PART THE FIRST.
THE DISAPPEARANCE.
CHAPTER I.
OLD Lady Lydiard sat meditating by the fireside, with three letters
lying open on her lap.
Time had discolored the paper, and had turned the ink to a brownish
hue. The letters were all addressed to the same person--"THE RT. HON.
LORD LYDIARD"--and were all signed in the same way--"Your
affectionate cousin, James Tollmidge." Judged by these specimens of his
correspondence, Mr. Tollmidge must have possessed one great merit as a
letter-writer--the merit of brevity. He will weary nobody\'s patience, if he is
allowed to have a hearing. Let him, therefore, be permitted, in his own
high-flown way, to speak for himself.
_First Letter._--"My statement, as your Lordship requests, shall be
short and to the point. I was doing very well as a portrait-painter in the
country; and I had a wife and children to consider. Under the
circumstances, if I had been left to decide for myself, I should certainly
have waited until I had saved a little money before I ventured on the
serious expense of taking a house and studio at the west end of London.
Your Lordship, I positively declare, encouraged me to try the experiment
without waiting. And here I am, unknown and unemployed, a helpless
artist lost in London--with a sick wife and hungry children, and
bankruptcy staring me in the face. On whose shoulders does this dreadful
responsibility rest? On your Lordship\'s!"