-was
seventeen years of age, and dwelt in London, to which great city she had
been tempted by an elderly English cousin, Miss Sarah Lillycrop, who
held out as baits a possible situation and a hearty welcome.

The second babe, Philip, was verging on fifteen. Having kicked,
crashed, and smashed his way though an uproarious infancy and a stormy
childhood, he had become a sedate, earnest, energetic boy, with a slight
dash of humour in his spirit, and more than a dash of determination.

The third babe was still a baby. As it plays little or no part in our
tale we dismiss it with the remark that it was of the male sex, and was
at once the hope, fear, joy and anxiety of its distracted mother. So,
too, we may dismiss Miss Madge Stevens, a poor relation, who was worth
her weight in gold to the widow, inasmuch as she acted the part of
general servant, nurse, mender of the household garments, and recipient
of joys and sorrows, all of which duties she fulfilled for love, and for
just shelter and sustenance sufficient to keep her affectionate spirit
within her rather thin but well-favoured body.

Phil Maylands was a hero-worshipper. At the time when our tale opens he
worshipped a youth--the son of a retired naval officer,--who possessed
at least some of the qualities that are occasionally found in a hero.
George Aspel was daring, genial, enthusiastic, tall, broad-shouldered,
active, and young--about twenty. But George had a tendency to
dissipation.

His father, who had recently died, had been addicted to what he styled
good-fellowship and grog. Knowing his so-called weakness, Captain Aspel
had sent his boy to be brought up in the family of the Reverend James
Maylands, but some time before the death of that gentleman he had called
him home to help to manage the small farm with which he amused his
declining years. George and his father amused themselves with it to
such an extent that they became bankrupt about the time of the father's
death, and thus the son was left with the world before him and nothing
whatever in his pocket except a tobacco-pipe and a corkscrew.

One day Phil met George Aspel taking a ramble and joined him. These two
lived near to each other. Indeed, Mrs Maylands had been partly
influenced in her choice of a residence by her desire to be near George.

It was a bitterly cold December afternoon. As the friends reached the
summit of the grey cliffs, a squall, fresh from the Arctic regions, came
sweepin