As might have been perceived by one glance at the figure, step, and
bearing of Mr. Ferrars, perfectly clerical though they were, he
belonged to a military family. His father had been a distinguished
Peninsular officer, and his brother, older by many years, held a
command in Canada. Maurice and Albinia, early left orphans, had,
with a young cousin, been chiefly under the charge of their aunts,
Mrs. Annesley and Miss Ferrars, and had found a kind home in their
house in Mayfair, until Maurice had been ordained to the family
living of Fairmead, and his sister had gone to live with him there,
extorting the consent of her elder brother to her spending a more
real and active life than her aunts' round of society could offer
her.
The aunts lamented, but they could seldom win their darling to them
for more than a few weeks at a time, even after their nephew Maurice
had--as they considered--thrown himself away on a little lively lady
of Irish parentage, no equal in birth or fortune, in their opinion,
for the grandson of Lord Belraven.
They had been very friendly to the young wife, but their hopes had
all the more been fixed on Albinia; and even Winifred could afford
them some generous pity in the engagement of their favourite niece to
a retired East India Company's servant--a widower with three
children.
CHAPTER II.
The equinoctial sun had long set, and the blue haze of March east
wind had deepened into twilight and darkness when Albinia Kendal
found herself driving down the steep hilly street of Bayford.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25