I shall have much more to say about her when I get further advanced with my story.
Meanwhile I have next to relate that my mistress broke up the rest of her establishment, and, taking me and the lady's maid with her, went to travel on the Continent.
Among other wonderful places we visited Paris, Genoa, Venice, Florence, Rome, and Naples, staying in some of those cities for months together.
The fame of my mistress's riches followed her wherever she went; and there were plenty of gentlemen, foreigners as well as Englishmen, who were anxious enough to get into her good graces and to prevail on her to marry them.

Nobody succeeded, however, in producing any very strong or lasting impression on her; and when we came back to England, after more than two years of absence, Mrs.Norcross was still a widow, and showed no signs of wanting to change her condition.
We went to the house on the Yorkshire estate first; but my mistress did not fancy some of the company round about, so we moved again to Darrock Hall, and made excursions from time to time in the lake district, some miles off.

On one of these trips Mrs.Norcross met with some old friends, who introduced her to a gentleman of their party bearing the very common and very uninteresting name of Mr.James Smith.
He was a tall, fine young man enough, with black hair, which grew very long, and the biggest, bushiest pair of black whiskers I ever saw.
Altogether he had a rakish, unsettled look, and a bounceable way of talking which made him the prominent person in company.

He was poor enough himself, as I heard from his servant, but well connected--a gentleman by birth and education, though his manners were so free.

What my mistress saw to like in him I don't know; but when she asked her friends to stay with her at Darrock, she included Mr.James Smith in the invitation.