me is why in thunder his brother Abner should have wanted to shoot my
uncle?"

"It seems--" the lawyer hesitated, coughed and glanced nervously at
the door as if he feared the intrusion of Kesiah--"it seems he was a
lover--was engaged in fact to Janet Merryweather before--before she
attracted your uncle's attention. Later the engagement was broken, and
he married a cousin in a fit of temper, it was said at the time. There
was always ill blood after this, it appeared, and on the morning of your
uncle's death Abner was seen crossing the pasture from Poplar Spring
with his gun on his shoulder."

"It's an ugly story all round," remarked Gay quietly, "and I wish to
heaven that I were out of it. How has my poor mother stood it?"

"She has known very little about it," Mr. Chamberlayne answered, while
his jutting eyebrows twitched nervously as he turned away. "Your mother,
my dear boy, is one of those particularly angelic characters from whose
presence even the thought of evil is banished. You have only to look
into her face to discern how pure and spotless she has kept her soul.
My old friend Jonathan was very devoted to her. She represented, indeed,
the spiritual influence in his life, and there was no one on earth whose
respect or affection he valued so highly. It was his consideration for
her alone that prevented him from making a most unfortunate marriage."

"The girl died insane, didn't she?"

"It was a distressing--a most distressing case; but we must remember,
in rendering our verdict, that if Janet Merryweather had upheld the
principles of her sex, it would never have happened."