He came to England. My father had an original nobility of
nature; and his life had not been such as to debase it, but rather such
as to cherish and heighten that self-esteem which at least keeps the
possessor of it from many meaner vices. He took nothing with him;
nothing beyond the bare means of flight, with the world before him,
although thousands of gold would not have been missed out of the
scattered fragments of ruin that lay around him. He found his way
hither, led, as you were, by a desire to reconnect himself with the place
whence his family had originated; for he, too, was of a race which had
something to do with the ancient story which has now been brought to a
close. Arrived here, there were circumstances that chanced to make his
talents and habits of business available to this Mr. Eldredge, a man
ignorant and indolent, unknowing how to make the best of the property
that was in his hands. By degrees, he took the estate into his
management, acquiring necessarily a preponderating influence over such a
man."
"And you," said Middleton. "Have you been all along in England? For you
must have been little more than an infant at the time."
"A mere infant," said Alice, "and I remained in our own country under the
care of a relative who left me much to my own keeping; much to the
influences of that wild culture which the freedom of our country gives to
its youth.
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