I need, I hope, hardly say that a young lady such as Miss Amedroz, even though she had reached the age of twenty-five for at the time to which I am now alluding she had nearly done so and was not young of her age, had formed for herself no plan of life in which her aunt’s money figured as a motive power.  She had gone to Perivale when she was very young, because she had been told to do so, and had continued to go, partly from obedience, partly from habit, and partly from affection.  An aunt’s. dominion, when once well established in early years, cannot easily be thrown altogether aside even though a young lady have a will of her own.  Now Clara Amedroz had a strong will of her own, and did not at all at any rate in these latter days belong to that school of divinity in which her aunt shone almost as a professor.  And this circumstance, also, added to the seriousness of her life.  But in regard to her aunt’s money she had entertained no established hopes; and when her aunt opened her mind to her, on that subject, a few days before the arrival of the fatal news at Perivale, Clara, though she was somewhat surprised, was by no means disappointed.  Now there was a certain Captain Aylmer in the question, of whom in this opening chapter it will be necessary to say a few words.

Captain Frederic Folliott Aylmer was, in truth, the nephew of Mrs Winterfield, whereas Clara Amedroz was not, in truth, her niece.  And Captain Aylmer was also Member of Parliament for the little borough of Perivale, returned altogether on the Low Church interest for a devotion to which, and for that alone, Perivale was noted among boroughs.  These facts together added not a little to Mrs Winterfield’s influence and professorial power in the place, and gave a dignity to the one-horse chaise which it might not otherwise have possessed.  But Captain Aylmer was only the second son of his father, Sir Anthony Aylmer, who had married a Miss Folliott, sister of our Mrs Winterfield.  On Frederic Aylmer his mother’s estate was settled.  That and Mrs Winterfield’s property lay in the neighbourhood of Perivale; and now, on the occasion to which I am alluding, Mrs Winterfield thought it necessary to tell Clara that the property must all go together.  She had thought about it, and had doubted about it, and had prayed about it, and now she found that such a disposition of it was her duty.

‘I am quite sure you’re right, aunt,’ Clara had said.  She knew very well what had come of that provision which her father had attempted to make for her, and knew also how great were her father’s expectations in regard to Mrs Winterfield’s money.

’I hope I am; but I have thought it right to tell you.  I shall feel myself bound to tell Frederic.  I have had many doubts, but I think I am right.’

’I am sure you are, aunt.  What would he think of me if, at some future time, he should have to find that I had been in his way?’

‘The future time will not be long now, my dear.’