Vellenaux | Page 4

on her hand and she appeared to be, for some moments, lost
in thought. As she will be brought prominently forward as our story
progresses, we had better inform the reader at once, all we know of her
antecedents.
Mr. Fraudhurst had been a lawyer of some standing in the village of
Vellenaux; he was reported wealthy, and when on the shady side of
fifty married the niece of his housekeeper, much to the disgust of the
said housekeeper, and several maiden ladies of doubtful ages who
resided in the neighbourhood, who had each in her own mind marked

him as her especial property, to be gobbled up at the first opportunity
he or chance might afford them for so doing, and they waxed wrath and
were very bitter against her who had secured the prize and carried it off
when as they thought it just within their grasp. The lawyer and the
Baronet had been upon terms of intimacy for several years prior to the
marriage, and Sir Jasper being a bachelor saw no objection to his
friend's wife visiting Vellenaux, although she had, as he would
facetiously observe, risen from the ranks.
The lady in question was, at eighteen, tall, pretty and ambitious. She
had at an early age determined to rise above the station in which she
was born, and for that object she had studied most assiduously at the
village school, where she attained the reputation of being the most apt
scholar of her class. A few years residence with a relative London
served to develop her natural abilities, and she lost no opportunity of
pursuing her studies or of affecting the tone and fashion of persons
moving in a far higher circle than her own.
Education and application she knew would doubtless do much to
elevate her in the social scale, but the position she so earnestly sought
for was to become the wife of some man of good standing in society,
whose means would be sufficient to support her in that style to which
her ambition led her to hope for, and for this she strove hard and was
rewarded for her perseverance by becoming the wife of a reputed
wealthy barrister some thirty years her senior, and for a few years
enjoying the position she had attained, visiting and visited by the
uppercrusts of the place and not unfrequently dining at Vellenaux and
otherwise enjoying the hospitality of its owner.
When little Edith was about seven years old, Mr. Fraudhurst was
gathered to his fathers, and the sorrowing widow was left in a very
different position than was anticipated either by herself or others who
took any interest in such matters; the house and grounds which she
fully believed to be her own property, passed into the hands of a distant
relative of the deceased barrister, and with the exception of the
furniture and some three hundred pounds in cash, she was no better off
than she had been prior to her marriage; but, being a woman of great

tact, she contrived to keep this circumstance from the knowledge of the
enquiring neighbours, and having applied to the new owner of the
premises she obtained permission to occupy them for a period of six
months.
On the Baronet calling to pay his visit of condolence the lady, who had
previously arranged what she should say and do on the occasion,
unfolded to Sir Jasper her real position and out of friendship for her late
husband claimed his advice and assistance. The worthy old bachelor
declared his willingness to assist her if she could only point out the way;
as to advice he could realty give none on so difficult a matter.
"Oh! Sir Jasper," exclaimed the widow, in a voice so excellently
modulated to suit the occasion, that the old bachelor was beginning to
feel a real interest in her affairs, "so like yourself, so good of you to
allow me to suggest the way in which you can best serve me in my
peculiar and, I may say, awkward position."
"There is a way, my dear Sir Jasper, (and here the widow bent over and
placed her soft white hand on his arm) in which I believe you can
materially serve me, and at the same time advance the interest of one
who is, without doubt, more dear to you than any living being; I allude
to dear little Edith." At the mention of his niece's name he looked up
enquiringly as if not quite catching the meaning of her words.
"You must understand, Sir Jasper," she continued, "that the little
darling is now of an age that will require some person to guide and
direct the development of her young mind and superintend her studies.
Of course, old nurse Simms is an excellent