Phantom Fortune

ot able to leave his room, where her ladyship remained in close attendance upon him. The hills and valleys were white with snow, but there was none falling, and M

ut any doctor is better than none, so this feeble little personage was

d eyes, in Lady Maulevrier's proud bearing. He said that his lordship was low, very low, and that the pulse was more irregular than he liked, but

o Langdale later in the afterno

nce upon his master - save for one half-hour only, which her ladyship passed in the parlour below, in conversation with the landlady, a very serious conversation, as indicated by Mrs. Smithson's grav

to fetch Mr. Evans, who came to the inn to find Lady Maulevrier kneeling beside her hu

ur-post bedstead, shaded by dark moreen curtains. The surgeon looked round the room, and then fumbled in his pockets for

ction showed him what had happened. The outline of the rigid figure under the coverlet

murmured Steadman, laying his hand upon the doct

hich opened the door of that other sick-r

id this

but after dark there was a difficulty in his breathing which alarmed her ladyship, and she insisted upon you being sent for. The messenger had hardly been gone a quarter of a

rise to me. I knew Lord Maulevrier was low, very low, the pulse feeble and i

ctor's ear, 'You will give the necessary certificate, I hope, with as litt

d. The body will be remov

he undertaker. He will be here very soon, no doubt, and if the shell is ready by noon to

? After

ear the dead. There is a moon, and there is no snow

n's grave, self-possessed manner answered all doubts. Mr. Evans filled in the certificate for the undertaker, drank a glass of hot brandy and water, an

Steadman's order that the carriage waited for her ladyship at an obscure side door, rather than in front of the inn. An east wind was

ood ready to assist her ladyship, there was a bustle, a confusion of dark figures on the threshold, a huddled mass of cloaks and fur wraps was lifted into the carriage, the do

sullen heights, looked back where the shadow of night enfolded them, but all along the snow-white road the