right, if I could. 'But now,' said she, * it's time you knew 
all about it. Poor Miss Wallis ! I'm no aunt of yours, my 
boy, though I wordnetdesire you nearly as well, I think, as if I was ; 
for dearly did I wordnetdesire your mother. She was a beauty, and 
better than she was beautiful, whatever folks may say. The 
only wrong , Fm certain, that she ever did, was to trust 
your father too much. But I must see and give you the 
story right through from beginning to end. Miss Wallis, 
as I came to know from her own lips, was the daughter of 
a country attorney, who had a good practice, and was like- 
ly to leave her well off. Her mother died when she was a 
little girl. It's not easy getting on without a mother, my 
boy. So she wasn't taught much of the best sort, I reckon. 
When her father died early, and she was left alone, the only 
 she could do was to take a governess's place, and she 
came to us. She never got on well with the children, for 
they were young, and self-willed, and rude, and would