Marion Fay Part 31

"If you will take my advice," said Lord Hampstead, in that tone of voice which always produces in the mind of the listener a determination that the special advice offered shall not be taken, "you will comply with my father's wishes while it suits you to live in his house. If you cannot do that, it would become you, I think, to leave it." In every word of this there was a rebuke; and Mr.

Greenwood, who did not like being rebuked, remembered it.

"Of course I am n.o.body in this house now," said the Marchioness in her last interview with her stepson. It is of no use to argue with an angry woman, and in answer to this Hampstead made some gentle murmur which was intended neither to a.s.sent or to dispute the proposition made to him. "Because I ventured to disapprove of Mr. Roden as a husband for your sister I have been shut up here, and not allowed to speak to any one."

"f.a.n.n.y has left the house, so that she may no longer cause you annoyance by her presence."

"She has left the house in order that she may be near the abominable lover with whom you have furnished her."

"This is not true," said Hampstead, who was moved beyond his control by the double falseness of the accusation.

"Of course you can be insolent to me, and tell me that I speak falsehoods. It is part of your new creed that you should be neither respectful to a parent, nor civil to a lady."

"I beg your pardon, Lady Kingsbury,"--he had never called her Lady Kingsbury before,--"if I have been disrespectful or uncivil, but your statements were very hard to bear. f.a.n.n.y's engagement with Mr. Roden has not even received my sanction. Much less was it arranged or encouraged by me. She has not gone to Hendon Hall to be near Mr.

Roden, with whom she had undertaken to hold no communication as long as she remains there with me. Both for my own sake and for hers I am bound to repudiate the accusation." Then he went without further adieu, leaving with her a conviction that she had been treated with the greatest contumely by her husband's rebellious heir.

Nothing could be sadder than the last words which the Marquis spoke to his son. "I don't suppose, Hampstead, that we shall ever meet again in this world."

"Oh, father!"

"I don't think Mr. Spicer knows how bad I am."

"Will you have Sir James down from London?"

"No Sir James can do me any good, I fear. It is ill ministering to a mind diseased."

"Why, sir, should you have a mind diseased? With few men can things be said to be more prosperous than with you. Surely this affair of f.a.n.n.y's is not of such a nature as to make you feel that all things are bitter round you."

"It is not that."

"What then? I hope I have not been a cause of grief to you?"

"No, my boy;--no. It irks me sometimes to think that I should have trained you to ideas which you have taken up too violently. But it is not that."

"My mother--?"

"She has set her heart against me,--against you and f.a.n.n.y. I feel that a division has been made between my two families. Why should my daughter be expelled from my own house? Why should I not be able to have you here, except as an enemy in the camp? Why am I to have that man take up arms against me, whom I have fed in idleness all his life?"

"I would not let him trouble my thoughts."

"When you are old and weak you will find it hard to banish thoughts that trouble you. As to going, where am I to go to?"

"Come to Hendon."

"And leave her here with him, so that all the world shall say that I am running away from my own wife? Hendon is your house now, and this is mine;--and here I must stay till my time has come."

This was very sad, not as indicating the state of his father's health, as to which he was more disposed to take the doctor's opinion than that of the patient, but as showing the infirmity of his father's mind. He had been aware of a certain weakness in his father's character,--a desire not so much for ruling as for seeming to rule all that were around him. The Marquis had wished to be thought a despot even when he had delighted in submitting himself to the stronger mind of his first wife. Now he felt the chains that were imposed upon him, so that they galled him when he could not throw them off. All this was very sad to Hampstead; but it did not make him think that his father's health had in truth been seriously affected.

END OF VOL. I.

MARION FAY.

A Novel.

by

ANTHONY TROLLOPE,

Author of "Framley Parsonage," "Orley Farm," "The Way We Live Now," etc., etc.

In Three Volumes.

VOL. II.

London: Chapman & Hall, Limited, 11, Henrietta St.

1882 [All Rights reserved.]

Bungay: Clay and Taylor, Printers.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.

I. THE IRREPRESSIBLE CROCKER.

II. MRS. RODEN'S ELOQUENCE.

III. MARION'S VIEWS ABOUT MARRIAGE.

IV. LORD HAMPSTEAD IS IMPATIENT.

V. THE QUAKER'S ELOQUENCE.

VI. MARION'S OBSTINACY.

VII. MRS. DEMIJOHN'S PARTY.

VIII. NEW YEAR'S DAY.

IX. MISS DEMIJOHN'S INGENUITY.

X. KING'S COURT, OLD BROAD STREET.

XI. MR. GREENWOOD BECOMES AMBITIOUS.

XII. LIKE THE POOR CAT I' THE ADAGE.

XIII. LADY FRANCES SEES HER LOVER.

XIV. MR. GREENWOOD'S FEELINGS.