e other hand, perhaps
there were scarcely ten families in the country who could boast of a
similar directness of descent on all sides from the proudest and noblest
aristocracy of the soil; and Sir Miles St. John, by blood, was, almost
at the distance of eight centuries, as pure a Norman as his ancestral
William. His grandfather, nevertheless, had deviated from the usual
disinterested practice of the family, and had married an heiress who
brought the quarterings of Vernon to the crowded escutcheon, and with
these quarterings an estate of some 4,000 pounds a year popularly known
by the name of Vernon Grange. This rare occurrence did not add to the
domestic happiness of the contracting parties, nor did it lead to the
ultimate increase of the Laughton possessions. Two sons were born. To
the elder was destined the father's inheritance,--to the younger the
maternal property. One house is not large enough for two heirs. Nothing
could exceed the pride of the father as a St. John, except the pride of
the mother as a Vernon. Jealousies between the two sons began early
and rankled deep; nor was there peace at Laughton till the younger had
carried away from its rental the lands of Vernon Grange; and the
elder remained just where his predecessors stood in point of
possessions,--sole lord of Laughton sole. The elder son, Sir Miles's
father, had been, indeed, so chafed by the rivalry with his brother that
in disgust he had run away and thrown himself, at the age of fourteen,
into the navy. By accident or by merit he rose high in that profession,
acquired name and fame, and lost an eye and an arm,--for which he was
gazetted, at the same time, an admiral and a baronet.

Thus mutilated and dignified, Sir George St. John retired from
the profession; and finding himself unmarried, and haunted by the
apprehension that if he died childless, Laughton would pass to his
brother's heirs, he resolved upon consigning his remains to the nuptial
couch, previous to the surer peace of the family vault. At the age
of fifty-nine, the grim veteran succeeded in finding a young lady of
unblemished descent and much marked with the small-pox, who consented to
accept the only hand which Sir George had to offer. From this marriage
sprang a numerous family; but all died in early childhood, frightened
to death, said the neighbours, by their tender parents (considered the
ugliest couple in the county), except one boy (the present Sir Miles)
and one daughter, many