 but
detrimental, because it cannot exist with affection or regard.
    Even her husband, it is said, upon whose fortunes her talents and address
had produced such emphatic influence, regarded her with respectful awe rather
than confiding attachment; and report said, there were times when he considered
his grandeur as dearly purchased at the expense of domestic thraldom. Of this,
however much might be suspected, but little could be accurately known; Lady
Ashton regarded the honour of her husband as her own, and was well aware how
much that would suffer in the public eye should he appear a vassal to his wife.
In all her arguments, his opinion was quoted as infallible; his taste was
appealed to, and his sentiments received, with the air of deference which a
dutiful wife might seem to owe to a husband of Sir William Ashton's rank and
character. But there was something under all this which rung false and hollow;
and to those who watched this couple with close, and perhaps malicious scrutiny,
it seemed evident, that, in the haughtiness of a firmer character, higher birth,
and more decided views of aggrandisement, the lady looked with some contempt on
the husband, and that he regarded her with jealous fear, rather than with love
or admiration.
    Still, however, the leading and favourite interests of Sir William Ashton
and his lady were the same, and they failed not to work in concert, although
without cordiality, and to testify, in all exterior circumstances, that respect
for each other, which they were aware was necessary to secure that of the
public.
    Their union was crowned with several children, of whom three survived. One,
the eldest son, was absent on his travels; the second, a girl of seventeen, and
the third, a boy about three years younger, resided with their parents in
Edinburgh, during the sessions of the Scottish Parliament and Privy Council, at
other times in the old Gothic castle of Ravenswood, to which the Lord Keeper had
made large additions in the style of the seventeenth century.
    Allan Lord Ravenswood, the late proprietor of that ancient mansion and the
large estate annexed to it, continued for some time to wage ineffectual war with
his successor concerning various points to which their former transactions had
given rise, and which were successively determined in favour of the wealthy and
powerful competitor, until death closed the litigation, by summoning Ravenswood
to a higher bar. The thread of life, which had been long wasting, gave way
during a fit of violent and impotent fury, with which he was assailed on
receiving the news of the loss of a cause
