Did you ever hear anything--anything _very_ remarkable--about your uncle ?' 'No, never, they would not tell me, though I am sure they know.

Pray go on.' 'Well, Maud, as I have begun, I'll complete the story, though perhaps it might have been better untold.

It was something rather shocking--indeed, _very_ shocking; in fact, they insisted on suspecting him of having committed a murder.' I stared at my cousin for some time, and then at the little boy, so refined, so beautiful, so _funeste_, in the oval frame.
'Yes, dear,' said she, her eyes following mine; 'who'd have supposed he could ever have--have fallen under so horrible a suspicion ?' 'The wretches! Of course, Uncle Silas--of course, he's innocent ?' I said at last.
'Of course, my dear,' said Cousin Monica, with an odd look; 'but you know there are some things as bad almost to be suspected of as to have done, and the country gentlemen chose to suspect him.

They did not like him, you see.

His politics vexed them; and he resented their treatment of his wife--though I really think, poor Silas, he did not care a pin about her--and he annoyed them whenever he could.