WYLDER'S HAJVD.
333
low and sweet, and easily mistaken for something more
amiable. "You and they go capitally together— so sol-
emn, and eloquent, and godly — capital fellows! 7'm not
half good enough for such company — and the place is
growing rather cold — is it not?"
"A great many Wylders, sir — a great many Wyl-
ders." And the attorney dropped his voice, and paused
at this emphasis, pointing a long finger toward the sur-
rounding effigies.
Captain Lake, after his custom, glared a single full
look upon the attorney, sudden as the flash of a pair of
guns from their embrasures in the dark; and he said qui-
etly, with a wave of his cane in the same direction —
"Yes, a precious lot of Wylders."
"Is there a Wylder vault here, Captain Brandon
Lake?"
"Hanged if I know ! — what the devil's that to you or
me. sir?" answered the Captain, with a peevish sullen-
ness.
"I was thinking, Captain Lake, whether in the event
of its turning out that Mr. Mark Wylder was dead, it
would be thought proper to lay his body here?"
"Dead, sir ! — and what the plague puts that in your
head? You are corresponding with him — arn't you?"
"I'll tell you exactly how that is, Captain Lake.
May I take the liberty to ask you for one moment to look
up."
As between these two gentlemen, this, it must be al-
lowed, was an impertinent request. But Captain Lake
did look up, and there was something extraordinarily un-
pleasant in his yellow eyes, as he fixed them upon the
contracted pupils of the attorney, who, nothing daunted,
went on —
"Pray, excuse me — thank you, Captain Lake — they