ut common curiosity. Mrs. Price told me that
there were many things generally divulged and credited, which therefore
lay in her power to communicate without any derogation from her office.
Being pleased with these larger words (which I always have trouble in
pronouncing), I asked her whether there was any thing else. And she
answered yes, but unhappily of a nature to which it was scarcely
desirable to allude in my presence. I told her that this was not
satisfactory, and I might say quite the opposite; that having "alluded"
to whatever it might be, she was bound to tell me all about it. That
I had lived in very many countries, in all of which wrong things
continually went on, of which I continually heard just in that sort of
way and no more. Enough to make one uncomfortable, but not enough to
keep one instructed and vigilant as to things that ought to be avoided.
Upon this she yielded either to my arguments or to her own dislike
of unreasonable silence, and gave me the following account of the
misfortunes of Lord Castlewood:

Herbert William Castlewood was the third son of Dean Castlewood, a
younger brother of my grandfather, and was born in the year 1806. He
was older, therefore, than my father, but still (even before my father's
birth, which provided a direct heir) there were many lives betwixt him
and the family estates. And his father, having as yet no promotion in
the Church, found it hard to bring up his children. The eldest son got
a commission in the army, and the second entered the navy, while Herbert
was placed in a bank at Bristol--not at all the sort of life which he
would have chosen. But being of a gentle, unselfish nature, as well as a
weak constitution, he put up with his state in life, and did his best to
give satisfaction.

This calm courage generally has its reward, and in the year 1842, not
very long before the death of my grandfather at Shoxford, Mr. Herbert
Castlewood, being well-connected, well-behaved, diligent, and pleasing,
obtained a partnership in the firm, which was, perhaps, the foremost in
the west of England. His two elder brothers happened then to be at home,
Major and Commander Castlewood, each of whom had seen very hard service,
and found it still harder slavery to make both ends meet, although
bachelors. But, returning full of glory, they found one thing harder
still, and that was to extract any cash from their father, the highly
venerated Dean, who in that respect, if in no other, ve