d accused
in the eyes of my fellow-men of another crime, deep, dark, and
disgraceful. And yet, though living under a ban, wandering up and down
the world a doomed and broken-hearted man, I am innocent as a child of
all intentional wrong, as you will learn, if you can trust to the truth
of the tale I am about to tell.

"Nature gave and education fostered in me a rebellious spirit. I was the
idol of my invalid mother, who, though she loved me with a love for
which I bless her memory, had not the energy to subdue the passionate
and wilful nature of her boy. But I was neither cruelly nor viciously
disposed; and though my sway at home and among my school-fellows was
alike indisputable, I made many friends, and not a single enemy. But a
sudden check was at length put to my freedom. My mother married, and I
soon came to feel bitterly the check which her husband, Mr. Graham, was
likely to impose upon my boyish independence. Had he treated me with
kindness, had he won my affections (which he might easily have done, for
my sensitive and impassioned nature disposed me to every tender and
grateful emotion), great would have been his influence in moulding my
yet unformed character.

"But his behaviour towards me was that of chilling coldness and reserve.
He repelled with scorn the first advance on my part which led me, at my
mother's instigation, to address him by the paternal title--an offence
of which I never again was guilty. And yet, while he seemed to ignore
the relationship, he assumed its authority, thus wounding my pride and
exciting opposition to his commands.

"Two things strengthened my dislike for my overbearing step-father. One
was the consciousness of my dependence upon his bounty; the other a
hint, which I received through a domestic, that Mr. Graham's dislike to
me had its origin in an old enmity between himself and my own father--an
honourable and high-minded man, whom it was ever my greatest pride to be
told that I resembled.

"Great as was the warfare in my heart, power rested with Mr. Graham; for
I was yet but a child, and necessarily subject to government--nor could
I be deaf to my mother's entreaties that, for her sake, I would learn
submission. It was only, therefore, when I had been most unjustly
thwarted that I broke into direct rebellion; and even then there were
influences ever at work to preserve outward harmony in our household.
Thus years passed on, and though I did not love Mr. Graham more, the
fo