Mrs. Dalton had been united to her husband at a very early age; and had loved him perhaps the more that she had no one else to love. Her own parents had died when she was too young to remember them—she was scarcely two years of age. From motives of convenience, she was for a time placed at school in Calcutta, and thence consigned, like a bale of goods, to the care of a lady at Kensington, who took a select number of young ladies. She was about sixteen when transferred again to the house of her guardian; and in the course of a few months married to Mr. Dalton. Her guardian, not sorry see resigned into other hands the responsibility attendant on the charge of a beautiful girl, whose wealth added to the anxiety.
Mr. Dalton was the very reverse of his wife. Strong, alike in mind and body, his temper was unyielding, not to say stern. He was a man who made no allowances. Whatever ought to be done, that he expected should be done—and at once. He liked regularity, and expected prompt obedi-
