art was scarcely cold when they said these
things of him. And so it is to this day and to this hour: the same code
of morality exists, and the same set of moralizers are to be met with
everywhere. Far be it from me to say that faults and follies should
pass unnoticed and unstigmatized; but, at least, let the truth-teller
of to-day not have been the tuft-hunter of yesterday,--let the grave
monitor who rebukes extravagance, not once have been the Sybarite guest
who provoked excess; but least of all let us hear predictions of ruin
from the lips that only promised long years of happiness and enjoyment.

Events moved rapidly. The Chancellor appointed a receivership over the
property, and an order from the Court required that immediate possession
should be taken of the house and demesne. My father's balance at his
bankers' amounted to some thousand pounds. This, too, was sequestered
by a judge's order, "awaiting proceedings." An inventory of everything,
even to the personal effects of my mother, the jewellery she had brought
with her from France, her very wardrobe, was taken. The law has a most
microscopic eye for detail. Carriages, horses, servants' liveries, were
numbered, the very cradle in which lay her baby was declared to belong
to some unknown owner; and a kind of mystical proprietorship seemed
to float unseen through the chambers and corridors of that devoted
dwelling.

My poor mother!--removed from room to room, with good-natured care, to
spare her the shock of proceedings which even her ignorance of the
world might have taken alarm at; weak, scarcely able to walk; only
half conscious of the movement around her; asking every moment for
explanations which none had courage to give her; agitated with vague
terror; a sense of some misfortune lowering over her, and each moment
nearer; catching at a chance word dropped here; eagerly watching
at every look there,--what misery, what suffering was yours, poor,
friendless, forsaken widow!

Where was MacNaghten, her one faithful friend and counsellor? He had
gone to town early that morning, and had not yet returned. One last but
fruitless effort to induce Curtis to come to terms had led him again to
seek an interview. Her cousin De Gabriac, who had been ill for several
days, had by a mere accident, from expressions picked up by his valet
in the household, learned the nature of the allegation against my
mother,--that her marriage was denied, and my illegitimacy declared.
Almo