"Perhaps not. I know they haven't met for years. I always understood that they weren't very good friends, but my English grandfather is not one to rub it in. He probably thought that Time would have changed Sir Rupert." "Else he would hardly have let you come." "There was no question of letting. He would have thought it my duty. Beyond that, I think he could scarcely bear me to leave him. But still he could have had no idea of the difference," said the lad impulsively. "The difference?" "Between what I had been used to and what I was coming to. He is a saint if ever there was one. I have been brought up there from babyhood, in an atmosphere of peace and love for God and man. Within these four walls I have never heard a rough word. We lived not in luxury, indeed, for so much is given to the poor, but in refinement, and among books and pictures, and all beautiful things. And then to come to Castle Angry--" He broke off abruptly. "Miss Brandon, I am talking freely to you, but do you think my grandfather--Sir Rupert, I mean--is mad?" Aline did not answer at once. Knowing, as we do, Sir Rupert's wickedness, she found it difficult to speak of him to his heir, who apparently knew nothing. At last she answered, looking down: "Perhaps he is. Only God knows." "I found the place so filthy," he went on excitedly; "why, a decent kennel would be sweeter and cleaner. The floors are rotting, the plaster falling from the walls and ceiling; everything is going to pieces with damp and neglect. It is horrible, horrible!" "Poor boy!" said Aline, turning her large limpid eyes upon him; "poor boy!" The tears suddenly started into his eyes. He was still weak, of course, from his illness, and was likely to be for a long time. "It isn't the ruin and dirt and discomfort--it is--other things. I believe my poor grandfather is mad, and that fellow Gaskin, his bailiff,--if ever I saw scoundrelism in a human being it is in that fellow. I flogged him soundly the first day I was at Castle Angry. I found him savagely ill-treating one of those wretched dogs, which he had taken care to tie up securely first." "Oh!" said Aline in a low voice, which, I am afraid, trembled with pleasure. "And what did your grandfather say when he heard?" "He came out in the middle of it, and roared with laughter. Gaskin was cutting capers to make anyone laugh if the thing hadn't been so sickening. He's a coward too. He slunk off as gray as lead when I let him go. It made me feel that to flog such a creature was degradation." "Oh no," cried Aline, "surely not! It was right to make him feel something of the pain he had inflicted. Still, you must be careful of the man. I am sure he would make a dangerous enemy. But perhaps you will not go back to Castle Angry when you leave us. You will return to Warwickshire?" A cloud came over his face.