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old at the
end, remain vividly in my memory. We had been surprised at receiving
my father's letter to say we were to go home, a letter followed almost
immediately by my father himself. It was two or three days before
Christmas; he had travelled at night, and coming to us in the morning,
gave us just a few hours to get ready, and in the afternoon he came
to fetch us away. He seemed depressed and preoccupied, and though he
made us plenty of gay speeches, we were conscious that his mood was not
gay. We left Paris that night, and well do I remember what great care
he took of me, the invalid, holding me in his arms a great part of the
way. As we drove to Turner Street from the station, in the gloomy dawn
of a dull December morning, I could not help noticing, in spite of my
own pain and weariness, how grey and haggard his face looked. We passed
the day in London, and in the evening he took us to Midhurst, where we
were all to spend Christmas.

After the first excitement of our home-coming had somewhat subsided,
my father got up from his chair, and throwing back his head with a
peculiar movement, said abruptly, "Well, Bob's in prison."

"My God!" exclaimed my grandfather, who invoked the Deity as
indifferently as if he had been a Christian.

My father was silent for some minutes, and then as, in a few short
sentences, he told the story, my sister and I realised how heavy had
been his care on the previous day whilst he had tried to make merry
with us.

William Robert Bradlaugh was twelve years younger than his brother
Charles, and was only seven years old at the time of their father's
death. He was educated at an Orphan Asylum, and on his leaving this
institution my father found situations for him, which, however, for one
reason or another, he did not keep. At one time, after he had been very
ill, I remember that he passed his time of convalescence at our house,
where he found all the kindness and comfort it was a brother's part to
bestow. To the distress of his relatives, and especially to the grief
of his mother, he took to excessive drinking. His mother he completely
neglected, even during the long illness which kept her to her room
before her death.

Surprise has often been expressed at the evident estrangement
between the brothers; and this has been especially the case with
religious persons after they have listened to, or heard of, the public
protestations of religion and love for my father which have fallen from
the Christian, protestations which the Atheist has received in silence.
He, who so well knew the worth of these phrases, preferred to let
himself be misunderstood by his silence rather than utter the miserable
truth.

The story my father had to tell us that Christmas Eve was that his
brother Robert (he was always called by his second name) had been
arrested on the charge of embezzling various small sums from his
employer. During the next few days, while he was under remand, he wrote
from the House of Detention, thanking my father for his kindness to his
wife, protesting his innocence, and expressing himself as "perfectly
happy and contented," knowing he could clear himself from all charges,
and asking my father's help in his defence. At the final examination
in the Police Court the case was sent up for trial at the Middlesex
Sessions, and at his brother's request my father instructed a solicitor
to appear for him. Mrs W. R. Bradlaugh warmly expressed her gratitude
to him for his kindness, hoping that some day she might be able to
repay him; "Were it not for you," she said, "I do not know what I
should do." Her husband, released on bail, protested that he would
neither see nor speak to his brother until he had proved his innocence.

On the 8th of January my father wrote his sister, Mrs Norman, promising
to allow his brother's wife a small weekly sum in the event of Robert's
conviction, adding that they had already had £12, 10s. from him in
six weeks. He was, as we know, himself so heavily involved in money
difficulties that the smallest unforeseen expense made a serious
addition to him; despite this, a week later he sent more money, and
promised to pay the solicitor's costs. More, he vowed he would not do,
"either for name or for money's sake." He felt the disgrace keenly,
and considered moreover that his brother had no moral claim upon
him, "for" as he wrote his sister, "when he was in full work, and I
in distress, he did not even help me to keep his mother, who loved
him so well." At the Middlesex Sessions a sentence of six months'
imprisonment was passed, at the end of which Robert once more wrote his
brother, thanking him for the kindness he had shown to his wife, and
acknowledging his indebtedness to the extent of £30, which he talked
about repaying on some future occasion. At the same time he assured my
father that his feelings should not again be harrowed by any misconduct
on his (Robert's) part: henceforth his living should be honestly
obtained, or he would starve.

My father sent his brother some more money. Then, of course, came other
applications, coupled at length with the request that the money should
be sent direct, and not, as was my father's custom, through his sister,
Mrs Norman. But my father would not consent to this. He told his
sister of Robert's demand, adding that if she would take charge of the
money he would send what he was able; if she would not, he would send
nothing. My aunt was perplexed; she did not know what to do. Although
she had had her sister-in-law and the child at her house during
Robert's absence, she had not seen her since his return, and she felt
that she did not want to force her brother Robert to receive further
kindness through her hands. However, she at last consented to continue
to act as intermediary; consequently every penny that Mr Bradlaugh sent
his brother passed through her hands.

Just before my father went to America, in the autumn of 1874, Robert
(who, a few years later, alleged that in 1872 his brother cast him off)
suggested that he should go to the States with him, and be introduced
by him as a young man whom he had known for some time; but it is hardly
necessary to say that my father did not acquiesce in this proposal. In
the following year, while still receiving pecuniary assistance from
his brother, Mr W. R. Bradlaugh attended some of Moody and Sankey's
meetings, and there professed "conversion," although, as he was brought
up and educated in the tenets of the Church of England, and was never
at any time a Freethinker, it is difficult to understand from what
he was converted. One day my Aunt Lizzie was somewhat surprised at
receiving a visit from him. He had been to her house only a day or two
before to receive a sovereign which my father had sent at his request,
and she was not expecting to see him again so soon. He walked into the
house, triumphantly exclaiming that he had got "another berth," at the
same time showing her a sheet of the _Christian Herald_ in connection
with which he had been given 

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