Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 3).djvu/200

 loved me most affectionately, and has often said I was a perfect resemblance of her once beloved Count. We lived very happily, until I was about twelve years old, my sister only ten, when my mother's protector died, leaving his property divided between her and his daughter, with a small legacy to me. My sister and her fortune was left in the care of my mother, and the latter always assured me, her share should be mine at her death; which unfortunately happened in less than a twelvemonth after, and so suddenly, that she had not time to make a will; and as she had lived very retired, and her situation had prevented her from having proper acquaintance, whose honour and integrity might have been useful to us, we were left solely in the care of my old nurse, and a man who had been a kind of humble friend and dependant on the Colonel.

"How they managed I know not; but in less than four years we were informed our fortunes were spent, and that we must seek some employment for our support. Within