in my ears; but not so beautiful as that other name of Clara

Cassilis, which she wore during the longer and, I thank God, the

happier portion of her life. Her father, Bernard Huddlestone, had

been a private banker in a very large way of business. Many years

before, his affairs becoming disordered, he had been led to try

dangerous, and at last criminal, expedients to retrieve himself

from ruin. All was in vain; he became more and more cruelly

involved, and found his honour lost at the same moment with his