JENNY LAWSON.

CHAPTER I.





MARK CLIFFORD had come up from New York to spend a few weeks with
his maternal grandfather, Mr. Lofton, who lived almost alone on his
beautiful estate a few miles from the Hudson, amid the rich valleys
of Orange county. Mr. Lofton belonged to one of the oldest families
in the country, and retained a large portion of that aristocratic
pride for which they were distinguished. The marriage of his
daughter to Mr. Clifford, a merchant of New York, had been strongly
opposed on the ground that the alliance was degrading--Mr. Clifford
not being able to boast of an ancestor who was anything more than an
honest man and a useful citizen. A closer acquaintance with his
son-in-law, after the marriage took place, reconciled Mr. Lofton in
a good measure to the union; for he found Mr. Clifford to be a man
of fine intelligence, gentlemanly feeling, and withal, tenderly
attached to his daughter. The marriage was a happy one--and this is
rarely the case when the external and selfish desire to make a good
family connection is regarded above the mental and moral qualities
on which a true union only can be based.

A few years previous to the time at which our story opens, Mrs.
Clifford died, leaving one son and two daughters. Mark, the oldest