was
an architectural gem that all England was proud of, and I was
eagerly entreated not to suffer it to drop into decay and ruin. The
representation of the borough--long neglected by my family--only
needed an effort to secure; and would I not like the ambition of a
parliamentary life?

What glimpses of future greatness were shown me! what possible chances
of this or that attained that would link me with real rank forever! And
all this time I was pining to clasp my mother to my arms; to pour out
my whole heart before her, and tell her that I loved a pale Jewish
girl, silent and half sad-looking, but whose low soft voice still echoed
within my heart, and whose cold hand had left a thrill after its touch
that had never ceased to move me.

"Oh, Digby, my own, own darling," cried she, as she hugged me in her
arms, "what a great tall fellow you have grown, and how like--how like
him!" and she burst into a torrent of tears, renewed every time that
she raised her eyes to my face, and saw how I resembled my father. There
seemed an ecstasy in this grief of which she never wearied, and day
after day she would sit holding my hand, gazing wistfully at me, and
only turning away as her tearful eyes grew dim with weeping. I will not
dwell on the days we passed together; full of sorrow they were, but a
sorrow so hallowed by affection that we felt an unspeakable calm shed
over us.

My great likeness to my father, as she first saw him, made her mind
revert to that period, and she never ceased to talk of that time of
hope and happiness. Ever ready to ascribe anything unfavorable in his
character to the evil influences of others, she maintained that though
occasionally carried away by hot temper and passion, he was not only the
soul of honor but had a heart of tenderness and gentleness. Curious to
find out what sudden change of mind had led him after years of neglect
and forgetfulness to renew his relations with her, by remitting money to
her banker, we examined all that we could of his letters and papers to
discover a clew to this mystery. Baffled in all our endeavors, we were
driven at length to write to the Frankfort banker through whom the
letter of credit had come. As we assumed to say that the money should be
repaid by us, in this way hoping to trace the history of the incident,
we received for answer, that, though bound strictly to secrecy at
the time, events had since occurred which in a measure removed that
obligation. The adv