ABSTRACT
It was at this time that I received a summons to the house of my uncle. A letter was addressed to me by the steward, the person through whom all communications from that quarter reached me. The present letter however was entirely confidential, and the good man spoke in it purely from his own feelings and apprehensions. He informed me ‘that my uncle’s health was visibly in a declining state,’ and observed that, ‘from the extreme frailty of his frame, and delicafcy of his constitution, it might be expected that, when he was once going, 185it would be all over with him very / rapidly.’ My old friend added, ‘that he held it to be the more his duty to give me suitable advertisement on the present occasion; as, to his great mortification and surprise, there was a new comer, totally a stranger till now at Mandeville House, who had lately established himself a constant visitor, and came there almost every day.’ This visitor was one Holloway, an attorney, a man of the worst character; ‘and,’ continued the steward, ‘in the way that my poor, dear master is in, knowing nothing of worldly affairs, and seeing nobody, it is surely very alarming, that such a fellow as this Holloway should have his ear, and he able to do with him whatever he pleases.’ ‘I know not,’ proceeded my correspondent, ‘what he can do – the estate is entailed and you cannot be deprived of it – but I know, that such a scoundrel as this ought to have no power, and that we cannot too soon be rid of his company.’
