III) ***




Produced by Al Haines.




[Illustration: Cover]




                             CLARA VAUGHAN

                               _A NOVEL_


                            IN THREE VOLUMES
                                 VOL I.

                            R. D. Blackmore



                         London and Cambridge:
                           MACMILLAN AND CO.
                                 1864.

        _The Right of Translation and Reproduction is reserved._




                                LONDON:
                  R. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS,
                           BREAD STREET HILL.




                             CLARA VAUGHAN

                                BOOK I.



                               CHAPTER I.


I do not mean to describe myself.  Already I feel that the personal
pronoun will appear too often in these pages.  Knowing the faults of my
character almost as well as my best friends know them, I shall attempt
to hide them no more than would those beloved ones.  Enough of this: the
story I have to tell is strange, and short as my own its preamble.

The day when I was ten years old began my serious life.  It was the 30th
of December, 1842; and proud was the kiss my loving father gave me for
spelling, writing, and pronouncing the date in English, French, and
Italian.  No very wonderful feat, it is true, for a clever child
well-taught; but I was by no means a clever child; and no one except my
father could teach me a single letter.  When, after several years of
wedlock, my parents found new joy in me, their bliss was soon overhung
with care.  They feared, but durst not own the fear, lest the wilful,
passionate, loving creature, on whom their hearts were wholly set,
should be torn from their love to a distance greater than the void of
death; in a word, should prove insane.  At length they could no longer
hide this terror from each other.  One look told it all; and I vaguely
remember my hazy wonder at the scene that