Did she say any more, madam ?' he demanded abruptly of Mrs.Rusk.
'Nothing, sir,' with a stiff little courtesy, answered Mrs.Rusk, who stood in awe of him.
'And there is no need, child,' he continued, addressing himself to me, 'that you should think more of him at present.

Clear your head of Uncle Silas.

One day, perhaps, you will know him--yes, very well--and understand how villains have injured him.
Then my father retired, and at the door he said-- 'Mrs.Rusk, a word, if you please,' beckoning to that lady, who trotted after him to the library.
I think he then laid some injunction upon the housekeeper, which was transmitted by her to Mary Quince, for from that time forth I could never lead either to talk with me about Uncle Silas.

They let me talk on, but were reserved and silent themselves, and seemed embarrassed, and Mrs.Rusk sometimes pettish and angry, when I pressed for information.
Thus curiosity was piqued; and round the slender portrait in the leather pantaloons and top-boots gathered many-coloured circles of mystery, and the handsome features seemed to smile down upon my baffled curiosity with a provoking significance.
Why is it that this form of ambition--curiosity--which entered into the temptation of our first parent, is so specially hard to resist?
Knowledge is power--and power of one sort or another is the secret lust of human souls; and here is, beside the sense of exploration, the undefinable interest of a story, and above all, something forbidden, to stimulate the contumacious appetite..