The Mating of Lydia

rose arrived in Pengarth by train from London, hire

is companion, and as the rich beauty of the May landscape was entirely lost upon himself, Melrose was reduced at last in the course of his ten miles' drive to scanning once more the copy of the Times which he had brought with him from the south. The news of various strikes and industrial arbitrations which it contained had already enraged him; and enraged him again as he looked through it. The proletariat, in his opinion, must be put down and kept down; that his own class began to show a lament

bronzed skin of the face had developed a multitude of fine wrinkles that did but add to its character. His aspect, even on the threshold of old age, had still something of the magnificence of an Italian captain of the Renaissance, something also of the pouncing, peering air that belongs to the type. He seemed indeed to

e induced to repair, until an exasperated tenant actually gave notice. Melrose meanwhile was absorbed in trying to recover a paragraph in the Times he had caught sight of on a first reading, and had then lost in

h Museum will go the marbles and bronzes, to the South Kensington, the china and the tapestries. Professor Mackwor

uld accept such piffling stuff with any stipulations attached? As it is, the greater part will go into the lumber-rooms; they'll never show them! There's only one collection that Mackworth ever

to the house, with its deep ruts and grass-grown sides; a tree blown down, not apparently by any very recent storm, and now lying half across the roadway, so that the horse and carriage picked their way with difficulty round its withered branches; one of the pillars of the fine gateway, which gave access to the walled enclosure round the hou

servants were the two Dixons, no one else being able to endure his company; that he and the house were protected by savage dogs, and that his sole visitors were occasional strangers from the south, who arrived with black bags, and often departed pursued with objurgations by Melrose, and in terror of the dogs. It was said also that the Tower was full of precious and marvellous things, including hordes of gold and si

the ground floor were standing wide open, giving some view of the large room within, so far as two partially drawn curtains allowed. As Melrose unlocked the gate, the house door opened, and three huge dogs came bounding out, in front of a gray-haired man, whom the driver of the wagonette knew to be "owd Dixon," Melrose's butler and factotum. T

*

d two young collies. He was trying to drive them off, after a gruff word to Dixon,

id, fiercely perceiving at the same mome

mbling reply, as he pointed a shaky finger at the windo

voice in

top those dogs barking? T

at the speaker

g with my house?"-he turned furiou

desperately. "They do say 'at he's in a varra parlish condition

g woman giving orders in my house!-you're a precious lot-you are!" He strode on toward the young woman, who, as

following slowly after; "it's the

e. I never invited you that I know of, and I am entirel

with this fierce mock courtesy

nchester last night to an urgent case, and arrived early this mor

usly. "I won't have it. He shan't r

ked at him w

. It would kill him to move him. Plea

tly administered various kicks and cuffs to

alertness of one who has no time to spend in gossipi

roached h

" he said, gloomily.

d fool, at once what the whole curs

hing should happen, why it was the Lord's will; and it was no use whatever for Mr. Melrose or any one else to kick against the pricks. So with much teasing deliberation, and con

even with him! Send a man from the farm, at once, to the cottage hospital at Whitebeck. They've got an ambulance-I commissi

did no

now, it 'ud be manslaughter," he sa

'll see to that. Go along, and do what you'r

farther corner of the house to the kitchen. He was the only person at the Tower who had ever dared to cross Melrose. He attempted it but rarely

ightest effort to moderate the noise of his approach, another woman-also in white cap and

ant for the patient that the ho

mping. "What business have you-or the other one-to give orde

he first who had spoken to him

to an urgent case. I have been helping the other nurse all day, for Mr. Faversham has wanted

said Melrose peremptori

the master of the house, it was difficult to

ietly, sir? I am a

t's wrong with my boots?" The p

or a sick-room. Would you-wou

rd, you're

exasperated him. He perceived plainly that she took him for a madman to be managed. Yet,

r. Now if you don't mi

iselessly and beckoned to Melrose. He went in, and, agai

curtained; the oak floor shone as though it had been recently washed; there was a table on which were medicine bottles and glasses

ose, her kind face softening. "He has been conscious a little

do not attempt to bear. His privacy, his habits, his freedom-all at the mercy of this white-faced boy, these two intolerable women, and the still more intolerable doctor, on w

the dark, slightly bearded face was not entirely disguised by the dressings in which the head was swathed; and the chest and arms, from which the bedclothes had been folded back, were finely, though sparely, moulded. Me

m, beckoning to

s his

ocket. I think, sir, the docto

o the hall table

ham, 5 Temple

season. What business had he to be here at all? I have no doubt whatever that he was drunk, otherwise why should he have had an accide

the subject, and had hardly spoken when the sound of

rejoicingly. "We sent for it

light steps to

the light cart, the only vehicle which the master of the Tower possessed, driven by his only outdoor servant, Joe Backhouse, who had suc

s gates by these impertinent women. He stood there watching every packet and bundle with which the nurse was loading her strong arms, feeling himself the while

e arch-villai

r to his library, half expecting to see some other invader ensconc

or Undersh

ng a medley of objects-miniatures, snuff-boxes, buttons, combs, seals; vases and plates of blue and white Nankin; an Italian stucco or two; a Renaissance bust in painted wood; fragments of stuff, cabinets, chairs, and tables of various dates and styles-all were gathered together in one vast and ugly confusion. It might have been a salone in one of the big curiosity shops of Rome or Venice, where the wrecks and sports of centuries are he

