Atherton and other tales

Front matter

A. A . Æ^^D •ms am/ C^t6^K.a^ ATHERTON, AND OTHER TALES. BY MARY RUSSELL MITFORD, AUTHOR OF "OUR VILLAGE." IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON : HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, SUCCESSORS TO HEKRT COLBURN, 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1854. M. S. JIYERS, PRINTER, 22, TAVISTOCK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. TO HER DEAR FRIEND, LADY BUSSELL, WHOSE SYMPATHY HAS CHEERED THE PAINFULLEST HOUR, AS HER COMPANIONSHIP HAS GLADDENED THE BRIGHTEST, THIS TALE, WRITTEN BENEATH THE SHADOW OF HER OWN BEAUTIFUL SWALLOWFIELD, IS MOST RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. PEEFACE. The mere plan of Atherton — the bare outline of the story — has lain for many years in my mind as a book to be Avritten some day or other, and it would probably have passed away unexecuted, with other intentions good or bad, had not a proposal to gather together, at the same time, though in a separate form, my dramatic works, and some short prose tales, brought this old scheme to my recollection. My offer to attempt this, the longest narrative on which I have ventured, was