my
presentiment: it has come true, you see."

"Believe me, you do wrong in giving way to these despairing thoughts--in
encouraging these morbid fancies," returned I. "But time presses; will
you not tell me the particulars of this unhappy engagement, that I may
see how far you stand committed to this scoundrel Cumberland, and decide
what is best to be done for the future?"

"It is a long story," she replied; "but I will tell it you as shortly as
I can."

She then proceeded to inform me, that her mother having died when she
was an infant, she had become the idol of her surviving parent, who,
inconsolable for the loss of his wife, lavished all his tenderness upon
his little girl. She described her childhood as the happiest part of
her life, although it must have been happiness of a tranquil nature,
differing greatly from the boisterous merriment of children in general;
its chief ingredient being the strong affection which existed between
her father and herself. The only guest who ever appeared at the Priory
(which I now for the first time learned had been the property of Sir
Henry Saville) was his early friend, Mr. Vernor, who used periodically
to visit them, an event to which she always looked forward with
pleasure, not so much on account of the presents and caresses he
bestowed on herself, as that his society appeared to amuse and interest
her father. On one of these occasions, when she was about nine years of
age, Mr. Vernor was accompanied by a lad some years older than herself,
whom he introduced as his nephew. During his visit, the boy, who
appeared gifted with tact and cunning beyond his years, contrived so
much to ingratiate himself with Sir Henry Saville, that before he left
the Priory, his host, who had himself served with distinction in the
Peninsula, expressed his readiness to send him, on attaining a fit age,
to one of the military colleges, promising to use his interest at
the Horse Guards to procure a commission for him. These ~285~~ kind
intentions, however, were fated not to be carried out. An old wound
which Sir Henry had received at Vimiera broke out afresh, occasioning
the rupture of a vessel on the lungs, and in the course of a few hours
Clara was left fatherless. On examining the private papers of the
deceased, it appeared that Mr. Vernor was constituted sole executor,
trustee for the property, and guardian to the young lady. In these
various capacities he immediately took up his residence at Bars