Page:The Cottagers of Glenburnie - Hamilton (1808).djvu/353

 too tall for a page, my lady, when he was about sixteen, got him into one of the offices about court as an under clerk. His salary was very small, but as he had a great ambition to be a gentleman, he was highly delighted with the promotion; and might have gone on very well, had he not been led to gambling in the lottery. He had at one time, as we were told, pawned all his clothes, and was on the very brink of desperation, when fortune turned, and he got a prize of about 1500 pounds. The sum appeared to him immense: he gave up his employment, and, purchasing a commission in a newly raised regiment, commenced his career as a gentleman, and man of fashion. One good trait still remained; he did not forget his friends in this change of circumstances, but sent fifty pounds to his old father, and presents to his mother and sisters, who still speak of him as the best hearted creature in the world."

"Then there is some good in him!"