|: 228 H',', iff 1 I'-' at 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 ! I — " 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 — " She would say 1 !vl|. I M !■'■■, ^ • A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 229 was an infernal scoundrel— as I am." Then he says agitatedly : " I—I believe I must go now. I have had my tea — awfully obliged, to you for a pleasant evening ! " And the girl entering at this moment, to take away the tea things, he murmurs: " Good-by, Mrs. Lovejoy. I hope I will see you at my wedding. I know Bessie would like you to be there," and getting into the hall, puts his hat on, and leaves Stella gazing at him too astounded to speak. As he passes from her apartments into the great corridor of the hotel, he sees glaring at him Doctor Frederick Cassadene, whose card has been slighted, and who has been told but an hour before that Mrs. Lovejoy was not at home — while she was tete-k-t^te with this favored springald. ** That man will never forgive me ! " thinks Law- rence to himself; then shudders: "My Heaven! In another second I would have lied to her. I would have told her I loved her. My God ! If Bessie knew this it would break her heart ! " So going to the Cordova, he comes into his room, looks in the glass, and shakes his fist at the agitated young gentleman who gazes at him, and says : " Do you know who's speaking to you, my masher? It's your mother-in-law Lilly Travers. No more of this, Law- rence Trlbot ! I see what you'll make unless I put my hand upon you! You'll be a 'rounder'! A good for nothing! A * thoroughbred ' ! who will break Bessie's heart — confound you ! If you don't behave yourself Til give you or^e of old Hauser's Obi-seeds and make you into a good little girl again," and feels from very force of habit to see if the vial is '> '11 230 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. :■ ,'13 hung round bis neck in its usual place where it dangles against the " silent Bessie." Then he becomes- meditative, and mutters, " If you can keep your head in the presence of such beauty as you've had thrown at you to-night, I think I may trust you anywhere, my boy ! " Next he laughs to himself : " George ! Wasn't Doctor Fred angry ! I do so love to down him ! " and thinks no more of the occurrence, because he is very sleepy and tired, and Bessie will be here again the next morning, and he's going to be up early to meet her at the train. Perhaps he wouldn't sleep so soundly did he know that Dr. Fred, with anguish in soul and bat- tle in his eye, has determined to call him out and shed this favored young gallant's blood upon the field of honor. For Frederick Cassadene, M.D., who has been doing detective duty for the last few days — but as yet has not proved his theory of Miss Lilly Trav- ers' disappearance, has just said to himself in the privacy of his office these astounding words : " D — n that infernal young pill — if I dcn't hang him by the law I'll shoot him outside of it ! " CHAPTER XVII. A DUEL AMONG THE ORANGE TREES. These peculiar remarks have been brought about in the following extraordinary manner. Cassadene has been investigating Lawrence Talbot's record, ever since he has heard the rumor that Miss Travers may have been drowned in the Ocklawaha, and rec- A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 231 [bout Idenc :ord, ivers rec- ognized his rival, and his valet Jack Robbins, as the two men who left the Okahiimpka 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 Okahumpka 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 ri/er, 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. :r'! ::;i 232 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. :i!' ' 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 wilt , (i J A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 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 fiancee 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. 'it '!•' I! '■';, I .;■: 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 a vicious 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, replies quite warmly, and v/ith 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- comfiture this young puppy, as he dubs him, has : . Jri, A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 23S ders y he been goes dess, come soon ilkes, i Mr. rilling who, Tieans reddie Lirpose sitting le pro- gibing iththe sneer- in, not larmly, Ifinally ro up- here. lady's ie they )nely ? ?