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Death came to him very gently one day at sunset, just after he had smiled to Phineas, when his old friend, looking towards Lord Luxmore and his future bride, who were with a group of the young people, had said, "I think sometimes, John, that William and Maud will be the happiest of all the children."
"Do you know, Phineas, I might last week have sold your houses for double price? They are valuable, this election year, since your five tenants are the only voters in Kingswell who are not likewise tenants of Lord Luxmore. Don't you see how the matter stands?"
Lord Ravenel had returned to reside again at Luxmore Hall, and his visits to Beechwood became as regular as they had been in the old days at the Halifax home, when Muriel was alive. It was the society of Maud in which his lordship now delighted, though he never forgot the serene and happy days he had spent with her blind sister.
Omer, was it not, William?" "The Catholic college of St. Omer," repeated the boy. "Tut what matters!" said the father, sharply. "Mr. Halifax, do not imagine we are a Catholic family still. I hope the next Earl of Luxmore will be able to take the oaths and his seat, whether or no we get Emancipation. By the by, you uphold the Bill?"
"I think, Lord Ravenel," and the mother spoke with her "dignified" air "you know enough of my husband's character and opinions to be assured how lightly he would hold such a disparity if you allude to that supposed to exist between the son of the Earl of Luxmore and the daughter of John Halifax." The young nobleman coloured, as if with ingenuous shame at what he had been implying.
All this while, Lord Luxmore sat in lazy dignity in the communion-chair, apparently satisfied that as things always had been so they would continue to be; that despite the unheard-of absurdity of a contested election, his pocket-borough was quite secure.
We will say no more about it." John crossed over to his wife with a cheerful air. She sat looking grave and sad. Lord Luxmore had the reputation of being a keen-witted, diplomatic personage; undoubtedly he had, or could assume, that winning charm of manner which had descended in perfection to his daughter. Both qualities it pleased him to exercise now.
'You may blow up the house with gunpowder, for what I care! cried Mrs. Luxmore. 'It is in vain to reason. Such is the force of my character that, when I have one idea clearly in my head, I do not care two straws for any side consideration. It amuses me to do it, and let that suffice.
Vermilye is not saved from arrest by being placed in Parliament, he will be outlawed and driven safe out of the country. You see?" Ay, I did, only too well. Though I foresaw that whatever John was about to do, it must necessarily be something that would run directly counter to Lord Luxmore and he had only just signed the lease of Enderley Mills.
'Dear Mrs. Luxmore, said he, 'you certainly misconstrue my remark. As a man of somewhat fiery humour, my conscience repeatedly pricked me when I heard what you had suffered at the hands of persons similarly constituted. 'Oh, very well indeed, replied the old lady; 'and a very proper spirit. I regret that I have met with it so rarely.
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