CHAPTER I--THE ELDER SISTER



'Return, and in the daily round
Of duty and of love,
Thou best wilt find that patient faith
That lifts the soul above.'

Eleanor Mohun was the eldest child of a gentleman of old family, and
good property, who had married the sister of his friend and
neighbour, the Marquis of Rotherwood. The first years of her life
were marked by few events. She was a quiet, steady, useful girl,
finding her chief pleasure in nursing and teaching her brothers and
sisters, and her chief annoyance in her mamma's attempts to make her
a fine lady; but before she had reached her nineteenth year she had
learnt to know real anxiety and sorrow. Her mother, after suffering
much from grief at the loss of her two brothers, fell into so
alarming a state of health, that her husband was obliged immediately
to hurry her away to Italy, leaving the younger children under the
care of a governess, and the elder boys at school, while Eleanor
alone accompanied them.

Their absence lasted nearly three years, and during the last winter,
an engagement commenced between Eleanor and Mr. Francis Hawkesworth,
rather to the surprise of Lady Emily, who wondered that he had been
able to discover the real worth veiled beneath a formal and retiring