*' mus- ic dis- has brought upon h'm, and he thinks Lawrence's insinu- ations arc as so many allusions to that young gentle- man's triumph with the flirtatious Stella. " Look here ! " he says grimly, '* youd better keep your attention on the billiard balls, young man. You don't seem to play a very good game. But,'* he continues pompously, " you haven't had much time to learn. I suppose you commenced to play billiards when you commenced to raise a mustache I " This witticism at his opponent's expense pro- ducing a snicker from young Wilkes, makes Law- rence very angry, for he is extremely touchy as to his youthful appearance, and particularly as to his lately cultivated and highly valued mustache, of which he is very proud, though it is not, to use a slangy expression, a " marker " to the luxuriant growth upon the doctor's lip, at which the neo- phyte has often gazed with envious eyes. , He returns, growing very red in the face, ** We won't discuss my mustache, doctor." " No, there isn't muck to discuss," gibes his tor- mentor. " If you dare to criticise me personally, I'll make it a personal matter with you ! " says the young ban- tam, growing very angry. This the Doctor answers with a jeering " Ha ! ha ! " and laughs : " Make it a personal matter with me/ Why, young Mr. Poppycock, you ta'k as if you were really a man, and you're cS puny as your mustache ! " Now this slur on the insignia of his new manhood makes the masculine Mr. Talbot very angry, and some of his old feminine nature returning, he walks 236 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. ^r I up to his tormentor and soundly boxes his ears, an accomplishment he has learned as Miss Lilly Trav- ers at a girls' boarding-school. But the Doctor, having studied in a more mas- culine seminary, promptly draws back, and leading out from the shoulder, plants his ** bunch of fives," after the mannei of the prize ring, upon his oppo- nent's ** optic," and Mr. Lawrence Talbot, with a faint cry, " goes to grass " on the billiard table. A moment after, staggering to his feet, very pale, but determined, he whispers : " You miserable bully ! You shall answer to me for this ! " " In any way you please — ** says the doctor eagerly. " Mr. Wilkes here will be my friend ! " A r61e which this gentleman is very anxious to play, and he expresses his willingness, while Lawrence leaving the two, with rage and fury in his heart, goes to his hotel. Getting into his room, he looks at his eye and finds it a very bad one.^ Then, curiously enough, he commences to laugh : " Who would have thought it six weeks ago — that my own lovely Fred would have blacked his Lilly's eye ? '^ He is engaged in doctoring his wounded optic, when suddenly he gives a groan of despair, and wonders what Bessie will think of all this — and how he can possibly make love — perhaps even be mar- ried, with such a fearful swelling on his face, for Doctor Fred has hit very squarely and very hard. Here his solitude is broken in upon by the major. That gentleman has heard of the occurrence; and has come over to proffer his services, in his old-time Southern way, to his future son-in-law. ill A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 237 !, an 'rav- mas- ding ves, )ppo- ith a pale, )ully ! loctor !" A play, /rence t,goes and rh, he |ought ould I optic, and how mar- ie, for lard, lajor. -, and -time *' Lawrence, my boy," he says, after hearing his story, " that blow can only be washed out in blood." " Yes," cries Lawrence, smarting with pain and indignation. " He is bigger than I, but that'll make him a better mark for a pistol." " Spoken after my own heart ! " the major adds, " I will step over and arrange matters for you very quickly, unless this big fellow is white-livered ! '* Which he does, and shortly returning says : " To- morrow at one o'clock. I have fixed it in the orange trees behind Miss Connie's house. Nobody will think we're going to fight there, and we're pretty certain of not being interrupted." Then he asks Lawrence the details of the affair, which Lawrence tells him, wisely omitting the shrewd suspicion that it was not billiards nor a mustache that they were fighting about— but Mrs. Stella Lovejoy. To this the veteran remarks : " If you hadn't called him out, my boy, you should never have had little Bessie ! " and goes to telling him various anec- dotes of his own duels in ante-bellum days, and con- tinues : " You're just like young Pinckney whom I winged once — fiery, hot-blooded, and not bigger than a boy, but plucky as old Nick himself ! " Then he stops suddenly and ejaculates, " My God ! If anything happens to you ! " and the tears come into his eyes, and he makes Lawrence very happy and very miserable, by telling him how much he knows his little Bessie loves him, and mutters : " We must keep this from the little girl. Not a word to her ! " i ■ it i i ■ft t 238 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. " Trust me for that ! " says Lawrence grimly. With that the two gentlemen shake hands, the major reraarking