this young lord would not have been able to scorn him and ill-treat
him as he had done. There were no phantoms now. Now he thought that
he could have carried his share of the corpse into the house without
flinching.

CHAPTER XV.

"THAT WOULD BE DISAGREEABLE."

Things at Trafford on that day and on the next were very
uncomfortable. No house could possibly be more so. There were four
persons who, in the natural course of things, would have lived
together, not one of whom would sit down to table with any other.
The condition of the Marquis, of course, made it impossible that he
should do so. He was confined to his room, in which he would not
admit Mr. Greenwood to come near him, and where his wife's short
visits did not seem to give him much satisfaction. Even with his
son he was hardly at his ease, seeming to prefer the society of the
nurse, with occasional visits from the doctor and Mr. Roberts. The
Marchioness confined herself to her own room, in which it was her
intention to prevent the inroads of Mr. Greenwood as far as it might
be possible. That she should be able to exclude him altogether was
more than she could hope, but much, she thought, could be done by
the dint of headaches, and by a resolution never to take her food
down-stairs. Lord Hampstead had declared his purpose to Harris, as
well as to his father, never again to sit down to table with Mr.
Greenwood. "Where does he dine?" he asked the butler. "Generally
in the family dining-room, my lord," said Harris. "Then give me my
dinner in the breakfast parlour." "Yes, my lord," said the butler,
who at once resolved to regard Mr. Greenwood as an enemy of the
family. In this manner Mr. Greenwood gave no trouble, as he had his
meat sent to him in his own sitting-room. But all this made the house
very uncomfortable.

In the afternoon Mr. Roberts came over from Shrewsbury, and saw Lord
Hampstead. "I knew he would make himself disagreeable, my lord," said
Mr. Roberts.

"How did you know it?"

"Things creep out. He had made himself disagreeable to his lordship
for some months past; and then we heard that he was talking of
Appleslocombe as though he were certain to be sent there."

"My father never thought of it."

"I didn't think he did. Mr. Greenwood is the idlest human being that
ever lived, and how could he have performed the duties of a parish?"

"He asked my father once, and my father flatly refused him."

"Perhaps her ladyship--," suggested