was liberal
enough with regard to the views of other people. Her maid is strictly
orthodox, and yet every Sunday a carriage was placed at her service
to convey her to church; and she is left well provided for during
the rest of her life. It is probable Lady Roselaer considered you
the person likely to make good what she had left undone either from
false shame or obstinacy. Had this not been her intention, she was a
woman who would have taken measures to prevent her will being ignored,
even after her death."

CHAPTER VI.

With regard to the Castle de Werve, I have found out that it is
situated on the borders of Gelderland and Overyssel, and is surrounded
by extensive woods, moors, and arable land. It is at present occupied
by General von Zwenken, and formerly was in the possession of Aunt
Sophia's parents. To its possession is attached the title of Baron,
with seignorial rights--rights which in our time are little more than
nominal, yet to which old Aunt Sophia seems to have attached immense
value. Her father, old Baron Roselaer van de Werve, had no son (a great
trial for him, as you may suppose), but three daughters, of whom Aunt
Sophia was the second, and my mother's mother the youngest. The eldest,
Lady Mary Ann, became, on the death of her father, the rightful heir to
the Castle de Werve and the estates attached to it. This arrangement
was exceedingly offensive to Aunt Sophia, who had expected her father
to leave the castle to her, and at one time she had good reasons for
fostering such expectations.

Her eldest sister had been the source of much grief and sorrow to the
old people. She had secretly entered into a romantic love-engagement
with a young Swiss officer--then Captain von Zwenken--and considering
it impossible to obtain the consent of her parents to such a marriage,
she eloped with Von Zwenken, who took her to Switzerland, where they
were married. This union, according to Dutch law, and in the opinion
of Aunt Sophia, was illegal. The weak parents (as Sophia called them),
however, at length became reconciled to their son-in-law, and when
the lost child returned to her old home in reduced circumstances,
her parents received her with open arms.

In this family scene of reconciliation, Aunt Sophia imitated the
eldest son in the parable. She had never been on good terms with her
romantic sister; she persisted in regarding her brother-in-law as
an abductor and a deceiver, who had obtruded hims