sat down to dinner, and when we had finished, and the table had been
cleared, we drew to the fire, with our bottle of wine. Mr Masterton
tirred the fire, called for his slippers, and then crossing his legs
over the fender, resumed the subject.

"Japhet, I consider it most fortunate that we have met, previous to
our introduction to your father. You have so far to congratulate
yourself, that your family is undeniably good, there being, as you know,
an Irish peerage in it; of which, however, you have no chance, as the
present earl has a numerous offspring. You are also fortunate as far as
money is concerned, as I have every reason to believe that your father is
a very rich man, and, of course, you are his only child; but I must now
prepare you to meet with a very different person than perhaps the fond
anticipations of youth may have led you to expect. Your father has no
paternal feelings that I can discover; he has wealth, and he wishes to
leave it--he has therefore sought you out. But he is despotic, violent,
and absurd; the least opposition to his will makes him furious, and I am
sorry to add, that I am afraid that he is very mean. He suffered
severely when young from poverty, and his own father was almost as
authoritative and unforgiving as himself. And now I will state how it
was that you were left at the Asylum when an infant. Your grandfather
had procured for your father a commission in the army, and soon
afterwards procured him a lieutenancy. He ordered him to marry a young
lady of large fortune, whom he had never seen, and sent for him for that
purpose. I understand that she was very beautiful, and had your father
seen her, it is probable he would have made no objection, but he very
foolishly sent a peremptory refusal, for which he was dismissed for ever.
In a short time afterwards your father fell in love with a young lady of
great personal attractions, and supposed to possess a large fortune. To
deceive her, he pretended to be the heir to the earldom, and, after a
hasty courtship, they ran off, and were married. When they compared
notes, which they soon did, it was discovered that, on his side, he had
nothing but the pay of a subaltern, and on hers, that she had not one
shilling. Your father stormed, and called his wife an impostor; she
recriminated, and the second morning after the marriage was passed in
tears on her side, and oaths, curses, and revilings on his. The lady,
however, appeared the more sensible par