'Since 1816,' muttered James, as he finished. 'Thirty years of
drudgery! When shall I be able to relieve her? Ha! O. J. F. Dynevor,
Esquire, if it were you who were coming from Peru, you would find a
score to settle!'

He ran down stairs to assist his grandmother in the Latin lessons of
her little school, the usual employment of his vacations.

Catharine Dynevor had begun life with little prospect of spending
nearly half of it as mistress of a school.

Her father was the last male of the Dynevors of Cheveleigh--a family
mounting up to the days of the Pendragons--and she had been made to
take the place of an eldest son, inheriting the extensive landed
property on condition that her name and arms should be assumed in case
of her marriage. Her choice was one of the instances in which her
affections had the mastery over her next strongest characteristic,
family pride. She married a highly-educated and wealthy gentleman, of
good family, but of mercantile connexions, such as her father, if
living, would have disdained. Her married life was, however, perfectly
unclouded, her ample means gave her the power of dispensing joy, and
her temperament was so blithe and unselfish that no pleasure ever
palled upon her. Cheveleigh was a proverb for hospitality, affording
unfailing fetes for all ages, full of a graceful ease and freedom that
inspired enjoyment.

Mr. Frost Dynevor was a man of refined taste, open-handed even to
extravagance, liberal in all his appointments, and gratifying to the
utmost his love of art and decoration, while his charities and generous
actions were hearty and lavish enough to satisfy even his warm-hearted
wife.

Joined with all this was a strong turn for speculations. When the mind
has once become absorbed in earthly visions of wealth and prosperity,
the excitement exercises such a fascination over the senses that the
judgment loses balance. Bold assumptions are taken as certainties, and
made the foundation of fresh fabrics--the very power of discerning
between fact and possibility departs, and, in mere good-will, men,
honest and honourable at heart, risk their own and their neighbours'
property, and ruin their character and good name, by the very actions
most foreign to to their nature, ere it had fallen under the strong
delusion.

Mr. Frost Dynevor had the misfortune to live in a country rich in
mineral wealth, and to have a brother-in-law easily guided, and with
more love of figures