Claude Faversham was in
possession at Threlfall, and was being treated as the heir. Mr. Melrose
had flatly refused even to see his wife and daughter whom he had left in
poverty and starvation for twenty years.
Upon these facts the twin spirit of romance and hatred swooped
vulturelike. Any story of inheritance, especially when charm and youth
are mixed up with it, kindles the popular mind. It was soon known that
Miss Melrose was pretty, and small; though, said report, worn to a
skeleton by paternal ill-usage. Romance likes its heroines small. The
countryside adopted the unconscious Felicia, and promptly married her to
Harry Tatham. What could be more appropriate? Duddon could afford to risk
a dowry; and what maiden in distress could wish for a better Perseus than
the splendid young man who was the general favourite of the
neighbourhood?
As to the hatred of Melrose which gave zest to the tale of his daughter,
it was becoming a fury. The whole Mainstairs village had now been
ejected, by the help of a large body of police requisitioned from
Carlisle for the purpose. Of the able-bodied, some had migrated to the
neighbouring towns, some were camped on Duddon land, in some wood and
iron huts hastily run up for their accommodation. And thus a village
which might be traced in Doomsday Book had been wiped out. For the sick
Tatham had offered a vacant farmhouse as a hospital; and Victoria, Mrs.
Andover, and other ladies had furnished and equipped it.
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