Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 2).djvu/99

 make her acquainted with the English language, as I perfectly understood it, and hoped, by effecting that, to obviate her objections in time to a residence in that country.

This estate had belonged to my mother's family, but being in a situation so remote from either pleasure or comfort, so little capable of cultivation; it had been entirely neglected by my father, and the Castle suffered gradually to decay. What grounds were tenantable had been let off on long leases, and an old man and his family were permitted to reside in the house without expense. Some little time before the death of my father, he received an account of the old man's death, and that the widow and family were going to live in Bohemia with her friends; from that time no one had lived in the house. My steward had mentioned it to me, but from inattention, or other thoughts, I had neglected to concern myself about it.

The anxiety Eugenia expressed to live, secluded from observation, recalled this Castle to my mind, and I resolved to send over a