'I did, but he could say little more than we knew. He says nothing
could be more exemplary than Kendal's whole conduct in India, he only
regretted that he kept so much aloof from others, that his principle
and gentlemanly feeling did not tell as much as could have been
wished. He has always been wrapped up in his own pursuits--a perfect
dictionary of information.'

'We had found out that, though he is so silent. I should think him a
most elegant scholar.'

'And a deep one. He has studied and polished his acquirements to the
utmost. I assure you, Winifred, I mean to be proud of my brother-in-law.'

'What did you hear of the first wife?'

'It was an early marriage. He went home as soon as he had sufficient
salary, married her, and brought her out. She was a brilliant dark
beauty, who became quickly a motherly, housewifely, common-place
person--I should think there had been a poet's love, never awakened
from.'

'The very thing that has always struck me when, poor man, he has
tried to be civil to me. Here is a man, sensible himself, but who
has never had the hap to live with sensible women.'

'When their children grew too old for India, she came into some
little property at Bayford Bridge, which enabled him to retire.
Colonel Bury came home in the same ship, and saw much of them, liked
him better and better, and seems to have been rather wearied by her.
A very good woman, he says, and Kendal most fondly attached; but as