His wife had died while he was still young, leaving him with one child, and he had never married again.
His son George, Lord Oakleigh, was absent in India. From him Sir William had come when he first appeared at the castle. George Brandon and William Chester were very nearly of the same age. The former was forty-six, the later one year younger.
They had been friendly in youth, had been classmates at college, and had been much together in after life.
In India they had been like brothers, a common misfortune, or calamity, having cemented the bonds of their union more firmly and more closely than ever before.
It was the death of their wives. They had resided beneath the same roof in Calcutta. There Lady Chester had been taken down with fever, and Lady Brandon had helped to nurse her.
Suffice it to say, both had the fever, and both died. Sir William was left with his little Cordelia, then only ten; Lord Oakleigh being left with a son three years older.
A few months after the sad bereavement Lord Oakleigh sent his son Matthew home to England, to the care of his father, the earl having written out an earnest request that it should be so done.
The boy had arrived safely, and from that time had been his grandfather’s charge.
Little more than a year later Sir William had begun to feel that his failing health betokened something serious. He was convinced that he should never recover in India.
He considered a perfect recovery impossible; but, were he to seek his native land, he might gain a few more years of life.