The next thing he did was to
rise, step to the bell, and ring it violently.
The same servant appeared.
'Isn't the bath ready?' Hubert asked. His former mode of speaking
had been brief and decided; he was now almost imperious.
'I believe it will be in a moment, sir,' was the reply, marked,
perhaps, by just a little failure in the complete subservience
expected.
Hubert looked at the man for an instant with contracted brows, but
merely said--'Tell them to be quick.'
The man returned in less than three minutes with a satisfactory
announcement, and Eldon went upstairs to refresh himself.
Two hours later he had dined, with obvious lack of appetite, and was
deriving but slight satisfaction from a cigar, when the servant
entered with a message from Mrs. Eldon: she desired to see her son.
Hubert threw his cigar aside, and made a gesture expressing his wish
to be led to his mother's room. The man conducted him to the landing
at the head of the first flight of stairs; there a female servant
was waiting, who, after a respectful movement, led the way to a door
at a few yards' distance. She opened it and drew back. Hubert passed
into the room.
It was furnished in a very old-fashioned style--heavily, richly, and
with ornaments seemingly procured rather as evidences of wealth than
of taste; successive Mrs.
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