among whom I was come to reside, except that it consisted of three
individuals, my uncle, and his son and daughter, Lady Tyrrell having
been long dead; in addition to this very scanty stock of information,
I shortly learned from my communicative companion, that my uncle was,
as I had suspected, completely retired in his habits, and besides
that, having been, so far back as she could well recollect, always
rather strict, as reformed rakes frequently become, he had latterly
been growing more gloomily and sternly religious than heretofore. Her
account of her brother was far less favourable, though she did not say
anything directly to his disadvantage. From all that I could gather
from her, I was led to suppose that he was a specimen of the idle,
coarse-mannered, profligate "_squirearchy_"--a result which might
naturally have followed from the circumstance of his being, as it
were, outlawed from society, and driven for companionship to grades
below his own--enjoying, too, the dangerous prerogative of spending
a good deal of money. However, you may easily suppose that I found
nothing in my cousin's communication fully to bear me out in so very
decided a conclusion.

I awaited the arrival of my uncle, which was every moment to be
expected, with feelings half of alarm, half of curiosity--a sensation
which I have often since experienced, though to a less degree, when
upon the point of standing for the first time in the presence of one
of whom I have long been in the habit of hearing or thinking with
interest. It was, therefore, with some little perturbation that I
heard, first a slight bustle at the outer door, then a slow step
traverse the hall, and finally witnessed the door open, and my uncle
enter the room. He was a striking looking man; from peculiarities both
of person and of dress, the whole effect of his appearance amounted to
extreme singularity. He was tall, and when young his figure must have