ime about eighteen, and my
father verging on seventy.

"When this ill-assorted and disgraceful connexion was known, the gentry
and aristocracy of the country refused any longer to visit my father,
and all communication was broken off. In a short time the ascendency
which this artful girl gained over the old man was most wonderful. He
lived but in her sight, and knew no will but hers. Her father and
family were removed to a good house in the neighbourhood, and gave
themselves all the airs of gentlepeople. The good old steward was
dismissed, and her father established in his room, although the man
could not read or write, and was wholly unfit for the office. The
expense which she launched out into, by his permission, was excessive.
New liveries, new coaches, diamonds, and dresses fit for the court--
indeed, every kind of luxury that could be conceived, and much greater
than my father could afford. She now showed herself in her true
colours; vindictive and tyrannical to excess, she dismissed all the old
servants, and oppressed all those to whom she owed a grudge; yet my poor
father could see nothing but perfection in her. It was not till four
months after the marriage that Philip and I came home, and our new
step-mother had not forgotten our treatment of her. She treated us with
great harshness, refused our taking meals at my father's table, and
ordered us the coarsest fare; and when we complained to my father,
denied everything that we said. As we found that we could not induce
our father to listen to us or to believe us, we tried all we could, and
retaliated and annoyed her as much, if not more, than she annoyed us, by
talking of her mean origin and her former occupation; we defied her,
and, in so doing, we ruined ourselves; for, after a useless struggle on
my father's part, he gave way to her imperious commands, and sending for
me told me that I had become such a reprobate that I was no longer a son
of his. He threw me a purse, telling me that it was all I might expect
from him, and that I was instantly to leave the house, and never show my
face in it any more. I replied, with more spirit than respect, that it
was high time that the son of a gentleman and lady should leave the
house, when such low-born creatures were installed in it as the
mistress. My father, in a rage, flung his crutch at my head, and I left
the room.

"As I went out I met her in the passage; she had evidently been
listening to what had