As this gentleman will occupy a somewhat conspicuous position in our tale, we deem it necessary to go into these particulars.
Some seven years previous to her marriage, and while yet a child, Mrs.
Wentworth, with her father, the only surviving relative she had, spent the summer at Saratoga Springs in the State of New York, and there met Mr.Awtry, who was then a handsome and dashing young man.

Struck by her beauty, and various accomplishments, he lost no time in making her acquaintance, and before her departure from the Springs, offered her his hand.

To his utter astonishment, the proposal was rejected, with the statement that she was already engaged to a gentleman of New Orleans.

This refusal would have satisfied any other person, but Horace Awtry was not a man to yield so easily; he, therefore, followed her to New Orleans on her return, and endeavored, by every means in his power, to supplant Alfred Wentworth in the affections of Eva Seymour--Mrs.Wentworth's maiden name--and in the confidence of her father.

Failing in this, and having the mortification of seeing them married, he set to work and succeeded in ruining Mr.Seymour in business, which accounts for the moderate circumstances in which we find Mrs.Wentworth and her husband at the commencement of this book.
Worn out by his failure in business and loss of fortune, Mr.Seymour died shortly after his daughter's marriage, without knowing who caused his misfortunes, and Horace Awtry returned to the North.