One of them took up the letter, which had fallen to the ground, and the two read its contents. "How very odd!" said they together, "uncle has left you Hornby, and Catesfield, and almost all the property!" "Has he?" replied Julia, "I could not read it all, for however he may have behaved to mamma, I ever found him good and kind; and had always hoped, that we might have yet seen him with us once more. Poor old man! and the letter says a lingering illness--how sad to think that we were not with him to soothe his pillow, and cheer his death bed!" "Well!" said one of the sisters reddening, "I must say it was his own fault. He would not live with his nearest relations, who loved him, and tried to make his a happy home--but showed his caprice _then_, as he has _now_. But I will go up stairs, and break it to mamma, and will tell her you are an heiress." "An heiress!" replied Julia, with heart-broken tone! "an heiress!" The tear quivered in her eye; but before the moisture had formed its liquid bead, to course down her pallid cheek; a thought flashed across her, which had almost the power to recal it to its cell. That thought comprised the fervency and timidity--the hopes and fears of woman's first love. She thought of her last meeting with Sir Henry Delmé: of the objections which might now be removed. A new vista of happiness seemed to open before her. It was but for a moment. The blush which that thought called up, faded away--the tear trickled on--her features recovered their serenity--and she turned with a sweet smile to her sisters. "My dear--dear sisters! it is long since we have seen my poor uncle. "Affection's ties may have been somewhat loosened. They cannot--I am sure--have been dissolved. "Do not think me selfish enough to retain this generous bequest. "It may yet be in my power, and it no doubt is, to amend its too partial provisions. "Let us be sisters still--sisters in equality--sisters in love and affection." Julia Vernon was a very noble girl. She lived to become of age, and she acted up to this her resolve. And, now, a few words as to the individual, by whose death the Miss Vernons acquired such an accession of property. The Miss Vernons' father had an only and a younger brother, who at an early age had embarked for the East, in the civil service. He had acquired great wealth, and, after a residence of twenty-five years in the Bengal Presidency, had returned to England a confirmed bachelor, and a wealthy nabob. His brother died, while Mr. Benjamin Vernon was on his passage home. He arrived in England, and found himself a stranger in his native land. He shouldered his cane through Regent Street, and wandered in the Quadrant's shade;--and in spite of the novelties that every where met him--in spite of cabs and plated glass--felt perfectly isolated and miserable.