Mount Royal, Volume 3 of 3

tly, the world all sad and solemn, clad in universal greyness. Christabel was up early, with her boy, in the nursery-watching him as he splashed about his

with hurry, anxious to pay all due respect to a hostess whom they hoped to visit a

sting together in a free-and-easy manner when the ladies had left the dining-room-so Christabel, Miss Bridgeman, and the Miss Vandeleur

ful for the damsel's patience,

leigh," she said. "This is the first

ortmanteau," said Miss Bridgeman. "Some valet

Dopsy, aghast. "P

ndon this afternoo

shock was evidently terrible

e actually suppose that she stood the fa

aintly-all the flavour gone out of the dried salm

winter. Of course, you know that he is consumptive, a

sy, with tears glittering

hacked and vulgarized by long experience in flirtation-but at this moment she believed th

become of his property?" inquired Mo

dgeman. "He has no near relations. I hope he wil

o?" faltered Dopsy,

t the side-board during this conversation. "He has gone shooting. The dog-cart

laimed Jessie. "That's a new development of Mr. Hamleig

e for you, ma'am," said t

r two carrying a letter upon his official salver, and

brief and com

rs. Tre

ght from there to Launceston in Mr. Tregonell's dog-cart, for the use of which I beg to thank him in advance. I have already thanked you and Miss Bridgeman for your goodness to me durin

incerel

s Ham

night," thought Christabel. "Your master went out wi

. I took him his breakfast an hour ag

ther two g

the wagonette at six

er yesterday, and asked me if I wasn't sorry that my sex prevented my joining the party. 'It would be a new sensation,' he said, 'and

g good-by to any of us," said Dopsy,

y gone," echoed J

with Angus in the corridor; disturbed by the strangeness of this lonely expedition after woodcock, in a man who had always shown himself indifferent to sport. As usual with

nd certain games which called upon the exercise of a dawning imagination; so it was his mother's delight to ramble with him in an imaginary wood, and to fly from imaginary wolves, lurking in dark caverns, represented by the obscure regions underneath a table-cover-or to repose with him on imaginary mountain-tops on the sofa-or be engulfed with him in so

inite sense of trouble in her mind all the while, went rapidly with Chri

if the dog-cart has

he yard half an hour ago," answered th

iss between every nonsense syllable. "You can bring him down, nurse. I shall have only the ladies with me at luncheon." There were s

re, Leonard,

es

ens of business-like occupation. It was not often that Mr. Tregonell spent a morning in his study. When he did, it meant a gen

r. Hamleigh had gone

t he should have a shy at the birds before h

cheque, with his hea

e, in his weak health, and with

t, you've made me spoil the cheque!" muttered Leonard, tearing t

s! Have you been wri

sently, turning over the

n out-your boots

and then remembered that Clayton wanted the money for the tradesmen to-day.

es!" said Christabel, seeing a package on t

our tongue, and don't dist

with long ranges of doors and windows, saddle rooms, harness rooms, loose boxes, coachmen's and groom's quarters-a little colony complete in itself. From his open window the Squire could give his orders, interrogate his coachman as to his consumption o

fire turning the leaves of her book in the rapture of a first skimming. They sat thus

amleigh's servant sitting behind, walled in by a portmanteau a

ed "Has your master

and came across th

t the gate for nearly an hour, and then Baker said we'd better come back, as we must have m

? There's only one way out of that place-or only one way that M

the Kieve alone. They were not certain as to whether he'd come back or not, but he hadn't taken the key back to the house. He might have put it into his

answered Leonard, careless

urned," said Christabel, stand

agely. "You've been sitting here for

I should have known," faltered Christ

the beginning of woe and horror-like the ripening of that strange va

brutal mockery-"by instinct, by second sight, by animal magnetism, I s

s of the house. Christabel made no reply to her husband's sneerin

n Mr. Hamleigh come back

ma'

ned, and then let three or four men, with Nicholls at their head, go down to

s wooing, and whose heart was melted with tenderest compassion to-day at the sight of her pallid face, and eyes made large with terror. "It's

r. Hamleigh, having arranged for the dog-car

m. Some gentlemen are so

o Nicholls, the chief coachman, a man of gumption and of much renown in the household, as a person whose natural sharpness had been improved by the large responsibilities involved in a well-filled stable, was

well to take a mattress, and some pillows. If-if there should have been an accident those might be useful. Mr. Hamleigh left the house early this mor

leigh may have overlooked the time if he had good sp

y do yo

him, for he was back about the yard before ten o'clock. He'd been hurt somehow, for there was blood upon one of his feet. Master had the red setter with him this morning, when he went for his s

other dogs are i

min in the break-and I don't know which. Sambo may have been with them-and may ha

please, Nicholls.

, ma

, who rarely honoured the family with his presence at the mid-day meal, came o

to her, in an angry aside. "You need not look so

im with pale contempt. "If you are not a little more care

sy was shut in her own room, with a headache. She had been indulging herself with the feminine luxury of a good cry. Disappointment, woun

ordered his dinner to be brought. He was a little inclined to resist this change of plan at the first, but was soon kissed into pleasantness, and then the nurse was despatched to the servants' hall, and Christabel had her boy to herself, an

n to the lobby that opened into the stable yard, and stood in the doorway waiting for Nicholls to come to her; but if he

at her fears were realized. Evil of some kind had befallen. She went str

ile Nicholls stood a little way from the door, relat

und him?" asked Leonard, when

room, where there was no light but that of the low fire. The door had been l

said he must have b

he gun

he was crossing the wooden bridge-and yet that seemed hardly possible-for he was lying on

here'll be an inquest, of course. Will

id he'd see t

lying at

ring it home. It would have been such a shock for my mistress-and the oth

en-no near relations to feel the blow. All we can do is to show our respect for him, now he is gone. The body had better be brought home her

aid a low voice out of the

dents which occur every shooting season. He was always a little a

f his visit?" asked Christabel. "It was you who u

t as I told the other fellows. That will do, Nicholls. You did all that could be done. Go an

retired, shutting t

oming over to the hearth where her hus

as many a better sportsman than he has d

I should hardly grieve for him-knowing that he was reconciled to the idea of death-and that if Go

-such tears as friendship and affection give to the dead-tears that had no tain

ind me how fond you were of him-and how little you ever cared for me. Do you sup

ou, and as true to my duty as a wife, as you, my husband, can desire. But yo

tch you and him together-to see if

be so base-so

his wife. Do you think it was a pleasant spectacle for me to see you and Angus Hamleigh sympathizing and twaddling about Browning's last poem-or sighing over a sonata of Beethoven's-I who was outside all that kind of thing?-a boor-a dolt-to whom your fine se

"He went to that lonely place this morning-at your instigation-an

good place for woodcock-and it pleased his fancy to try his luck there before he left. Lonely place,

e still. He may have lain there wounded-his life-blood ebbing away-dying by inches-without help-wi

here for the lynxes and the polecats to pick my bones; and I have walked shoulder to shoulder with death on mountain passes, when every step on the crumbling track might se

loomily, going slowly to the door

make your mind easy on that point," re