CHAPTER XIX.

L'ENVOI.

WEEKS elapsed before Marmaduke Heath recovered from the shock of this discovery; but when he once began to do so, he grew up to be quite another man in body and mind.

It was only by this change-when we saw him so strong and cheerful—that we got to estimate how powerful had been that sombre influence which had so long overshadowed him, and what great exertion it must have cost him to let it appear to us so little. The uncertainty of his tenure in Fairburn Hall had secretly affected him very deeply, in spite of the wand of

the good fairy. He went to France for a little trip with his father-in-law, for a thorough change, and there it was he had that duel thrust upon him of which we have incidentally made mention; let us not judge him harshly in that matter, for men of his day were as wanting in moral courage as they were ignorant of physical fear. Yet what a risk-ay, and what a selfish risk-he ran therein, let alone the unchristian wickedness of that wicked adventure!

He never dared to reveal to Lucy what he had done; but he confessed it to Harvey Gerard, who rebuked him. roundly for the crime; observing, however, to myself, not without some pride, that he had always averred Marmaduke was a fine fellow, and entertained a proper contempt for all bullies and scoundrels. The young baronet acted weakly, doubtless; but the

duellist's blood was surely upon his own head. At all events, that was the view Marmaduke himself took of the matter, and there was now not a happier man in all Midshire than he; discharging the duties of his rank and position in a manner that won the applause of all his neighbours, sooner or later-although Mr. Flinthert's applause came very late indeed.

Year after year, I was a frequent guest at Fairburn Hall, and never set foot in a house with inmates more blessed in one another. Year by year, Lucy seemed to grow in goodness, and even, as it seemed to me, in beauty. I saw her last with silver hair crowning her still unwrinkled brow; and since that day no fairer sight has met these failing eyes.

Death has long released the noble soul of Harvey Gerard, but his name is borne

VOL. II.

U

not unworthily by a grandson as fearless as himself, and after it the hard-won letters V.C. In a sunny spot in the little church-yard at Fairburn lies my dear old tutor-far from the iron rails which enclose the bones of the long-missing baronet.

Sir Peter

But why should I further speak of death, and make parade of loss and change ?-an old man like me should, having told his tale, be silent, and not court stranger ears to "gain the praise that comes to constancy."

The last time I saw Fairburn, it lay in sunshine. There was no trace of that bad man whose deeds once overshadowed it, save that in one great space, close to the public footway through the park, there was a vast bare ring, where grass, it was said, had never grown, although the Wolsey Oak, which had once stood above it, had

been cut down for forty years and

more.

66

The place was cursed, so village gossip told, by Lost Sir Massingberd. This may be true or not. My tale itself may lie open to suspicion of untruth, and this and that, which have been therein narrated, have already been pronounced improbable," "impossible," "absurd." To critics of this sort, I have only to express my regret that the mission of the author has in my case been reversed, and facts have fallen into such clumsy hands as to seem fiction.

Let me add one extract from the works of an author popular in my young days, but now much oftener quoted than perused. He is describing a picture sale attended by the dilettanti. A carking connoisseur is abusing some effort of an unhappy artist to portray nature. "This fellow," cries