And I assure you, Twemlow,
that I feel respect as well for the courage that he shows, and the
perseverance, in coming home and facing those vile usurers. And your own
wife's nephew! Why, you ought to take his part through thick and thin,
whatever you may think of him. From all I hear he must be a young man of
exceedingly high principle; and I shall make a point of calling upon him
the first half-hour I get to spare. To-morrow, if possible; or if not,
the day after, at the very latest."
But the needful half-hour had not yet been found; and Carne, who was
wont to think the worst of everybody, concluded that the Darling race
still cherished the old grudge, which had always been on his own side.
For this he cared little, and perhaps was rather glad of it. For the
old dwelling-place of his family (the Carne Castle besieged by the
Roundheads a hundred and sixty years agone) now threatened to tumble
about the ears of any one knocking at the gate too hard. Or rather the
remnants of its walls did so; the greater part, having already fallen,
lay harmless, and produced fine blackberries.
As a castle, it had been well respected in its day, though not of mighty
bulwarks or impregnable position. Standing on a knoll, between the
ramp of high land and the slope of shore, it would still have been
conspicuous to traveller and to voyager but for the tall trees around
it. These hid the moat, and the relics of the drawbridge, the groined
archway, and cloven tower of the keep--which had twice been struck by
lightning--as well as the windows of the armoury, and the chapel hushed
with ivy.
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