Algernon evidently possessed the valuable gift of discernment of character which some can alone gain by long experience.

The family party were separating one morning after breakfast, when, the front door standing open on that warm summer day, Harry, as he pa.s.sed through the hall, caught sight of Dame Halliburt approaching with her basket of fish, accompanied by the blue-eyed little girl he had seen when landing from the _Nancy_.

"Come here, Julia," he exclaimed. "Does not that st.u.r.dy fishwife with her little daughter trotting along by her side present a pretty picture?

I wish an artist were here to take them as we see them now."

"Yes, Gainsborough would do them justice. He delights in rustic figures, though the child should have bare feet, and I see she has shoes and stockings on," answered Julia.

"The little girl would, at all events, make a sweet picture in her red cloak and hat," observed Miss Pemberton, who with her sister as they crossed the hall had heard Harry's exclamation, and had come to the door; and she described her to Miss Mary.

"I should like to speak to her. I can always best judge of people when I hear their voices," observed Miss Mary.

Harry proposed asking Dame Halliburt and the little girl to come up to the porch, but they had by this time pa.s.sed on towards the back entrance.

"The dame is probably in a hurry to sell her fish and to go on her way,"

observed Miss Pemberton. "We will talk to her another time."

"Come, Harry, madame is ready to give you your French lesson," said Julia, and they went into the house.

Before luncheon Madame De La Motte proposed taking a walk.

"And we will talk French as we proceed. You shall learn as much as you will from your books," she said, inviting Harry to accompany her and her pupil. Harry gallantly expressed his pleasure, and they set out to take a ramble through the fields in the direction of Hurlston.

They had got to some distance, and were about to turn back, when they saw in the field beyond them the same little girl in the red cloak who had come with Dame Halliburt to the house.

Two paths branched off at the spot she had just reached. She stood uncertain apparently which to take, when, at that instant, a bull feeding in the field, irritated by the sight of her red cloak, began to paw the ground and lower his head as if about to make a rush at her.

The child becoming alarmed uttered a cry, and ran in the direction of the gate near which they were standing. Harry leaped over the gate and hurried to her rescue. Seeing him coming she darted towards him.

"Throw off your cloak," he shouted.

She was too much frightened to follow his advice. The bull was close upon them when Harry reached her, and in an instant tearing off her cloak he threw it at the bull, and lifting her in his arms darted on one side, while the savage animal rushed over the spot where the moment before they had stood, and catching the cloak on its horns threw it over its head, and then stopping in its course looked round in search of the object at which it was aiming. Seeing Harry running off with the little girl, it again rushed at them. He had just time to lift her over the gate, and to spring after her, when the creature came full tilt against it.

The courage of Madame De La Motte and Julia had given way as they saw the bull coming, and believing that the gate would be broken down, they had run for safety to a high bank with a hedge above it a little on one side of the field.

"You are quite safe now, little girl," said Harry, trying to rea.s.sure the child. "See, though the bull knocked his horns against the gate, he could not throw it down, and is going off discomforted. Come, Julia, and help her," he shouted; "she has been dreadfully frightened, and not without cause."

Julia and her governess, feeling a little ashamed of themselves, descended from their safe position.

"I hope you are not hurt; but how came you to be in the field by yourself?" asked Julia, addressing the little girl.

"Mother told me to take the path across the fields while she went round by the road to call at some houses," she answered.

"To whom do you belong, and what is your name?" asked madame, looking admiringly at the child's delicate and pretty features.

"I belong to Adam Halliburt, and he calls me his Maiden May," answered the child.

"Maiden May! that is a very pretty name," observed Madame. "But you are very young to go so far alone."

"We must not let you go alone," said Harry; "I will take care of you till you meet your mother, but I will first get your cloak. I see the bull has left it on the gra.s.s, and I hope has not injured it."

"Take care, Harry," exclaimed Julia, "the bull might run at you if he sees you in the field."

"I do not mind running away from him, and I suspect I can run the fastest," answered Harry, laughing, as he leapt over the gate.

Julia and Madame De La Motte watched him anxiously, not more so, however, than did Maiden May.

"Oh, I hope he will not be hurt, I would much rather lose my cloak," she said, following him with her eyes.

The bull having gone to a distance, Harry was able to reach the little girl's cloak, and by keeping it in front of him the animal did not catch sight of it, and he soon returned with his prize.

"If you will come to the hall we will send one of the servants with you," said Julia.

"No, no," said Harry, "you go back, as you must be in at luncheon, and I will take care of the little girl."

"Thank you, thank you," repeated Maiden May, "but I am not afraid."

Harry, however, with true chivalry, though the object of his attention was but a little fisher-girl, insisted on escorting her, and at length induced his sister and her governess to return, promising to hurry back as soon as he had placed the child under Dame Halliburt's care.

They soon found the style which led into the path May should have followed. She took Harry's hand without hesitation, and as she ran along by his side, prattled with a freedom which perfect confidence could alone have given her. She talked of the time he had been off in the _Nancy_, and how anxious she had felt lest any harm should befall the boat.

"And you are very fond of the sea?" she said, looking up in his face.

"Yes; I am a sailor, and it is my duty to go to sea, and I love it for itself," said Harry; "I hope as you live close to it that you love it too."

"Oh no, no, no," answered May; "I do not love it, for it's so cruel, it drowns so many people. I can't love what is cruel."

"It could not be cruel to you, I am sure," said Harry. "Does your father ever take you in his boat?"

"Yes, I have been in the boat, I know, but it was a long, long time ago, and I have been on the sea far, far away."

She stopped as if she had too indistinct a recollection of the events that had occurred to describe them.

Harry was puzzled to understand to what she alluded, and naturally fancied that she spoke of some trip her father had taken her on board his boat, not doubting, of course, that she was the fisherman's daughter.

In a short time they caught sight of Dame Halliburt, when Harry, delivering Maiden May to her care, without waiting to receive her thanks hurried homewards as he had promised.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

HARRY OFF TO SEA.

A letter from Captain Fancourt at length arrived, summoning Harry to join the _Triton_. He bade an affectionate farewell to his kind old uncle. His brother had remarked the failing health of Sir Reginald.

"I shall be very sorry when he goes, but probably when you next come to see us, you will find us here," observed Algernon, "unless our uncle should turn up and claim the t.i.tle and property, and as he has not been heard of for a long time, I do not think that likely."

"I have no wish to be here except as Sir Reginald's guest," answered Harry, with more feeling than his brother had displayed. "I hope that our old uncle will live for many a year to come."