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In the guide-books it figured as Stanyon Castle; on the tongues of the villagers, it was the Castle; the Polite World spoke of it as Stanyon, as it spoke of Woburn, and of Cheveley It was situated in Lincolnshire, not very many miles from Grantham, rather nearer to Stamford: a locality considered by those ere randeur of scenery to be admirable It had more claim to be called a Castle than many another nobleman’s seat Arecords were to be found in the muniment room, now used by Mr Theodore Frant as an office, had previously stood upon the site; and such portions of the ancient building as had survived the passage of time had been incorporated into the Tudor enerations had enlarged and beautified the structureto theof another court The Frant who survived friendship with Bluff King Hal scandalized his generation by the lavish use of oak for wainscoting; his grandson, having enjoyed the advantages of travel, built a neing, and es; a later Frant, succu fashion, ran riot in the rococo style, created the Fountain Court, and was prevented only by death frorandiose conception; his heir, one of Mr Walpole’s more fervid adherents, reverted to the Gothick, and by the tiular stitcher, when out with the Old Club, put a period to his career, nowhere in England could have been found such massive doors of oak, such ponderous iron latches, so many pointed, narros, as at Stanyon

The sixth Earl of St Erth, possibly thinking that his principal seat already sprawled over tooin the Palladian style by the straitened times in which he had the ill-fortune to live, contented hireata closed-stove in the enormous kitchen This was declared by an en of modern civilization in the entire pile; but the head-cook,etables by one of his underlings, while he himself continued to preside over his furnace, with its antiquated ovens, its huge spits, and its iron cauldrons Unaccustoalleries, discovering stairs that led only to uncharted do, flustered and exhausted, where they had been for long attended, had been known to express astonishment that anyone should choose to live in such a rabbit-warren when he owned two other and more convenient country residences Neither of these, it was true, could boast of Great Halls, Minstrels’ Galleries, Arhts whistled down their passages; no creeping chill arose from damp walls; and their chimneys very rarely smoked

Neither the sixth Earl nor his second wife perceived anything amiss with Stanyon: the Earl because it was the home of his childhood, his lady because she had been bred in an even more inconvenient mansion in the bleak north, and would, in any event, have unhesitatingly bartered comfort for pomp, had she been offered a choice in the matter The Earl’s first wife had hated Stanyon But the Earl’s first wife, though admittedly a lady of birth and quite remarkable beauty, had proved herself to have been quite unworthy of the high position she was called upon to fill Before her son was out of leading-strings, she ran aith a notorious rake Her lord, cuckolded, betrayed, and turned into a laughing-stock, expunged her name from the family records, permitted no ht hied when he learned that she had died, three years after her flight, in conditions of distress and hardship His steward and his housekeeper, both persons of sentiment, hoped that upon his death-bed he would reue, for it seeentle and lovely a lady should hold no place in his heart orthat his overt dislike of his elder son was caused by the secret pangs the sight of the fair boy, as indeed the ie of his mother, caused him to feel But if the Reverend Felix Clowne, my lord’s Chaplain, was to be believed, the Earl’s last coherent speech, forcibly phrased if feebly uttered, was a co to his roo upon Martin, his younger son; he had had a kind word for Theodore, his nephew; he had taken punctilious leave of his lady; he had sent proper hter; but the names of his first wife and of his heir had not passed his lips Nor had his heir arrived at Stanyon to attend his death-bed, although it was certain that Mr Theodore Frant had sent a letter express to hi him that his father’s deh, as he then was styled, was at Mons, with his regih sense of his h at a moment when Napoleon was almost hourly expected to cross the frontier But the seventh Earl, surviving a e of Genappe, and a ement at Waterloo, still showed no disposition to return to the home of his ancestors He sold out, but he re the fullest confidence in his cousin’s ability to administer his estates Not until twelve calendar months had passed since his father’s death did his cousin, and the Dowager Countess, receive tidings froland, and about to take possessi

on of his inheritance He wrote a very civil letter to hisher of the proposed date of his arrival at Stanyon, and enquiring in the politest way after her health, and the healths of his half-brother and sister It was a very pretty letter, the Dowager allowed, but, she added, in unhopeful accents, hisways, and had shown herself to be a Snake in the Bosom

