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156 Mahomedan died, he left me both liberty and wealth.

"A yearning desire came over me to see my own country. Fifteen years had elapsed since I left its soil. I was now about to revisit it, not as those who sought with toil and care where withal to realise some dream of their youth, and return happy in some favourite project, in whose execution they are at last to find content. No; I went back broken in health and spirits, and vainly seeking relief in change of place. Alas! I was myself my own world; nothing without availed to alter that within.

"I arrived in England after a long and weary voyage, and went at once to the New Forest. I found that Lawrence Aylmer had never married again—his whole soul was absorbed in the desire of wealth; and yet his voice grew gentle when he spoke to his child—she was so like her mother; but, ah! so pale, so languid, that you asked unconsciously, Can she be so young? They told me of Lord Avonleigh. His had been a life of constant prosperity. In the fierce struggle between the Royalists and the Puritans he had temporised and yielded; and while others lost life and land, he dwelt at peace in his ancestral halls. He had married Lady Madeline, and was now a widower