“We are constituted so as to grow a little sentimental when the occasion presents itself, Mr. Crabshaw,” I remarked.

“Yes, yes, I understand, but my daughter knows quite well that there is no occasion for her yet.  I might as well tell you,” he continued, after a pause, “that, although it is nothing against Christopher himself, there is a streak of bad blood in the family.  His great-grandfather turned traitor; yes, sir, committed treason against the crown of England, and then fled.  To be sure,” he added, “Christopher Gault is no more responsible for the crime of his ancestor than am I myself; but the question of blood is an important one, and these traits are very liable to crop out; if not in one generation, then in another.”

“You believe, then, in the law of heredity as affecting moral character?”

“Certainly.  Physical and mental traits are inherited; why not moral?”

A few days later I was in the city of Richmond, and from there I proceeded directly to D——­ county, where, at the November term of the county court, I intended to present Miss Crabshaw’s claim to the property in question.  Meantime I devoted myself to the preparation of testimony relating to the case.  I visited the place where old Nancy Blake had lived, situated about twelve miles from D——­ court-house.  The property left by her consisted of the old house, fallen badly into decay, a small amount of land, and a large sum of money deposited in the bank.  Little was known about “Old Nancy,” as the few people in the thinly settled locality called her.  The most information that I could glean was from an old negro who had been her neighbor for the most of his life.  He said that he could well remember her father, who had been dead for fifty years.  He was a man of military look and an Englishman.  His name was John Blake.  He could remember nothing about his wife, but he had at least one son and a daughter besides Nancy.  When he was about to die his son came to see him.  He was much older than either daughter, Nancy being the youngest.  Eleanor died not long after, and Nancy was left alone.  She was very eccentric and seldom saw any one.

Such was the story, in brief, as I was able to obtain it from the old negro.

The details of the case, as it was brought out in court, do not need special mention, and it will be sufficient to merely state the basis of the claim.

Although Mr. Crabshaw was very proud of his descent, and traced his lineage back some hundreds of years, and was very particular to have the family coat-of-arms always made conspicuous, yet he had married a lady whose ancestry was not clearly known.  Mrs. Crabshaw, who had died when her daughter was a mere child, was a beautiful and accomplished woman, whose grandfather, on her father’s side, she had never seen, and of whom she knew no more than that his name was Thomas Blake, and that he died in the town of S——­, Connecticut, in 1832, at the age of forty-nine years.