Why, one of them--a clergyman's son too--shot
young Philip Winslow dead in a duel. They have always grudged at
us. Does your papa know it, my dear Mr. Edward? He ought to be
aware.'
'I do not know,' I said; 'but he would hardly care about what
happened in the time of Queen Anne.'
It was curious to see how the gentle little lady espoused the family
quarrel, which, after all, was none of hers.
'Well, you are London people, and the other branch, and may not feel
as we do down here; but I shall always say that Madam Winslow's
husband's son had every right to come before her cousin once
removed.'
I asked if we were descended from her, for, having a turn for
heraldry and genealogy, I wanted to make out our family tree. Mrs.
Sophia was ready to hold up her hands at the ignorance of the 'other
branch.' This poor heiress had lost all her children in their
infancy, and bequeathed the estate to her stepson, the Fordyce male
heir having been endowed by her father with the advowson of Hillside
and a handsome estate there, which Mrs. Selby thought ought to have
contented him, 'but some people never know when they have enough;'
and, on my observing that it might have been a matter of justice,
she waxed hotter, declaring that what the Winslows felt so much was
the accusation of violence against the poor lady. She spoke as if
it were a story of yesterday, and added, 'Indeed, they made the
common people have all sorts of superstitious fancies about the room
where she died--that old part of the house.
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