Successors to the Title

Front matter

RY L. B. WALFORD AUTHOR OF 'MR SMITH,' ' THE BAnv's GRANDMOTHER,' ETC. METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET, W.C. LONDON CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. — A Summer Wooing, i II. — The Uninteresting Blue Envelope, . 16 III. — ' I believe He'll go into Action,' . 33 IV. — My Lord and My Lady Arrive, . . 48 V. — 'Beggars on Horseback,' . . .64 VI. — A Suggestion of Georgina's, . . 80 VII. — 'The Dog-Cart, Indeed!' . . -97 VIII. — Lady Milner begins to Thaw, . 113 IX. — Sir Thomas 'Stumps' the Parson, 130 X. — Captain Hazard's Piece of Politeness, . 148 XI. — 'The Man with the Moustache, Dolly,' 166 XII.—' I am such a Clumsy Fool ! ' . .182 XIII.— A Game of Billiards, . . CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE XIV. — 'She is no Friend for You, Hetty,' . 21S XV. — 'And Sets You Free to Spoon the Little Countess?' .... 234 XVI. — Miss Milner's Prescription, . . 255 XVII. — Dolly Promulgates His Views, . . 274 XVIII. — A Sunset and a Pink Satin Gown, . 291 XIX. — 'My Dearest Henrietta!' . .

Chapter I

A SUMMER WOOING '/~\NLY little May Duncan! That's what I can't get over ! ' Something had befallen little May Duncan, and the matter was being discussed by two of her old friends — in common perhaps with all who had ever known the girl, or anything about her. The faces of the two who were now speak ing, alike wore a curious expression. There was excitement and elation, together with a certain amount of discomfiture, visible upon each. Every now and then one would burst forth with a fresh remark which had yet obviously nothing new in it, but which would set up A a vehement clatter for a few minutes— and this again would cease as suddenly as it had begun, and the two sit and stare vacantly into space, as though contemplating a problem which neither knew how to solve. ' If May were extraordinarily pretty, or extra ordinarily clever, or extraordinarily rich, or ex traordinarily anything ! ' exclaimed Georgina, with ever-rising accentuation, after one of those ' flashes of silence,' there would be something to go upon.

Of course, ' there always are people of whom one predicts all sorts of possibilities. But May is nothing — literally nothing — different from the rest of us. You, or I, or Janet would have made every bit as good a countess. And she had no idea of being one either when she accepted that silly boy ! We all thought her rather a goose, don't you remember ? ' ' We thought he only took up with May because the rest of us would have nothing to do with him,' nodded her sister. ' He bored us ; and I believe if we hadn't laughed at him and made fun of his being by way of your young man, that he would much sooner have come to our house than to the Duncans'.' Something in her tone made Georgina turn round sharply. ' What do you mean by that ? Do you mean you think we lost a chance ? Speak for yourself if you do. / wouldn't have mar ried Dolly Feveril if I had known he was ten times more likely to come into an earldom than he seemed to be two years ago.

He was three off then ; and, to do May justice, I don't believe she ever gave the idea of his succeeding a thought. But he was her first offer, and she was the sort of girl to marry the first man who asked her.' 'And his people seemed all well enough pleased,' meditated Chatty, after a pause. ' Such people as he had seemed quite to jump at May. Don't you remember what father said, that her money would just about keep him, and that he was " a lazy young fellow with no brains, who would never have been able to keep himself?" I remember hearing father talk about it with old Mrs Gregorson ; and they both agreed that if May's parents had been alive she would never have been allowed to throw her self away. But May just did what she liked with that poor stupid old aunt of hers, who was too ill at the time to care much about anything, and talked about its being " a Pro vidence that her niece should have a home of her own and a husband " — as it was supposed she herself was going to die.

And after all she never died, but is alive at this moment ! ' concluded the speaker in an aggrieved tone. ' Indeed she will take a new lease of life now,' laughed her sister. ' Poor old thing ! I don't grudge her the luck — not in the least. I don't suppose I really grudge it May either. Only it does seem so — the fact is, I can't understand it.' ' No one can understand it, The door opened and voices were heard in the passage outside. ' Oh, yes, they're in here, Mrs Duncan. Girls, here is Mrs Duncan come over to tell us about May.' And two elderly ladies rustled through the doorway, the one in cloak and bonnet being greeted effusively by the daughters of the house. ' Mrs Duncan thought she must come over herself to tell us about May,' proceeded the speaker in a carefully pleased and interested voice — for Mrs Macinroy was one who never neglected small things, and had the reputation of being a civil, agreeable woman. ' I have been telling Mrs Duncan that a rumour had just reached us, but we take it none the less kind of her to come over herself.' ' Do sit down, Mrs Duncan ! ' Both Georgina and Charlotte hastened to do the honours of their pretty morning room, and a comfortable arm-chair was pushed forward. ' Do sit down, and tell us all about it.

