Page:Martin Faber - the story of a criminal (IA martinfaber00simmrich).pdf/18

8 The village of M——, was one of those that always keep stationary. The prospect was slight, therefore, and our family declining in influence. My father, on the contrary, grew every day stronger in the estimation of the people. He was their oracle—their counsellor—his word was law, and there were no rival pretension set up in opposition to his supremacy. Would this had been less the case! Had Nicholas Faber been more his own, than the creature of others, Martin, his son, had not now obliterated all the good impressions of his family, and been called upon, not only to recount his disgrace and crime, but to pay its penalties. Had he bestowed more of his time in the regulation of his household, and less upon public affairs, the numberless vicious propensities, strikingly marked in me