Her mother's first husband had been a certain Doctor Wragge--a widower with young children; and one of those children was now the unmilitary-looking captain, whose address was "Post-office, Bristol." Mrs.Wragge had left no family by her first husband; and had afterward married Mrs.Vanstone's father.

Of that second marriage Mrs.
Vanstone herself was the only issue.

She had lost both her parents while she was still a young woman; and, in course of years, her mother's family connections (who were then her nearest surviving relatives) had been one after another removed by death.

She was left, at the present writing, without a relation in the world--excepting, perhaps, certain cousins whom she had never seen, and of whose existence even, at the present moment, she possessed no positive knowledge.
Under these circumstances, what family claim had Captain Wragge on Mrs.
Vanstone?
None whatever.

As the son of her mother's first husband, by that husband's first wife, not even the widest stretch of courtesy could have included him at any time in the list of Mrs.Vanstone's most distant relations.