On looking into the cabinet we find Sir Giles seated at a table, with a
large chest open beside him, from which he has taken for examination
sundry yellow parchments, with large seals attached to them. He is now
occupied with a deed, on one of the skins of which the plan of an
important estate is painted, and on this his attention becomes fixed.
His countenance is cadaverous, and its ghastly hue adds to its grimness
of expression. A band is tied round his head, and there is an expression
of pain in his face, and an air of languor and debility in his manner,
very different from what is usual with him. It is plain he has not yet
recovered from the effects of the crushing blow he received at the
jousts.
Opposite him sits his partner, Sir Francis Mitchell; and the silence
that has reigned between them for some minutes is first broken by the
old usurer.
"Well, Sir Giles," he inquires, "are you satisfied with your
examination of these deeds of the Mounchensey property? The estates have
been in the family, as you see, for upwards of two centuries--ever since
the reign of Henry IV., in fact--and you have a clear and undisputed
title to all the property depicted on that plan--to an old hall with a
large park around it, eight miles in circumference, and almost as well
stocked with deer as the royal chase of Theobald's; and you have a title
to other territorial domains extending from Mounchensey Place and Park
to the coast, a matter of twelve miles as the crow flies, Sir
Giles,--and including three manors and a score of little villages.
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