You know, dear Henry, all my hopes, my
wishes, and my feelings, and I shall therefore leave my future destiny
in your hands, to dispose of as you please. Look yonder!" "Where?" "There. Do you not see the admiral and Mr. Chillingworth walking among
the trees?" "Yes, yes; I do now." "How very serious and intent they are upon the subject of their
discourse. They seem quite lost to all surrounding objects. I could not
have imagined any subject that would so completely have absorbed the
attention of Admiral Bell." "Mr. Chillingworth had something to relate to him or to propose, of a
nature which, perchance, has had the effect of enchaining all his
attention--he called him from the room." "Yes; I saw that he did. But see, they come towards us, and now we
shall, probably, hear what is the subject-matter of their discourse and
consultation." "We shall." Admiral Bell had evidently seen Henry and his sister, for now, suddenly,
as if not from having for the first moment observed them, and, in
consequence, broken off their private discourse, but as if they arrived
at some point in it which enabled them to come to a conclusion to be
communicative, the admiral came towards the brother and sister. "Well," said the bluff old admiral, when they were sufficiently near to
exchange words, "well, Miss Flora, you are looking a thousand times
better than you were." "I thank you, admiral, I am much better." "Oh, to be sure you are; and you will be much better still, and no sort
of mistake. Now, here's the doctor and I have both been agreeing upon
what is best for you." "Indeed!" "Yes, to be sure. Have we not, doctor?" "We have, admiral." "Good; and what, now, Miss Flora, do you suppose it is?" "I really cannot say." "Why, it's change of air, to be sure. You must get away from here as
quickly as you can, or there will be no peace for you." "Yes," added Mr. Chillingworth, advancing; "I am quite convinced that
change of scene and change of place, and habits, and people, will tend
more to your complete recovery than any other circumstances. In the most
ordinary cases of indisposition we always find that the invalid recovers
much sooner away from the scene of his indisposition, than by remaining
in it, even though its general salubrity be much greater than the place
to which he may be removed." "Good," said the admiral. "Then we are to understand," said Henry, with a smile, "that we are no
longer to be your guests, Admiral Bell?" "Belay there!" cried the admiral; "who told you to understand any such
thing, I should like to know?" "Well, but we shall look upon this house as yours, now; and, that being
the case, if we remove from it, of course we cease to be your guests any
longer." "That's all you know about it. Now, hark ye. You don't command the
fleet, so don't pretend to know what the admiral is going to do. I have
made money by knocking about some of the enemies of old England, and
that's the most gratifying manner in the world of making money, so far
as I am concerned." [Illustration]

"It is an honourable mode." "Of course it is. Well, I am going to--what the deuce do you call it?" "What?" "That's just what I want to know. Oh, I have it now. I am going to what
the lawyers call invest it." "A prudent step, admiral, and one which it is to be hoped, before now,
has occurred to you." "Perhaps it has and perhaps it hasn't; however, that's my business, and
no one's else's. I am going to invest my spare cash in taking houses;
so, as I don't care a straw where the houses may be situated, you can
look out for one somewhere that will suit you, and I'll take it; so,
after all, you will be my guests there just the same as you are here." "Admiral," said Henry, "it would be imposing upon a generosity as rare
as it is noble, were we to allow you to do so much for us as you
contemplate." "Very good." "We cannot--we dare not." "But I say you shall. So you have had your say, and I've had mine, after
which, if you please, Master Henry Bannerworth, I shall take upon myself
to consider the affair as altogether settled. You can commence
operations as soon as you like. I know that Miss Flora, here--bless her
sweet eyes--don't want to stay at Bannerworth Hall any longer than she
can help it." "Indeed I was urging upon Henry to remove," said Flora; "but yet I
cannot help feeling with him, admiral, that we are imposing upon your
goodness." "Go on imposing, then." "But--"

"Psha! Can't a man be imposed upon if he likes? D--n it, that's a poor
privilege for an Englishman to be forced to make a row about. I tell you
I like it. I will be imposed upon, so there's an end of that; and now
let's come in and see what Mrs. Bannerworth has got ready for luncheon." *       *       *       *       *

It can hardly be supposed that such a popular ferment as had been
created in the country town, by the singular reports concerning Varney
the Vampyre, should readily, and without abundant satisfaction, subside. An idea like that which had lent so powerful an impulse to the popular
mind, was one far easier to set going than to deprecate or extinguish. The very circumstances which had occurred to foil the excited mob in
their pursuit of Sir Francis Varney, were of a nature to increase the
popular superstition concerning him, and to make him and his acts appear
in still more dreadful colours. Mobs do not reason very closely and clearly; but the very fact of the
frantic flight of Sir Francis Varney from the projected attack of the
infuriated multitude, was seized hold of as proof positive of the
reality of his vampyre-like existence. Then, again, had he not disappeared in the most mysterious manner? Had
he not sought refuge where no human being would think of seeking refuge,
namely, in that old, dilapidated ruin, where, when his pursuers were so
close upon his track, he had succeeded in eluding their grasp with a
facility which looked as if he had vanished into thin air, or as if the
very earth had opened to receive him bodily within its cold embraces? It is not to be wondered at, that the few who fled so precipitately from
the ruin, lost nothing of the wonderful story they had to tell, in the
carrying it from that place to the town. When they reached their
neighbours, they not only told what had really occurred, but they added
to it all their own surmises, and the fanciful creation of all their own
fears, so that before mid-day, and about the time when Henry Bannerworth
was conversing so quietly in the gardens of the Hall with his beautiful
sister, there was an amount of popular ferment in the town, of which
they had no conception. All business was suspended, and many persons, now that once the idea had
been started concerning the possibility that a vampyre might have been
visiting some of the houses in the place, told how, in the dead of the
night, they had heard strange noises. How children had shrieked from no
apparent cause--doors opened and shut without human agency; and windows
rattled that never had been known to rattle before.