The Admiral's Daughter Read Free Page B

the Admiral had been a penniless ensign, he had fallen in love with a young lady from one of England’s noblest houses. Though herself without fortune, Miss Ramblay had been the favorite of her uncle, the family’s head and a Viscount besides. Lord Ramblay had opposed the match from the start, and when it looked as if his niece would not give up her attachment, he had written her out of his will and out of his heart. He had intended leaving her a handsome legacy, but his pride was such that he could not bear any hint of disobedience, and when the young people married despite him, he would not hear her name mentioned in his presence. Young Trevor soon began to make his mark in the Navy, and his fortunes grew in proportion to his rank, but still a bitter resentment persisted between the two families. Even after Mrs. Trevor died, shortly following the birth of a daughter, her husband carried on the feud, refusing to recognize his wife’s relations and growing angry at the mere mention of the Viscount’s name.
    Maggie Trevor grew up without any knowledge of her cousins save that they were very rich, and very proud, and cared nothing about her. She had heard how cruel they had been to her mother, and harbored a natural bitterness against them, encouraged by her father.
    Some time ago the old Viscount had died, and an only son had come into the title. Admiral Trevor heard the news and paid it no attention, for his feelings were firmly fixed. A letter arriving soon afterward from the new Lord Ramblay, in which was expressed a keen regret for his father’s conduct and a warm desire to see the quarrel ended and harmony restored between the families, had been torn up and was never answered. And yet the matter had been in Admiral Trevor’s mind increasingly of late, and he had begun to regret having missed the chance to renew his relations with his wife’s family.
    Admiral Trevor was very proud, and very stubborn, too. On his own account he could never have been induced to change his opinion of the Ramblays, but for his daughter, who was the joy of his existence and the pride of his old age, he would have done almost anything. For two and twenty years Maggie had been his sole companion, advisor, and confidante. She had nursed him in times of sickness, and provided a home where he was proud to entertain his friends and fellow officers. She managed his house and filled his idle hours with laughter. She was generally considered to be clever and beautiful, but to her father she was the very perfection of womanhood. If anyone had dared hint to him that she had her share of flaws, like other mortals, he would have bellowed out in rage. He loved in her that same fiery independent nature which he himself possessed, but the refinement and sensibility, which she had inherited from her mother, he held in awe.
    For his daughter’s sake he had bought a house in Sussex, although the country bored him to distraction, so that she might be the daughter of a landed gentleman. He had hoped, in removing her from the society of officers at Portsmouth, that she might marry a more eligible man. But the neighborhood in which they now lived offered no improvement: quite the opposite, for where at Portsmouth there had been a constant round of dinners and dances, outdoor fetes, and a continual stream of callers, here there was hardly any amusement at all. He dearly wanted her tomarry well, even if it meant parting with her company himself—even if it required forgetting his old quarrel with Lord Ramblay. The Ramblays he knew to be among the first families of the ton. Elegant, fashionable, and worldly, they could offer Maggie entrance into great society, where the Admiral believed she naturally belonged.
    Having that very morning witnesssed his beloved daughter in the company of possibly the hugest idiot in England had done much to sober him. He had been forced to wonder what would happen to her if she remained here with him in