Puslapio vaizdai
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I had never brought that boy into my own. family."

"I have always understood," said Cameron, "that he was a natural son of your brother, Sir Hildebrand Azledine ?"

"My

"And so he is,” replied Sir Everton. poor brother, who was an eccentric character in some things, unfortunately contracted an illicit intimacy with a female of low birth, with whom he soon after went abroad, and resided chiefly in Paris, where Stephen was born. When he was about seven years old, Sir Hildebrand fell in a duel with an aide-decamp of the Duke of Berwick; and his mistress not long surviving, this same Mayfield, who had been for many years his confidential servant, brought the orphan boy to England. From him I learned that my brother had always felt the warmest affection of a father towards the child; and desirous of discharging those duties which he himself would have done had he lived, as well as a regard for his memory, and sympathy for the deserted situa

tion of the boy, I adopted him. The whole of these circumstances are known to your mother, and yet - but enough of that subject."

"And is it because Mayfield was a faithful menial of Sir Hildebrand's," said Cameron, "that

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"No, no," interrupted the Baronet. "Mayfield began with being a leech; he will end, or I am much mistaken, by being an adder. Thinking he had been honest and faithful to my brother, I took an interest in his welfare, which he no sooner discovered, than he made me sensible of it in a way that ought, at the same moment, to have made me equally sensible of my own weakness. He fastened himself upon my purse; and when I began to grow weary, and would have loosened his hold, (for I perceived that my bounty, instead of enabling him to take root, only served to keep him floating, like a worthless weed), he gradually resorted to other courses.'

"What were they ?" inquired Cameron, in a tone of indignation.

"Why, faith! I can hardly tell you what

they were," replied his father. "They never took a defined shape; but you can understand how a quiet-loving, indolent, and, perhaps, somewhat timorous, man like myself, might be worked upon by a shrewd, bold, knavish fellow, who does nothing, after all, but talk big about shadows; and how the aforesaid quiet-loving, indolent, and timorous person, may consent to purchase his ease up to a price which becomes. more burdensome than the effort to get rid of the extortioner would be. Now such has been my case with regard to Mayfield. He has hitherto found me one of the soft 6 easy cushions' upon which, as the poet expresses it, knaves repose and fatten.' But, beware the fury of a patient man! If chance or design should ever bring him within my reach again, he shall find me prepared to deal with him very differently to what I have done!"

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"And do you think he has had any hand in removing Stephen ?"

"Beyond all doubt. I have proof of his privity to that business; and a strong suspicion that he was the instigator of it."

Cameron would fain have ascertained what were those "other courses" to which Mayfield had resorted; but the Baronet evaded all ex-' planation, and spoke of them as of a character which he could never clearly comprehend himself.

CHAPTER XXI.

I cannot think, if I would think my heart out of thinking, that you are in love, or that you will be in love, or that you can be in love.

Much Ado About Nothing.

THE reader, doubtless, remarked, when Sir Everton, speaking of Caroline, said he felt "a deep interest in her fate,”—that Cameron responded, "as everybody must;" and when Aston said she "seemed to be exceedingly amiable," that he was as little contented with that freezing word as Hamlet, and that he replied roundly, in nearly the same phrase as the Prince of Denmark, "She is so."

The fact is, at this particular juncture, Cameron was very like a man who is being cheated with his eyes open, and therefore believes he is not cheated at all; or, at all events, that he

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