t you know
there are some things as bad almost to be suspected of as to have done, and
the country gentlemen chose to suspect him. They did not like him, you
see. His politics vexed them; and he resented their treatment of his
wife--though I really think, poor Silas, he did not care a pin about
her--and he annoyed them whenever he could. Your papa, you know, is very
proud of his family--_he_ never had the slightest suspicion of your uncle.'

'Oh no!' I cried vehemently.

'That's right, Maud Ruthyn,' said Cousin Monica, with a sad little smile
and a nod. 'And your papa was, you may suppose, very angry.'

'Of course he was,' I exclaimed.

'You have no idea, my dear, _how_ angry. He directed his attorney to
prosecute, by wholesale, all who had said a word affecting your uncle's
character. But the lawyers were against it, and then your uncle tried to
fight his way through it, but the men would not meet him. He was quite
slurred. Your father went up and saw the Minister. He wanted to have him a
Deputy-Lieutenant, or something, in his county. Your papa, you know, had a
very great influence with the Government. Beside his county influence, he
had two boroughs then. But the Minister was afraid, the feeling was so very
strong. They offered him something in the Colonies, but your father would
not hear of it--that would have been a banishment, you know. They would
have given your father a peerage to make it up, but he would not accept
it, and broke with the party. Except in that way--which, you know, was
connected with the reputation of the family--I don't think, considering his
great wealth, he has done very much for Silas. To say truth, however, he
was very liberal before his marriage. Old Mrs. Aylmer says he made a vow
_then_ that Silas should never have more than five hundred a year, which he
still allows him, I believe, and he permits him to live in the place. But
they say it is in a very wild, neglected state.'

'You live in the same county--have you seen it lately, Cousin Monica?'

'No, not very lately,' said Cousin Monica, and began to hum an air
abstractedly.

CHAPTER XIII

_BEFORE AND AFTER BREAKFAST_

Next morning early I visited my favourite full-length portrait in the
chocolate coat and top-boots. Scanty as had been my cousin Monica's notes
upon this dark and eccentric biography, they were everything to me. A soul
had entered that enchanted form. Truth had passed by with her torch, and a
sad light sh