k in
the strain that he had now used. He had heard often that his Uncle
Barty disliked Miss Stanbury, and had not been surprised at former
sharp, biting little words spoken in reference to that lady's
character. But he had not expected such a tirade of abuse as the
banker had now poured out. "Of course I know nothing about the bank,"
said he; "but I did not suppose that she had had anything to do with
it."

"Where do you think the money came from that she has got? Did
you ever hear that she had anything of her own? She never had a
penny,--never a penny. It came out of this house. It is the capital
on which this business was founded, and on which it ought to be
carried on to this day. My brother had thrown her off; by heavens,
yes;--had thrown her off. He had found out what she was, and had got
rid of her."

"But he left her his money."

"Yes;--she got near him when he was dying, and he did leave her his
money;--his money, and my money, and your father's money."

"He could have given her nothing, Uncle Barty, that wasn't his own."

"Of course that's true;--it's true in one way. You might say the same
of a man who was cozened into leaving every shilling away from his
own children. I wasn't in Exeter when the will was made. We none
of us were here. But she was here; and when we came to see him die,
there we found her. She had had her revenge upon him, and she means
to have it on all of us. I don't believe she'll ever leave you a
shilling, Brooke. You'll find her out yet, and you'll talk of her to
your nephews as I do to you."

Brooke made some ordinary answer to this, and bade his uncle adieu.
He had allowed himself to entertain a half chivalrous idea that he
could produce a reconciliation between Miss Stanbury and his uncle
Barty; and since he had been at Exeter he had said a word, first to
the one and then to the other, hinting at the subject; but his hints
had certainly not been successful. As he walked from the bank into
the High Street he could not fail to ask himself whether there were
any grounds for the terrible accusations which he had just heard from
his uncle's lips. Something of the same kind, though in form much
less violent, had been repeated to him very often by others of the
family. Though he had as a boy known Miss Stanbury well, he had been
taught to regard her as an ogress. All the Burgesses had regarded
Miss Stanbury as an ogress since that unfortunate will had come
to light. But she was an ogr