our first interview, and to throw myself
upon his hospitality and his sense of honour
for protection against a repetition of such
scenes.

My cousin's conduct may appear to have
been an inadequate cause for such serious
uneasiness; but my alarm was caused
neither by his acts nor words, but entirely
by his manner, which was strange and even
intimidating to excess. At the beginning
of the yesterday's interview there was a
sort of bullying swagger in his air, which
towards the end gave place to the brutal
vehemence of an undisguised ruffian--a
transition which had tempted me into a belief
that he might seek even forcibly to extort
from me a consent to his wishes, or by
means still more horrible, of which I
scarcely dared to trust myself to think,
to possess himself of my property.

I was early next day summoned to attend
my uncle in his private room, which lay in
a corner turret of the old building; and
thither I accordingly went, wondering all
the way what this unusual measure might
prelude. When I entered the room, he
did not rise in his usual courteous way to
greet me, but simply pointed to a chair