HER FAIRY PRINCE
BY
Gertrude Warden
AUTHOR OF "THE HAUNTED HOUSE AT KEW," "AS ABIRD TO THE SNARE," ETC.
PHILADELPHIA
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
1895
Copyright, 1895,
by
J.B. Lippincott Company.
Electrotyped and Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, U.S.A.
HER FAIRY PRINCE.
CHAPTER I.
"Hallo, Armstrong! Thought you were in Australia!"
"Hallo, Garth! Thought you were in gaol!"
Such were the greetings interchanged in Boulogne market-place on a hotAugust forenoon by two Englishmen who had not met for five years.
The first speaker, Mr., or Captain Garth, as he styled himself, was aman of medium height, inclined to stoutness and of florid complexion,with bloodshot blue eyes, plentiful prematurely-white hair, a heavycavalry moustache, and a jovial swaggering manner. His clothes werecarefully brushed and darned, his boots beautifully polished, and hischimney-pot hat, set rakishly on one side on his white curls, wassuspiciously shiny in its surface. The Captain's red face, overhangingeyebrows, and ferocious moustache were wont to frighten children, ofwhom he was specially fond; but his features were well-cut and hismanners plausible, and most women considered him a very good-lookingman for his six-and-fifty years.
Of his companion's claims to personal beauty there could be no doubt,in spite of the air of drink, dissipation, and neglect which hung abouthim. Wallace Armstrong at six-and-twenty was intended by nature tobe a splendid specimen of muscular manhood—tall, broad-shouldered,vigorous, and sinewy, looming enormous over[Pg 4] the small French soldierswho slouched in twos and threes across the market-place, and followedwhere he walked by the admiring glances of the stalwart bare-footedfish-girls trooping up and down to and from the quay.
But already Wallace Armstrong had done his best to injure the heritageof vigour and manly beauty which had devolved upon him at birth. Underhis eyes, of a brilliant bluish-gray colour shaded by thick blacklashes, late hours and hard drinking had imprinted lines and shadowsill-suited to early manhood; his whole expression was sullen anddefiant, as though he distrusted and despised his fellow men and wasat little trouble to disguise his feelings towards them. His manner ofgreeting his old acquaintance was not only insolent as to words, butstill more so in the tone he used the while he roughly shook Garth'sdetaining hand off his coat-sleeve.
"It's of no use to claim acquaintanceship with me now!" Armstrongremarked, harshly. "I'm broke, stone-broke—and, what's more, if I hadany money, I know better now than to play cards with you for it!"
Captain Garth's red face grew a shade redder; but he was not sensitiveas to snubs, and his tone was altogether friendly when he spoke again.
"We're all broke occasionally," he observed, soothingly; "even I donot absolutely wallow in gold at the present minute. Still, I've alittle place up here in the High Town where I can put up a friend indifficulties until things blow over."
"Oh, I'm not wanted by the police, if that's what you mean!" the otherinterrupted, scornfully. "My early indiscretions have been whitewashedby a visit to Australia, which means that, having got into bad companyin England, I was sent across the sea to get into worse company in