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As
,
to
my
Lord
Gaunt
's
dismay
,
and
the
chuckling
delight
of
his
natural
enemy
and
father
,
the
Lady
Gaunt
had
no
children
--
the
Lord
George
Gaunt
was
desired
to
return
from
Vienna
,
where
he
was
engaged
in
waltzing
and
diplomacy
,
and
to
contract
a
matrimonial
alliance
with
the
Honourable
Joan
,
only
daughter
of
John
Johnes
,
First
Baron
Helvellyn
,
and
head
of
the
firm
of
Jones
,
Brown
,
and
Robinson
,
of
Threadneedle
Street
,
Bankers
;
from
which
union
sprang
several
sons
and
daughters
,
whose
doings
do
not
appertain
to
this
story
.
The
marriage
at
first
was
a
happy
and
prosperous
one
.
My
Lord
George
Gaunt
could
not
only
read
,
but
write
pretty
correctly
.
He
spoke
French
with
considerable
fluency
;
and
was
one
of
the
finest
waltzers
in
Europe
.
With
these
talents
,
and
his
interest
at
home
,
there
was
little
doubt
that
his
lordship
would
rise
to
the
highest
dignities
in
his
profession
.
The
lady
,
his
wife
,
felt
that
courts
were
her
sphere
,
and
her
wealth
enabled
her
to
receive
splendidly
in
those
continental
towns
whither
her
husband
's
diplomatic
duties
led
him
.
There
was
talk
of
appointing
him
minister
,
and
bets
were
laid
at
the
Travellers
'
that
he
would
be
ambassador
ere
long
,
when
of
a
sudden
,
rumours
arrived
of
the
secretary
's
extraordinary
behaviour
.
At
a
grand
diplomatic
dinner
given
by
his
chief
,
he
had
started
up
and
declared
that
a
pate
de
foie
gras
was
poisoned
.
He
went
to
a
ball
at
the
hotel
of
the
Bavarian
envoy
,
the
Count
de
Springbock-Hohenlaufen
,
with
his
head
shaved
and
dressed
as
a
Capuchin
friar
.
It
was
not
a
masked
ball
,
as
some
folks
wanted
to
persuade
you
.
It
was
something
queer
,
people
whispered
.
His
grandfather
was
so
.
It
was
in
the
family
.
His
wife
and
family
returned
to
this
country
and
took
up
their
abode
at
Gaunt
House
.
Lord
George
gave
up
his
post
on
the
European
continent
,
and
was
gazetted
to
Brazil
.
But
people
knew
better
;
he
never
returned
from
that
Brazil
expedition
--
never
died
there
--
never
lived
there
--
never
was
there
at
all
.
He
was
nowhere
;
he
was
gone
out
altogether
.
"
Brazil
,
"
said
one
gossip
to
another
,
with
a
grin
--
"
Brazil
is
St.
John
's
Wood
.
Rio
de
Janeiro
is
a
cottage
surrounded
by
four
walls
,
and
George
Gaunt
is
accredited
to
a
keeper
,
who
has
invested
him
with
the
order
of
the
Strait-Waistcoat
.
"
These
are
the
kinds
of
epitaphs
which
men
pass
over
one
another
in
Vanity
Fair
.
Twice
or
thrice
in
a
week
,
in
the
earliest
morning
,
the
poor
mother
went
for
her
sins
and
saw
the
poor
invalid
.
Sometimes
he
laughed
at
her
(
and
his
laughter
was
more
pitiful
than
to
hear
him
cry
)
;
sometimes
she
found
the
brilliant
dandy
diplomatist
of
the
Congress
of
Vienna
dragging
about
a
child
's
toy
,
or
nursing
the
keeper
's
baby
's
doll
.
Sometimes
he
knew
her
and
Father
Mole
,
her
director
and
companion
;
oftener
he
forgot
her
,
as
he
had
done
wife
,
children
,
love
,
ambition
,
vanity
.
But
he
remembered
his
dinner-hour
,
and
used
to
cry
if
his
wine-and-water
was
not
strong
enough
.
It
was
the
mysterious
taint
of
the
blood
;
the
poor
mother
had
brought
it
from
her
own
ancient
race
.
The
evil
had
broken
out
once
or
twice
in
the
father
's
family
,
long
before
Lady
Steyne
's
sins
had
begun
,
or
her
fasts
and
tears
and
penances
had
been
offered
in
their
expiation
.
The
pride
of
the
race
was
struck
down
as
the
first-born
of
Pharaoh
.
The
dark
mark
of
fate
and
doom
was
on
the
threshold
--
the
tall
old
threshold
surmounted
by
coronets
and
caned
heraldry
.
The
absent
lord
's
children
meanwhile
prattled
and
grew
on
quite
unconscious
that
the
doom
was
over
them
too
.
First
they
talked
of
their
father
and
devised
plans
against
his
return
.
Then
the
name
of
the
living
dead
man
was
less
frequently
in
their
mouth
--
then
not
mentioned
at
all
.
But
the
stricken
old
grandmother
trembled
to
think
that
these
too
were
the
inheritors
of
their
father
's
shame
as
well
as
of
his
honours
,
and
watched
sickening
for
the
day
when
the
awful
ancestral
curse
should
come
down
on
them
.
This
dark
presentiment
also
haunted
Lord
Steyne
.
He
tried
to
lay
the
horrid
bedside
ghost
in
Red
Seas
of
wine
and
jollity
,
and
lost
sight
of
it
sometimes
in
the
crowd
and
rout
of
his
pleasures
.
But
it
always
came
back
to
him
when
alone
,
and
seemed
to
grow
more
threatening
with
years
.
"
I
have
taken
your
son
,
"
it
said
,
"
why
not
you
?
I
may
shut
you
up
in
a
prison
some
day
like
your
son
George
.
I
may
tap
you
on
the
head
to-morrow
,
and
away
go
pleasure
and
honours
,
feasts
and
beauty
,
friends
,
flatterers
,
French
cooks
,
fine
horses
and
houses
--
in
exchange
for
a
prison
,
a
keeper
,
and
a
straw
mattress
like
George
Gaunt
's
.
"
And
then
my
lord
would
defy
the
ghost
which
threatened
him
,
for
he
knew
of
a
remedy
by
which
he
could
baulk
his
enemy
.
