Richard knew enough of the world, and of his brother's temper, to believe that by any ill-considered or precipitate advances on his part, he might turn passive dislike into a more active principle.

It was accident, therefore, which at length occasioned a renewal of their intercourse.

Richard had married a young woman of rank, by whose family interest and private fortune he hoped to advance his career.

In her right, he became possessor of a manor of some value, at the distance of a few miles from Waverley-Honour.
Little Edward, the hero of our tale, then in his fifth year, was their only child.

It chanced that the infant with his maid had strayed one morning to a mile's distance from the avenue of Brere-wood Lodge, his father's seat.