They approached the station, entered the train, and two hours later arrived at Mowbray.  Gerard and Morley left their companion at a convent gate in the suburbs of the manufacturing town.

The two men made their way through the streets and entered a prominent public house.  Here they sought an interview with the landlord, and from him got information of Hatton’s brother.

“You have heard of a place called Hell-house Yard?” said the publican.  “Well, he lives there, and his name is Simon, and that’s all I know about him.”

III.—­The Gulf Impassable

When it came to the point, Lord Marney very much objected to paying Egremont’s election expenses, and proposed instead that he should accompany him to Mowbray Castle, and marry Earl Mowbray’s daughter, Lady Joan Fitz-Warene.

Lord Mowbray was the grandson of a waiter, who had gone out to India a gentleman’s valet, and returned a nabob.  Lord Mowbray’s two daughters—­ he had no sons—­were great heiresses.  Lady Joan was doctrinal; Lady Maud inquisitive.  Egremont fell in love with neither, and the visit was a failure.  Lord Marney declined to pay the election expenses.

The brothers parted in anger; and Egremont took up his abode in a cottage in Mowedale, a few miles outside the town of Mowbray.  He was drawn to this by the knowledge that Walter Gerard and his daughter Sybil, and their friend Stephen Morley, lived close by.  Of Egremont’s rank these three were ignorant.  Sybil had met him with Mr. St. Lys, the good vicar of Mowbray, relieving the misery of a poor weaver’s family in the town, and at Mowedale he passed as Mr. Franklin, a journalist.

For some weeks Egremont enjoyed the peace of rural life, and the intercourse with the Gerards ripened into friendship.  When the time came for parting, for Egremont had to take his seat in parliament, it was a tender farewell on both sides.

Egremont, embarrassed by his deception, could not only speak vaguely of their meeting again soon.  The thought of parting from Sybil nearly overwhelmed him.

When he met Gerard and Morley again it was in London, and disguise was no longer possible.  Gerard and Morley came as delegates to the Chartist National Convention in 1839, and, deputed by their fellows to interview Charles Egremont, M.P., came face to face with “Mr. Franklin.”

The general misery in the country at that time was appalling.  Weavers and miners were starving, agricultural labourers were driven into the new workhouses, and riots were of common occurrence.  The Chartists believed their proposals would improve matters, other working-class leaders believed that a general stoppage of work would be more effective.

Sybil, in London with her father, ardently supported the popular movement.  Meeting Egremont near Westminster Abbey on the very day after Gerard and Morley had waited upon him, she allowed him to escort her home.  Then, for the first time, she learnt that her friend “Mr. Franklin” was the brother of Lord Marney.