that he shall telegraph Bessie to remain in Jacksonville, which he hopes will keep the affair from his daughter's ears. And Lawrence says : " Then I'd better write to her." " Only a word or two," returns the father, " and don't write between the lines, for she's a perfect little witch at discovering hidden meanings," and as- tonishes Lawrence very greatly, and gives him quite a shock, for he continues : " Do you know, my little girl has sometimes said to me that your letters sound so much like your cousin Lilly's, that she would often think you had Lilly's brain in your body, only masculine and stronger, my boy ! " So the major goes away, telling him he will drop in upon him in the evening, and recommending raw beef for the eye, and Lawrence, after making him- self as comfortable as he can under the circum- stances, sits down and writes a long, very tender, and yearning letter to his sweetheart in Jackson- ville ; and then sighs and makes a short autographic last will and testament, leaving ever^/thing he has in this world to his dear little Bessie. The evening brings the major, who takes dinner with Mr. Talbot in that gentleman's parlor, his eye preventing his appearance in a public dining-room. But shortly after the meal is over the major says suddenly : " Oh Lord ! I forgot the pistols. I must take the barkers to the gun-maker's, to have them put in first-rate order for to-morrow. I'll go round and get them. I shall call for you at twelve o'clock A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 239 iner eye >ays lUSt lem lund lock to-morrow, my boy, and I think I will bring you out ot this affair very nicely." " How so ? " asks Lawrence rising, for Horton has got up to go. " Young Wilkes, the doctor's second, doesn't seem to know much about the delicate points of the duello, and I think I can obtain some nice advan- tages for you, of wind and sun," remarks this expo- nent of ancient fair play, after the manner of the code of honor, where any technical advantage that can be obtained by the second for his principal, is considered quite che proper thing among gentlemen. But the next niorning the mail from New York brings two letters to Doctor Frederick Cassadene, that change materially the major's prognostications of this eventful day. The first is from the clerk of the Buckingham Hotel, which states distinctly and positively, that no young lady of the name of Lillian Travers has registered at their house during the last month ; consequently she has not lived there, and has not left that hostelry for Europe. The second is from the firm '»'ho had acted for some time as attorneys for Miss Travers. It is the following curious epistle : •' 79i Nassau Street, New York City, April Ttk, 1 891. Doctor Frederick Cassadene, Dear Sir: Your favor of April 2d at hand, and contents noted. In an- swer we would say that Miss Travers, during the last three weeks she was in New York, that is, from about the 6th of February to about the 23d of that month, withdrew all her papers from our office, and disposed of all her real estate in New York City. Thia ^}0 b.r 'J(r,i: ;*?n'' 240 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. we know as we were called in to decide upon one or two of the titles to her realty, by clients who purchased the same. Noting your apparent anxiety about the lady (to whom we know you are engaged) we have made some inquiries among the real estate dealers and stock brokers, through whom she transacted ker business during her last stay in New York. She has apparently converted most of her fortune into Government bonds, and deposited them in the Central Safe Deposit Company, where she has taken her box in the name of herself and her cousin, Mr. Lawrence Talbot. The records of all out-going steamers for the last week wc have examined, and find that her name is on the passenger lists of none of them. We have made this examination very carefully, very cautiously, and very thoroughly, knowing your interest in the lady, whose late actions in regard to her property were to say the least eccentric. In case you should have reason to think that her mind is in any way affected, please notify us, so that we can communicate with our former client's relatives. You need not fear to be entively frank with us, as we have only the young lady's interests at heart, her father having been one of our oldest clients, and his daughter having endeared herself to us by many acts of personal kindness. Awaiting your reply, we remain. Yours most respectfully, Broughton & Williams. If the first epistle astonished Doctor Cassadene, the second one horrifies him. He puts the facts together, and is more concerned than before ; for this appalling chain of circumstances develops itself in his