Wylder's Hand

e Village of Gylingden with Mar

makes a long and easy descent into the little town of Gylingden, and down this we were going at an exhilarating pace, and the jingle of the vehicle sounded like sledge-bells in my ears, and its sway

f Brandon lies there, more than four miles from end to end. These masses of solemn and discoloured verdure, the faint but splendid lights, and long filmy shadows, the slopes and hollows — my eyes wandered over them all with that st

yews and modern lilacs and laburnums, backed by the grand timber of the park. It was the parsonage, and old bachelor Doctor Crewe, the rector, in my nonage, still stood, in memory, at the door, in his black shorts and gaiters, with his hands in his pockets, and a puckered smile on his hard ruddy countenance, as

whirled by. The old rector had long passed away; the shorts, gaiters, and smile —

steep-roofed residences. Up Church-street I contrived a peep at the old gray tower where the chimes hung; and as we turned the corner a glance at the ‘Brandon Arms.’ How very small and low that palatial hostelry of my earlier recollectio

n it be twenty, five-and-twenty, aye, by Jove! five-and-thirty, years since then?’ How my da

nt, it is during them that consciousness, memory — all the faculties grow, and the experience of sense is so novel, crowded, and astounding. It is this beginning at a point, and expanding to the immense disk of our present range o

asked for me at Queen’s Folkstone; and, vised by my cousin, had presented itself at the Friars, in Shropshire, and thence proceeded by Sir Harry’s direction (there was the autograph) to Nolton Hall; thence again to Ilchester, whence my fiery and decisive old aunt sent it straight back to my cousin, with a whisk of her pen which seemed to say, ‘How the plague can I t

still, with an unpleasant association about it. I examined it carefully, and laid it down unopened. I went through half-a-dozen others, and recurred to it, and puzzled over its exterior again, and agai

,’ I exclaimed, a

excite the least uneasiness; on the contrary, I believe he liked me as well as

ife, the breaking open of a portal through which I entered a labyrinth, or rather a catacomb, where for many days I groped and stumbled, looking for light, and was, in

ut which had now relapsed into haze. There must have been some damnable taint in the blood of the common ancestor — a spice of the insane and the diabolical. They were an ill-conditioned race — that is to say, every now and then there emerged a miscreant, with a pretty evident vein of madness. There was Sir

very early in history; and the Wylder arms, with their legend, ‘resurgam,’ stands in bold relief over the great door of Brandon Hall. So there were Wylders of Brandon, and Brandons of Brandon. In one generation, a Wylder ill-using his wife and hating his children, would cut them all off, and send the e

all was a truculent romance. Their very ‘wills’ were spiced with the devilment of th

rk Wylder’

but he did not know me till I introduced myself, so I must be a good deal changed. Our ship was at Malta when I got the letter. I was sick of the service, and no wonder: a lieutenant — and there likely to stick all my days. Six months, last year, on the African coast, watching slavers — think of that! I had a long yarn from the viscount — advice, and that sort of thing. I do not think he is a year older than I, but takes airs because he’s a trustee. But I only laugh at trifles that would have riled me once. So I wrote him a yarn in return, and drew it uncommon mild. And he has been useful to me; and I think matters are pretty well arranged to disappoint the kind intention of good Uncle Wylder — the brute; he hated my father, but that was no reason to persecute me, and I but an infant, almost, when he died, d — him. Well, you know he left Brandon with some charges to my Cousin Dorcas. She is a superbly fine girl. Our ship was at Naples when she was there two years ago; and I saw a good deal of her. Of course it was not to be thought of then; but matters are quite different, you know, now, and the viscount, who is a very s

ie, ever mo

old

K WY

marriage; and then you can have a room at the Hall, and capita

l together; and when his ship came to England, met frequently; and twice, when he was on leave, we had been for months together under the same roof; and had for som

ike every other youngish fellow who is not a premature curmudgeon; and there was something indefinitely pleasant in the consciousness that, although a betrothed bride, the young lady still was fancy free: not a bit i