Driven to Bay: A Novel (Complete)
Florence Marryat
9781465631251
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
The August sun had just sunk below the horizon, as Jack Blythe, a passenger by the down train from London to Portsmouth, walked leisurely home to a little cottage situated on Southsea Common. He was a tall, well-built young fellow of five-and-twenty, with a remarkably graceful figure. His hair was pale brown, with the faintest tinge of gold upon it; his eyes were grey and languid in their expression—his general appearance somewhat delicate. And yet Jack Blythe (who had been christened Vernon) was one of the merriest, most manly fellows in existence. The very fact of his proper name having been mysteriously changed to ‘Jack’ was a proof of his being a favourite with his own sex: as for the other, they, one and all, combined to spoil him. Few, seeing Jack for the first time, would have guessed his profession. He looked like a poet, but he was a sailor, and belonged to the roughest part of the profession—the Merchant Service. He had been educated, indeed, with a view to very different work; but when it was too late for him to enter the Royal Navy, he had intimated his unalterable decision to go to sea, and his mother, who was his only surviving parent, had, with many tears, consented to his wishes. But he was a good son and a good sailor, and she had never repented of letting him have his own way. As he approached his destination, he was accosted by another young man who had run half-way across the common to meet him. ‘Hullo, Jack! how are you? You’re the very man I want,’ cried the new-comer effusively. ‘What for, Reynolds? To pull an oar in a boating party, or to rig up a tent for a camping-out expedition?’ asked Blythe. ‘Better than that, old boy! I’ve bought that little yacht, the Water Witch, at last, and you must sail her for me. I have my party all ready, and we can start for the Island to-morrow morning.’ ‘I should very much like to join you, old man,’ said Jack, ‘but it can’t be done. I may have to go to town again to-morrow to meet an influential friend.’ ‘Hang it! You are always going up to town!’ ejaculated the other. ‘One day off can surely do you no harm.’ ‘It might, at present, Reynolds. I have stayed on shore too long already, and I find some difficulty in getting a ship. I have sent in my application for a berth on board the Pandora, and as I have good interest, I hope I may get it. But nothing is certain in this world, and I cannot afford to relax my energies until I am provided for. You see my twelve-month’s pay is nearly gone—that’s where the shoe pinches; so, if I lose my chance of the Pandora, I shall have to hunt up all the skippers and owners in the docks.’ ‘You’ll get a ship fast enough,’ grumbled Reynolds; ‘you’ve passed for chief officer. What more do you want? Come, old boy,’ he continued coaxingly, ‘say you’ll give up to-morrow to the Water Witch and me—’ ‘I will, if it is possible! I can say no more,’ replied Jack Blythe. ‘Alice Leyton has promised to accompany us,’ resumed Reynolds, meaningly. ‘Has she?’ remarked Jack without a blush. ‘Well, if I can join the party, she will prove an extra attraction to it, naturally. But it is as necessary for her sake as for my own that I should get employment as soon as possible.’ And, with a wave of the hand, Jack Blythe continued his walk to his mother’s cottage. ‘I don’t believe he cares a rap for that girl,’ thought Reynolds, as he, too, turned homewards. ‘Fancy! calmly resigning a whole day on the water with the woman he is supposed to be in love with. Bah! The fellow’s not made of flesh and blood.’ But in this, as in many things, Mr Reynolds was mistaken. It was a hard trial for Vernon Blythe to relinquish what was, to him, one of the greatest pleasures in life. He would have given anything in reason to have had an opportunity to test the sailing powers, and seen the behaviour of the saucy little Water Witch under his guidance; and for a while he felt half disposed to gratify his desire at the expense of his duty.
