Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/46

 of some infernal agent, and as the primary source of all my calamities.

"My father's farm was a portion of the demesne of one who resided wholly in the metropolis, and consigned the management of his estates to his stewards and retainers. This person married a lady who brought him great accession of fortune. Her wealth was her only recommendation in the eyes of her husband, whose understanding was depraved by the prejudices of luxury and rank, but was the least of her attractions in the estimate of reasonable beings.

"They passed some years together. If their union were not a source of misery to the lady, she was indebted for her tranquillity to the force of her mind: she was, indeed, governed in every action of her life by the precepts of duty; while her husband listened to no calls but those of pernicious dissipation: he was immersed in all the vices that grow out of opulence and a mistaken education.

"Happily for his wife, his career was short. He was enraged at the infidelity of his mistress, to purchase whose attachment he had lavished two thirds of his fortune: he called the paramour by whom he had been supplanted, to the field; the contest was obstinate, and terminated in the death of the challenger.

"This event freed the lady from many distressful and humiliating obligations. She determined to profit by her newly acquired independence—to live thenceforward conformable to her notions of right—to preserve and improve, by schemes of economy, the remains of her fortune, and to employ it in the diffusion of good. Her plans made it necessary to visit her estates in the distant provinces.

"During her abode in the manor of which my father was a vassal, she visited his cottage. I was at that time a child: she was pleased with my vivacity and promptitude, and determined to take me under her own protection. My parents joyfully acceded to her proposal; and I returned with her to the capital.

"She had an only son, of my own age. Her design, in relation to me, was, that I should be educated with her child; and that an affection, in this way, might be excited in me towards my young master, which might render me,