Their attachment is only
one of a thousand other passions and predilections,
---they are daily engaged in pleasures which blunt
their feelings, and in business which distracts them.
We---we sit at home to weep, and to think bow
coldly our affections are repaid!''
The time was now arrived at which Richard
Middlemas had a right to demand the property
vested in the hands of the Town-Clerk and Doctor
Gray. He did so, and received it accordingly.
His late guardian naturally enquired what views
he had formed in entering on life? The imagination
of the ambitious aspirant saw in this simple
question a desire, on the part of the worthy man,
to offer, and perhaps press upon him, the same
proposal which he had made to Hartley. He hastened,
therefore, to answer drily, that he had some
hopes held out to him which he was not at liberty
to communicate; but that the instant he reached
London, he would write to the guardian of his
youth, and acquaint him with the nature of his prospects,
which he was happy to say were rather of
a pleasing character.
Gideon, who supposed that at this critical period
of his life, the father or grandfather of the young
man might perhaps have intimated a disposition to
open some intercourse with him, only replied,---
``You have been the child of mystery, Richard;
and as you came to me, so you leave me.
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