, and his strong and lasting resentment, had kept me
at high words, and flowing in tears, for some time; and as I was
unwilling anybody should see me in that unhappy condition, I stayed
coolly talking to him, till our son, who had been to several gentlemen's
houses about my lord's business, came home to tell his father the
success he had met with abroad. He brought in with him bank-notes to
the amount of L12,000, which he had received of some merchants he held a
correspondence with; at which my lord was well pleased, for he was
pretty near out of money at this juncture. After our son had delivered
the accounts and bills, and had withdrawn, I asked my lord, in a calm
tone, to give me the satisfaction of knowing in what manner the losses
he had complained to have suffered consisted. "You must consider, my
lord," said I, "that according to what you have been pleased to inform
me of, we are upwards of L2000 per annum, besides about L17,000 ready
money, poorer than we were when we first came to settle in Holland."

"You talk," replied my lord, "in a very odd manner. Do not you know that
I had children of my own by a former wife? and of these I have taken so
much care as to provide with very handsome fortunes, which are settled
irrevocably upon them. I have, Providence be thanked, given each of them
L5000, and that is laid in East India stock, sufficient to keep them
genteelly, above the frowns of fortune, and free from the fear of want.
This, joined to the money I mentioned to you before, as losses at sea,
deaths, and bankruptcies, your children's fortunes, which are larger
than my own children's, the buying the estate we live on, and several
other things, which my receipts and notes will account for, as you may
see after my decease. I have, to oblige you on this head, almost
descended to particulars, which I never thought to have done; but as I
have, rest yourself contented, and be well assured that I have not
wilfully thrown any of your substance away."

I could not tell what he meant by saying he had not wilfully thrown any
of my substance away. These words puzzled me, for I found by his
discourse I was to have but L500 of all I had brought him, at his
decease, which I looked upon to be near at hand. I had but one thing
that was any satisfaction to me, which was this: I was assured by him
that he had not bestowed above the L15,000 he mentioned to me, on his
children by his former wife; and, on an exact calculation, he mad