While Honoria Eversleigh was living under a false name in Percy Street,
Tottenham Court Road, the man who called himself her father,
established himself in a little river-side public-house, under the
shadow of Raynham Castle. The house in question had never borne too
good a character; and its reputation was in nowise improved when, on
the death of its owner, it passed into the custody of Mr. Milsom, who
came down to Raynham one November morning, almost immediately after
Lady Eversleigh's departure, saw the "Cat and Fiddle" public-house
vacant, and went straight to the attorney who had the letting of it, to
offer himself as a tenant, announcing himself to the lawyer as Thomas
Maunders.
The attorney at first looked rather suspiciously at the gentleman who
had earned for himself the ominous nickname of Black Milsom; but when
the would-be tenant offered to pay a year's rent in advance down on the
nail, the man of law melted, and took the money.
Thomas Milsom lost no time in taking possession of his new abode. It
was the haunt of the lower class of agricultural labourers, and of the
bargemen, who moored their barges sometimes beneath the shadow of
Raynham Bridge, while they dawdled away a few lazy hours in the village
public-house.
Any one who had cared to study Mr. Milsom's face and manners during his
residence at Raynham, would have speedily perceived that the life did
not suit him.
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