ronet, a great humourist, without any very
near relations, who had been a godson of Mr. Temple's grandfather. He
had never invited or encouraged any intimacy or connection with the
Temple family, but had always throughout life kept himself aloof from
any acquaintance with them. Mr. Temple indeed had only seen him once,
but certainly under rather advantageous circumstances. It was when Mr.
Temple was minister at the German Court, to which we have alluded, that
Sir Temple Devereux was a visitor at the capital at which Mr. Temple
was Resident. The minister had shown him some civilities, which was his
duty; and Henrietta had appeared to please him. But he had not remained
long at this place; and refused at the time to be more than their
ordinary guest; and had never, by any letter, message, or other mode of
communication, conveyed to them the slightest idea that the hospitable
minister and his charming daughter had dwelt a moment on his memory. And
yet Sir Temple Devereux had now departed from the world, where it had
apparently been the principal object of his career to avoid ever making
a friend, and had left the whole of his large fortune to the Right
Honourable Pelham Temple, by this bequest proprietor of one of the
finest estates in the county of York, and a very considerable personal
property, the accumulated savings of a large rental and a long life.

This was a great event. Mr. Temple had the most profound respect for
property. It was impossible for the late baronet to have left his estate
to an individual who could more thoroughly appreciate its possession.
Even personal property was not without its charms; but a large landed
estate, and a large landed estate in the county of York, and that large
landed estate flanked by a good round sum of Three per Cent. Consols
duly recorded in the Rotunda of Threadneedle Street,--it was a
combination of wealth, power, consideration, and convenience which
exactly hit the ideal of Mr. Temple, and to the fascination of which
perhaps the taste of few men would be insensible. Mr. Temple being a
man of family, had none of the awkward embarrassments of a parvenu to
contend with. 'It was the luckiest thing in the world,' he would say,
'that poor Sir Temple was my grandfather's godson, not only because in
all probability it obtained us his fortune, but because he bore the name
of Temple: we shall settle down in Yorkshire scarcely as strangers, we
shall not be looked upon as a new family,