-entered the dwelling at a moment most inopportune. It was
not less her obvious policy than desire--prompted as well by the
necessity of escaping the notice and consequent suspicions of those whom
she had defrauded of their prey, as by a due sense of that delicate
propriety which belonged to her sex, and which her education, as the
reader will have conjectured, had taught her properly to estimate--that
made her now seek to avoid scrutiny or observation at the moment of her
return. Though the niece, and now under the sole direction and authority
of Munro, she was the child of one as little like that personage in
spirit and pursuit as may well be imagined. It is not necessary that we
should dwell more particularly upon this difference. It happened with
the two brothers, as many of us have discovered in other cases, that
their mental and moral make, though seemingly under the same tutorship,
was widely dissimilar. The elder Munro, at an early period in life,
broke through all restraints--defied all responsibilities--scorned all
human consequences--took no pride or pleasure in any of its domestic
associations--and was only known as a vicious profligate, with whom
nothing might be done in the way of restraint or reformation. When grown
to manhood, he suddenly left his parental home, and went, for a time, no
one could say whither. When heard of, it appeared from all accounts that
his licentiousness of habit had not deserted him: still, however, it had
not, as had been anticipated, led to any fearful or very pernicious
results. Years passed on, the parents died, and the brothers grew more
than ever separate; when, in different and remote communities, they each
took wives to themselves.

The younger, Edgar Munro, the father of Lucy, grew prosperous in
business--for a season at least--and, until borne down by a rush of
unfavorable circumstances, he spared neither pains nor expense in the
culture of the young mind of that daughter whose fortunes are now
somewhat before us. Nothing which might tend in the slightest to her
personal improvement had been withheld; and the due feminine grace and
accomplishment which followed these cares fitted the maiden for the most
refined intellectual converse, and for every gentle association. She was
familiar with books; had acquired a large taste for letters; and a vein
of romantic enthusiasm, not uncommon to the southern temperament, and
which she possessed in a considerable degree, was not a li