He smoked in silence, looking down at the pure swift waters of the Rotha tumbling over the crags and boulders below.
'Doesn't somebody say there is always a skeleton in the cupboard, and the nobler and more ancient the race the bigger the skeleton ?' said Maulevrier, with a philosophical air.
'Yes, your family secret is an attribute of a fine old race.

The Pelopidae, for instance--in their case it was not a single skeleton, but a whole charnel house.

I don't think your skeleton need trouble you, Maulevrier.

It belongs to the remote past.' 'Those things never belong to the past,' said the young man.

'If it were any other kind of taint--profligacy--madness, even--the story of a duel that went very near murder--a runaway wife--a rebellious son--a cruel husband.