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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: mourning dress, announced to the Ellieslaw family that their
benefactor was no more. Sir Edward's death made no addition to
their fortune, for he had divested himself of his property during
his lifetime, and chiefly in their favour. Ratcliffe, his sole
confidant, died at a good old age, but without ever naming the
place to which his master had finally retired, or the manner of
his death, or the place of his burial. It was supposed that on
all these particulars his patron had enjoined him strict secrecy.
The sudden disappearance of Elshie from his extraordinary
hermitage corroborated the reports which the common people had
spread concerning him. Many believed that, having ventured to
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