I satisfied this sudden educational alarm, and Lady Knollys proceeded.

’I am afraid you hardly hear me, the wind makes such an uproar.  Well, listen.  The letter said distinctly, that he, Mr. Charke, had made a very profitable visit to Bartram-Haugh, and mentioned in exact figures for how much he held your uncle Silas’s I.O.U.’s, for he could not pay him.  I can’t say what the sum was.  I only remember that it was quite frightful.  It took away my breath when I read it.’

‘Uncle Silas had lost it?’ I asked.

’Yes, and owed it; and had given him those papers called I.O.U.’s promising to pay, which, of course, Mr. Charke had locked up with his money; and the insinuation was that Silas had made away with him, to get rid of this debt, and that he had also taken a great deal of his money.

’I just recollect these points which were exactly what made the impression,’ continued Lady Knollys, after a short pause; ’the letter was written in the evening of the last day of the wretched man’s life, so that there had not been much time for your uncle Silas to win back his money; and he stoutly alleged that he did not owe Mr. Charke a guinea.  It mentioned an enormous sum as being actually owed by Silas; and it cautioned the man, an agent, to whom he wrote, not to mention the circumstance, as Silas could only pay by getting the money from his wealthy brother, who would have the management; and he distinctly said that he had kept the matter very close at Silas’s request.  That, you know, was a very awkward letter, and all the worse that it was written in brutally high spirits, and not at all like a man meditating an exit from the world.  You can’t imagine what a sensation the publication of these letters produced.  In a moment the storm was up, and certainly Silas did meet it bravely—­yes, with great courage and ability.  What a pity he did not early enter upon some career of ambition!  Well, well, it is idle regretting.  He suggested that the letters were forgeries.  He alleged that Charke was in the habit of boasting, and telling enormous falsehoods about his gambling transactions, especially in his letters.  He reminded the world how often men affect high animal spirits at the very moment of meditating suicide.  He alluded, in a manly and graceful way, to his family and their character.  He took a high and menacing tone with his adversaries, and he insisted that what they dared to insinuate against him was physically impossible.’

I asked in what form this vindication appeared.

’It was a letter, printed as a pamphlet; everybody admired its ability, ingenuity, and force, and it was written with immense rapidity.’

‘Was it at all in the style of his letters?’ I innocently asked.

My cousin laughed.

’Oh, dear, no!  Ever since he avowed himself a religious character, he had written nothing but the most vapid and nerveless twaddle.  Your poor dear father used to send his letters to me to read, and I sometimes really thought that Silas was losing his faculties; but I believe he was only trying to write in character.’