IT may be remembered that in the earlier part of this continuation of the
history of Maltravers it was stated that Aubrey had in early life met
with the common lot of a disappointed affection. Eleanor Westbrook, a
young woman of his own humble rank, had won, and seemed to return, his
love; but of that love she was not worthy. Vain, volatile, and
ambitious, she forsook the poor student for a more brilliant marriage.
She accepted the hand of a merchant, who was caught by her beauty, and
who had the reputation of great wealth. They settled in London, and
Aubrey lost all traces of her. She gave birth to an only daughter: and
when that child had attained her fourteenth year, her husband suddenly,
and seemingly without cause, put an end to his existence. The cause,
however, was apparent before he was laid in his grave. He was involved
far beyond his fortune,--he had died to escape beggary and a jail. A
small annuity, not exceeding one hundred pounds, had been secured on the
widow. On this income she retired with her child into the country; and
chance, the vicinity of some distant connections, and the cheapness of
the place, concurred to fix her residence in the outskirts of the town of
C-----. Characters that in youth have been most volatile and most
worldly, often when bowed down and dejected by the adversity which they
are not fitted to encounter, become the most morbidly devout; they ever
require an excitement, and when earth denies, they seek it impatiently
from heaven.

This was the case with Mrs. Westbrook; and this new turn of mind brought
her naturally into contact with the principal saint of the neighbourhood,
Mr. Richard Templeton. We have seen that that gentleman was not happy in
his first marriage; death had not then annulled the bond. He was of an
ardent and sensual temperament, and quietly, under the broad cloak of his
doctrines, he indulged his constitutional tendencies. Perhaps in this