mind : Firstf Miss Travers, for some reason or other, de- posited an immense amount of securities in a box at the Central Safe Deposit Company, to which only she and Lawrence Talbot had access. Second, That Miss Travers disappeared from the Ocklawaha boat on the night of February 28th, 1 89 1. On that same trip Lawrence Talbot, who ^ad A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 241 dene, facts for itself :,de. box only the 58th, surreptitiously taken passage on the same boat, left it in the middle of the night at Orange Creek Land- ing. Thirds 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 \\ 243 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. CHAPTER XVIII. THE HORRIBLE METAMORPHOSIS OF DOCTOR FREDERICK CASSADENE. \:;i These examinations, deductions, and inferences have taken Dr. Cassadene until eleven o'clock. Forgetful of the duel that is to take place at one, and his peculiar relationship in this regard to the gentleman whom he is to meet, he mutters to himself: " I'll give the fiend ho charice to escape! I'll confront him with his crime ! I'll gloat over the cruel scoundrel's agony and terror. I'll give him the same mercy as he gave my poor murdered Lilly, who would have again loved me, if he had but let her ! " So he strides over to the Cordova, and without sending up his card, knowing very well the number of Lawrence's room, steps up, and raps on the door of that gentleman's apartment. He is ushered in by John, who has a very dark and serious face upon him this morning, though his teeth and eyes are excitedly white. This worthy seems somewhat frightened at beholding the warlike doctor. " I wish to see Lawrence Talbot ! " says Cassa- dene shortly. " He's in his parlor, isn't he ? " and before John can stop him, he steps through the bed- room : for this suite of apartments, like most of the tower rooms in the Cordova, is curiously arranged, the entrance being through the bedroom and the parlor being the immediate corner room, having a a A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 243 view of the Alameda and Cordova Street, from its Moorish windows. Here he is confronted by Lawrence, who has just made an elaborate toilet, apparently for the ap- proaching meeting. This gentleman remarks : " If you have any com- munication to make in regard to the affair between us, make it through your second to mine, Major Horton." " I have a few words to say to you," says the Doctor, " that I don't think you would care to pass between us through other parties, and after I have spoken to you the sheriff's officer will do the rest." At these words, a peculiar look comes into Law- rence Talbot's face. He ejaculates : " John, shut the outer door ' " ' " Oh, that doesn't frighten me ! " sneers Cassad.no. "There are a hundred people within call. You can't get away — that's the only thing I want to guard against." "I'm not running!" answers Talbot uneasily., " Now give me your message." " Very well, you miserable assassin ! " says the Doctor sternly. " Assassin of whom ? " gasps Lawrence, perhaps some inkling of the extraordinary accusation that is upon him, coming to him to make him pale and nervous. " The assassin of your cousin, Lilly Travers, whom you foully murdered, together with her maid, Jane -Rouser, on the night of February 28, 1891, on the Ocklawaha boat, to obtain her fortune, and in this fiendish crime you were assisted by your man, your vl -.is*r 244 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. n n u if t i 'I, i i^ i I ! 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 ! " 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 ? " 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 ! ** - But this is interrupted by a fearful giggle from Lawrence. " Quiet, you — you young fiend ! " hisses Cassa- dene. " Give me your proofs ! " whispers Lawrence. " I would hate the man who had murdered Lilly Trav- ers as much as you — yes — muck more ! " " 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 ! " cries the Doctor. " I saw you get off at Orange Spring Landing — you and your accomplice John. You had the same suits of clothes on in which you left St. Augustine for New York." '' I admit I was on the boat," remarks Lawrence candidly. " I remember perfectly Miss Travers threatening to knock you overboard, if you dared put your hand upon her shoulder again." " Ah, ha ! you confess ! " A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. fu le rs 245 " That much, certainly ! " " You went to New York, you pretended that you met Lilly Travers there. You forged letters in her handwriting to deceive her relatives and make them think she was alive. The strong box in the Central Safe Deposit Company was open to both you and her. You murdered her