Domestic fiction; Inheritance and succession -- Fiction
The Marquis groaned and impotently moved an arm as though to raise
himself. At any rate, he was not dead as yet. With a desire to do what
was right now, the Dean rang the bell violently, and then stooped down
to extricate his foe. He had succeeded in raising the man and in
seating him on the floor with his head against the arm-chair before the
servant came. Had he wished to conceal anything, he could without much
increased effort have dragged the Marquis up into his chair; but he was
anxious now simply that all the truth should be known. It seemed to him
still that no one knowing the real truth would think that he had done
wrong. His child! His daughter! His sweetly innocent daughter! The man
soon rushed into the room, for the ringing of the bell had been very
violent. "Send for a doctor," said the Dean, "and send the landlord
up."
"Has my lord had a fit?" said the man, advancing into the room. He was
the servant, not of the hotel, but of the Marquis himself.
"Do as I bid you;--get a doctor and send up the landlord immediately.
It is not a fit, but his lordship has been much hurt. I knocked him
down." The Dean made the last statement slowly and firmly, under a
feeling at the moment that it became him to leave nothing concealed,
even with a servant.
"He has murdered me," groaned the Marquis. The injured one could speak
at least, and there was comfort in that. The servant rushed back to the
regions below, and the tidings were soon spread through the house.
Resident landlord there was none. There never are resident landlords in
London hotels. Scumberg was a young family of joint heirs and
heiresses, named Tomkins, who lived at Hastings, and the house was
managed by Mrs. Walker. Mrs. Walker was soon in the room, with a German
deputy manager kept to maintain the foreign Scumberg connection, and
with them sundry waiters and the head chambermaid. Mrs. Walker made a
direct attack upon the Dean, which was considerably weakened by
accusations from the lips of the Marquis himself. Had he remained
speechless for a while the horrors of the Dean's conduct would have
been greatly aggravated. "My good woman," said the Dean, "wait till
some official is here. You cannot understand. And get a little warm
water and wash his lordship's head."
"He has broken my back," said his lordship. "Oh, oh, oh."
"I am glad to hear you speak, Lord Brotherton," said the Dean. "I think
you will repent having used such a word as that to my daughter." It
would be necessary now that everybody should understand everything; but
how terrible would it be for the father even to say that such a name
had been applied to his child!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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