He went to Belgrave Square,
to announce his fate to Lady Mabel Grex;--but Lady Mabel Grex was
not there. The Earl was ill at Brighton, and Lady Mabel had gone
down to nurse him. The old woman who came to him in the hall told
him that the Earl was very ill;--he had been attacked by the gout,
but in spite of the gout, and in spite of the doctors, he had
insisted on being taken to his club. Then he had been removed to
Brighton, under the doctor's advice, chiefly in order that he
might be kept out of the way of temptation. Now he was supposed to
be very ill indeed. 'My Lord is so imprudent!' said the old woman,
shaking her old head in real unhappiness. For though the Earl had
been a tyrant to everyone near him, yet when a poor woman becomes
old it is something to have a tyrant to protect her. 'My Lord!'
always had been imprudent. Tregear knew that it had been the
theory of my Lord's life that to eat and drink, and die was better
than to abstain and live. Then Tregear wrote to his friend as
follows:
'MY DEAR MABEL,
'I am up in town again as you will perceive, although I am still
in a helpless condition and hardly able to write even this letter.
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