Colonel Euston's will offered a temptation to Barclay, which he had
not sufficient principle to resist. If Euston died before attaining
his majority the estate was to pass into the hands of his kinsman, and
no mention was made of the mother or sister of the young heir. Barclay
reflected that if he could remove Euston from his path, before he
attained his twenty-first year, the coveted wealth would yet be his.

From that hour he made every effort to win the confidence and
affection of young Euston. He was his senior by nearly ten years, and
possessed a knowledge of the world, and a fascination of manner which
was extremely attractive to a youth who had passed the greater portion
of his life, at a country residence, in the society of his mother and
sister. Euston entered one of our Northern colleges, and under the
auspices of his kinsman he soon achieved a reputation which was far
more applauded by the wild students than agreeable to the professors.
He blindly followed wherever Barclay led, and before he entered his
twenty-first year he returned to his early home, with a constitution
completely broken by the reckless life he had led, and the symptoms of
early decay in his flushed cheek and hollow cough. Vain had been the
entreaties and remonstrances of his mother and sister; under the
influence of his tempter, they were utterly disregarded--until the
hand of disease was laid upon him, and he felt that the only atonement
he could offer for all the suffering he had inflicted upon them would
probably be denied to him.

He earnestly desired to live, that he might reach that age which would
entitle him to make a legal transfer of his property to those who were
deservedly dear to him, for in the event of his death without a will,
his mother and sister would be left entirely dependent on the tender
mercies of his successor. An unfortunate lawsuit had deprived his
mother of the property which had become hers on the death of his
father, and his own reckless extravagance had dissipated more than the
annual revenue of his own property since it came into his possession.

Too late he discovered the baseness of Barclay's motives, and
renounced all intercourse with him--but he would not thus be cast off.
He had seen and loved the noble-hearted Edith, and he forced his
hypocritical offers of service upon the afflicted family, until Edith
distinctly assured him that he need never hope for a return to his
passion.

Euston had long sinc