fellow lay on his back, kicking up the stump of his leg in a most
audacious manner, in the very face of the sun. "The great globe itself
had dissolved, and left not a wreck behind." They talk of Marius among
the ruins of Carthage, and Coliseums unroofed, and temples of Theseus
with crumbling pillars--all these are desolate enough; but then, their
condition is picturesque: and I doubt whether Marius in the capitol, and
the Coliseum newly finished, and the Temple at the time of its
consecration, were half such interesting objects as in the days of their
decline and fall. But to me the true representative of desolation was
the long tufts of grass that grew in old Frank Edwards's stable-yard,
the weeds that choked up the hall door, and the broken panes of the
great dining-room windows--the spacious yard, the hospitable door, the
jocund dining-room. And now young Frank was just coming to his legal
age, and we were all forming our guesses and conjectures as to what the
youth's proceedings would be when he came into possession. I made sure,
if the property was really involved to the extent reported, that he
would sell some of the lands he had in other counties; a farm or two he
had in Sussex; a tolerable estate in the north; and a foolish marine
villa somewhere in Devonshire, and pay off all incumbrances, and settle
himself for life at Bandvale Hall. He would still have a very fine
fortune; and it had been the family seat since the reign of Charles the
Second. All the mothers and aunts in the county thought it was a seat
like a Spanish saddle, and would carry double; and it certainly was
amazing to see the preparations that were made to get the proper foot in
the stirrup. It seemed agreed that for a young gentleman of
twenty-three, seventeen was the only admissible age; and to reach that
desirable date, as great cruelty was practised on the baptismal register
books as on ancient travellers by the bed of Procrustes-girls of
twenty-four were shortened by seven years, and little children of
fourteen elongated by three. In some families there were three or four