extended it until it became the great firm of
which your father is the present head. We both, your father and I,
showed even more aptitude for this life of mercantile success than our
father did, and he, perceiving this, retired while scarcely an old man.
He made us over the entire business he had made, taking, however, from
it, for his own private use, a large sum of money. On the interest of
this money he would live, promising, however, to return it to us at his
death. The money taken out of the business rather crippled us, and we
begged of him to allow us to pay him the interest, and to let the
capital remain at our disposal; but he wished to be completely his own
master, and he bought a place in Hertfordshire out of part of the
money. It was a year or two after, that he met his second wife and
married her. I don't pretend," continued Uncle Jasper, "that we liked
this marriage or our stepmother. We were young fellows then, and we
thought our father had done us an injustice. The girl he had chosen was
an insipid little thing, with just a pretty face, and nothing whatever
else. She was not quite a lady. We saw her, and came to the conclusion
that she was common--most unsuited to our father. We also remembered our
own mother; and most young men feel pain at seeing any one put into her
place.

"We expostulated with our father. He was a fiery old man, and hot words
passed between us. I won't repeat what we all said, my dear, or how
bitter John and I felt when we rode away from the old place our father
had just purchased. One thing he said as we were going off.

"'My marrying again won't make any money difference to you two fellows,
and I suppose I may please myself.'"

"I think my grandfather was very unjust," said Charlotte, but
nevertheless a look of relief stole over her face.

"We went back to our business, my dear, and our father married; and when
we wrote to him he did not answer our letters. After a time we heard a
son had been born, and then, shortly after the birth of this child, the
news reached us, that a lawyer had been summoned down to the manor-house
in Hertfordshire. We supposed that our father was making provision for
the child; and it seemed to us fair enough. Then we saw the child's
death in the _Times_, and shortly after the news also came to us that
the same lawyer had gone down again to see our father.

"After this, a few years went by, and we, busy with our own life, gave
little heed to the old