'I am thirty-five.'
'Why, that makes me fifty-three. How time flies! Well, lad!'
'You are aware that the discovery of his marriage was the cause of the final rupture.'
'Ah! Eu was wrong there; I was but a boy then, and did not understand things, and took his part through thick and thin; but it was a very foolish thing to fly in the old man's face that way.'
'Squire, squire,' said the doctor, 'what right have you to talk?'
'Well, that's true; but I thought he would get over mine, and Mary's property made it of little consequence, as far as money went.'
Eustace took the miniature from his uncle, and, opening the case on the other side, showed the portrait of a lady. 'That was my mother,' he said quietly.
'Ay, to the life; yes, she was a lovely creature, and as good as she was beautiful. Eu was perfectly right to marry her; but then he should have waited a little.'
'Bloodworth hurried him into it,' said Eustace, 'by telling him, in confidence, of another match which Sir Eustace had determined to effect between him and some lady distantly connected with his family.'
'Now, Eu,' said the squire, rising in his chair, 'if you expect me to keep my temper, don't mention that—pshaw! nonsense!' pushing away the doctor's hand—'that fellow's name more than you can help.'