Mr. Greenwood

“ Does she wear it?"
"She used to," he replied, whispering, lest the dreadful old creature on the tub might overhear him, "but she don't now. She's too much afeard of losing it."
The tipsy comb that up to this time had been holding on by a single tooth atop of her head had now fallen down; and with her thin grey hair all loose and dabbling in the spilt rum on the counter, Lady Blank, despairing of more rum at Mr. Dealer's expense, just at present, was indulging in a refreshing nap with her head resting on her folded arms. ”

“ Greenwood, my lady,—this very morning," said the maid.
"Quarrelling, Walker?"
"Yes, my lady. There has been ever so much about it. My lord says as he won't sit down to dinner with Mr. Greenwood on no account, and Mr. Roberts has been here, all about it. He's to be turned away."
"Who is to be turned away?"
"Mr. Greenwood, my lady. Lord Hampstead has been about it all the morning. It's for that my lord the Marquis has sent for him, and nobody's to speak to him till he's packed up everything, and taken himself right away out of the house." ”

“ There was something of scorn in his voice, as though he were taking upon himself to laugh at Lord Hampstead for having chosen this way of reaching his father's house.
"He often does that," said the Marchioness.
"It's an odd way of coming into a sick house,—to disturb it in the middle of the night." Mr. Greenwood, as he spoke, stood looking at her ladyship severely.
"How am I to help it? I don't suppose anybody will be disturbed at all. He'll come round to the side door, and one of the servants will be up to let him in. He always does things differently from anybody else." ”

“ Greenwood sat down without being asked. "I am sorry to hear that you are so unwell, Lady Kingsbury."
"I have got one of my usual headaches;—only it's rather worse than usual."
"I have something to say which I am sure you will not be surprised that I should wish to tell you. I have been grossly insulted by Lord Hampstead."
"What can I do?"
"Well;—something ought to be done."
"I cannot make myself answerable for Lord Hampstead, Mr. Greenwood."
"No; of course not. He is a young man for whom no one would make himself answerable. He is head-strong, violent, and most uncourteous. ”

“ Greenwood, calmly: "I cannot hope to be without mine. They may assert what they choose: upright and impartial men never listen to one-sided statements. But perhaps the writer of that letter——"
"He is the Mr. Markham of whom I have often spoken to you, and concerning whom you were always asking me questions. I could not conceive," proceeded the count, "why you were so curious to pry into his affairs, especially as when I mentioned you to him by the name of Greenwood, he did not seem to know any thing about you. ”

“ All this Richard knew; for he took some interest in watching the career of a person who had risen from nothing to be so great a man as Mr. Greenwood was. Then, while he reflected upon these facts, our hero was compelled to admit that his brother Eugene might appear, upon the appointed day, the emblem of infinite prosperity, and yet a being from whom the truly honest would shrink back with dismay.
But we will not follow Richard Markham any further in his reflections during that sleepless night. ”

“ Ah! sir—what consolation to the poor young lady!"
"What is the address of the surgeon?" demanded Greenwood.
"Mr. Wentworth, Lower Holloway," was the reply.
"My servant shall call upon that gentleman this very evening, and carry him the first quarter's payment," continued Greenwood. "You can say to Miss Monroe—but stay: I will write her a few lines."
"Oh! do, sir. Who knows but it may console her?" ejaculated the kind-hearted Marian.
Mr. Greenwood wrote as follows:—
"Your wishes are attended to in every point. ”

“ Mr. Dealer, however, was not at all offended by the ungracious rejoinder to his civil observation. On the contrary, he winked at me an unmistakable injunction to remember what he had said about pluck, and blood, and breeding.
"Draw it mild, my beauty," he remarked; "if there isn't anything the matter with you, your safest place will be on that tub you've just got off of. Allow me, Lady Blank."
By "allowing him" he meant permitting him to lift her up on to the beer barrel again, and as he did so, he discovered the cause of her ladyship's embarrassment. She was without her shoes. ”

“ No, don't go, Tressidar. Listen to what I've discovered."
"Have a stiff glass of grog, sir?" asked the sub., after Mr. Greenwood had washed his face and hands and had smoothed his ruffled hair.
"Thanks, I could do with one," replied Greenwood, Senior. "In fact, I was on the point of asking for a whisky, only I thought from your look of astonishment that you imagined I had already had one too many. No, thank Heaven, I've got off lightly, but I've left my best umbrella on the beach."
"Fire away, pater," said Eric. "We are all attention."
Mr. Greenwood "fired away." ”

