His sister had chosen for her first husband a friend and neighbour of his own, a younger son, of unexceptionable birth and of very agreeable manners in society.

But this gentleman contrived to render her life so miserable that, though he died fifteen months after their marriage, his widow could scarcely be expected to mourn long for him.

A year after Mr.Clavering's death, Mrs.Clavering married again, under the mistaken notion that she had the right to choose for herself.
She married Dr.Mivers, the provincial physician who had attended her husband in his last illness,--a gentleman by education, manners, and profession, but unhappily the son of a silk-mercer.

Sir Miles never forgave this connection.

By her first marriage, Sir Miles's sister had one daughter, Lucretia; by her second marriage, another daughter, named Susan.