THE SIX OF SPADES. 137 



with a cheerful countenance (my wife informed me) 

 was my Lord Evelyn. He was just as beaming with 

 mirth and kindness as ever. " Sad business," he said, 

 " Mrs. Oldacre ; bad business disgraceful business," 

 with a broad grin on his face. And then he began to 

 sing something (Mrs. 0. continued) about a way they 

 Lad in the army, or words to that effect. 



Yes, they all fled from that stern and stricken duke, 

 as though they were seized with a sudden fear that he 

 was going to bark and bite them. True indeed it was, 

 that then, and for many after-days, his grace was not 

 good^ company. He was seen only by those who 

 waited upon him, and their report of bis melancholy 

 was very ^pitiful. What, think you, happened next ? 



My friends (said the good old gardener, with tears 

 in his kind blue eyes), it pleased God in His goodness, 

 by that great humiliation, to change, and, as I believe, 

 to save one of His creatures. Some three weeks after 

 the crisis, the duke left the castle for the first time, 

 and went to the mausoleum. He remained there so 

 long that some of the household were beginning to be 

 alarmed, when he came quietly home, and sent a note 

 to his chaplain, with whom shortly afterwards he had 

 a two hours' interview. We have always thought that 

 he made then a first and full confession. He was 

 from that time, at all events, an altered man. He 

 sent not only his pardon to his daughter, but a 

 fatherly invitation to her old home ; and she came 

 with her husband, and with gladness for all our 

 hearts. 



This reconciliation, the first fruit of that victory 

 which he had won over self, soon brought its great 



