LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2110, 27 November 1880, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE MYSTEBY ev LORD BRACKENBUEY: A NOVEL. BY AMELIA B. EDWABDS, Author of "Barbara's History," "Lebenham's Vow," &c. [Continued. Chapitb. IX. RETROSPECTIVE : THE BBACKENBURY lAW BTJIT. Although the Brackenbnry peerage was of comparatively recent date, being in fact no older than the fouiteenth year of George the Third, yet the Brackenbnry property was an old property, and boasted a good long pedigree. That is to say, it had been in the hands of the Brackenbnry family, descending from the father to son in the direct line, ever since the latter end of the reign of Elizabeth. Counting by acreage it was an extensive property ; but as a good third of that aoreage consisted of bare hills and barren moor, and the rest of a light sandy soil, the Brackenburys were for many generations less wealthy than if their patrimony had been of smaller extent and better quality. As landed gentry they were moderately affluent; as peers they were positively poor. Then, all at once, there opened upon them the prospect of wealth. On a certain waste tract of most unpromising aspeot, which he had bought more with a view to rounding his property on that side than for any probable value that it would ever possess for himself or his descendants, Lord Brackenbnry's grandfather discovered a seam of coal. The original owner of this priceless piece of waste land was a certain Sqnire Langtrey, a genial, careless, extravagant gentleman of the old school, whose estates adjoined the Brackenbnry property, but who had so entangled his affairs that his son, on coming of age, consented to cut off the entail, and satisfy the creditors. It was a piece of land that had always been more or less of an annoyance to the Braokenburyß. It lay, as it were, islanded in the midst of one of their moors. It interfered with their shooting. It harboured their partridges. It gave rise to endless squabbling between their own and their neighbor's gamekeepers. It was, in short, profitless to the Langtreys, and a thorn in the side cf the Brackenburys y and so, when the time came that timber was being cut, and farms were being sold, and much of the Squire's property was changing hands, the then Lord Brackenbnry bought it at a fair price, to the satisfaction of both parties. Now, Squire Langtrey and Lord Brackenbury were such old and fast friends that it would probably have taken something more than even a seam of coal to sunder them; but it so happened that the seller died and was succeeded by his son before the bnyer discovered his good fortune. That discovery, while it very naturally filled Lord Brackenbnry's heart with rejoicing, filled the heart of the yonng Sqnire with disappointment and bitterness. He hsd felt it hard enough already that hie means should be narrowed by his father's extravagance. He had sorely grudged the sacrifice he made in cutting off the entail. But that he should actually have held a fortune in his grasp and let it go, was more than he could bear with even a semblance of equanimity. But had he let it go P His father and he had sold the land; but they had not sold the coal. If they had dreamed of the possible presence of the coal, they would never have sold It at all. Besides, there was no mention of such possibility in the deed of sale. How, then, could they have sold the coal if it was not in the bond?

So reasoned Stephen Langtrey of the Grange; and, convinced of the justice of his claim, he demanded restitution of the land on repayment of the purchase money. Lord Braekonbury, it la needless to say, declined the proposal; but he offered to E resent the aon of his old friend and neighour with a bonus of five thousand pounds, Mr Langtrey, bent upon having all or none,. rejeoted the bonus with scorn, and resolved to go to law. His own and his father's trusted solicitor; the old and tried friend who had piloted them through all their difficulties, after trying in vain t j make him see the fallacy of his reasoning, refused to move in the matter, and washed his hands of the consequences. But, like most narrowminded men, [the more Stephen Langtrey was opposed, the more obstinate he became. He was bent on litigation; and when a man is bent on litigation he seldom experiences much difficulty in finding a lawyer to carry out his views. Mr Langtrey experienced no difficulty whatever. He laid the matter befoie a new and somewhat pushing firm of late established in a neighboring county town; was, of course, assured of the excellence of his esse; and soon found himself formally embarked in a good old-fashioned lawsuit.

