Mr.James Smith had gone ashore to look about him, and to see whether the principal hotel was the sort of house at which he would like to stop for a few days.In the course of his wandering about the town, his attention had been attracted to a decent house, where lodgings were to be let, by the sight of a very pretty girl sitting at work at the parlor window.He was so struck by her face that he came back twice to look at it, determining, the second time, to try if he could not make acquaintance with her by asking to see the lodgings.He was shown the rooms by the girl's mother, a very respectable woman, whom he discovered to be the wife of the master and part owner of a small coasting ves sel, then away at sea.With a little maneuvering he managed to get into the parlor where the daughter was at work, and to exchange a few words with her.Her voice and manner completed the attraction of her face.Mr.James Smith decided, in his headlong way, that he was violently in love with her, and, without hesitating another instant, he took the lodgings on the spot for a month certain.
It is unnecessary to say that his designs on the girl were of the most disgraceful kind, and that he represented himself to the mother and daughter as a single man.Helped by his advantages of money, position, and personal appearance, he had made sure that the ruin of the girl might be effected with very little difficulty; but he soon found that he had undertaken no easy conquest.
The mother's watchfulness never slept, and the daughter's presence of mind never failed her.She admired Mr.James Smith's tall figure and splendid whiskers; she showed the most encouraging partiality for his society; she smiled at his compliments, and blushed whenever he looked at her; but, whether it was cunning or whether it was innocence, she seemed incapable of understanding that his advances toward her were of any other than an honorable kind.At the slightest approach to undue familiarity, she drew back with a kind of contemptuous surprise in her face, which utterly perplexed Mr.James Smith.He had not calculated on that sort of resistance, and he could not see his way to overcoming it.The weeks passed; the month for which he had taken the lodgings expired.Time had strengthened the girl's hold on him till his admiration for her amounted to downright infatuation, and he had not advanced one step yet toward the fulfillment of the vicious purpose with which he had entered the house.
At this time he must have made some fresh attempt on the girl's virtue, which produced: a coolness between them; for, instead of taking the lodgings for another term, he removed to his yacht, in the harbor, and slept on board for two nights.
The wind was now fair, and the stores were on board, but he gave no orders to the sailing-master to weigh anchor.On the third day, the cause of the coolness, whatever it was, appears to have been removed, and he returned to his lodgings on shore.Some of the more inquisitive among the townspeople observed soon afterward, when they met him in the street, that he looked rather anxious and uneasy.The conclusion had probably forced itself upon his mind, by this time, that he must decide on pursuing one of two courses: either he must resolve to make the sacrifice of leaving the girl altogether, or he must commit the villainy of marrying her.
Scoundrel as he was, he hesitated at encountering the risk--perhaps, also, at being guilty of the crime--involved in this last alternative.While he was still in doubt, the father's coasting vessel sailed into the harbor, and the father's presence on the scene decided him at last.How this new influence acted it was impossible to find out from the imperfect evidence of persons who were not admitted to the family councils.The fact, however, was certain that the date of the father's return and the date of Mr.James Smith's first wicked resolution to marry the girl might both be fixed, as nearly as possible, at one and the same time.
Having once made up his mind to the commission of the crime, he proceeded with all possible coolness and cunning to provide against the chances of detection.
Returning on board his yacht he announced that he had given up his intention of cruising to Sweden and that he intended to amuse himself by a long fishing tour in Scotland.After this explanation, he ordered the vessel to be laid up in the harbor, gave the sailing-master leave of absence to return to his family at Cowes, and paid off the whole of the crew from the mate to the cabin-boy.By these means he cleared the scene, at one blow, of the only people in the town who knew of the existence of his unhappy wife.After that the news of his approaching marriage might be made public without risk of discovery, his own common name being of itself a sufficient protection in case the event was mentioned in the Scotch newspapers.All his friends, even his wife herself, might read a report of the marriage of Mr.James Smith without having the slightest suspicion of who the bridegroom really was.
A fortnight after the paying off of the crew he was married to the merchant-captain's daughter.The father of the girl was well known among his fellow-townsmen as a selfish, grasping man, who was too anxious to secure a rich son-in-law to object to any proposals for hastening the marriage.He and his wife, and a few intimate relations had been present at the ceremony; and after it had been performed the newly-married couple left the town at once for a honeymoon trip to the Highland lakes.