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SOME years ago the sun set on a large family party. On that evening literally and figuratively too, for GOD had, in His inscrutable wisdom, between sunrise and sunset that day called to the Church triumphant from the militant Church on earth a sincerely devoted mother.

Ah! who has yet fully grasped the loss of such an one? Truly has it been written, "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter."

Many years it may be, and yet that hereafter still looms in the future: wave after wave of this troublesome world may roll heavily over our heads, and yet the mystery of such a bereavement remains unsolved; but one day we shall know all, and it has been written for our comfort and courage in a like trial, "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up."

From this brief preface to my story it might

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be expected that some fulsome praise, or long biographical notice would accompany the name of Blanche Morvyn, whose loss at this time her family so deeply mourned; suffice it to say of her that her name is remembered by many on the blessed Feast of All Saints, when holy Church specially commemorates with thanksgiving the memory of the faithful departed.

After the death of her husband, which happened shortly after the birth of Violet, Mrs. Morvyn accepted the offer of one of her husband's brothers to make a home with him in Blankshire, in which county their family place, Glenoye, was situated.

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'My own health is very delicate," Blanche had said, (on writing to inform one of her sisters of the decision on the subject at which she had arrived,) "and in the event of my death, to feel my dear children are under the roof of so kind an uncle, cannot but mitigate the grief I must feel at the thought of the orphans I leave behind me."

Shenstone Morvyn had been always much attached to his brother; being a widower without any family, he had for some time looked upon Gerald's children very much as his own. On their father's death the tie had gradually strengthened, and it would have been impossible for any father more faithfully, according to the light he possessed, to have discharged the duties he took upon himself.

Blanche Morvyn left four daughters and one son. Shall I paint a picture for you of the girls as they were talking and walking round their uncle's garden at Glenoye one afternoon shortly after their mother's death? Rather will I only give you their names and the order in which they come: i.e. Frances, Mary, Clara, and Marguerite, allowing you to draw their portraits later on from my description of them.

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'Don't you think it might soften Robert's heart if he knew mamma was dead ?" was Frances' first remark to Marguerite, as she twined her arms lovingly round her younger sister's neck, when they were quite alone together in the garden that afternoon. Robert, the only son, the child of much promise and Blanche Morvyn's many prayers, where was he?

Which of the two had been the greater trial to the sisters, their mother's death, or the uncertainty of the whereabouts of their only brother? (Robert's place in the family was between Frances and Mary, and at the time of which I am writing, he was just seventeen.) Who shall say that Mrs. Morvyn's death had not been hastened by the trial which her son's absence had been to her?

Yet, as far as in her power, by precept and example, Blanche Morvyn had striven to lead her son in the path of obedience and good principle, of integrity and straightforwardness; it was therefore the more difficult to account for his running away from the tutor, who had been so carefully chosen for him by his mother and uncle shortly after his father's death.

In spite of every effort which had been used, Robert's hiding place, for more than a year past, had remained a secret.

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It must be confessed that, up to the time of Major Morvyn's death, Robert had been decidedly spoilt for his own good, as well as for the benefit of those who were connected with him, Shenstone Morvyn, his guardian and uncle, had resolved for the future to hold a tighter rein over him, and this he had fearlessly told Robert.

For the future, the day which the tutor appointed, and not one of his own choosing (as on so many occasions previously,) was to be that of

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