The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Trader's Wife, by Louis Becke

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Title: The Trader's Wife
1901

Author: Louis Becke

Release Date: March 15, 2008 [EBook #24837]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Produced by David Widger

THE TRADER'S WIFE

By Louis Becke

Unwin Brothers 1901

CHAPTER I

Brabant's wife was sitting on the shady verandah of her house on the
hills overlooking Levuka harbour, and watching a large fore and aft
schooner being towed in by two boats, for the wind had died away early
in the morning and left the smooth sea to swelter and steam under a sky
of brass.

The schooner was named the _Maritana_, and was owned and commanded by
Mrs. Brabant's husband, John Brabant, who at that moment was standing on
the after-deck looking through his glasses at the house on the hill, and
at the white-robed figure of his wife.

"Can you see Mrs. Brabant, sir?" asked the chief mate, a short,
dark-faced man of about thirty years of age, as he came aft and stood
beside his captain.

"Yes, I can see her quite plainly, Lester," he replied, as he handed the
glasses to his officer; "she is sitting on the verandah watching us."

The mate took the glasses and directed them upon the house for a few
moments. "Perhaps she will come off to us, sir?"

Brabant shook his head. "It is a terribly hot day, you see, Lester,
and she can't stand the sun at all. And then we shall be at anchor in
another hour or so."

"Just so, sir," replied the mate politely. He did not like Mrs. Brabant,
had never liked her from the very first day he saw her a year before,
when Brabant had brought her down on board the _Maritana_ in Auckland,
and introduced her as his future wife. Why he did not like her he could
not tell, and did not waste time in trying to analyse his feelings. He
knew that his old friend and shipmate was passionately fond of his
fair young wife, and was intensely proud of her beauty, and now, at
the conclusion of a wearisome five months' voyage among the sun-baked
islands of the Equatorial Pacific, was returning home more in love
with her than ever. Not that he