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Updated: June 16, 2025
"My lord," continued Lady Belgrade, who was now applying a vial of sal ammonia to her patient's nostrils: "my dear Lord Arondelle, rouse yourself for her sake! She has no father, brother, or male relative to take direction of affairs in this awful crisis of her life. You, her betrothed husband, should do it must do it! Rouse yourself at once. Look at this stupefied and gaping crowd of people!
Now, therefore, besides the train of household servants, there remained at the castle but three inmates Salome Levison, reduced by sorrow and illness to a state of infantile feebleness of mind and body; Lady Belgrade, nearly worn out with long watching, fatigue, and anxiety; and the young Marquis of Arondelle, whom we must henceforth designate as the Duke of Hereward, and whom even the stately dowager, who was "of the most straitest sect, a Pharisee" of conventional etiquette, nevertheless implored to remain a guest at the castle until after the recovery of the heiress, and the reading of the father's will.
"Aweel, then, first of a', I went to the castle by appointment to meet Laird Arondelle, as he was then ca'd. I walked about and waited fu' an hour before his lairdship cam' till me." "At what hour was that?" "I heard the castle clock aboon Auld Malcom's Tower strike eleven when I cam' under the balcony o' the bride's chamber, whilk is nigh it.
His duchess was a prolific mother, and brought him other sons and daughters as the years went by; but, as if some spell of fatality hung over the family, these children all passed away in childhood, leaving only the young Marquis of Arondelle as the sole hope of the great ducal house of Hereward.
In the course of the day she made several attempts to ask Mrs. Girzie Ross a simple question. And she wondered at her own hesitation to do it. At length she asked it: "Mrs. Ross, is that portrait in the tower very much like Lord Arondelle?" "Like him, young leddy? Why, it is his verra sel'! And only not sae bonny because it canna move, or smile, or speak.
As soon as the sound ceased, the operator drew off the message and handed it to the duke, who seized it and hastily read; "LONDON, October, 31st, 7 P.M. "Thank Heaven! I breathe freely now!" said the young duke to himself, as he arose from his seat. He liberally rewarded the telegraph operator, and then left the office and walked back to the inn. The Arondelle Arms was all alive with excitement.
Evidently from these appearances, the banker had been murdered before his usual hour of retiring. "Who has gone for a doctor?" inquired Lord Arondelle, in an agony of anxiety, as he bent over the unconscious form of his beloved one. "I have despatched Gilbert, yer lairdship.
"But, Mrs. Ross, surely that must be a mistake of yours. No girl could have the impertinence to say such a false thing of Lord Arondelle," exclaimed Salome, in disgust and abhorrence of the very idea presented.
And the only inn of the place, an antiquated but most comfortable public house, known for centuries as the "Hereward Arms," was almost covered with flags, banners and bushes, in honor of the presence of the Duke of Hereward, and the Marquis of Arondelle, especially, and of other noble guests who had arrived there to assist at the wedding of the next day.
"The Marquis of Arondelle," repeated Salome in a low reverent tone, as if speaking to herself. "Ay, the young Markis o' Arondelle; wae worth the day he went awa'!" said the housekeeper, wiping her eyes. Salome turned suddenly to the weeping woman. "I have heard I have heard " she began in a low, hesitating voice, and then she suddenly stopped and looked at the dame.
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