The Ordeal of Richard Feverel

rton. The baronet sat construing their account of the flight of the lads when they were hailed, and resolved it into an act of rebellion on the part of his son.

ompelled to take his father's place in support of the toast, was tame after such magniloquence. But the reply, the thanks which young Richard should have delivered in person were not forthcoming. Adrian's oratory had given but a momentary life to napkin and chair. The company of ho

urate, as that most enamoured automaton went throug

hardly assent," the curate an

re. She will not dance on her cousin's birthday with an

e curate sighed, and wherever she wandered in discourse, dre

ended, and the rooms were dark, dark as the prognostics multitudinously hinted by the disappointed and chilled guests concerning the probable future of the hope of Raynham. Little Clare kissed her mama, curtsied to the lingering curate, and went to bed like a very good girl. Immediately the maid had departed, little Clare deliberately exchanged night, attire for that of day. She was noted as an obedient child. Her light was allowed to burn in her room for half-an-hour, to counteract her fears of the dark. She took the light, and stole on tiptoe to Richard's room. No Richard was there. She peeped in further and further. A trifling agitation of the curtains shot her back

old Benson the butler tolled

said the

y," the butler hesitated, wi

him

It was an unprecedented thing. Sir Austin's brows were portending an arch, but Adr

ass; his cheeks were flushed and his eyes brilliant. Ripton looked very much like a rogue on the tremble of detection, but his honest hunger and the partridge-pie shiel

?" he began his quiet banter, and provo

ed them to the proprietors. You're fond of game, parson! Ripton is a dead shot in what Cousin Austin calls the Kingdom of 'would-have-done' and 'might-have-been.' Up went the birds, and cries Rip, 'I've forgotten to load!' Oh, ho!-Rip! some more claret.

Prince of Denmark. The day without yo

I trust what he

his smile that cuts

ve seen the world. I'm the monkey that has seen the world, and I'm going to tell you all about it. First, there's a gentleman who takes a rifle for a fowling-piece. Next, there's a farmer who warns everybody, gentl

alth, Ricky," said

an no harm, Adrian. I'm onl

are that Zoroaster is not dead. You have been listening to

chard. "I say, Rippy! we'll drink the

t have disgraced Guido Fawkes, was darted bac

e his lungs

bout Blaizes, Rippy? Did

craggy morsel of life today, and already he talks like an old stager, and has, if I mistake not, been acting too. My respected chief," he apostrophized Sir Austin, "combustibles are only the mo

efore the supper was finished, and his more ge

ou let a churlish old brute of a farmer st

rn the compliment, my

he shall suffer for it." The boy looke

l box him," said Richard

old Blaize has bee

le!" The boy nod

n Ripton's face, he says 'n

eat to-da

fair. I'd beat them on one leg. There's only Wat

hen we'll have some more win

heavy Benson, to say supplies are cut off. One bottl

d by Adrian subsequently. He lik

was in disgrace. He led to it repeatedly, and it was constantly evaded by Algernon and Adrian. At last, when the boy declared a desire to wish his father good-night, Adrian had

sual influx of Feverels that day. Austin Wentworth was staying at Poer Hall, and had only come over for an hour. At midnight the house breathed sleep. Sir Austin put on his cloak and cap, and took the lamp to make his rounds. He apprehended nothing special, but with a mind never at rest he constituted himself the sentinel of Raynham. He passed the chamber where th

s that has not one weak gate? where the man who is sound at each particular angle? Ay, meditates the recumbent cynic, more or less mad is not every mother's son? Favourable circumsta

d not allow the sinner to wash his sins. Sir Austin had heard of the tales circulated by his domestics underground. He cherished his own belief, but discouraged theirs, and it was treason at Raynham to be caught traducing the left wing. As the baronet advanced, the fact of a light burning was clear to him. A slight descent brought him into the passage, and he beheld a poor human candle standing outside his son's chamber. At the same moment a door closed hastily. He entered Richard's room. The boy was absent. The bed was unpressed: no clothes about: nothing to show

e was turning back when he fancied he heard the sibilation of a whispering in the room. Sir Austin cloaked the lamp and trod silently toward the window. The heads of his son Richard and the boy Thompson were seen crouched against the glass, holding excited converse together. Sir Austin listened, but he listened to a language of which he possessed

valley lay black night

aret; and then, after a luxurious pause-"I think tha

h the baronet waited anxiously for his voice, hard

ll go; and I'l

haps he hasn't found the place where the box was stuck in. I think he funks it. I almost wish you hadn't done it, upo

this abrupt interrog

id Richard, all his facultie

persisted, "suppos

, I must p

her a clue to the dialogue. His son was engaged in a plot, and was, mo

ellow's name?"

answered, "T

out to your cousin and uncle at supper.-How capital claret is

itude to his late refection, and the slightest

t doesn't matter. Rady's sa

claret before," Ripton was off again. "Won't I now, though! claret's my wine. You kno

ness-thread of his friend's r

hing to do with

s clear. Besides," added Ripton, "do you think I should leave you to bear

ed between them. The boy had embarked, and was on the waters of life in his own vessel. It was as vain to call him back as to attempt to erase what Time has written with the Judgment Blood! This child, for whom he had prayed nightly in suc

e the poor gentleman-a thought that he was

ake them confess, and absolve themselves; but it seemed to him better

well, in saying that Sir Austin w

las! love, divine as it is, can do no more than lighten the house it inhabits-must take its shape, sometime

cided to cont

and impatient. By-and-by one insisted that he had seen a twinkle. The direction he gave was out of their anticipat

heat. "Now you may say old Blaize'll soo

gh. He's dry. He'll burn.-I say," Ripton re-assumed the s

y do? We mus

cent, though. I like to look innocent. I can't when I know people

e indeed gradually stand

hard. Ripton, somehow not liking to

st of it. Here, I'll throw op

ed half their bodies out of it; Ripton appearing to devou

amid the darting snakes of fire, and a red malign light was on the neighbouring leafage. No figures could be see

ement, "if I had my telescope! We must h

d so, a cry was heard in the passage. He hurried out, closed the c