has not been so gay for years, yes, just twenty years, when it is
evident that Sir Humphrey is going to make a speech. He stands alone
in front of the fire, and this is what he says. If you want to know
what he looks like, you may think of an old man who is a gentleman,
white-haired, noble and resolute, but with a sense of broken
fortunes and deferred hopes upon him.
"I have been young and now am old," says Sir Humphrey, "and I have
never yet seen the house, known the family, or penetrated the life
where there did not exist some trouble or some secret. Therefore, if
I refer to-night to the skeleton in my own house," he continues,
with a slight shudder, "I only do what perhaps each individual
before me might also do were there the like necessity. The necessity
of such reference, in my own case, does not make it less hard for me."
Here, Sir Humphrey pauses. When he speaks again he is something
straighter and firmer than before. "But as at this season the Church
and our good friend the parson would teach us all to remember each
other and to help those we can help, I am about to speak. You have
heard, all of you, how twenty years ago I sent my two eldest sons
out of the house. You have heard, all of you, that they were foolish,
and that I was hard, something about a girl and cut off with a
shilling, I suppose. Well, to-night you shall hear the true story. I
do not think even Lady Desart knows it. She was not their mother, but,
as you know, my adored and adoring second wife. I do not know if
many of you remember my boys. I can see Humphrey now--a man does not
easily forget his first-born, and Hugh was no less dear. My dear
friends, if I drove the lads from my house twenty years ago to-night,
I did it in obedience to the rules of my own conscience and with
regard to the laws of nature, which I should have put before my
conscience, as I have far greater respect for them. I did it, as we
so often futilely say, for the best. But how often, oh, my dear
friends, how often since I have thought that I may have made a
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