Tristram of Blent

Tristram of Blent, by Anthony
Hope

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Title: Tristram of Blent An Episode in the Story of an Ancient House
Author: Anthony Hope
Release Date: April 4, 2007 [EBook #20981]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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TRISTRAM of BLENT
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
A MAN OF MARK MR WITT'S WIDOW FATHER STAFFORD A

CHANGE OF AIR HALF A HERO THE PRISONER OF ZENDA
THE GOD IN THE CAR THE DOLLY DIALOGUES COMEDIES
OF COURTSHIP THE CHRONICLES OF COUNT ANTONIO THE
HEART OF PRINCESS OSRA PHROSO SIMON DALE RUPERT
OF HENTZAU THE KING'S MIRROR QUISANTE

TRISTRAM of BLENT
An Episode in the Story of an Ancient House
By ANTHONY HOPE
New York MCCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO. MCMI
Copyright, 1900 and 1901, by ANTHONY HOPE HAWKINS
THIRD EDITION
Trow Directory Printing & Bookbinding Company New York

A TABLE of the CONTENTS Page
I. A SUPPRESSED PASSAGE 1 II. MR CHOLDERTON'S IMP 10 III.
ON GUARD 22 IV. SHE COULD AN' SHE WOULD 34 V. THE
FIRST ROUND 48 VI. THE ATTRACTION OF IT 61 VII. THE
MOMENT DRAWS NEAR 74 VIII. DUTY AND MR NEELD 88 IX.
THE MAN IN POSSESSION 101 X. BEHOLD THE HEIR! 114 XI. A
PHANTOM BY THE POOL 129 XII. FIGHTERS AND DOUBTERS
143 XIII. IN THE LONG GALLERY 158 XIV. THE VERY SAME
DAY 173 XV. AN INQUISITION INTERRUPTED 190 XVI. THE
NEW LIFE 205 XVII. RIVER SCENES AND BRIC-À-BRAC 220
XVIII. CONSPIRATORS AND A CRUX 233 XIX. IN THE MATTER
OF BLINKHAMPTON 248 XX. THE TRISTRAM WAY--A
SPECIMEN 264 XXI. THE PERSISTENCE OF BLENT 279 XXII.
AN INSULT TO THE BLOOD 296 XXIII. A DECREE OF

BANISHMENT 312 XXIV. AFTER THE END OF ALL 328 XXV.
THERE'S THE LADY TOO! 342 XXVI. A BUSINESS CALL 358
XXVII. BEFORE TRANSLATION 375 XXVIII. THE CAT AND
THE BELL 391 XXIX. THE CURMUDGEON 407 XXX. TILL THE
NEXT GENERATION 420

I
A SUPPRESSED PASSAGE
Mr Jenkinson Neeld was an elderly man of comfortable private means;
he had chambers in Pall Mall, close to the Imperium Club, and his short
stoutish figure, topped by a chubby spectacled face, might be seen
entering that dignified establishment every day at lunch time, and also
at the hour of dinner on the evenings when he had no invitation
elsewhere. He had once practised at the Bar, and liked to explain that
he had deserted his profession for the pursuit of literature. He did not,
however, write on his own account; he edited. He would edit anything
provided there was no great public demand for an edition of it.
Regardless of present favor, he appealed to posterity--as gentlemen
with private means are quite entitled to do. Perhaps he made rather high
demands on posterity; but that was his business--and its. At any rate his
taste was curious and his conscience acute. He was very minute and
very scrupulous, very painstaking and very discreet, in the exercise of
his duties. Posterity may perhaps like these qualities in an editor of
memoirs and diaries; for such were Mr Neeld's favorite subjects.
Sometimes he fell into a sore struggle between curiosity and discretion,
having impulses in himself which he forbore to attribute to posterity.
He was in just such a fix now--so he thought to himself--as he perused
the manuscript before him. It was the Journal of his deceased friend
Josiah Cholderton, sometime Member of Parliament (in the Liberal
interest) for the borough of Baxton in Yorkshire, Commercial Delegate
to the Congress of Munich in '64, and Inventor of the Hygroxeric
Method of Dressing Wool. No wonder posterity was to be interested in
Cholderton! Yet at times--and especially during his visits to the

Continent--the diarist indulged himself in digressions about people he
encountered; and these assumed now and then a character so personal,
or divulged episodes so private, that the editor had recourse to his blue
pencil and drew it with a sigh through pages which he had himself
found no small relief from the severer record of Cholderton's services
to the commerce of his country. Mr Neeld sat now with blue pencil
judicially poised, considering the following passage in his friend's
recollections. The entry bore date Heidelberg, 1875.
"At the widow's" (Mr Cholderton is speaking of a certain Madame de
Kries) "pleasant villa I became acquainted with a lady who made
something of a sensation in her day, and whom