me, that no train would take
him till three in the afternoon, and had therefore remained at the
office; but he could not remain now. His head was confused, and he could
hardly bring himself to think how this matter would affect himself. When
he attempted to explain his absence to an old serious clerk there, he
spoke of his own return to the office as certain. He should be back, he
supposed, in a week at the furthest. He was thinking thus of his
promises to Theodore Burton, and had not begun to realize the fact that
his whole destiny in life would be changed. He said something, with a
long face, on the terrible misfortune which had occurred, but gave no
hint that that misfortune would be important in its consequences to
himself. It was not till he had reached his lodging in Bloomsbury Square
that he remembered that his own father was now the baronet, and that he
was his father's heir. And then for a moment he thought about the
property. He believed that it was entailed, but even of that he was not
certain. But if it were unentailed, to whom could his cousin have left
it? He endeavored, however, to expel such thoughts from his mind, as
though there was something ungenerous in entertaining them. He tried to
think of the widow, but even in doing that he could not tell himself
that there was much ground for genuine sorrow. No wife had ever had less
joy from her husband's society than Lady Clavering had had from that of
Sir Hugh. There was no child to mourn the loss--no brother, no unmarried
sister. Sir Hugh had had friends--as friendship goes with such men; but
Harry could not but doubt whether among them all there would be one who
would feel anything like true grief for his loss. And it was the same
with Archie. Who in the world would miss Archie Clavering? What man or
woman would find the world to be less bright because Archie Clavering
was sleeping beneath the waves? Some score of men at his club would talk
of poor Clavvy for a few days--would do so without any pretence at the
tenderness of sorrow; and then even of Archie's memory there would be an
end. Thinking of all this as he was carried down to Clavering, Harry
could not but acknowledge that the loss to the world had not been great;
but, even while telling himself this, he would not allow himself to take
comfort in the prospect of his heirship. Once, perhaps, he did speculate
how Florence should bear her honors as Lady Clavering, but this idea he
swept away from his th