Mr.
Richard Bassett replied to this mute inquiry, "We don't speak." Then, after a pause, "He has robbed me of my inheritance." "Oh, Mr.Bassett!" "Yes, Miss Bruce, the Bassett and Huntercombe estates were mine by right of birth.

My father was the eldest son, and they were entailed on him.

But Sir Charles's father persuaded my old, doting grandfather to cut off the entail, and settle the estates on him and his heirs; and so they robbed me of every acre they could.

Luckily my little estate of Highmore was settled on my mother and her issue too tight for the villains to undo." These harsh expressions, applied to his own kin, and the abruptness and heat they were uttered with, surprised and repelled his gentle listener.

She shrank a little away from him.