And presently I knew nothing , nor did I come to my recollection for many a day , when I lay abed , sick of a fever and more like to die than live . So that when at last I came out from the shadow of death , my Uncle Hugh had been long cold in his grave , and the hue and cry for his guilty wife was well nigh over , since naught had been seen or heard of her since she fled the country with her foreign lover . When I came rightly to my remembrance , they questioned me as to what I had seen and heard in the Red Room . And I told them as best I could , though much aggrieved that to my questions they would answer nothing save to bid me to stay still and think not of the matter . Then my mother , sorely vexed over my adventures -- which in truth were but sorry ones for a child -- took me home . Nor would she let me keep Alicia 's chain , but made away with it , how I knew not and little cared , for the sight of it was loathsome to me . It was many years ere I went again to Montressor Place , and I never saw the Red Room more , for Mrs. Montressor had the old wing torn down , deeming its sorrowful memories dark heritage enough for the next Montressor . So , Grandchild , the sad tale is ended , and you will not see the Red Room when you go next month to Montressor Place . The swallows still build under the eaves , though -- I know not if you will understand their speech as I did . The Setness of Theodosia When Theodosia Ford married Wesley Brooke after a courtship of three years , everybody concerned was satisfied . There was nothing particularly romantic in either the courtship or marriage . Wesley was a steady , well-meaning , rather slow fellow , comfortably off . He was not at all handsome . But Theodosia was a very pretty girl with the milky colouring of an auburn blonde and large china-blue eyes . She looked mild and Madonna-like and was known to be sweet-tempered . Wesley 's older brother , Irving Brooke , had married a woman who kept him in hot water all the time , so Heatherton folks said , but they thought there was no fear of that with Wesley and Theodosia . They would get along together all right . Only old Jim Parmelee shook his head and said , `` They might , and then again they might n't '' ; he knew the stock they came of and it was a kind you could never predict about . Wesley and Theodosia were third cousins ; this meant that old Henry Ford had been the great-great-grandfather of them both . Jim Parmelee , who was ninety , had been a small boy when this remote ancestor was still alive .
`` I mind him well , '' said old Jim on the morning XXXXX Theodosia 's wedding day .
So after along at for from of that to under