"Against all the world: against even you, when you allow yourself to doubt it. Tush! I would not twice think of it. However many candles burn"--this was a touch of his nasty sarcasm, which he never could deny himself--"up and down the valley, General, no son of yours, however wild, and troubled in expenditure, could ever shape or even dream of anything dishonourable." "I hope not--I hope to God, not," Sir Philip said, with a little gasp, as if he were fearing otherwise: "Dick, you are my godson, and you have been the greatest comfort to me; because you never would believe----" "Not another word, General. You must not dwell on this matter so. The children were fine little dears of course, very clever and very precious----" "Oh, if you only knew the words, Dick, my little granddaughter could come out with! Scarcely anything you could think of would have been too big for her little mouth. And if she could not do it once, she never left it till she did. Where it came from I could not tell, for we are not great at languages: but it must have been of her mother's race. And the boy, though not with gifts of that sort--oh, you ought to have seen his legs, Dick--at least till he took the whooping-cough!" The stately old gentleman leaned, and dropped a tear perhaps into the river Tawe. "General, I understand it all," said Chowne, though he never had a child, by reason of the Almighty's mercy to the next generation: "of course these pretty children were a great delight to every one. But affairs of this sort happen in all ancient families. The mere extent of land appears to open for clandestine graves----" "That wicked devilish story, Dick! Did you tell me, or did you not, to take it as the Fiend's own lie?" "A lie, of course, as concerns the Captain: from their want of knowledge. But concerning some one else, true enough, I fear, I fear." Both men had by this time very nearly said their say throughout. The General seemed to be overcome, and the Parson to be growing weary of a subject often treated in discourse between them. "Before you go in the morning, Dick," said the old man, now recovering, "I wish to consult you about a matter nearly concerning young Isabel. She is a distant cousin of yours. You thoroughly understand the law, of which I have very little knowledge. Perhaps you will meet me in the book-room, for half an hour's quiet talk, before we go to breakfast." "I cannot do it, Sir Philip. I have my own affairs to see to: I must be off when the moon is up. I cannot sleep in your house, this night." CHAPTER XL. FORCIBLE EJECTMENT.