Would he follow his lady-love?
would he go yachting?
would he throw open the doors of the old Abbey at last, and endeavor to forget the absence of Ada and the postponement of his marriage in a round of gayeties?
He did none of these things.

He simply remained at Wincot, living as suspiciously strange and solitary a life as his father had lived before him.

Literally, there was now no companion for him at the Abbey but the old priest--the Monktons, I should have mentioned before, were Roman Catholics--who had held the office of tutor to Alfred from his earliest years.

He came of age, and there was not even so much as a private dinner-party at Wincot to celebrate the event.

Families in the neighborhood determined to forget the offense which his father's reserve had given them, and invited him to their houses.