When did you hear ? Did May write? Or did you only see it in the newspapers ? Of course, you knew that the other two men had died.' ' My dear Georgie ! The other two men ! ' Georgie's mother looked an elaborate remon strance. ' What a way to talk, my dear ? ' ' Oh, well ; Mrs Duncan understands. I don't know what their names were, but I know they seemed to prevent Dolly Feveril's having a chance. He was only a distant cousin, wasn't he?' ' Dolly's father was the Earl of St Bees' first cousin,' explained Mrs Duncan, solemnly. ' The earl had a son and a nephew ; both of whom, as you truly remark, Georgina, would have succeeded to the title and estates before my niece's husband.' (' Humph ! That is being pretty grand ! My niece's husband ! ' muttered Georgina, in ternally. ' My niece's husband !

That is be ginning soon, I must say.') ' And the earl himself might have married again, and cut out the nephew anyway, even if he couldn't the son,' interposed Mrs Macinroy, in a cheerful, congratulatory voice. ' Quite a youngish man, as one might say. Not much over sixty. No one would ever have dreamed, with all those three well and hearty, when Dolly Feveril married little May, that he and she were going to step into such grandeur before a couple of years were out.' She knew, of course, that she was marry ing into a great family,' quoth Mrs Duncan, stiffly. And she had scarcely taken her leave before this stiffness, this sudden accession of dignity and formality, was the subject for jest and comment on the part of the three left behind. ' Upon my word, it was as if she had become "My Lady" herself!' cried Mrs Macinroy, with pink, flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes. ' Upon my word, she is as much set up as though she were ! ' It was the first hard word she had ever spoken of the old neighbour whom she and hers had known through storm and sunshine for twenty years.

If they had held her in a certain measure of contempt, it was con tempt in which respect was mingled, and wherein there was, moreover, a full ad mixture of goodwill. She was ' A good old creature,' — ' a poor old dear,' — occasionally tiresome, but invariably harmless. To hear her now ! Everybody had thought it somewhat weak and silly of Mrs Duncan to be so well satisfied with young Dolly Feveril as a suitor for her niece, but had excused such want of worldly wisdom on the plea of her being an invalid, anxious not to leave a motherless girl alone in the world, should her doctor's prognostica tions and her own prove true. W'hen, to the surprise of all, the sick lady recovered, and was, to all intents and purposes, as well as ever, people said anew that May Duncan, with her nice little fortune, might as well have remained in the neighbourhood, instead of benefiting a ' feckless ' stranger, who had come thither to recruit his energies, after the wear and tear of a competitive examination, in which he had failed to pass.

One and all agreed that Dolly Feveril was an idle, useless young man, and brainless forbye. He might be respectable enough, but he had no business to think of matrimony. An in dolent youth, he had no right to take each day as it came, troubling himself in nowise about the future, — especially as it was under stood that he had only himself to depend upon, with relations not disposed to do more for him than relations usually do, when the tie of kindred is not supplemented by the tie of affection. Accordingly, heads were shaken over Dolly Feveril, and the Macinroys in par ticular had discouraged his coming over to Dalgenny House, as often as he had begun to do on first arriving in the neighbourhood. It was true, truer than Georgina Macinroy had any idea of, that the chance, the actual, positive chance, of becoming a countess had been hers, and passed on by her to another.

Think of it, Georgina ! She it was who, to rid herself of a philan derer whose company she did not affect, had paired him off with her friend during the whole of a long summer day, at the end of which Dolly was quite sure he was in love. Somebody or other was bound to capture Dolly's heart that day. A reaction had set in with him. He had bolted off to Scotland mentally and bodily fagged out, for the morti fication of failure had been added to the previous strain, — and his only solace had been obtained by the gentle art of angling, in which he was a proficient. A week passed, during which he spent every hour along the sunny banks of a broad salmon river, and the peaceful, out-of-door life speedily restored all the energies he had ever possessed. Then the want of a change began to make itself felt.

He would like to speak to someone — anyone — a person of his own age, and of the other sex best of all. It chanced that he had an introduction to Mr Macinroy in his pocket. Mr Macinroy was factor on one of the estates through which ran the river he had come to fish. Directly our young gentleman found Mr Macinroy had daughters he presented the introduction. And after this he would have presented him self at Dalgenny very much oftener than Miss Georgina Macinroy approved, had it not been for her happy thought of passing him on to little May Duncan — a device which succeeded beyond all anticipation. Georgina had, it is true, been as much taken aback as anyone when bright little May ran beaming in one fine morning, to announce that she and Dolly were engaged, and to tell all about how it took place, and how she knew it was coming, and how Dolly had come to their house late the evening before, and wouldn't go away, and Aunt Jean wouldn't see that he had something on his mind ; and how at last she herself had had to make some pretence for going on to the lawn, and Dolly was after her through the open window in a moment. 'And do you mean to say you are really going to marry him ? ' Georgina had cried out at this point. ' Of course I have not a word to say against Dolly Feveril, only he does seem so very — he is such a boy — and thinks of nothing but fishing!

If he is not doing that, he would be content to lie under the trees all day long.' Georgina had, however, been obliged to eat her words. May, with an upright figure and red cheeks, had indignantly denied the truth of the picture ; and, although the scene had ended in good humour, it had been apparent that no one in future was to term Dolly Feveril ' a boy ' in the presence of his be trothed. A speedy marriage had followed. It was surmised that Dolly's kith and kin hailed with joyful alacrity the prospect of seeing a youth provided for who would never have been able to provide for himself; and the young couple had vanished from the neighbourhood, returning only at intervals to pay Mrs Duncan a visit, or, more strictly speaking, to permit of Dolly's once more wandering, rod in hand, from pool to pool, along the banks of the salmon river.

No one took any particular interest in the Feverils as a married pair. May was just May ; a shade more smartly dressed than of yore, and inclined to talk of people and places unknown to her former neighbours, — but this was natural, and in its way amusing. Georgina and Charlotte thought their old companion better company than she used to be, even if they still patronised her and called her ' little May' But when so much had been conceded, there was nothing else to be said. As for May's husband, he was still less al tered. In short, there was but one opinion current — the Feverils were an uninteresting, if estimable, young couple, of whom nothing was to be predicted, and who did not even bring a baby to be exhibited and made much of by former friends and acquaintances. When it was known that they were stopping at Fairlawn, Georgina Macinroy would say to her sister, ' Someone must go over and see May Feveril.' To which Charlotte would re ply, ' Well, you go ; I can't' Then, as often as not, Georgina would find it equally im possible to make the call ; and as it would never occur to either daughter to suggest their mother's troubling herself on account of so insignificant a personage as their little neighbour and associate of old, it chanced more than once that May, who had no idea of standing upon her dignity, took the initiative, and appeared at Dalgenny before any of its inmates had found their way to Fairlawn.

Upon the death of the intermediate heirs referred to by Georgina as the 'two men,' a slight ripple of curiosity had, it is true, made itself felt among young Mrs Feveril's former acquaintances. Mrs Macinroy had gone so far as to exclaim, ' Dear me ! One never knows what may happen ! ' And had the contingency mentally referred to been of lesser magnitude than it was, it is probable that it would have been taken more into account. But the idea was too large to grasp. It loomed for a moment on the horizon, and fided again. The Feverils were abroad when the last death occurred, and, truth to tell, no one precisely knew what difference such an event was likely to make to Dolly's prospects. The neighbourhood of Yesterby only knew him as a cousin— a poor cousin — of the reigning Earl of St Bees ; and somehow (for human nature is the same everywhere) families into whom Dolly had not married were very particular in not bestowing upon him any sort of status to which in their minds he was not entitled by the strictest rule and regulation. ' So Dolly is in a kind of a way the heir now,' was all that Mrs Macinroy could bring herself to say, even when the death of Lord St Bees' only son was announced. ' As long as no one else steps in, I suppose Dolly may be considered as the heir.' As neither she, nor the person to whom she addressed herself, had any but the vaguest notions as to ' how such things were managed,' in great families, and as Dolly, to do him justice, had never sought to enlighten their understandings, the remark was good enough for its purpose ; and the phrase, ' in a kind of a way the heir,' was adopted in the Macinroys' circle as a fitting and suitable one when young Feveril's prospects were discussed.

It fell like a thunder clap upon the whole country-side when another sudden and most unexpected demise brought Dolly's name into the papers as the successor to the ancient earldom and large estates of St Bees. ■5

Chapter II The Uninteresting Blue Envelope It

is, as we know, the unexpected which ahvays happens. Two young people had just come down to breakfast in the large saloon of a foreign hotel, and the morning post was being distributed as they passed up the room. ' A pack of bills,' quoth Dolly Feveril, rapidly glancing over a number of re - directed blue envelopes subscribed by clerkly hands. ' How on earth have they found me out ? I am sure I never left any address — ' he broke off suddenly. ' But duns will ferret you out, though you are at the bottom of a lake with a mountain piled on the top of you,' the simile being sug gested by the prospect without, where sunny green slopes were mirrored in glassy waters beneath. ' I sha'n't let them spoil my breakfast anyway,' the speaker continued decisively. ' What's the good of living abroad if you're to be bothered by bills just the same as if you were at home?

Look here, May, put a roll and some tongue in your pocket, and I'll do the same ; then we sha'n't need to come home for luncheon, and can go ever so much further down the lake than we did yesterday. They say there is a better fishing bank than any we have tried yet, about a mile beyond the furthest point we reached last night.' ' We must get into the shade,' suggested she, ' for yesterday I blistered my face in the sun, as I could not hold up a parasol. Do look, Dolly' ' Oh, it's all right,' said Dolly, indifferently. ' Everybody gets burnt more or less in Swit zerland. How soon will you start ? ' ' As soon as you like. ' In half an hour?' ' Very well, in half an hour.' ' I'll go and order the boat, then,' con cluded Dolly, between hungry mouthfuls, 'as soon as I have had enough breakfast ; and you can follow me down to the place.

It will take you longer to rig out than I, and it's a pity to waste a minute on a day like this.' He rose almost as he spoke, and thrust the letters on the table into his pocket. 'Mind you are as quick as you can,' he exhorted as he left the room. His wife, equally eager, equally young, careless, and happy, was soon once more by his side, and a long, jocund day was spent either in hanging, rod in hand, over the sparkling, glittering water, or in roam ing among the woods which fringed its bank. Neither gave the letters in Dolly's pocket a second thought. They were but a pair of children after all — children to whom the present hour was every thing, the future nothing. Perhaps they had rather ' outrun the constable ' of late — but what then ? Everyone did at some time or other, and May's dividends, coming in regularly as they did, would soon pull all straight again.

Indeed, Dolly was not a spendthrift — only a happy-go-lucky, improvident youth ; while May knew nothing of the value of money, and it drifted away from her in all directions with out, it seemed, any act of volition on her part. The two were leading a harmless life enough, if it were, so far, one without aim or purpose, beyond enjoyment. There was, at any rate, nothing in it with which the world could find fault ; and as on the other part, there was nothing for it to applaud, the young people were, like many others so circumstanced, of importance only to themselves, and of but slight account in the general estimation. All of this was now to be changed in the twinkling of an eye. ' Oh ! Dolly, dear, I am so tired, I really don't think I can go down to the table d'hote. Dolly, send me up some dinner, like a good boy, and let me sit and eat it here by the open window in my dressing-gown.

This is such an nice, cool room,' and May sank into a low chair with a sigh of satisfaction. Then, more briskly, ' Mind, Dolly, I'm very hungry. Tell them to bring me up all that's going ; and it will be such a comfort to eat alone and in peace.' ' Aren't you coming down at all to night ? ' ' Now, Dolly, don't bother me. Can't you see how snug and comfortable I shall be ? It's nothing for you to dress and go down ; you'd have to get into another suit, anyway ; but I should have to screw myself into one of my smart frocks, and do my hair all over again — and I should look ugly at the end, with my face and neck all burnt, and my eyes as white as that girl's last night. Oh, Dolly, did you see her? I meant to point her out, but I forgot. She was a guy ! She had been up some mountain or other, and tramped in just before dinner, so hot and blowsy, with her eyes looking almost white against the red of her forehead and cheeks !

Dolly, you wouldn't like me to look hot and blowsy, would you ? ' insinuatingly. 'All right; / don't mind.' Dolly never did mind anything. 'You'll miss the even ing band, that's all. But if you'd rather stay upstairs — it is jolly here, I must say.' ' And I am so comfortable.' May burrowed still deeper in her low chair, and shook her unfastened hair over the back. She had fine hair, long, thick, and of a ruddy chestnut colour. ' It is so nice to get it away from the back of my neck,' she proceeded, rolling her head from side to side against the cool wickerwork of the chair, in order to feel the relief. ' I wish you could brush it for me, Dolly, dear ; but, per haps, as you can't, you had better be off. You are not much good as a husband, though you are pretty well as a fishing companion,' and the two laughed in unison. ' Well, now, I'm ready ; I only want my watch,' said Dolly, bustling about. ' Where on earth did I put it?

Oh, here, under these beasts of letters. I say, you might just look them through while I am downstairs,' subjoined he, tossing them into his wife's lap. ' They can't be very urgent, for we are really quite decently above water just now. But if any of them seem to want an answer badly, you can scribble a line to say we'll pay up the end of the month. I'll run up and see how you are after dinner,' and kissing her as he passed, he opened the door as the gong sounded from below. Scarcely had the soup and fish gone round, than an unusual thing happened at the dinner table at the Schweitzer- Hof. Dinner at this hotel — the great hotel of Lucerne — is a function not to be lightly intruded upon, and even tele grams are occasionally withheld until their recipients have risen from the table. Eating and drinking are understood to have precedence for the time being — wherefore to see a man rise up suddenly with a startled look upon his face, and abandon a plate of savoury food just placed before him, is an unusual, not to say disconcerting, apparition.

Dolly Feveril was, moreover, in the midst of an animated dialogue with his next neighbour on the topic of all others most interesting to himself — namely, that of fishing — when the little slip of paper was put into his hand, which made him forget what he was going to say next, and stare as though he had seen a ghost. Only a couple of lines were scrawled in pencil on the paper ; and these were almost illegible, for May had written them with a hand shaking with agitation, ' Come up at once. Such news. You are the Earl of St Bees ! ' In a single moment Dolly seemed to know as well as if he had been meditating upon it ever since the day of his birth, all that was meant by being Earl of St Bees. Perhaps, in spite of his easy nature and in dolent contentment with his lot, he had given more thought to the matter than people supposed.

In a flash there now rose before his eyes the great ancestral mansion standing in the midst of its velvet lawns and flowering terraces ; he saw the long, broad avenues stretching away beneath their arches of foliage on this side and that ; the deer-park, with its peaceful herds browsing at sunset ; the shining river bordering the whole domain — and he saw himself as a little lonely boy being taken round to be impressed by all the grandeur and display which was one day to belong to his more fortunate relation who, he could per ceive even then, regarded him with the eyes of a superior. Dolly's parents had not been popular in the family; and with his father's death, his claim even to such notice as had hitherto been con ceded, was at an end. He had never again been invited to the great place, with all its luxuries and equipments ; and gradually these had faded into a me mory — sometimes into rather a bitter memory.

They might have let him come now and then during the fishing season, he thought. He would have been in no one's way — would even have slept at the keeper's, if not wanted at the house. He would have liked just to rove about the woods, and feed the ducks in the ornamental water, and find their nests on the island in the hatching season. No one need have been the wiser. By degrees, however, the poor boy had forgotten to think even about such a project. It was so completely out of the minds of others that it dropped from his own also. When his cousin Tom died he was rather sorry — because Tom was the only one of the family who ever came to see him, or seemed to remember that he had an existence ; but Tom being only the nephew, not the son, of the house, his demise made no difference either in Dolly's estimation of himself or in other people's of Dolly.

The latter did not even say to his wife, That brings me one nearer the peerage,' as a calculating young man might have done. He only said, ' Poor Tom ; I shall miss him some how; though I only saw him about once a year.' Then Cyril, the only son and heir, followed his cousin within six months to the grave. ' By Jove ! ' said Dolly, when the lawyers wrote to him, and Burke and Debrett sent to ask par ticulars for their new editions, — ' By Jove ! I am turned into a regular swell.' It was only, however, a flash in the pan, he considered. After a few letters had passed, and he had answered all inquiries, and found that they led to nothing, and that his own life flowed on exactly as it did before, Dolly, as we have said, made no more account of his new position. His very simplicity served him instead of wisdom.

But now — now it appeared that the heavens had actually fallen ! There was no wisdom required in shutting his eyes to the brilliant future unfolded before his gaze by the little scrap of paper crunched up between his fingers. It did not say, ' You may be — you have a possible chance of being some time or other ' — it said, : You are the Earl of St Bees.' Viola la difference ! Without a single word to anyone, and in utter disregard of a sympathetic interrogation which escaped his neighbour, the young man rose, almost staggering, to his feet, pushed back his chair — dropping his napkin as he did so — and found himself at the other end of the great saloon, pushing his way past the waiters in the doorway, without being very well aware of how he came there. One or two voices accosted him, but the speakers received no answer — and even May's impatience was satisfied by the celerity with which her summons had been obeyed.