Mount Royal, Volume 2 of 3

rroundings as Christabel's could go on being unhappy for ever. Her own spirits improved with Christabel's increasing brightness, and the old house began to lose its dismal air. Unt

its fruits. She had no suspicion that her niece was striving of set purpose to be cheerful-that the

ghts about her absent son-from wearying doubts as to the fulfilment of her plans for the future. There were people coming and going; old friends driving twenty miles to luncheon, and sometimes persuaded to stay to dinner; nearer neighbours walking three miles or so to afternoon tea. The cheery rector of Trevalga and his family, frie

ments of forethought and consideration for others, drove up to the house one afternoon in a hired chaise from Launceston, just as

ad-shouldered man, bearded, bronzed, clad in a thick grey coat and big white muffler, stoo

fainting, and it was some moments before she recovered speech.

ld you?" murmured Chr

uld I d

d of notice, knowing your

traight home till two o'clock to-day. I had half a mind to take a week in town first, before I

so hardened and altered from the fresh lines of youth. "If you knew how I have longed for this hour. I have had such fears. Y

s is a lively welc

r heart was beating tumultuously, the hands that clasped her son's were cold and damp. "My soul

is a magnificent country. I feel deuced sorry to come home-except for the pleasure of seeing you and Belle. L

very little daylight in the room. The tapestry curtains fell low over the heavily

to be amiable to her cousin-wished even to like him, but it went against the grain. She wondered if he had always

in some of the gossiping journals, when I was last at Montreal. You wore a pink gown at Sandown. You were one of the prettiest girls at the Royal Fancy Fair. You wo

better than ever. I

wered her cousin with his free and easy air. "How d'ye do, Miss Bridgeman?" he said, holdin

advice, and gave the squire on

t her with a steady stare. "You're the h

ll. "I'm sure you would like some tea?" looking lo

relessly, "but I don't mind a cup of tea presently, when

ely not yet?" sai

my hunters have been getting on in the last three years, and whether the colt Nicholls

tack upon his liberty when he was still in the invertebrate jelly-fish stage of existence, carried at full-length in his nurse's arms, with his face turned to the ceiling, perpetually contemplating that flat

n the squire had hurried out of the room;

oad enough before he went to America, and that this filling-

ought home any lions' hides, and if he will have one made into a shooting jacket. Dear, dearest Auntie," she

may be before I die-full to overflowing, and that I shall be able to

lump-soled boots and a rough heather-mixture shooting suit, with knickerbockers and coarse stockings, and his whole aspect was "sporting." Christabel thought of some one else who had sat before the same hearth in the peaceful twilight hour, and wondered if the spiritual differences between these two men were as wide as those of manner and outward seeming. She recalled the exquisite refinement of that ot

ed chair, throwing back his dark head upon a crewel anti-macassar, which was a work of art almost as worthy of not

with hard service. "Mount Royal isn't half a bad place for two or three months in the year. But I suppose you mean to go to Lond

t going to tow

d up-spent al

think Belle wou

ou want to go of course," said Mr

ut one season must resemble another, I should think: just like Boscastle Fair, which I used to fancy so lovely when I was a child, till I be

g new-new clubs, new theatres, new actors, new race-meetings,

lth would be equal to London, this ye

ange in his mother's appearance-for talking so loudly and so lightly, a

weather?" he asked, turning to su

aning of the phrase had been explained to her, confessed herself an invalid, for whom t

e and take care of each other-and I can have six weeks in London en gar?on. It w

me directly after y

ster. Easter's three weeks ahead of us. Y

After three y

ith charming frankness. "When a man has been three years away he can't hurt his friend's

his mother, with tears in her eyes. The very mention of d

ow of a place, it seemed precious long. But for fellows who are knocking about the world-as Poker Vandeleur and I were-time spins by pretty fast, I can tell you. I'll hoist in

ny inanimate chattel, remonstrated with a growl and a snap. He had never been over

," muttered Leonard, pushin

om for the dog in her low armchair, whereupon Randie insinuated himself into that

Pomeranian instead of that u

e is a person, and he and I have a hundred ideas in common

re worth looking at. I wouldn't waste my affection upo

s," said Christabel, caressin

d Mr. Tregonell, p

ard loved sport and adventure, action, variety. He was a tyrant, and yet a democrat. He was quite willing to live on familiar term with grooms and game-keepers-but not on equal terms. He must always be master. As much good fellowship as they pleased-but they must all knuckle under to him. He had been the noisy young autocrat of the stable-yard and the saddle-room when he was still in Eton jackets. He lived on the easiest terms wit

ll was not a traveller of this type. Away from the restraints of civilization-the conventional refinements and smoothings down of a rough character-his nature coarsened and hardened. His love of killing wild and beautiful things grew into a passion. He lived chiefly to hunt and to slay, and had no touch of pity for those gracious creatures which looked at their slaughterer reproachfully, with dim pathetic eyes-wide with a wild surprise at man's cruelty. Constant intercourse with men coarser and more ignorant than himself dragged him down little by little to a lower grade than he had been born to occupy. In all the time that h

usements. He had heard neither concerts nor lectures, and had only affected the lowest forms of dramatic art. Most of his nights had been spent in bar-rooms

