Now that they are at
home again, we must have him here one of these days."
"It would be a wonderful thing if this freak were an introduction to
a relation," said Caroline.
"There was no doubt of his being struck by the combination of Allen
and Otway. He chose to understand which were my sons and which my
nephews, and when I said that Allen bore your maiden name he assented
as if he knew it before, and spoke of your boy having cause to
remember this; I am afraid it will not be pleasantly."
"No," said Caroline, "it sounded much like a threat. But one would
like to know, only I thought Farmer Gould's little granddaughter was
his niece."
"That might be without preventing your relationship; I will do my
best to ascertain it."
Colonel Norton's letter gave decisive information that Barnes was the
name of the uncle with whom Caroline Otway had been living at the
time of her marriage. She had been treated as a poor relation, and
seemed to be half-slave, half-governess to the children of the
favoured sister, little semi-Spanish tyrants. This had roused
Captain Allen's chivalry, and his friend remembered his saying that,
though he had little or nothing of his own, he could at least make
her happier than she was in such a family. The uncle was reported to
have grown rich in the mahogany trade, and likewise by steamboat
speculations, coupled with judicious stock-jobbing among the
distressed West Indians, after the emancipation.
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