his brother's innocence and honour. It was a strange, perhaps an
idle scheme, but as I had been always brought up in the habit of
considering my uncle as a deeply injured man, and had been taught,
almost as a part of my religion, to regard him as the very soul of
honour, I felt no further uneasiness respecting the arrangement than
that likely to affect a shy and timid girl at the immediate prospect
of taking up her abode for the first time in her life among strangers.
Previous to leaving my home, which I felt I should do with a heavy
heart, I received a most tender and affectionate letter from my uncle,
calculated, if anything could do so, to remove the bitterness of
parting from scenes familiar and dear from my earliest childhood,
and in some degree to reconcile me to the measure. It was upon a fine
autumn day that I approached the old domain of Carrickleigh. I shall
not soon forget the impression of sadness and of gloom which all that
I saw produced upon my mind; the sunbeams were falling with a rich
and melancholy lustre upon the fine old trees, which stood in lordly
groups, casting their long sweeping shadows over rock and sward; there
was an air of neglect and decay about the spot, which amounted almost
to desolation, and mournfully increased as we approached the building
itself, near which the ground had been originally more artificially
and carefully cultivated than elsewhere, and where consequently
neglect more immediately and strikingly betrayed itself.

As we proceeded, the road wound near the beds of what had been
formerly two fish-ponds, which were now nothing more than stagnant
swamps, overgrown with rank weeds, and here and there encroached upon
by the straggling underwood; the avenue itself was much broken; and in
many places the stones were almost concealed by grass and nettles; the
loose stone walls which had here and there intersected the broad park,
were, in many places, broken down, so as no longer to answer their