in a family
quarrel. Then the Marquis, though weak in health,--almost to his
death,--had suddenly become strong in purpose, and had turned him
abruptly out of the house with a miserable stipend hardly fit for
more than a butler! Could it be that he should put up with such
usage, and allow the Marquis to escape unscathed out of his hand?

In this condition of mind, he had determined that he owed it to
himself to do or say something that should frighten his lordship into
a more generous final arrangement. There had been, he said to himself
again and again, such a confidence with a lady of so high a rank,
that the owner of it ought not to be allowed to languish upon two or
even upon three hundred a-year. If the whole thing could really be
explained to the Marquis, the Marquis would probably see it himself.
And to all this was to be added the fact that no harm had been done.
The Marchioness owed him very much for having wished to assist her in
getting rid of an heir that was disagreeable to her. The Marquis owed
him more for not having done it. And they both owed him very much
in that he had never said a word of it all to anybody else. He had
thought that he might be clever enough to make the Marquis understand
something of this without actually explaining it. That some
mysterious promise had been made, and that, as the promise could not
be kept, some compensation should be awarded,--this was what he had
desired to bring home to the mind of the Marquis. He had betrayed no
confidence. He intended to betray none. He was very anxious that the
Marquis should be aware, that as he, Mr. Greenwood, was a gentleman,
all confidences would be safe in his hands; but then the Marquis
ought to do his part of the business, and not turn his confidential
Chaplain out of the house after a quarter of a century with a
beggarly annuity of two hundred a-year!

But the Marquis seemed to have acquired unusual strength of
character; and Mr. Greenwood found that words were very difficult
to be found. He had declared that there had been "a bitterness,"
and beyond that he could not go. It was impossible to hint that her
ladyship had wished to have Lord Hampstead--removed. The horrid
thoughts of a few days had become so vague to himself that he doubted
whether there had been any real intention as to the young lord's
removal even in his own mind. There was nothing more that he could
say than this,--that during the period of this close intimacy her
la