the place where her house was situated.

They knew she had had a large family of sons, and that their father and
uncle had left home early in life--had been _sent away_, was their
thought, or would have been if the question had ever been raised so as
to lead them to think about it.

They were sent to Wigfield, which was about sixty miles from their home.
Here they had an old second cousin, of whom they always spoke with great
respect and affection. He took Augustus into his bank, and not only
became as fond of him as if he had been his son, but eventually left him
half of what he possessed. Daniel went into a lawyer's office, and got
on very well; but he was not at all rich, and had always let his son
know, that though there was an estate in the family, it never could come
to him. John having also been told this, had not doubted that there must
have been a family quarrel at some time or other; but in his own mind he
never placed it very far back, but always fancied it must be connected
with his uncle's first marriage, which was a highly imprudent and very
miserable one.

Whatever it had arisen from, his father had evidently taken part with
his uncle; but old Augustus never mentioned the subject. John was aware
that he wrote to his mother once a year, but she never answered. This
might be, John thought, on account of her great age and her infirmities;
and that very evening he began to dismiss the subject from his mind,
being aided by the circumstance that he was himself the only son of a
very rich and loving father, so that anything the mother might have left
to her second surviving son was not a matter of the slightest importance
to her grandson, or ever likely to be.