less, has borne but a distasteful
appearance to all our eyes."

"I don't wonder at that, and am only surprised that, after such a thing
had happened any of you liked to inhabit the place."

"We did not like, but our poverty forced us. You have no notion of the
difficulties through which we have struggled; and the fact that we had a
home rent free was one of so much importance to us, that had it been
surrounded by a thousand more disagreeables than it was, we must have
put up with it; but now that we owe so much to the generosity of your
uncle, I suppose we can afford to talk of what we like and of what we
don't like."

"You can, Henry, and it shall not be my fault if you do not always
afford to do so; and now, as the time is drawing on, I think I will
proceed at once to Varney, for it is better to be soon than late, and
get from him the remainder of his story."

* * * * *

There were active influences at work, to prevent Sir Francis Varney from
so quickly as he had arranged to do, carrying out his intention of
making Charles Holland acquainted with the history of the eventful
period of his life, which had been associated with Marmaduke
Bannerworth.

One would have scarcely thought it possible that anything now would have
prevented Varney from concluding his strange narrative; but that he was
prevented, will appear.

The boy who had been promised such liberal payment by the Hungarian
nobleman, for betraying the place of Varney's concealment, we have
already stated, felt bitterly the disappointment of not being met,
according to promise, at the corner of the lane, by that individual.

It not only deprived him of the half-crowns, which already in
imagination he had laid out, but it was a great blow to his own
importance, for after his discovery of the residence of the vampyre, he
looked upon himself as quite a public character, and expected great
applause for his cleverness.

But when the Hungarian nobleman came not, all these dreams began to
vanish into thin air, and, like the unsubstantial fabric of a vision, to
leave no trace behind them.

He got dreadfully aggravated, and his first thought was to go to Varney,
and see what he could get from him, by betraying the fact that some one
was actively in search of him.

That seemed, however, a doubtful good, and perhaps there was some
personal dread of the vampyre mixed up with the rejection of this
proposition. But reject it he di