Chapter 18 - Page 2

which I required as an
extra advance; and thus may be said to have insinuated himself into the
absolute management and control of my property. Or, if all this seeming
friendship was employed by Sir Edward for the purpose of obtaining a
complete command of my affairs, and acquiring the power of ruining me
at his pleasure, I feel myself, I must repeat, still less bound by the
alleged obligation.

"About the autumn of last year, as I understand, either his own crazed
imagination, or the accomplishment of some such scheme as I have hinted,
brought him down to this country. His alleged motive, it seems, was a
desire of seeing a monument which he had directed to be raised in the
chapel over the tomb of your mother. Mr. Ratcliffe, who at this time
had done me the honour to make my house his own, had the complaisance to
introduce him secretly into the chapel. The consequence, as he informs
me, was a frenzy of several hours, during which he fled into the
neighbouring moors, in one of the wildest spots of which he chose, when
he was somewhat recovered, to fix his mansion, and set up for a sort of
country empiric, a character which, even in his best days, he was fond
of assuming. It is remarkable, that, instead of informing me of these
circumstances, that I might have had the relative of my late wife taken
such care of as his calamitous condition required, Mr. Ratcliffe seems
to have had such culpable indulgence for his irregular plans as to
promise and even swear secrecy concerning them. He visited Sir Edward
often, and assisted in the fantastic task he had taken upon him of
constructing a hermitage. Nothing they appear to have dreaded more than
a discovery of their intercourse.

"The ground was open in every direction around, and a small subterranean
cave, probably sepulchral, which their researches had detected near
the great granite pillar, served to conceal Ratcliffe, when any one
approached his master. I think you will be of opinion, my love, that
this secrecy must have had some strong motive. It is also remarkable,
that while I thought my unhappy friend was residing among the Monks of
La Trappe, he should have been actually living, for many months, in this
bizarre disguise, within five miles of my house, and obtaining regular
information of my most private movements, either by Ratcliffe, or
through Westburnflat or others, whom he had the means to bribe to any
extent. He makes it a crime against me that I endeavoured to establish
your marriage with Sir Frederick. I acted for the best; but if Sir
Edward Mauley thought otherwise, why did he not step manfully forward,
express his own purpose of becoming a party to the settlements, and take
that interest which he is entitled to claim in you as heir to his