high-spirited; and, having been indulged by his mother, and
seldom controlled by his male guardian, a brother some ten years
older than himself, Harry was rather disposed to be self-willed,
and cherished some false notions regarding independence of
character. His friends hoped, however, that as he grew older, he
would become wiser. Something of this feeling had been mixed up
with the motives which had lately led him to take a decided step
for the future.

>From a boy, Harry had been more or less the companion and
play-fellow of Elinor Wyllys and Jane Graham, whom he looked upon
as cousins, owing to a near family connexion. He had always felt
very differently, however, towards the two girls. Jane, a little
beauty from her birth, had been an indolent and peevish child,
often annoying Harry by selfish interference with their plans and
amusements. Elinor, on the contrary, had always been a favourite
playmate. She was an intelligent, generous child, of an
uncommonly fine temper and happy disposition. As for her plain
face, the boy seldom remembered it. They were both gay, clever
children, who suited each other remarkably well, in all their
little ways and fancies. Now, within the last year, it had struck
Harry that his brother Robert and his sister-in-law, Mrs.
Hazlehurst, were very desirous of making a match between Jane
Graham and himself. He had overheard some trifling remark on the
subject, and had suffered an afternoon's very stupid teasing and
joking, about Jane, from a talkative old bachelor relation. This
was quite sufficient to rouse the spirit of independence, in a
youth of his years and disposition. When, at length, he heard a
proposition that Jane should accompany them abroad, he went so
far as to look upon it as something very like manoeuvring {sic}.