Page:Arminell, a social romance (1896).djvu/249

 Rh am worth. Poor Tubb! He is a workman and will feel the loss of his son, though the fellow was not good for much—I know that I should be horribly cut up if anything were to happen to my cub."

He threw himself into the carriage, and continued his exclamations of distress and wonder how it could have come about. "Macduff must have gone to work clumsily. Bless the man, he is a machine."

The carriage stopped.

"Shall I attend you, my lord?" asked the footman at the door, as he held it.

"Attend me! What for? Me! I'm going to enquire about the matter, then I shall go on to Tubb's cottage. Tell my lady not to wait dinner."

He swung his umbrella, and walked away. He marched to the quarry where had been Patience Kite's cottage. He thought it possible that some one might still be on the spot, and that there he would learn the latest, fullest and most authentic particulars. That the old woman had been seen crouched at her hearth, that the chimney had fallen upon her, and that she had not been exhumed from the ruins, was to him inexplicable. When he came out on the clearing where the ruins of the cottage stood, Lord Lamerton was surprised to find it occupied by a crowd. A lantern was slung to one of the principals of the roof, above the head of a speaker who occupied a table that had been drawn out of the cottage. That speaker was Mr. James Welsh. Lord Lamerton did not know him by sight, only by reputation.

As my lord appeared on the scene, those there assembled shrank aside, with a look of confusion and shyness. He listened for a moment to the orator, and then proceeded to push his way through the throng, which divided to allow him to pass: and, approaching the table, he said, "I beg your pardon, sir; I have not the honour of knowing your