"The source of your unhappiness!" repeated Mr. Talton. "Surely, Howard, I do not understand you, or your sentiments are strangely altered since the time I gave the lovely Ellenor Worton to your arms. Then--" "Oh, Talton," interrupted the Captain, "cease this subject, I conjure you. Ellenor Worton! My God, what ideas does that name recall! Yes, far above my life I prized her: but those days are for ever fled! I am wretched, and she is now a friendless fugitive in a merciless world!" "What mean you, Howard?" asked Mr. Talton. "There is a mystery in your words I do not understand." "Then I will explain them," returned the Captain. "Your friendship, your honour, I have proved; and when you hear my tale, you will not wonder why, on beholding the friend of my earlier days, instead of smiles, my countenance should thus wear the semblance of sorrow and regret." Frederick would here have retired, as imagining what his uncle had to impart, he might wish should only reach the knowledge of his friend; but the Captain bade him resume his seat.--"From my errors," he added, "you may learn to avoid their attending unhappiness." Frederick obeyed; and the Captain, addressing Mr. Talton, continued. "At the commencement of our acquaintance, I believe, I informed you I was a younger son, brought up to the sea, and deprived of the fortune I expected, by the marriage of my elder brother. I was, at the period of that marriage, seventeen. Sir Thomas Gratton, the father of the lady my brother espoused, refused his consent to their union, unless Arthur's fortune were made adequate to the one he gave his daughter; and my father, overcome by the entreaties of my brother, and perhaps dazzled with the idea of his marrying an heiress with three thousand a year, complied so far as to resign two-thirds of his estate (which was equal to that of Sir Thomas) on the day of marriage, with the reversion of the remainder at his decease. "Arthur, in return, secretly, but solemnly, promised to present me and William, our other brother, with ten thousand pounds each, on our coming of age, or at the death of his father-in-law. William died the ensuing year, as did Sir Thomas in less than nine months after. "My brother had hitherto expressed the greatest affection for me: I stood godfather for my Frederick here, and every thing bore the appearance of harmony and cordiality; till, being at an assembly at Lavington, my ill fortune led me, through whim, ridicule, and the gaiety of youth, to pay particular attentions to a Miss Deborah Tangress, a maiden lady nearly fifty, noted for every unamiable quality, ugliness, and riches! Little did I think the folly of that evening would have created me so many years of misery!