It seems strange, Benjulia, that I should never have heard of it before." "Yes; I knew your uncle; and," he added with especial emphasis, "I knew his wife." "Well ?" "Well, I can't say I felt any particular interest in either of them.
Nothing happened afterwards to put me in mind of the acquaintance till you told me who the young lady was, just now.
"Surely my mother must have reminded you ?" "Not that I can remember.

Women in her position don't much fancy talking of a relative who has married"-- he stopped to choose his next words.

"I don't want to be rude; suppose we say married beneath him ?" Reflection told Ovid that this was true.

Even in conversation with himself (before the arrival in England of Robert's Will), his mother rarely mentioned her brother--and still more rarely his family.

There was another reason for Mrs.Gallilee's silence, known only to herself.
Robert was in the secret of her debts, and Robert had laid her under heavy pecuniary obligations.