It had never, however, occurred to him before that his family affairs might be known--neither had he ever thought of keeping them a secret.

It seemed so purely a personal and private misfortune, that he had never dreamed of its having any public interest.

And even now he was a little ashamed of what he believed was his sensitiveness to mere conventional criticism, which, with the instinct of a proud man, he had despised.
He was not far wrong in his sardonic intuition of the effect of his prohibition upon Miss Faulkner's feelings.

Certainly that young lady, when not engaged in her mysterious occupation of arranging her uncle's effects, occasionally was seen in the garden, and in the woods beyond.
Although her presence was the signal for the "oblique" of any lounging "shoulder strap," or the vacant "front" of a posted sentry, she seemed to regard their occasional proximity with less active disfavor.

Once, when she had mounted the wall to gather a magnolia blossom, the chair by which she had ascended rolled over, leaving her on the wall.