as the only male
domestic: his wife, and two or three maid-servants performed all the
other offices of the castle. People often wondered that Mr. Griffith
did not leave such a falling house. But Mr. Griffith was not a rat.
He had lived there more than half a century, and was prepared to
continue as long again.

Nor let it be supposed that this devotion was entirely due to the
place. Proud and reserved as had been its recent master, he was far
from being wholly unamiable; even his children, to whom he behaved
with uniform harshness, regarded him with as much affection as awe;
and his dependents, whom he treated with almost as constant kindness,
served him with real attachment. Well did Griffith recollect the day,
although it was five and thirty years past, and he was scarcely twenty
at the time, when Mr. Trevethlan galloped into the court-yard with his
horse in a foam, on his return from Pendarrel, ordered his carriage,
paced impatiently up and down the great hall while it was being
prepared, and departed to London without uttering another word. Well,
too, did the steward remember his father's grief, as missive after
missive came to Trevethlan in the few following years, of which the
constant burden was "money, money." Mortgage Tresylty, sell Penrevil,
fell Withewood; so it went on, until the extensive domain, once
appended to the castle, was reduced to its immediate precincts. Then
Mr. Trevethlan came home, and lived during the remainder of his days
in the secluded manner, which has already been sufficiently
described.

CHAPTER II.

"Strange is it, that our bloods,
Of colour, weight, and heat, poured all together,
Would quite confound distinction, yet stand off
In differences so mighty."
SHAKSPEARE

Randolph Trevethlan was just of age when his father died; his sister,
two years younger. Their singular education had impressed
peculiarities upon each of them; but, trained so entirely together,
their habits and dispositions had grown into a conformity almost
perfect. Their pursuits, their wishes, their attachments were always
the same. Their father never allowed them to set foot on any ground
which had been alienated from the castle; and as such surrounded it at
a short distance, their inland walks were restricted within a very
narrow cordon. But the beach, no man's land, was open to their
rambles: a winding stair led from the castle to a portal