ticks that had once belonged to Madame Elisabeth. Mrs. Dixon dusted it every morning, with a feather brush, generally under the eyes of Melrose. He himself regarded it with

ershaw, Mus

stood

, with spectacled gray eyes, and a slight brown moustache on an otherw

approached, and barely acknowledged his bow. Behind t

u have come to offe

haw lo

else to be done. I am certain you would have done the same yourself. When I first saw him, the poor fellow was in a dreadful state

ontrol himself, but the sit

t out,

elp you carry him to the farm, which is only a quarter of a mile distant. That of course would have been the reasonable, the gentlemanly thing to do, but just in order to insult me, to break into the privacy of a man who, you know, has always endeavoured to protect himself and his life from vulgar tongues and eyes,

ne gray hair flowing back from strong aquiline features, inflamed with a passion of wrath, he made a

t take the responsibility yourself, I shall ha

o take the only decent way out of it! I request you-I command you-as soon as the Whitebeck a

his pockets. The coolness of th

anything of the kind. My business, Mr. Melrose, as a doc

moved in a proper ambulance. The whole thing is monstrous! By G-d, sir, what law obliges me

chest, standing within reach, a blow which made th

t I imagine if you turn out that man against my advice, and he dies on the roa

ref

ys mindful of his patient, look behind

ng is possible you shall be relieved of him. I can easily find accommodation for him at Pengarth. At present he is suffering from very severe con

wealth, surviving through all his eccentricities, found it unbearable that Undershaw should show no real compunction whatever for what he had done, nay, rather, a quiet conviction that, rage as he might, the owner of Threlfall Tower would ha

not-at this moment in particular-excite any fresh hue and cry which might bring the whole countryside on his back. Unless the doctor were lying, an

rn up and down the only free space

sarcastic word was flung like a javelin at the doctor-"whether you know anything whatever of this youth you are thrusting upon me? I don't imagine that he has

once all civili

e hotel people thought that he had been to meet them at Liverpool, had taken them through the Lakes, and had then seen them off for the south. He himself was on his way to Scotland to fish. H

th nothing in the world to do but to get

I should greatly prefer, if I might, to hand over to your care. You, I have no doubt, understand such things. They seem to be valuab

ook them unwillingly. With the instinctive gesture of the collector, howe

heav

another man. He looked

id you g

r large, and the nurse was afraid, while he is still restless a

, sardonyx, and rock crystal; which Melrose recognized at once as among the most precious things of this kind in the world! He turned abruptly, walked to his writing-table, took out the gems, weighed them in his hand, examined them with a magnifying glass, or held them to the light, muttering to himself, and apparently

und for taming the formidable master of the Tower. For himself he scorned "la curiosité," and its devotees, as mere triflers and shell-gatherers on shores bathed by the

he asked, as Melros

" was the

ous about him. I hope we may soon get some clue to them. Now"-the voice sharpened to the practical note-"may I appeal to you, Mr. Melrose, to make arrangements for the nurses as soon as is convenient to you. The

id so, the drawer, under a stream of sunset light from the window beyond it, seemed to give out a many-coloured flash-a rapid Irislike eff

ad forgotten Undershaw's presence. But, if so, the act roused him, and he looked r

ith renewed arr

ght, I consent-for to-night only, mind you-reserv

, and they left

ging on his aspect. To their amazement they were told that a room was to be got ready for th

nd tardy contact with humanity, this momentary return to neighbourly, kindly ways brought with it a strange sweetness. And when night fell, and a subdued, scarcely perceptible murmur of life began to creep about the passages of the old house, in general so dead and silent, Mrs. Dixon might have been heard hoarsely crooning an old song t

her way to bed. Mr. Faversham she said was very ill-what could be done if it did become necessary to summon the doctor? Dixon assured her the gardener who was also the groom was sleeping in the house, and the horse was in the stable. She had only to wake Mr

ing to directions, and sat down on a low chai

she was startled by a sound outside. She half rose, and saw the door open to

his shadow projected, grotesque and threatening, on the white traceries of the ceiling. But he made no sound, and never looked at the nurse. He stood surveying young Faver

surface; faces once familiar; the form and countenance of a brother drowned at twenty in Sandford lasher on the Oxford Thames; friends of his early manhood, riding beside him to hounds, or over the rolling green of the Campagna. Old instincts long suppressed, yet earlier and

, friendships, occupations of English society; fanatical hatred and resentment-against two women in particular, the first of whom had, in his opinion, deliberately spoilt his life by a doub

rcely tenacious of life, and his seventieth birthday had rung a knell in his ears that still sounded. So defiant was he of death, that he had never yet brought himself to m

eel, perhaps suddenly-the thought of it sent through him a shiver of impotent

s!-only subterraneously connected wi

n of the Threlfall life with a touch of crystallizing force. Melrose felt it in his own way no less th

brain nor nerves were normally attuned. Melrose moved restlessly about his room for a great part of the night. He could not get the haggard i

specialist from Edinburg

and flashed through all the byways of the brain. So long as the house held their owner, it held them also. Two of them he had

s in London, an old Fellow of the Society of Antiquarie

um and South Kensington, and it is a queer business to have left the most precious thing of all to a youth who in all probability has neither knowledge nor taste, and may be trusted to turn them into ca

lay safe in her green

ner t