England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; Villages -- England -- Fiction
Mr Miles, Anthony, and Marmaduke started at once. A sort of restraint
had grown up between the two young men, which was, perhaps, although it
began only by reflection, more perceptible in Anthony's manner than in
that of Marmaduke, for the former was at all times quickly conscious of
the feelings of others towards himself, and apt to throw them back. He
was sensitive, moreover, to external influences; there was heavy rain
falling, a damp chill in the air, and, as they drove down the road
towards Trenance through woods in which the wild garlic was beginning to
scent the air, the mournfully heavy drip of the rain through scantily
clothed trees, the coarse sodden grass, the dreary moss-grown little
paths that led away as it seemed into some dismal wilderness, the house
with its shut and blinded windows lying under a pall of low clouds,
deepened the disturbed expression of his face. No one spoke after they
left the station. The carriage that had been sent for them, with its
old moth-eaten cushions, rolled slowly along, the coachman not thinking
very kindly of his load: a probable heir can scarcely expect a welcome
from old servants who have grown fat and masterful under the weakened
hands of age. The place had always seemed oppressed with a weight of
silence, but now, as they drove up, the very wheels jarred upon the
excessive stillness, broken only by the ceaseless dripping of the rain.
Nevertheless, Marmaduke's spirits rose as soon as he found himself in
the house; and while Anthony, with a pale and troubled face, flung
himself down in the dreary drawing-room, which looked uglier and more
uninviting than ever, he went about from room to room, only avoiding
that which an awful Presence guarded. It was Mr Miles who went there
first, and when he came down again he held a little miniature in his
hand.
"It was found under his pillow," he said. "There is Margaret Hare, as
she must have been in the old days before the unhappy quarrel. It makes
me hope that he may, after all, have remembered her child."
"I shall go up to him," said Anthony, starting up. He had a shrinking
from the sight of death and all painful things, but at this moment he
could only remember the old man who had been kind to him after his
fashion. "Marmaduke, will you come?"
"No," said Marmaduke carelessly, "it can do no good now. You can tell
me if anything has to be arranged, and I will see about it."
He spoke with an easy assumption of authority, which stirred Anthony's
anger. All that Marmaduke said or did seemed to jar upon him, upon the
time, the quiet, the sadness; for, after all, although there is not so
much to stir our sympathy, perhaps no death can be so sad as that of a
forlorn and unlovely old age.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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