Page 315 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

CHAPTER III. THE STORY

OF TWO BIRDS OF PREY.

he reader of the foregoing pages has doubtless asked
Thimself, ‘what is the link which binds together John Rex
and Sarah Purfoy?’
In the year 1825 there lived at St. Heliers, Jersey, an old
watchmaker, named Urban Purfoy. He was a hard-working
man, and had amassed a little money—sufficient to give his
grand-daughter an education above the common in those
days. At sixteen, Sarah Purfoy was an empty-headed, strong-
willed, precocious girl, with big brown eyes. She had a bad
opinion of her own sex, and an immense admiration for the
young and handsome members of the other. The neighbours
said that she was too high and mighty for her rank in life. Her
grandfather said she was a ‘beauty’, and like her poor dear
mother. She herself thought rather meanly of her personal
attractions, and rather highly of her mental ones. She was
brimful of vitality, with strong passions, and little religious
sentiment. She had not much respect for moral courage, for
she did not understand it; but she was a profound admirer
of personal prowess. Her distaste for the humdrum life she
was leading found expression in a rebellion against social
usages. She courted notoriety by eccentricities of dress, and
was never so happy as when she was misunderstood. She

1 For the Term of His Natural Life