made to Lady
Frances was that she should go down with him and remain there for a
week or two till she should find the place too dull. He had intended
to fix an almost immediate day; but now he was debarred from this by
his determination to see Marion yet once again before he took himself
altogether beyond the reach of Holloway. The plan, therefore, though
it was fixed as far as his own intention went and the assent of
Lady Frances, was left undefined as to time. The more he thought of
Holloway, and the difficulties of approaching Paradise Row, the more
convinced he became that his only mode of approaching Marion must be
through Mrs. Roden. He had taken two or three days to consider what
would be the most appropriate manner of going through this operation,
when on a sudden he was arrested by a letter from his father, begging
his presence down at Trafford. The Marquis was ill, and was anxious
to see his son. The letter in which the request was made was sad and
plaintive throughout. He was hardly able to write, Lord Kingsbury
said, because he was so unwell; but he had no one to write for him.
Mr. Greenwood had made himself so disagreeable that he could no
longer employ him for such purposes. "Your stepmother is causing me
much vexation, which I do not think that I deserve from her." He then
added that it would be necessary for him to have his lawyer down at
Trafford, but that he wished to see Hampstead first in order that
they might settle as to certain arrangements which were required in
regard to the disposition of the property. There were some things
which Hampstead could not fail to perceive from this letter. He was
sure that his father was alarmed as to his own condition, or he
would not have thought of sending for the lawyer to Trafford. He had
hitherto always been glad to seize an opportunity of running up to
London when any matter of business had seemed to justify the journey.
Then it occurred to his son that his father had rarely or ever spoken
or written to him of his "stepmother." In certain moods the Marquis
had been wont to call his wife either the Marchioness or Lady
Kingsbury. When in good humour he had generally spoken of her to his
son as "your mother." The injurious though strictly legal name now
given to her was a certain index of abiding wrath. But things must
have been very bad with the Marquis at Trafford when he had utterly
discarded the services of Mr. Greenwood,--services to which he had
been used