"Had a fit, sir—the doctors are with him—my mistress—for my lord can't speak—sent me express for you."
"Lend me your horse—there, just lengthen the stirrups."
While the groom was engaged at the saddle, Ferrers turned to Cesarini. "Do nothing rashly," said he; "I would say, if I might, nothing at all, without consulting me; but mind, I rely, at all events, on your promise—your oath."
"You may," said Cesarini, gloomily.
"Farewell, then," said Lumley, as he mounted; and in a few moments he was out of sight.
CHAPTER II.
"O world, thou wast the forest to this hart,
* * * * *
Dost thou here lie?"—/Julius Caesar/.
AS Lumley leapt from his horse at his uncle's door, the disorder and bustle of those demesnes, in which the severe eye of the master usually preserved a repose and silence as complete as if the affairs of life were carried on by clockwork, struck upon him sensibly. Upon the trim lawn the old women employed in cleaning and weeding the walks were all assembled in a cluster, shaking their heads ominously in concert, and carrying on their comments in a confused whisper. In the hall, the housemaid (and it was the first housemaid whom Lumley had ever seen in that house, so invisibly were the wheels of the domestic machine carried on) was leaning on her broom, "swallowing with open mouth a footman's news." It was as if, with the first slackening of the rigid rein, human nature broke loose from the conventual stillness in which it had ever paced its peaceful path in that formal mansion.