'Twixt Shade and Shine, by Annabel Gray (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE MASTER OP HILLINGFORD TOWERS. Since his marriage with Lady Hester, and the many accumulating expenses into which he was necessarily driven, Mr. Heath had found himself obliged to study other means of money-getting besides his legitimate business in iron. He was also very anxious to enrich his family, to leave a splendid fortune to Derwent; and he had been tempted into entertaining various schemes that at present looked highly promising for future success. He was a railway director, the chairman of several companies, and held a large number of shares not only in railways, but in mines and other stock. He owneda good deal of Irish property, too, and had unfortunately sunk a large portion of his fortune before his marriage in land situated in districts where under no possibility he could ever hope of finding his rents paid. Murders and riot were the order of the day there, and this, together with the passing of the Land Act, and reduction in the value of all landed property, threatened to end in a dead loss, and had a good deal crippled his resources. But not one word of his anxieties did he ever breathe into the ears of Lady Hester; they were as yet but little clouds on the horizon?flies in the ointment of luxury?faint warnings of a coming tempest. He was so happy in his domestic relations, so satisfied with the home-life, in which he found his greatest pleasure and highest blessings, that he was not tempted to probe his prospects too deeply, or to plumb the depths into which men, over- VOL. I. E weighted and over-sanguine, are sometimes forced to descend. As he took his seat to-day at the luncheon-table his smile was bright and careless' as ever; the fine broad forehead si 10wed scarce a wrinkle; the dark iron- grey hair was thick and curly,...