Uncle Silas by J. Sheridan Le Fanu (ebook voice reader TXT) ๐
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Uncle Silas is told from the account of Maud Ruthyn, an heiress living with her reclusive father, Austin Ruthyn. She learns about her uncle, Silas Ruthyn, and his past reputation marred by gambling and the apparent suicide of a man to which Silas owed a large gambling debt that occurred in a locked room in Silasโ residence.
In order to clear the Ruthyn name of the rumors of Silasโ past, Austin names Silas as Maudโs guardian through Austinโs will upon his death. Also noted in Austinโs will, Silas would inherit the fortune left to Maud should she die while under his ward. Maud befriends her cousin Millicent and quickly adjusts to life under Silasโ care, despite his often frightening demeanor. Although Silas has proclaimed that heโs a newly reformed Christian, Maud becomes increasingly suspicious of her uncleโs motives as life for her becomes increasingly unpleasant.
The story of Maud Ruthyn and her uncle Silas evolved through multiple iterations, beginning with the short story โA Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countessโ in 1839, before ultimately becoming the three-volume novel published in 1864. This ebook reproduces a revised, two-volume version released a year later.
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- Author: J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Read book online ยซUncle Silas by J. Sheridan Le Fanu (ebook voice reader TXT) ๐ยป. Author - J. Sheridan Le Fanu
I was looking at the pensive little boy in the oval frameโ โaged eight yearsโ โwho was, a few springs later, โa most expensive and vicious young man,โ and was now a suffering and outcast old one, and wondering from what a small seed the hemlock or the wallflower grows, and how microscopic are the beginnings of the kingdom of God or of the mystery of iniquity in a human beingโs heart.
โAustinโ โyour papaโ โwas very kind to himโ โvery; but then, you know, heโs an oddity, dearโ โhe is an oddity, though no one may have told you beforeโ โand he never forgave him for his marriage. Your father, I suppose, knew more about the lady than I didโ โI was young thenโ โbut there were various reports, none of them pleasant, and she was not visited, and for some time there was a complete estrangement between your father and your uncle Silas; and it was made up, rather oddly, on the very occasion which some people said ought to have totally separated them. Did you ever hear anythingโ โanything very remarkableโ โabout your uncle?โ
โNo, never, they would not tell me, though I am sure they know. Pray go on.โ
โWell, Maud, as I have begun, Iโll complete the story, though perhaps it might have been better untold. It was something rather shockingโ โindeed, very shocking; in fact, they insisted on suspecting him of having committed a murder.โ
I stared at my cousin for some time, and then at the little boy, so refined, so beautiful, so funeste, in the oval frame.
โYes, dear,โ said she, her eyes following mine; โwhoโd have supposed he could ever haveโ โhave fallen under so horrible a suspicion?โ
โThe wretches! Of course, Uncle Silasโ โof course, heโs innocent?โ I said at last.
โOf course, my dear,โ said Cousin Monica, with an odd look; โbut you know there are some things as bad almost to be suspected of as to have done, and the country gentlemen chose to suspect him. They did not like him, you see. His politics vexed them; and he resented their treatment of his wifeโ โthough I really think, poor Silas, he did not care a pin about herโ โand he annoyed them whenever he could. Your papa, you know, is very proud of his familyโ โhe never had the slightest suspicion of your uncle.โ
โOh, no!โ I cried vehemently.
โThatโs right, Maud Ruthyn,โ said Cousin Monica, with a sad little smile and a nod. โAnd your papa was, you may suppose, very angry.โ
โOf course he was,โ I exclaimed.
โYou have no idea, my dear, how angry. He directed his attorney to prosecute, by wholesale, all who had said a word affecting your uncleโs character. But the lawyers were against it, and then your uncle tried to fight his way through it, but the men would not meet him. He was quite slurred. Your father went up and saw the Minister. He wanted to have him a Deputy-Lieutenant, or something, in his county. Your papa, you know, had a very great influence with the government. Beside his county influence, he had two boroughs then. But the Minister was afraid, the feeling was so very strong. They offered him something in the Colonies, but your father would not hear of itโ โthat would have been a banishment, you know. They would have given your father a peerage to make it up, but he would not accept it, and broke with the party. Except in that wayโ โwhich, you know, was connected with the reputation of the familyโ โI donโt think, considering his great wealth, he has done very much for Silas. To say truth, however, he was very liberal before his marriage. Old Mrs. Aylmer says he made a vow then that Silas should never have more than five hundred a year, which he still allows him, I believe, and he permits him to live in the place. But they say it is in a very wild, neglected state.โ
โYou live in the same countyโ โhave you seen it lately, Cousin Monica?โ
โNo, not very lately,โ said Cousin Monica, and began to hum an air abstractedly.
XIII Before and After BreakfastNext morning early I visited my favourite full-length portrait in the chocolate coat and top-boots. Scanty as had been my cousin Monicaโs notes upon this dark and eccentric biography, they were everything to me. A soul had entered that enchanted form. Truth had passed by with her torch, and a sad light shone for a moment on that enigmatic face.
There stood the rouรฉโ โthe duellistโ โand, with all his faults, the hero too! In that dark large eye lurked the profound and fiery enthusiasm of his ill-starred passion. In the thin but exquisite lip I read the courage of the paladin, who would have โfought his way,โ though single-handed, against all the magnates of his county, and by ordeal of battle have purged the honour of the Ruthyns. There in that delicate half-sarcastic tracery of the nostril I detected the intellectual defiance which had politically isolated Silas Ruthyn and opposed him to the landed oligarchy of his county, whose retaliation had been a hideous slander. There, too, and on his brows and lip, I traced the patience of a
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