The other mongoose--the one from Nepaul--was safely locked in his own box, but he lay quiet and did not stir.

When he got to his study Sir Nathaniel came in, shutting the door behind him.
"I have come," he said, "while we have an opportunity of being alone, to tell you something of the Caswall family which I think will interest you.
There is, or used to be, a belief in this part of the world that the Caswall family had some strange power of making the wills of other persons subservient to their own.

There are many allusions to the subject in memoirs and other unimportant works, but I only know of one where the subject is spoken of definitely.

It is _Mercia and its Worthies_, written by Ezra Toms more than a hundred years ago.

The author goes into the question of the close association of the then Edgar Caswall with Mesmer in Paris.