and industrious life to absolute strangers. Not that they inherited
by any means his whole property, such as it was, several others of his
relatives received more or less, but his brother, sister, and maternal
uncle--the schoolmaster--were the largest inheritors.

The illness of Edward Corbet was long and tedious; but Lady Gourlay
allowed nothing to be wanting that could render his bed of sickness or
death easy and tranquil, so far as kindness, attention, and the ministry
of mere human comforts could effect it. During his illness, his brother
Charles visited him several times, and had many private conversations
with him. And it may be necessary to state here, that, although these
two relatives had never lived upon cold or unfriendly terms, yet the
fact was that Edward felt it impossible to love Charles with the fulness
of a brother's affection. The natural disposition of the latter, under
the guise of an apparently good-humored and frank demeanor, was in
reality inscrutable.

Though capable, as we said, of assuming a very different character
whenever it suited his purpose, he was nevertheless a man whose full
confidence was scarcely ever bestowed upon a human being. Such an
individual neither is nor can be relished in society; but it is
precisely persons of his stamp who are calculated to win their way with
men of higher and more influential position in life, who, when moved
by ambition, avarice, or any other of the darker and more dangerous
passions of our nature, feel an inclination, almost instinctive, to
take such men into their intrigues and deliberations. The tyrant and
oppressor discovers the disposition and character of his slave and
instrument with as much sagacity as is displayed by the highly bred dog
that scents out the game of which the sportsman is in pursuit. In this
respect, however, it not unfrequently happens, that even those who are
most confident in the penetration with which they make such selections,
are woefully mistaken in the result.

We allude particularly to the death of Edward Corbet, at this stage
of our narrative, because, from that event, the train of circumstances
which principally constitute the body of our narrative originated.

His brother had been with him in the early part of the day on which he
breathed his last. On arriving at the mansion in Merrion square, he met
Lady Gourlay on the steps of the hall door, about to enter her carriage.

"I am glad you are come, Corbet," she sa