"Yes, it was from this precise spot that my
father took his last look at the ancient house of his race. What we can
now see of it, he saw of it with his dying eyes and many a time I have
sat here and fancied the world of terrible thoughts that must at such a
moment have come across his brain." "You might well do so," said the doctor. "You see," added Henry, "that from here the fullest view you have of any
of the windows of the house is of that of Flora's room, as we have
always called it, because for years she had had it as her chamber; and,
when all the vegetation of summer is in its prime, and the vine which
you perceive crawls over this summer-house is full of leaf and fruit,
the view is so much hindered that it is difficult, without making an
artificial gap in the clustering foliage, to see anything but the
window." "So I should imagine," replied Mr. Chillingworth. "You, doctor," added Henry, "who know much of my family, need not be
told what sort of man my father was." "No, indeed." "But you, Admiral Bell, who do not know, must be told, and, however
grievous it may be to me to have to say so, I must inform you that he
was not a man who would have merited your esteem." "Well," said the admiral, "you know, my boy, that can make no difference
as regards you in anybody's mind, who has got the brains of an owl. Every man's credit, character, and honour, to my thinking, is in his own
most special keeping, and let your father be what he might, or who he
might, I do not see that any conduct of his ought to raise upon your
cheek the flush of shame, or cost you more uneasiness than ordinary good
feeling dictates to the errors and feelings of a fellow creature." "If all the world," said Henry, "would take such liberal and
comprehensive views as you do, admiral, it would be much happier than it
is; but such is not the case, and people are but too apt to blame one
person for the evil that another has done." "Ah, but," said Mr. Chillingworth, "it so happens that those are the
people whose opinions are of the very least consequence." "There is some truth in that," said Henry, sadly; "but, however, let me
proceed; since I have to tell the tale, I could wish it over. My father,
then, Admiral Bell, although a man not tainted in early life with vices,
became, by the force of bad associates, and a sort of want of
congeniality and sentiment that sprang up between him and my mother,
plunged into all the excesses of his age." "These excesses were all of that character which the most readily lay
hold strongly of an unreflecting mind, because they all presented
themselves in the garb of sociality. "The wine cup is drained in the name of good fellowship; money which is
wanted for legitimate purposes is squandered under the mask of a noble
and free generosity, and all that the small imaginations of a number of
persons of perverted intellects could enable them to do, has been done
from time to time, to impart a kind of lustre to intemperance and all
its dreadful and criminal consequences. "My father, having once got into the company of what he considered wits
and men of spirit, soon became thoroughly vitiated. He was almost the
only one of the set among whom he passed what he considered his highly
convivial existence, who was really worth anything, pecuniarily
speaking. There were some among them who might have been respectable
men, and perchance carved their way to fortune, as well as some others
who had started in life with good patrimonies; but he, my father, at the
time he became associated with them, was the only one, as I say, who, to
use a phrase I have heard myself from his lips concerning them, had got
a feather to fly with. "The consequence of this was, that his society, merely for the sake of
the animal gratification of drinking at his expense was courted, and he
was much flattered, all of which he laid to the score of his own merits,
which had been found out, and duly appreciated by these _bon vivants_,
while he considered that the grave admonitions of his real friends
proceeded from nothing in the world but downright envy and malice. "Such a state of things as this could not last very long. The associates
of my father wanted money as well as wine, so they introduced him to the
gaming-table, and he became fascinated with the fearful vice to an
extent which predicted his own destruction and the ruin of every one who
was in any way dependent upon him. "He could not absolutely sell Bannerworth Hall, unless I had given my
consent, which I refused; but he accumulated debt upon debt, and from
time to time stripped the mansion of all its most costly contents. "With various mutations of fortune, he continued this horrible and
baneful career for a long time, until, at last, he found himself utterly
and irretrievably ruined, and he came home in an agony of despair, being
so weak, and utterly ruined in constitution, that he kept his bed for
many days. "It appeared, however, that something occurred at this juncture which
gave him actually, or all events awakened a hope that he should possess
some money, and be again in a position to try his fortune at the
gaming-table. "He rose, and, fortifying himself once more with the strong stimulant of
wine and spirits, he left his home, and was absent for about two months. "What occurred to him during that time we none of us ever knew, but late
one night he came home, apparently much flurried in manner, and seeming
as if something had happened to drive him half mad. "He would not speak to any one, but he shut himself up the whole of the
night in the chamber where hangs the portrait that bears so strong a
resemblance to Sir Francis Varney, and there he remained till the
morning, when he emerged, and said briefly that he intended to leave the
country. "He was in a most fearful state of nervousness, and my mother tells me
that he shook like one in an ague, and started at every little sound
that occurred in the house, and glared about him so wildly that it was
horrible to see him, or to sit in the same apartment with him. "She says that the whole morning passed on in this way till a letter
came to him, the contents of which appeared to throw him into a perfect
convulsion of terror, and he retired again to the room with the
portrait, where he remained some hours, and then he emerged, looking
like a ghost, so dreadfully pale and haggard was he. "He walked into the garden here, and was seen to sit down in this
summer-house, and fix his eyes upon the window of that apartment." Henry paused for a few moments, and then he added,--

"You will excuse me from entering upon any details of what next ensued
in the melancholy history. My father here committed suicide. He was
found dying, and all I he words he spoke were, 'The money is hidden!' Death claimed his victim, and, with a convulsive spasm, he resigned his
spirit, leaving what he had intended to say hidden in the oblivion of
the grave." "That was an odd affair," said the admiral. "It was, indeed.