'I could easily, from your manner, surmise as much, you know. Perhaps I
might even have foretold it, years ago.'

'Foretold--what? Not the murder of Lord Pharanx?'

'Something of that kind,' he answered with a smile; 'but proceed--tell
me all the facts you know.'

Word-mysteries of this sort fell frequent from the lips of the prince.
I continued the narrative.

'The two, then, met, and were reconciled. But it was a reconciliation
without cordiality, without affection--a shaking of hands across a
barrier of brass; and even this hand-shaking was a strictly
metaphorical one, for they do not seem ever to have got beyond the
interchange of a frigid bow. The opportunities, however, for
observation were few. Soon after Randolph's arrival at Orven Hall, his
father entered on a life of the most absolute seclusion. The mansion is
an old three-storied one, the top floor consisting for the most part of
sleeping-rooms, the first of a library, drawing-room, and so on, and
the ground-floor, in addition to the dining and other ordinary rooms,
of another small library, looking out (at the side of the house) on a
low balcony, which, in turn, looks on a lawn dotted with flower-beds.
It was this smaller library on the ground-floor that was now divested
of its books, and converted into a bedroom for the earl. Hither he
migrated, and here he lived, scarcely ever leaving it. Randolph, on his
part, moved to a room on the first floor immediately above this. Some
of the retainers of the family were dismissed, and on the remaining few
fell a hush of expectancy, a sense of wonder, as to what these things
boded. A great enforced quiet pervaded the building, the least undue
noise in any part being sure to be followed by the angry voice of the
master demanding the cause. Once, as the servants were supping in the
kitchen on the side of the house most remote from that which he
occupied, Lord Pharanx, slippered and in dressing-gown, appeared at the
doorway, purple with rage, threatening to pack the whole company of
them out of doors if they did not moderate the clatter of their knives
and forks. He had always been regarded with fear in his own household,
and the very sound of his voice now became a terror. His food was taken
to him in the room he had made his habitation, and it was remarked
that, though simple before in his gustatory tastes, he now--possibly
owing to the sedentary life he led--became fastidious, insisting on
_recherche_ bits. I m