smallpox broke out on board and he was one
of its earliest victims.

With his dying breath he consigned Alice to the care of the captain of
the ship, a kind-hearted man, who undertook to convey the poor babe to
her grandmother. On the arrival of the infant at the mansion of
Colonel Delany, a new bereavement awaited her. Mrs. Delany, whose
health had been declining ever since her settlement in her new home,
was fast sinking to the grave. Colonel Delany, however, received the
orphan infant with the greatest tenderness. Sixteen years of
affectionate care had given him a father's place in the heart of
Alice, and a father's influence over her. Within the last year the
sunshine of Alice's life had been clouded.

Richard Delany, the only son and heir of Colonel Delany, had been
sent to England at the age of fifteen to receive a college education.
After remaining eight years abroad, the last year of his absence being
spent in making the grand tour, he returned to his adopted country and
his father's house. He was soon attracted by the beauty and grace of
Alice. I say by her beauty and grace, because the moral and
intellectual worth of the young girl he had not the taste to admire,
even had he, at this early period of his acquaintance with her, an
opportunity to judge. The attentions of Richard Delany to his cousin
were not only extremely distressing to her, but highly displeasing to
his father, who had formed, as we have seen, the most ambitious
projects for his son. Richard Delany was not far wrong in his
conjecture concerning the young usher, who was no other than our old
friend William Dulan, little Willie, who had now grown to man's
estate, the circumstances of whose introduction to the Delany family I
must now proceed to explain.

To pass briefly over the events of William Dulan's childhood and
youth. At the age of ten years he entered, as a pupil, the collegiate
school over which Dr. Dulan presided, where he remained until his
nineteenth year. It had been the wish of William Dulan and his mother
that he should take holy orders, and he was about to enter a course of
theological study under the direction of his uncle when an event
occurred which totally altered the plan of his life. This event was
the death of Dr. Dulan, his kind uncle and benefactor. All thoughts of
the church had now to be relinquished, and present employment, by
which to support his mother, to be sought. * * * It was twelve o'clock
at night, about t