"Stoker, Bram - The Lady Of The Shroud" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stoker Bram)

thing I saw was the flash of a white face with dark, burning eyes as
the figure sank down into the coffin--just as mist or smoke
disappears under a breeze."



BOOK I: THE WILL OF ROGER MELTON



THE READING OF THE WILL OF ROGER MELTON AND ALL THAT FOLLOWED

Record made by Ernest Roger Halbard Melton, law-student of the Inner
Temple, eldest son of Ernest Halbard Melton, eldest son of Ernest
Melton, elder brother of the said Roger Melton and his next of kin.

I consider it at least useful--perhaps necessary--to have a complete
and accurate record of all pertaining to the Will of my late grand-
uncle Roger Melton.

To which end let me put down the various members of his family, and
explain some of their occupations and idiosyncrasies. My father,
Ernest Halbard Melton, was the only son of Ernest Melton, eldest son
of Sir Geoffrey Halbard Melton of Humcroft, in the shire of Salop, a
Justice of the Peace, and at one time Sheriff. My great-grandfather,
Sir Geoffrey, had inherited a small estate from his father, Roger
Melton. In his time, by the way, the name was spelled Milton; but my
great-great-grandfather changed the spelling to the later form, as he
was a practical man not given to sentiment, and feared lest he should
in the public eye be confused with others belonging to the family of
a Radical person called Milton, who wrote poetry and was some sort of
official in the time of Cromwell, whilst we are Conservatives. The
same practical spirit which originated the change in the spelling of
the family name inclined him to go into business. So he became,
whilst still young, a tanner and leather-dresser. He utilized for
the purpose the ponds and streams, and also the oak-woods on his
estate--Torraby in Suffolk. He made a fine business, and accumulated
a considerable fortune, with a part of which he purchased the
Shropshire estate, which he entailed, and to which I am therefore
heir-apparent.

Sir Geoffrey had, in addition to my grandfather, three sons and a
daughter, the latter being born twenty years after her youngest
brother. These sons were: Geoffrey, who died without issue, having
been killed in the Indian Mutiny at Meerut in 1857, at which he took
up a sword, though a civilian, to fight for his life; Roger (to whom
I shall refer presently); and John--the latter, like Geoffrey, dying
unmarried. Out of Sir Geoffrey's family of five, therefore, only
three have to be considered: My grandfather, who had three children,
two of whom, a son and a daughter, died young, leaving only my