By Berwen Banks

The Vicar was beginning to enjoy the recital of his long past troubles,

and the thought flashed through his mind that he would have lightened

his burden had he sooner confided in his son. The conduct which seemed

so black and stained, when brooded over alone in his study, did not

seem quite so heinous when put into plain words and spread out in the

light.

"Well," he continued, "in spite of my jealous temper, the first few

months of our wedded life were very happy, and it was not until I had

begun to notice that a very intimate friendship existed between my

young wife and my brother, that my suspicions were aroused with regard

to them; but once alive to this idea, every moment of my life was

poisoned by it. I kept a close but secret watch upon their actions,

and soon saw what I considered a certain proof that the love they felt

for each other was more than, and different to, that which the

relationship of brother and sister-in-law warranted. Betto noticed it,

too, for she has ever been faithful and true to me. She came to me one

day, and seriously advised me to get rid of my brother Lewis, refusing

to give any reason for her advice; but I required no explanation. You

say nothing, Caradoc, but sit there with a blacker look on your face

than I have ever seen before."

"I am listening, father, and waiting for some excuse for your jealous

suspicions."

"I have very little to give but you shall have the story in its naked

truth. I was devotedly attached to my brother; from childhood we had

been all in all to each other, and the difference in our dispositions

seemed only to cement more closely the bond of union between us; but

now my love seemed turned to hatred, and I only waited to make my fears

a certainty to turn him out of my house. Although I was anxious to

hide my suspicions for a time, I could not refrain from sneering taunts

about men who spent a life of idleness while others worked. Lewis

opened his blue eyes in astonishment, and his frank, open countenance

wore a hurt and puzzled look; but he did not go. He bore my insults,

and yet haunted the house, and lingered round the west parlour, now

shut up, but where your mother always sat. I found it impossible to

hide entirely from Agnes my doubts of her love, and I soon saw that my

involuntarily altered manner had made a corresponding change in hers.

The proud spirit within her was roused, and instead of endeavouring to

soothe my suspicions, and show me my mistake, she went on her way

apparently unheeding, holding her head high, and letting me form my own

opinion of her actions. I ought to have told you that her uncle had

been so annoyed at her marriage with me that he had forbidden her to

enter his doors again; and of this I was not sorry, though it roused my

anger so much that I added my injunctions to the effect that if she

wished to please me she would break off all acquaintance with her

cousin, Ellen Vaughan. This, however, she would not promise to do, and

it was the first beginning of the rift, which afterwards widened into a

chasm between us. Her cousin also was too much attached to her to be

easily alienated from her, and the two girls met more frequently than

either her uncle or I were aware of. There was another girl, too--I

forget her name--but she was a sister of Essec Powell's. Agnes and she

had been schoolmates and bosom friends, and they were delighted to meet

here by accident, and I soon found that my wife continually resorted to

Essec Powell's house to pour out her sorrows into the bosom of her

friend; but this I could not allow. To visit the house of my bitterest

enemy--to make a friend of his sister, was a glaring impropriety in a

clergyman's wife, and I cannot even now feel any compunction at having

put a stop to their intercourse--if, indeed, I succeeded in doing so.

A cold cloud seemed to have fallen between me and your mother; and as

for my brother, we scarcely spoke to each other at meals, and avoided

each other at all other times. Still Lewis stayed on, with that

puzzled look on his face, and still Agnes went through her daily duties

with a proud look and a constrained manner.