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Now there are the strongest reasons why I should marry." "To secure the succession, I suppose." "We have surely a right to look to that!" said Lord Lydstone, rather haughtily. "Oh! of course. Everyone is bound to look after his own. And the young lady has she been found?" Lord Lydstone coloured at this point-blank question. "I have been long paying my addresses to Lady Grizel Banquo," he said.
Wilders reappeared, dressed to perfection in some cool light fabric, serene and smiling to everyone but Lord Lydstone. She was especially gracious to young Mr. Wilders, who had come off in the Governor's gig, and had been cordially welcomed by his brother. "Another cousin," said the general, introducing him.
"You are just cut out for domestic felicity, Lord Lydstone. I can see you a staid, sober English peer, a pattern of respectability, the stay and support of your country, obeyed with reverent devotion by a fond wife, bringing up a large family " "As young people should be brought up, I hope the girls as modest, God-fearing maidens; the boys to behave like gentlemen, and to tell the truth."
He found the pair chatting pleasantly together in a corner of the deserted tea-room, and delivered his message. "Oh, bother!" cried Lord Lydstone undutifully. "What can mother want with me?" "You had better go to her," said the colonel, who was a little afraid of his cousin, the female head of the house. "I will take your place here that is to say, if mademoiselle will permit me."
"What a horrible, frightful business!" she said, in a voice broken with emotion. "Oh! this wicked, accursed town! How did it happen? Do tell me all you know." "We are completely in the dark. We know nothing more than that Lord Lydstone was found stabbed at daylight this morning in the streets of Stamboul." "What could have taken him there?" The attaché shrugged his shoulders.
"How on earth, Hyde, did you guess that? I never hinted at such a thing." "I know her do not look surprised I know her, and have done so intimately for years. There is nothing she would stick at if she saw her advantage therefrom. You were in her way; she sought to remove you, as, no doubt, she, or some one acting for her, had removed Lord Lydstone, and and for all I know, ever so many more."
This tender commiseration was very captivating. But the low, sweet voice seemed to have lost its charm. "I think I told you yesterday, Mrs. Wilders, that I intended to return to England," said Lord Lydstone, in a cold, hard voice. "Yes; when do you start?" "To-morrow, I think. Have you any commands?" "You do not offer me a passage home?" "Well, you see, I am travelling post haste," he answered.
Hugo was killed, as you know; Anastasius died at Scutari; and Lord Lydstone, two days later, was found dead in the streets of Stamboul." "Dead? How? What did he die of, uncle?" "A stab in the heart. He was murdered." "And I " He understood now the cause of the foul blow struck at him, and the base attempt to get him also out of the way.
I have assured you it will end as you wish. When have I disappointed you, Lady Lydstone?" She started at the sound of this name, once familiar, but surrounded now by memories at once painful and terrible. "It is the rule in your English peerage that when a son becomes a great peer, and the mother is only a commoner, to give her one of the titles. Your Queen does it by prerogative."
"What news have you of the general?" asked Lord Lydstone, rather abruptly, as though to change the conversation. "Good enough. He is all right," said Mrs. Wilders, dismissing inquiry for her husband in these few brusque words. "I can't think of him just now," she went on. "It is you and your great sorrow that fill all my heart. Oh, Lydstone! dear Lord Lydstone, the pity of it!"
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