“ But he was mistaken in supposing that Lady Blank was sociably inclined. As we approached her, she was evidently endeavouring to conceal something under a corner of her shawl from the keen eyes of Mr. Dealer, as she fixed her eyes on him in a half-frightened, half-defiant manner.
"What's the mischief now, duchess?" said he cheerfully:
"Nothing that concerns a low beast such as you are," her ladyship replied, hugging the corner of her shawl and shrinking away from him. ”

“ Greenwood as the four men and Bruno boarded the waiting car.
"An old friend of mine, a veterinary surgeon," explained Mr. Barcroft. "He lives but a few miles from me. The world is small. I hardly expected to find him here."
A quarter of an hour later the car pulled up at "The Old Croft," at Penkestle, a long, two-storied stone building like many another to be found in Cornwall.
"Show Farrar his room, Eric," said Mr. Greenwood after the guests had been introduced to Mrs. Greenwood and her two daughters: Doris, now Mrs. Ronald Tressidar, and Winifred, a lively girl of seventeen or eighteen. ”

“ Mr. Greenwood, having thus complimented himself upon those "toils" whereby he had gained his wealth, proceeded to take a large portfolio from the iron safe.
Partially opening its various compartments, so as to obtain a glance at the contents, he smiled still more complacently than when his eyes lingered on the canvass bags.
"Sixteen thousand pounds in Bank of England notes," he exclaimed aloud, as he consigned the portfolio to the tin case. "And these twenty thousand pounds, judiciously applied in Paris, will produce me twenty-five thousand clear gain—twenty-five thousand at the least!" ”

“ Greenwood, sternly.
"I said nothing, sir: I merely banged the door in his face."
"That was right and proper. I am determined to put down vagrancy. Nothing is more offensive to the eye than those crawling wretches who are perpetually dinning in one's ears a long tale about their being half-starved."
"Yes, sir—it is very disagreeable, sir," observed Lafleur.
"The free and independent electors of Rottenborough have not sent me to Parliament for nothing, I can assure you," continued Mr. Greenwood.
"No, sir," responded Lafleur. ”

“ The Whig whipper-in surveyed him with a glance of indignant disappointment; but Mr. Greenwood affected not to notice the feeling which his conduct had excited. On the contrary, he passed over to the Opposition benches (for it must be remembered that the Whigs then occupied the ministerial seat) where his accession to the Tory ranks was very warmly greeted—being the more pleasant as it was totally unexpected—by Sir Robert Peel and the other leaders of that party.
Mr. Greenwood was not a man to allow the grass to grow under his feet. ”

“ On the wrong side of sixty, he was as hale, robust, and healthy-looking a man as could be seen. His ample chest, massive limbs, ponderous body, and large head denoted strength of no ordinary kind. His hair was iron-grey, rough, and bushy; his eyes large, grey, and intelligent; his countenance rigid in expression, although broad and round in shape. This was Joseph Hume.
Precisely at a quarter to five the Speaker took the chair; Mr. Greenwood was then introduced by the Tory whipper-in, and (as the papers said next morning) "took the oaths and his seat for Rottenborough." ”

“ Why, Greenwood, in his bold, dashing manner, gains more in a day than I, in my miserable, droning fashion, earn in a month. To be afraid to touch the gold that is thrown in one's way in this wonderful city, is to be a coward—a very coward. Yes—I see it all! Greenwood is right. Make money—honestly, if you can; but, at all events, make money!"
Mr. Tomlinson's soliloquy had arrived at this very pleasing conclusion, just as the door of his office opened, and a clerk entered to acquaint his master that a gentleman of the name of Chichester desired to speak to him. ”

“ Your dear mother saved mine from the grave. I am Frank Crofts, to whom you used to bring cakes at Chelsea. Mr. Greenwood knows all about me, and my scheme; here is a letter for you from him; and I shall come for you on Saturday night; fear nothing; try to be easy: you will soon be with my mother, and honest people.' So saying, he retired. Mr. Greenwood's letter was satisfactory. And two nights of repose gave her strength to descend from the room two stories high by means of a ladder. Frank securing some linen she had provided, [Pg 144] gave himself no trouble to remove the means of her escape. ”

