The American Senator | Page 5

been considered sufficient to hunt twice a week.
Now the Rufford and Ufford hounds have four days, and sometimes a
bye. It went much against Mr. Reginald Morton's pride when he was
first driven to take a subscription.
But the temporary distress into which the family fell was caused not so
much by his own extravagance as by that of two sons, and by his

indulgence in regard to them. He had three children, none of whom
were very fortunate in life. The eldest, John, married the daughter of a
peer, stood for Parliament, had one son, and died before he was forty,
owing something over 20,000 pounds. The estate was then worth 7,000
pounds a year. Certain lands not lying either in Bragton or Mallingham
were sold, and that difficulty was surmounted, not without a
considerable diminution of income. In process of time the grandson,
who was a second John Morton, grew up and married, and became the
father of a third John Morton, the young man who afterwards became
owner of the property and Secretary of Legation at Washington. But the
old squire outlived his son and his grandson, and when he died had
three or four great-grand-children playing about the lawns of Bragton
Park. The peer's daughter had lived, and had for many years drawn a
dower from the Bragton property, and had been altogether a very heavy
incumbrance.
But the great trial of the old man's life, as also the great romance, had
arisen from the career of his second son, Reginald. Of all his children,
Reginald had been the dearest to him. He went to Oxford, and had there
spent much money; not as young men now spend money, but still to an
extent that had been grievous to the old squire. But everything was
always paid for Reginald. It was necessary, of course, that he should
have a profession, and he took a commission in the army. As a young
man he went to Canada. This was in 1829, when all the world was at
peace, and his only achievement in Canada was to marry a young
woman who is reported to have been pretty and good, but who had no
advantages either of fortune or birth. She was, indeed, the daughter of a
bankrupt innkeeper in Montreal. Soon after this he sold out and brought
his wife home to Bragton. It was at this period of the squire's life that
the romance spoken of occurred. John Morton, the brother with the
aristocratic wife, was ten or twelve years older than Reginald, and at
this time lived chiefly at Bragton when he was not in town. He was,
perhaps, justified in regarding Bragton as almost belonging to him,
knowing as he did that it must belong to him after his father's lifetime,
and to his son after him. His anger against his brother was hot, and that
of his wife still hotter. He himself had squandered thousands, but then
he was the heir. Reginald, who was only a younger brother, had sold

his commission. And then he had done so much more than this! He had
married a woman who was not a lady! John was clearly of opinion that
at any rate the wife should not be admitted into Bragton House. The old
squire in those days was not a happy man; he had never been very
strong-minded, but now he was strong enough to declare that his
house-door should not be shut against a son of his,--or a son's wife, as
long as she was honest. Hereupon the Honourable Mrs. Morton took
her departure, and was never seen at Bragton again in the old squire's
time. Reginald Morton came to the house, and soon afterwards another
little Reginald was born at Bragton Park. This happened as long ago as
1835, twenty years before the death of the old squire.
But there had been another child, a daughter, who had come between
the two sons, still living in these days, who will become known to any
reader who will have patience to follow these pages to the end. She
married, not very early in life, a certain Sir William Ushant, who was
employed by his country in India and elsewhere, but who found, soon
after his marriage, that the service of his country required that he
should generally leave his wife at Bragton. As her father had been for
many years a widower, Lady Ushant became the mistress of the house.
But death was very busy with the Mortons. Almost every one died,
except the squire himself and his daughter, and that honourable
dowager, with her income and her pride who could certainly very well
have been spared. When at last, in 1855, the old squire went, full of
years, full of respect, but laden