who was an
heiress, died abroad: her guardian, Mr. Vernor--"

"Umph! Vernor, eh! Vernor! Why that's the fellow who wrote to me and
told me--Umph! wait a bit, I shall be back directly. I--eh!--umph! umph!
umph!"

~407~~ And so saying, Mr. Frampton rushed out of the room in a perfect
paroxysm of grunting. It was now my turn to be astonished, and I was so
most thoroughly. What could possibly have caused Mr. Frampton to be
so strangely affected at the mention of Clara's name and that of her
guardian? Had he known Mr. Vernor in former days? Had he been acquainted
with Clara's father or mother? Could he have been attached to her as I
had been to Clara, and like me, too, have become the dupe of a heartless
jilt? A jilt--how I hated the word! how the blood boiled within me when
that old man applied it to her! And yet it was the truth. But oh! the
heart-spasm that darts through our breast when we hear some careless
tongue proclaim, in plain intelligible language, the fault of one we
love--a fault which, even at the moment when we may be suffering from
it most deeply, we have striven sedulously to hide from others, and
scarcely acknowledged definitely to ourselves. In vague musings, such
as these, did I pass away the time till Mr. Frampton returned. As
he approached, the traces of strong emotion were visible on his
countenance; and when he spoke his voice sounded hoarse and broken.

"The ways of God are indeed inscrutable," he said. "Information, which
for years I have vainly sought, and would gladly have given half my
wealth to obtain, has come to me when I least expected it; and, in place
of joy, has brought me deepest sorrow. Frank, my poor boy! she who has
thus wrung thy true heart by her cruel falsehood is my niece, the orphan
child of my sister!"

In reply to my exclamations of surprise, he proceeded to inform me
that his father, a man of considerable property in one of the midland
counties, had had three children: himself, an elder brother, and a
sister some years his junior, whose birth deprived him of a mother's
love. His brother tyrannised over him; and on the occasion of his
father's second marriage, he was sent to school, where he was again
unfortunate enough to meet with harsh treatment, against which his
high spirit rebelled; and having no better counsellors than his own
inexperience and impetuosity, he determined to run away and go to sea.
A succession of accidents conspired to prevent his return to his native