Phantom Fortune

tman. Steadman was to valet his lordship, the footman to be useful in all emergencies of the journey. The maid and the vale

ed upon the stages being shortened. He lay in bed at his hotel till noon, and was seldom ready to start till two o'clock. He could see no reason for haste; the winter would be long enough in all conscience at Fellside. He complained of mysterious aches and pains, described himself in the presence of hotel-keepers and headwaiters as a mass of maladies. He was nervous, irritable, intensely disagreeable. Lady Maulevrier bore his humours with unwaverin

Each day was so horribly like yesterday. The same hedgerows and flat fields, and passing glimpse of river or canal. The same absence of all beauty in the landscape - the same formal hotel rooms, and smirking landladies - and so on till they cam

r, snow was spoken of, and when they got into Westmoreland t

g in his sables, as he sat in his corner of the travelling chariot, looking discontent

we are safely housed at Fellside, and then we ca

orning, under a clean, bright sky, intending to take l

. The latter part of the road to Fellside was rough and hilly. If there should be a snowstorm the horses would never be able to drag the carriage up the steepest bit of the way. Here, however, Lord

I had gone to Hastings I should have been a new man by this

s. He had been known there as a young man in the bloom of health an

face,' the landlor

snow began to fall thickly, whitening everything around them, except the lake, which showed a dark leaden surface at the bottom of the slope along the edge of which they were travelling. Too sullen for speech, Lord Maulevrier sat back in his corner, with his sable cloak drawn

Langdale, a cluster of humble habitations in the heart of the hills. When the horses had struggled as far as this point, the sn

ndow, which let in a snow-laden gust,

we ought to be close at home by this ti

inute afterwards, and St

ossed the bridge. And now the men say they can't go back to Fellside unle

, 'what do you mean by her

angdale,

of a neat little rustic inn: an eight-day clock ticking in the corner, a black and white sheep-dog coming out at his master's heels to investigate the trav

y, as the landlord stood on the threshold, shading the ca

ew as much before I

ole for the night, I suppose.

n't know it was your lordship,' he added, hurriedly. 'We're in sore trou

n, Steadman?' asked the Earl,

hese horses

Is there any farmer about here who co

knew of no

orning. What infernal fools those post-b

to the Langdales, the snow was falling so thickly, the whole country was so hidden in all-pervading whiteness, that even he, who knew the way so

to the ceiling, very old-fashioned as to the furniture, but spotlessly clean, and enlivened by

e bright little room, which pleased her better than many a s

ick to death of this ill-advised, unreasonable journey. I am at a loss

ing look. 'I wanted to get you out of the way.

y and hidden,' said Lord Maulevrier. 'I

. But in the meantime have you no delicacy

ered her husband, 'and that this wretche

w, and you can have Horton to set you right ag

rs go; but at Hastings I could have had the best ph

table, assisted by her ladyship's footman,

in my room, girl, and send Steadman to me'- this to the footman, who hastened to

taring thoughtfully at the cheery wood fire. Presently she looked up, and

'We lunched at Windermere, and I have no appetite. Yo

oth, Lady Maulevrier drew her chair to the table, and took out her pocket-book, from which

unvarnished truth, to be brutal even, remember. His delinquencies are painfully notorious, and I apprehend that the last sixpence he owns will be answerable. His landed estate I am told can also be confiscated, in the event of an impeachment at the bar of the House of Lords, as in the Warren Hastings case. But as yet nobody seems clear as to the form which the investigat

to this polite commonplace her ladyship paid no attention. Her mind w

peated. 'Would to God that he had so died, and

ure was to be blighted by his father's misdoings-overshadowed by shame and dishonour in the very dawn of life. It was a wicked wish - an

face his accusers - and she, his wife

laid eggs, and hot cakes, arguing that a traveller on such a night must be hungry, albeit disinclined for a ceremonious dinner. She had been sitting for nearly an hour in almost

,' she said, as she put on the logs, and swept up the ashes on the hearth. 'Such a dr

,' said Lady Maulevrier. 'Ha

adyship that his lordship is pretty comf

, I suppose. It would be better for his lordship no

room, my lady, but

w small, if it i

gentleman, when he used to come down the Rothay with the otter hounds, running along the bank - joomping in and out of the beck - up to his knees in the water - and now to see him, so white and mashiated, and broken-

a hard

e grand looking lady in the fur-bordered cloth pelisse, with beautiful dark hair piled up in clustering masses above a broad white for

our trials -

looking up at her, 'your husband said y

nce, and we made sure as he was dead, and never got a word from him for ten years, and just three weeks ago he drops in upon us as we was sitting over our tea between the lights, looking as white as a ghost. I gave a shriek when I

his com

hat's not it. I never do rememb

hy,' p

n such crack-jaw words come easy

doctor giv

power of the constitution. The lungs are not gone, and the heart is not diseased. If there's rallying power, Robert will come round, and if there

is you

, and thought to make a good thing out of farming with the bit of brass he'd saved at heeam. But America isn't Gert Langdale, you see, my lady, and his knowledge stood him in no stead in the Bush; and first he lost his money, and he fashed himself terri

your d

ns, of A

' exclaimed her ladyship. 'Surel

he gets that, I can assure your ladyship. He's my only brother, the only kith and kin that's left to me, and he and I were gay fond of each other whe

Horton, of Grasmere, could have done more than old Evans. However, you know best. I hope his lords

y lady, mo

my father for years. Will you tell him to come to me, if you please? I want to hear what h

grog in front of the kitchen fire. He had taught himself to dispense with the consol

avely discussed. When he left the sitting-room he told the landlord to be sure and feed the post-horses well, a

will be well enough to tr

ed Steadman. 'He has wasted about a week by his dawdling wa

ype="