Produced by Clare Graham, using scans from the Internet Archive JOHN MARCHMONT'S LEGACY. BY [M.E. Braddon] THE AUTHOR OF "LADY AUDLEY'S SECRET," ETC. ETC. ETC. IN THREE VOLUMES VOL. III. Published by Tinsley Brothers of London in 1863 (third edition). CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. CAPTAIN ARUNDEL'S REVENGE. CHAPTER II. THE DESERTED CHAMBERS. CHAPTER III. TAKING IT QUIETLY. CHAPTER IV. MISS LAWFORD SPEAKS HER MIND. CHAPTER V. THE RETURN OF THE WANDERER. CHAPTER VI. A WIDOWER'S PROPOSAL. CHAPTER VII. HOW THE TIDINGS WERE RECEIVED IN LINCOLNSHIRE. CHAPTER VIII. MR. WESTON REFUSES TO BE TRAMPLED ON. CHAPTER IX. "GOING TO BE MARRIED!" CHAPTER X. THE TURNING OF THE TIDE. CHAPTER XI. BELINDA'S WEDDING DAY. CHAPTER XII. MARY'S STORY. CHAPTER XIII. "ALL WITHIN IS DARK AS NIGHT." CHAPTER XIV. "THERE IS CONFUSION WORSE THAN DEATH." CHAPTER THE LAST. "DEAR IS THE MEMORY OF OUR WEDDED LIVES." THE EPILOGUE. JOHN MARCHMONT'S LEGACY. VOLUME III. CHAPTER I. CAPTAIN ARUNDEL'S REVENGE. Edward Arundel went back to his lonely home with a settled purpose in his mind. He would leave Lincolnshire,--and immediately. He had no motive for remaining. It may be, indeed, that he had a strong motive for going away from the neighbourhood of Lawford Grange. There was a lurking danger in the close vicinage of that pleasant, old-fashioned country mansion, and the bright band of blue-eyed damsels who inhabited there. "I will turn my back upon Lincolnshire for ever," Edward Arundel said to himself once more, upon his way homeward through the October twilight; "but before I go, the whole country shall know what I think of Paul Marchmont." He clenched his fists and ground his teeth involuntarily as he thought this. It was quite dark when he let himself in at the old-fashioned half-glass door that led into his humble sitting-room at Kemberling Retreat. He looked round the little chamber, which had been furnished forty years before by the proprietor of the cottage, and had served for one tenant after another, until it seemed as if the spindle-legged chairs and tables had grown attenuated and shadowy by much service. He looked at the simple room, lighted by a bright fire and a pair of wax-candles in antique silver candlesticks. The red firelight flickered and trembled upon the painted roses on the walls, on the obsolete engravings in clumsy frames of imitation-ebony and tarnished gilt. A silver tea-service and a Sèvres china cup and saucer, which Mrs. Arundel had sent to the cottage for her son's use, stood upon the small oval table: and a brown setter, a favourite of the young man's, lay upon the hearth-rug, with his chin upon his outstretched paws, blinking at the blaze.