‘That is a very serious thing, Miss Ruthyn,’ he replied.  ’You are very young, and cannot see it at present, as you will hereafter.  He is very religious, you say, and all that, but his house is not a proper place for you.  It is a solitude—­its master an outcast, and it has been the repeated scene of all sorts of scandals, and of one great crime; and Lady Knollys thinks your having been domesticated there will be an injury to you all the days of your life.’

‘So I do, Maud,’ said Lady Knollys, who had just entered the room unperceived,—­’How do you do, Doctor Bryerly?—­a serious injury.  You have no idea how entirely that house is condemned and avoided, and the very name of its inmates tabooed.’

‘How monstrous—­how cruel!’ I exclaimed.

’Very unpleasant, my dear, but perfectly natural.  You are to recollect that quite independently of the story of Mr. Charke, the house was talked about, and the county people had cut your uncle Silas long before that adventure was dreamed of; and as to the circumstance of your being placed in his charge by his brother, who took, from strong family feeling, a totally one-sided view of the affair from the first, having the slightest effect in restoring his position in the county, you must quite give that up.  Except me, if he will allow me, and the clergyman, not a soul in the country will visit at Bartram-Haugh.  They may pity you, and think the whole thing the climax of folly and cruelty; but they won’t visit at Bartram, or know Silas, or have anything to do with his household.’

‘They will see, at all events, what my dear papa’s opinion was.’

‘They know that already,’ answered she, ’and it has not, and ought not to have, the slightest weight with them.  There are people there who think themselves just as great as the Ruthyns, or greater; and your poor father’s idea of carrying it by a demonstration was simply the dream of a man who had forgotten the world, and learned to exaggerate himself in his long seclusion.  I know he was beginning himself to hesitate; and I think if he had been spared another year that provision of his will would have been struck out.’

Doctor Bryerly nodded, and he said—­

’And if he had the power to dictate now, would he insist on that direction?  It is a mistake every way, injurious to you, his child; and should you happen to die during your sojourn under your uncle’s care, it would woefully defeat the testator’s object, and raise such a storm of surmise and inquiry as would awaken all England, and send the old scandal on the wing through the world again.’

’Doctor Bryerly will, I have no doubt, arrange it all.  In fact, I do not think it would be very difficult to bring Silas to terms; and if you do not consent to his trying, Maud, mark my words, you will live to repent it.’

Here were two persons viewing the question from totally different points; both perfectly disinterested; both in their different ways, I believe, shrewd and even wise; and both honourable, urging me against it, and in a way that undefinably alarmed my imagination, as well as moved my reason.  I looked from one to the other—­there was a silence.  By this time the candles had come, and we could see one another.