"Yes, she did. I only said yes, but he was going to be a clergyman,
and when she heard his age, she said he was not the one she had
known; I did not speak of cousin Henry because you said we were not
to mention him. What was it, if I may know, mamma?"

"There is no reason that you should not, except that it is a painful
matter to mention to Bessie or any of the Stokesley cousins. Harry
was never like the rest, I believe, but I had never seen him since he
was almost a baby. He never would work, and was not fit for any
examination."

"Our Harry used to say that Bessie and David had carried off all the
brains of the family."

"The others have sense and principle, though. Well, they put their
Hal into a Bank at Filsted, and by and by they found he was in a
great scrape, with gambling debts; and I believe that but for the
forbearance of the partners, he might have been prosecuted for
embezzling a sum--or at least he was very near it; besides which he
had engaged himself to an attorney's daughter, very young, and with a
very disagreeable mother or stepmother. The Admiral came down in
great indignation, thought these Prescotts had inveigled poor Henry,
broke everything hastily off, and shipped him off to Canada to his
brothers, George and John. They found some employment for him, but
Susan and Bessie doubt whether they were very kind to him, and in a
few years more he was in fresh scrapes, and with worse stains and
questions of his integrity. It ended in his running away to the
States, and no trace has been found of him since. I am afraid he
took away money of his brothers."