nd misery of negro life in the great city. She retained, as
people of that feudal class always do, a vivid recollection of her early
life and of all the residents of the section where she had lived; and
Egbert Crawford, who was in the habit of putting many questions to
others, was not in the habit of answering quite so many as the old woman
put to him concerning the intermediate histories of the families of
which she had now lost sight for more than a quarter of a century.

In this conversation it became apparent, too, that Thomas Crawford, the
father of Egbert, had been the quasi owner of Synchy, and that she
retained for the son something of that singular attachment which appears
to be inseparable from any description of feudality. Thomas Crawford, it
would appear, had had two brothers, Richard, the father of the present
Richard Crawford and of John, the soldier, both Thomas and Richard being
then dead and their families in the country broken up. Another brother,
John, had become very wealthy, and appeared to be living, with Mary, an
only daughter, at West Falls, in the Oneida Valley. Finally, it became
quite apparent that the old crone, whatever her attachment to the family
of Thomas Crawford, did not hold the same feudal regard for some of the
other members of the family--in short, that she had retained the memory
of certain supposed early slights and injuries, quite as closely as she
had done the softer and more grateful sentiments towards others.

"So Dick am rich, am he, honey? an you am poor? Tut! tut! dat is too bad
for de son of ole Marser Tom!" said the old crone, after the lapse of
half an hour in which both tongues had been running pretty rapidly.

"He is," said Crawford, his face expressing no strong sense of
satisfaction at the recollection. "He bought property in the new parts
of the city, twelve or fifteen years ago, and the rise has been so great
that it has made him rich. He is now living on Murray Hill, in style,
though, d--n him!" and the face now was very sinister indeed, "he has
been attacked with inflammatory rheumatism and confined for some weeks
to his house, so that I don't think he enjoys it all very much."

"An Uncle John's big property," the old woman went on--"Dick is to have
all dat, too, you tink?"

"Yes, and Mary," answered Crawford. "Mary is a pretty little girl, and
worth as much as all the property. Dick has managed to get around the
old man, somehow, and if I can't stop it--"