The People of the Mist | Page 9

his
affairs?
Let us therefore make excuses for his words and outward behaviour, for
at heart Leonard had much to trouble him.
When the cloth had been cleared away and they were alone again, Tom
spoke to his brother, who was moodily filling his pipe.
"What shall we do to-night, Leonard?" he said.
"Go to bed, I suppose," he answered.
"See here, Leonard," said his brother again, "what do you say to having
a last look at the old place?"
"If you wish, Tom, but it will be painful."
"A little pain more or less can scarcely hurt us, old fellow," said Tom,
laying his thin hand on his brother's shoulder.
Then they started. A quarter of an hour's walking brought them to the
Hall. The snow had ceased falling now and the night was beautifully
clear, but before it ceased it had done a welcome office in hiding from
view all the litter and wreckage of the auction, which make the scene of
a recent sale one of the most desolate sights in the world. Never had the
old house looked grander or more eloquent of the past than it did on
that night to the two brothers who were dispossessed of their heritage.
They wandered round it in silence, gazing affectionately at each
well-known tree and window, till at length they came to the gun-room
entrance. More from habit than for any other reason Leonard turned the
handle of the door. To his surprise it was open; after the confusion of
the sale no one had remembered to lock it.

"Let us go in," he said.
They entered and wandered from room to room till they reached the
greater hall, a vast and oak-roofed chamber built after the fashion of the
nave of a church, and lighted by a large window of ecclesiastical design.
This window was filled with the armorial bearings of many generations
of the Outram family, wrought in stained glass and placed in couples,
for next to each coat of arms were the arms of its bearer's dame. It was
not quite full, however, for in it remained two blank shields, which had
been destined to receive the escutcheons of Thomas Outram and his
wife.
"They will never be filled now, Leonard," said Tom, pointing to these;
"curious, isn't it, not to say sad?"
"Oh! I don't know," answered his brother; "I suppose that the Cohens
boast some sort of arms, or if not they can buy them."
"I should think that they would have the good taste to begin a new
window for themselves," said Tom.
Then he was silent for a while, and they watched the moonlight
streaming through the painted window, the memorial of so much
forgotten grandeur, and illumining the portraits of many a dead Outram
that gazed upon them from the panelled walls.
"Per ardua ad astra," said Tom, absently reading the family motto
which alternated pretty regularly with a second device that some
members of it had adopted--"For Heart, Home, and Honour."
"'Per ardua ad astra'--through struggle to the stars--and 'For Heart,
Home, and Honour,'" repeated Tom; "well, I think that our family never
needed such consolations more, if indeed there are any to be found in
mottoes. Our Heart is broken, our hearth is desolate, and our honour is
a byword, but there remain the 'struggle and the stars.'"
As he spoke his face took the fire of a new enthusiasm: "Leonard," he
went on, "why should not we retrieve the past? Let us take that motto

--the more ancient one--for an omen, and let us fulfil it. I believe it is a
good omen, I believe that one of us will fulfil it."
"We can try," answered Leonard. "If we fail in the struggle, at least the
stars remain for us as for all human kind."
"Leonard," said his brother almost in a whisper, "will you swear an
oath with me? It seems childish, but I think that under some
circumstances there is wisdom even in childishness."
"What oath?" asked Leonard.
"This; that we will leave England and seek fortune in some foreign
land--sufficient fortune to enable us to repurchase our lost home; that
we will never return here until we have won this fortune; and that death
alone shall put a stop to our quest."
Leonard hesitated a moment, then answered:
"If Jane fails me, I will swear it."
Tom glanced round as though in search of some familiar object, and
presently his eye fell upon what he sought. A great proportion of the
furniture of the old house, including the family portraits, had been
purchased by the in-coming owner. Among the articles which remained
was a very valuable and ancient bible, one of the first ever printed
indeed, that stood upon an oaken stand in the centre