he rate of
five miles an hour was she driven about, and this driving was to
her the amusement of life. But such an occupation to Clara Amedroz
assisted to make life serious.

In person Mrs. Winterfield was tall and thin, wearing on her brow
thin braids of false hair. She had suffered much from acute ill
health, and her jaws were sunken, and her eyes were hollow, and there
was a look of woe about her which seemed ever to be telling of her
own sorrows in this world and of the sorrows of others in the world
to come. Ill-nature was written on her face, but in this her face was
a false face. She had the manners of a cross, peevish woman; but her
manners also were false, and gave no proper idea of her character.
But still, such as she was, she made life very serious to those who
were called upon to dwell with her.

I need, I hope, hardly say that a young lady such as Miss Amedroz,
even though she had reached the age of twenty-five,--for at the time
to which I am now alluding she had nearly done so,--and was not young
of her age, had formed for herself no plan of life in which her
aunt's money figured as a motive power. She had gone to Perivale
when she was very young, because she had been told to do so, and had
continued to go, partly from obedience, partly from habit, and partly
from affection. An aunt's dominion, when once well established in
early years, cannot easily be thrown altogether aside,--even though
a young lady have a will of her own. Now Clara Amedroz had a strong
will of her own, and did not at all,--at any rate in these latter
days,--belong to that school of divinity in which her aunt shone
almost as a professor. And this circumstance, also, added to the
seriousness of her life. But in regard to her aunt's money she had
entertained no established hopes; and when her aunt opened her mind
to her on that subject, a few days before the arrival of the fatal
news at Perivale, Clara, though she was somewhat surprised, was by
no means disappointed. Now there was a certain Captain Aylmer in the
question, of whom in this opening chapter it will be necessary to say
a few words.

Captain Frederic Folliott Aylmer was, in truth, the nephew of Mrs.
Winterfield, whereas Clara Amedroz was not, in truth, her niece. And
Captain Aylmer was also Member of Parliament for the little borough
of Perivale, returned altogether on the Low Church interest,--for
a devotion to which, and for that alone, Perivale was noted
among borough