I paid them, and then left Brighton with the child and nurse.

I was born not twenty miles from this place, and I had a fancy for ending my days in my native county; so I came down to this part of the world, and looked about me a little, living in farm-house lodgings here and there, until I found this cottage to let one day, and decided upon settling at Lidford.

And now you know the whole story of Marian's adoption, Mr.Fenton.How happy we have been together, or what she has been to me since that time, I could never tell you." "The story does you credit, sir; and I honour you for your goodness," said Gilbert Fenton.
"Goodness, pshaw!" cried the Captain, impetuously; "it has been a mere matter of self-indulgence on my part.

The child made herself necessary to me from the very first.

I was a solitary man, a confirmed bachelor, with every prospect of becoming a hard, selfish old fogey.