people generally received them with a large measure of incredulity.

The spacious old two-story mansion, with its high-pitched roof and
rows of dormer windows, was built by the father of Captain Allen,
who had also followed the sea, and, it was said, obtained his large
wealth through means not sanctioned by laws human or divine. Men and
women of the past generation, and therefore contemporaries, did not
hesitate to designate him an "old pirate," though always the
opprobrious words were spoken in an undertone, for people were half
afraid of the dark, reserved, evil-looking man, who had evidently
passed a large portion of his life among scenes of peril and
violence. There were more pleasing traditions of the beautiful wife
he brought home to grace the luxurious dwelling he had fitted up in
a style of almost princely splendor, compared with the plain abode
of even the best off people in town. Who she was, or from whence she
came, no one knew certainly. She was very young--almost a
child--when the elder Captain Allen brought her to S----.

Very little intercourse, I believe, passed between the Allen family
and the town's-people, except in a business way. The first regular
entry made into the house beyond the formal drawing-room, was on the
occasion of a birth, when the best nurse and gossip in town was
summoned to attend the young mistress. A son was born. He was called
John; though not under the sign of Christian baptism--John Allen;
afterwards Captain Allen. The old sea-dog, his father, was absent at
the time; but returned before the infant was four weeks old. The
nurse described the meeting of husband and wife as very lover-like
and tender on his part, but with scarcely a sign of feeling on hers.
She did not repel him, nor turn from him; but received his caresses
with the manner of one in whom all quick emotion had died. And so it