the dreary old house, and the sheltering quiet of the Welsh
hills. My career in life had led me away from my brothers; and
even now, when we are all united, I have still ties and interests
to connect me with the outer world which neither Owen nor Morgan
possess.

I was brought up to the Bar. After my first year's study of the
law, I wearied of it, and strayed aside idly into the brighter
and more attractive paths of literature. My occasional occupation
with my pen was varied by long traveling excursions in all parts
of the Continent; year by year my circle of gay friends and
acquaintances increased, and I bade fair to sink into the
condition of a wandering desultory man, without a fixed purpose
in life of any sort, when I was saved by what has saved many
another in my situation--an attachment to a good and a sensible
woman. By the time I had reached the age of thirty-five, I had
done what neither of my brothers had done before me--I had
married.

As a single man, my own small independence, aided by what little
additions to it I could pick up with my pen, had been sufficient
for my wants; but with marriage and its responsibilities came the
necessity for serious exertion. I returned to my neglected
studies, and grappled resolutely, this time, with the intricate
difficulties of the law. I was called to the Bar. My wife's
father aided me with his interest, and I started into practice
without difficulty and without delay.

For the next twenty years my married life was a scene of
happiness and prosperity, on which I now look back with a