Evelyn, the pet of her elder, and the constant companion of her younger brother, as she grew towards maturity, had as many masters over from Preston, and even from Manchester and Liverpool, as her father thought becoming to her station. Her bright intelligence and natural aptitude for learning made her profit to the uttermost by the instruction she received; while her religious education was lovingly and carefully superintended by the Rector, whose merry, beaming daughter, Mary, was her playmate in childhood, and her dearest friend as she grew older. Left motherless at the birth of her younger brother, Evelyn’s character, as she grew up to maturity, developed more quickly than is usual with girls, and ere she was sixteen, she had fallen almost imperceptibly into the position of mistress of her father’s house. By her brothers, by the Rectory family, and by the few neighbours with whom she was acquainted; by the dalesmen, and especially by the poor around her, Evelyn was perfectly adored, and the charm and beauty of “the Lily of Arrow Dale”--for she early acquired that pretty _soubriquet_--was celebrated far and near. If ever the cold nature of the Squire could be said to warm towards anyone, it was towards his daughter; but he did not condescend to show the affection, such as it was, which he may have felt for her, by any outward signs or demonstrations. In his view, all love, all devotion, all honour was due to himself as Head of the Family, and to himself alone. CHAPTER VI. “EHRENBREITSTEIN.” WILFRED, the youngest of the Holmcastle Family, after following his brother to Eton, where, however, he did not remain long, was sent, in order to prepare for Oxford, to a private tutor, named Massenger, who lived in a house to which he had given the pedantic name of “Ehrenbreitstein,” at Fisherswick, near Ossington, on the borders of Cheshire.