LAIGHTON MANOR HOUSE, OR Love, and its Shadows. A SKETCH, BY "PUSS IN THE CORNER." 1858. LONDON: SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET. 249. x. 29. LAIGHTON MANOR HOUSE. CHAPTER I. Ir was a dull, misty November evening, when two ladies alighted at the well-known station of Don the Eastern Counties railway. Everything looked cold and comfortless; the prevailing fog seemed to penetrate into the very hearts of the passengers. Though but half-past three, the afternoon was beginning to grow dusk, and to add to the usual inconvenience experienced by ladies travelling unattended, a large shooting party had, with more eagerness than politeness, engaged every conveyance to the neighbouring towns. They therefore found themselves under the disagreeable necessity of remaining at the station till a carriage could be procured, for, as their return to Laighton Manor House, their home, was unexpected; their own had not been sent for them. While Lady Margaret Thornhill, the elder of the ladies, employed herself in selecting their luggage from an enormous mass of trunks and bandboxes, B |