Ravenshoe. By Henry Kingsley.

154 RAVENSHOE.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE GRAND CRASH.
TEE funeral was over. Charles had waited with poor weeping
Mary to see the coffin carried away under the dark, grim archway of the vault, and had tried to comfort her who would not be
comforted. And when the last wild wail of the organ had died
away, and all the dark figures but they two had withdrawn
from the chapel, there stood those two poor orphans alone together.
It was all over, and they began for the first time to realize it;
they began to feel what they lost. King Densil was dead, and
King Cuthbert reigned. When a prime minister dies, the world
is shaken; when a county member dies, the county is agitated,
and the opposition electors, till lately insignificant, rise suddenly
into importance, and the possible new members are suddenly
great men. So when a mere country gentleman dies, the head
of a great family dies, relations are changed entirely between
some score'or so of persons. The dog of to-day is not the dog
of yesterday. Servants are agitated, and remember themselves
of old impertinences, and tremble. Farmers wonder what the
new Squire's first move will be. Perhaps even the old hound
wonders whether he is to keep his old place by the fire or no,
and younger brothers bite their nails and wonder too about many
things.
Charles wondered profoundly in his own room that afternoon,
whither he retired after having dismissed Mary at her door with
a kiss. In spite of his grief, he wondered what was coming, and
tried to persuade himself that he did n't care. From this state
of mind he was aroused by William, who told him that Lord
Segur was going, and Lord Saltire with him, and that the latter
wanted to speak to him.
Lord Saltire had his foot on the step of the carriage. " Charles,
my dear boy," he said, " the moment things are settled, come to
me at Segur Castle. Lord Segur wants you to come and stay
there while I am there.
Lord Segur from the carriage hoped Charles would come and
see them at once.
"And mind, you know," said Lord Saltire, "that you don't do
anything without consulting me. Let the little bird pack off to
Lady Ascot's, and help to blow up the grooms. Don't let her