Verne Mistress Branican

1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-3-8496-4637-0
Verlag: Jazzybee Verlag
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 387 Seiten

A book from the pen of Jules Verne is its own best advertisement. Mistress Branican shows no falling off in the author's imaginative faculties or vivacity. This is the first of bis books in which a woman has been made the central figure. Perhaps the flying trips around the world made by Miss Bisland and ' Nelly Bly'gave him the idea. At any rate, it is a good one. Mistress Branican, however, traveled with a caravan, and not with a small hand-bag. The adventures of this lady on her travels are thrilling and humorous at the same time, and the whole is told with that air of sincerity which is peculiar to the romances of Jules Verne.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Verne, Jules

Weitere Mitwirkende

Roux, Georges

Leseproben

In the morning they were up early at Prospect House. The weather was superb. The breeze off the land blew the last mists of the night away out to sea. The nurse dressed little Wat, while Mrs. Branican was busy at her toilette. It had been agreed that she would lunch with Mrs. Barker; and so she contented herself with a light meal which would last her till noon, for very probably the visit to Captain Ellis would take two good hours. Everything the brave captain told her would be so interesting.

Mrs. Branican, and the nurse with the child in her arms, left the chalet as the clocks of San Diego were chiming half-past eight. The wide streets of the upper town, bordered with villas and gardens, were descended at a good pace, and Dolly reached the narrower streets more crowded with houses, which form the business quarter. Len Burker lived in Fleet Street, not far from the wharf belonging to the Pacific Coast Steamship Company. In short, Mrs. Branican had made a good passage, for she had come right through the city, and it was just nine o’clock when she entered Jane’s house.

It was a small house and of rather melancholy aspect, with its Venetian shutters generally closed. Len Bunker’s friends were almost always men of business, as he had no acquaintances with his neighbors. Little was known of him even in Fleet Street, and his business frequently kept him away from morning till night. Often, too, he went on journeys, and most frequently to San Francisco, on matters of which he never spoke to his wife. This morning he was not in the office when Mrs. Branican arrived. Jane Burker made an excuse for her husband not being able to accompany them in their visit to the Boundary, adding that he would certainly be back to lunch.

“I am ready, my dear Dolly,” said she, after kissing the baby. “You do not want to wait?”

“I am not tired,” said Mrs. Branican.

“You do not want anything?”

“No, Jane. I am anxious to see Captain Ellis. Let us be off at once, please.”

Mrs. Burker had but one servant—an old woman, a mulatto whom her husband had brought from New York when he had come to San Diego. This mulatto, whose name was No, had been Len Burker’s nurse. Having always lived in his family, she was entirely devoted to him, and still talked to him as if he were a child. This uncouth, imperious creature was the only one who had ever exercised any influence over Len Burker, who had completely handed over to her the management of his house. Often Jane had had to put up with a domination almost exceeding bounds, and of which her husband entirely approved. But she submitted to the domination of the mulatto as she did to that of her husband. In her resignation, which was nothing but feebleness, she left matters to themselves, and No consulted her in nothing as to the management of the household.

Just as Jane was going away the mulatto advised her to be back before noon, for Len Burker would return for lunch, and certainly would not wait for her. Besides he wished to see Mrs. Branican on important business—so said No.

“What is it about?” asked Dolly of her cousin.

“And how should I know?” answered Mrs. Burker. “Come, Dolly, come!”

Mrs. Branican and Jane Burker, accompanied by the nurse and the child, left the house and walked towards the wharf, where they arrived in a few minutes.

The Boundary, whose quarantine had just been raised, had not yet come alongside the berth reserved for Andrews’ ships. She was moored in the bay about a cable’s length from Point Loma. It was thus necessary to cross the bay to get on board the vessel, which would not move up for two hours. This meant a passage of about two miles, which the steam launches started on every half hour.

As soon as they arrived Dolly and Jane took their places in the steam launch with about a dozen other passengers. Most of them were friends or relatives of the crew of the Boundary, who were taking advantage of the first opportunity to visit them on board the vessel. The launch let go her painter, sheered off from the wharf, and under the impulse of her screw headed obliquely across the bay, puffing at every stroke.

In the limpid clearness of the weather, the bay was visible all round, with the amphitheater of the houses of San Diego, the hill dominating the Old Town, the mouth open between Island Point and Loma Point, the immense Coronado hotel of grandiose architecture, and the lighthouse which rayed forth its light over the sea after the setting of the sun.

There were several ships moored here and there, which the launch avoided cleverly, as she did also the boats coming in the opposite direction, and the fishing boats going close-hauled so as to fetch the point in one tack.

Mrs. Branican sat near Jane on one of the seats aft. The nurse, near them, held the child in her arms. The baby did not sleep, and his eyes filled with the light which the breeze seemed to brighten with its breath. He jumped when a couple of gulls passed over the launch, uttering their sharp cry. He was blooming with health, with his fresh cheeks and his rosy lips, still humid with the milk he had drawn from the bosom of his nurse before he had left the Burkers. His mother regarded him with emotion, bending over him to kiss him, while he smiled in return. But Dolly’s attention was soon attracted by the sight of the Boundary. Lying apart now from the other vessels, the three-master, clearly outlined at the end of the bay, was flying her flags against the sunny sky. She was swinging with the tide, her bow to the westward at the extremity of her straining cable, on which the last undulations of the surge were breaking.

All Dolly’s life was in her look. She thought of John, carried away on a ship the sister of this one, so much were they alike. And were they not both children of the house of Andrew? Were they not both of the same port? Were they not both built in the same yard?

Dolly, beset by the charm of the illusion, her imagination stimulated by the remembrance, abandoned herself to the idea that John was there on board, that he was waiting for her, that he would stretch out his hand to her when he saw her, that she would be able to jump into his arms. His name rose to her lips, she called him, and he answered by uttering her name.

Then a gentle cry from her child recalled her from sentiment to reality. It was the Boundary towards which she was going, and not the Franklin, which was far, far away, thousands of leagues from the American shore.

“She will be there—one day—in that very place!” she murmured, looking at Mrs. Burker.

“Yes, dear Dolly,” answered Jane. “And it will be John who will welcome us on board.”

She was conscious that a vague uneasiness was wringing the heart of the young wife when she asked about the future.

However, the steam launch had in a quarter of an hour covered the two miles which separate the San Diego wharf from Point Loma. The passengers landed on the pier at the beach, and had then to return towards the Boundary a little more than a cable’s length away.

At the foot of the pier in charge of two sailors was a boat plying to and from the three-master. Mrs. Branican hailed it, and the men put it at her disposal to take her to the Boundary as soon as she was assured that Captain Ellis was then on board.

A few strokes of the oars were enough, and Captain Ellis having recognized Mrs. Branican, came to the side as she was coming up the ladder, followed by Jane, not without having cautioned the nurse to hold on tight to the baby. The captain took them to the poop, while the mate began the preparations to take the ship alongside the wharf at San Diego.

“Mr. Ellis,” said Mrs. Branican at once, “I hear you met the Franklin?”

“Yes, madam,” said the captain, “and I can assure you she was in good condition, as I have already reported to Mr. William Andrew.”

“You have seen—John?”

“The Franklin and the Boundary passed so close on different tacks that Captain Branican and I were able to exchange a few words.”

“Yes! You saw him!” repeated Mrs. Branican, as if she were talking to herself and seeking a reflection of the sight of the Franklin in the captain’s eyes.

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