tle who does not come into the story at all, having merely
furnished Ethelberta's mother with a subject of contemplation. She
became teacher in a school, was praised by examiners, admired by
gentlemen, not admired by gentlewomen, was touched up with
accomplishments by masters who were coaxed into painstaking by her many
graces, and, entering a mansion as governess to the daughter thereof, was
stealthily married by the son. He, a minor like herself, died from a
chill caught during the wedding tour, and a few weeks later was followed
into the grave by Sir Ralph Petherwin, his unforgiving father, who had
bequeathed his wealth to his wife absolutely.

These calamities were a sufficient reason to Lady Petherwin for pardoning
all concerned. She took by the hand the forlorn Ethelberta--who seemed
rather a detached bride than a widow--and finished her education by
placing her for two or three years in a boarding-school at Bonn. Latterly
she had brought the girl to England to live under her roof as daughter
and companion, the condition attached being that Ethelberta was never
openly to recognize her relations, for reasons which will hereafter
appear.

The elegant young lady, as she had a full right to be called if she cared
for the definition, arrested all the local attention when she emerged
into the summer-evening light with that diadem-and-sceptre bearing--many
people for reasons of heredity discovering such graces only in those
whose vestibules are lined with ancestral mail, forgetting that a bear
may be taught to dance. While this air of hers lasted, even the
inanimate objects in the street appeared to know that she was there; but
from a way she had of carelessly overthrowing her dignity by versatile
moods, one could not calculate upon its presence to a certainty when she
was round corners or in little lanes which demanded no repression of
animal spirits.

'Well to be sure!' exclaimed a milkman, regarding her. 'We should freeze
in our beds if 'twere not for the sun, and, dang me! if she isn't a
pretty piece. A man could make a meal between them eyes and chin--eh,
hostler? Odd nation dang my old sides if he couldn't!'

The speaker, who had been carrying a pair of pails on a yoke, deposited
them upon the edge of the pavement in front of the inn, and straightened
his back to an excruciating perpendicular. His remarks had been
addressed to a rickety person, wearing a waistcoat of that preternatural
length from the