Page:Southern Life in Southern Literature.djvu/145

Rh In one of these paroxysms of weariness the volume slips from his hand to the floor.

"My book," he says to a negro boy, who has just brought in some dishes. The boy hastens respectfully to obey, crossing the whole width of the room for that purpose. Mr. Effingham then continues reading.

[As Effingham rode over to a neighboring estate that afternoon to call on Miss Lee, he met an unknown lady on horse back. Struck by her appearance, he endeavors to make her acquaintance but unsuccessfully.

A few days later Effingham is among those who attend the presentation of "The Merchant of Venice" given by the Virginia Company of Comedians in the Old Theater near the capitol at Williamsburg. He discovers that Portia in the play is none other than the beautiful rider whom he has met. He falls desperately in love with her, but she treats coldly all his attempts to push the acquaintance. A little later, while Beatrice was taking an outing on the James River, her boat was upset by a storm and she was rescued by Charles Waters, a poor fisherman's son. This occurrence marks the beginning of a friendship between these two which ripens rapidly into love. Effingham's infatuation for Beatrice led him to become a member of the Virginia Company of Comedians, in spite of the break with social traditions that such a step involves. Beatrice, however, grows more and more disdainful of his attentions. In the meantime she discovers through the initials "B. W." on a locket she has been wearing, and a letter which comes accidentally into her hands, that her real name is not Beatrice Hallam, but Beatrice Waters, and that she and Charles Waters are cousins. Her father had at his death intrusted her to Hallam, his friend, to carry to his brother, John Waters, who was supposed to be in London. But John Waters had