To say truth, however, he
was very liberal before his marriage. Old Mrs. Aylmer says he made a vow
_then_ that Silas should never have more than five hundred a year, which he
still allows him, I believe, and he permits him to live in the place. But
they say it is in a very wild, neglected state.'
'You live in the same county--have you seen it lately, Cousin Monica?'
'No, not very lately,' said Cousin Monica, and began to hum an air
abstractedly.
CHAPTER XIII
_BEFORE AND AFTER BREAKFAST_
Next morning early I visited my favourite full-length portrait in the
chocolate coat and top-boots. Scanty as had been my cousin Monica's notes
upon this dark and eccentric biography, they were everything to me. A soul
had entered that enchanted form. Truth had passed by with her torch, and a
sad light shone for a moment on that enigmatic face.
There stood the _roue_--the duellist--and, with all his faults, the hero
too! In that dark large eye lurked the profound and fiery enthusiasm of his
ill-starred passion. In the thin but exquisite lip I read the courage of
the paladin, who would have 'fought his way,' though single-handed, against
all the magnates of his county, and by ordeal of battle have purged the
honour of the Ruthyns.
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