is not strange,
seeing that it meant nothing less than a new lease of life to an ancient
family that was on the verge of disappearance. Had Morris not married
the race would have become extinct, at any rate in the direct line;
and had he married where there was no money, it might, as his father
thought, become bankrupt, which in his view was almost worse.

The one terror which had haunted the Colonel for years like a persistent
nightmare was that a day seemed to be at hand when the Monks would be
driven from Monksland, where, from sire to son, they had sat for so many
generations. That day had nearly come when he was a young man; indeed,
it was only averted by his marriage with the somewhat humbly born Miss
Porson, who brought with her sufficient dowry to enable him to pay off
the major portion of the mortgages which then crippled the estate. But
at that time agriculture flourished, and the rents from the property
were considerable; moreover, the Colonel was never of a frugal turn of
mind. So it came about that every farthing was spent.

Afterwards followed a period of falling revenues and unlet farms. But
still the expenses went on, with the result, as the reader knows, that
at the opening of this history things were worse than they had ever
been, and indeed, without the help received from Mr. Porson, must ere
that have reached their natural end. Now the marriage of his son with a
wealthy heiress set a period to all such anxiety, and unless the couple
should be disappointed of issue, made it as certain as anything can be
in this mutable world, that for some generations to come, at any rate,
the name of Monk of Monksland would still appear in the handbooks of
county families.

In the event these fears proved to be groundless, since by an unexpected
turn of the wheel of chance Morris became a rich man in reward of his
own exertions, and was thus made quite independent of his wife's large
fortune. This, however, was a circumstance which the Colonel could not
be expected to foresee, for how could he believe that an electrical
invention which he looked upon as a mere scientific toy would ultimately
bring its author not only fame, but an income of many thousands per
annum? Yet this happened.

Other things happened also which, under the circumstances, were quite
as satisfactory, seeing that within two years of his marriage Morris was
the father of a son and daughter, so that the old Abbey, where, by the
especial request o