CHAPTER I.
THE REMNANTS OF THE AMEDROZ FAMILY.
Mrs.Amedroz, the wife of Bernard Amedroz, Esq., of Belton Castle, and mother of Charles and Clara Amedroz, died when those children were only eight and six years old, thereby subjecting them to the greatest misfortune which children born in that sphere of life can be made to suffer.

And, in the case of this boy and girl the misfortune was aggravated greatly by the peculiarities of the father's character.

Mr.Amedroz was not a bad man,--as men are held to be bad in the world's esteem.

He was not vicious,--was not a gambler or a drunkard,--was not self-indulgent to a degree that brought upon him any reproach; nor was he regardless of his children.

But he was an idle, thriftless man, who, at the age of sixty-seven, when the reader will first make his acquaintance, had as yet done no good in the world whatever.