, heir to the
property. The one other member of this, the elder branch of the family,
who was then alive, was Mr. Monkton's younger brother, Stephen. He was
an unmarried man, possessing a fine estate in Scotland; but he lived
almost entirely on the Continent, and bore the reputation of being
a shameless profligate. The family at Wincot held almost as little
communication with him as with their neighbors.

I have already mentioned my father, and a lady and her daughter, as the
only privileged people who were admitted into Wincot Abbey.

My father had been an old school and college friend of Mr. Monkton,
and accident had brought them so much together in later life that their
continued intimacy at Wincot was quite intelligible. I am not so well
able to account for the friendly terms on which Mrs. Elmslie (the lady
to whom I have alluded) lived with the Monktons. Her late husband had
been distantly related to Mrs. Monkton, and my father was her daughter's
guardian. But even these claims to friendship and regard never seemed
to me strong enough to explain the intimacy between Mrs. Elmslie and the
inhabitants of the Abbey. Intimate, however, they certainly were,
and one result of the constant interchange of visits between the
two families in due time declared itself: Mr. Monkton's son and Mrs.
Elmslie's daughter became attached to each other.

I had no opportunities of seeing much of the young lady; I only remember
her at that time as a delicate, gentle, lovable girl, the very opposite
in appearance, and apparently in character also, to Alfred Monkton. But
perhaps that was one reason why they fell in love with each other. The
attachment was soon discovered, and was far from being disapproved
by the parents on either side. In all essential points except that of
wealth, the Elmslies were nearly the equals of the Monktons, and want of
money in a bride was of no consequence to the heir of Wincot. Alfred, it
was well known, would succeed to thirty thousand a year on his father's
death.

Thus, though the parents on both sides thought the young people not
old enough to be married at once, they saw no reason why Ada and Alfred
should not be engaged to each other, with the understanding that they
should be united when young Monkton came of age, in two years' time. The
person to be consulted in the matter, after the parents, was my father,
in his capacity of Ada's guardian. He knew that the family misery had
shown itself many years