Strong god thou art the enemy of gods,
A hater of blind Eros and his joys,
Thy rule is bitter as the stinging rods
That scourge at Dian's feast the Spartan boys;
Evil his soul who asks thine evil aid,
And in revenge such evil aid employs,
In sundering the hearts of youth and maid.
The Garsworth family was never a very prolific one, but the estates had always descended in a direct line from father to son. Many a time the race seemed to be on the point of extinction owing to the representative being an only child, yet though the line dwindled down to depending on one life alone for its continuity it never absolutely died out. In the event of such a thing taking place it would have been difficult to say who would have succeeded to the estates, as the Garsworth family seemed to be averse to matrimony and their connection with the county families was, to say the least, doubtful. Besides, as there was no entail, the estates were completely at the disposal of the head of the family for the time being, and he could will them to whomsoever he pleased. As hitherto son had always succeeded father, there had been no necessity for the exercise of such a power, but now the sole representative of the race being unmarried he was at liberty to use his own judgment in disposing of the estates.
In the opinion of right-minded people there could be very little doubt as to who should succeed the Squire, for Una was the next of kin. She was the only living representative of the younger branch of the family, being the grand-daughter of the Squire's aunt, and therefore his second cousin. Miss Cassandra, although she constantly alluded to Randal Garsworth as "my cousin," was as a matter of fact only a relation by marriage, being Una's paternal aunt.
Una's parents had died while she was a child and she had been brought up by the kind-hearted though eccentric Miss Cassy, who sent her to Germany in order to complete her education. Miss Cassandra, having an income of three hundred a year, dwelt in London, where she was known among a select society of well-born fossils who looked upon her as a mere child. Una, having finished her education, came back to England and took up her abode with Miss Cassy, and having an income of some two hundred a year joined it to that of her aunt, and thus the two women managed to live very comfortably in a small way.