Geoffrey Moncton, you are this Sir Alexander's _heir_!" A sudden thrill shot through my whole frame.

It was not pleasure, for at that moment I felt sad enough; nor hope, for I had long accustomed myself to look only on the dark side of the picture.

It was, I fear, revenge; a burning desire to pay back the insults and injuries I had received from Theophilus Moncton, and to frustrate the manoeuvres of his designing father.
"Has Sir Alexander no children ?" "He has a daughter--an only daughter, a fair, fragile girl of sixteen; the noblest, the most disinterested of her sex; a creature as talented as she is beautiful.

Margaretta Moncton is destined to be the wife of her cousin Theophilus." "Does he love her ?" "How can you ask that question, knowing the man, and after having read the note addressed to your uncle ?" "That note was signed A---- M----." "It was written by an unhappy, infatuated creature, whom Theophilus _did_ love, if such a passion as his callous bosom can feel, deserves the name; but he shall not escape my vengeance.

The arrow is in the bow, and a punishment as terrible as his crime, shall overtake him yet." "Oh, that you would enter more fully into these dark details.