The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 91: what you’re looking at

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80 THE MYSTERIES OF THE OOURT. made sundry and divers demands for compensation in lieu of proper notice; and he pretty plainly inti- mated that something in the shape of hush-money | gentleman, must likewise be forthcoming. To all these de- mands Mr. Choker found himself compelled to submit ; and it cost him a pretty penny to pur- chase the silence of those individuals. The villa was given up that very day; and Mr. White Choker returned into the bosom of his family a wiser if not a better man. But the next time he attended the committee of the Foreign Cannibal- Reclaiming, Negro-Christianising, and Naked- Savage-Clothing Society, he for a long time sate on thorns for fear leat the affair should have got wind. As Snuffiencse was however silent, Mr. Choker gathered courage: but for many a long day after- wards be groaned as he walked about—and at night his excellent better half fancied that he must be troubled with indigestion because of the restlessness of his dreams. CHAPTER XCIX. THE CHATEAU. Tx scene now changes to the south of France. In the neighbourhood of one of those beautiful villages which ornament the valleys on the out- skirte of the Pyrenees, stood a large, old-fashioned, rambling, dark brick edifice, known as the Chateau. It bad originally belonged to a noble and ancient family which had emigrated during the troubles of the first revolation; and that family had become extinct in a foreign clime. The Chateau was once the centre of a spacious and fair domain: but this had become parcelled out into small farms and allotments—so that at the time of which we are writing—namely, a few years back—the lands which had once constituted the domain of a single individual were in the pos- session of at least a score of different proprietors. The Chateau itself had long been shut up; and with only the garden remaining attached to it, it had become the property of a lawyer in the adja- cent village. Having been neglected for a great number of years, the building had sustained con- siderable injury; and the lawyer, finding it diffi- cult to obtain a wealthy tenant, had felt by no means inclined to lay out money in repairing a place which seemed destined to remain empty. It was only fitted from its dimensions for the oocupa- tion of a wealthy family having a large establish- ment of servants; but no family of such means was likely to take a mansion that had such a small patch of land attached, and this surrounded by the allotments of poor proprietors. Besides, it would have required thousands of pounds to far- nish the Chateau suitably; and as no rich family would think of burying themselves entirely in that seclusion, but would assuredly pass at least a moiety of the year in the gay capital, it was equally improbable that any one would incur such an enormous expense to furnish the Chateau as a mere tem residence for a few months at atime. It must likewise he observed that super- stition had lent its aid to render the old Chateau all the more difficult to let ; and thus, as we have _ eaid, for many long years it had remained empty. At length, some five years previous to the date which our story has reached, an elderly French accompanied by his daughter, and at- tended only by one female domestic, arrived in the neighbouring village—where they took lodgings for a few weeks. We will presently describe them more perticularily. Suffice it for the present to say that M. Volney—for this was the gentleman’s name— to make inquiries about the Chateau ; and after some little negotiation with the lawyer, he took it. Everybody in the village was surprised : for there were several small and picturesque houses to let in the neighbourhood, any one of which would have been large enougk for the accommodation of so small a family as the Volneys. But on the other hand, the Chateau was to be let at a rental lees than even that of either one of the houses just alluded to; and it was therefore conjectured that this might be a consideration with a man whose means were evi- dently exceedingly limited. Indeed, the rent asked of him for the Chateau was to be little more than a mere nominal sum for the ‘first term of seven years. Superstition, as we have already eaid, had given the Chateau a bad name; and the lawyer to whom dt belonged, ‘naturally anxious to improve his property by amending its repute, caloulated that if respectable people lived in it for @ period, its former character as a haunted house would be forgotten. And then, too, M. Volney undertook to make certain repairs, as well as to restore the garden : and thus, under all these cir- cumstances, the lawyer was well enough contented with a comparatively nominal rental. On the other hand, the Chateau seemed to suit M. Volney’s disposition and frame of mind—aend according to conjecture, hie pecuniary means like- wise. He was aman bordering upon eixty at the time when we purpose to introduce him to our reader. Somewhat above the middle height, he was thin; and though still in possession of full activity of limb, yet his pace was invariably slow, as if measured according to the solemn gloom of his thoughts. His countenance was pale with the evidences of some deeply seated sorrow indelibly stamped upon it. His gase was cold and search- ing: no one at the first glance, or-at the first meeting with M. Voiney, would become pre- in his favour. His manners were as cold as his looks: there was something in them which repelled an advance towards friendship, and seemed to render an intimacy impossible. He spoke but little—never unnecessarily—and as much as possible in mere monosyllables. Yet de- spite that glacial gare—that freezing manner— that undisguised dislike for conversation, there was an unmistakeable sir of good breeding about M. Volney—that gloss of the courtly drawing- room which when once it invests the individual, can seldom be shaken off, any more than a talented person can by ordinary circumstances be rendered stupid or a well-educated one can become ignorant, M. Volney was in the habit of taking long soli- tary walks; and yet it could scarcely be for the cake of the beautiful surrounding scenery, inas- much as the of that or of any other enjoy. ment appeared to be dead within him. When he was oncountered by any one of the rural inhabi- tants in those walks, ho was invariably prooceding at the slow measured paco we have already alluded CONIC OOO co