Lastly it became notorious that he was the slave of a wicked
woman, false wife, suspected murderess, whose husband, a native prince,
disappeared from the scene just when his existence became perilous to
the governor's reputation. According to one version of the story, the
scandal of this Rajah's mysterious disappearance, followed not long
after by the Ranee's equally mysterious death, was the immediate cause
of my grandfather's recall. How much, or how little of this story--or
other dark stories of the same kind--is true, whether my grandfather was
a consummate scoundrel, or the victim of a baseless slander,--whether he
left India a rich man or a poor man, is known to no mortal except Lady
Maulevrier, and compared with her the Theban Sphinx was a communicative
individual.'
'Let the dead bury their dead,' said Hammond. 'Neither you nor your
sisters can be the worse for this ancient slander. No doubt every part
of the story has been distorted and exaggerated in the telling; and a
great deal of it may be pure invention, evolved from the inner
consciousness of the slanderer.
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