The Tenants of Malory, Volume 2   By: Joseph Sheridan LeFanu (1814-1873)

TENANTS OF MALORY.

(Reprinted from the "Dublin University Magazine.")

THE

TENANTS OF MALORY.

A Novel.

BY

JOSEPH SHERIDAN LE FANU,

AUTHOR OF "UNCLE SILAS," "GUY DEVERELL," "THE HOUSE BY THE CHURCHYARD," ETC. ETC.

IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II.

LONDON: TINSLEY BROTHERS, 18, CATHERINE ST., STRAND. 1867.

[ The Right of Translation is reserved. ]

LONDON: BRADBURY, EVANS, AND CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

CONTENTS.

CHAP. PAGE

I. IN THE OAK PARLOUR A MEETING AND PARTING 1

II. JUDÆUS APELLA 12

III. MR. LEVI VISITS MRS. MERVYN 21

IV. MR. BENJAMIN LEVI RECOGNISES AN ACQUAINTANCE 32

V. A COUNCIL OF THREE 44

VI. MR. DINGWELL ARRIVES 56

VII. MR. DINGWELL MAKES HIMSELF COMFORTABLE 68

VIII. THE LODGER AND HIS LANDLADY 76

IX. IN WHICH MR. DINGWELL PUTS HIS HAND TO THE POKER 87

X. CLEVE VERNEY SEES THE CHATEAU DE CRESSERON 102

XI. SHE COMES AND SPEAKS 112

XII. CLEVE VERNEY HAS A VISITOR 125

XIII. THE REV. ISAAC DIXIE SETS FORTH ON A MISSION 136

XIV. OVER THE HERRING POND 146

XV. MR. CLEVE VERNEY PAYS A VISIT TO ROSEMARY COURT 157

XVI. IN LORD VERNEY'S LIBRARY 176

XVII. AN OVATION 191

XVIII. OLD FRIENDS ON THE GREEN 205

XIX. VANE ETHERAGE GREETS LORD VERNEY 222

XX. REBECCA MERVYN READS HER LETTER 235

XXI. BY RAIL TO LONDON 252

XXII. LADY DORMINSTER'S BALL 264

THE TENANTS OF MALORY.

CHAPTER I.

IN THE OAK PARLOUR A MEETING AND PARTING.

"GOSSIPING place Cardyllian is," said Miss Anne Sheckleton, after they had walked on a little in silence. "What nonsense the people do talk. I never heard anything like it. Did you ever hear such a galamathias?"

The young lady walking by her side answered by a cold little laugh

"Yes, I suppose so. All small country towns are , I believe," said she.

"And that good old soul, Mrs. Jones, she does invent the most absurd gossip about every body that imagination can conceive. Wilmot told me the other day that she had given her to understand that your father is a madman, sent down here by London doctors for change of air. I make it a point never to mind one word she says; although her news, I confess, does amuse me."

"Yes, it is, very foolish. Who are those Etherages?" said Margaret.

"Oh! They are village people oddities," said Miss Sheckleton. "From all I can gather, you have no idea what absurd people they are."

"He was walking with them. Was not he?" asked the young lady.

"Yes I think so," answered her cousin.

Then followed a long silence, and the elder lady at length said

"How fortunate we have been in our weather; haven't we? How beautiful the hills look this evening!" said the spinster; but her words did not sound as if she cared about the hills or the light. I believe the two ladies were each acting a part.

"Yes," said Margaret; "so they do."

The girl felt as if she had walked fifty miles instead of two quite worn out her limbs aching with a sense of fatigue; it was a trouble to hold her head up. She would have liked to sit down on the old stone bench they were passing now, and to die there like a worn out prisoner on a march.