Read CHAPTER XI - GENERAL HARRINGTON IS SHOCKED of Mabel's Mistake , free online book, by Ann S. Stephens, on ReadCentral.com.

The rigid ideas of female propriety which General Harrington enforced in his family, had been greatly outraged that day. This well-regulated home was thrown into disorder by the unaccountable absence of his wife and Lina from the tea-table. He had followed his wife to the bank of the river, and with a feeling of quiet indignation had watched her rowing her own boat down the stream like a wild gipsy. The gathering storm and the danger she was in scarcely impressed him, but the impropriety of the thing outraged all his fastidiousness.

Still he was glad to have her away for the brief time that he was in the hills, and but for her long absence this escapade on the river might have been forgiven.

A solitary evening, added to these causes of discontent, had greatly ruffled the general’s equanimity of temper, and when his wife appeared deep in the night, her clothes in disorder, her hair disarranged, and her face pale as death, he felt her return in this state as a positive insult to his house.

“Madam,” he said, with that quiet irony which was the gift of his cold nature, “it is rather late, and your toilet somewhat disarranged for the presence of gentlemen; allow me to lead you to a mirror.” It was not necessary; Mabel had seen herself reflected in the great oval glass opposite, and shrunk back, shocked both by her appearance and the cold insult to which it had given rise.

James Harrington remained silent, but his eyes grew bright with indignation, while Ralph flung one arm around his mother’s waist, and turned his bright face upon the general.

“My mother’s life has been in peril she comes back to us, father, almost cold from the dead.”

“Indeed!” said the general with a look of cold surprise. “Surely, madam, you did not remain out in the storm? You have not been on the river all this time?”

“I have been in the depths of the river, I believe!” answered Mabel. “The boat was upset I was dashed beneath the wheels of a steamer, but for ” She hesitated, and a red flush shot over her face; the noble woman recovered herself in an instant, “but for James, and Ben Benson.”

An answering flush came to the general’s cheek. He darted a quick glance at James.

“And how came Mr. Harrington so near you, madam? They told me you had gone upon the river alone.”

“And so she did,” answered James, stepping forward. “I saw her put out from the shore, apparently unconscious of the coming storm, and followed the course of her boat.”

“Why did you not warn her, sir?”

“I did, more than once at the top of my voice, but the wind was against me!”

“And where did all this happen?” inquired the general, more interested than he had been.

“Near a ravine, some distance down the stream. You will not perhaps be able to recognize the place, sir,” answered Mabel, “but it is nearly opposite the small house in which Miss Barker resides with her mother.”

The general did not start, but a strange expression crept over his features, as if he were becoming more interested and less pleased.

“May I ask you what took you in that direction, madam?”

“Nothing better than a caprice, I fear,” answered Mabel; “at first I went out for exercise and solitude, then remembering Miss Barker, I put on shore.”

“Surely you did not go to that house!” cried the general, interrupting her almost for the first time in his life.

“Yes, I went,” answered Mabel with simplicity.

“Indeed! and what did you find whom did you see?”

“I saw a dusky woman, rude and insolent, who called herself Agnes Barker’s nurse nothing more.”

“So you found an insolent woman.”

“A very disagreeable one, at least, General Harrington, but I am faint and ill permit me to answer all farther questions to-morrow!”

General Harrington’s manner imperceptibly changed; he no longer enforced abrupt questions upon the exhausted lady, but with a show of gallant attention, stepped forward and drew her arm through his.

“You can go to your rooms, young men,” he said, “I will attend Mrs. Harrington.”

“Shall I have Lina called, mother?” said Ralph, following his parents, “she did not know of your absence, and I would not terrify her!”

Before Mabel could speak, the general answered for her

“No, why should Lina be disturbed? Send Mrs. Harrington’s maid,” and with a gentle wave of the hand which forbade all farther conversation, the general led his wife from the room.