Page:Lady Anne Granard 1.pdf/293

288 old gentleman, after a long pause; "it goes much against the grain to think of giving any son of hers to the daughter of Lady Anne Granard; yet, I will confess, I loved Rotheles, her father, and I liked her husband very much; it may be possible that her daughters inherit on the right side of the house. I will consider what I can do." "Dear, good, generous grandfather, you can do every thing; you can place Arthur in the situation assigned to me, the heir of Sir Edward Hales." Sir Edward suddenly started from his chair; his thin and generally bending form became erect and stately, and his sunken eyes emitted a stream of lambent fire, as he exclaimed:— "Degenerate boy! was it to this end you became the child I fostered in my bosom, to the forming of whose mind I bent all the powers of my own? whose departure I lamented with tears a thousand times; for whom I have cared and toiled, curtailing my expences that I might enlarge the estates meant for your enjoyment? Do you cast from you the birthright of ancestors, ennobled by their virtues far more than you are by your new honours? Remember the fate of him who sold his birthright, and afterwards 'found no place for repentance, though he sought it carefully with many tears.'" Lord Meersbrook did not reply; he was discomfited and rebuked, yet not, therefore, self-convicted of error, since he knew his motives to be high and pure, and