settle the executor's
business. Poor Markham! the Edmonstones thought he looked ten years
older when he arrived, and after his inquiry for Lady Morville, his
grunt almost amounted to a sob. The first thing he did was to give Mrs.
Edmonstone a note, and a little box sent from Mrs. Ashford. The note was
to say that Mrs. Ashford had intended for her wedding present, a little
cross made out of part of the wood of the wreck, which she now thought
it beat to send to Mrs. Edmonstone, that she might judge whether Lady
Morville would like to see it.

Mrs. Edmonstone's judgment was to carry it at once to Amabel, and
she was right, for the pleasure she took in it was indescribable. She
fondled it, set it up by her on her little table, made Charlotte put
it in different places that she might see what point of view suited it
best, had it given back to her, held it in her hands caressingly,
and said she must write at once to Mrs. Ashford to thank her for
understanding her so well. There was scarcely one of the mourners to be
pitied more than Markham, for the love he had set on Sir Guy had
been intense, compounded of feudal affection, devoted admiration, and
paternal care--and that he, the very flower of the whole race, should
thus have been cut down in the full blossom of his youth and hopes, was
almost more than the old man could bear or understand. It was a great
sorrow, too, that he should be buried so far away from his forefathers;
and the hearing it was by his own desire, did not satisfy him, he sighed
over it still, and seemed to derive a shade of comfort only when he was
told there was to be a tablet in Redclyffe church to the memory of Guy,
sixth baronet.

In the evening Markham became very confidential with Charles; telling
him about the grievous mourning and lamentation at Redclyffe, when the
bells rung a knell instead of greeting the young master and his bride,
and how there was scarcely one in the parish that did not feel as if
they had lost a son or a brother. He also told more and more of Sir
Guy's excellence, and talked of fears of his own, especially last
Christmas; that the boy was too unlike other people, too good to live;
and lastly, he indulged in a little abuse of Captain Morville, which
did Charles's heart good, at the same time as it amused him to think how
Markham would recollect it, when he came to hear of Laura's engagement.

In the course of the next day, Markham had his conference with Lady
Morville in