The Young Duchess; or, Memoirs of a Lady of Quality — page 64: what you’re looking at

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50 THE YOUNG DUCHESS; OR, MEMOIRS OF A LADY OF QUALITY. the village; and one said to the other, ‘‘ What a lark this is, Jack! Only think! yesterday morn- ing in London—this evening here in a little willage at the farther end of Dorsetshire !” ‘‘ A lark indeed, Tim!” replied Mr. Peppercorn to the observation just made by his friend Mr. Gaffney. ‘‘ And what a blessed thing it was that this here business should have turned up directly after you was so preciously cast down about the affair at the bank!” Tim Gaffney was about to make a reply, when the sounds of another equipage rolling into the usually quiet little village of Southale, met their ears. It was a postchaise—and a single traveller was seated inside. , . “By Jove, I know who he is!” enclaimed Tim Gaffney, as the chaise swept past. “ Travelling private—incog., I s’pose, as they call it. But let’s go and see.” ‘““Who is it?” demanded Jack Peppercorn. * Don’t let’s go and neglect other business just to gape at a traveller getting down at an inn. Re- member, we ought to go and take a survey of the Firs——” “ Hold your tongue, you fool!” rejoined Tim Gaffney. “This swell cove is a Duke, and how do we know but what it may be worth our while to look after him as well as t’other business?” ““ By jingo, yes!” exelaimed Peppercorn; and they accordingly bent their steps back again to~ wards the tavern. . It was the young Duke of Ardleigh who alighted from the postehiaise; and the landlord at once coming forth, exclaimed with mingled joy and astonishment, “Why, Mr. Trévor, is it you? Your good lady will be surprised! I hope nothing has happened that you come so quickly upon her heels ?—but Pm sure she no more éxpects you than I should expect Squire Ponsford’s daughter to come in and ask for a quartern of gin and a screw of tobacco.” ““No—nothing is wrong, Mr. Goodman,” said the Duke. ‘And so my wife—Mrs, Frevor—is here? And the child. = ‘Here also,” replied the landlord. “The beautiful infant is sleeping so nice, Mr. Trevor!” cried Mrs. Goodman, the worthy land- lady, who now came hurrying down the stair- case. “Up here?”’—and Herbert rushing past the landlady, sprang up the staircase. He opened the first door at random, for he was in a state of considerable excitement; and it hap- pened to be the room where his little son lay sleeping upon a sofa, with Susan the nursemaid seated by the side. As we have already hinted, Susan knew that something serious must have happened between her master and mistress, but she was ignorant of the particulars, and little sus- pected that the former bore a ducal rank. She had however learnt from Ethel’s lips that every- thing was at an end between herself and her hus- band, and that they should never meet again; so that Susan started up from her chair with an eja- culation of astonishment—almost of alarm—when her master thus abruptly burst in upon her. ‘““ Where is your mistress, Susan ?”—and catch- ing up the child, he strained it to his breast, so passionately covering it with kisses that being awakened from its sleep it began to cry. Susan quickly gave the intimation that Mrs. Trevor had gone to see the Milners; and the eja- culation ‘‘Ah!” burst from his lips in a manner as if to imply that a suspicion he had previously conceived was now suddenly confirmed by the in- formation just given. THastily restoring his little Alfred to the sofa, and imprinting another kiss upon the boy’s forehead, the Duke left the room almost as abruptly as he had entered it. Meanwhile Tim Gaffney and Jack Peppercorn had overheard the conversation which had taken place betwixt the Duke, the landlord, and the landlady, immediately after the young nobleman had alighted from the postchaise. “By goles!” whispered Gaffney to his compa- nion, “this is a rum start! Mr. Trevor—his wife, Mrs, .Trevor—and the child! Oh, ho! his Grace must have a mistress, then! Let’s see about it.” They advanced to the bar and ordered fresh glasses of ale. _ “Who is that genelman that’s just arrived ?” inquired Gaffney. ‘Oh, that’s Mr. Trevor,” responded the land- lord. = I suppose by what I heard him say 4% “Yes—married to as pretty a creature as you could see in a day’s march. She lived many long years in this village, at the very cottage you might have seen just at the entrance as you came along on the outside of the coach.” . “Fo be sure, we noticed it!” ebserved Pepper- corn. “But who is Mr. Trevor ?” “Y¥ don’t know exactly,” rejoined Mr. Good- man, “but I think I’ve heard say he was junior partner in a mercantile house in London.” “Oh, pardner in a mercantile house—eh?” ob- served Tim Gaffney. “Well, but where did he marry the young lady you was a-speaking of ?” ‘Where did he marry her?” exclaimed the landlord, with an air of surprise at the question. “Why where the deuce should he marry her but here where she had lived so many years— where her father and mother was buried in the old church—and where she was honourably wooed and won by him who is now her husband ? I remember the wedding-day—it was all very quiet and private—but a prettier creature than Ethel Fraser was that morning, I never saw in all my life!” “A werry pretty sight, I des say,” observed Tim Gaffney: and tossing off the contents of his glass, he again issued forth from the tavern, ac- companied by his friend Mr. Peppercorn. They walked on in silence till they reached the outskirts of the village nearest to the church; and then Tim Gaffney, stopping short, looked hard in his companion’s face, and said, “ Jack, if all this is true that the landlord has told us, we've just tumbled over a secret that will make our for- tunes.” , ‘Why, it’s nothing but a secret marriage— that’s all,” interjected Peppercorn. “You fool!” cried Gaffney ; “it’s no marriage at all!—it’s bigamy !—that’s the Duke of Ard- leigh, that is!—he’s been married some years and got a Duchess living in London. So don’t you see——_”” | “ “By jingo, Ido see!” ejaculated Peppercorn. Why, it ought to be worth a thousand pounds apiece to us. Surely the landlord can’t have made any mistake about the wedding ?” YN Wn) COMMIEIOO Colin