Chapter 14

"For all her youth--there is no other woman like her"

They were brought back in state from Italy and borne to their beloved
Camylott, to sleep in peace there, side by side; and the bells in the
church-tower tolled long and mournfully, and in the five villages in
different shires there was not a heart which did not ache--nor one
which having faith did not know that somewhere their happy love lived
again and was more full of joy than it had been before. And my lord
Marquess was my lord Duke; but for many months none beheld him but Lord
Dunstanwolde, who came to Camylott with many great people to attend the
funeral obsequies; but when all the rest went away he stayed, and
through the first strange black weeks the two were nearly always
together, and often, through hours, walked in company from one end of
the Long Gallery to the other.

Over such periods of sorrow and bereavement it is well to pass gently,
since they must come to all, and have so come through all the ages
past, to every human being who has lived to maturity; and yet, at the
same time, there is none can speak truly for another than himself of
what the suffering has been or how it has been borne. None but the one
who bears it can know what hours of anguish the endurance cost and how
'twas reached.

My lord Duke looked pale in his mourning garments, and for many months
his countenance seemed sharper cut, his eyes looking deeper set and
larger, having faint shadows round them, but even Lord Dunstanwolde
knew but few of his inmost thoughts, and to others he never spoke of
his bereavement.

The taking possession of a great estate, and the first assuming of the
responsibilities attached to it, are no small events, and bring upon
the man left sole heir numberless new duties, therefore the new Duke
had many occupations to attend to--much counselling with his legal
advisers, many interviews with stewards, bailiffs, and holders of his
lands, visits to one estate after another, and converse with the
reverend gentlemen who were the spiritual directors of his people. Such
duties gave him less time for brooding than he would have had upon his
hands had he been a man more thoughtless of what his responsibilities
implied, and, consequently, more willing to permit them to devolve upon
those in his employ.

"A man should himself know all things pertaining to his belongings,"
the new Duke said to Lord Dunstanwolde, "and all those who serve him
should be aware that he knows, and that he will no more allow his
dependents to cheat or slight him than he himself will stoop to
carelessness or dishonesty in his dealings with themselves. To govern
well, a man must be ruler as well as friend."

And this he was