Many persons in their situation would have been extremely satisfied at
having secured so strong an interest in the mind of the old admiral, who
was very wealthy, and who, from what he had already said and done, no
doubt fully intended to provide handsomely for the Bannerworth family. And not only had they this to look forward to, if they had chosen to
regard it as an advantage, but they knew that by the marriage of Flora
with Charles Holland she would have a fortune at her disposal, while he
(Charles) would be the last man in the world to demur at any reasonable
amount of it being lavished upon her mother and her brothers. But all this did not suit the high and independent spirit of Henry
Bannerworth. He was one who would rather have eaten the dust that he
procured for himself by some meritorious exertion, than have feasted on
the most delicate viands placed before him from the resources of
another. But now that he knew this small estate, the title deeds of which had
been so singularly obtained, had once really belonged to the family, but
had been risked and lost at the gaming-table, he had no earthly scruple
in calling such property again his own. As to the large sum of money which Sir Francis Varney in his confessions
had declared to have found its way into the possession of Marmaduke
Bannerworth, Henry did not expect, and scarcely wished to become
possessed of wealth through so tainted a source. "No," he said to himself frequently; "no--I care not if that wealth be
never forthcoming, which was so badly got possession of. Let it sink
into the earth, if, indeed, it be buried there; or let it rot in some
unknown corner of the old mansion. I care not for it." In this view of the case he was not alone, for a family more unselfish,
or who cared so little for money, could scarcely have been found; but
Admiral Bell and Charles Holland argued now that they had a right to the
amount of money which Marmaduke Bannerworth had hidden somewhere, and
the old admiral reasoned upon it rather ingeniously, for he said,--

"I suppose you don't mean to dispute that the money belongs to somebody,
and in that case I should like to know who else it belonged to, if not
to you? How do you get over that, master Henry?" "I don't attempt to get over it at all," said Henry; "all I say is, that
I do dislike the whole circumstances connected with it, and the manner
in which it was come by; and, now that we have a small independence, I
hope it will not be found. But, admiral, we are going to hold a family
consultation as to what we shall do, and what is to become of Varney. He
has convinced me of his relationship to our family, and, although his
conduct has certainly been extremely equivocal, he has made all the
amends in his power; and now, as he is getting old, I do not like to
throw him upon the wide world for a subsistence." "You don't contemplate," said the admiral, "letting him remain with you,
do you?" "No; that would be objectionable for a variety of reasons; and I could
not think of it for a moment." "I should think not. The idea of sitting down to breakfast, dinner, tea,
and supper with a vampyre, and taking your grog with a fellow that sucks
other people's blood!" "Really, admiral, you do not really still cling to the idea that Sir
Francis Varney is a vampyre." "I really don't know; he clings to it himself, that's all I can say; and
I think, under those circumstances, I might as well give him the benefit
of his own proposition, and suppose that he is a vampyre." "Really, uncle," said Charles Holland, "I did think that you had
discarded the notion." "Did you? I have been thinking of it, and it ain't so desirable to be a
vampyre, I am sure, that any one should pretend to it who is not;
therefore, I take the fellow upon his own showing. He is a vampyre in
his own opinion, and so I don't see, for the life of me, why he should
not be so in ours." "Well," said Henry, "waving all that, what are we to do with him? Circumstances seem to have thrown him completely at our mercy. What are
we to do with him, and what is to become of him for the future?" "I'll tell you what I'll do," said the admiral. "If he were ten times a
vampyre, there is some good in the fellow; and I will give him enough to
live upon if he will go to America and spend it. They will take good
care there that he sucks no blood out of them; for, although an American
would always rather lose a drop of blood than a dollar, they keep a
pretty sharp look out upon both." "The proposal can be made to him," said Henry, "at all events. It is one
which I don't dislike, and probably one that he would embrace at once;
because he seems, to me, to have completely done with ambition, and to
have abandoned those projects concerning which, at one time, he took
such a world of trouble." "Don't you trust to that," said the admiral. "What's bred in the bone
don't so easily get out of the flesh; and once or twice, when Master
Varney has been talking, I have seen those odd looking eyes of his flash
up for a moment, as if he were quite ready to begin his old capers
again, and alarm the whole country side." "I must confess," said Charles Holland, "that I myself have had the
impression once or twice that Varney was only subdued for a time, and
that, with a proper amount of provocation, he would become again a very
serious fellow, and to the full as troublesome as he has been." "Do you doubt his sincerity?" said Henry. "No, I do not do that, Henry: I think Varney fully means what he says;
but I think, at the same time, that he has for so long lead a strange,
wild, and reckless life, that he will find it very far from easy, if
indeed possible, to shake off his old habits and settle down quietly, if
not to say comfortably." "I regret," said Henry, "that you have such an impression; but, while I
do so, I cannot help admitting that it is, to a considerable extent, no
more than a reasonable one; and perhaps, after all, my expectation that
Varney will give us no more trouble, only amounts to a hope that he will
not do so, and nothing more. But let us consider; there seems to be some
slight difference of opinion among us, as to whether we should take up
our residence at this new house of ours, which we did not know we owned,
at Dearbrook, or proceed to London, and there establish ourselves, or
again return to Bannerworth Hall, and, by a judicious expenditure of
some money, make that a more habitable place than it has been for the
last twenty years." "Now, I'll tell you what," said the admiral, "I would do. It's quite out
of the question for any body to live long unless they see a ship; don't
you think so, Miss Flora?" "Why, how can you ask Flora such a question, uncle," said Charles
Holland, "when you know she don't care a straw about ships, and only
looks upon admirals as natural curiosities?"