The Leather Plater, 303 



to the old mail that he wished to speak to him on tlie most im- 

 portant business, and the answer which he received was that he 

 might send up any message he had to dehver by the footman. 

 Jack's patience was now fairly exhausted, and bursting out with, 

 " Then tell the old man that dear Miss Annie (Annie was also the 

 mother's name) is now lying dead up at my house 3" and, wiping away 

 a tear which trickled down his rugged cheek — the first he iiad ever 

 been known to shed — he left the servants' hall, and went round to 

 the stables for his horse. 



The serv^ant went upstairs and delivered the message exactly in 

 Radford's own words. When he entered the study, the old father 

 was walking to and fro, a rigid, gloomy frown spread over his 

 whole countenance, and his breast torn with the fiercest of all 

 human conflicts — a struggle between affection and pride. It is 

 probable that in a short time nature would have asserted her sway, and 

 the old manwould have eventually become reconciled to his daughter^ 

 but his pride would not allow him to make the concession too freely 

 — and behold the results ! When the man delivered the message, he 

 watched the old father's countenance anxiously, to see what would 

 be the effect of it ; but he watched in vain, for not a muscle of that 

 iron face moved — not the slightest change came over those gloomy 

 features. He stopped in his walk, looked the servant full in the 

 face, and the only remark he made was in a tone of thunder, "Send 

 Radford up to me." Radford had not left the stables, and in five 

 minutes was closeted with the old father in his study. The inter- 

 view was a brief one, and all that Radford said when he returned to 

 the servants' hall was this, " I always thought that the old man had 

 the hardest nerve of any man in the county, but I never knew it 

 before to-day." 



That evening the body was conveyed over to the Hall in a hearse 5 

 a few days after it was buried in the family vault, and the dark 

 hatchment frowned over the massive old doorway at the Hall. The 

 last time that hatchment was up was when his poor child's mother 

 had died in giving her birth. Since then his wife had lived to him 

 in the image of his daughter. She was now lost to h^ni for ever. 



