An Eye for an Eye | Page 5

a cavalry regiment,--a fine handsome youth of five and
twenty, with the Neville eyes and Neville finely cut features. Kindly
letters passed between the widowed mother and the present Lady
Scroope; and it was decided at last, at his own request, that he should
remain one year longer in the army, and then be installed as the eldest
son at Scroope Manor. Again the lawyer was told to do what was
proper in regard to money.

A few words more must be said of Lady Scroope, and then the preface
to our story will be over. She too was an Earl's daughter, and had been
much loved by our Earl's first wife. Lady Scroope had been the elder by
ten years; but yet they had been dear friends, and Lady Mary Wycombe
had passed many months of her early life amidst the gloom of the great
rooms at Scroope Manor. She had thus known the Earl well before she
consented to marry him. She had never possessed beauty,--and hardly
grace. She was strong featured, tall, with pride clearly written in her
face. A reader of faces would have declared at once that she was proud
of the blood which ran in her veins. She was very proud of her blood,
and did in truth believe that noble birth was a greater gift than any
wealth. She was thoroughly able to look down upon a parvenu
millionaire,--to look down upon such a one and not to pretend to
despise him. When the Earl's letter came to her asking her to share his
gloom, she was as poor as Charity,--dependent on a poor brother who
hated the burden of such claim. But she would have wedded no
commoner, let his wealth and age have been as they might. She knew
Lord Scroope's age, and she knew the gloom of Scroope Manor;--and
she became his wife. To her of course was told the story of the heir's
marriage, and she knew that she could expect no light, no joy in the old
house from the scions of the rising family. But now all this was
changed, and it might be that she could take the new heir to her heart.






CHAPTER II.
FRED NEVILLE.

When Fred Neville first came to the Manor, the old Earl trembled when
called upon to receive him. Of the lad he had heard almost nothing,--of
his appearance literally nothing. It might be that his heir would be
meanly visaged, a youth of whom he would have cause to be ashamed,
one from whose countenance no sign of high blood would shine out; or,
almost worse, he also might have that look, half of vanity, and half of
vice, of which the father had gradually become aware in his own son,
and which in him had degraded the Neville beauty. But Fred, to look at,
was a gallant fellow,--such a youth as women love to see about a
house,--well-made, active, quick, self-asserting, fair-haired, blue-eyed,
short-lipped, with small whiskers, thinking but little of his own
personal advantages, but thinking much of his own way. As far as the
appearance of the young man went the Earl could not but be satisfied.
And to him, at any rate in this, the beginning of their connexion, Fred
Neville was modest and submissive. "You are welcome to Scroope,"
said the old man, receiving him with stately urbanity in the middle of
the hall. "I am so much obliged to you, uncle," he said. "You are come
to me as a son, my boy,--as a son. It will be your own fault if you are
not a son to us in everything." Then in lieu of further words there shone
a tear in each of the young man's eyes, much more eloquent to the Earl
than could have been any words. He put his arm over his nephew's
shoulders, and in this guise walked with him into the room in which
Lady Scroope was awaiting them. "Mary," he said to his wife, "here is
our heir. Let him be a son to us." Then Lady Scroope took the young
man in her arms and kissed him. Thus auspiciously was commenced
this new connexion.
The arrival was in September, and the game-keeper, with the under
gamekeeper, had for the last month been told to be on his mettle.
Young Mr. Neville was no doubt a sportsman. And the old groom had
been warned that hunters might be wanted in the stables next winter.
Mrs. Bunce was made to understand that liberties would probably be
taken with the house, such as had not yet been perpetrated in her
time;--for the late heir had never made the Manor his home from the
time of his leaving school. It was felt by all that