The Pit Town Coronet, Volume III (of 3)

serves on the day before. General Pepper, Lord Spunyarn, Colonel Spurbox, the host and the two young men sat down to breakfast, and Georgie Haggard presided at the meal, looking to Spunya

rse accompanied by her husband. As some men never travel without a h

an having a purpose in life, and the men with a purpose, you know, are after all the only men worth knowing." Here she gave a benignant and comprehensive glan

rpose. I went to the East End first, you know, merely from curiosity and because the people were excessively amusing,

alth and blush to find

is landlord. I was instrumental in obtaining for Lazarus certain rights which had been long in abeyance in the East End; either my client didn't know his rights, or he found them difficult to enforce; the landlords would screw the uttermost farthing out of the poor wretches in the shape of rent, and if they didn't pay they were sold up. The quid pro quo th

hat I could walk hand in hand with you through

become one of the wise men of the East,

, but in vain. I don't believe he has any enthusiasm," and here the voice of the Reverend John Dodd was heard in an unctuous whispe

hly-killed partridge than in a salmi. I say this advisedly, and after many years' experience. I

anyhow, Dodd," said Spunyarn with a smil

"forgive his little weakness; he will hanker

ail, probably roast quail, though that is a succulent dish

e, John," cr

t have been necessarily one of the earliest, if not the very earliest of all? Some people are born without an ear for music; I am one of those unfortunates myself, but to make up for it I have been blessed by heaven with an appreciat

parish, Mr. Dodd?" said Georgie. "Ar

just now the Church

the vicar's wife impetuously. "Our curates' wives are admir

nly good-looking gi

thing that I should have expected,

ied my curates, my dear,

s to a life of self-denial. And in this present time any lady who marries a clergyman, Mr. Dodd, vows herself to a life of self-denial and penance, and certainly enters the Church. I did," sh

, my dear-

ove him; she forgave the flippancy of th

Association, who play cricket in summer and football in winter. Then again we use collecting bags, while at Gilgal they still stick to the plates. Of course the collections have dropped off to a mere nothing, but the congregations have increased wonderfully. Certainly the plates produced a healthy rivalry, but the bags, I take it, are less of a tax

ot see it, for none are so proverbially blind as those who won't see, I look upon it as principally du

women, and their pockets consequently bursting, literally bursting, with half-crowns; I may add

h to be grate

as he finished his coffee. And then the party b

o it was. By some strange fatality or other your poacher either becomes a confirmed reprobate or blossoms into the very best kind of gamekeeper. Perhaps it's on the principle of set a thief to catch a thief that those estates are best prese

t impossible to find anything up to his weight. But he sternly drew the line at carrying a gun. Though the vicar denied himself this ple

the former's girlhood, Mrs. Haggard remarked to her companion that it was strange that they had not heard a shot for at least half an

Spunyarn? Is anything th

dreadful ha

ppened to George?" cried the mother, and the

the old lord en

d friend, "but I have hurried here as the bearer of

cried old Lord Pit Town, with the irrit

rd," he continued. "My old friend is ba

fainted in the arms

rs. Dodd and the women-servants who, unsummoned, had appeare

ly exploded and lodged a charge of shot in his chest. It was not from carelessness; but Haggard's foot had caught in a rabbit burrow, and as he fe

se to her feet, and taking the old earl's arm, she said simply but in a broken voice, "Let u

rn interrogatively, but a shake o

our keepers bore a hurdle, upon which lay Lord Pit Town's wounded heir. His face was pale, the lips bloodless, while cold drops stood upon his brow. The four men halted, uncertain wh

t here," and his pale fingers, whose nails had become livid, vainly fumbled at his collar. The faithful wife tenderly loosened the

he was dying. For several seconds Haggard whispered a hurried communication to his friend, while the bystanders, including the old l

said at last, "y

nd, Lord Spunyarn. And then Haggard motioned the old ear

gard lay. There was a dead silence in the great entrance hall, only broken by a loud succession of regular ticks, caused

s hand, which was affectionately grasped by the trembling fingers of the o

eginald. Assistance will be here shortly

e, Lord Pit Town. T

ssed over his pale face. "Georgie," he gasped out with

to forgive, but," she added through her s

ong. Kiss me, dear," he added with an effor

y course of nature; but as the aged earl turned away from the body of the man who had been his heir, his eye fell upon the two

osition. He drew himself up proudly, and deferentially led the old man away. But young Geor

falling blood had ceased now, and as if in answer to the young fellow's question, the dead man's jaw fell, disclosi

had continued to idolize the man and to remain unaware of his many deficiencies and failings, from the very moment he had first courted her in the rose garden at King's Warren until his death. He had been a fairly good husband to her, as

uld be but one interpretation to that, surely that he looked upon the boy as his eldest son, his heir, his first-born child. Why had her husband asked her to forgive him on his death-bed? Forgive him what? He had not bade good-bye to either of the young fellows, but then death had probably come up

eing really his only child, that at the boy's death without heirs the Pit Town title and the Pit Town wealth should descend to some remote branch of the family, and so perhaps he may of a purpose have placed the second

Lucy Warrender

worthy thought; and she strove to banish the phantom she had unwittingly conjured up, by letting her mi

two young men and Lord Spunyarn were the mourners. The shooting party had been broken up on the day of the accident. A short obituary notice had appeared in the Times, and the penny papers had ma

en proceeded to give a further legacy to his wife of half his property for her lifetime, and he made his "dear son, George Haggard," his residua

will was a very natural one for a

aited for twenty-four hours after the funeral, and then

d lord to young Mrs. Haggard's use, "but I am compelled to worry you with a long and painful conversation on family matters. My dear lady," he continued, "

dured for the last few days. Tell me the worst at once. I have nothing to forgive my husband. When on his death-bed he asked for my forgiveness, I feared that there

u that at one time I had my suspicions, but the thing seemed in itself so monstrous, so improbable, that I put it from me as an unworthy thought. When your late husband whispered those last words to me as he was dying, he informed me that I was his