that you might get her secu- rities and make yourself rich, the wealth you are now lavishing upon Miss Bessie Horton. Do you think she will love you after she knows you are the murderer of Lilly Travers ? Ah ! that touches you, you brute ! " For this view of the case makes Law- rence shudder and grow deathly sick with appre- hension. But Cassadene keeps on : *' You miserable murderer ! You wretched cowardly assassin ! And you threw that beautiful girl overboard, to be the prey of the alligators and the reptiles of that swampy river ! Monster ! " Then the doctor, working himself up into a rage, almost seizes the supposed criminal by the throat. He starts back astonished, however, as Lawrence gasps back at him : " I would cry vengeance on the murderer of Lilly Travers more loudly than you, bt':ause if Lilly Travers had been assassinated I would not exist! " "Not exist?" " Certainly not. The murderer would have killed me ! " Then he says : " Fred," assuming as near as possible the old tones, "don't you know me, old boy? Don't you remember your fiancee Lilly Travers? Fickle one! Have you forgotten me in three weeks ? " And something in his manner and his tone st/.! - 246 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMBNT. ing the Doctor, he grows pale also, and murmurs: " Good heavens ! What do you rr :an ? " " I mean that you are not accusing me of murdef but suicide I " ** Suicide ? Ha ha ! — ho ho ! — he he ! " and the Doctor jeers him. ** Yes, suicide ! " cries Lawrence desperately. ** For I am Lilly Tr avers / " "You, a man, assert that you're a woman ! " Cas- sadene gasps. " I can prove it ! ** ''■ You tell thi3 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 MYSELF ! " ** 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 ar^, ! Don't bandy words ! " begs Lawrence appcalinglJ^ " 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 remem-ber how you deceived me by writing A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 247 in that yow were called to a case of snake-bite, when you took that moonlight sail with Stella Lovejoy?" " Yes ! " " You recollect the words you last spoke to Lilly Travers when you parted from her at her aunt's house ; that you said within a month, despite my- self, you would make me marry you ? '[ "Pooh!" cries the Doctor. "These revelations you make to me, have been told you by your murdered victim." " Not at all — do you see this ? " and Lawrence produces from his neck a little vial containing the two amber seeds that still play about each other with the same vivacity and elfish life that they did when he first looked at them, and he points to the label : For Women who Suffer. Ha ! ha ! ha ! and then going on, he tells to the astonished Fred- erick Cassadene, old Hauser Oglethorpe's wondrous story of the "Tree of Sexual Change," and how, driven to desperation by the Doctor's untruth to him, to drown the agony of jealousy in his heart, he had taken one of these marvelous seeds to become a man, and that to keep his secret, he had given his maid Jane another, and Jane was standing there in the next room now, his valet. Jack Robbins ; and as he finishes, he holds out his hand and whispers : " Freddie, old boy, do you believe ? " And Cassadene replie'^ : "Believe? Nonsense! Impossible ! I am a doctor. Tell such a story to ■fe/p 248 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. Ml 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 ! " " 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 ! ** scoffs 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 ! " And opening the vial, Lawrence takes forth one of the Obi-seeds of Hauser Oglethorpe. " You will take it ? " 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, r-s \:l'\. A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 249 a lis understanding, comes silently and slowly forth, and then, like the spring of a black snake, seizes Doctor Cassadene around the waist and throws that gentle- man down, and has his knee upon his chest. Before the astounded Frederick can open his mouth to give a shriek, Lawrence has fallen upon him, and squeezing his enemy's nostrils between his fingers, the doctor 6pens his mouth, gasping for breath, and in that one fatal moment Lawrence has tossed in between the white teeth of Frederick Cassadene, a seed that springs joyously on its way down his throat to make the " masher " of the Ponce de Leon the sex of which his victims have been, but will be so no more. This being done, the two suddenly release *^im. He springs to his feet and gives an affrighted cry, for the winged seed as it sprang down his throat, had given his tonsils an awful grip. " Is it poison ? " he gasps, with a pale face. " No," says Lawrence, " I have taken one, and so has Jane there and we are both alive. You will live too, but as one of the sex you adore. A woman ! '* " A WOMAN ! " shrieks the Doctor. " Fiends of enchantment ! This morning the beautiful Stella promised to marry me !" Then he says trying to be calm but trembling all over, " Pooh ! Rubbish ! Absurd ! Idiotic ! " but finally utters a faint cry and mutters with affrighted eyes : " What has come to me ? What is passing through me ? I am not as I once was ! " and sinks into a chair and mumbles to himself and utters little female cries of dismay in a voice that gradually becomes soprano and finally sits collapsed for some five minutes. 