WHO IS THE HEIR? CHAPTER I. THE MAULEVERERS. "Ivy and violet, what do ye here, Hiding the arms of Monchenci and Vere ?" HANMER. THREE persons were together in a great room looking westward, where a summer sunset was dying in its glory. Odour of Russia leather made it clear to what purpose this room was devoted: it was the library of Mauleverer; and its occupants were Hugh Mauleverer and his two sons. VOL. I. I Outside the wide windows was a terrace with balustrade of white marble, whence the demesne sloped rapidly downward to a level plain of park, through which a swift river flashed noisily. Westward, twelve miles away, the spires and towers of a great town, Riverdale, were made beautiful by the saffron light, though a hazy veil of perpetual smoke struggled against the beauty. Vainly do man's ugliest products strive to obliterate the beauty which God creates. Three remarkable men were these representatives of the ancient house of Mauleverer. The father sat in one of the embayed windows, smoking a cigar, with a great bloodhound at his feet; gray-haired, full sixty years old, with a countenance which showed that he had |