Part 35 (1/2)
”Yes, Sir”
Brandon made no rejoinder
”Bill Potts said they went to Liverpool, and then left for America to make their fortunes”
”What part of America?” asked Brandon, indifferently ”I never saw or heard of them”
”Didn't you, Sir?” asked the tailor, who evidently thought that Alish county, where every bodyto ask you if you had”
”I wonder what shi+p they went out in?”
”That I can't say, Sir Bill Potts kept dark about that He said one thing, though, that set us thinking”
”What was that?”
”Why, that they went out in an eers”
Brandon was silent
”Poor people!” said he at last
By this time the tailor had finished his coat and handed it back to hi obtained all the inforive Brandon paid hi by the inn he walked on till he came to the alms-house Here he stood for a while and looked at it
Brandon aled, and badly built; every thing done there was badly and meanly done It hite-washed froe of the basement A whited sepulchre For there was foulness there, in the air, in the surroundings, in every thing Squalor and dirt reigned His heart grew sick as those hideous walls rose before his sight
Between this and Brandon Hall there was a difference, a distance alht be conceived of as incredible; and yet that passage had been o the whole distance between the two; to begin in one and end in the other; to be born, brought up, and live andin the one, and then to die in the other; as more incredible than this? Yet this had been the fate of his father
Leaving the place, he walked directly toward Brandon Hall
Brandon Hall was begun, nobody knows exactly when; but it is said that the foundations were laid before the tiress of English civilization ht be studied; in the Norman arches of the old chapel, the slender pointed style of the fifteenth century doorway that opened to the sa added in Elizabeth's day, the days of that old Ralph Brandon who sank his shi+p and its treasure to prevent it frorand old Hall were scenes which could be found nowhere save in England Wide fields, forever green with grass like velvet, over which rose groves of oak and el shelter to innumerable birds
There the deer bounded and the hare found a covert The broad avenue that led to the Hall went up through a world of rich sylvan scenery, winding through groves and round Before the Hall lay the open sea about three miles away; but the Hall was on an e there one radual decline of the country as it sloped doard toward the in of the ocean On the left a bold promontory jutted far out, on the nearer side of which there was an island with a light-house; on the right was another promontory, not so bold Between these two the whole country was like a garden A little cove gave shelter to se of Brandon
Brandon Hall was one of the oldest and land As Brandon looked upon it it rose before hiabled roof rising out fro of wealth, luxury, splendor, power, influence, and all that ht for; from all of which he and his had been cast out; and the one who had done this was even now occupying the old ancestral seat of his fa avenue till he reached the Hall Here he rang the bell, and a servant appeared ”Is Mr Potts at home?”
”Yes,” said the man, brusquely
”I wish to see him”
”Who shall I say?”
”Mr Hendricks, fro-room Brandon seated hiantold, and all falance around, and closed his eyes as if to shut it all out froht
In a short time a man entered