The Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume Page B

crowds of suitors. But Madge Frettlby was capricious, and refused innumerable offers. Being an extremely independent young person with a mind of her own, as she had not yet seen anyone she could love, she decided to remain single, and with her mother continued to dispense the hospitality of the mansion at St Kilda. But the fairy prince comes to every woman, even if she has to wait a hundred years like the Sleeping Beauty, and in this case he arrived at the appointed time.
    Ah! what a delightful prince he was, tall, handsome, and fair-haired, who came from Ireland, and answered to the name of Brian Fitzgerald. He had left behind him in the old country, a ruined castle and a few acres of barren land, inhabited by discontented tenants who refused to pay the rent, and talked darkly about the Land League, and other agreeable things. Under these circumstances with no rent coming in, and no prospect of doing anything in the future, Brian had left the castle of his forefathers to the rats and the family Banshee, and came out to Australia to make his fortune. He brought letters of introduction to Mark Frettlby, and that gentleman having taken a fancy to him, assisted him by every means in his power. Under Frettlby’s advice Brian bought a station, and to his astonishment, in a few years found himself growing rich. The Fitzgeralds had always been more famous for spending than for saving, and it was an agreeable surprise to their latestrepresentative to find the money rolling in instead of out. He began to indulge in castles in the air concerning that other castle in Ireland, with the barren acres and discontented tenants. In his mind’s eye he saw the old place rise up in all its pristine splendour out of its ruins; he saw the barren acres well cultivated, and the tenants happy and content—he was rather doubtful on this latter point, but with the rash confidence of eight and twenty, determined to do his best to perform even the impossible. Having built and furnished his castle in the air, Brian naturally thought of giving it a mistress, and this time actual appearance took the place of vision.
    He fell in love with Madge Frettlby, and having decided in his own mind that she and none other was fitted to grace the visionary halls of his renovated castle, he watched his opportunity, and declared himself. She, woman-like, coquetted with him for some time, but at last, unable to withstand the impetuosity of her Irish lover, confessed in a low voice, with a pretty smile on her face, that she could not live without him. Whereupon—well—lovers being of a conservative turn of mind, and accustomed to observe the traditional forms of wooing, the result can easily be guessed. Brian hunted all over the jewellers’ shops in Melbourne with lover-like assiduity, and having obtained a ring wherein were set these turquoise stones as blue as his own eyes, he placed it on her slender finger, and at last felt that his engagement was an accomplished fact. This being satisfactorily arranged, he next proceeded to interviewthe father, and had just screwed his courage up to the awful ordeal, when something occurred which postponed the interview indefinitely.
    Mrs Frettlby was out driving, when the horses took fright and bolted. The coachman and groom both escaped unhurt, but Mrs Frettlby was thrown out and killed instantaneously. This was the first really great trouble which had fallen on Mark Frettlby, and he seemed to be stunned by it. Shutting himself up in his room he refused to see anyone, even his daughter, and appeared at the funeral with a white and haggard face, which shocked everyone. When everything was over, and the body of the late Mrs Frettlby was consigned to the earth, with all the pomp and ceremony which money could give, the bereaved husband drove home, and resumed his old life. But he was never the same again. His face which had always been so genial and bright, became stern and sad—he seldom smiled, and when he