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Archibald Malmaison by Julian Hawthorne
page 82 of 116 (70%)
time, of the secret which he had discovered, and was taking the surest
means of keeping it to himself. He had occupations in the inner chamber at
which he did not wish to be disturbed. What those occupations were he
confided to no living soul--indeed, there was no one who could have served
him as a confidant. His life was a lonely one, if ever a lonely life there
were. Whom had he to love, or to love him? Even his mother, now enfeebled
both in body and mind, felt fear of him rather than fondness for him. She
spent much of her time playing cards with her female companion, and in
worrying over the health of her pet spaniels. But did Sir Archibald love
no one?--at all events he hated somebody, and that heartily. He held
Richard Pennroyal responsible for all the ills that had fallen upon
Malmaison and upon himself; and he was evidently not the man to suffer a
grudge to go unrequited.

Pennroyal, on the other hand, was not disposed to wait quietly to be
attacked; he came out to meet the enemy half way. In the spring of the
year 1824--about nine months after Sir Edward's death--it was known in
every mansion and public house for twenty miles round that a great lawsuit
would by-and-by be commenced between Malmaison and Pennroyal, the question
to be decided being nothing less than the ownership of the Malmaison
estates, which Richard Pennroyal claimed, in the alleged failure of any
legitimate heir of Sir John Malmaison, deceased--the father of Sir
Clarence--but, as Pennroyal alleged, by a left-handed marriage. I have not
gone into the details of this case, and should not detain the reader over
it if I had; he may, if it pleases him, read it at full length elsewhere.
It is enough to observe that Pennroyal brought forward evidence to show
that he, and his father before him, had always had cognizance of the will
or other document which entitled him to the property in dispute in the
event provided for; and had only been withheld from putting in their claim
thereto by the repeated and solemn assurances of Sir Clarence that no such
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