r my part I never perceived it. If one is not proud
one's self, Mr. Linden, one is very little apt to be hurt by pride in
other people."

"And where is Mr. Algernon Mordaunt?" asked Clarence, as he recalled his
interview with that person, and the interest with which Algernon then
inspired him.

"That, sir, is more than any of us can say. He has disappeared
altogether. Some declare that he has gone abroad, others that he is
living in Wales in the greatest poverty. However, wherever he is, I am
sure that he cannot be rich; for the lawsuit quite ruined him, and the
young lady he married had not a farthing."

"Poor Mordaunt!" said Clarence, musingly.

"I think, sir, that the squire would not be best pleased if he heard you
pity him. I don't know why, but he certainly looked, walked, and moved
like one whom you felt it very hard to pity. But I am thinking that
it is a great shame that the general should not do anything for Mr.
Mordaunt's wife, for she was his own flesh and blood; and I am sure he
had no cause to be angry at her marrying a gentleman of such old family
as Mr. Mordaunt. I am a great stickler for birth, sir; I learned that
from the late Lady W. 'Brown,' she said, and I shall never forget her
ladyship's air when she did say it, 'Brown, respect your superiors, and
never fall into the hands of the republicans and atheists'!"

"And why," said Clarence, who was much interested in Mordaunt's fate,
"did General St. Leger withhold his consent?"

"That we don't exactly know, sir; but some say that Mr. Mordaunt was
very high and proud with the general, and the general was to the full
as fond of his purse as Mr. Mordaunt could be of his pedigree; and so, I
suppose, one pride clashed against the other, and made a quarrel between
them."

"Would not the general, then, relent after the marriage?"

"Oh! no, sir; for it was a runaway affair. Miss Diana St. Leger, his
sister, was as hot as ginger upon it, and fretted and worried the poor
general, who was never of the mildest, about the match, till at last he
forbade the poor young lady's very name to be mentioned. And when Miss
Diana died about two years ago, he suddenly introduced a tawny sort of
cretur, whom they call a mulatto or creole, or some such thing, into
the house; and it seems that he has had several children by her, whom he
never durst own during Miss Diana's life, but whom he now declares to be
his heirs. Well, they rule him with a rod of iron, and suck him