Ashcombe churchyard - 1861 Author:Evelyn Benson 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 XLI. THE DOCTOR IN THE GRAPERY. " Going ? and we shall never see you more. And I must die for want of one bold word ! I have gone mad. I love... more » you : let me die ! " Tennyson. Although Mr. Davenport had said that there was a very good sprinkling of lords and honourables at the ball, there were really very few; there were but two peers,— Lord Olford and another who rejoiced in the title of Lord Lillywhyte : he was a pretty, delicate, conceited young man; he had lately very unexpectedly succeeded to the title by the sudden death of his uncle, and could scarcely yet believe in his good luck. As to his accomplishments: he professed to be skilled in all the mysteries of the beau monde, and to be an excellent judge of women and horses. He had taken a shooting-box in the neighbourhood, and having on his arrival called to see the Nevilles, whom he had known in town, was of course invited to the ball. He went, pour passer le temps, though he had a great contempt for country gatherings and country gentlemen. Being too fine to dance, he was loitering along the canal, eating plums and annoying the little boys in the boat by flinging the stones at them. He was closely attended by an umbra in the person of a Mr. Marshall, a young man of respectable family but small fortune, the passion of whose life it was to attach himself to titled persons, and to thislaudable ambition he sacrificed bis time, of which he had an abundance ; his pride, of which he had but little ; and his independence, which he did not value very highly. Lord Lillywhyte brought him down to his shooting-box as a companion in his sports ; he amused him extremely by his earnest desire to become a perfect man of ton, and by what his lordship considered his great stupidity in learning his lesson. As his master...« less