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Article THE LADY MURIEL. ← Page 3 of 5 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Lady Muriel.
" ' But if I should not , you will be good to Muriel , will you not 1 ' "' She shall be as clear to me as if she were my own child . ' "' Thank you ! you are too good to me and mine / she answered , with the tears welling up into her beautiful eyes .
" Beverley , you don't know what I have gone through . " The doctors buoyed me up with hopes that she would recoA'er . Mrs . Vaux thought that she was gaining strength daily . So much better ivas she that I took
a house , ancl hacl already commenced furnishing it in anticipation of a coming event which was to bring such happiness to me , when one morning I was hastily suiiimoiiecl to Killmallock Lodge , only just in time to find that Muriel had broken a blood vessel ,
and was rapidly sinking . In an hour from my arrival , she was no more I " Man , I cried like a child ! the blow was almost too heavy to bear . The one hope , the life , the joy of my heart was gone , and only coldness and weariness remained .
" I have smiled sometimes to find , by some chance expression of 3 'ours , that you fancied me a gloomy misanthrope , a cynic , a misogynist . " I suppose you little know how much I have gone through . Well , to make ajloug story shortI may tell you that the noble
, relations who had held aloof from her Avhilst alive , now she Avas dead , took her from me , and laid her in the burial ground at Castle Court beside her husband . The grand funeral—what a mockery it Avas to treat her as a countess only when she was
dead ! The thing disgusted me . They offered to take the little girl to educate ; but Muriel ' s last request was that I should take care of the child , and I would not give her up to them . "After Lady Kilpatrick ' s death I could
not stay in England . "I got unsettled , and roamed about , visiting , in the course of my rambles , Baden , Paris , Biarritz , Vienna , Rome , Switzerland , but could not bear to abide in any place long at onceand thus spent
, some years seeking for relief in change of scene and company . " I don ' t suppose I have led a very good or useful life . On the contrary , I have wasted my time a good deal , I dare say ;
and , to tell you frankly , I think it was through meeting you last year in Paris that I Avas led first to think of coming backto England and settling down . Muriel ' s health , too , not being very good at Heidelberg , where I sent her as soon as she Avas old enough to leave England , made me resolve to make a home for her here .
" I had spent a fortune abroad ; but some capital investments here have more than recouped all I lost there . " Of course , my ward gets all I have Avhen I die . " "Do you belieA'e in these capital ini'estments ? " I asked .
" Oh yes , I ' m secure enough . Half my propert y is invested in the great shipbuilding company in the north—Waters , Waters and Companj' . " " The deuce it is . " I said .
les , and it will be a fine property foi Muriel some day , man ! you see if it is ' nt . " Poor child ! she is now fourteen ; how the time goes ! I am going to have a resident governess here for her , besides teachers from the town ; and I particularly wanted Mrs . Beverley to be here just now
to give me advice about her . " I had listened attentively to Falconbridge ' s story , and could not help pitying him as he told it .
Two or three days afterwards he came doAvn very much excited , and told me he had received a letter from the people at Heidelberg with whom Lady Muriel resided , and Avas sorry to find that she had been ill , but the letter said she was now better , aud would come by the boat the next day
( Thursday ) . We decided to take circuit tickets , and go down by the boat , returning by the train with Muriel . O 11 our Avay doivn , I noticed something very strange in Falconbridge ' s manner , Avhich startled tne . He complained of his head , which reminded me that he had received a sword-cut on
his forehead in the Crimean war , which hacl affected the brain at the time , but from Avhich he had long recovered , as I thought . He was talking rather gloomily , and said something about Muriel , if anything should happen , 1 should find his will all right . I rallied him about being so dispirited , but Avithout much effect .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Lady Muriel.
" ' But if I should not , you will be good to Muriel , will you not 1 ' "' She shall be as clear to me as if she were my own child . ' "' Thank you ! you are too good to me and mine / she answered , with the tears welling up into her beautiful eyes .
" Beverley , you don't know what I have gone through . " The doctors buoyed me up with hopes that she would recoA'er . Mrs . Vaux thought that she was gaining strength daily . So much better ivas she that I took
a house , ancl hacl already commenced furnishing it in anticipation of a coming event which was to bring such happiness to me , when one morning I was hastily suiiimoiiecl to Killmallock Lodge , only just in time to find that Muriel had broken a blood vessel ,
and was rapidly sinking . In an hour from my arrival , she was no more I " Man , I cried like a child ! the blow was almost too heavy to bear . The one hope , the life , the joy of my heart was gone , and only coldness and weariness remained .
" I have smiled sometimes to find , by some chance expression of 3 'ours , that you fancied me a gloomy misanthrope , a cynic , a misogynist . " I suppose you little know how much I have gone through . Well , to make ajloug story shortI may tell you that the noble
, relations who had held aloof from her Avhilst alive , now she Avas dead , took her from me , and laid her in the burial ground at Castle Court beside her husband . The grand funeral—what a mockery it Avas to treat her as a countess only when she was
dead ! The thing disgusted me . They offered to take the little girl to educate ; but Muriel ' s last request was that I should take care of the child , and I would not give her up to them . "After Lady Kilpatrick ' s death I could
not stay in England . "I got unsettled , and roamed about , visiting , in the course of my rambles , Baden , Paris , Biarritz , Vienna , Rome , Switzerland , but could not bear to abide in any place long at onceand thus spent
, some years seeking for relief in change of scene and company . " I don ' t suppose I have led a very good or useful life . On the contrary , I have wasted my time a good deal , I dare say ;
and , to tell you frankly , I think it was through meeting you last year in Paris that I Avas led first to think of coming backto England and settling down . Muriel ' s health , too , not being very good at Heidelberg , where I sent her as soon as she Avas old enough to leave England , made me resolve to make a home for her here .
" I had spent a fortune abroad ; but some capital investments here have more than recouped all I lost there . " Of course , my ward gets all I have Avhen I die . " "Do you belieA'e in these capital ini'estments ? " I asked .
" Oh yes , I ' m secure enough . Half my propert y is invested in the great shipbuilding company in the north—Waters , Waters and Companj' . " " The deuce it is . " I said .
les , and it will be a fine property foi Muriel some day , man ! you see if it is ' nt . " Poor child ! she is now fourteen ; how the time goes ! I am going to have a resident governess here for her , besides teachers from the town ; and I particularly wanted Mrs . Beverley to be here just now
to give me advice about her . " I had listened attentively to Falconbridge ' s story , and could not help pitying him as he told it .
Two or three days afterwards he came doAvn very much excited , and told me he had received a letter from the people at Heidelberg with whom Lady Muriel resided , and Avas sorry to find that she had been ill , but the letter said she was now better , aud would come by the boat the next day
( Thursday ) . We decided to take circuit tickets , and go down by the boat , returning by the train with Muriel . O 11 our Avay doivn , I noticed something very strange in Falconbridge ' s manner , Avhich startled tne . He complained of his head , which reminded me that he had received a sword-cut on
his forehead in the Crimean war , which hacl affected the brain at the time , but from Avhich he had long recovered , as I thought . He was talking rather gloomily , and said something about Muriel , if anything should happen , 1 should find his will all right . I rallied him about being so dispirited , but Avithout much effect .