such as she was, she made life very serious to those who were called
upon to dwell with her.

I need, I hope, hardly say that a young lady such as Miss Amedroz, even
though she had reached the age of twenty-five for at the time to which
I am now alluding she had nearly done so and was not young of her age,
had formed for herself no plan of life in which her aunt's money
figured as a motive power. She had gone to Perivale when she was very
young, because she had been told to do so, and had continued to go,
partly from obedience, partly from habit, and partly from affection. An
aunt's. dominion, when once well established in early years, cannot
easily be thrown altogether aside even though a young lady have a will
of her own. Now Clara Amedroz had a strong will of her own, and did not
at all at any rate in these latter days belong to that school of
divinity in which her aunt shone almost as a professor. And this
circumstance, also, added to the seriousness of her life. But in regard
to her aunt's money she had entertained no established hopes; and when
her aunt opened her mind to her, on that subject, a few days before the
arrival of the fatal news at Perivale, Clara, though she was somewhat
surprised, was by no means disappointed. Now there was a certain
Captain Aylmer in the question, of whom in this opening chapter it will
be necessary to say a few words.

Captain Frederic Folliott Aylmer was, in truth, the nephew of Mrs
Winterfield, whereas Clara Amedroz was not, in truth, her niece. And
Captain Aylmer was also Member of Parliament for the little borough of
Perivale, returned altogether on the Low Church interest for a devotion
to which, and for that alone, Perivale was noted among boroughs. These
facts together added not a little to Mrs Winterfield's influence and
professorial power in the place, and gave a dignity to the one-horse