Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 21, 2025
And some years before his death, he had bought one of the finest estates in the neighbourhood, Normandale Grange, a beautiful old house, set amidst charming and romantic scenery in a valley, which, though within twelve miles of Barford, might have been in the heart of the Highlands. Therefore, it was no small thing that Mrs. Richard Mallathorpe and her two children laid claim to.
Eldrick & Pascoe, and, anxious to present his application as soon as possible, had decided to take it to Normandale Grange himself, that afternoon. He had left Barford by the two o'clock train, which arrived at Normandale at two-thirty-five. Knowing the district well, he had taken the path through the plantations. Arrived at the foot-bridge, he had at once noticed that part of it had fallen in.
At Normandale Grange, events progressed in apparently ordinary and normal fashion. Harper Mallathorpe was buried; his mother began to make some recovery from the shock of his death; the legal folk were busied in putting Nesta in possession of the estate, and herself and her mother in proprietorship of the mill and the personal property. In Barford, things went on as usual, too.
It was handed in at Normandale village post-office for registration late on the Friday afternoon. And by whom do you think?" "I don't know!" replied Nesta faintly. This merciless piling up of details was beginning to frighten her already she felt as if she herself were some criminal, forced to listen from the dock to the opening address of a prosecuting counsel.
But the truth was that Esther Mawson had only one object of devotion herself and she was waiting and watching for an opportunity to benefit that object at Pratt's expense. Pratt knew nothing of this as he slowly made his way to Normandale that morning. Having plenty of time he went by devious and lonely roads and by-lanes.
And he also knew something else that neither Charlesworth nor Wyatt had the faintest, remotest notion or suspicion that John Mallathorpe had ever made such a will, or they would have moved heaven and earth, pulled down Normandale Grange and Mallathorpe's Mill, in their efforts to find it. But the effect the effect of producing the will now?
All was ready and now there was nothing to do but to get to Normandale Grange, see Mrs. Mallathorpe, and vanish. He had planned it all out, carefully, when he perceived the first danger signals, and knew that his other plans and schemes were doomed to failure.
Quite, quite simple! he had had his run to Normandale Grange and back all about nothing, and for nothing except that he had met Nesta Mallathorpe, whom he was already sufficiently interested in to desire to see again. But having arrived at an explanation of what had puzzled him and made him suspicious, he dismissed that matter from his mind and thought no more of it.
He had said that he had not shown the will, nor mentioned the will, to a soul but he might; old men were so fussy about things he might have set down in his diary that he had found it on such a day, and under such-and-such circumstances. However, there was one person who could definitely inform him of the reason of Collingwood's visit to Normandale Grange Mrs. Mallathorpe.
Risk or no risk, he would carry out his original notion. Whatever Mrs. Mallathorpe might offer, he would stick to his idea of close and intimate connection with Normandale Grange. Mrs. Mallathorpe, left to face the situation which Pratt had revealed to her in such sudden and startling fashion, had been quick to realize its seriousness.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking