CHAPTER XXIV.
LORD ETHALWOOD—A CHRONICLE OF PAST EVENTS—THE SHADOW ON THE HOUSE.
For some four or five weeks after this Peace was busily engaged in executing the orders he had received from people of almost every denomination. It was evident enough that he did not intend to shift his quarters for some time, as orders were falling in pretty fast, and he had promised Bricket to regild his frames before he left the village.
Lord Ethalwood returned to Broxbridge Hall. Before introducing him to the reader, we must, for the purpose of our history, give a brief chronicle of past events. He had the reputation of being proud and haughty to a fault. Austere and inflexible as he was in outward appearance, he was not deficient in the softer and more tender promptings of the heart; but he was proud—this fact his best friends could not deny, and therein, perhaps, lay the secret of all his trials and troubles.
He was proud of his name, of his lineage, of his unsullied honour, proud of the repute in which he was held, of his high standing in the county.
As a river gathers force and strength from every tributary stream, so he made every gift heaven had bestowed upon him tributary to his pride.
It was a grand old place he owned, in the county in which he was born. Broxbridge Hall had everything to recommend it. Situated on the summit of a hill, with acres and acres of land spreading out on all sides, fine old woods, fertile land, through which a silver stream wound its sinuous course, and a house of the old Elizabethan type, together with a princely income. Nevertheless this man was not happy.
Nay more, he was supremely wretched.
No wonder a shadow had crossed over his house—a shadow deep and sinister.
The misfortunes that had befallen him and his were, to a certain extent, attributable to circumstances beyond his control; but he had added to these misfortunes by his own indomitable pride.