He had told the old clergyman who he was, and that
he was on his way to Courcy. “Where, as
I understand, I shall meet a granddaughter of yours.”
“Yes, yes; she is my grandchild. She and
I have got into different walks of life now, so that
I don’t see much of her. They tell me that
she does her duty well in that sphere of life to which
it has pleased God to call her.”
“That depends,” thought Crosbie, “on
what the duties of a viscountess may be supposed to
be.” But he wished his new friend good-bye,
without saying anything further as to Lady Dumbello,
and, at about six o’clock in the evening, had
himself driven up under the portico of Courcy Castle.
Courcy Castle
Courcy Castle was very full. In the first place,
there was a great gathering there of all the Courcy
family. The earl was there,—and the
countess, of course. At this period of the year
Lady de Courcy was always at home; but the presence
of the earl himself had heretofore been by no means
so certain. He was a man who had been much given
to royal visitings and attendances, to parties in the
Highlands, to,—no doubt necessary,—prolongations
of the London season, to sojournings at certain German
watering-places, convenient, probably, in order that
he might study the ways and ceremonies of German Courts,—and
to various other absences from home, occasioned by
a close pursuit of his own special aims in life; for
the Earl de Courcy had been a great courtier.
But of late gout, lumbago, and perhaps also some diminution
in his powers of making himself generally agreeable,
had reconciled him to domestic duties, and the earl
spent much of his time at home. The countess,
in former days, had been heard to complain of her
lord’s frequent absence. But it is hard
to please some women,—and now she would
not always be satisfied with his presence.
And all the sons and daughters were there,—excepting
Lord Porlock, the eldest, who never met his father.
The earl and Lord Porlock were not on terms, and indeed
hated each other as only such fathers and such sons
can hate. The Honourable George de Courcy was
there with his bride, he having lately performed a
manifest duty, in having married a young woman with
money. Very young she was not,—having
reached some years of her life in advance of thirty;
but then, neither was the Honourable George very young;
and in this respect the two were not ill-sorted.
The lady’s money had not been very much,—perhaps
thirty thousand pounds or so. But then the Honourable
George’s money had been absolutely none.
Now he had an income on which he could live, and therefore
his father and mother had forgiven him all his sins,
and taken him again to their bosom. And the marriage
was matter of great moment, for the elder scion of
the house had not yet taken to himself a wife, and
the de Courcy family might have to look to this union
for an heir. The lady herself was not beautiful,
