oes talk
of Fanny? Were he to go she would talk to somebody else who might
be perhaps less fit to hear her, and he would, of course, talk to
everybody."

"Why has he not obeyed me?" demanded the Marquis, angrily. "It is
I who have employed him. I have been his patron, and now he turns
against me." Thus the Marquis went on till his strength would not
suffice for any further talking. Hampstead found himself quite unable
to bring him to any other subject on that day. He was sore with the
injury done him in that he was not allowed to be the master in his
own house.

On the next morning Hampstead heard from Dr. Spicer that his father
was in a state of health very far from satisfactory. The doctor
recommended that he should be taken away from Trafford, and at last
went so far as to say that his advice extended to separating his
patient from Lady Kingsbury. "It is, of course, a very disagreeable
subject," said the doctor, "for a medical man to meddle with; but,
my lord, the truth is that Lady Kingsbury frets him. I don't, of
course, care to hear what it is, but there is something wrong."
Lord Hampstead, who knew very well what it was, did not attempt
to contradict him. When, however, he spoke to his father of the
expediency of change of air, the Marquis told him that he would
rather die at Trafford than elsewhere.

That his father was really thinking of his death was only too
apparent from all that was said and done. As to those matters of
business, they were soon settled between them. There was, at any
rate, that comfort to the poor man that there was no probability of
any difference between him and his heir as to the property or as to
money. Half-an-hour settled all that. Then came the time which had
been arranged for Hampstead's return to his sister. But before he
went there were conversations between him and Mr. Greenwood, between
him and his stepmother, and between him and his father, to which, for
the sake of our story, it may be as well to refer.

"I think your father is ill-treating me," said Mr. Greenwood. Mr.
Greenwood had allowed himself to be talked into a thorough contempt
and dislike for the young lord; so that he had almost brought himself
to believe in those predictions as to the young lord's death in which
Lady Kingsbury was always indulging. As a consequence of this, he now
spoke in a voice very different from those obsequious tones which he
had before been accustomed to use when he had regarded Lord Ha