250 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. *.; This scene would be weird and awful and cruel were it not for the hideous laughter of the negro, who guffaws : " 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 f'^und 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 ner\*ous about pistols and such things ; please put them A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 251 away. T know they'll go off, and then I'll scream!" says Frederick in feminine voice and mincing manner. On this Wilkes exclaims : " Hang you, Cassadene! You're a coward." And the major cries : " Why, this swash-buckler has changed his tone! Mr. Wilkes, for the sake of your principal, prevent any further such unmanly exhibitions— withdraw him ! The gentleman I rep- resent meets only men who are not poltroons." But the Doctress only laughs the hideous laugh of despair, and says: " I don't think it's polite of you, major, to treat me in that way. You are generally gallant to one of my sex ! " And she simpers at him and disgusts him, till he cries out : " By Gad, sir, you're no gentleman ! " " No, I'm not ! " gasps the Doctress hysterically, " I'm—! Oh Pbwers of Magic ! What am I ? " " You're a libel upon manhood," answers his second in disgust. "You see, sir!" says the major pointing to the Doctor. " Take this creature who has disgraced himself away ! I feel sorry for your embarrassing position. I beg you to withdraw." But Wilkes is saved any trouble on this point, for suddenly uttering a hideous yell of despair, Doctress Frederika Cassadene goes into a fit of hysterics, bolts from the apartment and disappears, followed shortly after, by his second. Then the major, turning to Lawrence, claps him on the shoulder, and says : " My dear boy, I would have brought you out of this affair all right; but perhaps it is best it ended in this way ; even cow- ards* pistols are sometimes fatal to bra^e men ! " 252 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. CHAPTER XIX.- 5 t-f^ 1 ■iiii 't "I'VE COME FOR THAT SEED 1" Here Lawrence suddenly suggests : " Hadn't you better telegraph Bessie ? There is now nothing to keep her away from St. Augustine." " Ah ! a little lonely, my Romeo," utters the major playfully. Then he adds : " Think of the loneliness that you will cause me when you take her from me ; " and the veteran's lips tremble and there are tears in his eyes, but brushing them away, he continues : " You are a boy after my own heart, Lawrence. Egad ! How that white-livered doctor quailed be- fore you ! " For Lawrence's adherence to the code has somehow put him very high in the Southerner's good graces. So they step down to the telegraph office and wire Miss Bessie that she can come back. Then the two drive out to tht-: major's place on the San Sebastian, Lavi^rence feeling his nerves a little unstrung by the terrible interview he has gone through with the Doctor, thinking to himself : " I would have sooner faced his pistol than been compelled to trust him with my secret." A moment after he cogitates with a sigh of relief : " She dare never reveal it. Poor old Doctress Froddie ! I wonder what 3he is doing now. I believe I have taken her last chance with the girls away from her. I've downed her with the widow this time, certain." Of this there Can be no doubt, for Doctress Fred- erika Cassadene, after a hurried visit to her room at the PoHwC de Leon, has suddenly fled from that A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 353 u o hostelry and the town of St. Augustine, and has even forgotten to liquidate the hotel bill, and other small accounts of the late Frederick Cassadene, M.D. Ail they drive up the gravel road to the ex-Con- federate's house, there is the fluttering of a white dress on the veranda and the major ejaculates: " Great goodness ! Bessie's here already." And as they spring out of the carriage he says sharply to his daughter : " You got my telegram ? " " Yes, dear papa," replies the girl, giving him a kiss. " Didn't I tell you not to return to-day ? What brought you here ? " " Your despatch, dear papa I It told me not to leave