grandfather
and your mother were born."

"They were both children of misfortune," replied Anthony. "But the fate
of my grandfather, although he died upon the scaffold, beneath the cruel
gaze of an insulting mob, was a merciful dispensation, to the death by
inches which awaited his unhappy child."

"That room," resumed Frederic, "contains the portraits in oil of your
grandfather and your mother. The one in the prime of life, the other a
gay blooming girl of fifteen. From the happy countenances of both you
would never augur aught of their miserable doom."

"You must let me occupy that chamber, cousin Wildegrave. If I may judge
by my present prospects, I am likely to inherit the same evil destiny."

"These things sometimes run in families. It is the 'visiting the sins of
the fathers upon the children, until the third and fourth generation,'"
said Frederic, pulling up his horse at the front gate. "The mantle of
the Wildegrave, Anthony, has not descended upon you alone."

On the steps of the house they were welcomed by a very fair
interesting-looking girl of sixteen; but so fragile and childlike that
she scarcely seemed to have entered upon her teens. She blushed deeply
as she received the stranger and her brother.

"Anthony, permit me to introduce you to another cousin. This is my
sister Clarissa."

"You did not inform me that you had a sister. This is indeed an
unexpected and happy surprise," said Anthony, shaking hands with the
young lady.

"I thought it best to introduce all my pets together," returned
Wildegrave, patting his sister's meek head. "Clary is a shy, timid,
little creature, very unlike your sparkling Juliet, with whom I happen
to be personally acquainted; but she is a dear good girl, and the
darling of her brother's heart. Her orphan state seems to press
painfully upon her young mind. She seldom smiles, and I can never induce
her to go into company. But we must try and break her of these monastic
habits, for she is not so young as she looks, and by this time she
should know her position in society."

"I do not love the world, nor the world's ways, Frederic," said his
sister, gravely. "It contains but one happy spot, my own dear tranquil
home, and I love it so well, that I never wish to leave it."

"But you must not expect to live at home for ever, Clary," said her
brother, as he took his place at the tea-table. "Suppose I was to take
it into my head to marry, what would you do then? Perhaps you wo