tant branch from which Mr Heneage derived his
descent, though a frigid intercourse was formally kept up by visits at
stated periods, and letters of ceremony as occasion called for them; but
on the part of the late Mr Devereux there was evidently a degree of
instinctive repugnance towards his distant relation, which would have
amounted to aversion, had his kindly and gentle nature been capable of
so unchristian-like a feeling. No two characters could have been more
dissimilar than these two kinsmen. I have already dwelt affectionately
on the amiability of Mr Devereux. I have also touched on its slight
alloy--a degree of moral weakness, in part doubtless inherent in his
nature, but which, from the circumstances of his life and long
indulgence of his tastes and feelings, had grown into constitutional
infirmity, which made him an easy prey to the bold and designing.

Mr Devereux's manners and habits were those of refined elegance, his
tastes and opinions nice even to fastidiousness; and his perceptions
acute on some points to a degree of sickliness. His very person was cast
as if for an appropriate mould to enshrine this fine frame of moral
organisation. Small, delicate, beautifully proportioned, with hands and
feet of almost feminine moulding--while those of Cousin Heneage!----How
have I seen the slender fingers of my dear old friend shrink from the
vice-like grasp of that coarse bony hand, that looked capable of
crushing it to atoms, together with the large mourning ring on the
little finger, the oval of which, set with diamonds, encircled a
groundwork of fair silky hair, bearing the device of an urn and a
weeping willow, in small brilliants.

During the last few years of Mr Devereux's life, it became too evident
to his old and true friends that, notwithstanding his ill-concealed
repugnance to Cousin Heneage, the man had by some unaccountable means
obtained an extraordinary influence over him--a baneful influence, that
by degrees superseded that mild persuasive power hitherto exercised so
beneficially for Mr Devereux, by the faithful companion of his life--the
tenderest of sisters. His affection for her was evidently unabated. His
tender solicitude for her, as the growing infirmities of advanced life
rendered her more feeble and delicate, was peculiarly affecting, from
the circumstances of his own age, and more evident decay, and from the
expression of anxious sadness with which he often regarded her. What,
then, was the