The Tenants of Malory, Volume 3   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. III.

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. A LARK 1

II. A NEW VOICE 13

III. CLEVE COMES 25

IV. LOVE'S REMORSE 36

V. MRS. MERVYN'S DREAM 49

VI. TOM HAS A "TALK" WITH THE ADMIRAL 63

VII. ARCADIAN RED BRICK, LILAC, AND LABURNUM 74

VIII. THE TRIUMVIRATE 84

IX. IN VERNEY HOUSE 102

X. A THUNDER STORM 113

XI. THE PALE HORSE 120

XII. IN WHICH HIS FRIENDS VISIT THE SICK 133

XIII. MR. DINGWELL THINKS OF AN EXCURSION 152

XIV. A SURPRISE 164

XV. CLAY RECTORY BY MOONLIGHT 174

XVI. AN ALARM 187

XVII. A NEW LIGHT 200

XVIII. MR. DINGWELL AND MRS. MERVYN CONVERSE 210

XIX. THE GREEK MERCHANT SEES LORD VERNEY 221

XX. A BREAK DOWN 238

XXI. MR. LARKIN'S TWO MOVES 251

XXII. CONCLUSION 264

THE

TENANTS OF MALORY.

CHAPTER I.

A LARK.

"THERE'S some 'Old Tom,' isn't there? Get it, and glasses and cold water, here ," said Cleve to his servant, who, patient, polite, sleepy, awaited his master. "You used to like it and here are cigars;" and he shook out a shower upon his drawing room table cover. "And where did you want to go at this time of night?"

"To Wright's, to see the end of the great game of billiards Seller and Culverin, you know; I've two pounds on it."

"I don't care if I go with you, just now. What's this? When the devil did this come?" Cleve had picked up and at one pale glance read a little note that lay on the table; and then he repeated coolly enough

"I say, when did this come?"

"Before one, sir, I think," said Shepperd.

"Get me my coat," and Shepperd disappeared.

"Pestered to death ," he said, moodily. "See, you have got the things here, and cigars. I shan't be five minutes away. If I'm longer, don't wait for me; but finish this first."

Cleve had turned up the collar of his outer coat, and buttoned it across his chin, and pulled a sort of travelling cap down on his brows, and away he went, looking very pale and anxious.

He did not come back in five minutes; nor in ten, twenty, or forty minutes. The "Old Tom" in the bottle had run low; Sedley looked at his watch; he could wait no longer.

When he got out upon the flagway, he felt the agreeable stimulus of the curious "Old Tom" sufficiently to render a little pause expedient for the purpose of calling to mind with clearness the geographical bearings of Wright's billiard rooms whither accordingly he sauntered eastward, along deserted and echoing streets, with here and there a policeman poking into an area, or loitering along his two mile an hour duty march, and now and then regaled by the unearthly music of love sick cats among the roofs.