And here in a commonplace, well-conducted, happy, and united family was a mystery pointing to something that one of its best-loved members had never had a hint of.
Whatever it was, it concerned a place little more, than fifty miles off, and a man in whose presence he had lived from his early childhood; the utmost caution of secrecy was demanded, and the matter spoken of entirely changed the notions he had always held concerning his step-father, whom he had thought he knew better than any man living.
When one had believed that one absolutely understood another, how it startles the mind to discover that this is a mistake! A beautiful old man this had been--pious, not very worldly-wise, but having a sweetness of nature, a sunny smile, and a native ease about him that would not have been possible without a quiet conscience.

This he had possessed, but "I forbade my mother to leave her property to me." His step-son turned back the page, and looked at those words again.

Then his eyes fell lower.

"In her case I know not what I could have done." "When did he forbid this--was it ten years ago, twenty years, fifty years?
He was really very well off when he married my mother.

Now where did he get the property that he lost by his speculations?
Not by the law; his profession never brought him in more than two hundred a year.