But at all events you shall see how he is an honest upright gentleman, and in these times, perhaps such a character is preferable to a hero.
Old Marmaduke had been long failing, and two years after this he had taken to his bed, never to leave it again alive.

And one day when the son and heir was rolling and crowing on his grandfather's bed, and Agnes was sewing at the window, and James was tying a fly by the bedside, under the old man's directions; he drew the child towards him, and beckoning Agnes from the window spoke thus:-- "My children, I shan't be long with you, and I must be the last of the Buckleys that die at Clere.

Nay, I mean it, James; listen carefully to me: when I go, the house and park must go with me.

We are very poor as you well know, and you will be doing injustice to this boy if you hang on here in this useless tumble-down old palace, without money enough to keep up your position in the county.

You are still young, and it would be hard for you to break up old associations.