not to mortally offend the old gentleman, who was determined, if his son married at all, it should be either to rank or riches, it would be necessary to conceal the marriage till after his death.  This commonplace story had been, it appeared, implicitly credited by Captain Dalston; and Violet Dalston and Henry Grainger were united in holy wedlock—­not at the village church near where Captain Dalston resided, but in one of the Leeds churches.  The witnesses were the bride’s father and sister, and a Mr. Bilston, a neighbor.  This marriage had taken place rather more than seven years since, and its sole fruit was the fine-looking boy who accompanied his mother to my office.  Mr. Grainger, soon after the marriage, persuaded the Dalstons to leave Rock Cottage, and take up their abode in a picturesque village in Cumberland, where he had purchased a small house, with some garden and ornamental grounds attached.

Five years rolled away—­not, as I could discern, too happily when the very frequent absences of Violet’s husband in London, as he alleged (all her letters to him were directed to the post-office, St. Martin’s le Grand—­till called for), were suddenly greatly prolonged; and on his return home, after an absence of more than three months, he abruptly informed the family that the affairs of his father, who was dying, had been found to be greatly embarrassed, and that nothing was left for him and them but emigration to America, with such means as might be saved from the wreck of the elder Grainger’s property.  After much lamentation and opposition on the part of Emily Dalston and her father, it was finally conceded as Violet’s husband wished; and the emigration was to have taken place in the following spring, Henry Grainger to follow them the instant he could wind up his father’s affairs.  About three months before their intended departure—­this very time twelvemonth, as nearly as may be—­Captain Dalston was suddenly called to London, to close the eyes of an only sister.  This sad duty fulfilled, he was about to return, when, passing towards dusk down St. James Street, he saw Henry Grainger, habited in a remarkable sporting-dress, standing with several other gentlemen at the door of one of the club-houses.  Hastening across the street to accost him, he was arrested for a minute or so by a line of carriages which turned sharply out of Piccadilly; and when he did reach the other side, young Mr. Grainger and his companions had vanished.  He inquired of the porter, and was assured that no Mr. Grainger, senior or junior, was known there.  Persisting that he had seen him standing within the doorway, and describing his dress, the man with an insolent laugh exclaimed that the gentleman who wore that dress was the famous sporting baronet, Sir Harry Compton!