"You don't know what I may care about as Lady Ongar; but as Julia
Brabazon I will now say good-by for the last time." Then they parted,
and the lady returned to the great house, while Harry Clavering made his
way across the park toward the rectory.

Three years before this scene in the gardens at Clavering Park, Lord
Brabazon had died at Nice, leaving one unmarried daughter, the lady to
whom the reader has just been introduced. One other daughter he had, who
was then already married to Sir Hugh Clavering, and Lady Clavering was
the Hermione of whom mention has already been made. Lord Brabazon, whose
peerage had descended to him in a direct line from the time of the
Plantagenets, was one of those unfortunate nobles of whom England is
burdened with but few, who have no means equal to their rank. He had
married late in life, and had died without a male heir. The title which
had come from the Plantagenets was now lapsed; and when the last lord
died about four hundred a year was divided between his two daughters.
The elder had already made an excellent match, as regarded fortune, in
marrying Sir Hugh Clavering; and the younger was now about to make a
much more splendid match in her alliance with Lord Ongar. Of them I do
not know that it is necessary to say much more at present.

And of Harry Clavering it perhaps may not be necessary to say much in
the way of description. The attentive reader will have already gathered
nearly all that should be known of him before he makes himself known by
his own deeds. He was the only son of the Reverend Henry Clavering,
rector of Clavering, uncle of the present Sir Hugh Clavering, and
brother of the last Sir Hugh. The Reverend Henry Clavering and Mrs.
Clavering his wife, and his two daughters, Mary and Fanny Clavering,
lived always at Clavering Rectory, on the outskirts of Clavering Park,