“ But this deed—he demands the deed of guarantee: he presses for that! I must give him the security to show my good-will; and then neutralise that concession on my part, in the manner already resolved upon. How strange was the account he gave me of Richard Markham! That unhappy young man appears to be the victim of the most wonderful combination of suspicious circumstances ever known; for guilty he could not be—oh! no—impossible!"
Mr. Greenwood's meditations were interrupted by the entrance of Lord Tremordyn.
This nobleman was a short, stout, good-tempered man. ”

“ MR. GREENWOOD AND MR. VERNON. It was in the middle of April, and about two o'clock in the afternoon, when the Honourable Gilbert Vernon knocked at the door of Mr. Greenwood's mansion in Spring Gardens.
He was immediately admitted by a footman in livery; and Filippo, the Italian valet, who was lounging in the hall at the moment, conducted him to the elegant drawing-room where the Member for Rottenborough was seated. ”

“ What—are you a politician?"
"Not so profound nor so well versed as your lordship; but I flatter myself that, aided by your lordship's advice——"
"Lady Tremordyn would never consent to it!"
"And by Lady Tremordyn's suggestions——"
"It would never do! She will have a man of rank and family; and—excuse me, Greenwood—although you are no doubt rich enough far a lord, and well educated, and clever, and so on—the deuce of it is that we don't know who the devil you are!"
"An excellent family—an excellent family, my dear lord," exclaimed Mr. Greenwood ”

“ Has she gone back to Hendon yet?"
"I don't know, my lady."
"This is his punishment for having run counter to his uncle's wishes and his uncle's principles. You cannot touch pitch and not be defiled." The pitch, as Mr. Greenwood very well understood, was the first Marchioness. "Did he say anything about Hampstead?"
"Not a word."
"I suppose we are not to talk about him either! Unfortunate young man! I wonder whether he feels himself how thoroughly he is destroying the family."
"I should think he must."
"Those sort of men are so selfish that they never think of any one else. ”

“ Markham said that henceforth the child should stay with its mother in his house. Oh! sir, there lives not a man of nobler disposition than my master: he is all that is generous, humane, liberal, and upright!"
Mr. Greenwood turned aside, and appeared to contemplate some papers with deep interest for nearly a minute ”

“ There will be the opening and the shutting of the door, and the servant will be going about the passages, and there will be the bringing in of the luggage."
"He won't have any luggage." Mr. Greenwood had been aware of this; but it might be well that he should affect ignorance.
"It is like everything else that he does," he said, being anxious to induce the stepmother to speak ill of her stepson. But the bent of her mind had been turned. She was not conscious of the cause which had produced the change, but she was determined to speak no further evil of her stepchildren before Mr. Greenwood. ”

“ Greenwood, "I am not aware——"
"Silence, sir!" cried the Italian noble, imperatively: "I have but one word more to say. Circumstances have revealed to me your profligate character; and never can I be too thankful that my daughter should have escaped an alliance with a man who bribes his agents to administer opiate drugs to an unprotected female for the vilest of purposes. Mr. Tomlinson," added the count, "pardon me for having used such language in your apartment, and in your presence." ”

“ Like all the rest, he helped as a boy in the butcher's business, and when he was old enough, being inclined for the sea, as they all were, he was bound to a Mr. Lisle, a shipowner. His first voyage was in the Mayday, Captain May, bound with a batch of convicts for Norfolk Island, in the year 1843, The Mayday was never heard of afterwards. Then there was my brother Alfred. He was apprenticed to the sea, but, while still a boy, died of fever out in Calcutta. Of all the eight brothers there are only four now alive - George, Edmund, Arthur, and myself. ”

“ The night of sorrow will come speedily enough."
Early in the evening, Lord Glenmore's carriage came dashing through the rustic gateway of the Rectory. Mr. Rivers was at the hall door awaiting the children. Margaret noticed that her papa looked serious, and that he kissed her with more than usual tenderness; but the others were too much occupied with the pleasant stories they had to tell of the day at the Castle, to remark on any change in him. They ran into the silent house, laughing and chatting merrily. ”