The marriage was not in itself unhappy;
Adcock was a gentleman by birth and made a good husband; the family
reasonably prospered, and one of the daughters married no less a
man than Clarkson Stanfield. But by the father, and the two
remaining Miss Campbells, people of fierce passions and a truly
Highland pride, the derogation was bitterly resented. For long the
sisters lived estranged then, Mrs. Jackson and Mrs. Adcock were
reconciled for a moment, only to quarrel the more fiercely; the
name of Mrs. Adcock was proscribed, nor did it again pass her
sister's lips, until the morning when she announced: 'Mary Adcock
is dead; I saw her in her shroud last night.' Second sight was
hereditary in the house; and sure enough, as I have it reported, on
that very night Mrs. Adcock had passed away. Thus, of the four
daughters, two had, according to the idiotic notions of their
friends, disgraced themselves in marriage; the others supported the
honour of the family with a better grace, and married West Indian
magnates of whom, I believe, the world has never heard and would
not care to hear: So strange a thing is this hereditary pride.
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