Margaret Stourton;

OR,

A YEAR OF GOVERNESS LIFE.

LONDON:

GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,

ST. JOHN'S SQUARE.

MARGARET STOURTON;

OR,

A YEAR

OF

GOVERNESS LIFE.

LONDON:

RIVINGTONS, WATERLOO PLACE.

1863.

250. m. 140.

MARGARET STOURTON;

OR,

A Year of Governess Life.

CHAPTER I.

"Through waves and clouds and storms
He gently clears thy way.

Wait thou His time; thy darkest night
Shall end in brightest day."

APTAIN STOURTON had seen many
years of active service in the Royal Navy.
He had been in China and the South of

Africa, and twice for a long period in the West Indies, whence he had returned so seriously out of health, that he decided to retire on half-pay, and settle in the neighbourhood of a town where he might secure the help of masters and schools in the education of his children.

A small accession of fortune, to which he had become entitled by the successful issue of a longpending lawsuit, enabled him to take a good, comfortable house called Witham Grange, to which a

B