g the Marquis in ignorance of his doing so.
It would be out of his power not to follow any lead in conversation
which the Marchioness might give him. But it might be possible to
make the Marchioness understand that her husband must be kept in the
dark as to any confidence between them. For, in truth, many secrets
were now discussed between them, as to which it was impossible that
her ladyship should be got to hold her tongue. It had come to be
received as a family doctrine between them that Lord Hampstead's
removal to a better world was a thing devoutly to be wished. It is
astonishing how quickly, though how gradually, ideas of such a nature
will be developed when entertainment has once been given to them. The
Devil makes himself at home with great rapidity when the hall door
has been opened to him. A month or two back, before her ladyship went
to Koenigsgraaf, she certainly would not have ventured to express
a direct wish for the young man's death, however frequently her
thoughts might have travelled in that direction. And certainly in
those days, though they were yet not many weeks since, Mr. Greenwood
would have been much shocked had any such suggestion been made to
him as that which was now quite commonly entertained between them.
The pity of it, the pity of it, the pity of it! It was thus the
heart-broken mother put the matter, reconciling to herself her own
wishes by that which she thought to be a duty to her own children. It
was not that she and Mr. Greenwood had between them any scheme by
which Lord Hampstead might cease to be in the way. Murder certainly
had not come into their thoughts. But the pity of it; the pity of it!
As Lord Hampstead was in all respects unfit for that high position
which, if he lived, he would be called upon to fill, so was her
boy, her Lord Frederic, made to adorn it by all good gifts. He was
noble-looking, gracious, and aristocratic from the crown of his
little head to the soles of his little feet. No more glorious heir to
a title made happy the heart of any British mother,--if only he were
the heir. And why should it be denied to her, a noble scion of the
great House of Montressor, to be the mother of none but younger sons?
The more her mind dwelt upon it, the more completely did the iniquity
of her wishes fade out of sight, and her ambition appear to be
no more than the natural anxiety of a mother for her child. Mr.
Greenwood had no such excuses to offer to himself; but with him,
too