The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Governors, by E. Phillips Oppenheim

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: The Governors

Author: E. Phillips Oppenheim

Release Date: December 27, 2003 [eBook #10537]

Language: English

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOVERNORS***

E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Rebekah Inman, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

THE GOVERNORS

By

E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM

Author of "A Maker of History," "The Long Arm of
Mannister," "The Missioner," etc.

1909

ILLUSTRATED BY WILL GREFÉ AND HOWARD SOMERVILLE

CONTENTS

BOOK I.

CHAPTER

I. MR. PHINEAS DUGE

II. COUSIN STELLA

III. STORM CLOUDS

IV. A MEETING OF GIANTS

V. TREACHERY

VI. MR. WEISS IN A HURRY

VII. A PROFESSIONAL BURGLAR

VIII. FIREARMS

IX. CONSPIRATORS

X. MR. NORRIS VINE

XI. MR. LITTLESON, FLATTERER

XII. STELLA SUCCEEDS

XIII. BEARDING THE LION

XIV. STELLA PROVES OBSTINATE

XV. THE WARNING

XVI. A TRUCE

BOOK II.

I. MY NAME IS MILDMAY

II. REFLECTIONS

III. "WILL YOU MARRY ME?"

IV. THE AMERICAN AMBASSADOR

V. A QUESTION OF COURAGE

VI. MR. MILDMAY AGAIN

VII. AN APPOINTMENT

VIII. DEFEATED

IX. INGRATITUDE

X. A NEW VENTURE

XI. CONSCIENCE

XII. DUKE OF MOWBRAY

XIII. AN INTRODUCTION

XIV. ANOTHER DISAPPEARANCE

XV. MR. DUGE THREATENS

XVI. TRAPPED

XVII. MR. DUGE FAILS

XVIII. ADVICE FOR MR. VINE

XIX. THE CRISIS

XX. BEWITCHED

XXI. A LESSON LEARNED

XXII. A SURPRISE

XXIII. A DINNER PARTY

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

VIRGINIA

"AS I DARESAY YOU KNOW, I AM NOT ON SPEAKING TERMS WITH MY FATHER!"

ONE OF THE BLOCKS SPRANG UP A LITTLE WAY AND WAS EASILY REMOVED

A BULLET WHISTLED ONLY A FEW INCHES FROM HIS HEAD

PHINEAS DUGE DROPPED HIS CIGARETTE, AND FELL ON HIS KNEES BY HER SIDE

"FOR GOD'S SAKE, TELL ME WHO HAS IT, MISS DUGE!" HE IMPLORED

"ISN'T IT THE BUSINESS OF ANY MAN TO LOOK AFTER A CHILD LIKE YOU?"

VIRGINIA, WITH A LITTLE MURMUR OF DELIGHT, RECOGNIZED MR. MILDMAY STANDING BEFORE HER

SIMULTANEOUSLY SHE HEARD A STEALTHY MOVEMENT OUTSIDE

THEN HE CAME SLOWLY BACK, AND PUTTING HIS ARM AROUND VIRGINIA'S WAIST, KISSED HER

SHE THOUGHT NOTHING OF THE MOTIVE OF HER COMING, ONLY TO PLACE THE DOOR BETWEEN HER AND THIS!

HE HAD AN OPPORTUNITY OF WATCHING A SEARCH CONDUCTED UPON SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES

THEN IN THE MIDST OF HER WONDERING CAME THE ELUCIDATION OF THESE THINGS

HE WAS ONLY JUST IN TIME TO SAVE HER FROM FALLING

THE GOVERNORS

BOOK I

CHAPTER I

MR. PHINEAS DUGE

Virginia, when she had torn herself away from the bosom of her sorrowing but excited family, and boarded the car which passed only once a day through the tiny village in Massachusetts, where all her life had been spent, had felt herself, notwithstanding her nineteen years, a person of consequence and dignity. Virginia, when four hours later she followed a tall footman in wonderful livery through a stately suite of reception rooms in one of the finest of Fifth Avenue mansions, felt herself suddenly a very insignificant person. The roar and bustle of New York were still in her ears. Bewildered as she had been by this first contact with all the distracting influences of a great city, she was even more distraught by the wonder and magnificence of these, her more immediate surroundings. She, who had lived all her life in a simple farmhouse, where every one worked, and a single servant was regarded as a luxury, found herself suddenly in the palace of a millionaire, a palace made perfect by the despoilment of more than one of the most ancient homes in Europe.

Very timidly, and with awed glances, she looked around her as she was conducted in leisurely manner to the sanctum of the great man at whose bidding she had come. The pictures on the walls, magnificent and impressive even to her ignorant eyes; the hardwood floors, the wonderful furniture, the statuary and flowers, the smooth-tongued servants—all these things were an absolute revelation to her. She had read of such things, even perhaps dreamed of them, but she had never imagined it possible that she herself might be brought into actual contact with them.

At every step she took she felt her self-confidence decreasing; her clothes, made by the village dressmaker from an undoubted French model, with which she had been more than satisfied only a few hours ago, seemed suddenly dowdy and ill-fashioned. She was even doubtful about her looks, although quite half a dozen of the nicest young men in her neighbourhood had been doing their best to make her vain since the day when she had left college, an unusually early graduate, and returned to her father's tiny home to become the acknowledged belle of the neighbourhood. Here, though, she felt her looks of small avail; she might reign as a queen in Wellham Springs, but she felt herself a very insignificant person in the home of her uncle, the great railway millionaire and financier, Mr. Phineas Duge. Her courage had almost evaporated when at last, after a very careful knock at the door, an English footman ushered her into the small and jealously guarded sanctum in which the great man was sitting. She passed only a few steps across the threshold, and stood there, a timid, hesitating figure, her dark eyes very anxiously searching the features of the man who had risen from his seat to greet her.

"So this is my niece Virginia," he said, holding out both his hands. "I am glad to see you. Take this chair close to me. I am getting an old man, you see, and I have many whims. I like to have any one with whom I am talking almost at my elbow. Now tell me, my dear, what sort of a journey you have had. You look a little tired, or is it because everything here is strange to you?"

All her fears seemed to be melting away. Never could she have imagined a more