But my father died _ingloriously_, and YET my mother felt pride derived from that _very source_, for it made her, in her own estimation, _pre-eminent_ in trial; for how hard was it, after having shared her husband's dangers, and the struggles of war, to see him perish at home, the victim of an ignoble accident! "Had he died in the field of glory, I might have found," she cried, "some solace in his renown; and I was prepared to see him fall, when others fell around him. But to perish _thus_! oh! never was woman's trial so severe!" And thus, while descanting on the pre-eminence of her misfortunes, she got rid of much of their severity. You remember with what eloquence my mother used to describe what she had endured in America; you have also, I believe, heard her speak of the manner of my poor father's death: but you never heard what I have often listened to, with the pity which I could not utter, Lady Helen's assertion of her _own_ trying sorrow, when my mother had harrowed up her feelings by the painful comparison. "You may remember, that _you_ were happy _many years_: but I" (here tears choked her voice) "remember, that while you were allowed to prove your love by soothing the sufferings of the being whom you adored, and had his smile to reward you, I was forced to prove mine only in the privacy of solitary and almost maddening recollections. Till recently, _you_ have never known a _real affliction_, and I--oh! when have I _for years_ experienced an enjoyment?" This language used to _silence_, if it did not _convince_ my mother. But however they might dispute on the superiority of their trials, they loved each other the better for them, and were now scarcely ever separated. Hence, Seymour and I were in a measure educated together, till it was judged fit that he should go to a public school. This painful trial was imposed on Lady Helen by her relations, and approved by her own judgment against the suggestions of her feelings; when I was eleven, and Seymour near fifteen years old; and when our mothers (as I was not long in discovering) had projected a union between us, and had promised each other to do all they could to ensure it. Thus ends my _Introduction_. * * * * * Here begins, my dear friend, THE HISTORY OF SEYMOUR AND HELEN PENDARVES. Forgive me, if I introduce my narrative with a very vulgar but a most excellent proverb--which is, that "Little pitchers have wide ears;" or, that children hear many things which they ought not to hear, and which they were certainly not intended to hear. Now, to illustrate the truth of this proverb, and this explanation of it.