would come back, and it was said they kept a bedchamber ready for him
yet in the old house. But much as they pretended to regret the loss of
him and his children, it would make them curse their stars were a
descendant of his to return now. For the child of a younger son was in
possession of the old estate, and was doing as much evil as his
forefathers did; and if the true heir were to appear on the threshold,
he would (if he might but do it secretly) stain the whole doorstep as
red as the Bloody Footstep had stained one little portion of it.

"Do you think he will ever come back?" asked little Ned.

"Stranger things have happened, my little man!" said Doctor Grimshawe,
"than that the posterity of this man should come back and turn these
usurpers out of his rightful inheritance. And sometimes, as I sit here
smoking my pipe and drinking my glass, and looking up at the cunning
plot that the spider is weaving yonder above my head, and thinking of
this fine old family and some little matters that have been between
them and me, I fancy that it may be so! We shall see! Stranger things
have happened."

And Doctor Grimshawe drank off his tumbler, winking at little Ned in a
strange way, that seemed to be a kind of playfulness, but which did not
affect the children pleasantly; insomuch that little Elsie put both her
hands on Doctor Grim's knees, and begged him not to do so any
more. [Endnote: 4.]




CHAPTER IV.