Father Stafford

Father Stafford

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Father Stafford, by Anthony Hope
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Title: Father Stafford
Author: Anthony Hope
Release Date: January 22, 2005 [EBook #14755]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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STAFFORD ***

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FATHER STAFFORD
BY
ANTHONY HOPE
AUTHOR OF "A MAN OF MARK," "THE PRISONER OF ZENDA."

F. TENNYSON NEELY PUBLISHER CHICAGO NEW YORK 1895

CONTENTS.
I. Eugene Lane and his Guests
II. New Faces and Old Feuds
III. Father Stafford Changes his Habits, and Mr. Haddington his Views
IV. Sir Roderick Ayre Inspects Mr. Morewood's Masterpiece
V. How Three Gentlemen Acted for the Best
VI. Father Stafford Keeps Vigil
VII. An Early Train and a Morning's Amusement
VIII. Stafford in Retreat, and Sir Roderick in Action
IX. The Battle of Baden
X. Mr. Morewood is Moved to Indignation
XI. Waiting Lady Claudia's Pleasure
XII. Lady Claudia is Vexed with Mankind
XIII. A Lover's Fate and a Friend's Counsel
XIV. Some People are as Fortunate as they Deserve to Be
XV. An End and a Beginning

FATHER STAFFORD.

CHAPTER I.
Eugene Lane and his Guests.
The world considered Eugene Lane a very fortunate young man; and if
youth, health, social reputation, a seat in Parliament, a large income,
and finally the promised hand of an acknowledged beauty can make a
man happy, the world was right. It is true that Sir Roderick Ayre had
been heard to pity the poor chap on the ground that his father had
begun life in the workhouse; but everybody knew that Sir Roderick was
bound to exalt the claims of birth, inasmuch as he had to rely solely
upon them for a reputation, and discounted the value of his opinion
accordingly. After all, it was not as if the late Mr. Lane had ended life
in the undesirable shelter in question. On the contrary, his latter days
had been spent in the handsome mansion of Millstead Manor; and, as
he lay on his deathbed, listening to the Rector's gentle homily on the
vanity of riches, his eyes would wander to the window and survey a
wide tract of land that he called his own, and left, together with
immense sums of money, to his son, subject only to a jointure for his
wife. It is hard to blame the tired old man if he felt, even with the
homily ringing in his ears, that he had not played his part in the world
badly.
Millstead Manor was indeed the sort of place to raise a doubt as to the
utter vanity of riches. It was situated hard by the little village of
Millstead, that lies some forty miles or so northwest of London, in the
middle of rich country. The neighborhood afforded shooting, fishing,
and hunting, if not the best of their kind, yet good enough to satisfy
reasonable people. The park was large and well wooded; the house had
insisted on remaining picturesque in spite of Mr. Lane's improvements,
and by virtue of an indelible stamp of antiquity had carried its point. A
house that dates from Elizabeth is not to be entirely put to shame by
one or two unblushing French windows and other trifling barbarities of
that description, more especially when it is kept in countenance by a
little church of still greater age, nestling under its wing in a manner that
recalled the good old days when the lord of the manor was lord of the
souls and bodies of his tenants. Even old Mr. Lane had been mellowed

by the influence of his new home, and before his death had come to
play the part of Squire far more respectably than might be imagined.
Eugene sustained the rôle with the graceful indolence and careless
efficiency that marked most of his doings.
He stood one Saturday morning in the latter part of July on the steps
that led from the terrace to the lawn, holding a letter in his hand and
softly whistling. In appearance he was not, it must be admitted, an ideal
Squire, for he was but a trifle above middle height, rather slight, and
with the little stoop that tells of the man who is town-bred and by
nature more given to indoor than outdoor exercises; but he was a
good-looking fellow for all that, with a bright humorous face,--though
at this moment rather a bored one,--large eyes set well apart, and his
proper allowance of brown hair and white teeth. Altogether, it may