Jacksonville, so I immediately came on, to find out what was the matter," replies the young lady riantly ; and turning to Lawrence, she opens her blue eyes very wide and gasps : " But what is the matter ? Have you been fighting ? " — for he still bears the scars of yesterday's encounter. " No ; but he came very near encountering Cassa- dene in a duel to-day, my little daughter." " For me ? — Oh mercy ! " cries Bessie, looking astonished and horrified. " No," replies the major ; " for his insulted mus- tache. But the white-livered doctor didn't dare stand before your sweetheart. My little Bessie, I congratulate you on gaining a husband who will love you and who will fight for you if need be." Then the old gentleman turns away and leaves the lovers together, Miss Bessie looking very serious. A moment after she suddenly says : " What was the real reason of your duel?" then uneasily ex- 254 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. )'! 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 ? " 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 fiancee, 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 ENCHANTMENT. 255 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 me ? " 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 pf 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." 256 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. Then a cunning gleanx comes into her eyes and she says : " Though you despise me, I will still do you a service. I will make you richer than you are. I once had a patient as a doctor in New York, a woman, immensely wealthy, who will give for that one sacred seed you carry with you a million dollars — perhaps more. Give it to me and I will take it to her, and you shall have half of what I receive for it." And she looks with longing eyes upon the place where she remembers Lawrence always carries the vial that bears the one last magic seed of Hauser Oglethorpe. But he mutters hoarsely : " No ! no ! With that precious implement in your hand, you would never reach New York a woman. You would be a man before you left Jacksonville." And then she falls upon him, and almost struggles with him, crying in despair : " I will have it. You have ruined my life forever. Were I but a man again, I could marrj^ the widow — the beautiful Stella, who loves me — who is ready to give her beauty and her wealth to me. Give it to me — I will have it." And begs him and prays to him with wild words and wilder gestures as she would do to a god who held her life in his hand. But he mutters hoarsely to her : " Never ! It is the talisman that shall prove me innocent, if I am ever accused of Lilly Travers* murder by some one who hates me as you do." And breaking away from her, Lawrence runs to the depot and takes the first train for St. Augustine, though it is a local and a very slow one. So it comes to pass, a few days after, in the beau- A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 257 tiful church at St. Augustine, that looks to the out- side traveller more like a Moorish mosque of Islam than a Protestant church, Lawrence and Bessie, 'mid the chimes of joyous wedding-bells and in the pres- ence of the notables of the town and the few hotel guests that are left (for the season is drawing very near its close), — are wedded ; and dear old Connie, kissing the bride says : " If Lilly were only here to kiss you too ! " But the groom says to this, his eyes flashing very brightly : " I will take Lilly's place. This is Lilly's kiss ! " — and puts upon the blushing red lips of his newly-made bride the salute from the girl Bessie had loved so well and whom she had lost forever, to gain a husband. And shortly after this the two take the train for the North, en route for Europe, the major promising to follow after them — partly on business, partly on pleasure; for he has made a sale of most of his phosphate lands to one of those all-devouring Eng- lish financial syndicates which spend a great deal of money in America and receive comparatively little back again, and he is going on to London to com- plete the details of the transaction and add a goodly number of English pounds sterling to the American dollars in his bank account. In New York they stop at the Brevoort, Lawrence having selected this very fashionable but very quiet : house for his residence before the departing steamer shall bear them away to Europe ; and in due time they are driven to the Etruria that is at her dock with steam up ready to point her prow to England. The great ship's crowded decks are covered with the varying throng of passengers that in the early spring ' 17 258 A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. take this great Atlantic ferry to spend a few months in Europe and return once more to winter in New York. And in this crowd are other bridal couples-— some of them, perhaps equally as happy as Lawrence and his fair young bride — but none more so. Bessie stands on the deck bidding adieu to some Southern friends who have come to see them off, when Lawrence's man Jack, suddenly stepping to him with mysterious air and frightened face and jabbering teeth, whispers : " Dar's a lady waitin' fo* yo', sah, in yo' state-room, dat swear she won't go on sho' till she see yo', an* dat she'll make de mos' terr'ble hubbub an' row in de worl' an'll denounce yo' right heah an' will bust de deck up, ef yo* don't see her.