Is this rich aunt of mine the only relative he had ?" "No, indeed.

There were two other sisters and a brother--a very uninteresting lot, with the exception, of your poor father.

The eldest was John Merrick, a common tinsmith, if I remember rightly, who went into the far west many years ago and probably died there, for he was never heard from.

Then came Jane, who in her young days had some slight claim to beauty.

Anyway, she won the heart of Thomas Bradley, the wealthy young man I referred to, and she must have been clever to have induced him to leave her his money.