Mrs Wybrow with her fallen state) forwarded her address, with a strict
injunction to her humble friend to convey to her all information of her
absent brother which she could possibly obtain. The threatened danger
was communicated to the lover--darkened his days for a time with anxiety
and dread, but ceased as time wore on, and as no visitant appeared to
affect the easy tenor of his immoral life. The reader will not have
forgotten, perhaps, that when for the first time I beheld James Temple,
he was accompanied by an elder brother. It was from the latter, his
friend and confidant, that the above particulars, and those which follow
in respect of the deceased, were gathered. The house in which, for a
second time, I encountered my ancient college friends, was their
uncle's. Parents they had none. Of father and of mother both they had
been deprived in infancy; and, from that period, their home had been
with their relative and guardian. The conduct of one charge, at least,
had been from boyhood such as to cause the greatest pain to him who had
assumed a parent's cares. Hypocrisy, sensuality, and--for his years and
social station--unparalleled dishonesty, had characterised James
Temple's short career. By some inexplicable tortuosity of mind, with
every natural endowment, with every acquired advantage, graced with the
borrowed as well as native ornaments of humanity, he found no joy in his
inheritance, but sacrificed it all, and crawled through life a gross and
earthy man. The seduction of Emma, young as he was when he committed
that offence, was, by many, not the first crime for which--not, thank
Heaven! without some preparation for his trial--he was called suddenly
to answer. As a boy, he had grown aged is vice. It has been stated that
he quitted the university the very instant he disencumbered himself of
the girl whom he had sacrificed. He crept to the metropolis, and for a
time there hid himself. But it was there that he was discovered by
Frederick Harrington, who had pursued the destroyer with a perseverance
that was indomitable, and scoffed at disappointment. How the lunatic
existed no one knew; how he steered clear of transgression and restraint
was equally difficult to explain. It was evident enough that he made
himself acquainted with the haunts of his former schoolfellow; and, in
one of them, he rushed furiously and unexpectedly upon him, affrighting
his intended victim, but failing in his purpose of vengeance by the ver