Page:What will he do with it.djvu/384

374 nothing so injudicious. I am a Vipont, too, and all for the family maxim—' Vipont with Vipont, and come what may! '"

"I stand rebuked. But I am no Vipont. I married, it is true, into their house, and they married, ages ago, into mine; but no drop in the blood of time-servers flows through the veins of the last childless Darrell. Pardon. I allow the merit of the Vipont race; no family more excites my respectful interest. What of their births, deaths, and marriages?"

. "As to births, Carr has just welcomed the birth of a grandson; the first-born of his eldest son (who married last year a daughter of the Duke of Halifax)—a promising young man, a Lord in the Admiralty. Carr has a second

son in the Hussars; has just purchased his step: the other

boys are still at school. He has three daughters too, fine girls, admirably brought up; indeed, now I think of it, the eldest, Honoria, might suit you; highly accomplished—well read, interests herself in politics—a great admirer of intellect—of a very serious turn of mind, too."

. "A female politician with a serious turn of mind— a farthing rushlight in a London fog! Hasten on to subjects less gloomy. Whose funeral Achievement is that yonder?"

. "The late Lord Niton's, father to Lady Montfort."

. "Lady Montfort! Her father was a Lyndsay, and died before the Flood. A deluge, at least, has gone over me and my world since I looked on the face of his widow."

. "I speak of the present Lord Montfort's wife--the Earl's. You of the poor Marquis's—the last Marquis —the marquisate is extinct. Surely, whatever your wanderings, you must have heard of the death of the last Marquis of Montfort?"

"Yes, I heard of that," answered Darrell, in a somewhat husky and muttered voice, " So he is dead, the young man!— What killed him .?"

. "A violent attack of croup—quite sudden. He was staying at Carr's at the time. I suspect that Carr made him talk! a thing he was not accustomed to do: deranged his system altogether. But don't let us revive painful subjects."

. "Was she with him at the time .?"

. "Lady Montfort?—No; they were very seldom together."

. "She is not married again yet?"

. "No, but still young, and so beautiful, she will have many oilers. I know those who are waiting to