She had been the daughter of a Colonel Smith, with whom his brother, at that time a Captain Neville, had formed acquaintance;--and had been a beauty very well known as such at Dublin and other garrison towns.

No real harm had ever been known of her, but the old Earl had always felt that his brother had made an unfortunate marriage.

As at that time they had not been on speaking terms, it had not signified much;--but there had been a prejudice at Scroope against the Captain's wife, which by no means died out when the late Julia Smith became the Captain's widow with two sons.
Old reminiscences remain very firm with old people,--and Lord Scroope was still much afraid of the fast, loud beauty.

His principles told him that he should not sever the mother from the son, and that as it suited him to take the son for his own purposes, he should also, to some extent, accept the mother also.

But he dreaded the affair.