We shall meet with Berenice, Countess of Hurstmonceux, again; but it

will be in another sphere, and under other circumstances.

It was in the spring succeeding her departure that the house-agents and

attorneys came down to appraise and sell Brudenell Hall. Since the

improvements bestowed upon the estate by Lady Hurstmonceux, the property

had increased its value, so that a purchaser could not at once be found.

When this fact was communicated to Mr. Brudenell, in London, he wrote

and authorized his agent to let the property to a responsible tenant,

and if possible to hire the plantation negroes to the same party who

should take the house.

All this after a while was successfully accomplished. A gentleman from a

neighboring State took the house, all furnished as it was, and hired all

the servants of the premises.

He came early in June, but who or what he was, or whence he came, none

of the neighbors knew. The arrival of any stranger in a remote country

district is always the occasion of much curiosity, speculation, and

gossip. But when such a one brings the purse of Fortunatus in his

pocket, and takes possession of the finest establishment in the

country--house, furniture, servants, carriages, horses, stock and all,

he becomes the subject of the wildest conjecture.

It does not require long to get comfortably to housekeeping in a

ready-made home; so it was soon understood in the neighborhood that the

strangers were settled in their new residence, and might be supposed to

be ready to receive calls.

But the neighbors, though tormented with curiosity, cautiously held

aloof, and waited until the Sabbath, when they might expect to see the

newcomers, and judge of their appearance and hear their pastor's opinion

of them.

So, on the first Sunday after the stranger's settlement at Brudenell

Hall the Baymouth Church was crowded to excess. But those of the

congregation who went there with other motives than to worship their

Creator were sadly disappointed. The crimson-lined Brudenell pew

remained vacant, as it had remained for several years.

"Humph! not church-going people, perhaps! We had an English Jewess

before, perhaps we shall have a Turkish Mohammedan next!" was the

speculation of one of the disappointed.

The conjecture proved false.

The next Sunday the Brudenell pew was filled. There was a gentleman and

lady, and half-a-dozen girls and boys, all dressed in half-mourning,

except one little lady of about ten years old, whose form was enveloped

in black bombazine and crape, and whose face, what could be seen of it,

was drowned in tears. It needed no seer to tell that she was just left

motherless, and placed in charge of her relations.




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024