Calista found it somewhat hard to repress a movement of impatience, but she did repress it, and took off her bonnet as desired, showing the beautiful black hair, which no amount of brushing would keep from curling and waving in its own way. "Humph!" said the old gentleman. "A thorough Stanfield. Did any one ever tell you that?" "Yes, sir. Miss Betsy and Miss Hannah said so, and old Cassius." "Well, my dear child, I quite agree with you that you have a right—a moral right at least—to know the particulars concerning your late grandfather's estate; but the story is not to be told in five minutes. Have you half an hour to spare?" "Oh, yes, sir, an hour, if necessary," answered Calista, with a beating heart, but outwardly quite composed. If her life with Miss Priscilla had taught her nothing else, it had at least taught her self-control. "Very well. To make you understand matters, I must begin some way back. You know, probably, that your grandmother was a second wife. She was a Miss Howell, related to the Howells at Graywich, and possessed of some property, which went into your grandfather's hands, as there were no special settlements. General Stanfield was somewhat advanced in life, and Priscilla, the only child of his first wife, was nearly as old as his bride. When Richard came, he was naturally the object of great affection, and I do not hesitate to say that his father was most injudiciously, even culpably, indulgent to him. "The boy was permitted to run wild, so far as any government was concerned. He associated with all sorts of people, and was given an almost unlimited command of money. This was particularly the case after his mother died, which she did, unfortunately, when your father was only ten years old. Under such circumstances, it is a wonder that your father grew up no worse than he did. I do not mean to say that he was addicted to low vice or dissipation, for such was never the case, but he was extravagant and self-indulgent, and totally without any guiding principle, religious or otherwise. Your grandfather had unfortunately taken up with those notions of the French philosophers which Mr. Jefferson had made fashionable." Mr. Settson then gave an account of her father's college life, his marriage, and the displeasure of her grandfather, and added: "A few days about ten, I think—before his death, as I was riding out of town to keep an appointment, I met General Stanfield, who had been away for two or three weeks. He directed Cassius, who was with him as usual, to go on, while he turned his horse and rode by my side for some distance, talking on various subjects. Just as we were about to part, he said: "'Settson, I have made a new will.' "'Indeed!' said I.