beneficent and ruling genius had prepared my path for me. Events which,
when foreseen, would most ardently have been deprecated, and when they
happened were accounted in the highest degree luckless, were now seen to
be propitious. Hence I inferred the infatuation of despair, and the
folly of precipitate conclusions.

But what was the fate reserved for me? Perhaps Welbeck would adopt me
for his own son. Wealth has ever been capriciously distributed. The mere
physical relation of birth is all that entitles us to manors and
thrones. Identity itself frequently depends upon a casual likeness or an
old nurse's imposture. Nations have risen in arms, as in the case of the
Stuarts, in the cause of one the genuineness of whose birth has been
denied and can never be proved. But if the cause be trivial and
fallacious, the effects are momentous and solid. It ascertains our
portion of felicity and usefulness, and fixes our lot among peasants or
princes.

Something may depend upon my own deportment. Will it not behoove me to
cultivate all my virtues and eradicate all my defects? I see that the
abilities of this man are venerable. Perhaps he will not lightly or
hastily decide in my favour. He will be governed by the proofs that I
shall give of discernment and integrity. I had always been exempt from
temptation, and was therefore undepraved; but this view of things had a
wonderful tendency to invigorate my virtuous resolutions. All within me
was exhilaration and joy.

There was but one thing wanting to exalt me to a dizzy height and give
me place among the stars of heaven. My resemblance to her brother had
forcibly affected this lady; but I was not her brother. I was raised to
a level with her and made a tenant of the same mansion. Some intercourse