Home › The Shuttle › The Shuttle

The Shuttle

By FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT Condensation by ELIZABETH M. LEE BETTINA VANDERPOEL was ten years old when her sister Rosalie married Sir Nigel Anstruthers, an English baronet. Betty hated Nigel with a child's instinctive hatred for a bully, but in spite of his coarseness there was a certain fascination about him which blinded Rosalie to his real character. They were married in the whirl of gaiety which befitted the daughter of a multi-millionaire, and left New York for England. Long before the honeymoon ended, Rosy discovered that Nigel cared only for her money, and nothing whatever for her pretty, rather shallow self, and by the time Stornham Court was reached Rosy was desperately homesick and frightened. Her life in the little English village, even while she was the lady of the manor, was made a nightmare by Nigel and his mother; and when, bewildered and terrified, Rosy sought spiritual consolation and comfort from Mr. Ffolliott, the vicar, Nigel accused her of having a lover. He intercepted her letters, lied to her about her parents, and at last, furious at her refusal to ask her father for money, he struck her so that she fell in a little heap against a chair, and cried out, with a crazy, awful little laugh: "Nigel, be careful! You don't know how valuable I am! I might--I might have--a son!"