"Come what may, hold fast to love. Though men should rend your heart, let them not embitter or harden it. We win by tenderness: we conquer by forgiveness."-F. W. Robertson. UNCLE RALPH. A TALE. BY THE AUTHOR OF "STILL WATERS." COPYRIGHT EDITION. LEIPZIG BERNHARD TAUCHNITZ 1858. The Author reserves the Right of Translation. UNCLE RALPH. CHAPTER I. Wohl geht der Jugend Sehnen Den Wunsch zusammt der Pein. UHLAND. "I CAN only say," exclaimed Susan Mordaunt, "that if Uncle Ralph sets up a niece of his own, I must disown him, and take to calling him Mr. Cornwall." Susan was just eighteen, and still most at home in the school-room, although freed from its restraints, and introduced to society. It was not a cheerful apartment either, large, ill lighted, and scantily furnished; but these accessories could not interfere with the pleasant consciousness of power which animated Susan as soon as she returned to her old haunts. In the drawing-room she was shy, reserved, and silent, forming her opinions readily enough, but too sensitive of ridicule to express them. And so there was great sense of relief in becoming her old self again, or rather a person of increased Uncle Ralph. 1 |