** Then Lawrence knows his fate is upon him again and that Doctress Frederika Cassadene is waiting to see him ; and he goes down to find the same gaunt female who had fallen upon his neck in Jacksonville. She whispers to him, her eyes red with despair : " I have come for that seed. I will never leave you until I get that seed. I have tried to be a doctress in New York, but no patients have come to me. You have driven me to a wpman's desperation. I will denounce you to your bride as a changeling, if you don't give me the one thing on earth that can make me happy.*' But Lawrence, very pale, says again : " No ; that story would never be believed. Tell them ! You will be thought a lunatic : I keep this last seed for my own safety.** " But is it for your safety ? " cries the once Doc- tor Frederick. " Think what would happen to you .fr. A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. 259 if bride — the lovely but 'V>/*f- iquisitive Bessie — ever got hold of it and guessed its wondrous power ! Don't you knov) she would eat ? Do you think woman could resist such temptation? And when once it had passed her lips, would not happiness go away from you ? — for there would be no other seed left to bring her back to womanhood and wifehood, and you would be bereft forever." At this awful suggestion Lawrence grows pale and leaning against the stateroom door exclaims : '* My God ! If she ever got it ! " There is the flutter of a beautiful travelling-dress coming down the companion-way, and he hears Bes- sie's voice saying : " Where is Lawrence ? I must show him the lovely flowers that have been sent us from far away Florida to make our wedding trip happy." And thinking what would come upon him in case his lovely, but inquisitive and impulsive little bride, ever grasped the dangerous fetich he has in his hand, he plucks it from his neck, and pressing it into the palm of the gaunt creature who is looking at him with gloating hungry eyes, he whispers : " Take it ! Become a man again and wed the beautiful widow." There is a rush of semi-masculine strides over the gang-way, and the gaunt female tlies with a hide- ous cry of joy toward the shore, even while on the gang-plank — not daring to wait — pressing into her mouth the last sacred Obi-seed of old Hauser Ogle- thorpe. Then the Etruria, 'mid the saluting whistles of surrounding steam tugs, puts her prow down North River, towards Sandy Hook, and steams away upon ,i 26o A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT. her V. yage across a summer sea, bearing to happi- ness and love in different scenes from the old Florida orange groves, Lawrence Talbot, who will be a man forever, and his bride, Bessie, who will still remain to him forever a woman, and a joy. II FINIS. CROWN 8T0, PAPEK, 80 CKNTa (f THE MAN-HUNTER: LEAVES FROM THE NOTEBOOK OF A DETECTIVE. BY DICK DONOVAN. ;:. A ** Thb is a Mfital b«ek for railway reading It will Knr« to pleas- CPtly while sw y c< idle hour." — Echo. " The stories are not the less enthralling in their interest because they are the record of actual cxpericnet An entertaining Iwok For v>me time past the appetite for such stories has l)een keen in the public mouth, and Mr. DonoTan's collection has every prospect of success before it."— Scotsman. " Thrilling stories, told with a literary skill and force of ima^n'^Hon well calculated to tlieit the interest of the most careless reader."— Pr ,^v ;iei Advirtiser. '* Entertaining dcteetiTe stories. They are well written, anr. <k " Without doubt one of the i>c:i ro'nau. . It mail tr . . The Paris."— tis first literary van lich he has achieved. 3St pleasantly stiinu- imcs we were awwre days when we read hts in store for the IITEHALL RkVIBW. ikilful in suggesdnf i's Gazette. e book is an uncom* ire well drawn, the of Gaboriau. The peat pains with his '•"— AXHENiBUM. EW. est of the story is nger from Scotland s he manifests such itly sensational way 5DS Mekcury. original plan, and I cordially commend orary life, and as a si's Messenger. • . . It is fai< a well constructed, Mr. Wood's par* managed. . . Scotland Yard' at a PANY.