CHAP.PAGE
[I].—CONCERNING TWO LADIES WHO SAT IN THE MALORY PEW1
[II].—ALL THAT THE DRAPER'S WIFE COULD TELL13
[III].—HOME TO WARE21
[IV].—ON THE GREEN OF CARDYLLIAN29
[V].—A VISIT TO HAZELDEN40
[VI].—MALORY BY MOONLIGHT51
[VII].—A VIEW FROM THE REFECTORY WINDOW62
[VIII].—A NIGHT SAIL70
[IX].—THE REVEREND ISAAC DIXIE81
[X].—READING AN EPITAPH93
[XI].—FAREWELL104
[XII].—IN WHICH CLEVE VERNEY WAYLAYS AN OLD LADY114
[XIII].—THE BOY WITH THE CAGE122
[XIV].—NEWS ABOUT THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAINS135
[XV].—WITHIN THE SANCTUARY154
[XVI].—AN UNLOOKED-FOR VISITOR170
[XVII].—THEY VISIT THE CHAPEL OF PENRUTHYN AGAIN184
[XVIII].—CLEVE AGAIN BEFORE HIS IDOL203
[XIX].—CLEVE VERNEY TAKES A BOLD STEP214
[XX].—HIS FATE227
[XXI].—CAPTAIN SHRAPNELL236
[XXII].—SIR BOOTH SPEAKS246
[XXIII].—MARGARET HAS HER WARNING256
[XXIV].—SIR BOOTH IN A PASSION263
[XXV].—IN WHICH THE LADIES PEEP INTO CARDYLLIAN271

THE TENANTS OF MALORY.


CHAPTER I.

CONCERNING TWO LADIES WHO SAT IN THE MALORY PEW.

There were tenants at last in Malory; and the curiosity of the honest residents of Cardyllian, the small and antique town close by, was at once piqued and mortified by the unaccountable reserve of these people.

For four years, except from one twisted chimney in the far corner of the old house, no smoke had risen from its flues. Tufts of grass had grown up between the paving-stones of the silent stable-yard, grass had crept over the dark avenue, which, making a curve near the gate, is soon lost among the sombre trees that throw a perpetual shadow upon it; the groves of nettles had spread and thickened among their trunks; and in the signs of neglect and decay, the monastic old place grew more than ever triste.

The pretty little Welsh town of Cardyllian stands near the shingle of a broad estuary, beyond which tower the noble Cambrian mountains. High and dim, tier above tier, undulating hills, broken by misty glens, and clothed with woods, rise from the opposite shore, and are backed, range behind range, by the dim outlines of Alpine peaks and slopes, and flanked by purple and gold-tinted headlands, rising dome-like from the sea.