Page:The genius - Carl Grosse tr Joseph Trapp 1796.djvu/174

 with my mother and me, on one of our estates. He was free, liberal, friendly, brave, the support of our house, and the boast and benefactor of all his dependants.

"Fond of social pleasure and joviality, he gathered around him a large circle of friends and acquaintances, who would not only spend the summer with us, but even stay part of the winter. Among them-was a certain Don Pedro Nunez.

"This man was one of my brother's bosom-friends, but at the same time a consummate picture of artifice and hypocrisy. He succeeded by a thousand designing means, to alienate my brother's heart from the bosom of his family, and to disgust his mind with the still comforts of domestic life. Having plunged into a ceaseless round of follies and dissipations termed fashionable, he shunned the sober delight of our own conversation, and often was absent from us for many weeks together,

"Fortunately for us all, my father had appointed my mother sole heiress by his will, reserving only an annuity for my brother, the