, as it was supposed by the outside world, by extensive travel; and he was henceforward to reign in his father's

old servants, and friendly to old friends. He made considerable alterations in the stables, bought and sold and swopped horses, engaged new underlings, acted in all out-of-door arrangements as if the place were entirely his own, albeit his mother's life-interest in the estate gave her the custody of

hich the rivers are as seas and the forests rank and gloomy wildernesses reaching to the trackless and unknown. Sometimes Christabel was their companion in these long rides, mounted on the thoroughbred which Mrs. Tregonell gave her on that last too-happy birthday. The long rides in the sweet soft April air brought health

l and inexperienced youth a kind of profession. He had a neat way of finding out exactly how much money a young man had to dispose of, present or contingent, and put him through it in the quickest possible time and at the pleasantest pace; but he knew by experience that Leonard had his own ideas about money, and was as keen as experience itself. He would p

one and a hand at écarté after the play. "You're a good deal too clever for a comfortable antag

hookey all men are equal-and Leonard had accepted the decree of fate; but he was not the kind of man to let another man get the better of him in a series of transactions. He was not brilliant, but he was shrewd and keen, and had long ago made up his mind to get fair value for his money. If he allowed Jack Vandeleur to travel at his expense, or dine and drink daily at his hotel, it was not because L

a great billiard match, and he found that his thoughts went back to Mount Royal, and to those he had left there-to Christabel, who had been very kind and sweet to him since his home-coming; who had done much to make home delightful to him-riding with him, playing and singing to him, playing billiards with him,

and tear of London amusements. Leonard began to think that his natural bent was towards domesticity, and that, as Belle's husband-there could be no doubt that she would accept him when the time came for asking her-he would shine as a very estimable character, just as his father had shone

in love with him?" asked Mrs. Tregonell, me

at has a girl to do in such an out-of-the-way place as this but fall in love with the first comer; it is almost the only amusement open to her. You ought to have known better than to have invited tha

ave come home s

my life where I was. How could I

invitation to Mr. Hamleigh was not a new idea; I had asked him half a do

you loved better than ever yo

rd, that i

ou were always regretting that other man. Nothing exalts a man so much in a woman's

s his business to win her heart: but Leonard complained that his mother had spoiled his chances-that all th

of an altogether inferior creature; "all the faster, perhaps, on account of having made a fiasco of her first engagement. A girl doesn't like to be

like that, you who know Chr

had never cared for any one but me; a

Brief as his absence had been, even his careless eye could see that his mother had changed for the worse since their parting. The hollow cheek

comed him with

d delight. It is so good of you to come back to me so soon.

or a dull pain in his breast seeme

being gently carried along a slow gliding stream to some sheltered haven, which I can picture to myself, although I have never seen it. I have only one care,

daresay that's because he had plenty of money, and wasn't afraid to spend it, and was an easy master, and all

l, Christian, and he did his duty in every phase of lif

t's uncommonly easy to be a Chr

s happy, if you win your cousin for your wife. And I feel sure you will win her. As

? I don't want to precipitate matt

ow how my heart is set upon this marri

grace, accomplishments. There was no man among his acquaintance who could boast of such a charming wife. She should have her own way in everything: of course, so long as her way did not run counter to his. She would be mistress of one of the finest places in Cornwall, the house in which she had been reared, and which she loved with that foolish affection which cats, women, and other inferior animals feel for familiar habitations. Altogether, as Mr. Tregonell told himself, in his simple and expressive language, she would have a very good time, and it would be hard lines if she were not grateful, and did not take kindly to him. Yet he hesitated considerably before putting the cruci

ather seedy, Belle, don

ars yet, but I am full of fear about her. I go to her room every morning with an aching heart, dreading what th

od-to talk about cruelty, when you must know

hat had I to

ose days-didn't relish the idea of three thousand miles of everlasting wet between me and those I loved-and I was coming across the Big Drink as fast as a Cunard could bri

influenced you?" Chr

nd your lover were spooning about the place. You don't suppose I could quite have stomached that, do you-to see another man making love to the girl I

it-now. Perhaps, if you had told me your intention while I was in pinafores I might have grown up with a due

vage when I heard that you had got yourself engaged to a man whom you'd only

ve you to mention his name to me? I have suffered enough, but that is an impertinence I will not endure. If

much rather talk about you and me, and our prospects. What is to become of you, Belle, when the poor mother goes? You and the doctor have both made up your minds that she's not long for this world. For my own part, I'm no

rth living when she is gone-but I daresay I shall go on living, all the same. Sorrow takes such a long time to kill any one. I suppose Je

unhesitating brutality which his friends called frankness-"a young and

l have

she would be to you-about as much as

ed Christabel, indifferently. "It wi

l at once because an elderly woman dies? That's rank nonsense. That's the kind of way widows talk in their first edition of crape and caps. But they don't mean it, my dear; or, say they think they mean it, they never hold by it. That kind of widow is always a wife again before the second year of her widowhood is over. And to hear you-not quite one-and-twenty, and as fit as a fid-in the very zenith of your be

ith most irritating placidity, "but unfortunately I ne

words, you

other and sister-as we have been in all the years that are gone. Let us unite in the endeavour to make your dear mother's life happy-so happy, that she may grow strong

or a fellow you had only known a week or so-and now, when I tell you how, from my boyhood, I have relied upon your being my wife-always kept you in my mind as the one only wom

ed companion-she is

the housemaids. You would rather roam about with Jessie Bridgeman, getting yourself talked about at every table d'h?te in Eu

ny man's wife, Leonard," answered Christabel, gravely. "I

od enough to stand in his shoes," said Leonard, savagely. "And for the sake of a man who turned out

in the middle of the lane. He had nothing to do but to trot meekly after her, afraid to go too fast,

t a canter," she said; and her cousin knew that