The Cryptogram: A Novel — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Cryptogram: A Novel
John Stuart Mill · en
"Oh no; don't be in such a hurry," said Hilda. "You have a week
before you. Let me see you before evening, so that I may give you
what your mistress has sent."
Martha sullenly assented, and withdrew.
The most difficult part of Hilda's business had thus been quietly
accomplished. Nothing now remained but to see the coachman and groom,
each of whom she graciously dismissed with a handsome present. She
told them, however, to remain for about a week, until their
successors might arrive. The large present which the liberality of
Lady Chetwynde had given them enabled them to bear their lot with
patience, and even pleasure.
After about a week Gualtier came up to Chetwynde Castle. He had been
away to London, and brought word to Hilda that some of the new
servants were expected in a few days. It was soon known to Roberts,
Susan, and Mary that Gualtier had been made steward by Lady
Chetwynde. He took possession of one of the rooms, and at once
entered upon the duties of this office. On the day of his arrival
Hilda left, saying to the remaining servants that she would never
come back again, as she intended to live in the south of France. She
shook hands with each of them very graciously, making each one a
present in her own name, and accompanying it with a neat little
speech. She had never been popular among them; but now the thought
that they would never see her again, together, perhaps, with the
very handsome presents which she had made, and her very kind words,
affected them deeply, and they showed some considerable feeling.
Under such circumstances Hilda took her departure from Chetwynde
Castle, leaving Gualtier in charge. In a few days the new servants
arrived, and those of the old ones who had thus far remained now took
their departure. The household was entirely remodeled. The new ones
took up their places; and there was not one single person there who
knew any thing whatever about the late Earl, or Hilda, or Gualtier.
The old ones were scattered abroad, and it was not within the bounds
of ordinary possibility that any of them would ever come near the
place.
In thus remodeling the household it was somewhat enlarged. There was
the new housekeeper, a staid, matronly, respectable-looking woman;
three house-maids, who had formerly lived, in the north of England; a
coachman, who had never before been out of Kent; a butler, who had
formerly served in a Scotch family; two footmen, one of whom had
served in Yorkshire, and the other in Cornwall; two grooms, who had
been bred in Yorkshire; a cook, who had hitherto passed all her life
in London; and three kitchen-maids, who also had served in that city.
Thus the household was altogether new, and had been carefully
collected by Gualtier with a view rather to the place from which they
had come than to any great excellence on the part of any of them. For
so large a place it was but a small number, but it was larger than
the household which had been dismissed, and they soon settled down
into their places.