CHAPTER XII.
THE SEMPSTRESS.
Owen Prothero, like his sister Netta, had been very much spoilt by his father during his childhood and boyhood.

Indeed it would have been difficult not to have spoilt him.

Handsome in person, and frank in manners, he was a general favourite.

His uncle, the vicar, quite idolised him, and would have lavished a fortune on his education had he been of a studious nature.

His mother, alone, conscious of his many faults, strove to correct them, and to counterbalance the undue admiration he received on all sides, by impartial justice in her praises and reproofs.
But we have not much to do with his boyhood, which was wild and untameable; beyond the fact that, when sent by his good uncle to Rugby with a view to his becoming a clergyman, he resolutely declared his intention of going to sea, and ran away from school to effect his purpose.