CHAPTER I.
MARK CLIFFORD had come up from New York to spend a few weeks with his maternal grandfather, Mr.Lofton, who lived almost alone on his beautiful estate a few miles from the Hudson, amid the rich valleys of Orange county.

Mr.Lofton belonged to one of the oldest families in the country, and retained a large portion of that aristocratic pride for which they were distinguished.

The marriage of his daughter to Mr.Clifford, a merchant of New York, had been strongly opposed on the ground that the alliance was degrading--Mr.Clifford not being able to boast of an ancestor who was anything more than an honest man and a useful citizen.

A closer acquaintance with his son-in-law, after the marriage took place, reconciled Mr.Lofton in a good measure to the union; for he found Mr.Clifford to be a man of fine intelligence, gentlemanly feeling, and withal, tenderly attached to his daughter.

The marriage was a happy one--and this is rarely the case when the external and selfish desire to make a good family connection is regarded above the mental and moral qualities on which a true union only can be based.
A few years previous to the time at which our story opens, Mrs.
Clifford died, leaving one son and two daughters.