A Tragedy of Love and Hate by Bertha M. Clay

The Towers, Kenelm Eyrle's inheritance, was a large estate. Perhaps the prettiest and most picturesque part of it was that called Dower House, a large, open, healthy, airy house, standing by itself, close to the Holme Woods. The Dower House had been, in former generations, a retreat for the widowed ladies of the family, but of late there had been no widows, and the place had gone somewhat to decay. It was quite isolated; there was no other dwelling near it, no cheerful path led to a highway, no neighboring chimneys peeped from between the trees. It was isolated, solitary, secluded -- the very spot where one might live and die unseen and unknown.

Kenelm Eyrle had more than once looked at the large closed, solitary place, and thought how sad it was that it should go to decay. There were no widowed Ladies Eyrle to seek refuge there now, and the really good, substantial property was rapidly going to ruin. Owing to the size of his estate, and his own peculiar ideas, Kenelm had always employed a land agent, a gentleman of intelligence and shrewdness, who made The Towers one of the best paying estates in the country. If Mr. Gordon had any fault to find with his employer it was for the little interest he took in anything.