ess from whom something might be
gained,--and the ogress had still persisted in saying that a Burgess
should be her heir. It had therefore come to pass that Brooke had
been brought up half to revere her and half to abhor her. "She is a
dreadful woman," said his branch of the family, "who will not scruple
at anything evil. But as it seems that you may probably reap the
advantage of the evil that she does, it will become you to put up
with her iniquity." As he had become old enough to understand the
nature of her position, he had determined to judge for himself;--but
his judgment hitherto simply amounted to this,--that Miss Stanbury
was a very singular old woman, with a kind heart and good instincts,
but so capricious withal that no sensible man would risk his
happiness on expectations formed on her promises. Guided by this
opinion, he had resolved to be attentive to her and, after a certain
fashion, submissive; but certainly not to become her slave. She had
thrown over her nephew. She was constantly complaining to him of her
niece. Now and again she would say a very bitter word to him about
himself. When he had left Exeter on his little excursion, no one was
so much in favour with her as Mr. Gibson. On his return he found that
Mr. Gibson had been altogether discarded, and was spoken of in terms
of almost insolent abuse. "If I were ever so humble to her," he had
said to himself, "it would do no good; and there is nothing I hate so
much as humility." He had thus determined to take the goods the gods
provided, should it ever come to pass that such godlike provision was
laid before him out of Miss Stanbury's coffers;--but not to alter
his mode of life or put himself out of his way in obedience to her
behests, as a man might be expected to do who was destined to receive
so rich a legacy. Upon this idea he had acted, still believing the
old woman to be good, but believing at the same time that she was
very capricious. Now he had heard what his Uncle Bartholomew Burgess
had had to say upon the matter, and he could not refrain from asking
himself whether his uncle's accusations were true.

In a narrow passage between the High Street and the Close he met Mr.
Gibson. There had come to be that sort of intimacy between the two
men which grows from closeness of position rather than from any
social desire on either side, and it was natural that Burgess should
say a word of farewell. On the previous evening Miss Stanbury
had relieved