His sister had married a man whose character was worse than his fortune, and had been left a widow.

Everybody thought her husband's death a blessing; but she loved him, in spite of negligence and many grosser faults; and so, not many years after, she died, leaving her little daughter to her brother's care, with many a broken-voiced entreaty that he would never speak a word against the dead father of her child.

So the little Erminia was taken home by her self-reproaching uncle, who felt now how hardly he had acted towards his sister in breaking off all communication with her on her ill-starred marriage.
"Where is Erminia, Frank ?" asked his father, speaking over Maggie's shoulder, while he still held her hand.

"I want to take Mrs.Browne to your mother.

I told Erminia to be here to welcome this little girl." "I'll take her to Minnie; I think she's in the garden.