Now, unfortunately for the squire, it so happened that, owing to a trifling informality in the drawing up of the papers connected with the sale of thio same piece of wasteland, there actually proved to be a slight flaw in Lord Brackenbury's title; that 1b to say, there was room for grave doubt as to whether one of those mysterious legal inventions called "an attendant term" had been duly and properly got in and assigned to attend the inheritance. Had there been no such stumbling block in the way, anything like prolonged litigation would have been out of the question. Mr Langtrey would have lost his cause, paid his own and his opponent's costs, and been only a few hundreds the poorer. But this unlucky flaw furnished precisely the peg upon which it beoame possible to hang an elaborate web of legal subtleties ; and in Messrs Fawcett and Clark, Mr Langtrey had found just the spiders to weave it. How they wove it year after year, skilfully catching up the threads wherever it broke down; prolonging it in this or that direction ; entangling their wretched fly more and more hopelessly in its fatal meshes ; playing what they call a " waiting game" of indefinite duration; fattening upon their client's wasting substance, and building their own prosperity upon his gradual ruin, are facts that need to be sketched but in the barest outline. Enough that the lawsuit wore on for twenty-six yesrs, ruined Stephen Langtry, and was lost at last. It was a conclusion that had been long forseen by every one but himself. Dominated, however, by one fixed idea, the Squire to the last was confident of victory. When the blow fell, it crushed him. He had lived on this one hope for six-and-twenty years ; fostering it at the cost of his ..better nature, and clinging to it the more passionately the more rotten it beoame. Be had sacrificed his whole career to it, neither travelling, nor marrying, nor going into Parliament, nor carrying into effect any of the cherished prospects of his youth. Then when the house of cards that he had been building for more than half his lifetime toppled over at a touch, he went down with it. It was a case of complete and utter ruin —ruin of mind, body, and estate. He suddenly broken and decrepit; took to his bed ; and died within three months of the day when judgment was finally given against him. The wreck of his property—consisting of The Grange and some ssventy acres of land—then passed by his will to his elder and only surviving sister, with the remainder at her death to his younger sister's orphan child. The great lawsuit, meanwhile, bore heavily en others as well as upon its unhappy author. Old Squire laugtrey's family consisted of a son and two daughters ; Lord Brackenbury's family consisted of an only son ; and Lord Brackenbury's son and Squire Langtrey's youngest daughter, though not actually engaged, weve very dear to one another in the happy days before the coal was discovered. That discovery parted their lives for ever. _ Herbert Brackenbury was abroad, making what was then oalled the Grand Tour, when Stephen Langtrey advanced his senseless claim for restitution ; and by the time he came home the breach between the families waa already past healing. The breach presently culminated in the beginning o the great lawsuit. All intercourse thenceforth ceased between the two houses. Stephen Langtrey ruled at The Grange, obeyed by his sisters as though he were a god. The elder worshipped as well as, obeyed him; believing what he believed^

desiring what he deeired, hating what he hated. The younger, being of a gentle. timid nature, stool in too much awe of her brother, and was too completely ruled by her eister, to be other than passive in their hands. As long as it was possible to hope, she hoped. When hoped died she grieved silently. Her dream might melt into air ; bat Herbert Brackenbary was still her hero. Only to see him at Church when, at rare intervals, he came home for a week's shooting, was something to look forward to, to look baok upon, to be thankful for. Living as snch meek hearts are wont to live, in the past she learned to accept the present with resignation, end to expect nothing from the fntnre. Herbert Brackenbnry in the meanwhile, took it as yonng men take disappointments —at first with quick pain, and anger, and impatience ; then with a smouldering resentment ; lastly, with acquiescence tempered by a half-pleasant, half-regretful memory. Had he unreservedly spoken spoken words of love to Mabel Langtrey, he would have held himself bound to the fullest extent of their meaning. Neither the wrath of Stephen Langtrey, nor his own father's displeasure, nor any of the hundied and one difficulties that must inevitably have sprang up in the way of tha marriage, would have weighed with him for a moment where his word and his love were plighted, and his honor was at stake. But, then no snch words had been spoken; and Herbert Brackenbnry was neither so desperately in love, nor so careless of consequences as to embark in a suit which would nrely meet with opposition from both families. So he chafed awhile;. waited awhile ; accepted a diplomatic appointment at Florence; and by and by named art Italian lady of noble family and great personal beanty. Thus ended the unspoken romance of Mabel Langtrey'a girlhood. IT" be continued J