‘I should perhaps warn you, ma’am, that my cousin will not relish animadversions upon the character of his ht-lipped ‘In his presence, such remarks should be spared’

‘My dear Theo,’ responded the Dowager, ‘it would be odd indeed if I were to be obliged to consult you on the observances of civility!’ He bowed, and, because she cherished no ill-will towards hiraciously: ‘Or anyone else, I ah – or, as I must learn to call him, St Erth – may be sure of every attention called for by his consequence’

‘Just so, ain

‘Providence has decreed that he should succeed to his dear father’s honours,’ pronounced the Dowager, thinking poorly of Providence ‘One ht have supposed that military service in the Peninsula – a very unhealthy locality, I understand, setting aside the chances of Violent Death in an engageht have rendered the present occasion unnecessary But it was not to be! Had ht, I should have considered myself bound to state that a military career, for one who to be far from robust, could be little short of Fatal! That, my dear Theo, I s, if there be one thing upon which I pride myself it is my observance of h, according to the workings of an inscrutable fate, it now appears to be a circuht Since Lady Penistone chose to interest herself so particularly in her grandson, andobjectionable in the connection, it was not for me to raise my voice On her head, I said at the tih sort of a woe that she did not, as one ht have feared she would, from the incurable levity of her behaviour, condone her unhappy daughter’s h from any other motive than a malicious desire to tease my poor husband I shall own ht hi His career at Eton, you knoas quite undistinguished: a very odd sort of a soldier he must have been!’

‘It is some years since you have seen my cousin, ma’am,’ Mr Frant interposed, in a measured tone

‘I hope,’ said the Dowager, ‘I am not to be blamed for that! If Lady Penistone chose to invite the boy to stay with her during his school vacations, and ement, I take heaven to witness that it was by no expressed wish of ard Stanyon as his natural home! On every head my conscience is easy: while he was a child I did my duty towards him; and I am determined now that as no word of censure for his conduct in absenting himself from a beloved parent’s obsequies shall be permitted to pass my lips, so also no mark of the respect due to the Head of the Family shall be unobserved I shall receive him in the Hall’

Thisfaithfully adhered to, a chilly afternoon in spring saw five persons assembled in what had once been the Great Hall of the Castle The artistic energies of several generations had largely obliterated inal features, but the hammer-beams in its lofty roof remained, and a vast fireplace, made to accommodate the better part of several tree-trunks The carved screens, having been discovered to have becoe, the apart thrown open to the vestibule, or entrance-hall, situated at right-angles to it From this smaller apartment the Grand Staircase, erected in the latter half of the seventeenth century on a scale designed to allow so flight to a broad half-landing, whence it branched to right and left, thus attaining the thened by applied iron-straps, besides the great front-door opposite to the staircase, opened on to the vestibule, a circu to the coe to a series of saloons beyond it The heat thrown out by the logs burning in the fireplace was considerable, but was unavailing to prevent the draughts sweeping through the room These seemed to come from all quarters, even the heavy curtains which had been drawn across the s co wall opposite the fireplace being continually stirred by them It was dusk, and candles had been lit in the sconces as well as in the several candelabra which stood on the various tables The little tongues of fla the wax toit impossible for one of the persons assembled in the Hall to set the stitches in her eed her seat to no purpose, she folded the work, and replaced it in a tapestry-bag, drawing forth, in its stead, a prosaic piece of knitting, hich she proceeded to occupy herself, in the manner of one prepared to make the best, without comment, of adverse conditions

