care what people say about me; but for the sake of a quiet life, I did not want my neighbours to find out anything about “Frank.” Of course, I should eventually have to send her away from Oakhurst, but I intended always to take care of her. In the meantime, she amused me, and I was looking forward to the moment, when, all disguise thrown off, I should clasp her in my arms and embrace her as a woman should be embraced by a man.
There is a proverb which says “everything comes to him who waits.”
I had waited a long time, but I did not think I should have to wait much longer. The girl was certainly fond of me, her temperament was warm, she liked to touch me, and when she was sitting on a stool beside me, she often glanced up in my face with a yearning look in her pretty blue eyes.
All these little signs were significant, and I was almost certain that she `would have let me do anything I liked to her. But, before I touched her, I wanted her to tell me, of her own accord, that she was a woman.
Although she had as yet never hinted at her true sex, she, with a curious perversity, always seemed to be annoyed when I talked to her as man to man; and one night, out of mischief, I teased her so much, that she was on the point of declaring herself.
We were sitting in the drawing-room after dinner, and I said: “Frank, you are now a young man, and you should be thinking of taking up some profession. I will do all that is necessary in regard to money. What would you like to be? You are too old for the army; but there is the law, the church, and the medical profession. Which of the three will you study for?”
“Oh,” she exclaimed, turning quite pale, “I don’t know I have never thought about anything of the sort. I have been so happy here with you.”
“What! in spite of all the spankings?” I said, with a laugh.
She smiled faintly. “Yes, in spite of the spankings I don’t mind them much; and you never give me one unless I deserve it.”
I again laughed, saying: “No, I don’t think I do And I am very pleased to have you with me We get on together very well.”
“Then let me stay with you,” she put in, quickly.
“But I may get married some day, and then all our old habits would have to be changed, and you might feel discontented. That is why I think you had better adopt some profession, so as to become to a certain extent independent”
The idea of my marrying seemed to move the girl deeply; she coloured up, her lips trembled, and she looked at me with a most pathetic expression in her eyes. “Oh, dear me!” she said in a broken voice. “I never thought of that. Oh, what shall I do!” she added, bursting into tears.
I was sorry I had agitated the girl, but I laughed, saying in a bantering way:
“You silly lad. Yon are too big to cry like that. One would think you were a girl” She looked at me, with the big tears running down her cheeks, and said: “Oh I know I ought not to cry; but I can’t help it I, — I am”-she stopped suddenly and buried her face in her handkerchief.
I thought I had pushed the joke far enough; so I told her not to cry; that after all, there was plenty of time to think over the matter, and that she need not bother herself about it for the present.
She seemed to be satisfied with what I had said; and she dried her eyes, smiling gratefully at me, and in a short time she was chatting and laughing merrily. She was a light-hearted creature, who evidently thought that “sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.” She played a game of chess, and afterwards she read to me for some time; then we parted for the night, with the secret still untold.
A fortnight passed without anything happening worth recording. Then certain events occurred, the details of which I will relate, though “Frank” had no part in the affairs.
One morning, just after breakfast, I was in the hall, fixing on one of the panels a number of Eastern weapons; when a young girl came in, bringing me a note from one of my neighbours, who had left k at the lodge with orders that it should be taken to me at once. The girl, named Anna Lee, was fifteen years old; she was a friendless waif who had been left in the village by a band of gipsies, five or six years previously; and she would have been sent to the workhouse, had it not been for the charity of my lodge-keeper, Mrs. Grove, who took the deserted child into her cottage, and had kept her ever since. The note required an answer; so, telling the girl to wait in the hall, I went up to the library to write a reply. I hastily scribbled a few lines, and then I went back to the hall, gave the note to Anna, and told her to take it to its destination without delay. She went away. and I finished arranging the trophy of arms; then I went to the little table on which I had placed my watch before beginning my work. I looked about carefully, but the watch was not to be found.
It was a massive, old-fashioned, gold lever, which had belonged to my father, consequently I valued it very highly. As no one had been in the hall but Anna Lee, I felt quite certain that she had stolen the watch. I was very angry, and at once made up my mind to go after the girl, hoping to be able to catch her before she had time to hide her booty; so without saying anything to my servants, I started off. Hurrying down the avenue, I passed through the lodge-gates out on to the road, and looked up and down it, but the girl was nowhere in sight; so I thought I had better go back to the lodge and speak to Mrs. Grove.
She received me with great respect and ceremony, ushered me into her neat little sitting-room, and made me sit in the best chair, while she stood before me, waiting to hear what I had to say.
Mrs. Grove was about forty-five years of age; a good-looking buxom woman, whose husband had been lodge-keeper; and on his death I had allowed her to remain in charge of the lodge, as she was quite capable of performing all the dudes of lodge-keeper, with the assistance of her grown-up daughter.
Mrs. Grove had been born and brought up on the estate, so she was devoted to me, and to everything connected with Oakhurst.
I told her what had happened, and asked her to keep an eye on Anna’s proceedings, and if possible, find out what she had done with the watch.
The worthy woman was quite concerned on hearing of my loss, and she was furious with Anna, who was, she said, a naughty, troublesome girl in every way. Then, she went on: “Anna may not have hidden the watch anywhere as yet; perhaps she has got it on her person; so when she comes back I will search her, and if I do find the watch, I will give her the soundest birching she has ever had in her life-and she has had many a one from me.”
I smiled at the emphatic way she spoke, thinking to myself that if the watch was found on Anna, she would get her bottom well warmed.
Mrs. Grove continued: “If you have time, sir, I should like you to wait and see what happens, and if I have to birch the girl, I should very much like you to be present, I think it would be a bit of satisfaction to you to see her well whipped for all the bother she has given you.”
I was rather surprised at Mrs. Grove offering to let me see her birch the girl, but I was delighted with the offer; for since I had become a “lover of the rod,” I had often had a. wish to see a girl birched, and now there was a chance of my wish being gratified. It would be deliciously exciting to watch a bottom, that I had never seen before, reddening tinder the strokes of a birch-rod wielded by a buxom woman. My cock began to stiffen at the thought!
I said that I would wait and see the affair out, whatever happened; then I added: “I have no doubt that Anna is the thief, but if she has not got the watch in her possession when she comes back, we can do nothing. We cannot birch her without proof that she has stolen the watch.”
“No, sir, I suppose not,” said Mrs. Grove in a tone of regret
She had hardly finished speaking, when we heard the outer door opened, and then closed, as the girl entered the cottage. Mrs. Grove called her, and she came into the little parlour, jauntily, but when she saw me, she started and looked rather uneasy for a moment; then she informed me that she had delivered the letter.
Anna Lee, as I have before said, was a little over fifteen years of age, a well-grown sturdy wench, not bad- looking, but her face had a saucy expression; she had a dark, olive complexion; black hair; and bold, black eyes; very white teeth; and red lips. She was supposed to have gipsy blood in her, and she certainly looked as if she hid. She was neatly dressed in a cotton frock, with a white apron, and on her head she wore a linen sun-bonnet with scarlet ribbons. Altogether she was a nice morsel for the birch. She took off her bonnet, and was about to quit the room, when she was stopped by Mrs. Grove; who did not waste words, but at once came to the point. She said: “You were up at the house a short time ago. The master’s watch was stolen out of the hall. I believe you stole it. I am going to search you.” So saying, she caught hold of Anna, who was so taken aback that she never even denied the charge, but stood perfectly still during the whole time she was being searched. Mrs. Grove first felt in the girl’s pocket; then she passed her hand down the girl’s arms to see if the watch was hidden in her sleeves; then
