"I don't know--yes! I've a notion she had; a kind of waiting woman
to Madam Starkey."

"Please your worship," said humbled Dickon, "Mistress Bridget had a
daughter--one Mistress Mary--who went abroad, and has never been
heard on since; and folk do say that has crazed her mother."

Mr. Gisborne shaded his eyes with his hand.

"I could wish she had not cursed me," he muttered. "She may have
power--no one else could." After a while, he said aloud, no one
understanding rightly what he meant, "Tush! it is impossible!"--and
called for claret; and he and the other gentlemen set-to to a
drinking-bout.



CHAPTER II.



I now come to the time in which I myself was mixed up with the people
that I have been writing about. And to make you understand how I
became connected with them, I must give you some little account of
myself. My father was the younger son of a Devonshire gentleman of
moderate property; my eldest uncle succeeded to the estate of his
forefathers, my second became an eminent attorney in London, and my
father took orders. Like most poor clergymen, he had a large family;
and I have no doubt was glad enough when my London uncle, who was a
bachelor, offered to take charge of me, and bring me up to be his