he fell upon his wife's family, and, as though he had been the manager
of a puppet-show, unpacked the whole box of them for Ashe's
entertainment.

Figure after figure emerged, one more besmirched than another, till
finally the most beflecked of all was shaken out and displayed--Lady
Grosville's brother and Kitty's father, the late Lord Blackwater. And on
this occasion Ashe did not try to escape the story which was thus a
second time brought across him. Lord Grosville, if he pleased, had a
right to tell it, and there was now a curious feeling in Ashe's mind
which had been entirely absent before, that he had, in some sort, a
right to hear it.

Briefly, the outlines of it fell into something like this shape: Henry,
fifth Earl of Blackwater, had begun life as an Irish peer, with more
money than the majority of his class; an initial advantage soon undone
by an insane and unscrupulous extravagance. He was, however, a fine,
handsome, voracious gentleman, born to prey upon his kind, and when he
looked for an heiress he was not long in finding her. His first wife, a
very rich woman, bore him one daughter. Before the daughter was three
years old, Lord Blackwater had developed a sturdy hatred of the mother,
chiefly because she failed to present him with a son; and he could not
even appease himself by the free spending of her money, which, so far as
the capital was concerned, was sharply looked after by a pair of
trustees, Belfast manufacturers and Presbyterians, to whom the
Blackwater type was not at all congenial.

These restrictions presently wore out Lord Blackwater's patience. He
left his wife, with a small allowance, to bring up her daughter in one
of his Irish houses, while he generously spent the rest of her large