A Skeleton in the Closet Author:Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II THE BRIDEGROOM-ELECT Love, fame and glory, with alternate sway, Thrill his warm heart, and with electric ray Illumine his eye: yet still a shade... more » of care, Like a light cloud that floats on summer air, Will shed, at times, a transitory gloom, But shadow not one grace of manly bloom. Wake. We must precede Brandon Coyle to Cloudland on the Mist. This inlet, or bay, was one of the most beautiful and picturesque to be found on the west coast of England. Along the margin of this bay were the three estates with which our story is concerned. High among heights at the upper end arose the white towers of Montjoie—an ancient feudal castle dating back to the time of the Conquest, when it was erected by Guion Montjoie, a follower of the Norman William, and an ancestor of the present Guyon Montjoie, eighth Earl of Alto- faire. Half way down the east shore stood Cloudland, the ancient seat of the Baron Beaudevere. Immediately opposite this place, across the bay, on the western shore, and scarcely distinguishable from the gray rocks around them, bristled the gray turrets of Caveland, the old hall of Christopher Coyle, Esquire, in which our story opened. On the sea at the mouth of the bay stood the little fishing hamlet of Miston. It is at Cloudland, however, that our present business lies. On the same morning that witnessed the conference between the brother and sister—Brandon and Aspirita Coyle —another youthful pair were engaged in conversation in a sitting room at Cloudland. They also were a brother and sister—Valdimir and Vivi- enne Desparde—the orphan wards of the Baron of Beaudevere. Valdimir Desparde was a youth of twenty-one years, of medium height, elegant form, and graceful bearing, with regular, aquiline features, large, deeply-set d...« less