M E Braddon

Phantom Fortune M E Braddon

October was ending drearily with north-east winds, dust, drifting dead leaves, and a steel-grey sky;and the Dolphin Hotel at Southampton was glorified by the presence of Lady Maulevrier and suite. Her ladyship's suite was on this occasion limited to three servants-her French maid, a footman, and a kind of factotum, a man of no distinct and arbitrary signification in her ladyship's household, neither butler nor steward, but that privileged being, an old and trusted servant, and a person whowas supposed to enjoy more of Lady Maulevrier's confidence than any other member of herestablishment. This James Steadman had been valet to her ladyship's father, Lord Peverill, during the decliningyears of that nobleman. The narrow limits of a sick room had brought the master and servant into acloser companionship than is common to that relation. Lady Diana Angersthorpe was a devoteddaughter, and in her attendance upon the Earl during the last three years of his life-a life whichclosed more than a year before her own marriage-she saw a great deal of James Steadman, andlearned to trust him as servants are not often trusted. He was not more than twenty years of age atthe beginning of his service, but he was a man of extraordinary gravity, much in advance of hisyears; a man of shrewd common-sense and clear, sharp intellect. Not a reading man, or a man in anyway superior to his station and belongings, but a man who could think quickly, and understandquickly, and who always seemed to think rightly. Prompt in action, yet steady as a rock, and to allappearance recognising no earthly interest, no human tie, beyond or above the interests of hismaster. As a nurse Steadman showed himself invaluable. Lord Peverill left him a hundred pounds inacknowledgment of his services, which was something for Lord Peverill, who had very little readycash wherewith to endow his only daughter. After his death the title and the estates went to a distantcousin; Lady Diana Angersthorpe was taken in hand by her aunt, the Dowager Marchioness ofCarrisbrook; and James Steadman would have had to find employment among strangers, if LadyDiana had not pleaded so urgently with her aunt as to secure him a somewhat insignificant post inher ladyship's establishmen