ment at Stokesley about the
property known by the pleasing name of the Gap. An old gentleman
had lived there for many years, always in a secluded state, and
latterly imbecile, and on his death in the previous year no one had
for some time appeared as heir; but it became known that the
inheritrix was a young lady, a great-niece, living with a widowed
mother in one of the large manufacturing towns in the north of
England. Her father had been a clergyman and had died when she was
an infant. That was all that was known, and as the house had become
almost uninhabitable, the necessary repairs had prevented the
heiress from taking possession all this time. It was not a very
large inheritance, only comprising a small farm, the substantial
village shop, four or five cottages, and a moderate-sized house and
grounds, where the neglected trees had grown to strange irregular
proportions, equally with the income, which, owing to the outgoings
being small, had increased to about 800 or 900 pounds a year, and of
course it was a subject of much anxiety with Admiral Merrifield's
family to know what sort of people the newcomers would prove.

Of the large family only the two eldest daughters were at home;
Susan, now nearly forty, had never left it, but had been the
daughter-of-all-work at home and lady-of-all-work to the parish ever
since she had emerged from the schoolroom; her apricot complexion
showing hardly any change, and such as there was never perceived by
her parents. The Admiral, still a light, wiry, hale man, as active
as ever, with his hands full of county, parish, and farming
business; an invalid for many years, but getting into that health
which is LA JEUNESSE DE LA VIEILLESSE.

Elizabeth had, from twenty-five to thirty-two, been spared from home
by her father to take care of his stepmother in London, where she
had beguiled her time with a certain amount of authorship under a
NOM DE PLUME, and had been introduced to some choice society both
through her literary abilities and her family connections.

Four years previous the old lady had died, leaving her a legacy,
which, together with her gains, would have enabled her to keep such
a home in town as to remain in touch with the world to which she had
been introduced; but she had never lost her Stokesley heart enough
for the temptation to outweigh the disappointment she would have
caused at home, and the satisfaction and rest of being among her own
people. So she only w