Yes, his niece said, she would stay; her heart went out with a feeling of pity and tenderness toward the man, who all his life, had lived in such loneliness and isolation, and she resolved that she would devote herself exclusively to his comfort during the little while that he remained upon earth.
Mr. Thurston was detained a day or two to attend to some business, relating to the will, which gave everything, with the exception of some annuities to old servants, to Virginia Alexander and her heirs forever.
She had come to Englewood on the very day of Mr. William Heath’s accident, and it was the following morning, at the very hour of her first interview with her uncle, that Sir William Heath received the telegram announcing his cousin’s critical condition.
He, too, left on the two o’clock train for Liverpool, reaching Middlewich about the same time that Mrs. Alexander had arrived at Englewood the night before.
It was three days later, that in accordance with his proposition to the Duke of Falmouth to act as amanuensis to Lord Norton in his cousin’s place, he went to Englewood to begin his work under the old lord’s direction, little dreaming of the surprise and joy in store for him there.
When the butler answered his ring, he stated his business, and was shown directly to the invalid’s chamber, where he found him propped up in bed with manuscripts lying all about him, and impatiently awaiting his appearance.
He spent several hours, learning the plan of the work, making notes, and even venturing a few suggestions upon some points regarding which he was well posted, and then took his leave promising to get regularly to work the next day.
As he was following the servant down stairs, the man remarked that his carriage was not ready, but if he would step into the library for a few moments, he would inform him when it came to the door.
He signified his willingness to do so and passed down the wide old hall, which was paneled in oak exquisitively carved, to a lofty room, furnished and frescoed in rich tints, and lined from floor to ceiling with books of every description.
It was a most luxurious apartment, and plainly indicated that the old lord, eccentric though he might be on some points, had loved the elegancies of life. If he had been something of a miser, as report accredited him, it could not have been in anything relating to his own comfort or tastes.