The furnishing of the Hall eneous nature of the whole Castle, few of the pieces which it contained having been chosen with any nicety of judgment A fine refectory table, pushed under the s, and several carved oak chairs ooden seats, were the only objects which bore any particular relation to their surroundings, the rest of the furniture consisting of pieces representative of every age and style, and including a ly side-table, with a ryphons’ heads Two suits of aruarded the entrance, and several shields, pikes, halberds, and gisarh plaster th portrait of the late Earl, leaning negligently with one leg crossed over the other, against the shoulder of his horse; and a fine Battle-piece, of which the ure of the co in woolly balls from the mouths of innumerable cannons

Only one of the five persons gathered round the fireplace in expectation of the Earl’s arrival seemed to be conscious of the discomfort of her situation, and sheher chair so that the leaping fla her shawl securely across her shoulders to protect theer Countess, regally enthroned in a wing-chair, with her feet upon a stool, was indifferent to draughts; neither her son, Martin,log, nor Mr Theodore Frant, engaged in snuffing a candle in the branch set in the centre of the refectory table, are of any unusual chilliness; and the Chaplain, seated at her ladyship’s left hand, had long since beco at Stanyon, and had pronounced the gathering to be very snugly placed This tribute earned hier, who said that it had frequently been reave out so fierce a heat as this one She then desired Miss Morville, in a voice of ood as to run up to the Crimson Saloon, and to fetch from it a little hand-screen Miss Morville at once laid aside her knitting, and departed on her errand; and, as though her absence released hi scrutiny of the fire, and exclaimed: ‘This is a curst business! I wish it ell over! Whyon his pleasure? The lord knoe don’t want hiood mind to ride over to eat my mutton with Barny!’

His cousin looked frowningly at hi Another candle needed attention, and he dealt with it methodically He was a powerfully bui

lthis thirtieth birthday, with a resolute, rather square countenance, and a good deal of reserve in his manner The cast of his features bore a certain rese cousin’s, but the likeness existed htly heavy line of the jaw, and the set of the eyes under brohich overhung the look to the face The colour of his eyes was a clear, light gray, as cool and as inexpressive as lake-water; his mouth, with its firmly closed lips, betrayed no secrets, but see resolution of character, kne to keep his own counsel His address was good, and his

With Martin, it was otherwise Every change of mood was reflected in his eyes, so dark a brown as to appear almost black, and in the sensitive curves of his full ether thrown off the boy; and, fro been the idol of his ood deal spoiled, i causes, and into wild rages by obstacles to his plans Treated froh he, and not his half-brother, had been his father’s heir, it was not to be expected that he could face with equaniue belief that his brother would not survive the rigours of the caht that he would one day step into his father’s shoes; the eence of the seventh Earl, unscathed, from the war found him unprepared, and filled him, when his first shocked incredulity had passed, with a sense of burning resentht recollection of the brother seven years his senior, hislittle beyond the ientle manner, and a very soft voice; but he was sure that he would dislike hilance cast in the direction of his impassive cousin: ‘I daresay it is past six o’clock already! When are we to dine? If he thinks to bring toays to Stanyon, I for one won’t bear it!’

‘Do not put yourself about, my dear!’ recommended his parent ‘Dinner must for this once await his convenience, but with all his faults his disposition was always compliant I assure you, I do not expect to find our style of living overset by any fashionable nonsense which he may have learnt in Lady Penistone’s establishment That would not suit me at all, and I am not quite nobody at Stanyon, I believe!’

This announce plainly in the nature of a pleasantry, caused Mr Clowne to laugh a little, and to say: ‘Indeed your ladyship is not nobody! Such a whimsical fancy must really quite startle anyone unacquainted with those flashes of e knoell!’ He encountered a sardonic look from Theodore, and added hastily: ‘Howhis lordship! How much he will have to tell us of his experiences! I a upon his lips!’

‘Hang upon his lips!’ exclaimed Martin, with one of his fiery looks ‘Ay! toad-eat him to the top of his bent! I shall not do so! I wish he were underground!’

‘Take care what you say!’ interposed his cousin sternly