The Young Duchess; or, Memoirs of a Lady of Quality — page 233: what you’re looking at

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THE YOUNG DUCITESS; OR, MEMOIRS OF A LADY OF QUALITY. 219 have asked : instead of being mean, I am gene-|! will not submit to any idle coquetry, however Sir rous: and as for perquisites, you shall have them by pockets’ full. But they: will be in the shape of bribes. Yes, bribes for secret service. You are to be a sort of diplomatic valet,—not a mere vul- gar body-servant. Your post will become a con- fidential one ; and that is the reason why I set out by promising it shall prove lucrative. Under- stand me, man! I have hired you because I am a physiognomist : I see that you are intelligent, shrewd, astute, and I will add selfish. Well, be as selfish as possible; and depend upon it that if you make my interests your own, or calculate how you may serve your’s by forwarding mine, you will quickly amass gold. Now, Edmund Vaughan, do we understand each other ?’—And I boldly answered, ‘We do.—Thus the compact was at once made, and I entered then and there into the service of the Count de Mandeville.” “What a strange person he must be!” said Lavinia. ‘It must be » real pleasure to be in the service of such a gentleman—at least when one’s in his confidence.” : ““Ah! but you may rest assured, my dear La- vinia,” rejoined the valet, ‘‘that the Count does not intend anybody to be in his confidence any more than is absolutely necessary. He is a thorough man of the world—wide awake—up to snuff, and all that sort of thing. However, I can make myself sufficiently useful to answer all his purposes ; and he is of an undoubted liberality, which will answer mine.” ‘‘ But you have not yet told me,” said Lavinia, “how it was the Count learnt that you were in a position to obtain particular information in refe- rence to the Duchess of Ardleigh ?” ** Ah, I was coming to that point,” said Vaughan. “You must know, my dear Lavinia, that the very moment I entered the service of the Count, he began to treat me as if I had been for years in that position—so far, J mean, as the off-hand kindness and condescension of his manner were concerned ; and yet I must tell you that he knows - how to keep his inferiors at a respectful distance. Well, he began by giving me certain commissions to execute at once. There were particular persons concerning whom he required all the information he might possibly be enabled to obtain; and! amongst them was the Duchess of Ardleigh. ‘ Oh,’ said I at once, ‘here is a point on which I shall be enabled to acquit myself in a highly satisfac- tory manner.’—‘ How so?’ inquired the Count.—' ‘I happen to be engaged,’ I answered, ‘to a cer- tain ‘handsome and interesting person, called Miss Lavinia Glover, who holds the post of principal lady’s-maid to her Grace.’ ” ‘You surely did not speak of me, Edmund,” said Lavinia, with a sly smile, “in that flippant manner ?” ‘“‘Flippant indeed!” ejaculated the valet. “I gave you epithets which prove my appreciation of your good qualities ;"—-and by way perhaps of still farther indicating the same, Mr. Edmund Vaughan now regaled himself with a kiss upon the lips of Miss Lavimia Glover. “And you really think,” said Lavinia, when she had smoothed her hair which was rather dis- ordered by the process,—‘! you really think that the Count will become the lover of the Duchess ?” + “Phere is scarcely any thinking about it,” re- plied tidmund. ‘ As*I said just now, the Count Abel Kingston may have chosen to put up with it.” “‘ Ah, it was a shocking thing, Sir Abel’s down- fall and sudden death!” said Lavinia. ‘“ Do you really think he died of disease of the heart, or that he poisoned himself? By the bye, you know his valet very well—do you not ?” ““T have known Luke Parkins for years,” re- plied Edmund. ‘I met him yesterday, and he was telling me about his master’s death and the Inquest.” ‘The newspapers said that there was some dis- graceful scene at the Inquest,” observed Lavinia. “Was it so?” “ Well, it was not altogether the most reputable affair in the world,” replied Vaughan. ‘‘ Luke Parkins told me so. He was very indig- nant : ‘‘And what particulars did he give you ?” ‘‘ Oh, little more than you already know, since you have read the account in the papers. Let me see!—this is the 30th of the nonth—is it not? Well, it wasin the evening of the 26th that Sir Abel was found lying dead upon the floor in the ward where he herded with other prisoners who were also committed to trial for felonies. Luke Parkins happened to call to inquire after his mas- ter’s health, or else to deliver some little parcel— I forget which—when he was told by the turnkey that Sir Abel had just been picked up stone dead in the ward. Luke at once declared that it must have been through disease of the heart, which he knew that his master had, though Sir Abel was wont to keep the thing secret, for he was very touchy on the point. Well, the prison-surgeon, who had been hastily sent for, arrived at the mo- ment, and learnt what Luke Parkins had said. So of course the thing was all clear enough: there was no more to be done but just hold an Inquest for form’s sake. And a notice was at once sent to the Coroner, who issued his warrant or summons, or whatever it’s called, to hold the inquiry at noon on the following day. Now, an Inquest in Newgate generally consists of some of the tradesmen living in the neighbourhood; and a precious low set it seems that they are in the Old Bailey—chiefly keepers of coffee-shops and slap-bangs 7 ‘‘ What ?” asked Lavinia; for it was impossible that the lady’s-maid of a Duchess could under- stand the meaning of anything so vulgar. ‘‘Slap-bangs, my dear—a very low kind of eating house,” explained her intended, as he whiffed his cigar, ‘Well, af the appointed hour the jury assembled at the gaol; and when they were sworn, the Coroner found that several of them were more than half-drunk——” “* How disgraceful!” ejaculated Lavinia. “So the Coroner thought, my dear:—and he was going to kick up a row and fine the fellows, and swear in more respectable people in their place. But the Gevernor said something about creating a scandal—the surgeon was in a deuce of a hurry—and so, as it was all a mere matter of form, the Coroner let the business proceed. Luke Parkins gave his evidence, which was quite suffi- cient to prove how his deceased master had come by his death—the Coroner summed up, for a couple of minutes—the jury returned their verdict in half a’one—and by a quarter to twelve the oO COMO : SS Colin